Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Once part of the pasture is eaten down to the minimum height, you move them on to another pasture. Then you have to mow the taller portion of the pasture down to allow the grass to come up again all the same height. That is where the electric netting fence comes into its own. You fence off the eaten portion and confine them in the taller but less appetizing portion to "encourage" the sheep to eat that down to the proper height before moving the flock to the next pasture in the rotation.

 

[Margali]

It looks good! I would fence around the big pond with fence extending into water in some areas for access. I would do water access with a cattle panel so easy to replace when rusts. Right now a sufficiently motived sheep could cross between pastures by getting feet wet. Good way to get Opps babies...

 

[farmerjan]

Glad we are not dealing with someone like him. Guy here came, looked at what DS was wanting to do... then did up a plan and came back and presented it to DS and they made some changes, and it was approved... the fence along the lane counted ... we had to fence a specific # of feet off of the little creek... that was the biggest thing and that CAN NOT be used as water access... we have pipes and dirt over top to allow access from one pasture to another and are not supposed to allow the animals into the "crep" area... there are already water troughs in all the fields that doug had put in years ago to meet some fencing program back then... we are adding some fences and replacing some that are 12 in stays and the cows have made holes big enough for the calves to walk through...
No minimum height, no maximum number of animals... can be used for feedlot animals if certain conditions are met... ours is more stringent on fencing OUT of waterways... to get more rotational grazing... not contaminating the water.... but most all water here is part of a creek/river/stream.... not sure how they do ponds that have no inlets and outlets... probably different there for that.

Are they allowing for a sacrifice lot if there are drought conditions? You get droughts in Texas way more often than here. He//, you deal with dry conditions in CA all the time... That is something that is a major thing up here... they WANT you to specify a sacrifice lot so you will not overgraze; or damage pastures in wet cold crappy winter weather either.... The lane way can be designated as the ewe and new lamb pasture or as the sacrifice area.....

 

[Ridgetop]

Working on the fencing situation with DS1. More on that later.

DGS5, 2-year-old Robert, is in hospital for second night. Woke up from nap on Tuesday with 104-degree fever, then became "non-responsive". DDIL called 911 and he went to hospital. IV and meds to bring down fever, but fever kept spiking. I told DS2 and DDIL to demand a strep culture asap. Doctor said he had a reaction to a cold that came on very fast. No culture for strep because throat did not look red. Child is fine, goes down for nap, wakes up with high temp and no culture? High fever 103-104 usually is strep! Just do a culture! Kept telling them to demand strep culture. Finally got text this afternoon - hospital did culture and it was positive for strep. Of course! Now they want to do EKG on toddler to check heart action because he was "non-responsive". 104-degree fever makes everyone "non-responsive"! At least he is on antibiotics now and seems to be on the mend. They are keeping him in hospital overnight again for EKG results.

DH is planning to have the grandsons over Saturday for a massive destructuring of the chain link dog kennel panels. Remove the old chain link, keep the attachment parts, and less weight to haul to Texas. We will restring the frames there with new wire, not chain link. We plan to start bringing stuff up to load the flatbed trailer soon. We are not sure if we will take 2 trucks back with trailers or not. We need to see how many linear feet of corral panels, livestock panels, arena panels, and portable panels we have to use until we can get a contract to put in the fencing. DS1 thinks we might have as much as 200 linear feet of panels we can work with while waiting to get the approval and contract with NCRS to put in our fence. Using 2 rolls of sheep and goat wire and about 50 T-posts we can fence off the northwest corner from the barn to the west property line (470'). Then using the portable panels around the barn over to the north boundary we will enclose a 3 acre field.

Ozel is doing beautifully. She is barking at things she does not recognize on field and has a super deep bark! The Lauren Bacall of Anatolians. We thought it was Angel barking at first. She goes out with Angel and Rika when they investigate but does not go into the gully alone yet. Such a good girl. She goes out to feed and let the sheep out in the am with DH. He has learned the benefit of putting her in a leash to keep her from dashing after the sheep when they race each other out of the pen. She is learning. She does not chase the sheep when they are grazing or any other time. If they race past her, she thinks they are inviting her to play and runs with them. We don't allow that kind of behavior. I am considering getting a couple of Spanish goats for behavior modification in Texas. They would be valuable in training the LGDs. Just thinking about it though since they have horns. Ugh.

 

[Ridgetop]

ours is more stringent on fencing OUT of waterways...

I don't have any waterways. This is a pond that fills in rainy season and stays. I plan to put a solar operated pump/aerator to put oxygen back into the water.

Are they allowing for a sacrifice lot if there are drought conditions?

Nothing was said about a sacrifice lot. Under severe drought conditions, I will probably have to feed hay, pull some animals off pastures, and maybe sell some breeding stock.

Here is a map of the 15 acres only showing 75" perimeter fencing (in green), the buildings and ponds, and one pasture (in orange) fenced in 48" sheep and goat wire on T-posts with welded bracing and gate posts.

We will put in the 480' of sheep and goat wire to the barn fences (shown in red). Those are made of the portable corrals and panels. DS1 figures we have several hundred linear feet of sheep panels and panels with 4' gates. We will put 16' farm gates in the permanent wire fencing. The blue lines are the water lines that we will run from the well to the barn and pastures.

I am looking at buying Premier Electronet to use until we can get the approval from NCRS. He is not hard to work with, just have to follow the rules about application, etc. There is no more money available until next spring when the funds are allocated again. We will have our application in and be ready to sign the contract to put in the fences then. The NCRS grants in Wood County are for rotational grazing and land quality preservation rather than for waterway conservation or protection. Every county has a different conservation goal. One fellow I met at the Dorper Judging class said his county would give money for well drilling but not for fencing for rotational grazing. He is in a dry area of west Texas.

Once we get the approval and sign our contract we can start building the permanent wire fences. In the meantime, we can use the electric netting to graze the sheep. With the fenced perimeter we should be able to graze off the different planned pastures. DS1 wanted to just move the heavy corral panels every few weeks?!- Told him no, we could move the netting much faster and easier. He is not fond of electric fencing but willing to try it again.

The one I am considering is the ElectroNet with PrimaPosts 9/35/12 in the 164' length. This is $148/164 feet. The Prima posts are more slender support posts but are fiberglass rods which will not bend like the polyvinyl rods. These are new posts, and I couldn't get much info from the company about them. Because they are smaller in diameter, they make the roll of fencing lighter in weight. This fence comes in green and white and blue and white.. I am tending toward the blue and white for visibility. Here is the description.

"New! A prefabricated electric fence that has 9 horizontal strands (8 conductive), is 35" tall installed and has vertical struts every 12". PrimaPosts™ are built into the mesh every 12.6 ft.

When properly energized, 35" tall ElectroNet® with PrimaPosts™ is a nearly impenetrable mesh to sheep, goats, coyotes and dogs.

Why PrimaPosts?

• Stiffer—advanced fiberglass composite for increased strength and rigidity
• Weighs less per ft—posts are smaller in diameter vs. PVC posts of similar stiffness (13mm vs. 19mm); this enables longer sections (164' vs. 100') without additional weight"

Anyone familiar with this netting? Again it is 35" tall which both DH and DS1 feel is tall enough. Our sheep are not jumpers, and when frightened try to kill themselves by running headfirst into a wall or panel. They might run into the fence, knock it down, then drag it all over the field with them, but probably won't jump it. LOL
I will order additional posts and some clips that snap onto the post to hold up the wires on the fence and keep it from sagging.

Pease let me know if anyone has experience with this fence netting. I had some of the first Premier netting 30 years ago and it was too flimsy. It fell over, wasn't strong enough, and our goats just knocked it down and walked away. I understand the electric netting has improved a lot in the past 30 years so am willing to try it again. I plan to order a Gallagher solar charger to use on it.

​

 

[Baymule]

@Mike CHS has electro netting as part of his permanent pasture dividers.

Make a big enough lot at the barn to hold the sheep and round bales of hay for sacrifice area. If in drought, or tons of rain, they can stay in the lot and have shelter from the rains or heat in the barn. Park the round bales in the barn, then rains won’t spoil it.

 

[Ridgetop]

We also have the barnyard area (space between shed and front of barn) which is .9 acres. We don't want to use it because it is where all the vehicles turn around, and park. We will probably turn sheep or horses in there to eat down grass during the year if DH doesn't get out to mow.

During haymaking time will also keep pasture with 16' gate from barnyard clear since that will be how Cody gets hay equipment to fields through fence on south fence. I guess I should number the fields for reference. Aways something I forget, but when I put in a lot of labeling, the plot plan ends up with too much writing on it.

Robert is still in the hospital. Fever dropped but then spiked to 104 again at 5 am. Doctors have cancelled the EKG, but still trying to figure out what antibiotics to give him to keep temp down. Trying to get more info from DS2 and DDIL2. DS2 just texted that they might be releasing Robert this afternoon. DS1 picking up his prescription so looks good for him. Nicholas has been doomed to bottles of his mommy's pumped milk for last couple days so he will be happy too. Nothing like Mom. DS2 says he is worried about the amount insurance will cover on the hospitalization. Says he may have to put 5-month-old Nicholas on Craigslist! LOL

Checked into Gallagher chargers - liking the S30 Solar Lithium charger. Has 3 week battery backup in poor weather. Charges up to 4 miles of multiple stranded electric fencing - or 20 miles of single wire. After reading up on the subject, I found that when the battery says is powers 20 miles of fence, that is for only one wire. Each additional strand of wire must added to the final linear length. So electronetting with its 9 horizontal strands means you have to multiply the linear feet of the netting by 9 to find the proper mileage length to be charged. I am getting 4 rolls of 164' netting which comes to 626 feet BUT the mileage of all the electric wires comes to 5904 feet which is more than a mile. If I want to add more electronet, I will need a charger that can handle that. The S30 can handle 12 more rolls of 164' netting. Based on the pricing between the smaller chargers and the S30, I will go with the S30 from Valley Vet which is the cheapest price I have found. And free shipping. HOWEVER, thanks to Governor Gruesom, who requires a full page of warnings about these chargers to be published in their catalog, Valley Vet will not ship to California. We are the ONLY state to which they will not ship due to the onerous demands made on them by Gruesom!!! Have I mentioned my dislike for the governor before? And isn't he the fellow that wants us to go all electric and use chargers and lithium batteries?! So I can get my electric fencing for Texas delivered here BUT can't get the chargers delivered to California. Redstone will ship to California but with a delivery charge and taxes. If I have Valley Vet ship to Texas with my Ag exemption and free shipping over $100 I save $60+. Not to be sneezed at. This requires planning.

I will have to get a P. O. Box in Yantis when we go back. I will also check to see how long they will hold any packages I have shipped there. Another alternative is to give Jeremy a key and have the packages sent to his address if he is willing to accept them. Then he can put them inside the house when he goes to mow and care for my fruit trees. AAARGH! Be warned - this man has his eye on the White House!

Robert being release from hospital this afternoon!
Have decided it was bad case of strep.

 

[Baymule]

Have your fence charger and stuff shipped to me. I’ll bring it to you.

Glad Robert is coming home. It’s so scary when little ones get sick.

 

[SageHill]

So glad he's being released! That was a scary stint. Esp when the powers that be can't even be lead by the nose to what the problem was. Hope and prayers he continues to bounce back. Ah heck - he'll be bouncing around soon - Thank God.
Yeah - I keep running into things that can not be shipped to CA. Heck - even smoke detectors can't be shipped here (battery ones) - had to ship to someone who then sent them to us. Yeah The Gruesum thinks he owns CA. I heard he wants to run for Buydem's spot.

 

[Ridgetop]

Have your fence charger and stuff shipped to me. I’ll bring it to you.

Just for something to do so I feel I am working on getting moved, I measured the furniture pieces we know we are definitely bringing to Texas. Special pieces & antiques that we love. Have to see how they will fit in the house which is much smaller than current house and does not have raised ceilings. Raised ceilings make a house seem larger and provide more wall space for artwork.
Current living room:

Windows to the left of floor to ceiling rock fireplace look out over panoramic view of San Fernando Valley. Room always looked lopsided because of dark fireplace taking whole corner of room. All of the furniture in this room is either family stuff or bought in Palm Springs at the consignment shops, shopping with uncle. It all has memories of my uncle and grandmother. Round birds' eye maple table was purchased 75 years ago by grandmother from a plantation auction while on a visit to family in Mobile. It was orginally painted white and gold but I stripped it (yes, I do know that destroys some of the value) and finished it in natural color. Just love the wood grain. It is all hand carved. Alabaster lamb was given to my CPA grandfather by a client who was a big orchid grower and importer back in the 50's. He lived in the Mulholland hills and Gampy would take us with him sometimes - there was an indoor swimming pool! Amazing to my sister and me. The painted screen in the next picture is Japanese, not Chinese. I hung it raised on the wall to balance off the dark stone fireplace wall. The fancy gold cabinet in the corner belongs to DH. My grandmother gave it to him not me because he loved it so much. It holds Beleek and Dresden pieces. The carved chest acting as coffee table is a Chinese camphor wood trunk with Buddhas carved around it. Also bought when shopping with uncle in Palm Springs.

Here is closeup of the center part of the 11 x 21 Royal Sharuq rug that my godmother bought over 100 years ago. When she died my grandmother bought it from her estate and then gave to me before she died.

I was thinking about selling it but it may have to come to Texas and just take its chances with farm life. It won't get damaged. These really old Persian rugs came off the loom with the pile a big uneven so they were laid down in the street for the donkeys, people, and traffic to roll over them. After a week or so they were dragged away and washed, then rolled up to be sold. LOL After that I don't think muddy boots will hurt them.

I won't be able to use white furniture, but maybe a pale tan leather sofa would pick up the gold in the carpet. With the oak paneling though it may be super dark in the room.

I have another rug that my uncle gave me that I could use. It is a Chinese rug, about 12 x 20 much brighter in color. He had it in his mountain home with paneled walls so it might be better with the
paneling. Lots of pattern but with the brown wood it would tone down.

He had it in his home in Bi Bear. That house had wood paneled walls, ceilings, hardwood floor, and dak rock fireplace wall. He used brown leather furniture, bright paintings, and it looked lovely. Of course, it also had a wall of windows looking over the forest valley.
Whatever rug I decide to use, we are putting down a ceramic tile floor in the LR/DR section of the great room. Both these rugs are wool (the Chinese rug has some silk) so would be warm in winter. Both rugs have a lot of pattern - just have to decide which would be best in the new house. Decisions . . . .

And the old wood cook stove. Probably considered high end modern in it's day with the white porcelain finish. No more having to "black" the stove to prevent rust. The oven is doll size, there are 2 removable burners on top, and an area to insert sticks of wood. The handle on the left opens for ash removal and oven adjustments. The reason the top is so shiny is that DS1 and I cut a piece of clear plexiglass to protect the top of the stove. The top looks like it just came off the show room floor and we wanted to keep it that way. My aunt used it for extra counter space so we covered it to avoid scratches. This will go in either the barn, or a storage shed for emergencies. In case of another Snowmageddon we will have this and the fireplace. Also, about a dozen kerosene lamps. (Better get some kerosene or lamp fuel though.) No worries about freezer or fridge failure, just put everything outside. LOL No computer or TV?! How will we survive? I may have to invest in a couple solar chargers for our phones and computers. Survival gear for the new millennium. LOL