Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Baymule]

Destroy the food supply. Most people are too ignorant or not interested in growing their own food. Depend on the government! Government will take care of you, all the way to the cattle car.

I am astonished that people keep voting for such crushing policies and regulations.

 

[Mini Horses]

Our food supply is deteriorating in quality and now quantity. I am concerned greatly. But since it isn't possible to solve the world's problems, it's a focus on ME solution. I'm still gardening, keeping chickens, keeping goats. No chemicals, natural methods only. Yes, goat poop fertilizes my garden!

Thankfully ag is still acceptable in VA. There are issues. But I can live nicely with my non-gmo foods!
Dairies here are losing due to price controls. Sadly. Plus many old farmers have no family to continue their passion. Equipment is stratosphere expensive.

I'd like our govt to fund some family farmers as much as the tanks they fund to other countries.

 

[SageHill]

They've been after the dairies for a long time now. Fifty years ago there were 130 dairies in this county. Today there is only ONE left. Get this one of the dairies that is not longer ....Caltrans even got an easement straight through the milking barns to straighten and widen the road. YEAH, there's that.
I guess you can milk almonds eh?
People seem to think that food is like on Star Trek - 'computer one milkshake and a hamburger' -- oh wait it's that "impossible burger"

 

[SageHill]

Chino Dairy Reserve used to be large and protected but is gone now.

Oh man, yeah. I remember that (and really miss it) - it was miles of cows along the freeway. LOVED it. Heck - we'd drive through in the motorhome going to herding trials and I'd say "Cows Daisy, Cows" and Daisy (one of my amazing herding dogs) would wake out of a sound sleep and bark at them. Too funny, ah a fond memory.

 

[Ridgetop]

Does the tractor have a front end loader? Get the bale spear to go on the front end loader... it will be more versatile to use...

Baby 'Bota has a front end loader but is too small for a hay spear. It is mostly a motorized wheelbarrow for cleaning the barns. It is the smallest Kubota tractor they used to make. LOL Big Blue has no front-end loader - the arms are broken or something, but we can get a hay spear on the back. It will pick up the bales. I think we will have to great a new or newer tractor eventually. Both of these are old and have a few problems. We will keep Baby 'Bota since he is like a garden tractor on steroids and very useful to clean the pens and barn

 

[Ridgetop]

Birthday party now for Nicholas. 35-40 people coming to celebrate. Lots of family on both sides. DDIL2's 2 boys are only grandchildren on their side. Family arriving now so gotta go.

 

[Ridgetop]

Great party - about 40 people - terrific food! Cousins all had lots of fun and Ozel discovered if she attended parties children petted her and adults fed her tri-tip. I did not find out about the tri-tip feeding until later. There was some pork that she could have had instead of the delicious tri-tip. LOL

This morning I did the feeding since DH did something to his knee last night and said he could hardly walk. I put heat on it and gave him a pain pill. Then I fed everything, watered, turned out the sheep, Skittles and Josie the Mule. Everyone was penned up yesterday because the relatives had to park on the field. Next, I filled the mineral feeders, and hung a small mineral feeder in the lower pen where the 5 ewelings are being kept. After that I brought up some wrapping paper from the shed to wrap the Christmas gifts for DS2 and his family who are leaving next Sunday for the Philippines. Then I got don all the large plastic containers where I kept the party goods and picnic stuff. I sorted all the stuff DDIL2 had left from the party, packed it up, and relabeled the containers. That took quite a few hours. Next I emptied the dishwasher, put a load of clothes in the washer, and wrapped the gifts for DS2's family. Then I tried to locate the butter that I know I had put in the freezers for making Christmas cookies. Could only find 2 lbs. in the fridge and one pound was unsalted. DS1 said he thought DDIL2 and DS2 may have used it up. It is possible that I buried it in the freezers which are packed full again! I don't know who is buying all this stuff. I do now that DS2 went on one of thise diets where they send you the food you are supposed to eat. He got tired of it after several months but did not cancel his membership, so we now have the freezer in the milk shed full of his frozen diet food. That is the freezer I plan to take to Texas so I will have to empty it out, empty one of the other freezers, sort out the meat I am taking to TX, load the freezer on the trailer and pack the frozen meat in it with dry ice. Then all the frozen diet food has to be put in one of the freezers in the laundry room. AAAAARGH!

DH will be taking the gooseneck trailer to the hitch place with the new hitch pin to have it cut to fit. It is about 12" too long and has to be notched to fit in the receiver. Once that is done, the trailer will ride more level. We also have to hitch the 16' stock and put it at the corral where the mustang is. He will not load in a trailer so we either have to drug him and try to drag him into the trailer or train him to not fear the trailer. DS1 will remove the gates (they clank when the horses load up), then we will back it up to the gate and park it there still hitched to the truck for stability. We will chock it good and feed Sage in the trailer. We will move the hay farther in every few days until he goes in to eat. Finally, we will give him some sort of calming stuff and get him loaded and return him to DDIL1. While we are up there, she and I will go into her tack area and find the nylon poly hay feeder bags for the trip to Texas. I will get the horse blankets and shipping boots I gave her before she sent Skittles back, as well as the walking horse saddle pads (they are cut away style for TWH higher withers). I need to Skittles' bridle and bit as well since Skittles (TWH) is going to Texas with us.

I have to finish packing the tools in the tool shed and remove the 3 tool shed cabinets I plan to take with us for installation in the TX tool shed. I am taking a set of closet shelves from the office for installation in the Yantis office closet. All those shelves have to have the contents sorted, packed, the shelves removed, and the frames unscrewed from the walls. Thank goodness we got the 24' gooseneck, since we will need it to transport a lot of stuff when we go back in January. We will have to hire a couple people to help us unload some of the heavier stuff. Also, will need them to move the corral covers out of the side barn so DH can clean it out ready for Payton to move the hay bales in. We will take all the pallets we have back. I think we have some down in our barn now where we stack the hay, but I will have to check. It is possible that we just put down cross arms and laid plywood on them to make a hay floor in the barn.

Poor Rika has been suffering from her arthritis lately. We think it is in her neck. When it flares up, she cries. We have pain pills for her. I am seriously considering leaving her here when we move in February so she can enjoy a milder winter until May when we come back to pick up the new ram and ewes. I am considering leaving Lewis here as well. He is the oldest of the rams and is lame on one foreleg. He's gotten thin and just looks old. I might have to put him down before we leave for Texas permanently, but I would like to see if I can put the ewes I am buying from Wes in the spring with him to try for one last lamb crop out of him. If not, I have a good son out of him. I am hoping to get the 11 ewes he has in with him now settled. I really love his lambs, they are calm, shed well, are pretty, and are good producers. Lewis marked one of his ewes today. The rams all went in with their ewes on November 27 but only 9 showed faint crayon marks until today. I was wondering if the crayons were marking, but BL29 had a distinct mark on her butt this morning. It is possible that no one was cycling until now, and the rams were just frisky. LOL I put a ? after those early dates on the chart just in case and will watch to see if they mark again.

I have to order more marking crayons. All I have left are hot weather crayons, so I need to order some mild weather crayons. The crayons have gone up $1.00 each. I have to order enough for all the 3 rams, and in different colors to switch over every two weeks. I have plenty of hot weather crayons for next breeding season but will eventually have to get some for cold weather in Texas. I won't need the cold weather ones yet. I also have to order some blank ear tags in different colors to match the colors my sheep are tagged with. We were using plain white tags and writing the number on them when they lost an ear tag, but that played heck with my tagging set up. I will just order blank tags in the ram colors for when the ewes lose tags. And some yellow tags for replacing the scrapie tags that break off. What a hassle.

I will order the tags and crayons to be delivered in January when we are in Yantis, that way I can use my TX tax exempt number for ag. I will also wait to order the electric fencing until we are in TX too. But I want the paint branding irons and paint now. I will check if DS2 plans to get the irons for me for Christmas and I can order the paint to be sent to Texas. The ear tags and branding irons are from Premier wit free shipping. The marking crayons are from Valley Vet.

Tomorrow I will stsrt packing the tools in the tool shed.

 

[farmerjan]

Just a suggestion... if you get the freezer on/in the trailer; the one you are taking to TX... just fill it with the frozen food and plug it in overnight... then it will be good for several days if you don't open it... it will be colder weather to travel and you won't be more than 2-3 days getting there at most... Dry Ice would not be necessary... you could plug it back up at the house in TX overnight... then unpack, unload and repack the frozen food back in it... You are going to have to pack and unpack it anyway... the dry ice would not be necessary if it is plugged in ovenight at the house before you leave....with the trailers loaded, you aren't going to be stopping anywhere on the way there, so no "wasted time" traveling there....

 

[Ridgetop]

Great idea! We have an outlet plug at the barn in CA for plugging in our 5th wheel trailer. We could just run the cord into the gooseneck to plug in the freezer. Thanks!

 

[Baymule]

I would take Rika and old Lewis ram to Texas. If they are in their last days, I’d sure want them with me so I could make sure their last days were as good as I could make them.

As far as the ewes you are buying next year, why not just take them to Texas? That’s where they are going anyway. Why the turmoil of moving them twice? Move them once and be done with it. With Rika being so old and in pain, dumping the ewes on her with such a predator load would put a lot of stress on her and would be unfair to her.

If Rika and/or the Lewis ram dies, at least they would be with you and you can make sure of their comfort.

Order Arnicare pills for Rika. I give them to my dogs for copperhead bites. They are for pain and last 4 hours.

Arnicare Tablets for Pain Relief | Arnicare for Pain Relief and Bruising

Arnicare Tablets relieve widespread pain relief for the whole body and may be combined with Arnicare Gel, Cream, Ointment or Bruise Quick-dissolving tablets.

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