Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[SageHill]

Stall mats are okay but the hay will not breathe on the bottom and it can get musty unless the storage area is very weather proof.

Makes sense! Of course I'm way dry out here and the stall is very weather proof and has air circulation. Mostly dry being the key word. Takes me 3-4 months to go through a load of alfalfa. And it's the small bales - ~120#
Different things for different areas.

 

[Baymule]

Well that makes sense!

 

[Ridgetop]

That is why gravel is used in hay storage sheds... and not concrete floors.

Thanks Jan, I was wondering about that and whether we should put concrete in that side of the barn. You just answered that with "No". So back to laying down pallets and cross arms for air flow under the hay. I guess the rabbits and ground squirrels won't eat that much. I will try to get some barn cats. When I run out of pallets and cross arms the rolls will have to go on the ground. I will need to wait for some dry weather to move it inside anyway since we have been having a lot of rain.

Might want to put vapor barrier (rubber mats might work too) under that shipping container,

Good idea on the vapor barrier. Do I lay it on the ground under the container? or inside the container? or do I sort of wrap it up around the container? DH is planning on setting it up on blocks for air circulation underneath and to level it. I was planning to put those humidity crystal containers in and change them every month. I have been using them in the Yantis house since it smelled musty about a month after it was empty and the TX humidity built up. They do a good job. I use 2 of them - one at each end of the house.

Generations of so Cal living has not taught me about humidity. Lived in Seattle as a teenager in the late 60's when Boeing moved one of its plants there. Lots of fast built tract housing went in - cheap single paned windows, not too much insulation. Moss/mildew grew in the back of the walk-in closet. Couldn't get out of there fast enough. Cold is one thing, but the constant wet was miserable. Seattle actually has more smog than Los Angeles, but the constant rain washes it down into the streets and into the ocean. A week of dry sunny weather means Seattle is covered in brown haze and the inhabitants scream for Federal Drought Relief! LOL

Called TX DOT and they will send me info on enlarging the culvert in our driveway. It is a pretty narrow driveway. Sadly, since it is a state highway we have to pay for it ourselves. If it was a county road, the county would install it for us. But at least the TXDOT guy said it was easy to get the permits and permission.

Haven't heard about the rotational graze fencing yet. We got our application in last year before the deadline so when they know how much funding they get from the government, we will be notified. I think they notify people in March or April. I will eventually check into whether there are any programs for the new well, hay barn, etc. In the meantime, I am ordering some Premier electric netting to divide the pastures up. Premier is having a 10% off 4-day sale. They almost never have sales on this stuff so hopefully I can get several rolls ordered. Need to check with them about type to get. I think I know what I need but want to check with Premier. Then to avoid tax I have to have it sent to Texas. Life will be easier once we are permanently there. I will have the paint brands send to CA since I want to use them before we load the sheep in the trailer to come to TX.

Lost a crown on the way home from TX. Two crowns actually on adjacent teeth. Even with our insurance our cost will be $1450. Our DDS is getting too expensive. We will be switching t a DDS in Sulphur springs. Mrs. McDonald's grandson is a good DDS by all accounts. I will get his # from Cody. They grew up together.

The garden space is all cleared out and looking good. DH is planning where to plant his sweet corn. I told him he needs to plant 12' x 12' squares every couple weeks instead of all at once. For a man who never gardened he is getting excited about growing vegetables. It will be good exercise for us too. I will plant the fruit trees on the north (property line) side of the garden. The wind blows hard from that direction though so I will need to put up some sort of windbreak for the baby trees. I have some plastic lattice pieces that I can take back and attach to the fence or short T-Posts as windbreaks. I plan to plant semi dwarf trees instead of standards. Semi dwarf trees get 10-12 feet tall, that is as high as I want to try to pick fruit and prune branches. They can be planted slightly closer together than standard trees and bear well.

 

[Weldman]

Basically put it down first them put shipping container on top and put a skirting around it to prevent rain getting on it or anything tearing it up. Will need vents around it to let it breath too. Another way is to set the shipping container up as normal, then go back and put vapor barrier down on the ground closes to bricks or whatever you use to lift it off the ground to support it, then the skirting with vents.
Nothing to attach vapor barrier to underneath a shipping container except the channel iron underneath every 12 inches or thereabouts. Trying to attach 45 mill plastic to 3/16" iron doesn't work.

Don't know where you are moving to, but might want to look up the risk of radon and test the structure you are going to live in if it is possibility of high levels. When I built this structure I couldn't test for radon till after it's built, but knowing high probability I custom built my system for it.

 

[Ridgetop]

Northeast Texas - 10 minutes south of Sulphur Springs. No Radon here. I will tell DH about laying down vapor barrier when setting Connex. Will need to figure out how to attach it to Connex. Duct tape?
We have a lot of short lengths of stock panels and pieces where bars are missing that can be cut down will probably cut them to size and use short lengths of rebar driven in to hold it against Connex sides. Tie or attach the vapor barrier to that somehow.

 

[Baymule]

If you block the containers up, there will be air flow under it and maybe you won’t need the vapor barrier.

HIRE them blocked up. You will need 4”x16”x16” for pads and solid concrete blocks 16”x8”x8” laid down, not stood up.

DO NOT let your men folks jack the container up and block it.

 

[Ridgetop]

I didn't know we could hire it blocked up. We have always done it ourselves, but our soil is heavy clay and shale and we only need to block to level. I will insist that we hire it done. It will save our Prime bodies! lol

Up at 4 am due to knee pain. I finally took an Oxycodene arund midnight to get to sleep but although the pain calmed down for 4 hours, I couldn't sleep. All those Codeine pain relievers do is relieve the pain and put me into a sort of half sleep. Got up at 4:40 and took another dose of Ibuprofen. For some reason my "good" knee is really aching. I had a Cortizone shot but it only lasted a day and the pain is worse now. I can hardly walk on it, and the pain keeps me from going to sleep and wakes me up when I finally fall asleep. If I go anywhere, I use my cane. I don't know how @farmerjan and @Baymule managed to keep working, let alone pull fence, etc. They are my heroes! Anyway, I am scheduling the partial replacement asap. Dr. Sassoon's scheduling nurse is due to call me to schedule. I can't have the surgery for 3 months after the shot, but he is booked 3 months out anyway. When I had the total replacement on the bad knee I didn't have much pain it was just getting so crooked that it had to be done. This knee is horribly painful and came on very suddenly. Maybe the cold and wet weather acted on the arthritis. My Grandfather used to predict rain with his "rheumatiz" - I always thought it was some sort of weather machine. LOL

I went ahead and ordered the electric netting from Premier. They are having a 5 day sale on all netting - 10% off. Free shipping since over $100. I had to order it shipped to Bay since they will only ship to Texas address with my AG card (no tax). The tax didn't come off so I had to call back and found out i had to add Bay's address to my account for shipping. An hour wasted with that. I also ordered the paint branding irons and paint to be shipped to California so paid tax on that. It didn't come up to $100 so I ordered a prolapse retainer and harness. Still $10 short so ordered some Superlube for lambing. Got the receipt and noticed that the prolapse retainer harness was left off the order. I will have to order later - maybe they will have another sale or I can order from another company when sales are on. Very annoyed. I also need to find a good wood crook. All the crooks currently recommended for shepherds are aluminum or fiberglass. They bend or break more easily and are too lightweight. The wooden ones are advertised as being for decorative purposes only. My boys were shepherds in Christmas pageants at church using my crook when they were small. They thought they were hot stuff with their crooks which they naturally used as weapons with the other shepherds at rehearsals. LOL Many of the reviews say that the wooden hook end is too narrow to catch a sheep around the neck. One or two people said that they soaked theirs in warm water overnight to open the crook arc radius so I can do that. The one they were talking about came unvarnished, so after opening the arc I will have to let it dry several days and then varnish it. I have a fiberglass Kiwi crook but we don't like it much. Not long enough and not big enough around to be comfortable in the hand. it has a neck crook on one end and a leg crook on the other and whichever way you hold it one of the crook ends gets in the way. I did repair my old crook with glue, clamps and a small screw but the screw did not set all the way in so will have to Dremel off the protruding bit and grind it down. DS1 got some special sports tape to put on over the crack to avoid splinters or roughness but I need another wooden crook if I can find one the right size. Mine is 5' tall and a little over 1" diameter which is comfortable for my hand. I like that length for guiding the sheep. Since DS1 has starting using mine (how t got cracked in the chute) I need another. I looked at a lot of them online and decided on one that I liked but can't remember what site it was on!

Continuing to pack files so two of my vertical metal filing cabinets can go to Texas on the next load. The boxes of files will go last since in case of a break in I don't want our personal information available. I have keys to the cabinets and need ti find them. Found the one to MJ's horizontal wooden file cabinet so good there.

Need to find a sofa. I redid my floor plan (on paper) removing the bookcases. The room is too small for them to fit and put a comfortable seating arrangement. This house is smaller all over. Our current MBR is not large - being only 13' x 14', but our new one is only 12'x12'. I could go to a Queen bed but we like the extra room on the King. The furniture will fit - I will just have to make the room look larger by using decorating tricks. I may still put a Murphy bed in the spare room to save space. I was going to use singe twin bed mattresses on the King frame for the spare room but might have to switch to a Full bed. No rush for a guest room until summer since Rick won't be moving with us until then.

 

[Baymule]

Do you have a delivery date for the shipment? I bought supplies for making.a big address sign to put at my driveway. Map apps show my house as being in the cow pasture next to me and must open gates and cross cattle guard to get to that empty spot. Confused delivery drivers leave shipments in various places. Because of the freeze and following floods, I’ve not been real motivated to put up said address sign.

A deadline date will give me motivation to get the sign put up. But not today. Not tomorrow. Maybe Monday? LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

Shipped via ground yesterday. 2-3 days shipping time. I was worried that they couldn't get to the house due to flooding but saw the UPS ad where the delivery driver had to take the wedding rings to beach wedding and made it just in time so figured the drivers probably carry inflatable boats. LOL I need to pay post office box rent to you!

 

[Baymule]

Sooooo…….. Monday? Or Wednesday because the driver is lost in the cow pasture?