Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

That is the best thing (possibly only?) great thing about living on a ridgetop. LOL

 

[Baymule]

You do have some beautiful views. You will find beautiful views here too, maybe not the same, but beautiful none the less.

 

[Ridgetop]

Well back finally after coping with DH in deep depression about his taxes. Have figured out everything for him so he is feeling better. C(I am on Prozac.) We have done a reorganization as businesses say and we are retrenching. We are cutting out a lot of dead wood and I don't mean the dead tree behind the barn.

Anyway, as part of my coping mechanism I decided to can the bags of tomatoes that I threw in the freezer at the end of summer. I have 2 large freezers, actually large and giant, and the tomatoes were taking up too much space. I had 4 large garbage bags full of Roma and Better Boy. After struggling to get them out of the bottom of the freezer, I threw one bag into the sink and ran hot water over them. The are so easy this way since the skins just slip off better than when you have to scald them. They are semi frozen by the time I co them and they chop so easily! Put them on the stove to finish melting, then pureed them in the blender, back on the stove with seasonings then into the jars and process. I spent all day on those darn tomatoes and got 9 quarts of sauce when it was all cooked down! SO NOT WORTH IT!

I can't believe that I used to can hundreds and hundreds of quarts of fruits and veggies all summer long with NO A/C!!!wh I was young with small children and had to feed 6 of us, and the daycare kids too, from the garden. It was worth it when I was young and strong, now I will go to Smart and Final and buy the giant cans of tomato sauce for $3.00 and save my back and legs! I will be making blueberry jam and raspberry jelly Thursday with the frozen berries I brought home from Washington last summer. I need to get them out of the freezer and my grand children love my jam. Then DS and I are going to catalogue the remaining contents of the freezers as part of our family's budgeting plan. DS1 will be making dinners several nights a week while I make dinners the other nights of the week. We have to get together to plan what groceries to buy in order to avoid duplication and over buying. We also have to get space for the lambs that will soon be moving from the pasture to the freezer after their short holiday at the butcher.

As part of our reorganization, I have been going over our expenses for the past year and have been appalled at the amount we spend in this house for groceries and sundries. No more Costco first of all. DH is forbidden to go grocery shopping since he over buys and brings home all kinds of stuff that is unnecessary. We are eating smaller quantities anyway, DH has lost 30 lbs!!!

DS2 is coming back home after being in northern California working for the past 4-6 months. He will be going to another company for different apprentice training. While he is home, he can help us put up new woven wire fence around the old goat pen so the rams can go out and eat the green stuff. That way one ram will have a pen when I turn the other ram out with his breeding harness with the ewes on the big field. The puppy can stay with the rams too. More about that later. We have several chores that will need both sons to help with so this is a good thing. Hopefully he will be working within commuting distance for several months. Although my new food budget will have to be kept under strict control. I have found out that if we don't go to the grocery store it helps.

Angel is growing like a weed and we have been going out with our coffee in the am and letting her run with the big dogs and the sheep. She is going to be an awesome LGD. She already has been learning from the big dogs, and the ewes have butted her a couple times when she wanted to play with them. She and Bubba play a lot. Rika is elective in her play, but does join in occasionally. The other morning Angel was investigating the pasture and decided to run join the sheep. Naturally they moved away from her as she ran to them. She stopped and watched then walked slowly through the flock. The next time she decided to run join them she ran to about 15-20 feet away then circled around them widely at a walk, and approached them slowly. This time they did not move away from her and she was able to visit each one. One lesson learned. The next day she repeated the circle and slow walk behavior. Really impressive for a 3 month old pup!

She eats with the big dogs - we feed them all together and no one is allowed to take anyone else's food or annoy the others. Polite dinnertime behavior! At first she wanted to play but we insisted she eat first, then they were all allowed to come in for family time. Rika always takes her bone and lays on the carpet in the entry where she has peace and quiet. I used to fold the laundry in my room for that. Bubba takes up the entire floor space in the family room with his bones. Plural since he gathers them all up. Mine! All mine! Except that he lets Angel chew n them and just watches her! Love watching these huge dogs be so gentle with a little puppy. Then angel snuggles up next to him and just gnaws her bone while he chews his too. So cute! It will last until she is about a year and then he will not be so nice to her.

Angel is in disgrace though. Yesterday, she decided to chew her favorite lamb. She loves him dearly and this was the second time it happened. After the first time, we blocked off the creep so she couldn't be in with the ewes and lambs. Yesterday, DS1 decided to leave her in with the sheep again for a couple hours until he brought her up to feed her. When he went to get her 2 hours later poor Green Tag had a red neck from where she had been licking him and one leg was bleeding. He is her favorite lamb. She loves him. She likes to play with him. Since he can't bite or growl at her when she hurts him she assumes that he is having just as good a time as she is. DS doctored GT with hydrogen peroxide and informed Angel that she would not be able to have any more play dates with him. DS planes to keep him inside so he could check on him the next day. The lamb had other plans and went out to graze.

Today DS1 and I put stock panel around the outside of the built-in feeder in the pen to which we had transferred the rams. When he brought in the sheep, he penned Angel in with them. They are pretty docile but will not tolerate her gnawing on them. She had a safety area under the feeder where she could go if they got too rough. If they were mean, we would put the creep panels in the pen so she could stay in her own pen with access to the rams. We are not sure if they were mean or not. They were fine when she went into the pen. They were fine when she left the pen. She was fine as she lined up outside the kitchen door with the big dogs for supper. Apparently there was another way out of the pen we had not seen. Back in the creep until tomorrow night after we fix that spot. She is almost large enough to stay our longer during the day with the big dogs, but I want to do some more supervised training with her before just turning her loose on 5 acres.

Her behavior is really textbook LGD. She is going to be one terrific LGD. She will be a big girl too, larger than Rika. All of a sudden she has done a growth spurt, especially in her feet. Her paws are suddenly huge! She is a pretty girl and has a very sweet nature. Rain is expected for the next 4 days so I will spend sometime in the barn with Angel on collar and leash working on recalls and back off commands. Treats will be employed along with lots of praise.

This weekend when DS2 is home, we will weigh lambs again. On February 14 (almost 2 weeks ago) they weighed an average of 70 lbs. with an average daily gain of .7 lbs. Very respectable considering they are only grazing poor pasture, with only 1 light hay feed in the evening and a light feeding of barleycorn instead of a lamb grow ration. We are not creep feeding them since we have been using it for Angel and she tried to eat all the grain the first day she was in it! I am extremely pleased with these Dorpers. They are very docile friendly and super easy keepers. I plan to buy another couple of ewes this year. Their weight gain is as good as my Dorsets, but on less feed. They are carrying more meat on less carcass bone too. Even the Dorper crosses are really heavy and meaty. The ewe lamb that I am keeping is only 3 months old, and the youngest wether lamb is the heaviest at 75 lbs. at 2 and 1/2 months old! Great gains. They may be in the freezer under 4 months old. Just think what my ewes would produce on decent pasture year round! Texas has a lot more rain so I would have to do a stiffer worming regimen than is necessary here. I only worm annually here since it s so dry. After all this rain I will have to worm when I wean.

Still working on our Texas plan. Enjoying every minute my grandbabies are here since when we leave we won't see them often anymore.

 

[Baymule]

Sounds like Angel is growing and joining the big dogs. That is funny about her favorite lamb....not to the lamb or you, but put a smile on my face. I could just picture her "loving" her lamb!

That is great about your husband losing 30 pounds! Awesome! When we moved I let the groceries dwindle down so we wouldn't have to move much. I put stuff in the freezer for "later" too! LOL LOL Then I have to do a clean out before I go pick up the latest freezer camp award.

 

[Bruce]

Although my new food budget will have to be kept under strict control. I have found out that if we don't go to the grocery store it helps.

If you run out of food you can always go graze with the sheep.

Nice to hear what a great dog Angel is at such a young age (chewing on her favorite lamb excluded).

 

[Ridgetop]

When I was young and doing all that canning I kept asking my grandmother to come over and help since she had to can everything to feed the family during the depression. My grandmother told me I was crazy to do all that work. I didn't believe her then, but knowing how much work it is and being the age I am now, I understand why she said that. Back then I was in my "great earth mother" phase - now I am in the "do it because you love it" phase. 6 hours of work for 13 quarts of tomato sauce does not qualify.

Angel will eventually rival Roka as the LGD Ultimate, right now we are letting her have outside time in the evening after the sheep are locked up and the dogs are back on the home side of the fields. She does really well outside with the big dogs, and we put her up in the barn pen after we feed so she is not outside all night. Still coyote bait size.

Got t go to Lowes for woven wore fencing. We were going to use the wire we already have to extend the fence higher around the property. Thought it was woven wire, but it was welded ire , which would be ok since we are just adding another 3-4 feet on top of an existing 5' tall perimeter wire fence. The bottom half is woven no climb on welded oil pipe. Over the years on our steep terrain the ground has washed into the fence and lowered the top of the T posts to the existing posts and adding wire on top. We got the welded wire to extend the fence since there would be no strain on it 3'-4' in the air and it was a lot cheaper. However, now we have to go get woven wire to replace the old chain link that we took off the original goat pasture fence. The posts are solid so we will just have to stretch and tack up the new wire. My boys were going to put up the welded wire but I stopped them explaining that when we started stretching the wore on the slope the welds would pop. Massive discussion in the Robbins tradition but alpha bitch prevailed so we are off to the Lowes in the next town since our local stores do not carry woven wire. City folks!

 

[RollingAcres]

Canning sure is a lot of work but we do it because we enjoy it.

Buying tomato sauce at the store is so much easier but popping open a jar of sauce that you made yourself with tomatoes from your garden, that's priceless...Sound like a commercial, ha!

 

[Baymule]

Canning sure is a lot of work but we do it because we enjoy it.

Buying tomato sauce at the store is so much easier but popping open a jar of sauce that you made yourself with tomatoes from your garden, that's priceless...Sound like a commercial, ha!

X2!
I love my home grown, home canned tomato sauce. I give some to my son and he makes home made chili with it.

 

[Bruce]

I stopped them explaining that when we started stretching the wore on the slope the welds would pop.

Oh yeah they will. Alpha bitch wins for a good reason!

 

[Ridgetop]

I confine myself to making jelly and jams now. Maybe more canning when I have another garden next year. I do love to make pickles though, and applesauce, and pickled peaches, and . . . . I do have a dynamite recipe for homemade catsup, very spicy and I used it as BBQ sauce on meatloaf and other things. I might end up doing more later. There is really nothing like a cellar full of home canned vegetables, fruits, pickles and jams. I left our cellar behind with our 100 year old home when we moved to the "new" house 30+ years ago. My Daddy but shelves in it for all my jars and I hung my kettles, etc., from hooks and nails driven into the underside of the staircase going to the second floor. Very handy but sadly no cellars here. Maybe in Texas I can put in a root cellar if there s none in the house. Otherwise, it is hard to store all the home canned goods where they stay cool in the summer. When you can summer stuff for the winter it takes up a whole room of shelves. Think about it, you need at least 1 quart jar every day of vegetables, not to mention the quarts of fruit, pints of pickles, and half pints of jams and jellies. If you are raising a large family of children the jams and jellies get put up in pint jars and you need 2 quarts of vegetables every day for supper. If you can raise winter vegetables, or live where you can leave beets, carrots and parsnips, et. in the ground during the frost or snow, then you can cut back the number of jars you need. That does not even take into account the number of jars of soup, meat, etc. you needed in the old days to supplement the salt pork (laid down in barrels), salt fish (ditto) and smoked meats. I used to can my goat milk for the calves during the months when I needed the fresh milk for us and the goat kids - even with 3 freezers, I didn't have enough room to store it frozen.

Golly, when you think about it, you can see why women really could not work outside the home back then. They had to sew all their own clothes and those of their husband and children. They had no dishwashers, no washers and dryers (although I do like hanging linens on, the line since they smell so good), no vacuum cleaners, no hot water heaters, AND they had to do all their heavy work wearing tight corsets, 5 petticoats and heavy long skirts! UGH!

Thank heaven for all our wonderful conveniences! It gives us the time to grow our lovely gardens, which gives us all that lovely produce to CAN! Exhausted just thinking about it.

Life is really a giant circle!