Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Devonviolet]

I can sure identify with your experiences with the earthquake! I was living in Southern California, back in 1971, when there was a 6.5 magnitude quake in Sylmar.

I had spent the night on the sofa, at a friend’s apartment. It woke me up, at 6:00 AM, when a huge plywood painting, on the wall over the sofa, started swinging away from the wall and banging back - repeatedly. The swimming pool had huge waves and the water was splashing out, over the edge of the pool. It was really scary!

 

[Ridgetop]

So finally recovered from the 4th July weekend, and back checking everything out, and updating everyone on everything!

About the earthquakes - they are always quite a shock when they happen! Sorry - bad pun!

In 1971 DH was working as a security guard at the Castaic Dam that was being built by DWP. He was in the guard shack when it hit and the guard shack fell right over with him in it! LOL It took him hours to get home - usually a half hour trip on his motorcycle. The freeway had collapsed during that shaker - sadly killing a CHP officer heading for work to assist, along with portions of Olive View Hospital in Sylmar. It was pretty bad - the epicenter was much closer to us at the time - along the San Andreas fault.

The next BIG one was Northridge in 1992(?) on Martin Luther King Day. Several apartment buildings collapse along with the multi-level parking structure at Northridge mall. That epicenter was actually in Northridge - about 20 miles from us. Pretty scary. Our youngest boy wa 6 at the time and insisted on sleeping with us for 6 months. Our middle boy was 8 and slept through the entire thing. I had to literally drag him from the lower bunk into the doorway for safety. He never woke up until it was over, when he wanted to know why he was on the floor in the hall! DD1, age 15, was screaming from her room that "we are all going to die!" The aftershocks on that one were very strong and continued for about a week. Lots of damage. We had earthquake insurance - some of the few people that carried it at the time. I always had it on our policy because at the time it was only about $25/year with a $100.00 deductible. Now it is several thousand dollars per year and the deductibles start at $10,000-15,000.00! Not worth it.

Do you think y’all will make it over this way? We’ll invite @Devonviolet and her husband for steaks on the grill so they can meet y’all too.

Just try to keep us away! Sooooo looking forward to meeting you, Baymule and Devonviolet, it is going to be the high point of our trip!

Got all the decorations from the 4th July party put away. Left the cushion covers on the patio furniture overnight but covered them with the new outdoor furniture covers. Why am I so optimistic? Naughty Angel decided to lay in comfort on the patio sofa and whiled away the time chewing several holes in the new outdoor sofa cover. Luckily, she did not chew through to the cushions. She also retrieved 3 or 4 of the solar garden lights I had put out at the edge of the patio to avoid anyone not seeing the drop off, and chewed them up. So the next day I put all the cushions away in the deck boxes, folded up the outdoor chair and loveseat covers and repacked them, covered up the fire pit and large glass table again. I retrieved all the solar lights and relocated them behind the garden fences in the flowerbeds where she can't get to them. Bubba liked destroying those lights too when he was young so I should have retrieved them that night. My bad. After putting away all the cushions, I left out 2 rattan chairs since they had been sitting on the other side of the house for the past year without any problem. Cunningly, I left the very old cushions on them thinking that the cushions would tempt Angel but that I could replace them cheaply if necessary. BAD Angel ignored the cushions and ate the arm of one of the wicker chairs instead. There are 3 left and we can replace that chair at Lowes but I am not going to do so nor leave anything out for another year when hopefully she will be out of this chewing stage. DH suggested we put her back in the small sheep pen to avoid more chewing, but DS1 and I vetoed that suggestion since it would not teach her not to chew up our furniture. She just has to outgrow it. I probably should have expected it, after all it is the reason we have wrought iron furniture on our patio. Those comfortable wicker chairs were the ones I had bought for my aunt since they were easy for her to move around on her patio in Yelm.

The ewes seem to be all bred, the last one marked was about 3 weeks ago so we pulled off the ram that was with them and put all 3 rams in the small lower pen. I need to increase their feed a bit since the 2 that were with the ewes lost a little weight and condition. Breeding takes it out of the rams so now is the time to put a little condition back on them. The 3 fall ewe lambs are out with the ewes now in the large pasture. In early September I will pick up the last Dorper ewe that I bought. She was due right when I bought her so we did not want to transport her then. She lambed 2 days later. I will pick her up when we get back from Texas when she will have weaned her lambs. Then a little heavy feeding to flush her and the 3 lambs, then we will turn the ram in with the entire ewe flock so he can cover any ewe that missed or didn't settle. Haven't decided which ram yet.

DH bought another Connex container and it will be delivered Thursday. We hope to get more alfalfa at $13/bale. I now that sounds high for all you east of the Rockies, but here in California it is cheap for prime alfalfa. DH and DS1 plan to put the new container about 15' from the first one and parallel. Then they will roof between them and fence off each end. That will become our new hay barn. We can hang tarps over the ends of the hay in bad rainstorms.

DH cleaned out the truck yesterday for our trip. He also bought mud flaps since 4 years ago we got a fix it ticket for not having any on the truck in Texas. Unfortunately the ones he bought were impossible to attach so they went back and I think DS1 has ordered another set. If we don't get them before we go to Texas, we will buy some and have them installed there. Since every truck has to have them in Texas, they must have a lot of shops that will do it.

Hopefully the trailer is coming home tomorrow and I will start cleaning it. Every surface has to be wiped down, and the cushions vacuumed. If I have time, I want to frame in a door under the bedframe and attach a door for access. That way I can stick stuff under the bed without having to raise the entire mattress and platform. I can raise it but holding it up while I put stuff in and take stuff out is a real pain. Literally, since I rest it on my head while I am doing it. However, we are not taking as much stuff with us since Pretzel will not be traveling with us. (That way we have room to "borrow" Baymule's new chute gates ) We have packed the trailer for long trips so many times that we have it down pretty good now. Although I still pack way too much, I have gotten a lot better over the years. (Like mother, like daughter though - the first time we went on a long summer trip with DD2 (age 17) she packed all her high heel shoes, several date dresses, her entire case of makeup, 3 swimsuits, stereo, etc. We were touring Arizona and hiking to see all the cliff dwellings, the Grand Canyon, old mines, etc.! 2 weeks into the trip I made her put everything into garbage bags and stashed it in the underneath storage compartment. The first 2 weeks we couldn't walk through the trailer! LOL

GOOD NEWS! DD1 and SIL have finally bought a house! Escrow closes August 8 but the sellers need several weeks to get out of the house since their new one is not ready. DD1 and SIL have to be out of their rental so they will be moving into our house while we are in Texas. The house has everything they want along with a large dance 1000S.F. studio buiIt onto the house. The seller ran it as a professional dance studio where she gave lessons as well as choreographing dances. DD1 and SIL plan to use it as a party room and dojo for doing karate (the whole family is into this and many of their friends also). The dojo room also has a huge screen for movies and built in projector for them They are excited about holding parties there. Tons of storage especially in the Dojo room While it does not have anywhere to keep horses, I don't think they will ever get any. There is a small area where they can put a chicken coop, there are several fruit trees, grape vines, etc. The back of the property is steep but has paths and steps to the upper garden areas, everything has drip lines, and it has a great pool. Best of all for SIL the house s covered in solar panels and apparently the sellers get $700/mo credit back on their utility bills every month. That includes with A/C and heating the pool in the winter. Probably why SIL bought it. Anyway, they are ecstatic. It the pix are still up, you can find the listing at Zillow 9940 Shadow Hills Drive, Shadow Hills, CA. Great house with lots of room to hold entire family for ALL HOLIDAYS!

So happy for them and already planning to move all my party stuff (chafing dishes, party ware, etc.) over there. Also giving them some of my patio furniture, and of course other furniture and paintings, rugs etc. that have been stored in "Mom's Furniture Warehouse"! Also, now DD1 will be able to take delivery of the gold Picard china and other antiques that her great grandmother left her and I have been storing for what seems like centuries! The sellers are letting them transfer all their stuff into the dojo room since they have to be out of the rental. SIL is hiring movers so their furniture will stay stored until they can actually bring it into the house.

Have I mentioned that this is GOOD NEWS! and A WONDERFUL THING! They are happy that they finally have the house they love and I am happy that I can finally unload all the stuff they have been storing here back into their home!!!

However, some worrying news. Bubba has been chewing his paws and lower legs. I worried that it was hot spots and took him to the vet. Since he does not have fleas, the vet thinks it is some sort of OCD thing. ?????? Really?! He is on some sort of light meds to see if it will control his chewing. Otherwise it is Prozac time! Since I don't believe in putting him on a drug like that (I keep all the good stuff for myself!) we will have to see. The vet thought that having him kenneled for the 8 days with the film thing might have made him more upset and made him chew himself more. I am ordering something from Chewey that is spray on and designed to be safe if he chews it off. It is designed to stop the itching but if this is a nervous habit who knows if it will work. I will try it anywy. I'm also considering grinding some hot chilis into stuff to brush on his legs, but will it burn his skin? Not sure and don't want to go from one bad thing to another. He also has damaged his left eye, the pupil is distended. I have an appointment with a doggy opthamologist on the 18th - the earliest I could get but am not hopeful. I mainly want to make sure that it was from an injury rather than genetic or a disease. If it is a disease or genetic I will immediately notify Erick and make arrangements to have Bubba neutered. I was getting ready to have him OFAed so Erick could collect him but if it is genetic I know Erick will have me fix him ASAP. That was always my plan after having him collected anyway. We will see what the eye doctor says about it. Poor Bubba actually sort of growled at Dr. Stern when I took him in for the chewing and his eye (which we just had discovered the night before). Dr. Stern was shocked since Bubba had never done that before. But the raw patches his legs might have hurt and of course if he was having trouble out of his left eye it would make him nervous. DS1 said Bubba had growled when he looked at his oweys the day before. He didn't growl at me, but as we all know I am the ALPHA BITCH! HEE HEE HEE!

I will let you now what happens.

 

[Bruce]

It the pix are still up, you can find the listing at Zillow

Looks really nice ... but I'm glad I don't have to come up with the mortgage payments for it!

 

[Baymule]

That's a super nice place. It is described as a horse property.....where is the horse supposed to go? I can see why they are excited to have it, it is a beautiful home.

Poor Bubba, I hope the root cause for his chewing can be found. Poor guy!

So looking forward to meeting you and your husband!

 

[AmberLops]

So finally recovered from the 4th July weekend, and back checking everything out, and updating everyone on everything!

About the earthquakes - they are always quite a shock when they happen! Sorry - bad pun!

In 1971 DH was working as a security guard at the Castaic Dam that was being built by DWP. He was in the guard shack when it hit and the guard shack fell right over with him in it! LOL It took him hours to get home - usually a half hour trip on his motorcycle. The freeway had collapsed during that shaker - sadly killing a CHP officer heading for work to assist, along with portions of Olive View Hospital in Sylmar. It was pretty bad - the epicenter was much closer to us at the time - along the San Andreas fault.

The next BIG one was Northridge in 1992(?) on Martin Luther King Day. Several apartment buildings collapse along with the multi-level parking structure at Northridge mall. That epicenter was actually in Northridge - about 20 miles from us. Pretty scary. Our youngest boy wa 6 at the time and insisted on sleeping with us for 6 months. Our middle boy was 8 and slept through the entire thing. I had to literally drag him from the lower bunk into the doorway for safety. He never woke up until it was over, when he wanted to know why he was on the floor in the hall! DD1, age 15, was screaming from her room that "we are all going to die!" The aftershocks on that one were very strong and continued for about a week. Lots of damage. We had earthquake insurance - some of the few people that carried it at the time. I always had it on our policy because at the time it was only about $25/year with a $100.00 deductible. Now it is several thousand dollars per year and the deductibles start at $10,000-15,000.00! Not worth it.



Just try to keep us away! Sooooo looking forward to meeting you, Baymule and Devonviolet, it is going to be the high point of our trip!

Got all the decorations from the 4th July party put away. Left the cushion covers on the patio furniture overnight but covered them with the new outdoor furniture covers. Why am I so optimistic? Naughty Angel decided to lay in comfort on the patio sofa and whiled away the time chewing several holes in the new outdoor sofa cover. Luckily, she did not chew through to the cushions. She also retrieved 3 or 4 of the solar garden lights I had put out at the edge of the patio to avoid anyone not seeing the drop off, and chewed them up. So the next day I put all the cushions away in the deck boxes, folded up the outdoor chair and loveseat covers and repacked them, covered up the fire pit and large glass table again. I retrieved all the solar lights and relocated them behind the garden fences in the flowerbeds where she can't get to them. Bubba liked destroying those lights too when he was young so I should have retrieved them that night. My bad. After putting away all the cushions, I left out 2 rattan chairs since they had been sitting on the other side of the house for the past year without any problem. Cunningly, I left the very old cushions on them thinking that the cushions would tempt Angel but that I could replace them cheaply if necessary. BAD Angel ignored the cushions and ate the arm of one of the wicker chairs instead. There are 3 left and we can replace that chair at Lowes but I am not going to do so nor leave anything out for another year when hopefully she will be out of this chewing stage. DH suggested we put her back in the small sheep pen to avoid more chewing, but DS1 and I vetoed that suggestion since it would not teach her not to chew up our furniture. She just has to outgrow it. I probably should have expected it, after all it is the reason we have wrought iron furniture on our patio. Those comfortable wicker chairs were the ones I had bought for my aunt since they were easy for her to move around on her patio in Yelm.

The ewes seem to be all bred, the last one marked was about 3 weeks ago so we pulled off the ram that was with them and put all 3 rams in the small lower pen. I need to increase their feed a bit since the 2 that were with the ewes lost a little weight and condition. Breeding takes it out of the rams so now is the time to put a little condition back on them. The 3 fall ewe lambs are out with the ewes now in the large pasture. In early September I will pick up the last Dorper ewe that I bought. She was due right when I bought her so we did not want to transport her then. She lambed 2 days later. I will pick her up when we get back from Texas when she will have weaned her lambs. Then a little heavy feeding to flush her and the 3 lambs, then we will turn the ram in with the entire ewe flock so he can cover any ewe that missed or didn't settle. Haven't decided which ram yet.

DH bought another Connex container and it will be delivered Thursday. We hope to get more alfalfa at $13/bale. I now that sounds high for all you east of the Rockies, but here in California it is cheap for prime alfalfa. DH and DS1 plan to put the new container about 15' from the first one and parallel. Then they will roof between them and fence off each end. That will become our new hay barn. We can hang tarps over the ends of the hay in bad rainstorms.

DH cleaned out the truck yesterday for our trip. He also bought mud flaps since 4 years ago we got a fix it ticket for not having any on the truck in Texas. Unfortunately the ones he bought were impossible to attach so they went back and I think DS1 has ordered another set. If we don't get them before we go to Texas, we will buy some and have them installed there. Since every truck has to have them in Texas, they must have a lot of shops that will do it.

Hopefully the trailer is coming home tomorrow and I will start cleaning it. Every surface has to be wiped down, and the cushions vacuumed. If I have time, I want to frame in a door under the bedframe and attach a door for access. That way I can stick stuff under the bed without having to raise the entire mattress and platform. I can raise it but holding it up while I put stuff in and take stuff out is a real pain. Literally, since I rest it on my head while I am doing it. However, we are not taking as much stuff with us since Pretzel will not be traveling with us. (That way we have room to "borrow" Baymule's new chute gates ) We have packed the trailer for long trips so many times that we have it down pretty good now. Although I still pack way too much, I have gotten a lot better over the years. (Like mother, like daughter though - the first time we went on a long summer trip with DD2 (age 17) she packed all her high heel shoes, several date dresses, her entire case of makeup, 3 swimsuits, stereo, etc. We were touring Arizona and hiking to see all the cliff dwellings, the Grand Canyon, old mines, etc.! 2 weeks into the trip I made her put everything into garbage bags and stashed it in the underneath storage compartment. The first 2 weeks we couldn't walk through the trailer! LOL

GOOD NEWS! DD1 and SIL have finally bought a house! Escrow closes August 8 but the sellers need several weeks to get out of the house since their new one is not ready. DD1 and SIL have to be out of their rental so they will be moving into our house while we are in Texas. The house has everything they want along with a large dance 1000S.F. studio buiIt onto the house. The seller ran it as a professional dance studio where she gave lessons as well as choreographing dances. DD1 and SIL plan to use it as a party room and dojo for doing karate (the whole family is into this and many of their friends also). The dojo room also has a huge screen for movies and built in projector for them They are excited about holding parties there. Tons of storage especially in the Dojo room While it does not have anywhere to keep horses, I don't think they will ever get any. There is a small area where they can put a chicken coop, there are several fruit trees, grape vines, etc. The back of the property is steep but has paths and steps to the upper garden areas, everything has drip lines, and it has a great pool. Best of all for SIL the house s covered in solar panels and apparently the sellers get $700/mo credit back on their utility bills every month. That includes with A/C and heating the pool in the winter. Probably why SIL bought it. Anyway, they are ecstatic. It the pix are still up, you can find the listing at Zillow 9940 Shadow Hills Drive, Shadow Hills, CA. Great house with lots of room to hold entire family for ALL HOLIDAYS!

So happy for them and already planning to move all my party stuff (chafing dishes, party ware, etc.) over there. Also giving them some of my patio furniture, and of course other furniture and paintings, rugs etc. that have been stored in "Mom's Furniture Warehouse"! Also, now DD1 will be able to take delivery of the gold Picard china and other antiques that her great grandmother left her and I have been storing for what seems like centuries! The sellers are letting them transfer all their stuff into the dojo room since they have to be out of the rental. SIL is hiring movers so their furniture will stay stored until they can actually bring it into the house.

Have I mentioned that this is GOOD NEWS! and A WONDERFUL THING! They are happy that they finally have the house they love and I am happy that I can finally unload all the stuff they have been storing here back into their home!!!

However, some worrying news. Bubba has been chewing his paws and lower legs. I worried that it was hot spots and took him to the vet. Since he does not have fleas, the vet thinks it is some sort of OCD thing. ?????? Really?! He is on some sort of light meds to see if it will control his chewing. Otherwise it is Prozac time! Since I don't believe in putting him on a drug like that (I keep all the good stuff for myself!) we will have to see. The vet thought that having him kenneled for the 8 days with the film thing might have made him more upset and made him chew himself more. I am ordering something from Chewey that is spray on and designed to be safe if he chews it off. It is designed to stop the itching but if this is a nervous habit who knows if it will work. I will try it anywy. I'm also considering grinding some hot chilis into stuff to brush on his legs, but will it burn his skin? Not sure and don't want to go from one bad thing to another. He also has damaged his left eye, the pupil is distended. I have an appointment with a doggy opthamologist on the 18th - the earliest I could get but am not hopeful. I mainly want to make sure that it was from an injury rather than genetic or a disease. If it is a disease or genetic I will immediately notify Erick and make arrangements to have Bubba neutered. I was getting ready to have him OFAed so Erick could collect him but if it is genetic I know Erick will have me fix him ASAP. That was always my plan after having him collected anyway. We will see what the eye doctor says about it. Poor Bubba actually sort of growled at Dr. Stern when I took him in for the chewing and his eye (which we just had discovered the night before). Dr. Stern was shocked since Bubba had never done that before. But the raw patches his legs might have hurt and of course if he was having trouble out of his left eye it would make him nervous. DS1 said Bubba had growled when he looked at his oweys the day before. He didn't growl at me, but as we all know I am the ALPHA BITCH! HEE HEE HEE!

I will let you now what happens.

I know this sounds silly...but a lot of dogs will start frantically chewing their legs/feet if their anal glands are full.
It can actually cause some strange behaviors but that's #1 Maybe try expressing them and see if that helps too?

 

[Ridgetop]

Good idea - I will check him and try it. I haven't noticed him rubbing his butt which is what our mini Dachs did before I expressed hers - she weighed abut 7 lbs. and the smell nearly knocked me over! Can't wait to express Bubba's - he weighs 150 lbs! LOL

 

[Devonviolet]

 

[Ridgetop]

That's a super nice place. It is described as a horse property.....where is the horse supposed to go? I can see why they are excited to have it, it is a beautiful home.

Nowhere for the horse to go except - you guessed it - Mom and Dad's! However, they don't have time to ride, for the kids to have any lessons, much less take care of any horses, and SIL never had any pets so he isn't even too receptive to a puppy.
They take the kids to church activities, karate, music lessons, sports, swim team, junior lifeguard, etc.

On the other hand, they love entertaining and this house will make it easy to do so. They will need a pool man, gardener, and a cleaning crew every week though. Lots of $$$. But both of them work and they can afford it. DD1 has never had a house this large and both of them work long hours.

Last night was DS1's birthday party and our family were discussing holding monthly or every 2 monthly movie nights with popcorn and root beer floats in the Dojo room which has the giant movie screen and projector equipment. (Sellers are leaving that.) Our entire family likes each other and enjoys being together - my brother in Seattle says we are dysfunctional.

That is what makes the decision to move away so hard. DD1 has already scoped out the ways for the grandkids to ride their bikes or hike to our house from their new one. It would be super simple if they had ponies or horses, otherwise they have to hike over two steep hills (see photos of our back pasture) and then around to the back gate. In a few more years they will be older too, and not so interested in seeing us.

 

[AmberLops]

Good idea - I will check him and try it. I haven't noticed him rubbing his butt which is what our mini Dachs did before I expressed hers - she weighed abut 7 lbs. and the smell nearly knocked me over! Can't wait to express Bubba's - he weighs 150 lbs! LOL

Oh I know...the smell is terrible! When you do it pretty much for a living (like 60% of appointments at the clinic are expressions) you start to notice that every dogs glands have a different smell ha ha!

 

[Ridgetop]

OMG! AmberLops! I really feel for you. I read somewhere that when at an autopsy police officers will often put a dab of Vicks type ointment under their noses. Can you do that? Or a clothespin?

Just got a call from the doggy eye doctor. They have a cancellation for this afternoon so will take Bubba in at 1:30 pm. today. Happy to see what is going on. He seems more calm so may be getting used to his vision problem. I would be more worried about him working as a solitary LGD if he turns out to have lost the sight in one eye. Having a blindside in a fight would be bad, but the other 2 dogs will help him in the event of a predator fight. I hope it is some type of temporary injury.

I tried expressing his glands but didn't seem to have anything to express. I will try again later . He is pretty big so even with DS1 holding him I may not have found them! I did apologize and give him a hug afterwards for embarrassing him.