Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Bruce]

It doesn't look like anything missing to me. I was going to mention the empty spaces that need to be filled with new clothes until I got to the part about that picture being right after the boxes were unpacked.

 

[Baymule]

All the pictures did show up! I built him a nice closet, don't cha' think? LOL

 

[Bruce]

Yeah you did.

 

[Ridgetop]

He is SOOOOO lucky to have you! Great closet!

DH and I pretty much live in jeans and Tees, except for bridge club/church clothes, and of course our formal cruise clothes. Our formal clothes last forever though since we only wear them a couple of times a year.

Occasionally I go through DH's closet and remove everything with stains. I do use Oxy spray pre treatment which helps take out stains. My friend says the Oil Eater cleaning solution that Costco used to sell for cleaning garage floors is the best stain remover on the planet but she can't find it anymore. Probably off the market for working too well. We have a walk in closet but it is only about 6' wide by 6' long. I make more space by doubling rodding. I have an old oak armoire, small circa 1910, which I refinished after rescuing it from the curb with a "free sign". It has the original rods, mirror, hat shelf, and even a tin holder for a camphor block for moth prevention. I keep DH's suits and my formal dress clothes in It is my "cruise closet". LOL When I decide to clean out some of my things, I call my daughter and have her come over to help me go through my closet. This works well. Only once or twice I have had to call her to bring something back! LOL

Some more boring doings from the land of muddle.

Bubba and his new lamb. This lamb has several tan splotches! Is he a closet Katahdin?

The day before yesterday morning we had another emergency. DH came in to tell me that one of the pregnant ewes in the barn looked like she was prolapsing. Down we went and sure enough she had a threatening rectal prolapse. This was one of my new ewes and I had noticed before that she had intermittent signs. DS1 went down to help put her into the jug and while chasing her around Lo and Behold! - the prolapse disappeared! We separated her and put her into one of the lambing jugs. This jug has a grafting panel. Good thing I decided to buy it and had it ready! I tricked the ewe to put her head through by placing bucket of grain on the other side on the ground. When she stuck her head through to eat the grain, I quickly locked her in the stanchion. I went up, got an exam glove, and some Preparation H and proceeded to doctor her. She was not happy, but who would be?

Years ago, we had an older Suffolk ewe that had a threatened rectal prolapse when heavily pregnant. I doctored her with Prep H throughout the last few weeks of her pregnancy. That ewe had triplets and after lambing the prolapse went away. Nothing to be done here except Prep H until after this ewe lambs. I texted Travis (breeder) who said he gets one about every 4-5 years. He suggested cutting her feed to avoid the lambs getting too large. This makes sense since it is the pressure from the expanding uterus that is pushing out the prolapse. I am hoping that after she lambs it will not return. If it becomes a continual problem she will have to go.

As I doctor this ewe, I wonder why anyone would want to do what we do with livestock? Between worm scans, prolapses, Prep H on ewes, pulling lambs, stitches, all the yucky sort of stuff we do for and with livestock, maybe we should just sell out and move into a condo. Then I watch the little lambs jumping with sheer joy at being alive, look around at the acres between us and our neighbors, see the sunrises and sunsets, love on our LGDs and Josie the Mule, and realize that ranching and farming is a way of life that can’t be abandoned. You can be forced out of it by weather, health, or financial reasons, but those of us who love it cannot just walk away.

Anyway, after messing about with the sheep DH went to the feed store and bought a 12' section of 4' high chain link panel with a walk through gate to close off the main barn opening. This was genius on his part since before we had to station family members in the opening to try to stop sheep from bolting out of the barn and then running all over the yard or getting out onto the field whenever we tried to move them around in the barn. I had mentioned that we should consider a gate of some sort but did not realize he was listening. DS1 installed it in the barn opening and it works great. This will make it super easy to set up the scale or squeeze in the barn and weigh or trim feet. DH had noticed the feed store had started carrying these panels lately and thought we should try some of these for the sheep pens. My Hero!

I received a voicemail from the vet yesterday checking on Angel and reminding me to keep her calm and quiet. ??? He is a city vet and did not recognize the LGD breed or its purpose, so he can’t be blamed for not understanding how difficult it is to prevent her from doing her job. These dogs are driven to work without regard to their own feelings of pain, etc. Love our big sweeties.

OK, this morning Angel tore off part of her bandage. I had to remove it and clean up the area where the drains have been oozing. I went down to the shed and made sure I have plenty of vet wrap. I washed off the incision and drains with hydrogen peroxide and placed a new pad over the incision. It took 2 rolls of vet wrap to bandage her properly. Around 4:30 pm when we got home from playing bridge, she had again removed most of the bandages. What was left had been scraped backward and was gathered around her middle in a single lump. Once again, I cleaned up the incision and rebandaged her. Again used 2 rolls of vet wrap but this time wrapped the vet wrap over her shoulders and around her chest to try to keep her from being able to rub the bandages back off the incision. 4 hours later she had torn off every vestige of vet wrap and bandaging! At that point we decided to leave her without bandaging since she was due back to the vet on Saturday for removal of the drains.

The 3 strange looking white things are the rubber tubing drains.

Angel went back to the vet today for her drains to come out and new bandaging. They were happy to see her since they remembered our sweet girl. The vet removed the drains and decided not to put any bandages over the incision which was healing well. As I was getting another 3 days of antibiotics and assuring the nurse that Angel was not bothering her incision and did not need a cone, we looked over to see her busily licking the incision! Angel is now a conehead.



Today I got the prolapsing ewe into the headlock again and reapplied Prep H again. I took the opportunity to check her udder as well. It is pretty full so hopefully she will lamb soon. The prolapse seems to mainly poke out when she is laying down (just like that Suffolk ewe years ago). Pressure from her uterus full of lambs seems to push everything out. I hope it is not just one big lamb.

Threatening rectal prolapse when laying down
After standing up and moving around. Hopefully she will lamb soon and stop all this foolishness!

Today I start packing for our cruise. My usual routine is to get out all the clothing I think we will want to take for the number of days we will be gone. My goal is not to have to do any laundry on the cruise. It costs money and takes away from my bridge playing and relaxation time. I also have to pack necessities - a large medicine kit to cover any emergencies cold meds, cough drops, antibiotics, painkillers, bandaids, meds for diarrhea, constipation, etc. Then other necessities – phone and kindle chargers, flashlight, walkie talkies and batteries for keeping in touch in shipboard where our cell phones don’t work (DH loves these – my friend and I forget to turn them on), binoculars, sunscreen, bug repellent, emergency sewing kit, corkscrew, knife, baggies, umbrella, rain ponchos, etc. Wine – 2 bottles, water and Perrier, bridge cards, books, the folding expandable duffle bag for the souvenirs we inevitably buy (after promising we won’t) that won’t fit in the suitcases to come home, etc. I assemble all of this in the spare bedroom along with the suitcases. Too much you think? And yet, in the middle of the ocean, what if we need one of thee items desperately? Better safe than sorry, say I - the 4-H mom famous for her complete medical supply chest at all Fairs from Sacramento to San Diego.

Our daily medications, jewelry, passports, boarding passes, $$$ for tips, and wine all will go in the small suitcase on wheels which boards with us. Over the years I have learned that a shoulder bag is too much weight and inconvenient. The larger luggage will be checked with the porters at dockside. Oh yes, this year DH insists that we bring our canes. We will get better treatment if we are seen to be crippled. We are fairly crippled and have been told to use our canes but since we think we are in the prime of life we don’t bother. This can come back to bite us when DH’s knee and my ankles and knee start to ache and make it hard to walk. These ships are huge, and we have to do a LOT of walking from one place to another just on the ship. Maybe canes are a good idea.

Once it becomes difficult to walk into the spare room it is time to pack. I lay out the suitcases and start with the dressy clothes (cruising is the only time I wear my lovely evening wear and jewelry so we “dress for dinner” every night). Once the dressy clothes and suits are in the suitcase, I squeeze in everything else around them. When the suitcases won’t close, I unzip the extra space option, effectively enlarging the packable space by another 2”deeper. When they still won’t close, I have two options – get another suitcase or repack everything. The first couple cruises we took I added suitcases. Now I repack. Several times. I remove and replace clothing until we are just able to close the suitcases. Flushed with triumph and the struggle to zip the cases shut, I turn around and notice the items I had set aside as "imperative to take - pack first"! Oops. I remove and repack everything again. And again, and again . . . .

DH does not understand this process. His idea of packing is his toothbrush and an extra pair of undies in a paper bag. I have to explain that his new clothes will not fit in a brown paper bag. LOL

He wants to buy more suitcases! Has exposure to BJ unleashed the hidden clothes monster?
Stay tuned in . . . .

 

[Bruce]

You need bigger brown paper bags!

 

[Grant]

I love cruises. I don’t have one scheduled until September though.

 

[Ridgetop]

I love cruises. I don’t have one scheduled until September though.

Where are you going?

Angel escaped today from the creep, dirtied her drainage holes, and necessitated being locked into the kennel run. Within an hour she was in more trouble. She tried to bite the wires off and got her jaw stick in the wires cutting into her gums and lip. She is now confined to the stock trailer. I told DS1 that if she gets out of there, or the temperature gets warmer she will have to go back to the boarding kennel. She has another day of meds to go. As DS1 and I discussed, she doesn't try to leave the yard, just wants to be free to go to all areas where her sheep are. Since she is obviously a Houdini who can enter and exit any sheep pen on the property at will, we can rest assured that all the sheep areas are protected!

Well, I think I may have the packing down now. No need for larger paper bags or extra luggage. I got everything packed without having to unzip the enlargement section! I did have to unpack the clothes we plan to wear tomorrow am onto the ship since I had accidently packed them. At any rate, all we have to do now is to throw in the toothbrushes and toiletries in the morning and we are ready. We were discussing how early we had to leave for the port when I noticed that the ship doesn't sail until 4:00 pm! We don't want to get there too early since we will just have to stand in long lines to board. We also can't order any liquor on board until we are out of port because they will charge us tax. It is a personal thing for DH. At 6:00 pm tomorrow when we get into our cabins I will find out what I forgot to pack. There must be a reason why everything fit in the luggage.

This morning I vaccinated 2 ewes, and the new ram lamb, Prep H'd one, and weighed the lamb. He has more than doubled his birth weight in 14 days to 20.8 lbs. I also set up a 3rd jug for DS1 in case of lambing while I am gone. When we get back, we will weigh the older lambs again and see if any are heavy enough to go for slaughter. Also ewes will be lambing then or may have more new lambs by then. DS2 was down in the barn yesterday and I pointed out the ewe that is threatening the rectal prolapse. He immediately said "Cull her." DH1 responded "After she lambs and weans the lamb, we'll cull". I have taught them well.

 

[Grant]

Where are you going?
".

We are flying to Copenhagen Denmark seeing, Finland Germany Estonia StPetersburg Russia and a couple of other stops across the Baltic countries. I’ve not been to that part of Europe. Really looking forward to it. It is a Norwegian Cruise.

 

[Baymule]

Y’all go have fun!

 

[Bruce]

At any rate, all we have to do now is to throw in the toothbrushes and toiletries in the morning and we are ready.

And your daily medications!