Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Baymule]

We used a shop in Lindale for tractor and truck. I’ll give you the number.
I hope you like the ranch and can get used to the highway. Hahaha, it could be worse, you could live down a road like mine that goes underwater when it rains.

 

[Mini Horses]

Once fenced and "relocated" for life in TX...how many trips do you anticipate to move the sheep??? We're not talking a half doz or so but, a large number! Are you planning to move all yourself or hire a transport for some?

That's way more stressful than corral panels. That's major and live bodies.

 

[murphysranch]

Will you be putting your CA home up for sale after the move?

 

[Ridgetop]

@Mini Horses: I think I will contact one of the livestock haulers since we also have 3 equines to move as well. Possibly Bob Mays, he does a lot f hauling from California to TX. We would probably need the entire truck, but he would know where to stop, to feed, water. etc. When I called him, he also said that he would be able to separate any heavy bred ewes so they would ride just a couple in separate compartments in case of lambing on the road. I will try to plan breedings to avoid any births on the road but might have younger lambs with mothers. Will also have to get all the rams over 6 months old blood tested for O. Brucellosis, and the horses tested for Coggins, as well as general health certificates. It will be expensive, but . . . .

@murphysranch: Not selling the house. Both DH and I are in our Mature Prime and no knowing if we will want/need to return for health reasons to be near family. Unless most of our children move out to Texas, they will all be in California. We will be renting the house to our middle son and his wife (who currently live here with us). We moved here when DS2 was 4 years old, so this is the only home he remembers, and he likes it along with the 6 acres of privacy. If we decide to sell it he might buy it. Any pans on moving back to live here would entail either buying a larger 5th wheel trailer (35') with 4 slide outs and building a covered deck around it for us to retire into. OR maybe adding a mother-in-law suite onto the end of the house. Either way, that would give us a small pied a terre and allow us to travel, cruise, etc. while still having a place waiting for us. And, of course, close access to grandchildren.

 

[Mini Horses]

A hauler would be expensive, yes -- But well worth the cost in the long run!! Absolutely.

 

[Ridgetop]

Hahaha, it could be worse, you could live down a road like mine that goes underwater when it rains.

But it would be private. Oh well, our first home was locate on a main street. While the traffic only reached speeds of 60mph on occasion, there was constant very heavy traffic. It was a major street in town and carried traffic all day and night.

We will probably replace the front windows on the house with dual or triple panes which will cut down on noise, as well as helping the heating and A/C costs. We will do it ourselves during mild weather - spring and fall - a couple at a time. We learned to do retrofit windows on the apartment building.

Our truck is back! The oil got changed as required after the total engine replacement and they replaced the bad hoses and gaskets on the A/C w/o charge except for one hose they couldn't get. However, it has been ordered and the leak is supposedly small so it can wait till we get back. DH says the A/C feels like a meat locker now. Probably be rainy and cold for the next few weeks in Texas and we won't need the A/C but if we didn't get it fixed it would have been record breaking highs! Speaking of rain, our forecast calls for 2-3 days of rain next week. Keep that grass green and growing!

Just had my order of 300 syringes bounced by Jeffers because they are out of stock. Refunded my payment. No idea when they will be in stock, and I have lots of vaccinating to do. I always try to keep lots of syringes and vaccine on hand. Valley Vet is out of tetanus Antitoxin until mid-May as well. I use that when docking since I give 1cc of Tetanus Antitoxin at the same time as the CDT. The CDT doesn't become effective for 10-14 days so giving the Antitoxin makes sure that the docking procedure doesn't cause any infection.

Got the results on my Dorper Judging class, Junior Section, and I passed! Now I am eligible to take the Senior class. I think I might take the Junior Class again first though. I don't know what my scores are on either part of the test, but have asked for them. I amused myself looking at the champion sheep advertised in the Dorper magazine and noticed that the toplines in some bloodlines are not that great. LOL I did practice on my sheep and realize that although I have complained about them carrying too much wool, they are actually fine. According to one of the instructors, the South African Dorper breeders have found that a certain amount of wool is good since completely hair Dorpers carry less muscle meat. In South Africa the wool provides some protection from thorns on the veld. Another thing I learned is that if they only carry hair on the spine and back, they can suffer from sunburn. If the sunburn is too severe, the hair or wool will not grow back and the sheep ends up with just scar tissue on the back! Since the Dorper hides are worth a lot this is bad economically for sales. LeRoux Van Wyck said that there are premums paid on carcasses in South Africa for hide quality, and the prices can fluctuate according to the hide quality at the slaughter house. He said for growers in Sweden the hides are more valuable than the meat since Sweden makes a lot of sheepskin items for export! South Africa exports most of their Dorper hides to Japan. Dorper hides are supposed to be excellent quality leather.

I think that too much concentration on one aspect might be bad for me as well since I have been so focused n huge butts and loin width that I may have been skipping other areas. LOL to the judges/inspectors the main 3 points in sheep raising to concentrate on are MFB - mouths, feet, and balls! Without correct mouths they cannot graze properly, with bad feet, legs, and pasterns they cannot walk to graze, and anyone who has seen bull advertisements with their testicle measurements can figure out that the testicle shape, placement, and dimension are key when buying stud animals. LOL These are the items that are cull faults in judging (and breeding). After making sure that those 3 are ok, then you get down to judging the various other points of the animal. Any obvious cull fault you don't even have to look further. That animal goes.

We have certain areas of the property where the sheep can't graze. DH and DS1 are moving pieces of stock panel to cut off any escape routes in the front section of slope then they will open the gate to let the rams out to eat 42" tall wild mustard. At this point it is still green and palatable. Hopefully they will either eat the itchy weed too or just trample it out. We have a couple other small areas that we need to move sheep into for weed control too. Unfortunately once the itchy weed gets a certain size/age the sheep refuse to eat it until it dries out. The itchy weed nettle oil that causes the rash on your skin must dry out to an edible amount because they will gobble up the dried itch weed.

GR9 in the barn keeps screaming for her lamb. There is a lamb who keeps screaming for her mom. She has twins. She and one twin only seem to find each other occasionally. She lambed in that pen (where other ewes with 3 weeks old lambs were) and did not want to leave the pen. We thought she was comfortable with her lambs in there but apparently, she is very stupid - rather, more stupid than the other sheep who seem to be able to find their lambs. These are her first lambs so she will get another try to see if she can get better at keeping track of her next set of lambs.

I need to go down to the tool shed with some tools I found in bins in the hall. After I sort them into their appointed drawers, I can find the others that will go with us to Texas in the medium toolbox. These are not the expensive power tools, rather some hand tools. We will leave the tools locked in the tack room. We are also taking some power tools, saws, drills, hedge trimmers, chain saw, weed wackers, etc. DH plans to buy a battery powered chain saw as well. DS2 bought one - Milwaukee brand - and loves it. DH wants one and since so many BYHers have one and love it for fence row cleaning I figure it would be a good investment. We are only panning to get a start on putting in the tall T-posts along the current fence line, and maybe some of the H-braces while we are back there. Since the wire won't be arriving for another couple months, we will have to string wire during the heat of the summer. Instead of renovating the house, maybe we should spend the money to put in a swimming pool - that way the thought of fencing in the Texas heat would not feel so horrible. The pond won't do - !!!

 

[Baymule]

I had a ewe that was super stupid. Her lambs were too. They would crawl through the cow panels, with their mother right there, to run after Trip and try to nurse on him! I took mom and twins to auction when they were weaned. Just too dang stupid to keep!

 

[Ridgetop]

Saturday -
If she doesn't learn to recognize her lambs next time, she will be history. On the other hand, we were out of town and DS2 couldn't get her into the jugs so left her in with the other 6 ewes and older lambs. At night, after work, super steep hillside, he may not have tried very hard. At least he iodined the lambs' cords. And maybe her one lamb is super stupid. At least she kept calling it. She has stopped now so either they have finally bonded, or the lamb is stealing milk from everyone else. Either way, it is quiet in the barn.

DS1 cleaned out the creep pen. I refer to the "creep pen" but it is actually a 10 x 24' section on the end of the barn that is divided into two pens. One is the actual 10 x 10' creep while the other side has a feeder for the ewes. That portion of the pen opens onto the steep hillside for about 100 x 100'. He also reassembled the creep gate so we can feed the lambs separately now. Without the creep the ewes shove the lambs aside and eat everything themselves. .Next he will take down the jugs and clean that portion of the barn. He has this mini jack hammer to break up the compacted manure, hay, etc. HUGE smell of urine when he is working on it.

Monday -
Spent yesterday loading the stock trailer with the 10' long 4"x5" cross arms, as well as some 4-5' pieces which will do for kickers on the corner braces. We still have quite a few still holding up some fencing on the hill which we can get next time we need them. We also loaded several good condition pallets, and 5-6 remaining poles from the stall covers. Some were damaged when the big winds tore them down years and some may still be under the covers laying on the ground. We also loaded some stock panel pieces, another 10' panel, a roll of woven sheep wire, fencing tools, 4 pasture troughs, a couple of 6' grain feeders, the rest of the rabbit cages. There were about 6 new ones still collapsed in the shipping box in the milk shed. The shipping box had deteriorated from weather and rats, so I made 2 new containers for the pieces. Also loaded several large metal barrels for storing feed, 2 large 40-gallon barrels for emergency water supply, weed whackers, chain saw, and a small assortment of tools. I packed 2 large plastic totes with our raggedy work clothes we wear when doing work, reno, etc. to use while stringing fence, etc. Then I decided that we should have a few decent items to wear to church etc., back there so I filled another plastic with those, and some shoes. We will leave those clothing items at the Yantis house and avoid having to do as much packing and unpacking I do now. I have decided that each time we come back we will bring a load of clothes, kitchenware, etc. I also have 3 very old dairy cattle stanchions I saved from MJ's barn in Yelm. I figure they will be nice to put up in our yard as decorations. Maybe make them into sign holders for our sheep sign, or for the mailbox. If we have room, we will bring back some "wicker" Adirondack style lawn chairs to use in the house for now. Oh yes, I will be bringing back 2 of the 2 x 4' folding tables we bought. I will use one for a desk, and one in the kitchen as an island to see how it would feel space wise. We also have to remember to take a folding dog crate for our puppy. She will ride in the vehicle with us, but we need the crate for the hotel room at night. The many boxes and our suitcases can ride in the covered black truck bed.

We will load the 8x12' corral/stall covers on the next flatbed load, along with the stall mats, large corral panels, and any other large items too tall or long to go in the stock trailer. After we arrange for the sheep to be picked up and transported we still have all the large sheep equipment, multiple portable panels, portable jugs, alley supports and gates, large field feeders, smaller feeders buckets and troughs, disbudding equipment, ten 3-compartment rabbit carriers, a judging cage, several miscellaneous items of rabbit equipment in the barn loft that will go on another load. Plus all the livestock medications, first aid equipment, tattoo equipment, etc., etc. DS1 and DH are discussing renting a large, enclosed trailer or truck to bring a that stuff back. None of those many loads of stuff incudes our furniture, freezers, or personal possessions! LOL When we return to visit our children we can pick up more of our stuff we have forgotten!

Oops, I almost forgot about the horse items we will need to take. I need to get some of my winter horse blankets back from my DIL, along with the fly sheets and shipping boots.
Oy vey! I have already run through several notebooks of lists of stuff to take and things to do!

 

[Ridgetop]

Good Grief! I forgot about the tool shed and all our tools that have to come back!

 

[Finnie]