Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Picked up 3 pallets yesterday from neighbor. He had a couple more, but they were too broken to use. The good ones had finally been picked up by the building supply store. They had been sitting in his yard for months. I think that gives us about 10 of the 30 we will need to set the hay bales on. They will come back to TX with the next load of stuff. Since I can't put the hay in the barn until it dries out later this spring or summer, I might just leave it out and just store the next batch inside. Eventually we will put up a hay barn which I can use to store hay, shade the Connex, and under which we can park the trailers, tractors, and trucks. Hail damage is a big vehicle problem in Texas.

Making headway on the office clearance. Sorting, filing, and disposing of items is moving along. Still have a way to go but I can see light at the end of MY tunnel. Not so sure about DH. LOL He still has a lot of boxes to go through. He tends to clear up clutter by putting it all in a box for "future sorting". He now has 5 boxes to go through! And a pile on the floor and on top of the remaining file cabinets. I hope he doesn't decide to take them to Texas to sort out!

DDIL2 and grandsons will be back in 2 weeks. Only 2 more weeks of calm and quiet. It will be fun to see them again though. And we will finally have our Christmas with them.

The weather has been nice but we are expecting a huge rainstorm to come in tomorrow. Naturally, it is arriving before the roof people can patch the leaks on the roof. On the other hand, they did not remove the skylight and then go off and leave a hole in the roof "until they can schedule us in" again! DH said it's not a problem since we still have all the buckets in the house.

 

[Mini Horses]

Lewis won't be making the trip to Texas with us so . . . .

Hmmm....will he go to freezer? At his age, maybe he could stay behind and just keep the growth eaten down he's been good to you....

 

[SageHill]

Ya' know, when we moved here I packed up the entire house. DH said he'd pack his office. I ended up stuffing all of the stuff in his office in boxes, it all moved here - junk, trash and good stuff. Sat in boxes for at least a year before he got to them. AHHH -- hope you won't be in that boat!
We're getting tons of rain and wind now - hope it's not too bad up by you.

 

[Baymule]

I got your Premiere1 shipment today! I also made a 4’ long address sign and put it at the driveway. GPS puts me across the cattle guard in the middle of an empty field. UPS drove up this afternoon!

 

[Ridgetop]

Hmmm....will he go to freezer? At his age, maybe he could stay behind and just keep the growth eaten down he's been good to you....

Friday:
Not in the freezer, he is 8 years old, and really going downhill walking wise. He is showing some unsteadiness on rear legs now too. I hate to put him down. Maybe I could leave him here and just let him wander around but without the dogs he would be an easy target for coyotes and not able to fight them off or run too well. I could leave the mule and horse here for a while though. Or the old Anatolian. Rika and Josie the Mule would both protect him, and he would come in at night to a pen. Something to consider. I love that old boy. His lambs are some of my best. He is docile and easy to handle and so are his lambs.

Here is a picture of the new ram I am getting from Wes. He is an embryo lamb from Dell's African stud in Australia. The pictures are not very good, bad angles. He is thick, but in the right pic his head is slightly turned so it looks like it shortens his neck, and one leg is forward so he doesn't look as long as he really is. Wes said that he is the best one he has from the embryos he imported. He lost a full tank of embryos several years ago when the tank failed on the trip. Importing semen and embryos is an expensive proposition. For the price he is asking the ram is a great buy considering that other breeders ask twice as much for embryo imports. Both parents are from African White Dorper genetics imported to Australia. Very excited about this ram.


He is a Fullblood rather than a Purebred which doesn't matter to me that much. Fullbloods are sheep from the original African studbook. Purebloods are from ewes of different breeds that were crossed with Fullblood rams for 5 generations or 93%. Most of the registered Purebreds today have been Purebreds for so many generations that they are as much Fullblood as Purebred. The association is considering lumping both Fullblood and Purebred together in the stud book in a couple years. I don't think breeders that have spent a lot of extra money buying strictly Fullblood stock will agree to this since they are getting higher prices for Fullblood breeding stock. However, I have seen a lot of Purebreds beating Fullbloods in the show ring, and at this point there is no difference.

This ram is a complete outcross which will be good since my flock is getting pretty tightly bred in bloodlines. They are very uniform in quality which is good, but I don't want to continue breeding any more tightly. This ram should add some extra length and emphasize the good qualities. I think I will call him Patton.

It rained pretty heavily for two days, but we did not get any leaks which surprised me. The forecast is for more rain, so the roofers are scheduled for next Friday. They didn't want to open the roof and then have it rain. Good call. It is chilly, breezy, and cloudy with some occasional sun. BUT we are expected to have terrible rain in the next several days with the schools being advised they may have to close Monday due to the violence of the storm and possible flooding of the streets causing a danger.
Saturday:
Right now it is cool but sunny with light occasional clouds so who knows. I did take the precaution to put a weather resistant cord lock on the extension cord from the freezer in the tailer. I also told DH we need to put a tarp over the freezer in the trailer. I don't want the rain to blow in on the electrics on the back of the freezer. He gave me his reassuring "It'll be fine" but with several thousand $$$ of meat in the freezer I reminded him of the times he said that, and my worries came true. He said he would put a tarp over the freezer in the trailer. I would suggest taking it out and putting it on the covered porch but the screams from the men would be heard from here to Timbuctoo.

I spent 3 hours yesterday afternoon going through files and shredding old vet bills, etc. Made dinner, served it and cleaned the sink, and spent another 2 hours shredding more stuff. Today I am in for another marathon shredding session. In Texas I will be able to use a burn barrel and then spread the ashes on the garden. Or use the shredded paper under the rabbit cages in the worm beds. If I am still able to function by the time we get there. I really fear that DH secretly doesn't want to go. Every now and then he says "I think we will really enjoy living in Texas" in a sort of overly positive voice - you know, the one that you use when trying to convince yourself. After all the packing and moving I have already done, for him to be on the fence now makes me want to SSS. But when we are back there he loves it.

He has been talking about gardening and what he will be able to grow. I will get him a subscription to Organic Gardening and promised to teach him everything I know. At our other house I grew all out vegetables and fruit except lettuce. Then I canned everything for the winter and we seldom had to buy anything except dairy and peanut butter. LOL I reminded him of how he loved growing his corn until the murder by ground squirrels. He is determined to grow some sweet corn in Texas. His cousin in Kansas grew sweet corn in the garden and the whole family laughed at him because if they didn't get rain he would go out and water it. The rest of the garden dried up and died, but the sweet corn got water. Big family joke among a family of dry land farmers.

 

[SageHill]

Ohhhhh nice ram!!!

 

[Ridgetop]

Really excited about him. He will be an outcross, but my flock is pretty tightly bred now so I need to change rams. I still have MoyBoy who I like for the length and width he gives me, although I don't like his tendency to throw wool. I have culled some excellent ewes because they carried heavier wool and didn't shed. I also have Junior who combines Lewis and Axtell blood. I will have to see if he produces as well as he looks. If the new ram doesn't work out I can come back to the old stuff if I like. The aim though is to always improve so if I get good stuff from this new ram it's a Win-Win. Since I am getting him from Wes Patton whose bloodlines are in all my ewes, I am pretty sure it will click. I will still have to buy another ram in a year or so to replace MoyBoy who is 6 years old now. The ewes are solid so by changing out the rams every couple years I can continue to improve.

 

[Mini Horses]

Leave a wether with lewis leave the mule, not Rika. I believe she'd pine away at this point. Not fair to her. The couple sheep & mule could be barned at night.

 

[Ridgetop]

The mule is a good watch mule. The sheep will run to her as well as the LGDs. The LGDs will make sure the sheep are with the mule, then go investigate and dispose of the predators. Lewis is still limping (the injury was permanent) but seems to be getting around better over the past week. He might go with us, who knows.

In fact, I am beginning to think we will never get out of here! Was just informed by Ds1 and DH that they will not leave for Texas with the next load until after the Super Bowl!


As I look out of the office window at the hills now covered in green forage, I am reminded of the poem "The Lady of Shallot" - "The doom is come upon me" . . . .

Doomed to be constantly "moving to Texas" and never actually arriving there to live? Going to cheer myself up by shredding more old documents in the file cabinets.

 

[Baymule]

That new ram is going to be a fabulous addition to the flock. Wow! Totally outcross bloodlines.

Please load Lewis up and take him with you. Don’t leave him behind. Don’t leave the mule, don’t leave Rika, take them to Texas!