Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

OMG! The drama continues. Thank goodness I am here. I don't think I will answer any more calls from DH. He called mylast night at 1 am his time to talk about the situation. Apparently it is my fault ??? and I am bad for "blabbing" all about the problem. I was just supposed to calm and console him, not get upset on his behalf! Right! Like anything that upset DH would not upset me! Then he started in on something else that had happened after we talked and was mad at me about it - I had to remind him that he hadn't told me about that business. And I am not allowed to talk to the famioy about any of this or post it. Go figure! Like that prohibition would stop me. I'm not answering any calls from him for next couple days, it is too confusing.

Called DS1 this am to find out what was going on. Apparently, whatever was going on, DS1 talked to DD2 and straightened everything out with the family. Still not sure what went on, but not going to inquire further! According to DS1, DH doesn't hear half of what is being said and doesn't make sure what he thinks he is hearing is correct! We all know this is true, but DH is indenial about his hearing. The comments about the cars and house were "jokes" according to DD2. DD2 and DSIL2 did not go out to eat, she was mad and "wanted to get out of the house" so stormed out. No idea what is going on back there but leaving it all in DS1's hands to deal with. He seems to be the only person who keeps calm and sane! He seems to have control of everything. DH is out mowing again.

They have found a house near McKinney which they like. North of Dallas and an hour from Anna and 1 1/2 hours from us. Good school district with autism classes for Annabel. Rent is $1800 so not too bad although DD2 probably has to go to work part-time. With Annabel in school that will be doable. Not sure of their move in date, but it might be August. I can't trust what anyone says since everyone repeats different dates!

DS1 said that Bryan told him to use heavier outdoor use Pex for waterlines. Pex will expand if it freezes, and less joints to deal with. Freeze line is 12" deep so burying it 24" will work. DS1 said that DH wanted more water spigots in the garden, so measured length of water lines is about 450'. The Pex can be bought in a 500' roll which gives extra footage for more lines later into pastures, etc. DS1 also measured for the electric lines from tool shed to pump shed to barn. They will pick up materials today. Oncor has not contacted them yet, although DH has been calling every day. According to them we are "on the list" for call back. Told DS1 to have DH sign something giving DS1 authority as our agent to okay meter being put in. Maybe I will type something up, print it off, and mail it to DS1. They don't have a printer back there and both DH and DS1 write like chicken tracks. LOL

DS1 said he wanted to change out the faucet in the "new" bathroom, but the holes were wrong so he has to return it and get another. He has about $200 of stuff to return to Lowes after finishing the bathroom project. Said he has to go to Greenville to get the right faucet since our Lowes is small and doesn't carry the one with the right holes. He also wants to install the new light fixture in the bathroom. He put the same one in the master bath which is a smaller room and DH said it is very bright since it is LED. DS1 got the same one for the larger bathroom and we were not sure it would be bright enough, but it should be fine. Moving along - one project at a time.

DD2 will be picking up Maisie on the 31st July. Maisie will stay at the ranch until DH comes back on the 5th or 6th. Grandpa can take her fishing in the pond. LOL DD2 and the girls will travel back with DH in the truck so he won't be alone driving. That will keep him from trying to drive after it is dark. With his cataract in one eye and the film behind the lens in the other he really can't drive well at night but again is in denial. I love that man but still not going to answer his calls for a couple days. DS1 can call me instead. LOL

PT today. Had to take Oxy to sleep last night. After trip to doctor, sitting up, and walking, my knee hurt all afternoon and evening. Better this morning so have done exercises and will take an Oxy before PT. The webbing over the incision is coming off. Lots of crusted blood on tape made me think incision was still open, but incision looks to be closed and healed. Moving right along!

 

[Ridgetop]

Broke down and answered the third call yesterday thinking it might be an emergency. Nope! Just DH calling to yell at me about not ordering dog food, when did I have it coming, what address, etc. Kept telling him AI woild check on Chewy orderbut he wouldn't let me hang up. Finally talked to DS1 when he came in from field. Told him order ws set to beshipped August 5 like he told me to do. DS1 said that they have most of a barrel of dog food now, and he can buy same brand locally if he ran out. Soooo not answering DH's calls today!

DS1 said he found the Pex at Lowes but wasn't sure if it was the A or B. Has to order the junction boxes with shut offs. Will be going to other stores to find what he needs for the water lines. Has it under control. HE got snappy when I tried to pass on Margalis info so told him to do what he wants! Disgusted with famioy and going back to bed to do exercises and watch TV. Watching a French police show with subtitles. Surprising how much French I remember while they are talking. I have noticed though that like English when conversing they tend to drop off the ends of the words and blur them together. They also talk very fast. It is good series although I notice that in France they just come out and arrest people and drag them off unlike the British police shows where the bad guys often tell the police they are not going to cooperate and slam doors in their faces! There is a German police show thst I love that I need to sign up for. That one I don't need the English subtitles, just the written German ones. Amazing how much of a foreign language you retain when you learn it as a child. I would be hard pressed to actually speak the language anymore, but can understand it. Wish I had learned Spanish in high school. I came back from 5 years living in Europe tri-lingual in Dutch and German, and speaking French, but the language I needed here in southern California? Nope. Not a word other than what you pick up from living here and taking a few college classes.
Today the doctor said I can take a shower without wrapping the knee in plastic! OOPS!
Maybe just LOL!

 

[Baymule]

When you are not around, things fall apart fast. You are expected to fix everything. Yeah, just after surgery, in bed, a million miles away, but it’s up to you to fix everything. LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

Friday:
Knee is hurting but not enough for pain pills. The surgical tape has fallen off and the scar area is tender. Hate this part of recovery. I took another walk around outside. The walker is getting difficult to manage on the rough asphalt so hopefully I can graduate to a cane this coming week. I can actually stand on the leg without support for a little while.

Got bad news from DS1 today. Martindales feed in Sulphur Springs has closed either permanently or temporarily. They posted a sign showing various stores where the feed could be purchased but when DS1 called around to the different stores on the sign the prices were much higher and varied by about $2 bag one to another. The mill is actually close so I am going to locate it and see if we can go through them. I met someone who has feed mixed to their order there so they must do custom mixes. I will have to look into it.

Saturday:
Robert and Nicholas brought breakfast in to me in their wagon this morning. I don't usually eat breakfast but couldn't say "no" to those sweeties.

Tried taking a walk outside with my cane today and it went well. I am going to try using only the cane this weekend. My exercises are going well and I have good bend and straightening in the knee. One of the advanced home exercises is to sit on a chair and move the foot back under the chair to get more bend in the knee and to stretch the thigh muscle. I do that while sitting at the computer. 20 times and hold for 20 seconds each time, then straighten.

DGS2 is going to take DD2's unwanted Guinea pig. His beloved Truffle died earlier this year. When he was here yesterday (to help me) he fed the GP little bits all day and it came out to see him and let him pet it. This is a GP that hides all day, is afraid of people, and bites. It didn't bite him. He will tke it home and work with it to tame it down. They will still get another young one later, but if he waits for his parents to finally replace Truffle it will take at least a year. It is not a prioprity for them. This will help him get over the grief process and also be good for this fearful and unsocialized GP. DD2 is glad to get rid of it - it is not socialized and bits them. In fact they forgot to buy more food for it when they went to Texas and we were lucky that DGS2 had leftover food for it. Good for him and good for the little rodent. DGS2 is very knowledgeable about GPs and their care.

Really sad looking at the abandoned areas where the livestock corrals were.

Oncor finally got in touch and they are coming out on 7/30 to discuss putting in the farm meter for the barn, well, tool shed, and future haybarn. Once they have come out and DS2 and DH know where the meter will go in, DS1 will line out where the electric conduit will go. When the Pex he ordered arrives he will rent the trencher and put in all the lines. He will dead end the electric lines until they can get the panel installed. The Pex came in 300' rolls so they got 2 rolls of it figuring on extending the water lines later in the garden and the pastures.

 

[Baymule]

So sad the Martindale store in Sulphur Springs has closed! I’m paying $12.75 a bag and it’s cheaper than practically all the feed around here. There is a couple I found that were cheaper but were 12% while the Martindale is 14%

My friends with the prolapsed ewe told me they buy a super bag at a feed mill in Woodville. Howard Covington buys his there, a 16% feed. It pencils out to $11.50 a bag but I am not really set up for a super bag. Maybe later.

Perhaps you can find a feed mill to mix what you want. Some feed stores carry the super bags, but won’t say where they get them.

 

[Margali]

I've been using Bluebonnet 14% RFS formulated for Russell Feed stores exclusively. It's $11.95 / 50lb bag. My sheep are doing great on it since before the breeding season when Martindale pellets got more expensive.
BlueBonnet has a 14% Sheep & Goat that you can get direct shipped or pickup in Tyler.

Bluebonnet Dealers

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[Mini Horses]

Feed prices everywhere

Not gonna get any better either. It's a huge consideration for livestock breeders. Grow your own only works for larger operations, with equipment, time and knowledge/luck. I'm at a point of raising only a few -- hoping a few sales offset half the feed costs. . Otherwise, I'll go back to just enough for own supply of ?? milk, cheese, eggs & meats. Like -- why bother beyond that if it's closing me. I can lease the extra pastures.

 

[farmerjan]

Feed prices everywhere

Not gonna get any better either. It's a huge consideration for livestock breeders. Grow your own only works for larger operations, with equipment, time and knowledge/luck. I'm at a point of raising only a few -- hoping a few sales offset half the feed costs. . Otherwise, I'll go back to just enough for own supply of ?? milk, cheese, eggs & meats. Like -- why bother beyond that if it's closing me. I can lease the extra pastures.

Dam that you are so far away... it would be great to put some heifers there and pay you to feed a little and rotate them around with the goats.... no bulls around to cause problems.... that's what we do with the cattle in WV... pay a friend to check them 2-3 times a week, feed a little grain to keep them coming in to the catch lot, check fences, mineral... go out once or twice the summer to visit and look them over.... this year it is the heifers, has usually been steers to sell in late fall... we will have 50+ heifers to look over this fall and pick through .....

 

[farmerjan]

So sad the Martindale store in Sulphur Springs has closed! I’m paying $12.75 a bag and it’s cheaper than practically all the feed around here. There is a couple I found that were cheaper but were 12% while the Martindale is 14%

My friends with the prolapsed ewe told me they buy a super bag at a feed mill in Woodville. Howard Covington buys his there, a 16% feed. It pencils out to $11.50 a bag but I am not really set up for a super bag. Maybe later.

Perhaps you can find a feed mill to mix what you want. Some feed stores carry the super bags, but won’t say where they get them.

If the feed mill does that feed in a "super bag" ... I am assuming it is the big one that holds about 1/2 ton of feed??? Do they do their own bagging there??? Ask if they would bag it if you bought 1/2 ton or a ton at a time??? They have to run it out of the mixers in the mill... into the super bag or into a hopper that goes to the bagging machine.....You go get 20 bags at a time now don't you???? Bagging fees at our local mill is about .25 a bag... maybe .40 a bag... I think they take off $20 or something a ton if you get bulk...(50 bags x .40 = 20.00) because they do not charge for delivery if they are coming in that direction... try to coordinate with others so they can make their trips count and that makes sense... I always call ahead and say "when you are coming in this direction"......So if it is 11.50 and you added the .40 a bag that is still less than you are paying now... sure it is more up front at once, but you will make fewer trips and save on the fuel.... and 16% would mean you could feed a little less grain and they could use the increased nutrition to utilize the grass better or the hay....

 

[Ridgetop]

When DS2 & 3 had their dairy goat herd they had 20 milkers give or take on a 20 month lactation and on test. I would go once a month to the feed mill in Ontario about 2 hours away. There was a dairy store and a vet supply there as well. It was one hour beyond the auction barn in Chino going on the 60. I would drop my load of buck kids or 250 lb bull Holstein calves (which we raised on goat milk and picked over hay at the auction) and continue on to those stores. I did all my errands in one day between loading up right after school drop off. Did not stop for lunch and could be back by school pickup. I would buy my dairy cattle feed in bulk - the copper was good for the goats and it had the same or better nutrition than the expensive goat feeds. I put a tarp in the pick up bed and pulled under the bulk loader and they dropped it into the truck bed. Then O tarped iot over, loaded any bag feed on top to weigh down the tarp and came home. The boys unloaded the bulk feed into 50 gallon metal drums with lids. Saved money, no loss to rats, and fresher quality grain feed. I suppose if I find somewhere that would do that, I could do the same thing and then unload it into 50 gallon drums at the ranch. I think we still have the 50 gallon drums here and we could make wooden lid for them. If moisture is a problem,we can drill holes in the barrel sides for air flow, line the barrels with window screen, and drill holes in the lids too. I wonder if an old freezer would be too hot for storage.

Anyway, I will do some homework about feed protein levels and see what I come up with. I already put myyoing lambs on medicated lamb feed I get from Atwoods for $30/50lbs. It's a sweet feed and i like it because of the Coccidia danger with the flooded fields.

BTW, we lost another ram lamb yesterday. Fine one minute and dead by suppertime. It was the registered White Dorper lamb that was sired by one of Wes' rams. Wes was registering it for me. No sign of worms or Coccy according to DS1. I planned to keep it if it was good for more variety in bloodlines but unfortunately he died. However I have several other ram lambs tht are as good so no problems there. I 'm considering having DS1 worm the lambs again. It has been raining but with dry spells in between so ?

Knee is doing well, although getting funny pains in rest of leg and foot! So uncomfortable when those nerves begin regenerating!