Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Wow! I haven't posted since November 30! Been really busy unpacking and putting stuff away
before heading to Baymule's place for a truly wonderful couple days with her and her friends. Great food, great friends, great stories, great time! Thanks Baymule for a wonderful weekend.

Got some pictures up on the walls which cleared a space in the spare bedroom/storeroom. LOL Took several days, then I was able to clear up space in the living room so DD2 and family could stay and watch the sheep and dogs while DH and I went to Bay's. Also went around and put away all knick knacks out of reach of Annabel. Love that child but better to move everything up out of reach when she is around. LOL

Before we left for Baymule's DH and I put 8219 into the head catch and I cut off the bandage. I was surprised to see that the foot looked like it had healed up and she just had a small open sore. I reapplied the nitrofurazone cream, pad, and vet wrap and gave her another shot of Penn. Tomorrow we will take the bandage off again and I will spray it with Alumashield before turning her out with the rest of the sheep. I will also give her another shot of Penn.

I have been doing my Christmas decorating. Lot less to do with a smaller house. I had to buy a 4' x 18" board to put on top of the antique ice box for the Nativity set. Losing 18" of space meant I had to crowd everything together and leave off the wolf pack in the mountains. The shepherds still have their Anatolian and Pyrenees LGDs though. LOL I left a lot of my decorations in California which was a good thing since they would not have fit in this house.

Still working on hanging up pictures, unpacking, and rearranging cabinets to fit stuff where it needs to go. We are enjoying this house and it stays warm easily. DS1 has been spending his time in California hanging Christmas lights, removing and replacing light fixtures and fans for his brother and SIL, and doing other DIY stuff for them while DS2 is working.

Tomorrow DH gets his Texas Drivers License. I get mine next week. Had to find all the docs for it tonight.

The tractor is at the mechanic in Cleveland. Good news and bad news. Bad news is there are a lot of things that need to be fixed. We are waiting for the list of parts needed. Good news is the mechanic said Farmtracs run forever and that particular model is the best one they made so putting several thousand into it is a good investment. When the repairs are done it will be like new. Next month I will start moving the jugs into the side barn. DH is going to try to get some lights up in the barn before he goes to California for his doctor appointments.

Got to get back to moving furniture around, unpacking, and finishig the decorating. So tired!

 

[Baymule]

You don’t have to do it all at once! I’m glad I was able to drag you away for a weekend! I’m so glad y’all came, we had such a great time! You do much more on the inside of the house than I do, I’d rather go outside to play! But I do finally have some pictures and decorations on the living room walls.

Lots of good food, but the company was even better. We’ll have to do that again.

 

[Ridgetop]

Our darling Harika (whose name means Perfect, Marvelous, Great, Wonderful - choose any) left us Thursday night. She slipped gently away in her sleep and is now watching over our heaveny Father's sheep with Bubba. We are grateful there was no pain and we were able to give her the last week of her life snoozing in the house with us. When she decided to start coming into the house at night, we knew it would not be long. Rest peacefully dear friend.

 

[Mini Horses]

So sorry. It's hard but unpreventable. Leaving us gently is best. Another hole in your heart.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[farmerjan]

I am very sorry to read your post. But, as you said, she got the best from your care at the end, snoozing away in a comfortable spot. She knew that things would be taken care of. Glad that she was able to just pass while dreaming about all the sheep she has taken care of...

 

[Ridgetop]

Harika - May 12, 2012 to December 12, 2024.

A planter ful of soft dirt is a perfect mattress!

Saturday morning and 3 more days between posts. Christmas decorating is finished, but then went on to unload several more boxes that have been sitting under the kitchen peninsula. Pulled them out and discovered another box of crystal, and a whole box of wine! Got that put away, then went on to clean out some of the closets, rearrange stuff, and put stuff in them. Still some empty space in those closets.

Largest job was the "tool closet" in the hallway. I started with it. Emptied it, sorted out tools, put most back where they belonged in the tool bag, and put a bunch of smaller stuff in plastic boxes so we could see what was in there and get to it easier. A full afternoon's work but now I can finally find the hammer! I had 3 Bosch chargers, 2 Kobalt chargers, and a lt of batterise in each brand. Now I can find them, pull out the box, get them without the entire contents of the shelf falling out into my foot! Tools are heavy and sometimes sharp!

I measured the space in the laundry room next the window and it is about 18" wide. I can get another set of closet shelves from Lowes that are 16" wide to fit there. Right now I moved our 12" wide shoe shelves from the CA house in there to get them out of the way. They fit but the shelves are too close together to actually be useful other than for shoes so will get the 16" wide shelves and put them in. The shoe shelves will be useful when I redo the closets and double rod them.

Got the different Christmas decos I brought from CA up and put up battery operated lights on them. I would rather have plug in LED mini lights since I have a set of plugs that are controlled by a remote so I can turn them on and off am and pm. I have to wait until I can change out the house plugs for 3 pronged outlets to use them though. Will get to those after Christmas when DS1 comes back and can move the furniture. In the meantime, DD2 is putting up the stuff I left behind for her to use on the house. I was worried the ornaments I kept would be too many for our new little tree, but managed to get them all on. It is only 5' tall, and the Angel won't fit on top. Her wings are squashed and she looks like a hunchback. I put her on the buffet on one side of the tree and had to get another tree topper. Since I plan to have DS1 cut 2" off the bottom metal tree stem next year, I didn't want to get a fancy topper. Instead I found a large bow half price at Lowes and got that, It took some ingenuity to make it fit right, but a toilet paper roll wrapped in green tissue paper with the bow attached worked out fine. LOL

DS1 has been "helping" DS2. This means that he has been changing out the light fixtures, fans, and window blinds. He also put up all the Christmas lights on the house in CA and is generally enjoing himself. The children are out of school as of yesterday so he can now start playing board games. EXCEPT DD1 needs to get her Christmas shopping done and was complaining that her sister and i are not there to go with her. I toldher to take DS1 since he likes to shop and they could have a nice time together. He has done most of his shopping already so will not linger over stuff she is nt interested in. LOL

DS1 just realized that there will be no Christmas Cookies from Mom this year! He is very sad!



Now that most of the paintings are on the walls, I have to collapse all the packing boxes that held them and store them until we go to CA this summer with the stock trailer. Maybe I should put a "Free" ad in Craigslist for them. They were brand new and how much can you use a packing box that is 4" wide x 36 x 48? On the other hand, maybe I can use them in the garden this year to keep down weeds.

Speaking of the garden, DH wants to scoop up the wet hay left from the hay bales in the sheep pen, move it to the pasture, and dump it. I told him that it would kill the pasture grass and nt to do that yet. I said it would be better to dump it in the soon to be veggie garden but that entails opening and closing 5 gates/fencing panels. Apparently, for the man sitting on the tractor, it is too much trouble. (I would be the one running around dragging the panels open and closed). I told him to leave the old hay in the pen and we would put the new bales on it until spring. Then we can open the gates and leave them open while moving all the old decaying hay into the garden to use for mulch. At the same time we can skim all the sheep poop from the barn and holding pen and move it too. A nice compost pile in the garden!

Today I have to clear the office where I shoved a bunch of the empty picture boxes, hang more pix, empty more boxes, and cut them down, etc. I did find my white board that DS1 and I used for determining lambing dates. I need to mount that on the back of the office door and transfer all the breeding info to it. Anyone who doesn't lamb will go into another pen with a ram. .Most of the ewes seem to be pregnant

I hope the new crop of lambs will do better than the last group. We butchered 2 and ate some of the eat this week. NO fat on it, dress out was 28 lbs and 30 lbs when it should have been twice that at the age they were slaughtered. Hopefully the new crop will grow better. We will creep feed the lambs better this time. Last time although we offered creep feed they wouldn't go in the creep pen after it.

Well time for coffee and more unpacking!

 

[SageHill]

WOW!! You have been busy and going at 100mph!! WTG
And I haven't started decorating for Christmas and only baked one batch of cookies