Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Yesterday DS1 and DH finishd the electricity in the barn and feed/tack room. I evenhave an electric outlet and a light switch! Pix tonight so you canget the full magical effect from gloomy dungeon lit with flashlight to blazing splendor!

Lambing season is winding down in a sad way. DS1 found a dead ram lamb yesterday in the creep. Also had a dead ewe lamb from ewe with bad udder yesterday. Today P1, beautiful Snowflake finally lambed - triplets. 2 dead ram lambs, one with membrane still covering face, and one lively tiny ram lamb. Explains her enormous size, but very sad. Last year she was injured and could hardly walk then gave birth to preemie twin ewe lambs. First lambing twin ewes, second twin rams, then the preemies and now the triplets. Best ewe in the flock too, and out of Lewis. Life sucks sometimes. Planning a trip to Emory auction next Saturday with a couple undersized lambs, the cull ewe, and a youngish ewe that hasn't settled for 2 years now. Still haven't decided about 332.

On a good note, 332 is up, standing and eating hay with an appetite. I gave her 5cc Tetracycline day before yesterday and I think that may have had more effect than the Pennicillin. Tet will treat different organisms than Penn so commbined with the udder tubes she may be on the mend. Once I finish her course of treatment I will finish off with tubes of Tomorrow. I might give her another chance if I can clear the mastitis with vigorous treatment. I might let her have another lambing season. She is a large ewe, tripled twice, and is a good mother when she doesn't have mastitis.

Yesterday I was able to identify 3 of the lambs I wanted to keep. Remember Hazine ate their paperwork. Today I plan to sit in the pasture and watch them with my binoculars, a pad of paper and pen to note down IDs. I will bring the animal crackers with me.

Among lamb chores, I got the laundry done yesterday, did some housework, made nother 2 day of lamb bottles, and finally cooked the first good meal since our Costco trip. Thank heavens for those Costco rotisserie chickens. I made a really nice chicken stir fry, with enough left to make fried rice tonight with the leftovers.

Also got a start on stripping the wallpaper in our bathroom. Should have been an easy job, but there are two layers of wall paper. Both vinyl. The top vinyl layer strips super easy and the paper under layer comes off with hot water and vinegar easily too BUT the lower layer of viny wallpaper is the old type and it does not always want to pull free. However, I found tht if I use the wide putty knife if will lift both layers on most of the wall. Just very time consuming but I will get it done. Want to get that bathroom painted asap. I could live with the green, red and tan paid wallpaper, but the wainscoting and woodwork color is a horrible baby poop green. The shower tile is a dark greeny blue color and has glass doors so not very noticeable. It would go with jade or turquoise. Not sure yet what color I will go with, either the turquoise of the main bath, or a soft jade green to blend with the bath sheet towels I picked up at Costco. I also got a lovely fake floral hydrangea arrangement in tones of deep pink, light peach and coral so I could paint the upper walls coral to offset the jade green towels. Not sure yet. Coral can often turn very orangey. Got to get the wallpaper down, scrub the walls and woodwork, then give everything a coat of primer before painting the woodwork and cabinets white. Then I can decide on the paint color. Although I love walpaper I am not going with it this time around. The oak panelling in the house is enough pattern.

Next house project after the bathroom will be the island in the kitchen.

 

[Ridgetop]

Finally some good news. The tractor people found a pair of brackets and can now move ahead with all the repairs. Probably be up close to $10,000 in repairs, parts, etc. by the time we pick it up but we have already paid most of that. The tractor people have a Farmtrac just like ours (or just like ours will be when finished) for $17,000. They said they would credit all we have paid in parts, and give us something for our tractor if we want to buy that one. However, even though it is nice, has been totally fixed up, was stored in a barn, and only driven by a little old man who has since passed on, if we pay $17,000 for another tractor it will not be a Farmtrac. Ours will still need a new seat (available at Trctor Supply for about $100 but fr $17,000 we would want a brand for which we could still get parts ad service. Locally! However, we are now looking at getting our tractor back in xlt working order within the next few weeks. DH will be getting a new tractor seat for his birthday. LOL Been working on stripping the bathroom wallpaper. Found that by using the wide putty knife I can strip both layers of paper at once. Once that is done I will wash the walls with hot water and vinegar to get all the paste residue and any bits of leftover paper off. In some places the wallpaper is pulling off some of the paper on the drywall. I will fix those spots with joint compound before painting with the primer.

Hopefully having a "new" bathroom will cheer me up as much as the electricity in the barn! We have the money for amother tractor or to put in a new well. Our water pressure is very low here from the city water since we are at the end of the run. DS1 voted for the well. He and DH are tired of toting buckets.

They moved the standing feeders into the side barn and ar feeding the grain in those. We wil move another 2 hay feeders into the creep and feed alfalfa in those along with using the grain pans on the bottom for the pellets. I am considering adding some cracked corn to the creep feeders to help the lambs gain weight.

Next Saturday a trip to Emory with some culls.

 

[Baymule]

Can’t wait to see Barn Lady all lit up!

You sure are having a tough time with lambs this year. That means next time will be better.

Emory auction has a good cafe. Auction starts at 9:00, get there at 7:30, unload, go have breakfast. Watch the auction, collect your check when sheep and goats are done.

 

[Ridgetop]

Auction next Saturday. At least two ewes, one ram lamb, and a couple of ewe lambs from last May will be going. Got several of the ear numbers on the lambs. The Texas scrapie tags are too small to read, so will have to check those when we confine the lambs. I still need the rest of the ear numbers, especially on the ones I might want to keep for sale as registered ram lambs. I have several rm lambs that are out of top bloodline ewes sired by the AU embryo ram. I would ie tp put together a cople of starter flocks and advertise them. A selling point would be the ram's bloodlines.

I got more wallpaper down today. First picture is the bathroom with the paper and paint. Second is the wall that I got down.
Got it down all the way to the shower an around the corner of the bathroom to the mirror over the sink. Stil have to use the hot water andvinegar to cleanup the walls and remove the last bits of paper. it will takeanother cole days till I can prime the walls and woodwork. I have to fill the holes in the cabinet doors and drawers. Original holes were for pulls, then they drilled a third hole for knobs and covered the other holes with a brass plate. I have new pulls bought on sale a year ago. I'll fill the center hole with wood putty before painting. Coming along!

The pictures everyone has been waiting for:
TAA DAH!
Big barn with second light up.
Side barn with second light up.
Tack room is now a feed room instead of a dark scary hole. It ony needs more shelves to hold the equipment. The feed barrels are around the corner to the right. The door has a rack where we keep horse halters, sheep halters, etc.
AND A REAL LIVE OUTLET AND LIGHT SWITCH! Now we can turn the lights on and off instead of having to disconnect the electrical wires. And we have an outlet to plug in the shears and Hoof Boss.

Only thing missing is a sexy farmhand - Oh wait! I have DH.

DH has taken over the bottle feeding of the 2 lambs. They are each eating about 8-10 ounces per feeding. They are fed 3X daily. I am feeding the homemade formula recipe mixed half and half with Land O Lakes formula. They are doing well.

Every night when DS1, DH and I go out to feed DS1 puts the grain in the side barn before letting in the ewes. They rush madly in followed by their lambs. Then the lambs turn around and rush madly out and run in circles from the hay bales around the 5th wheel and back. It is apparently a grand game for them. Very annoying for us tryng to put them into the side barn for the night. As soon as we open the gate for some to go in others run out!
Soooo much fun. For them.

I took animal crackers out to my girls tonight. They all came up to me and nuzzled looking for treats. Not animal crackers apparently. One of them actually bit off a piece of one. I was excited but she did not want more. I crushed the crackers up and mixed them in with sweet feed tried hand feeding them. Finally I had DS1 sprinkle them over the feed in the feeders. We'll see if they want them tomorrow.

Tomorrow more wallpaper comes down. Also need to get the creep gates set up and move the alfalfa into the side barn and put it in the jug I had for the loose hay. Also need a can for the grain. Maybe two cans.