Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[farmerjan]

Lepto? Don't know if that is in the CDT you give the sheep? We are going to get a blood test on the 2nd cow that had a dead calf, because she calved about a month early...3 days after the first cow that had the dead calf and got so mean.... trying to get her to take the calf we had originally gotten for the other cow. Cow does not have much milk. She's not mean but not really wanting the calf either... won't stand still unless in the chute, dances all around... the poor calf... I am supplementing a bottle a day, hoping he would get her to come into her milk more by nursing but he is getting discouraged with her unwillingness to stand for him.
There have been 3 live new calves born since,,,, so maybe it is just a coincidence....
Will be testing for lepto as well as the theileria....plus anything the vet thinks would be worth checking into...

 

[fuzzi]

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.
View attachment 114881 View attachment 114882 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!
View attachment 114880 Big barn with second light up.
View attachment 114879 Side barn with second light up.
View attachment 114876 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.
View attachment 114878 View attachment 114877
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.

Love, LOVE the lights, and other improvements!

 

[Ridgetop]

We don't vaccinate the sheep for Lepto, just the dogs. We have not seen much in the way of rats or mice around the feed room either. If w hav another lamb born dead I will see about taking it for a necropsy. Not sure if there is room in the freezer right now. I took the rest of the Land O Lakes replacement powder out yesterday to make room. Brooshires had another sale on Blue Bell ice cream and DH went mad. LOL Hoping we are just about at the end of lambing season.

DS1 took his measurements and is planning on cutting out the damaged tin between the main barn and the side barn and putting in a doorway with a gate. It will make it easier to move feed from one side to the other when graining the sheep. When that is done he will move all the alfalfa (about 5-6 bales) into the rear of the side barn and redo the fencing in that end of the side barn. Then put up the creep gates. He looked at the Sydell catalog yesterday and we called Kyle for more information about some of the newer panels, They have an expandable panel and I am considering buying one of them since it would be invaluable when dividing up spaces where the panels fall short a foot or so. We need some more of the lightweight basic panels and there is a 10% off sale right now ending Friday. Free deliveryto several shows as well as the big Dorper National in Duncan OK in April. Take the stock trailer to transport the equipment and in case I buy a new ram. You know my history! Need to go over the order with DS1. Thy also have "quad posts" which have attachment loops on 4 sides. These are super useful when attaching the panels as gates since you can't swing the panels when 3 of them are attached together. We have 3 of the quad psts and they are really handy. We never used them in CA but here we have more room and can use them with the portable panels to make more useful/useable jug/pen designs.

 

[Mini Horses]

Buy, buy, buy.....

 

[Margali]

We don't vaccinate the sheep for Lepto, just the dogs. We have not seen much in the way of rats or mice around the feed room either. If w hav another lamb born dead I will see about taking it for a necropsy. Not sure if there is room in the freezer right now.

Needs to be refrigerated not frozen.