Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Every 20' they have to stop and connect another section of drill pipe. They brought in a water truck instead of pulling water from the pond. They ran into a problem the second day and had to go get another part or something. They are back on track now. The drill rig is down to 240'. Last night they started disconnecting the rods and taking the drill apart. What!?
They were supposed to go down 450'! DS1 checked and found out they don't leave the drill in place overnight when they have reached that depth since the dirt can cave in and bind up the drill. They should finish drilling today then next week they will start assembling the well pipes and motor, etc. Almost done. Next up the pump shed and getting the Christmas decorations out of our front hall.

DS1 got some of the wiring in the shed on Thursday. He stopped working on it yesterday because his new mattress and frame arrived and he wanted to put it together. The old king that was left here was giving him a backache. He ordered a smaller queen size and it really makes the room look large. It is up now and he took the old bed to the dump yesterday.

Kodesh came over yesterday with her nephews and nieces to deliver eggs. We have started taking advantage of buying farm fresh eggs from them. The kids got to bottle feed the lambs, pet Skittles the horse and Josie the Mule, and saw the drill rig in action. Then we tried out the egg scale for fun. Great kids, lovely visit.

Yesterday DS1 and I wormed and vaxed the 16 open ewes. Also wrote down the ear tag numbers on the yearlings since a lot of them had been sold and some had died over the past year. Got the correct ear tag numbers then came in and checked the paperwork in my registration book. Got that all straightened out, then another couple hours on my taxes. Finally finished the farm tax records last night. Now I get to start the other tax records and my annual report to the mortgage holder. So much paperwork.

Got a ewe in the barn that we will have to catch this morning so I can examine her foot. It is swollen and she won't put weight on it. She is in poor condition too. I wil worm her for tapeworms when we catch her. We have several ewes that are gimping. They run through the gates, smash each other into the bars, and gimp for a while. 8219 is an older ewe. She is not holding condition and can't go through another lambing the way she is. She may be a cull after I see what is wrong with her foot. She can't go to auction until she weans her lamb, isn't lame anymore, and puts on a little more condition. I am wondering if some of the lameness problems are due to honey locust thorns. Some of the branches that were in the hay bales had 4" thorns. Both DS1 and I have stepped on those thorns and had them go right through our boots. Ouch!

Today we will worm the rams and vax them. The weather is nice again today. D1 said that he is hoping to finish the electric in the shed. Then we can begin the job of pulling everything out, installing the cabinets, and putting everything back. Little by little we progress.

 

[fuzzi]

View attachment 115600 Every 20' they have to stop and connect another section of drill pipe. They brought in a water truck instead of pulling water from the pond. They ran into a problem the second day and had to go get another part or something. They are back on track now. The drill rig is down to 240'. Last night they started disconnecting the rods and taking the drill apart. What!?
They were supposed to go down 450'! DS1 checked and found out they don't leave the drill in place overnight when they have reached that depth since the dirt can cave in and bind up the drill. They should finish drilling today then next week they will start assembling the well pipes and motor, etc. Almost done. Next up the pump shed and getting the Christmas decorations out of our front hall.

DS1 got some of the wiring in the shed on Thursday. He stopped working on it yesterday because his new mattress and frame arrived and he wanted to put it together. The old king that was left here was giving him a backache. He ordered a smaller queen size and it really makes the room look large. It is up now and he took the old bed to the dump yesterday.

Kodesh came over yesterday with her nephews and nieces to deliver eggs. We have started taking advantage of buying farm fresh eggs from them. The kids got to bottle feed the lambs, pet Skittles the horse and Josie the Mule, and saw the drill rig in action. Then we tried out the egg scale for fun. Great kids, lovely visit.

Yesterday DS1 and I wormed and vaxed the 16 open ewes. Also wrote down the ear tag numbers on the yearlings since a lot of them had been sold and some had died over the past year. Got the correct ear tag numbers then came in and checked the paperwork in my registration book. Got that all straightened out, then another couple hours on my taxes. Finally finished the farm tax records last night. Now I get to start the other tax records and my annual report to the mortgage holder. So much paperwork.

In between we watched the newscast with Zelensky, Trump, and Vance. Whoa! This sure isn't Biden's White House any more! Waiting for the next chapter in this saga. Big difference with a strong president, although Zelensky's attitude of "Gimme" annoyed Biden too.

Got a ewe in the barn that we will have to catch this morning so I can examine her foot. It is swollen and she won't put weight on it. She is in poor condition too. I wil worm her for tapeworms when we catch her. We have several ewes that are gimping. They run through the gates, smash each other into the bars, and gimp for a while. 8219 is an older ewe. She is not holding condition and can't go through another lambing the way she is. She may be a cull after I see what is wrong with her foot. She can't go to auction until she weans her lamb, isn't lame anymore, and puts on a little more condition. I am wondering if some of the lameness problems are due to honey locust thorns. Some of the branches that were in the hay bales had 4" thorns. Both DS1 and I have stepped on those thorns and had them go right through our boots. Ouch!

Today we will worm the rams and vax them. The weather is nice again today. D1 said that he is hoping to finish the electric in the shed. Then we can begin the job of pulling everything out, installing the cabinets, and putting everything back. Little by little we progress.

Can you get hay that doesn't have the honey locust thorns?

 

[Ridgetop]

They brought in a water truck instead of pulling water from the pond.

I was mistaken. DS1 said that they take the water truck to our pond and have a pump where they suck up water from our pond and bring it back to the well drilling site. Woderif they are sucking upany of our fish? LOL Diggers have quit for the day. Might have finished the drilling.

DS1 and I separated out the ewe and I looked at her foot. The right rear foot was very swollen and hot. Gave her 5cc Penn. Then I trimmed her hooves. Unfortunately because it has been dry they were very hard. I finally got them trimmed but accidentally cut her on the left hoof and couldn't get it to stop bleeding. Used styptic pwder, but stil bled freely. Had DS1 try to heat up the blade fo the hoof trimmer with his lighter to cauterize it but no use. Finally packed it with stiptic powder and vet wrap. Note to self: Store the propane torch in the barn for use to heat up knife to cauterize.

Next I trimmed the swollen hoof. The foot was super painful. We had to put her in the hoof trimming chair and cover her head with a towel to calm her down. Even then I had to hobble her legs to either side of the chair to keep her from kicking her way out of the chair! Found nothing in her foot, but did find a small area in the soft flesh just above the rear of her hoof that was abscessed. I was able to express some puss, then trimmed more of her hoof. Hopefully the Penn will take effect and clear up the infection. She is super thin, and I will cull her as soon as she can walk. As lame as she is the auction will not accept her. I considered shooting her but I don't want any more sheep carcasses on the field to draw black buzzards.

Speaking of black buzzards, I received my "sub-permit" enabling me to kill 5 of them a year. I also got a small air horn so that I am in compliance with the guidelines to non-lethal control. The non-lethal means we emply are:
1. We have LGDs,
2. We lamb inside a building,
3. The air horn, and
4. Effigies.
We don't actually have any effigies yet although I have a pattern to make some. If we kill any they will be hung up as warnings.

DS1 is finishing the electric in the shed now. Tomorrow we will haul everything out, clean the shed, reposition the shelves, hang the cabinets, and replace all the tools. Or possibly over the ext several days, not sure.

Tonight we will worm the rams, vax, and do a tag sample to mail in for a genetic check on the RR gene. Will also check condition on the boys. I am starting the list for the ewes to go to Rommel.

 

[Baymule]

The hay was baled on your property. Ask Cody to spot spray the locust, it will just keep coming back from the roots.
I have a patch of it myself. Have been cutting it down with pruning shears and taking to burn pile. Dont want to bush hog it and scatter those thorns everywhere. As it comes back out, I’ll spray it.

 

[Baymule]

@Nifty @Support im talking with @Ridgetop and she cannot get on BYH. Can you please look into it?

 

[Support]

@Nifty @Support im talking with @Ridgetop and she cannot get on BYH. Can you please look into it?

Thanks, I have sent him an email. Everything looks fine on my end.

 

[canesisters]

I was mistaken. DS1 said that they take the water truck to our pond and have a pump where they suck up water from our pond and bring it back to the well drilling site. Woderif they are sucking upany of our fish? LOL Diggers have quit for the day. Might have finished the drilling.

DS1 and I separated out the ewe and I looked at her foot. The right rear foot was very swollen and hot. Gave her 5cc Penn. Then I trimmed her hooves. Unfortunately because it has been dry they were very hard. I finally got them trimmed but accidentally cut her on the left hoof and couldn't get it to stop bleeding. Used styptic pwder, but stil bled freely. Had DS1 try to heat up the blade fo the hoof trimmer with his lighter to cauterize it but no use. Finally packed it with stiptic powder and vet wrap. Note to self: Store the propane torch in the barn for use to heat up knife to cauterize.

Next I trimmed the swollen hoof. The foot was super painful. We had to put her in the hoof trimming chair and cover her head with a towel to calm her down. Even then I had to hobble her legs to either side of the chair to keep her from kicking her way out of the chair! Found nothing in her foot, but did find a small area in the soft flesh just above the rear of her hoof that was abscessed. I was able to express some puss, then trimmed more of her hoof. Hopefully the Penn will take effect and clear up the infection. She is super thin, and I will cull her as soon as she can walk. As lame as she is the auction will not accept her. I considered shooting her but I don't want any more sheep carcasses on the field to draw black buzzards.

Speaking of black buzzards, I received my "sub-permit" enabling me to kill 5 of them a year. I also got a small air horn so that I am in compliance with the guidelines to non-lethal control. The non-lethal means we emply are:
1. We have LGDs,
2. We lamb inside a building,
3. The air horn, and
4. Effigies.
We don't actually have any effigies yet although I have a pattern to make some. If we kill any they will be hung up as warnings.

DS1 is finishing the electric in the shed now. Tomorrow we will haul everything out, clean the shed, reposition the shelves, hang the cabinets, and replace all the tools. Or possibly over the ext several days, not sure.

Tonight we will worm the rams, vax, and do a tag sample to mail in for a genetic check on the RR gene. Will also check condition on the boys. I am starting the list for the ewes to go to Rommel.

Buzzards... have you thought about those 'dancing man' wind sock things? We used to use them at the landfill to keep the seagulls, buzzards & eagles back from the machines.

 

[Ridgetop]

I was assailed by viruses so have been offline for a couple days. Problem seems to be resolved now. Thanks Baymule and Nifty!

Meanwhile back on the ranch -
The drillers have reached the 450 depth and yesterday installed the outer pipe. Now they are installing the interior PVC pipe. Bryan came yesterday and worked until late in the night with big spotlights to start the framing for the pump shed.

The bottle ram lamb died last night. He bloated again and refused his evening bottle. I had been diluting the milk formula with water since he was having a problem with the richness. He seemed to be doing ok with the less rich milk and was eating hay. We do not have good luck in raising bottle lambs. We have only had 5 in the past 4 years, but 4 of them have died on us over a period of 4 years. The ewe bottle lamb seems ok so far. Odd since we raised hundreds of dairy goat kids on bottles and they all survived and thrived. Also raised a lot of bottle calves too. We will see how this ewe lamb does. I was planning to wean them both in 2 weeks.

The ewe's portion of the creep pen was 2" deep in mud so we moved the sheep around to give it a chance to dry out. Yesterday DS1 spread 150 lbs. of hydrated lime over the pen. Tomorrow the ewes can go back in. The lambs have not had access to their creep feed for 3 days, but have been out on pasture.

I have filled out the forms for the Codone testing on a selected group of sheep we tested with the punch kit. I will see what the results are in a few weeks. After reading the interesting article about scrapie in the January 30 issue of Livestock Weekly, I am not so sure that codone testing for scrape resistance is that important. It was reported by Diane Sutton, chief assistant director of the small ruminant divsion of APHIS and manager of the scrapie program since inception in 1998, that 47 of the 50 states have been scrapie free for the last 7 years. 7 years is the number of years you (a state, country, or flock) must be scrapie free to achieve official scrapie free designation. However, if the states have not closed their borders to the import of animals (as in the case of Texas) they cannot receive an official scrapie free designation. The orginal breeds that were most prone to scrapie were the black faced breeds. According to Diane Sutton, Suffolk and Hamp breeders have directed their breeding efforts to cleaning up scrapie in their breeds with excellent results. The US is 3 years away from an offical scrapie free designation. Goats have not been studied as long as sheep so they are at greater risk of remain non-scrapie free. Most goats are more resistant to various strains of scrapie. Tagging all sheep and goats over 18 months old that go through sales is the ony way an animal testing positive for scrapie can be traced back to it's origin. At any rate I will be interested to see how resistant my sheep are genetically.

There was a major storm last night. Heavy winds, thunder and lightning woke me up around 3 am. Then, very early this morning, the generator kicked on. We lost power for about 5-6 hours. The weather report said that the tornado warning and heavy rains were moving east away from us. Glad we had the generator to make coffee!

I finished all the paint touchups in the bathrooms, and installed the additional doglegs on those giant wall mirrors. Next up, finishing the tax information for DH. He still hasn't received some of his important tax documents. They may be lost in the no-man's-land of the postal service trying to figure out what address we are located at. Might need to ask for an extension.

 

[Baymule]

You’re back!! Going without BYH can cause heart palpitations! Glad you got it figured out and can post again.

 

[fuzzi]

I was assailed by viruses so have been offline for a couple days. Problem seems to be resolved now. Thanks Baymule and Nifty!

Meanwhile back on the ranch -
The drillers have reached the 450 depth and yesterday installed the outer pipe. Now they are installing the interior PVC pipe. Bryan came yesterday and worked until late in the night with big spotlights to start the framing for the pump shed.

The bottle ram lamb died last night. He bloated again and refused his evening bottle. I had been diluting the milk formula with water since he was having a problem with the richness. He seemed to be doing ok with the less rich milk and was eating hay. We do not have good luck in raising bottle lambs. We have only had 5 in the past 4 years, but 4 of them have died on us over a period of 4 years. The ewe bottle lamb seems ok so far. Odd since we raised hundreds of dairy goat kids on bottles and they all survived and thrived. Also raised a lot of bottle calves too. We will see how this ewe lamb does. I was planning to wean them both in 2 weeks.

The ewe's portion of the creep pen was 2" deep in mud so we moved the sheep around to give it a chance to dry out. Yesterday DS1 spread 150 lbs. of hydrated lime over the pen. Tomorrow the ewes can go back in. The lambs have not had access to their creep feed for 3 days, but have been out on pasture.

I have filled out the forms for the Codone testing on a selected group of sheep we tested with the punch kit. I will see what the results are in a few weeks. After reading the interesting article about scrapie in the January 30 issue of Livestock Weekly, I am not so sure that codone testing for scrape resistance is that important. It was reported by Diane Sutton, chief assistant director of the small ruminant divsion of APHIS and manager of the scrapie program since inception in 1998, that 47 of the 50 states have been scrapie free for the last 7 years. 7 years is the number of years you (a state, country, or flock) must be scrapie free to achieve official scrapie free designation. However, if the states have not closed their borders to the import of animals (as in the case of Texas) they cannot receive an official scrapie free designation. The orginal breeds that were most prone to scrapie were the black faced breeds. According to Diane Sutton, Suffolk and Hamp breeders have directed their breeding efforts to cleaning up scrapie in their breeds with excellent results. The US is 3 years away from an offical scrapie free designation. Goats have not been studied as long as sheep so they are at greater risk of remain non-scrapie free. Most goats are more resistant to various strains of scrapie. Tagging all sheep and goats over 18 months old that go through sales is the ony way an animal testing positive for scrapie can be traced back to it's origin. At any rate I will be interested to see how resistant my sheep are genetically.

There was a major storm last night. Heavy winds, thunder and lightning woke me up around 3 am. Then, very early this morning, the generator kicked on. We lost power for about 5-6 hours. The weather report said that the tornado warning and heavy rains were moving east away from us. Glad we had the generator to make coffee!

I finished all the paint touchups in the bathrooms, and installed the additional doglegs on those giant wall mirrors. Next up, finishing the tax information for DH. He still hasn't received some of his important tax documents. They may be lost in the no-man's-land of the postal service trying to figure out what address we are located at. Might need to ask for an extension.

Sorry about the lamb.