Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Ok, I am starting a journal - a little late since I have been enjoying this site for several years and posting on it too. We have had livestock for 30 years now but never had any time till the past couple years due to kids, livestock, gardens, canning, 4-H, work, volunteer, etc. This sounds fun but I don't think I can recreate the past 30 years . . . . Consequently I might jump around a bit as I write.

Most of what we built 30+ years ago is starting to fall apart, so now we are having to rebuild. This time we have experience behind us, but at our ages we don't want to invest $$ more than we have to into barns, pens, etc. The reason for that is our 6 acres in the foothills of the San Fernando Valley, will go for development when we sell out. Few horses and less livestock left here, we are hold outs. I am a slow learner in the realm of social computer stuff though so it has taken this long to figure out to post pix, start a thread, etc. Al of which only happened after LOTS OF COACHING from all you tech savvy people. The only thing I do well on a computer is type fast and operate word in office mode. I still haven't mastered my iPhone, and when I got a new ne and the sales rep was telling me all the cool new stuff I could do with it, I understood nothing. I still don't know how to save or retrieve stuff from the Cloud. My phone tells me that I have to back up my phone and I follow the instructions, but apparently I am not a member of the secret tech society that automatically knows these things. My children and grandchildren were practically born with their hands shaped to cradle a gaming console and cell phone, Go figure.

That must be why I stick with livestock.

 

[Ridgetop]

Well. I went back to make this smaller and it posted. I am just tech disabled!

So after fires when we nearly got burned out and got evacuated, a giant tree fell on the house during 90 mph winds. Not a tornado, just normal winds we have every year or so here in the canyons. The tree smashed all the HVAC, part of the roof, and tore up all the waterlines to the barn. This was back in January and we have been rebuilding and repairing since. This weekend we rented a ditchwitch and DH and DS started replacing the water lines. 2 days and all hooked up - just need to wait 24 hours to put pressure on and check that it doesn't blow apart. DH wanted to put in copper $$$$$$ but wiser heads (mine) prevailed and we put in PVC. Still $400 with materials and rental of machine, but much less than copper!

Soon DS want to pull out pipe stalls in barn and rebuild stalls that can be divided into lambing jugs during lambing season, and converted into creep section. If El NIno hits we will need jugs under cover.

I guess on the next post I will answer that list of the questions I was supposed to answer first.

 

[Baymule]

So when you sell out and move, where will you move to and will you still have animals?

 

[Hipshot]

Well. I went back to make this smaller and it posted. I am just tech disabled!

So after fires when we nearly got burned out and got evacuated, a giant tree fell on the house during 90 mph winds. Not a tornado, just normal winds we have every year or so here in the canyons. The tree smashed all the HVAC, part of the roof, and tore up all the waterlines to the barn. This was back in January and we have been rebuilding and repairing since. This weekend we rented a ditchwitch and DH and DS started replacing the water lines. 2 days and all hooked up - just need to wait 24 hours to put pressure on and check that it doesn't blow apart. DH wanted to put in copper $$$$$$ but wiser heads (mine) prevailed and we put in PVC. Still $400 with materials and rental of machine, but much less than copper!

Soon DS want to pull out pipe stalls in barn and rebuild stalls that can be divided into lambing jugs during lambing season, and converted into creep section. If El NIno hits we will need jugs under cover.

I guess on the next post I will answer that list of the questions I was supposed to answer first.

your life sounds kinda normal I like pex turn it on now . If you clean and prime and use heavy duty glue you can put pressure on PVC in two hours . Do it all the time . Really sooner than that. As soon as the glue sets we turn it on . But Pex is so much easier to assemble. Every plumber I know is using it as their first choice nowadays . So was this page one ?

 

[Mini Horses]

As a fellow senior who "won't give up" I'm wondering what livestock you have now. Just sheep? My horse barn is now a catch all and kidding area when I breed more than a few does. It's hard to change our total lifestyle and I, too, don't know why they send pictures to a cloud. I often lose things out there. At least I am told they are there.

Haven't gone to a smart phone -- but I do have a small tablet. Seems close to the same without phone calls. The dots & symbols just aren't fun! But the tech world forces us to migrate in some fashion. Yeah, a visit to a phone store is about as clear as mud I whip out my flip phone and there is a silence that covers the room.....then muffled snickers. I will NOT pay what they ask for those lovely new phones -- that's winter hay money! What's wrong with that?

Will follow your newest adventures.

 

[Ridgetop]

Mini Horses: Flip phones are coming back! Soon you will on the cutting edge!

 

[Ridgetop]

Here is the information I was supposed to post first!

We live in So Cal, hot and dry, but not desert. When we get good rains, green stuff shoots up like Sleeping Beauty's enchanted forest. It doesn't last long - once we stop getting rains it dries out and becomes tinder for the fire season.

We moved to this spot over 30 years ago so our kids could have horses and a more country lifestyle. We always planned to buy a farm or ranch when DH retired but after I counted up how old the kids would be then I realized they would be adults! So DH worked all over the city and knew where there were horse pockets. We checked them out and bought here. Horrible house, no outbuildings, no corrals, no fences, terrifying single lane 1/2 mile dirt road up mountain to house, but no neighbors, surrounded by silence. DH fell in love since he worked as lineman/underground high voltage so always surrounded by traffic and people. I hated it but I am a dutiful wife so . . . OUCH! Pulled muscle trying to pat self on back!

30 years of remodeling house, building barns, putting in water lines, building corrals and fences, planting gardens and fruit trees, rebuilding sheds, rebuilding animal pens, removing dead trees and plants (PH was 9!) rebuilding soil by digging out all planters and garden areas 2 feet down, collecting manure from neighbors (got reputation as insane), composting, remodeling house, repairing . . . repairing . . .

Just repeat that paragraoh over and over . . . .

So, we bought some horsekeeping books, got used stalls, kids got ponies. I went to school in Ireland for 2 years so in GB we ride ponies. It was a good choice since ponies are headstrong little beasts and after growing up riding their ponies my 4 kids could ride anything. 100 falls to make a rider . . . . and then add some more. If you can't fall off and get back on, don't get a horse.

In our old home we had rabbits for meat and chickens for eggs, fruit trees and a huge garden. I canned all summer and had a boutique business selling homemade jams, jellies and pickles. Remember those days when schools could have bake sales and sell homemade stuff? Aaah, the good old days! I am soooo old . . . . Our first plantings all died, I replaced them and they died again. Took a soil sample PH OF 9! Began years of soil amendments.

Next came goats. Bought more books and studied up. The kids and I put up more pens. We love dairy goats! A wether to eat, and 2 dairy does for milk. I drove 3 hours to get them because I wanted CAE clean, high milking does. The breeder was getting her milk stars on her herd so kept them until they finished then sold them to me bred. Win, win!

They were easy to hand milk, gentle, easy to handle, quickly learned how to get out of the gates, but my 3 and 4 year old boys were able to lead them back to the pens even they were barely as tall as the 2 Nubians. Milk was delicious and we now had our chickens, milk goats, rabbits for meat. Sadly I found out that the ground was pretty barren.

First spring rain came and turned the ground bright green! my children ran out barefoot in their shorts return weeping bitterly since all that lovely green was prickly nettles! BAD MOMMY! Wasn't the first time, won't be the last.

Immediately enrolled the kids into 4-H. Now we would be able to learn all about the animals we were keeping and I wouldn't have to study my textbooks so much, right? Wrong. No livestock leader in our club. The members only kept market animals and just fed them till fair time. WHAT!?

More in the saga later . . . .

YES! IT IS A SAGA - 30 YEARS REMEMBER!

 

[Bruce]

Following

Sad the property will go to development but that is the way it is in So. Cal and elsewhere. WAY back when, when I was little we went to visit my grandparents on their farm and took a 2 lane twisty road to get over the hills. Grandpa had 2 small farms and Dad ran one my first 2.5 years. When I was in college grandpa was talking about how the high taxes made it impossible for him to keep leasing it out. Yep, tax it for the residential property it COULD be, not the farm property it is. That was 40 years ago and by then there was a new freeway to get out that direction. There are now 2 more "new" freeways. Too many people, I moved to VT when I graduated college.

 

[Ridgetop]

Developers seem to like the best farmland too. Also, we have no water here - the San Joachim Valley could (and used to) support the entire state with AG but Sacramento won't let them have any. Need it all for the Sacramento Delta Strange that there always seems to be plenty of water for new golf courses and housing developments!

We inherited my aunt's small 2 acre ranchette in southwest WA. Good large barn, pasture, good well, thought about spending summers there with sheep and dogs BUT found out last year that city rezoned to enclose it within the city - no livestock. Apparently done to allow small housing development next door. On other side of housing development is ag and on other side of aunt is ag but easier to draw lines enclosing her property - go figure! So development it must be eventually there too, and we will find another property.

BAYMULE: WE LOVE EAST TEXAS! Seriously considering it, but little grandkids 1 mile away here so not sure when or if . . . .

 

[Mini Horses]

Mini Horses: Flip phones are coming back! Soon you will on the cutting edge!

Well, fashion does come & go -- if you wait those 20 yr old pants will be back in style! Flip phones?? It sure would be nice because I will need to replace mine before too, too long...…