Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Farmerjan has it right! I do the cooking because no one usually jumps in to do it As far as DD2 and Doofus she can't cook and even if she tried her pregnancy nausea would be a problem. As for DS1 and FDIL they will cook and also clean up too. I am not eating much lately, just not hungry so don't eat dinner, so am passing on cooking to them for a while. They also do the dishes. The cooking is not necessarily the problem, it is planning, thawing, cooking and distributing meals to 6-8 people that is getting me down. I did this since I was a teenager of 15, my mother, worked and I came home from high school to feed and care for my younger siblings. Father was an alcoholic and when he showed up was drunk and I had everyone fed, bathed, and in bed. Then when I had my children I was doing daycare and feeding 6 children in addition to my husband and self. I can do it in my sleep, just have finally gotten to the point that if I don't want to cook for that many people I get cranky. As we Catholics say "It is my cross to bear for Jesus". LOL On the other hand I have a real appreciation for Martha in the bible story when she complained about her sister, Mary, swanking around sitting with the guests while Martha did all the grunt work in the kitchen! I would have made sure to dump anything I was serving onto sister Mary's lap! Serve her right! Maybe even have burned Jesus' dinner - that would have taught those men a thing or two! So unchristian of me. I am just a bad person.

Enough feeling sorry for myself - no time for it!

Lambing officially started yesterday morning with 8111 producing 2 ginormous lambs. She is a small ewe but twinned easily last time. This time I noticed her laying down and getting up several times with stuff hanging out the rear so went out with my box of tricks, antiseptic soap, halter, and towels. I told DS1 to come help me. Sure enough she had a lamb stuck with both forelegs back and just the head presenting. I managed to get the head out, but still could not pull the lamb out so went in and finally found a leg lying all the way back along the body. No room to work, but finally got the one leg out - couldn't find the other but managed to work the lamb out. She came out squirming and no mercomium so that showed no stress on baby, just a huge lamb. Second lamb presented the exact same way! Couldn't find forelegs but head was out and lamb alive so again went in for leg and was able to work one leg up and out and get lamb out, Ram lamb, smaller than first. Ewe weighed 10.3 and ram weighed 9.0 lbs!

I don't know why they were so enormous although she might have been late lambing. We had cut out all grain months ago, and they got only a night time alfalfa feed since there is still forage on the field. Anyway, one to keep and one to sell so all good. She didn't lamb in an 8 month cycle though so perhaps that is why. Her last lambs were born about 11-12 months ago which probably let her put on more condition. I really don't like lambs that large at birth. While I was trying to get first lamb out DD2 and Doofus appeared at the house and asked if we needed help. I told DD2 yes, so she climbed into the corral and was able to take the first lamb and dry it off when I got it out. Doofus had never seen lambs born although DD2 said he had been there when his daughter was born. Maybe, but he seemed surprised at the amount of fluid and blood from the second lamb. I will give the ewe 12cc Penn today. DD2 and Doofus helped bring ewe and lambs into jug while DD1 kept Bubba back. The DD1 set set up the waterer and feeder in jug while I iodined cords. Mom and lambs resting comfortably in jug today,

Next DD1 asked me to go with her to pick up and try n her dress so I said ok. She tried on the dress they ordered for her. It did not fit well, more like a sack. Very upsetting. They offered to alter it at a price but we insisted that the original dress fit fine. The saleslady said they might have ordered wrong and sure enough they had ordered a Woman's size which is wider through the body. They got the one she had tried on before (luckily it was still there) and she put it on and it fit perfectly so she said she would take that since we don't have time to order another one. She wanted to take the one she tried on at the time but Noooo they had to order one for her, and ordered the wrong one. Anyway she now has her dress.

She wants to go with us to look at dresses for DD2. I scheduled an appointment for tonight for DD2 to try on dresses but she called me later and asked me to reschedule it for Saturday since the Maid of Honor wants to go with her to look. I might as well make 2 appointments so the MOH can try on something. I told DD2 I would like pinks and lilacs for her colors since I am tired of blue, peach, and greens combinations. Red would be a normal color for a winter wedding but I don't want that either. She is very lackadaisical about the colors and wedding. She said she always wanted an outdoor wedding - why do all these girls want to be married outside? Bugs, sun, rain, brides have no thought for what makes things difficult.

I also arranged for DD2 and Doofus to do a ZOOM interview with the minister tomorrow afternoon. Then we are going to Odyssey to look at the venue for the wedding. I told her that she could be married outside at the Odyssey if she wanted to. I am afraid she wants to be married here at our house which will make a lot of extra work for me. We could arrange the ceremony here in our yard and rent chairs for the patio then go to the Odyssey for the reception. It would look quite lovely. On the other hand, I will have to hire a cleaning crew to clean everything here - more $$, and also do drywall and painting of the holes in the ceiling from the HVAC installation which our contractor friend never finished. I will be doing that anyway with DS1 but with rushing this wedding through won't have time to finish drywall repairs and painting it before December 12.

I could let them get married quietly and then plan a reception later, but I really don't like that idea. I want her to get married now with a proper wedding before she is showing IF she is determined to marry Doofus which apparently she is. If she waits till after the first of the year she will not only be showing big time (unfortunate for a bride) but if the quarantine is lifted all venues will be booked again so it will be 2 years before she has wedding. Right now we can afford an afternoon wedding at the Odyssey. Plus I want to marry her off before the baby comes so that we don't have to wait around for another wedding if we decide to move! Tacky to marry her off with her own baby hanging on her skirt or demanding to be nursed anyway! LOL If she doesn't like it, she shouldn't have gotten pregnant.

Old fashioned and selfish of me? OK, but my money my choice!

The date is set for December 12 with the minister, and Thursday we will book the venue. Saturday we will look for the dress. Then I will book the flower appoitment with bardwill's for after DS2's wedding. Jocelyn at Bardwill has done all our weddings and funerals as well as all flowers we send or receive for past 30 years. After DS2's wedding I will make the flower girl baskets and ring bearer pillow. DGD2 and DGD3 will both be flower girls since DGD1 will be needed to tow 3 year old DGD2 down the aisle. DGS2 will be ring bearer (his great wish). The groom and best man will wear tuxes. Possibly the father of the bride will also wear a tux. DD2's and DH's choice. I will print out the invitations from a wedding kit. I need to get them registered on a bridal registry so they can choose their gift choices.

Luckily I have now done 2 weddings and assisted my cousin with her step daughter's so know all the steps. Thank heaven this is not an ethnic wedding so I don't have to learn a bunch of ethnic customs, this is just a straightforward wedding. Simple since DD2 doesn't want a fuss.

If it seems like I am pushing DD2 into this, she is pretty nauseous and depressed so not really interested in doing anything except dwelling on the December 10 custody hearing on DGD2. Hopefully this will help tAke her mind off that hearing. They are going for joint custody. AGAIN.

oFF TO MY FITTING.

 

[thistlebloom]

Here ya go Ridgetop and 🤪.
I think you have definitely served your time in the kitchen!

I get cranky if I'm in the kitchen more than a few hours. Except for Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday. That day and that day only I will cheerfully put hours into prep, cooking, and cleanup, for a meal that's over in 15 minutes .

 

[Mike CHS]

"My money, my choice"

I always enjoy reading about your logical decisions.

 

[Baymule]

When you get these weddings done, you need a vacation!

 

[Bruce]

So you have never had to replace any batteries on any of them? I have heard, maybe true or NOT, that they last an average of 5 years????? And are expensive to replace..... Please enlighten me on the normal yearly upkeep costs.... I do brakes once a year or less.... oil changes are routine when I can get to them, Bearings?????, So maybe not much more in annual upkeep than a "regular" vehicle.

Nope, no battery changes other than the 12V. That "last only 5 years" was major FUD by GM wanting people to NOT buy the 2004 generation Prius (and repeated ad nauseum since by people who did not actually check for factual data). GM's line in 2004 was "hybrids are a dead end, wait for our hydrogen car, available in 5 years". Every year it was "in 5 years". Guess what, GM still doesn't have a hydrogen car. Not to mention that it currently takes more energy to generate the hydrogen than you get out of it. And where is THAT energy coming from if you can find a station? Most likely the same power grid that will charge your electric car. As such, hydrogen vehicles are LESS energy efficient than an electric vehicle.

Google says < $3K to replace a 2nd gen (2004-2009) Prius battery excluding labor. My sister had a 2005 with over 200K miles on it when the traction battery went. That is actually early but through PriusChat.com I found a guy who sold her a rebuilt battery for $500 installed and he came to her house to do the work. Seeing as how she hadn't had a new car for 14 years she decided she might want to buy one, the guy that installed the rebuilt (means swapping out bad cells for new ones) bought it for $2,500 for his daughter.

Normal upkeep is the same or LESS than a non hybrid, at least for every one in the family I know of (which includes DW's parents, 3 of her cousins, 1 of one of the cousin's kid). Oil and filters, tires, bearings. Brakes last a lot longer because unless you slam them on, the friction brakes don't even engage until you are down to 8 MPH. The oil change schedule on the 2004-2009 was 5K miles but even then it isn't really necessary since the gas engine isn't running all the time the car is moving and never when it is stopped at red lights or in the long lunch time line at McD's (except in winter when you have the heat on; this does not apply to my Prime, the heater is an electric heat pump). I had an oil sample done when my 2004 went out of warranty, they said it would be good to about 12K miles. Oil change on my 2018 Prius Prime is 10K miles and that is WAY soon given there are many days and miles that the engine doesn't run at all. I've got 16K miles on it now at 140 MPG. That is 114 gallons of gas since the end of Feb 2019 (bought a "last year left over"). Mind you my info is for the Toyota hybrids, some manufacturer's technology is different to some or a great extent. GM's hybrid was a total joke.

I find electric cars interesting, but as far as “clean” fuel I’m not so sure. I’ve always had a problem with where the electricity came from being “cleaner” than gas.

Very true, it definitely depends on the source of the electricity.

 

[farmerjan]

Thanks for the info @Bruce. I am definitely not up on an electric or a hybrid car. So are there hybrid pickups? A small one would be interesting.... I am not in a market for a new vehicle, although I find the info you provided very interesting. What bearings are you referring to? That has me stumped. I just had the brake line replaced on my 96 ranger pickup... 2 years ago I had one of the wheel/brake cylinders replaced, this time it turned out it was only a line and a compression valve.... and they flushed the radiator and then found the crack in it so it is going to have to be replaced. With the miles I have put on it, and the "roughness" of those miles, I am not upset over it....I mean, it has over 280,000 on it I think.... I can't remember.... but I know that it is well over 250,000....will have to look at it when I pick it up tomorrow.... so putting a couple hundred in it a year is still a whole lot less than a payment.....And I haven't bought a new vehicle since my 1979 f150 2x2 truck as a leftover when the 1980's came out. My first and probably only new vehicle.....

 

[Ridgetop]

I understand that hybrid electric pickups are coming out in 2021 from Ford. Also Tesla is making one. I don't know how much they would carry or pull so will have to wait. They will get better every year.

DD2 and FSIL spoke to pastor Arlo today on ZOOM. They really like d her. She is young with a 2 year old and new baby and apparently they got on very well. dd2 is much happier about the whole wedding now since Pastor Arlo was pleased that they see this wedding as a wedding of each other into a complete family.

I made them give me a guest list (many of whom I hope will not come since they are out of state) and the count was 75. So much for a "tiny little wedding Mom" and "We don't have a lot of friends Mom". They were amazed to see how many relatives they actually wanted to invite, and how many friends they had. I will have to work some magic to save money on flowers, centerpieces, etc. I have the hurricane lamps and mirrors from DD1's wedding where we used candles as centerpieces instead of flowers. The cake is included in the luncheon price which saves some money. DD1 suggested that we just do net bags of mints tied with ribbons in the wedding colors for favors which will save money as well. We go to the Odyssey tomorrow afternoon to check out the venue and possible locations for an outdoor wedding which DD2 has now said she wants. December is not the ideal month for that but it is southern California and we can move inside afterwards. The venue says they expect to be able to hold indoor events by then. If necessary we can hold the wedding inside the church if the weather is bad. No need to worry yet.

FDIL has added a couple more names to the guest list for October. I had the table plan set but this means that we have too many people so have to add anther table. Venue said that they could do this so we now have 4 tables with 5 guests, and 7 tables with 6. FDIL and I went over the tables and placed older people with older people and the younger ones together so they will be able to be loud without the older relatives disapproving. The children will be placed at a table surrounded by the 3 tables at which their parents will be sitting. I think the arrangement will be a good one. I need to do the last 4 place cards. The rings were picked up today and FDIL picks up her dress on Friday. DD1 has hers, DD2 has hers, the tuxes are ordered, DS1 might need a larger shirt, and I need DH to try on his dress shirts. Corona weight might have struck. I pick my dress up tomorrow. I certainly wish my daughters sewed since it cost almost as much to have the dress shortened as it did to purchase!!! I am not happy about that but nothing to do but complain.

This morning when I fed 8111 and her lambs I noticed that the 10.3 lb. ewe lamb was already nibbling hay! Not even 24 hours old! I really think from the size of these lambs and the dates I had for them that they were overdue and that is why they were so large. If 8111 continues to do this I might cull her although I really like her and her bloodlines are superb. Next dates are 9/18 (past) and October 7 for 0439, and October 9 for 8219. 8192 and 8179 are both due during the month of October but I dont ahve any dates for them since I bought them bred and the crayon fell off the buck so Wes had no idea of breeding dates. I just hope they are actually bred since they are bred to one of his good bucks and their ewe lambs would be good keeper lambs for the flock. We'll have to see what they give me, if anything. I hope I don't have to pull any more lambs. I couldn't figure out why I was so sore last night - even my butt hurt. Then I remembered that I had been crawling around in the corral trying to tug 2 great humongous lambs out of a tiny little ewe! I am just getting old. I wonder how much longer I can keep doing this. But if @farmerjan can keep going with her schedule and knees, so can I. I just have to suck it up and tough it out! LOL

The October Dorper sale is going on this weekend but I am not very interested in anything. I would like another ram, but without my tenant paying rent, I have no money for anything. I did get a call from my Armenian client, Hovik, for a 50 lb. ram lamb but didn't have anything close to that size for him. He would have taken a ewe lamb but my smallest ewe lambs are about 80 lbs. so too big. I told him any ewe lambs that size would be $300 since that is the price for a registered breeding ewe lamb and these are almost ready to put into production. He said he would get back with me in 2 months when the little ram is ready to go. I was happy to hear from him since he pays $150 cash for a 50 lb. lamb - about 2 months old. Since the ewe would be weaning her lambs about then and would still have the ewe lamb on her that works for me. I might be selling a couple larger ewe lambs this winter and spring when prices are higher. I would like to see what they would bring at the auction. The auction person said that ewes with lambs at side bring a lot so if I have any I am not really interested in with a single ram lamb, I might try selling a ewe with lamb at side. My flock is growing and I will need to start selling ewe lambs to keep it under the numbers I want for my forage and hay budget. Most of the lambs that are arriving over the next few months will be at sale age during the spring which is when our auction prices are highest. I will have to look up ethnic holidays and put them on the calendar so I get the lambs down to the auction at the right time for those holidays. Starting to plan out my sales campaign and calendar. Sure hope we get lots of rain this year. The forage is still holding up in the far corner of the field which mean that we only give a few flakes at night when the sheep come in. We need another load of hay too before prices get too high.

The house in Yelm has been listed. If we get an offer we will have to come back to Texas, Oklahoma and Utah to look at properties. Not so sure about Utah, their reservoir ran dry this summer because the snow pack was too light However, Travis said that he would be interested in leasing the ranch for the hay which would take that off my mind. The house could be rented out too. Utah also has an AG exemption for lower taxes if used for farming. We would have to check into it to see how many acres would be needed for the exemption. That will satisfy the 1031 Exchange terms of like kind property, and give us somewhere to move to when we sell out here. On the other hand, the fact that they have run out of water to irrigate until spring when the snow has fallen, and Travis said he is not selling any hay this year since he needs everything he has baled for his sheep, has me worried about Utah. When they have water for the wheel lines, they make great hay with abut 4 cuttings but without winter snow pack, the reservoir didn't fill. Texas is still calling us, and even south eastern Oklahoma night work for us in the way of a small ranch. Like my Uncle Sig told me years ago, "Water is everything!"

Tomorrow we need to put the Squirrelinator in the front again FDIL's plants took a hit and have been chewed off! Apparently the squirrels have moved to the other end of the patio. One of the dogs caught a rabbit and left it on the "lawn" for us. I picked it up and got rid of it before it could swell and burst on the "grass". The weather has turned super hot again. No humidity.

Governor Gruesom has just enacted legislation to put together a committee to look into "reparations". For whom? Anybodywith a deep tan? Africans that immigrated after slavery? Maybe I can get some of that reparation money if I "self identify" as black. Has the world gone mad?

 

[Baymule]

Do you have any more children that aren’t married? How many more times do you have to do this??

Cross Utah off your list. Climate change and no water make that a reject place to move to. Texas prices are getting ridiculous....... people keep moving here from out of state! LOL LOL Oklahoma prices are wending upward also. With all the fires on the west coast, I expect an exodus of refugees with insurance money to spread out like a pack of locusts, gobbling up everything in their path. You’d better hurry up and sell that Washington house, and can probably get a very good price for it as housing is in short supply. Advertise it in California and a work from home-any location sales pitch.

Your 8111 ewe sounds like she might need to go to the sale. Keep her daughter. I have a few small ewes that are going to auction next year after weaning their lambs. I’ll take my money and put it into a couple of registered Katahdin ewes.

 

[Bruce]

So are there hybrid pickups? A small one would be interesting

Looks like Ford is going to have a hybrid F-150 and as Ridgeline said, Tesla is working on an electric truck. Super weird looking and I expect it will be as unaffordable for the masses as the rest of their vehicles.

What bearings are you referring to? That has me stumped.

Wheel bearings.

 

[farmerjan]

@Bruce ; Are the wheel bearings a problem? We will "pack the bearings" with grease if they need it, but I can't remember having to replace any wheel bearings on a regular basis. Sure, some have gone bad, mostly the ones that are "sealed bearings" that you can't grease.... and we have had several go bad on the trailers over years....
An F-150 is not much good for what we do, can't carry a big enough load for most everything we do on the farm..... why not a "small pickup" like the ranger or the old dodge d-50 that was a great small truck for stuff....or the little toyota p.u. I had one and loved it, like I use these little rangers for lots of stuff that doesn't need the big trucks. Seems to me that a small p.u. that was electric or a hybrid would have alot more appeal.....and maybe be more reasonable for use without worrying about long the charge would last, on a bigger truck, with a heavier load, and variable working conditions. A small truck has limitations, yet is very useful.....