Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

Ridgetop

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I will get the chewing gum and try it. We set out the baited traps today. I hope we catch some of the critters tonight. am not sure if they are nocturnal or diurnal, but we caught a lot of them last year during the day. But by then we were seeing 10 or more running around boldly in front of us!
 

Baymule

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Water is everything. East Texas has plenty, but we have had our droughts too. I guess no place can be perfect. Right now I’m looking out at our yard, white and crimson clover is blooming, tall rye grass, mixed weeds, great sheep grazing. I’ve been letting the ewe lambs out in the yard, today it will be Ringo and his girls. The pasture they have been grazing needs a rest. When the clovers die back, we’ll mow it all down. The clover stubble adds humus to our beach sand. Supposed to rain today, I’ll leave their gate open so they can go back to their barn. I’ll be processing the 13 chickens we slaughtered yesterday.
Yes, green. East Texas is lush and green. I sowed 25 pounds of giant Bermuda grass seed on the pipeline, there are tiny green dots. The rain over the next couple of days will help it. The real test will be August when the devil and his kingdom of fire has a rival for heat! Haha!
 

Ridgetop

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Droughts and floods are all part of nature. But living in a desert climate means that you have to be very careful about water. We used to have plenty of water in the San Fernando Valley, but our lovely citrus and walnut orchards have all gone to be paved over for business buildings. All the large horse properties have been bought and large apartments build there. There are only small pockets like Shadow Hills, etc. remaining in horse properties and only because we are steep and the soil is bad. They are even trying to build multiple houses on these steep hillsides. We need to move.

This morning I went to see if there were any ground squirrels in the trap NO! and they had dug a burrow under the trap to eat the grain which with which DS1 had baited the trap! :barnie There was not enough open ground to place a sheet of plywood underneath it We will cut a small piece of plywood and rebait the trap. In the meantime, another tomato has been severely mauled and one hill of squash has been mutilated.

DS1 and DH had a discussion of the best way to fix the problem. DS1 is looking for a sonic sound rodent repellent on the internet. I will cut the bottoms off some 5 gallon buckets and place them over the remaining plants. Hopefully this will work.

DDIL2 AND BABY ROBERT ARRIVED!!! She had to get some larger size clothes for him - well over 9 lbs. now. They were here for 2 hours and then left. I went to DD2's home to apply the stick on roses over the crib. Got there around 2 pm. Between laying out the design, applying the roses, and feeding Baby Annabel we did not leave until 6pm. DGD1 was doing her homework slowly so I told her if she finished in time she could go with me to see Maysie and Annabel. ZOOOOOM! Homework done!

Home again, I immediately went to get my buckets cut off and install them. After doing the first one I went to see how it would work. OMG!!! :ep:hit ALL the squash were GONE! Daylight crime spree! This morning I had 2 complete hills now none. The squash were completely eaten to the ground. Luckily I plant deep so they still had half a leaf or so underground. I cut off the bucket bottoms and put them over the plants, then I wedged sticks around the bottom to hopefully keep them from falling over if the rascals tried to climb them or go under. If that doesn.t work, I will drill holes about an inch from the bottom and use wire to attach them to some heavy spikes. I also went down to the shed and found a metal "privacy panel" from the old rabbitry - a piece of tin 30" x 24" to put under the Squirrelinator. Hopefully the bait will not be reachable and we will catch some of the miserable creatures this time. It is possible that rabbits are also to blame so if we don't catch any squirrels, I will borrow my friend's Havahart live trap and use it. Don't let the description of "live" trap fool you as to my intentions! 👹
 

Baymule

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We don’t have ground squirrels. Just saying. We have alligators but they mostly stay in the rivers, lakes and swampy areas. So far, on our sand hill, it has not been attractive to alligators. :lol: They don’t eat gardens anyway. Livestock,dogs, children or anything else they can catch, yes. Gardens, no.
 

Ridgetop

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So Angel, after being partially sedated since Monday, has now decided to jump out of the lambing jugs. 42" high. Then she jumps out of the barn gate - 42". DS1 caught her and after the 3rd time (when he didn't even make it to the house from the barn) brought her inside. Apparently keeping lambs in the pens next to her didn't work. We put up the baby gates and are keeping her in the hall and laundry room. It has a clear view into the family room and tile floors. Then DS1 gave her another tranq and she is sleeping. The dose of Ace she gets is very small, not even enough to make her woozy. He asked if she could run loose but it is only 3 days since her operation and the vet said keep her quiet for 14 days. We might shorten that to 7-10 if we live that long.

The buckets were still in place over the plants (r what is left of them) this am. We forgot to bait the Squirrelinator last night so nothing in it. It is possible that a rabbit somehow got into the raised planter but they don't really jump that high.

DH got another load of hay yesterday - $15.00/bale alfalfa. I wanted him to stock up when it was $11.00 but see remarks about men on farmerjan's journal. LOL Texas and its pastures are calling.

Talked to DS3 the other day and he said he is feeding his calf 4 lb. steer grower daily. He could only get the FFA mixture at 14% but he will keep the calf on that ration for at least another 8 months before changing to finisher. He will increase the amount as the calf grows.

DS1 and DH have decided to clean the house in anticipation of Baby Robert returning home. They both came in and looked at me as they said "We should clean the house" expectantly. They were not pleased when I told them to get on with it and kept reading. LOL I am working on my bedroom which I realize has been used as a dumping ground since we set up the nursery. Also lots of plastic bins sitting in the office that I had sorted and emptied which need to be put in plastic bags and taken down to the sheds to store. DS2's wedding gown and Maid of Honor's gown are still hanging on the back of the office door. I am going to hang them in the nursery closet.

Speaking of the wedding gown, I have contacted the venue many time times and not gotten any response. I will try another couple times then will have t look around for another venue. DD2 has asked to have it delayed to the end of the summer since she is still recovering from the C-section. That will fit in with our schedule of selling Yelm and buying in TX. I do have to sew up the christening gowns for Baby Robert and Baby Annabel. I have the fabric and patterns, just need the time to do it.

Well back to cleaning the bedroom and office.

The sonic repeller arrived today. DS1 is installing it now.
 

Bruce

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I suggested to DH that we could move into the house and live there for a year thus converting it to our primary residence. I figure that since the property didn't draw any rent for most of last year, and it has been empty for 4 months of this year, we can move into it and claim it as our residence as of part of last year. Then when we sell, we can avoid capital gains taxes. It means no 1031 ranch, but you do what you have to do.
Doesn't work that way. It has to be your primary residence for 3 of the last 5 years. Those 5 years would start when you move in and change your address to the Yelm property. You can't claim a property you own is your primary if you didn't physically live there at least 50%+ each year and it wasn't listed as your primary. That would be called tax fraud.

Trying to get there before Biden changes the tax laws and the government takes all our money!
He doesn't want all our money, just a bit more of it. And then only if we make more than $400K a year. Don't know about anyone else here but that amount isn't even close to visible from my annual income.
 

farmerjan

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@Bruce ......Except for the increase in the corporate taxes that is being proposed, so that will raise the price of whatever they are producing, which will cause us to pay more so will be less in the pocket. And the $400K a year is for a couple, so is $200K for a single.... way beyond anything I will ever see.... but they are also pushing the $15/hr minimum wage, so then the price of everything that is produced will go up to cover the increase in the minimum wage, so everything will cost more..... and you will see state and local taxes go up to make up for the increase in wages to workers, and less income from decreased business at local places.... so the "government will take all our money " just like @Ridgetop said. They are talking changing the capital gains taxes and it will affect every single farmer if some of what has been talked about is put into effect.
" He doesn't want all our money, just a little bit more of it"...... to throw at stupid government programs that are not working, to pay for the total disaster at the southern border wall, to give more and more money "FREE" to undocumented/illegals, coming across the border that are not even quarantined when they test positive for this covid crap... to build more "housing " for homeless when they can't even manage their own cities; and can't/won't keep the idiots from destroying their cities and burning things down.... and to keep talking about how racist we are when us "white supremacists" are the ones paying for all this....
And the overall talk is that the dollar will continue to be devalued, so the money you have will be worth less, so it will take more to buy things......
Look at the history of Venezuela......look at the timeline of the last 30 years....
 

Ridgetop

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Is the $400K or $200K he plans to raise taxes on the net or the gross income?

Self employed persons and small businesses could gross more than $200K-$400K but net considerably less. Small business taxes are going up too as well as corporate taxes. While it sounds great to say that corporations are big business and should pay for everything, most people with 401K accounts or IRA accounts, or any kind of retirement accounts have it invested in stocks - corporations. When the government says such and such corporation makes $$$$$$$$ they are talking abut the gross income, not the net. And taxing away profits will hurt retired people that live on their retirement savings. People work for profit and if there is no profit, why bother to work for nothing?
 

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