Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Another bad mark for Ozel this morning. I usually feed the sheep in the feeders in the corral and then open the gate to allow them out when they finish eating. DH and DS1 prefer to throw hay on the field and let the sheep out. The sheep come out in a race to the hay so you need to step out of the way fast. This morning I watched as DS1 tossed the hay out and let the sheep out. Suddenly as he was attaching the chain to the gate (we attach it to hold the gate open but chest high for the horses so they can't go in the sheep corral) the sheep turned and raced back into the corral. They caught him behind the knee, and shoved hm aside as they ran into the corral. DS1 staggered, held onto the corral and then turned and limped toward Ozel stood grinning at him. Another back set to her puppy ways! Bad dog! Angel stood with her as it to say "I tried to stop her but . . . "

Sage continues to hop in and out of the trailer himself, so I wonder if putting a halter on him would change anything. Time to try I think. Just put on the halter and leave it on without a lead rope for a couple days. If he has no problem getting in and out with the halter on, I will look for my lunge line and see if he will load on the line with hay in the trailer. If we can get him in on a lead line, it would be better since we could tie him in the trailer for the trip. Driving with a loose horse in a 16' stock may not be the best trip. Although that is how we brought him home from the wild horse sale. The Land Management Wild Horse people will only sell you a mustang if you have a stock trailer to haul it in from the sale. You can't put one in a standard horse trailer since the horses are wild caught and too spooky. When you buy one, the Land Bureau people run the horse into the stock trailer through a chute. I guess if they do it, we could trailer him to Nipomo untied.

 

[Baymule]

Ozel is having too much fun. Getting clobbered by sheep hurts! Bad Ozel!

Get that PIA horse in the trailer and take him home!

 

[farmerjan]

Quit fiddling with the horse. He goes in the trailer. Put a halter on and the next time in the trailer... head for his new/old home. A 16 ft trailer is that not big a deal for the horse to stand loose. Is there a cut gate? If so, once in the trailer, swing the cut gate closed, with animal in the front section and take it back. This fooling around is giving it the idea that it can do what it wants with dragging the flooring out etc... Not your horse, not your problem; let them have it back and deal with it.

 

[Ridgetop]

DH planning to take him back this coming week. Will arrange with DS1 to have one of us out hay in trailer while other waits hidden behind gate to swing shut. Truck is already hitched so easy-peasy. Need to call DDIL1 to see when she is home next week and had time to go through horse gear..

Once in Nipomo I have to go through the stuff I gave to DDIL1 and retrieve some horse blankets, Skittles bridle and bit, TWH saddle pad, poly hay feeders, and a few other things DDIL1 will not need, and I will need in TX. I gave her all my stuff when she took Skittles but now that I have Skittles back, I will need her tack and her field and stall blankets since TX gets colder than CA. Have to sort through the box of stuff I kept to see what I gave her. All that tack can go back to Texas in January. Will have to keep saddle in the house unto we have a weather tight place to store it. Stored 2 leather saddles in a shed during a wet winter and while they did not get wet from rain, the damp caused mildew on some of the leather straps! My current saddle is nylon which I like as it conforms to every horse. My old saddles had rawhide trees and were very heavy although well-made and easy to have repaired at saddler. Saddlers are hard to find nowadays, and this nylon saddle is very light to use, but I might have to replace it since I may have enlarged some in the rear area.

Two ewes in the front pasture have marked with the new low temp crayons. Wil check their numbers later. I really want those paint branding irons to put large numbers on the ewes' sides for this purpose. If they are in the pasture, I will be able see the numbers with binoculars easily where the ear tags are too small and sometimes are dirty which obscures the numbers. I may have to order them now since I checked and while they carry a warning of hazard to health (???) they can be shipped to CA. Also, if we paint brand before shipping to TX, the inspectors can easily compare numbers to paperwork at border check station.

Need to buy more clear, large, plastic bins with locking lids at the commercial Costco. I need to pack clothes i them. I also need to go through all the summer clothes and get rid of some of them. (See comment above about saddle and rear area increase. ) I will also need to pass on some of the nice formal wear for cruises. DH and I plan to take some Caribbean cruises now that we will be on the east half of the US and can drive to Florida for the ship. Some of the evening gowns will also fit DD1 so may pass on to her if we ever go on that Family Cruise we have been talking about. Smallest grandkids will stay home with sitters, older ones will enjoy cruise ship and sightseeing. Maybe for our 55th anniversary! Were going to do it for 50th but Covid hit. Whole family wants to go to Alaska on 2 week cruise. Inside cabins are not expensive, and lots of sales going on now. If we splurge on a suite or mini suite, family can meet there. We can have a whole table in the dining room for family meals. Lots of activities for kids and teens on board. Will just have to find a sheep and dogs sitter.

Starting to pack again, this time the last few things I left in kitchen, etc. Also taking more furniture back this time. Not sure about sofa since I think a small sectional would fit better in room and look better. If I don't get to Palm Springs, I will look at Costco. As soon as Christmas is over, they bring in furniture. Got a large leather sofa and love seat combo there 20 years ago which was great and held up well. There is a Costco in east Dallas but would rather have a sofa to take back now if I can find one.

 

[Ridgetop]

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

The horse is going back on Friday. Monday is a holiday, and we don't like traveling then. Tuesday might work but if we have to stay over for any reason we would have a problem since we play bridge on Wednesday morning (which means that day is out), Thursday DH has PT, so Friday is the only day before the weekend. Then we will have to clean out the trailer.

DH said if we take our dressers back this trip, he will wrap them in plastic and lay them on their sides since they are about 150 years old (being my grandparents wedding set) and he is worried that the legs might break. I think we could take them back and then live out of plastic tubs of clothing in CA for another month. It might motivate DH to get us moved faster. We can also take back the side tables too and use TV trays as nightstands. I don't think we will take back the sofa after all. I worked with my floor plan and furniture cutouts again, and really think the best sofa for the living room in TX would be a small sectional. I'll look at Costco and if I can't find anything I will go to Palm Springs later. Worst comes to worst, I can check out La-Z-Boy or order online once we are in Texas. DH is still considering renting a U-Haul furniture trailer instead of using the small stock trailer. He says they have better suspension for the furniture and of course they are totally enclosed so we won't worry about rain damage. He says it is a toss-up between saving $$$ with possible damage to the furniture, and $$$ cist of safety for the furniture and belongings. I think we should check on the price of renting a U-Haul trailer since mid-January will be rainy. DSIL2 will pull the gooseneck - he has a commercial license now and has been driving semis. He says that he will leave at night and drive straight through to the place in Texas with DD2, a six-year-old and a 2-year-old. He figures he can do it in 22 hours. I don't think he is figuring time for numerous stops to feed and potty the children, oh yes, and the dog which will travel in a crate in the truck bed if it won't fit inside the trailer. He is young though and will learn. DH suggested DS1 or I might like to ride with him and the family, but we shuddered and refused. Only the thought of riding without children allows us to calmly think about making another 3-day trip in winter at all.

Packed another couple boxes of office supplies today. Started on the office files and gave DH a file drawer of files to go through and purge. I have tried to get him to do this chore for a couple years now and he has always been "too busy". Finally, I just took all the files out of the drawer, put them in a file storage box and plopped it on his desk. I told him to go through it and combine any duplicate files he found with ones he had in other drawers. He took most of the day, but got it done. Most of those files had 20-year-old documents that did not need to be kept. He kept a couple files and shredded the rest. I will give him another drawer full of old stuff tomorrow. The office floor is covered in crosscut and shredded paper from his shredding activities today. Too bad we don't still have rabbits, that shredded paper would make terrific worm bedding under the cages. He kept stopping because his shredder overheated. I pointed out that he could use my little shredder when that happened and then he went a little faster. I found a lot of program CDs for the computer, and a lot of game CDs. Unfortunately, my (newer) computer does not have a CD reader. I have boxed up all those program and game CDs for my grandkids. I also found 3 sets of duplicate boards which I thought I had taken to Texas already, and a traveling cribbage board that I had been looking for to take on our last trip in the trailer. More packing of office supplies tomorrow and also files that we won't need until Texas. DH suggested we buy some of those cardboard wardrobe moving boxes, but they are heavy and cumbersome. I will just lay everything into the large black plastic boxes still on the hangers and snap on the lids. When we arrive in Texas I will take the stuff out and hang it right up.

Glued the split in the crook today but need to go into the tool shed and look for some tiny drill bits to drill plot holes for the small screws. Hope I left some in the shed and didn't take them all to TX already!

OOPS! Forgot to post this yesterday!

 

[Ridgetop]

Wow! Haven't posted since last Monday!

Went through the lower freezer and removed some chicken breast getting close to freezer burn. Brought it up to thaw but didnt get it in the canner so will check today. If not fresh I will give to dogs. Also found several chuck roasts bought for $2.29/lb. on sale. They are almost 2 years in the freezer so will defrost and can them too. Need to continue getting stuff out of the freezers so I can move everything int the two in the laundry room. Then I can load the shed freezer on the trailer, plug it back in for a while, and put the turkeys, roasts, etc. back in it to travel. It has to go to Texas, and I am taking that expensive meat with me! For a while the freezers were full but now I have vetoed any more meat purchases and freezers are getting emptier. "Emptier" than so full I had to remove half the contents to find something for dinner that is! Anyway, I have to move all the diet food DS2 received on his diet program, then went off the diet and didn't bother to cancel the program for another 3 months. Soon it will be able to come up to the house and I can transfer stuff from the upper freezers down to the other one ready to go to Texas.

DS1 went to post office and mailed Texas taxes RRR. Send stamped self-addressed envelope to get receipt back to submit for reimbursement. He went to staples but store was out of plastic Bankers' boxes (can't use the cardboard ones due to damp and rodents when stored). Staples was having a sale on them so I will have to go to another Staples to look for them.

Wednesday we played bridge and afterwards went to Costco Business but they didn't have the large lock lid storage containers I wanted to pack clothing. They did have collapsible bins with rims to hang file folders on. No lids. I bought 5 of those instead. I will use them to replace the 3 new lock lid containers I used for the kids' toys. Easier to use large bins without lids for the toys. One of them I will use for DH to sort files in. That will free up 3 more Bankers' boxes to pack file drawer contents into for the move. I have one vertical 4-drawer file cabinet empty now and working on another hoping to be able to move them to Texas in 2 weeks. Got to work with DH to sort his horizontal file cabinet next, combining all duplicate files. Also have to go through some of my file folders to eliminate duplicate copies of stuff. BTW DH also got ice cream bars for grandkids. Such a good grandpa.
After Costco we went to Staples. They had only 2 Baners' boxes that still had latches and good lids so I got those, but they also had 3 of the locking id clear containers I wanted for storing clothes. Gt those. All on sale, but not cheap. Remembered to get file labels to put on old, emptied file folders from our sorting job. Prefer nice new ones but repurposing them makes $$ sense.

Picked up DGD1 so she could finish sewing her mermaid doll. She finished the skirt and tail (they tie on depending on whether the doll is Ariel the mermaid or Ariel the human. Sewing was printed on fabric to cut out and sew. DS1 gave it to Elizabeth Christmas '22. She was sewing it stitch by stitch until I showed her that she could sew straighter going faster. By the end she was rattling along at a good clip. She even enjoyed ripping out and redoing where necessary. Turned out cute and she was thrilled. Had clam chowder and biscuits for supper with an ice cream bar and 2 green apples for dessert. She stayed late watching "Ghosts" on TV with her grandpa.

Thursday am DH went to PT while DS1 and I caught Sage and haltered him. DS1 tried walking him up to the trailer to load him and he stepped right in - no problem. Unfortunately as he jumped into the trailer he whacked his head in the trailer roof! Uh oh! But he just shook his head as if to say "Darn I forogt that was a low ceiling"! and went in. We had just turned him loose to eat half a flake of hay with the lead rope tied up around his neck when DH returned. His appointment was at 2 pm! I ran in to pack our overnight stuff and then DS1 and I went to load the horse again. Sage kept avoiding DS1 again and he couldn't get hold of the lead rope so I threw another flake of hay i the trailer and he loaded himself. We quickly cut the gate shut it, but we didn't want the lead rope loose around his neck so after we closed the gate, DH got in to try to grab the lead rope to tie him up. No go. Sage kept turning around and evading DS1. I finally was able to grab the rope and halter through the bars of the trailer. I unclipped the lead rope and snagged it off over his ears and we let him ride loose. He got a bit jumpy when we stopped but otherwise was fine. AT DS3's place, DDIL1 hopped into the trailer with a lead rope and held him inside with door open until she gave him the word to exit. Once out I said let's see if he will go back in. She led him up to the trailer and he went in slick as could be. Yay! She was thrilled and said she will continue working on adding and unloading him from their slant load horse trailer. Apparently, she found a place about 3 blocks away where they have weekly horse events, barrel racing and gymkhana. She thinks Luke, age 9, will enjoy gymkhana and she has always wanted to try barrel racing. James, age 12, is doing competitive shooting with his dad. DS3 and James are coming to Texas with friends to hunt at a game ranch in mid-Texas in another few months.

While we were there, they showed us the New raised beds DS3 made for their garden. Apparently, they had an invasion of ground squirrels. DS3 eradicated them with Jim's .420 shotgun but now they have WEASELS! Katie said that they used to have lots of gopher snakes but that lately those are gone and the ground squirrels took over. Weasels will kill and eat snakes, so they figure that the weasels moved in and killed the snakes allowing an explosion of ground squirrels. They would not care about the weasels but lately the weasels are killing the chickens and stealing the eggs. Weasels have joined the endangered list at Andy's house! He found weasel trap instructions on U-Tube and he and DH went to get the materials. Then DH sat chatting with him while he built 3 traps.


These boxes are made from cedar fence slats, one 6' x6" per box. You cut three 13 3/4" pieces, two 6 1/8"pieces, and the remainder is the top (roof) piece. The overhang works to keep off snow. Use a hole (doorknob) bit to cut a 2" hole 2 1/4" on center in the front panels. Cut 2" hole in back pieces 2 1/4" down from top. Front hole should be slightly higher than rear hole. Staple a piece of hardware cloth over hole in rear panels. Put box together with brad nailer or small nails. Hinge roof/top on back side of box. Add screw eye and hook to lock lid closed. Use large rat trap inside. Position it so weasel will land on trip plate when it enters box. Place can of sardines under rear hole in box. Place boxes near weasel holes or in chicken coop if they are killing chickens. Make sure dogs can't get to boxes or they will destroy them. These are the same traps that are used by trappers for trapping ermine or weasels without damage to pelt.

We didn't know there were weasels in southern California! One of their cats caught a young weasel and brought it to the porch step. They are small creatures and kill the chickens by biting off the heads. Looked them up and they are very widespread and prolific. You hardly ever see them because they are tiny and nocturnal. Anyway, the Great Weasel Hunt is on in Nipomo! Told him that he should skin them and make Katie a fur coat. Probably have enough weasels by the time they retire. LOL

When we arrived, I was thrilled to see a truckload of pallets waiting for me! However, Andy said that they were for building projects for his goats and chickens. Selfish children wouldn't let me have a couple - or 40 - to store my hay bales on. Anyway nice visit and horse is out of my yard now.

Opening his mail last night DH got a notice that our health insurance with UCLA which we have through the union retirement plan is being cancelled as of March 1. Oh No! We got a notice a couple months ago that they were negotiating with Anthem to renew. Apparently, Anthem Blue Cross will no longer carry the UCLA HMO we use. Told DH to call Union about a PPO plan since we will be moving to Texas and would have to have a PPO there anyway. No sense having Anthem BC move us to another HMO. We love UCLA and the plan is 100% no co-pay so we were planning to come back to California for any surgeries, etc. Now we will just have to find a good medical doctor in Texas and Dallas or Tyler will be a lot closer than Santa Monica. LOL We will probably pay more for prescriptions too. We have been spoiled by this plan and hate to lose it, since a university medical group is so nice about sending you to specialists without any argument. Another sign that we are meant to be going to Texas.

More packing today, file sorting, etc. Happy New Year everybody!

 

[SageHill]

Weasels! OK - I say YAY. Yeah I know they kinda find chickens tasty - but man they are the bomb to get rid of gophers!! We had one last year - it hung around for a week or so. I'd watch it dive down the gopher holes. Then it would lounge under furniture on one of the patios. We were having a terrible gopher problem at the time. Lost some nice rose bushes to them. But -- the weasel took them out and left it's scent behind. According the the wildlife rehab gal that scent should keep the gophers away for awhile!

 

[Baymule]

Dr Anthony Davis in Lindale is a very good doctor. Y’all will like him.

 

[Ridgetop]

I told my kids that weasels would be good for the gophers and ground squirrels but they are very upset about their headless chickens, so the weasel traps are being situated in the chicken coop. As long as the weasels don't go in the coop after the chickens, they will be spared.

After the garden debacle of 2020, I wish we had some weasels to control the ground squirrels. Our ground squirrels are huge (possibly on steroids) but I understand that those tiny weasels are deadly so would probably do well. They could at least destroy the nests and young.

Skittles ran to the trailer when we returned, looking for her pal. She and Sage have been together for a long time. I got hm as a yearling colt hoping they would play together instead of Skittles (who was imprinted at birth) trying to play with us. Nothing like a yearling TWH filly running full blast at you to make you realize that you are not as big and strong as you think. Some fancy footwork was required occasionally. LOL

Got several crates of clothing packed from the closet and under-the-bed storage boxes. DH mentioned yesterday that we might not be moving until MID-MARCH! WHAT! Is he insane? I wonder if this was all a sweet daydream for him and he thought all the packing I did was just for fun!
I decided that packing all his clothes and taking our dressers to Texas so we live out of storage containers might be a good thing to emphasize WE ARE MOVING! If it fails, I will move by myself, and get a dog to sleep on the bed with me. However, he has been shredding excess and old files in the office, so at least that is finally getting done. Lots of football games on today though so I think that may have ground to a halt for a day or so.

He went to pick up the gooseneck yesterday and the shop was closed. We took it to Eckhart (our regular guy) to have the wiring checked. The other place said that all the wiring was bad and wanted to replace it. Eckhart said "No, just a couple wires had come loose". DH discovered that there was no battery for the emergency trailer brakes. He was annoyed but I reminded him that I had asked him to check out the wiring and stuff while I was checking the floors, doors and exterior/interior of the trailer. He was so busy chatting with the seller (a nice fellow) that he "forgot" about the emergency brake battery.
Probably could have gotten some $$ off if he had seen that. Oh well, it is a decent trailer, now is in perfect condition, and a worthwhile investment. Probably will be able to sell it in Yantis for what we paid for it when we no longer need it. One problem we didn't realize is that our 4x4 Ford 350 truck sits high and the trailer doesn't. Eckhart was able to do some adjustments, but it still rides at a little angle. I figure that will help urine and water to drain out instead of sitting on the trailer floor rotting out the wood.

This week I will start taking down the Christmas tree and other decorations. I did not put up many so not too much work. I will also sort out the decorations I plan to take to Texas. Again, not many since it is a smaller house. We won't have as tall a Christmas tree since the ceiling is not vaulted, and I am considering putting it on the dining room buffet in front of the window. On the other hand, the house is on the highway and has a nice porch and front aspect so DH can indulge his desire for outdoor lights and decorations. My dear friend who assed away gave me two large lighted snowmen - or rather a snowman and -woman, and we have other exterior decorations. Our tiny entry is rather crowded with DH's movable snowman, the lighted presents, the horseshoe tree DS3 made, and the tiny fake Christmas tree. Luckily, we rarely use the front door, instead driving into the yard to park. LOL Anyway, I have a few nice interior decorations I will take with us. Even if we return to California for Christmas with the family, we will want to decorate our house for the holiday.

I am again starting to stack boxes in the living room to transport. DDIL2 will be back mid-February. DS2 says they want to go to Palm Springs with us to look for new furniture so we will take a truck load of stuff for the consignment stores down and look for a small-scale leather sectional for the living room. Unfortunately, we will have to stay in a motel since Kris rented out his golf course condo from January 1 through March 31. I love that condo. I would have tried to buy it if I was planning to stay in California. No sheep of course, but lovely view of the water hazard and green. Kris has bought a beach house on the Bay. He wants us to come down for a weekend so instead of Palm Springs we will go there. he is going to use it as an Airbnb. I suggested to my family that maybe they would like to rent it for a reunion. Currently it has 8 bedrooms! He is going to combine a couple into a 6-bedroom Airbnb rental. He was going to use the condo for that, but apparently short-term rentals are not allowed. Anyway, if we can't find a sofa the size I need, I will shop online.

Another beautiful day here in the Valley. The weather was gorgeous going up the coast to Nipomo. Golden mountains all the way to the freeway on one side and the deep turquoise waves on the other. Spectacular fluffy white clouds in a deep blue sky. Almost persuaded me to stay but thought about Governor Gruesome. He is offering sex changes to illegals now along with regular medical care. Anyone wanting a sex change would be well advised to go t Mexico and walk back across the border without their passport. Then it would be free! Although I think Obamacare covers sex changes in most states.

 

[SageHill]

Kris has bought a beach house on the Bay. He wants us to come down for a weekend

OK - which bay?? Down this way??