Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[fuzzi]

DS1 decided to dump dry concrete into the flooded postholes around the posts and stir it in. That is how DH and I usually set posts. DS1 likes to mix the concrete in the wheelbarrow and pour it in. He decided that instead of waiting for the holes to dry out, he would do the concrete this way. He put 3 bags in the 8" gate post hole, and 2 bags on each of the other posts. He dug the holes 4' deep so 2 bags isn't overkill. As he got home it started raining so he put the concrete in the holes in the rain. He will start building the H and the dog gates tomorrow. He was able to get most of what he needs but had to order a couple items from Amazon.

The fellow that coated the barn roof came back today to do the roof on the house. They had to trim a branch that was rubbing on the roof. They had to do some sort of special wash on the roof before they could coat it. He said he also does gutters so that may be in the plans. The water drains off the roof and has made a ditch around the house and a large standing puddle at the foundation of the house. We need to do some drainage work. They finished just as the rain started. The coating on the roof is supposed to lower the temperature inside. DH also wants to add more nsulation in the attic.

DH was supposed to water the plants and vegetables today but he lucked out with the rain. LOL I washed off the glider frame ready to paint it but the roof guy showed up. Then it rained. I'll get it done next time it is sunny and minimal wind. There is no rush to do it. I am thinking seriously about screening in the front porch. It is a good size and would be a nice sitting area, especially if we replace the 2 overhead lights with outdoor fans.

I did several loads of laundry, cleaned the carpet in a couple areas, dusted and cleaned the bathroom, emptied all the trash and cans, then installed another pullout under the kitchen sink. I have a basket there for my potatoes but 20 lbs. of potatoes doesn't slide easily on a shelf. LOL Nw I can get to the ptatoes without having to lift the heavy basket out of the cupboard. Once that was finished I fixed the trash bin pullout. There is a slight lip on the bottom of that cabinet that causes the pullout to catch. It has been annoying all of us ever since I installed it. I unscrewed the front attachment, stuck a thick piece of cardboard underneath, and screwed it back down. It helped. I will remove the entire pullout eventually and install wooden strips instead of the cardboard. I was going to use wooden paint stirrers, but they were too long and I didn't feel like bothering to cut them off in the rain. I will do it another time, probably when we finally make the center island. All in all, several jobs accomplished today.

Just a thought...if you do get gutters, you can collect rain water. I had the roofer add a gutter to the back when the house roof was done, and then I installed a rain barrel on one downspout with another for overflow. The barrels fill with 1" of rain!

 

[Baymule]

It would take about 20 of those for one of my rain storms. Aw heck, just dig another pond.

 

[fuzzi]

It would take about 20 of those for one of my rain storms. Aw heck, just dig another pond.

They'll fill with 1" of rain. I need to set up #3 and #4.

 

[Ridgetop]

Those rain barrels would be good on the end of the house where I planted the roses which does not have a hose bib. I have to drag the hoses across the lawn over 100' to water my plants. Something to consider.

We need gutters since the water coming off the roof has dug a line around the house. From that point the water builds up against the foundation. We need to do some drainge just so I can put in flowerbeds around the porch without having the plantings get washed out and drowned. I think that is what happened to the 3 fruit trees I planted in the side yard. It is too late now to plant any more fruit trees, but I found a nursery locally that will order what I want, and help with suggestions about planting location. Also after living here for almost a year I are seeing the drainage patterns which will help decide where to plant. I may also put driplines on the trees for summer irrigation. I have lots of irrigation lines and emitters I brought from the old house.

DS1 has decided to do the dog-pass-through-Vees differently. He has assigned me to look on line for some examples. I also want to measure the pastures - DS1 bought a measuring wheel with a large wheel designed for pastures and rough ground. I just need to walk all over the ranch and measure out the different pastures.

Dry with almost no breeze today. I got my oldmeta glider pited. That thing is ncient. An old friend of my grandmother's brought it with her from Arizona when she moved to California. About 20 years ater she moved to the apartment across from Gammy and it sat on that shared patio another 10 years or so. When my Gammy moved to Seattle her friend hd been ded for a good whioe so we too it. That was about 45 years ago. It must be between 75 and 100 years old now. Made of good US steel. I spray paint it every 10 years or so to stop it from rusting. The seat has actual coil springs and I have replaced the cushions several times. The last time I had to totally cut thm down and resew them to fit. Love the thing although the rest of the family doesn't. DH refers to it as "that piece of junk" but it is super comfortable to sit on and rock. I took it apart and loaded it myself on the trailer to make sure it came with me for the porch. LOL Once the paint is dry, I will put it back together ready for summer.

DH went to the post office and then decided to drive around and meet some of the neighbors. He met a man who invited us to come over and meet his wife. Naturally he knew the McDonalds and Cody's family. I love small towns.

Got two months of receipts entered in my book - farm, feed, repairs, etc. It makes doing the taxes so much easier to just be able to go through my ledger book and itemize everything at tax time instead of fighting with loose receipts. The receipts are stapled together and put in my tax file in case I have a question. I also added the new equipment onto my farm inventory sheet. Did some filing, and pulled up a couple sets of plans for the Vee gate which is apparently called a "jump through gate".

According to Livestock Weekly lamb and sheep prices have stabiized after 6 weeks of falling. Goat prices also fell but are starting to go up. Good news although I don't have anything for sale right now. I need to figure out how to do a Facebook page.

 

[SageHill]

My Grandmother also had a glider - Sounds similar - though I have no idea where it ended up as she died when I was in college. I have fond memories as a little girl of her sitting on it with me as I fell asleep for my naps.

 

[fuzzi]

Those rain barrels would be good on the end of the house where I planted the roses which does not have a hose bib. I have to drag the hoses across the lawn over 100' to water my plants. Something to consider.

We need gutters since the water coming off the roof has dug a line around the house. From that point the water builds up against the foundation. We need to do some drainge just so I can put in flowerbeds around the porch without having the plantings get washed out and drowned. I think that is what happened to the 3 fruit trees I planted in the side yard. It is too late now to plant any more fruit trees, but I found a nursery locally that will order what I want, and help with suggestions about planting location. Also after living here for almost a year I are seeing the drainage patterns which will help decide where to plant. I may also put driplines on the trees for summer irrigation. I have lots of irrigation lines and emitters I brought from the old house.

DS1 has decided to do the dog-pass-through-Vees differently. He has assigned me to look on line for some examples. I also want to measure the pastures - DS1 bought a measuring wheel with a large wheel designed for pastures and rough ground. I just need to walk all over the ranch and measure out the different pastures.

Dry with almost no breeze today. I got my oldmeta glider pited. That thing is ncient. An old friend of my grandmother's brought it with her from Arizona when she moved to California. About 20 years ater she moved to the apartment across from Gammy and it sat on that shared patio another 10 years or so. When my Gammy moved to Seattle her friend hd been ded for a good whioe so we too it. That was about 45 years ago. It must be between 75 and 100 years old now. Made of good US steel. I spray paint it every 10 years or so to stop it from rusting. The seat has actual coil springs and I have replaced the cushions several times. The last time I had to totally cut thm down and resew them to fit. Love the thing although the rest of the family doesn't. DH refers to it as "that piece of junk" but it is super comfortable to sit on and rock. I took it apart and loaded it myself on the trailer to make sure it came with me for the porch. LOL Once the paint is dry, I will put it back together ready for summer.

DH went to the post office and then decided to drive around and meet some of the neighbors. He met a man who invited us to come over and meet his wife. Naturally he knew the McDonalds and Cody's family. I love small towns.

Got two months of receipts entered in my book - farm, feed, repairs, etc. It makes doing the taxes so much easier to just be able to go through my ledger book and itemize everything at tax time instead of fighting with loose receipts. The receipts are stapled together and put in my tax file in case I have a question. I also added the new equipment onto my farm inventory sheet. Did some filing, and pulled up a couple sets of plans for the Vee gate which is apparently called a "jump through gate".

According to Livestock Weekly lamb and sheep prices have stabiized after 6 weeks of falling. Goat prices also fell but are starting to go up. Good news although I don't have anything for sale right now. I need to figure out how to do a Facebook page.

You can run an overflow hose from the barrel away from the house. I have a hose on my overflow that runs to a pond. Alternately, I could attach a soaker hose so water would seep out instead of gush.

 

[Ridgetop]

We have all been super busy. DS1 has been working on the electric fence non stop. He got the wires run - with help from DH and DD2 - and the stretcher wires on the H posts. Then he hung the gates. He used a 12' Priefert gate (because we have several) with a 5' gate (which we also had). We will get a couple 4' Priefert seconds gates in another week or so. They will close together to give us a 16' gateway but DS1 didn't want to hang 16' gates because of the extra weight. We have about 20 Priefert 12' gates already (which we bought last year when we were using them as portble fence panels) so no need to buy any more. That will save us money on the gates at the end of the pastures. He will use 12' gates at the far end of the property. The first picture shows where he has a piece of stock panel between the smaller gate post and the fence. That is where he will build the "jump-through" V gate for the dogs. 2nd pic is DD2 helping her brother while I watched Annabel.

DS1 tied visibility tape on the fence in bows, then had me come out to see his Mother's Day gift! LOL Love it better than flowers, but don't tell DD2. DS1 got the materials to make the"jump thrugh V gate today and set up the saw in the carport since it looks like rain. All that is left are the dog gates at each end of the 460' run, hanging the gate at the far end and energizing the fence. Then we can turn in the sheep with a ram. First ones in will be the blck head ram with last year's lambs (yearlings now) an a couple of the ewes that either lost lambs or did not settle. About 10-12 total I think. Those will be my commercials due in October. Next group will be anyone that is in condition 3 and go with either the new Axtell ram or Junior, depending on sire. All Lewis sired ewes will have to go with the new ram. I won't be using the embryo ram this year. He put a lot of width on the lambs, but I have not decided if I lie what he threw or if they are a little shrt bodied for me. Could be an optical illusion since a lot of them are pretty thick through the loin. I am keeping about 10-12 of this years lambs and selling all the others. The bloodlines are excellent but I am not sure if it was a "nick" or not. One of the problems with outcrossing. On a happy note, 332's bottle lamb no longer has a tan ear. Like most of the breeders said it would, it turned white and she can be registered now. Wonderful bloodlines, her mother was a 5, and she herself looks very nice.

DD2 and Annabel drove over for Saturday dinner with mom and dad. It is a long drive but Annabel has toys and stuff here and can play outside. She loves playing in her sandbox. Soon she wil be running through the sprinkler or having a little wading pool in the back yard. Annabel is doing well in her special school, she is autistic and her language skills are very far behind for a 4 year old. However, she tries to talk and is saying a lot more words. She is super affectionate and as soon as they arrive she is banging on the door to come in and runs to give DH, DS1 and I hugs and kisses. DS1 and I bought some bubble wands, sidewalk chalk, and outside toys, along with some coloring books for her. We also got her a Hippity Hop - anyone remember those? Big rubber ball with a handle to hold on to while sitting on and bouncing around. She finally figured out how to use it.
DD2 and Annabel with Ozel

Friday night we set up the sweep and chute to sort the lamb on Saturday. This was the first time we used it since it was delivered. It took about half an hour to put in position and set up.


Saturday morning we ran the lambs into the sweep. We learned several things:

1. When moving a flock across a large field to the sorter, just get as many as possible into the tub then close the door. You can collect any others that don't rush in for the grain later.
2. Do NOT open the sweep and try to herd the stragglers in. Everyone already in the tub will make a break for it. Especally don't try to do this several times while yelling at your mother who you sent to drive them in. It doesn't go over well with her.
3. Once you have a good group in the tub, close the sweep and send them through the chute.
4. Remember to open the gate tothe chute before asking why they are not going through it.
5. Once they are in the chute you can mark them with paint for whatever reaon you are sorting them. We use line marking paint instead of the expensive livestock marking paint. It is water soluble and $5-10 cheaper per can.
6. We set up a couple of pens at the chute exit since we neeed to put the for sale lmbs in one end the keepers in another. The portable panels are great for this.

DH pointed out where he planned to drill holes for eye bolts. We don't weld or he could weld them on. Instead we will attach large circumference eye bolts in order to attach our portable panels to the chute and tub opening to make it easier to work the sheep. Actually once we got the sheep in the tub, it worked perfectly! I didn't get any photos of the sheep in contraption because we were trying to work fast - we have to do the adult ewes next so will try to post pix then of them going through. We have decided that we love this thing.

The fellow from the Emory auction called again last Tuesday. His ram died and he needed a ram. He was taking animals to Emory auction and wanted to come over and get a ram and a ewe lamb. I told him it wasn't a good time since with the heavy rain everything was flooded. He said he would come on Saturday and I said ok. We didn't figure he would show up since he had scheduled and not shown up about 5 times already. Surprise! He actually showed up on Saturday and bought our Moyboy sired ram and a nice little ewe lamb. I quoted my price and wouldn't go down. The ewe lamb prices had gone up since they were a month and a half older than when he had first scheduled to come. He origally said he wanted several ewe lambs but decided to ony take one. Later that night he sent me a text saying the ram looked to be doing his business and asking if I had any ewe lambs I could sell him any cheaper than the price he had paid. I told him"No", and that the older they get the higher the price goes because they are closer to breeding age and the amount of feed in them. I told him we are going to California and will be back a month. I said I would hold the price for a month.

Today we did the worming on the lambs. A couple of them look kind of distended and scoury. Could be too much grain so we will cut the grain out completely. After we were dne and bck inside someone came to the front door. Ov=bviously a stranger LOL. His name is Lloyd and he asked if we had sheep for sale. He is in Yantis, is fencing 10 acres, and wants sheep to graze it off. He wants a ram and 6 ewes BUT his property is not fenced yet. He is putting in 4' sheep and goat wire, with a strand of electric above it. He says hisdogs keep the coyotes away and he hasn't seen any hogs. I told him the same price on the ewes and to come back in a month when his place was fenced. I have one little ram lamb that I can sell out of Junior. He is really nice and I planned to keep him as a stud ram, but I can breed another from Junior so this one can go. He looked at the sheep, and DS1 showed him the fence he was putting in. He said that a friend's son has 2 Dorper ewes for sale. They are over 2 years old and have never been bred. He needs a ram and 6 more ewes. My young stock would be ok for him since they can be bred in November which will put lambs on the ground in time for spring grass. At that time of the year they could lamb in the pasture since he doesn't have any shelters. Also told him that I will have more lambs on the ground in October.

Then I went out and put my new loose mineral field feeder together and installed one of the smaller loose mineral feeders in the barn. Those small mineral feeders are not designed for outside use. I should have bought another field mineral feeder, but they are expensive. I hope that style does ok in our rain. If it works well, I will save up for another couple of them eventually. If I get any shelters set up in the fields, I can install the smaller ones inside them. The smaller ones will hold 4 large coffee cans of mineral and the field feeder will hold 25 lbs. I can use the small ones for loose salt too.

Next week we leave for California. Looking forward to seeing newest grandbaby, the other grandchildren (and their parents too lol).

 

[Baymule]

Wow! That looks amazing! I’m gathering fence ideas here. That’s a lot of work, it sure looks nice.
Annabel looks like she is enjoying herself and Ozel is loving all the attention.

Your new sorting equipment and sweep is awesome. First run and it sounds successful.

I’ll see y’all early Tuesday morning and do a pasture walk! Then we can go to the Texas Land Grazers Association meeting and pasture walk. It will be fun!

 

[Ridgetop]

Seeing my friend and going to a Texas Land Grazers Association meeting on Tuesday. Life is good.

Tomorrow morning I need to take the new measuring wheel DS1 bought to measure for the pasture fencing and start measuring distances to draw up a detailed scale map of our land. I want to take what we have already got planned out to the NRCS guy who will be at the meeting. I amnot going to miss filing this year for the fencing help. I also need to ask about funding for a hay barn which I understand is also available. I need to get some super size paper and tape together added sheets to get it large enough to fit the scale drawing. LOL

Still have to find time to do laundry, pack, find some hot weather clothes (I packed them away or the winter) and pack sandals. Also the birthday presents for DD1 and Daniel, along with a couple things David will need in college.

DGS1 has registered at UA Huntsville. He not only got a complete 4 year scholarship from UAH in Aerospace engineering, but also won several other scholarships. One was the Scholarship of Merit that is only awarded to 2 students a year. He and his mom will be flying back for the orientation. She wanted us to drive back and meet them there but they will only be there from 11 pm Wednesday night to Friday noon when they leave for the airport to catch a 3pm flight home. David has orientation all day Thursday through Friday morning. DD1 has parent orientation all morning on Thursday. It is a 9 hour drive one way for us, not to mention gas, motel, and meal costs to spend minimal time with DD1. We wanted to go but after consideration told her that we couldn't do it. Those long drives really take it out of us these days and we would only have about 12 hours to visit. DS1 will still be in California and although DD2 offered to come and take care of the sheep and dogs, we decided not to go. David thinks he is going to pack everythng he owns including all his beloved board games and books, to take with him. His parents keep telling him he won't have room for all that stuff but I don't think he comprehends how little space he will have in his dorm room. When I get to California I will tell DD1 to give him as many boxes as he can take back and tell him that once they are full that is it. And to fill them with his clothes first! LOL

 

[Baymule]

I’ll see y’all tomorrow! I’ll try to leave here at 5, so we will have time to visit and show me your fencing before the TXLGC meeting. 3 hour drive, 6 hours on the road, I’ll be dead when I get home. Have wine chilling in refrigerator. Will apply wine therapy. 1 tablespoon rubbed into sore muscles, drink the rest!