Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[SageHill]

As for the firearm... that would be an out the door and leave ... period end of sentence...

I'm about as far from anti-gun as you can get. Grew up with them.

 

[drstratton]

I'm about as far from anti-gun as you can get. Grew up with them.

Same here! But, some idiots need to be kept in check.

 

[Baymule]

I'm about as far from anti-gun as you can get. Grew up with them.

It’s not about being anti gun, I’m trying to make it clear that this guy is a stupid moron, knows it all. Actually stupid moron is a compliment, because there is no measurement for how stupid he is. Ridgetop is anti Son in law with a firearm of any kind. He’s the kind of guy that packs a pistol as a penis extension, it’s his manhood and he is ignorant on safety.

 

[drstratton]

It’s not about being anti gun, I’m trying to make it clear that this guy is a stupid moron, knows it all. Actually stupid moron is a compliment, because there is no measurement for how stupid he is. Ridgetop is anti Son in law with a firearm of any kind. He’s the kind of guy that packs a pistol as a penis extension, it’s his manhood and he is ignorant on safety.

If I understood her post, I think we both agree with you on all of that. I know I do. I wouldn't want someone like him at my place, with or without a gun either. You can't always choose your family or extended family, but you can definitely school them.

 

[farmerjan]

Yeah, my post was basically... "ridgetop saying"...... MY house, my rules, and if you brought a gun in when I said I did not want one, then you need to leave and take the gun... PERIOD.... hey, I am not anti gun either... like @Baymule said... he is a total DUMB A$$.... he certainly does not need it around the autistic child... he can't even take proper care of her by NOT going through a gate he was told not to for the safety of the child with the horses...
"because I wanted to" was his answer when told not to and then why did he do it anyway.... He's more immature than the 4 year old...
@Baymule 's description of the penis extension made me nearly spit out my drink... EXACTLY RIGHT.....

 

[Finnie]

but you can definitely school them.

You can try.

 

[Baymule]

Had a great visit with Ridgetop and her husband. They came Tuesday afternoon and stopped at Charles and Holly’s where we were unloading the U-Haul. Ridgetop brought in boxes and bags of groceries and stocked the pantry. Charles and Holly were overwhelmed by her generosity, by someone that didn’t even know them.

Ozel was glad to see her mommy and daddy! Lots of love, petting and hugs.

We visited, son got the last of heavy things in the new house, truck and trailer empty, and he came home. I fixed spaghetti for supper. Somewhere in there, I fell asleep in my recliner and they woke me up after midnight to go to bed.

 

[Ridgetop]

Doofus is DD2's husband. He started to "grow up' but has regressed.

We brought Ozel home - still a virgin sadly but now, knowing Buford and feeling comfortable at Bay's, we have great hopes for the future. Next time we will deliver her as soon as she comes in. I will be checking her everyday in May. Not sure if we will breed her in the summer (heat, flies, etc. bad for puppies outside) but I will make sure that she actually cycles.

We stopped in Trinity on the way home and got 28 pallets from the place Bay knows. That will be enough for a large shelter in the current breeding pasture. Of course it has been raining ever since we got home so we haven't even unloaded them. They were super heavy since they had been sitting out in the rain too. Bay suggested putting them up on pavers to avoid rotting too quickly. If stops stops raining we can put up a shelter in a day.

The well man came back this morning and installed the timer drain on the well. He will be back tomorrow to check the water. In the meantime we have no water at the barn. We filled all the jugs and sheep tanks this am before he disconnected the well pump. Then had another ewe lamb today and DS1 had to fill and carry a 5 gallon bucket of water from the house for her. One ewe had lambed in the pen with the breeding ewes and ram while we were at Bay's. She was one that I told DS1 was supposed to be in the bred ewe pen but somehw ended up with the open ewes. He said apparently my paperwork was right on that one. LOL He had to chase the little ram lamb around to catch it then loaded it in the "pig cart" (actually now the "sheep cart") and pushed them over to the barn. He said that cart is working out great. We use it to transport the rams to the ewes, transport sick or disabled ewes from the pastures, and now ewes with lambs.
Unlike our old pig cart this one does not have the slide up gate on both sides, but since our sheep will get in it easily (unlike hogs who have to see an opening on the other side) it works great. The tires are large solid rubber tires that roll easily over grass and dirt. We weren't sure whether DS1 would like it but he had mentioned needing one like this so bought it cheap in CA and trucked it back. So glad we did since it is working well for us.

Anyway we didn;t have a jug for her, but DS1 had set up panels in the barn to make a walkway arund the frot of the jugs so we didn't have to fight through the ewes to feed the jugs. We put her in that for tday and will figure out something else for tomorrow when more ewes are due to lamb.

DS1 and DH brought 2 of the old hay rolls into the side barn and I have been unrolling them to use them to bed out the jugs. This is saving us a lot of money on bedding. I am also putting a lot in the main barn pen for the ewes to lamb in before going into the jugs with their lambs. DS1 and I want to set up the lamb creep for the older lambs. If it stops raining we need to run the breeding ewes through the chute to check ear tags ad retag several of them. DS1 wants to set up the heat lamps in the barn over the jugs and creep in preparation for future freezing weather. We already had temps down to 30 degrees and he wrapped all the water pipes. It is supposed to warm up to the 50's in a week or so.

We have to make a trip to the new feed store for more of the 16% and 20% sheep feed. We are trying to get some weight on the lactating ewes. They will get free feed grass hay and an evening feed of alfalfa once they are out of the jugs as well as a grain feeding. The ewes in the jugs are getting alfalfa and grain am and pm. The lambs will have free choice alfalfa in the creep. Total so far is 3 ewe lambs and 4 ram lambs with one dead ewe lamb. She was stuck wth an ear out and the crown of her head like a stopper in a bottle. We were at church. Rick called as we drove home and said to hurry since he couldn't get his hand in to turn the lamb. When I got home I could hardly get my hand in to find a nose. I finally got the nose and head out out but couldn't find the front leg. I did find several hind legs along side the head! Very bad presentation -those rear legs belonged to the twin behind the first lamb. After DS1 turned the ewe from side to side i was finally able to get my hand in far enough to push the second lammb's butt back a bit and hold it while DS1 pulled the first lamb out by the head. I did the swinging trick but no response. The large ewe lamb was definitely dead. With her nose trapped inside the ewe she had probably suffocated. I have had lambs survive for over an hour with the head and nose out but this one was trapped inside. With the first lamb out of the way, the rear legs of the second lamb popped out immediately and he came right out. The big lovely ewe lamb I wanted out of that particular ewe died but at least the second lamb survived. So all good there. We will have to see how the lambs look to choose replacements for all the ewes I lost over the summer. This year will try to sell as many as possible instead of keeping so many.

Nature has culled my sheep for me so I will get another ram that has more parasite resistance. It will be a complete outcross but not a problem there. I would rather have good sheep that live than fabulous ones that die from barber pole. Our ewes are high quality and the rams I have found are grade 5 on the South African Dorper scale and from parasite resistant lines. Hopefully one of those rams will upgrade the flock with parasite resistance as well as meat qualities. Just have to get time to go get him in northern Missouri. It will be a 3 day trip. One day to drive up, one day to look over the 5 rams available and choose one, and the third day to drive home. We can't spend as much time on the road since the days are shorter and our truck lights are not that good. I also found another ram that has bloodlines I want that is half as much money. I don't particularly like that ram's conformation but it could be the poor photos of him. He is in the opposite direction in Arizona so maybe not as parasite resistant since he is in a drier area with less barber pole exposure. He is less than half the price but if there is less parasite resistance the survivability of the lambs may not warrant any price at all. The Missouri rams are out of proven parasite resistant bloodines so probably a better investment. I currently have a good ram in wth the ewes being bred, so no emergency yet but I need to be prepared wth a second stud ram.

 

[Baymule]

You have had a hard first year. It's got to get better from here!

 

[Ridgetop]

You have had a hard first year. It's got to get better from here!

It could be worse - we could still be in California!

Yesterday was Duplicate Bridge day in Minneola. DH and I were partners which we enjoy since we know the same conventions and bids, having gone to lessons together. We came in first with several bold bids that paid off. DH was very happy. We only play together as partners on the first Tuesday Duplicate days. Next Friday we will be playing with other partners. Lots of fun.

On the way home we went up to Sulphur Springs to pick up our prescriptions and swung by the new feed store to see if our 20% sheep feed was in yet. They had just gotten it and offered to deliver it free since they live near us. Joe and his father were sitting in the store playing dominoes and of course, they knew the MacDonalds. We invited Joe and his wife to come in for coffee when they delivered the feed. His wife had spent the day at a premium livestock show and was exhausted but Joe came in and had coffee with DH. DH has been invited to come to the store and play dominoes with Joe and Joe Sr.

Today DS1 and I went out and put the sheep in the breeding pen through the chute. He adjusted the ram's harness and changed the crayon for a "cold weather" crayon. We identified the sheep that needed new ear tags, and retagged them. Most of them showed light red marks from the red crayon on the ram. We remarked them with spray on orange paint. (Instead of the expensive livestock marking paint, we use the marking spray paint used for marking lot lines, etc. It is water soluble and much much cheaper. LOL) There were about 5 ewes that had lost one or another of their tags. Thank goodness for tagging with flock tags and scrapie tags in each ear. But we still had too many ewes on the breeding list and not enough on the lambing list to match the total numbers of ewes.
(@farmerjan - you have my sympathy about missing tags and checking IDs on your cows!)
We had BL12 on our list in the breeding pen with a scrapie tag of 10148. She was definitely there because we both checked her tags. The scrapie number was correct because another list showed her as CART148, BUT I told DS1 I had just seen her in the due-to-lamb pen. DS1 and I went back over to the barn with the ewes due to lamb and a much larger BL12 was there with a BL12 original printed tag. The ewe in the breeding pen had a hand written BL12 tag and was much younger. The ewe in the lambing pen had an ADSBA inspection tag showing she had been inspected so I checked those records and found the error. The younger ewe in with the ram was actually BL32 with a scrapie number of 10148. The older BL12 ewe had originally had a scrapie tag of 10048. With that cleared up we made notes to retag the younger ewe as BL32. That removed one BL12 from one list (which had too many ewes since it also showed BL32) on that list and added her to the other list which had too few ewes. We didn't have BL32 marked off the list as being checked since she was mistakenly tagged as BL12 so that took care of the missing BL32. Next we had only the ewe with the completely missing scrapie tag and flock tag to identify. Unfortunately we had two missing ewes on the list. She could be either one.

DS1 said that the remainder of the scrapie tag was one of the old white ones. Those tags ended with 10100. The new scrapie tags we ordered were yellow and started with 10101. We only had one ewe on the list that had a tag old enough to have an old scrapie tag. GR27 had scrapie tag CART10099. The other ewe was GR39 and her scrapie tag would have been one of the new yellow ones. Success! With the ewe in the chute identified we tagged her and made a note about the incorrectly tagged BL12. When I came in I rechecked my lists and found where I had marked GR39 off. She was nie of the ewes that died over the summer. Everything is straight now.
DS1 told me I have to keep better records. I told DS1 that when we tag he has to go slower when I am writing down the tag numbers since I am also trying to hand him 2 types of ear tags, the bander, the wormer gun, and vaccinate the lambs and ewes all at once.

Joe from 903 feed showed up with the feed. DS1 unloaded the feed and put 14 bags in the freezer (the old 6' freezer that stopped working last summer). Then he emptied the rest into metal trash cans. They each hold 150 lbs. The 20% is a larger pellet - the 15% is small like rabbit pellets which the 20% is about 3/8" diameter. I worried about that but it worked well because the larger size makes the ewes eat slower.

After we fed the ewes in jugs we had to water them with the hose attached to the house. The well is not working until Monday. The well people are trying to getting it to pump clean water. We have done everything they told us to do - letting it run for 24 hours then 48 hours but it continues to cloud up. Then last week the water would suddenly gush out muddy and the color of coffee! Folmars have been here for the past several days trying to get the water to run clear. It runs clear for a while then gets cloudy and dirty again. Mr. Todd Folmar came out originally to check the water. It ran clear then suddenly spewed out mud and coffee colored water while he was here. He kept coming out to check it and it continued to spew muddy water for a couple days. Finally Mr. Todd Folmar came out and put a timed cotraption on the well head that cycles n and off every 15 minutes to try to clear the water. It hasnt worked yet, but will be on until Monday. This morning he put some sort of chemical down the well that is supposed to break up the clay and clear the water. This afternoon his son came and told DH if they couldn't get the water to run clear they would drill us another well. This s a family operation that has been in business for 4 generations locally. They will stand by their operation. They chose the spot to put this well, having drilled several of the wells on the property starting with the great-grandfather, the grandfather, Mr. Todd(father), and now his son. They have drilled 5 wells on this property and drilled 2 on the property next door since the 40's. We sit on the acquifer so we know there is good water here. Anyway, DS1 hooked up all our hoses so we could water the sheep from the house water. The horses can drink from the pond. Hopefully they can get it clear and working properly soon.

Once we finished running the sheep through the chute, DS1 brought the portable panels over to the barn and put up 2 more jugs. Several more of the ewes are showing large udders so we need to be ready for them. Our total lambs are now 3 ewe lambs and 5 ram lambs. A couple of the ram lambs may be candidates as stud rams. At least 2 of the ewe lambs look really promising too. Tomorrow we will put up the creep pen and transfer some of the lambs and ewes, DS1 want to vaccunate wrm, and tag tomrrow too. I will remove the leftover wool "thatch" from any ewes that need it. I found my good hand shears and we can hook up the electric clippers if necessary. I dont want to slick shear though with winter coming on.

DS also wants to start on the pallet sheep shelter in the breeding pen. It will be 12' x 16'. We will use two corral cover frames and just put a tarp over them for a roof for this winter. He also has plans to make a couple of shelters on wheels that can be moved from pasture to pasture.

Next week we need to get out the Christmas decorations. DS1 wanted to put up the Christmas lights last week but with the rain he wasn't able to do it. It is supposed to be dry and sunny next week - with temps in the 50's! Maybe the ewes will take advantage of the nice weather to lamb.
What am I saying? They are sheep - they deliberately wait for nasty wet and freezing temps to deliver their puny lambs into puddles of muddy water. Preferably with you on your knees behind them cursing as the muck an birth fluids splash in your face. And I chose this life!