Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

Cleaned all the jugs and the second creep New Year' Eve. Everything empty and waiting. This morning one of the new yearlings F040 I bought at the national show lambed with a ewe lamb. I figured she was pregnant but such a small bulge I wasn't sure when she would lamb. The lamb is also small but very lively. Just when I decided that our ram didn't settle any more ewes! We will turn on the heat lamps tonight. Only going down to 34 degrees but we thnk that is cold.

We had a nice ham for New Year's Day dinner and tonight I made split pea soup with the ham bone. Lots of good meat still on the joint and I put in some carrots too. Should be good.

DS1 lit a fire in the fireplace and we are enjoying the last of Christmas with our tree lights ad decorations. We have been enjoying our fireplace. Bought a cord of wood and have a fire almost every night. Our stove insert actually has a fan that we could run with the stove door closed but we like the flames. Also the fan is SOOO loud we can't hear the TV over it! LOL I wonder if we could replace the fan or if we would need to replace the entire stove insert. Not on the list of must haves though. LOL

 

[Baymule]

Congratulations on the new lamb. I'm sure she will be a keeper, you bought her momma at the National show and you always buy really good ewes at the shows.
I love a fireplace, it warms the room plus gives that hot spot to go stand in front of, to enjoy the warmth. I have a propane heater and I light it, it keeps the electric bill down.

 

[Ridgetop]

Left Monday to go look at a couple of rams in northwest Missouri. One day to drive up, one day to look at the rams, then DH decided to take a third day and detour into Kansas to visit with his cousin. We were able to get to Atchison in just a couple hours so had supper and a nice visit with Judy. Then off early to our motel and home in the morning. His other cousin wanted us to come over the next evening because she was busy all day but we wanted to get home.

The rams were very nice and he had a LOT of them. We chose two rams that complement each other's strengths and should do good things for the flock. They are being shipped down after they get their Brucellosis tests and health checks. Kevin will also trim their hooves before the ship. We wot make another trip up to MO to get them. I figured the cost of another trip - gas, motel, and food bills - and it was cheaper having them shipped by livestock transport. We will put the other hay cradle together and get the shelter ready for them in the ram pasture. These rams are supposed to be more parasite resistant.

We have decided to just keep ewes from our own breeding from now on. We hope that they will be more resistant to Barber pole. We will bring in new rams as we need them. We are also going to grow out several of our best ram lambs this year. We had several calls for rams and didn't have any to sell. The ADSBS is having 3 South African judges doing evaluations this year so I want to make sure to sign up for that. I need to have my flock evaluated since I only plan to keep 4's and 5's as breeding stock. We may also cut back the numbers so we can keep a couple pastures fallow during the summer. We are determined to avoid the barber pole losses we suffered last year.

We have a "bottle baby". This ewe lamb was healthy when born but never looked quite right after the first 2 days. She spent most of her time laying down, sleeping or just not moving around. DS1 was worred about her and when I looked at her she was very thin and looked very empty. Her mama is an older ewe and never had problems miing but this year has a very uneven udder. She has a twin brother who is larger and is probably taking it all. We decided she is not getting enough from her mama. The day we left I mixed up some formula (Bay's recipe) and told DS1 to try to get her to take it. I wasn't sure she would without a fight so got out a large towel for him to use as well. I told him to start her on half a cup of the formula. Apparently once she figured out there was milk in the bottle she went to town on it. By the following day (third bottle) she was running to the fence and looking for the bottle. She is up to about 8 ounces now and I think we may have to feed 3 times a day. She is still with mama so hopefully getting some of her milk too. Her mother is taking care of both of them, so she is in with the other sheep and lambs. Fingers crossed this bottle baby lives.

Today DS1 and I put together the large heavy duty shelving in his connex. We only had one of the 6' long Gorilla ones left, so took one of the 6' ones from my connex. It was still empty and we could put up the 4' shelves in there. The other 4' shelving is not as heavy duty, an does not assemble as well, but is still pretty good. DS1 hates it but we have it so it needs to be used. We put one of those together in my connex and then brought all the canners, canning equiment, and boxes of jars over from the pump shed. The pump shed is well insulated and does not freeze in the winter and stays relatively cooler in the summer as well. The pump shed is the place for Christmas decorations, saddles, and stuff that we don't want to suffer from extremes of temperatures. We put the moisture stuff in there to pull out excess humidity. Then DS1 and I brought in the Christmas decoration boxes so I can take down the Christmas stuff. It wasn't up as long as normal since I didn't get it up over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Eventually we will put up more of the shelving in his connex, but DS1 was able to get a lot of stuff off the floor and sorted. DS1 said he will start moving a lot of the boxes of equipment from the tool shed over onto the shelves we put up today. We have collapsed rabbit cages (waiting to be put together), rabbit equipment, electrical, plumbing, drywall, tile, and painting equipment in plastic storage boxes to be moved into the connex so DS1 can set up tool storage. We have more of the 6' heavy duty shelving in the tool shed that can be brought over tohis connex once we clear out the tool shed and install cabinets to made a workbench. We have been meaning to get to that for the past year. LOL If DS2 doesn't need the cabinets in the tool shed in CA for his new garage, I will bring some of them back for the tool shed here.

Once the connexes and tool shed are finished we will move on to the tack shed/feed room in the barn which is falling apart. Literally. One outside wall has separated from the other and has a gap of about 18" at the bottom. Some of the boards have rotted away from the nails and/or are broken. Also the roof has a couple holes where the nails have popped out. We have to be careful where we put anything that we don't want to be leaked on. We will remove those two exterior walls and rebuild them. I also would like to add a ceiling since the feed room has 8-10' walls but the barn ceiling is 16'. That means that the feed room is open at the top to all the dust thrown up in the barn by the animals. If we add a ceiling of plywood, we can also store stuff up there. Probably the rabbit carriers. They take up a lot of room but are very light in weight.

While DS1 and I were working on the Connex shelving DH went out and moved our new haybales from the hayfield over to the fence line and stacked them up. They were sitting out in the field and we were worried that they would lose nutrition out in the weather. At least stacked they are more protected from rain on the ends.

Poor Ozel has to stay locked up in the yard for another 4 weeks. The vet likes the way the bones are healing but doesn't want her to run with the other dogs since she might reinjure it. Poor baby is pining, not eating well, howls and whines a lot. She spends a lot of time in the doghouse. I am glad that we brought over a lot of straw bedding and filled the doghouses. The dogs that have access to the small side barn have a nice straw bed out there.

 

[Margali]

Poor Ozel. Is she babyproof yet? Maybe she could be in small pen with a few of the ewes with lambs so she feels useful?

 

[Baymule]

Moving your ewes to a new climate has been hard on them. We had a conversation about this before you moved them. It may take the second or third generation to adjust. Don't give up, You have beautiful sheep, very high quality, from the best breeders in the country. Those best breeders don't live in east Texas, but YOU do and you are a BEST BREEDER too. The losses have got you feeling down and I don't blame you one bit, It would hit me hard too.

You always rise to a challenge and you don't back down. You may slack off to regroup and try another tactic, but you do not quit. You are already "regrouping" you are already trying another tactic. You give them the best of care. Your original sheep have had an enormous shock. The survivors are the most resilient and their offspring will become more acclimated to the ranch and climate.

Baby the sheep that are struggling, get offspring from them. With each succeeding generation, they will grow stronger. Keep the ewes, select the best and strongest ram from each year. Keep several, then choose the "one" that defies all odds and comes out the winner,

I am at a tipping point with my sheep. I now have way too many, but this gives me a large group to choose from. I am reaching the third generation that will become eligible for full registration. I am reaching my goal. I will have to let the 50%, the 75% ewes go, I have their offspring that is more desirable. I have selected the best ewe lambs from each generation, but as I get ewe lambs from them, I have to move forward. That means selling the earlier generations. I have ewes that are pets. I have ewes that were born before BJ died. They occupy a soft place in my heart, but I have to let them go. I can't keep keeping them when their offspring is so much better. As the 75% ewes have ewe lambs, they will be sold. It is gonna hurt, but I have to move forward towards my goal of a registered flock.

Your sheep are already registered and are extremely fine sheep. You have to select for all the fine points that you aways have, but now you have parasite resistance thrown in the mix. You can do this Your sheep are white with pink skin. This gives you an advantage. You dock their tails so you can see their vulva and there is another advantage in the parasite fight. The FAMACHA eye membrane test is a good indicator of barber pole worm infestation, but also the pink skin, the pink gums in the mouth. That pink skin gets pale, you can see it at a glance, without running the sheep through the chute and peeling back eye lids, although don't rely only on the pink skin. It is just another indicator of worms. If you walked your flock right now, you would see some with pale pink vulvas, that otherwise look healthy, until they aren't and you have a fight for their life on your hands. That is something that your Texas Five have taught me, pink skin. It should be bright pink, not pale.

Put on your Big Girl Panties, grab a bottle of wine, recharge your batteries and go for it. You got this,

 

[Ridgetop]

Thanks for the kick in the pants Bay, I do get depressed and then that darn condo looks good.

I was looking over the ewes that should have lambed but haven't and they are not even looking bred. No udder tissue at all, no bellies, however, they still have another two months before they prove they are open. By then I will sort out a couple that I do not like (one is short in the loin, get blood work done on them, and cull again. Then they can go in with a ram for another try before being culled if they don't take. They are on the "watch list" though.

I am pleased with the lambs that are on the ground now. They are long and thick with overall good conformation. I will be keeping all the ewes for now and then rate them again at 4 months if they survive the worms. I will worm lambs and ewes at weaning and won't put the lambs out on any previously grazed pasture. We'll need to fence 2 new pastures - one for the ram lambs and one for the ewe lambs.

Still haven't decided when to go to CA. Ozel can't go out with the sheep or other dogs for another 4 weeks. If we go before then, I think we may need to take her with us. The ewes will have finished lambing by the end of January and we can arrange with Payton to put another hay bale in the feeders when needed. The lady that will stay and watch the property, feed & water the sheep and dogs, has no experience with sheep although she said she has pulled a calf. LOL I want it to be easier for her though so she will be willing to stay another time. DD2 said she can come on weekends so Barbie can have some time off.

We need to move some of the stuff from the tool shed to the connexes I was thinking about having DH bring the tractor over and we can put the boxes in the bucket to move a lot of them at once. There are some items in the connex that need to go to the pump shed too for winter storage. Then I have a lot of bottled water in the closet in the spare room that needs to go to the pump shed so it won't freeze in the connex. I need my closets back! Still moving after 2-3 years!

 

[Ridgetop]

DH stacked the 20 bales of hay we bought from Cody. Then he went back out the next day and stacked the remaining 25 bales so they would not be ruined by weather. Told Cody that he didn't have to rush to remove the bales. His barn is full and he said he has so much hay that it is stacked everywhere he can put it. He has been calvng for the past month. His Brahma bulI bred the cows late and he took that bull to the sale. He bought another bull and will be crossbreeding his Brahmas and Brangus cows to it. i toldhime to oeave the hay stacked on our fied because I may have to buy another 10 bales if we don't get rain if we head into a drought. Not much rain and the last 3 promises we have had of rain have passed us by with just a little lightning and dark clouds.

Got my accounts all entered for tax season. My wrist hurts now. LOL Got my new TX Wildlife Damage permit for those Mexican vultures. They don't seem to be as bad this year. Have to pay those annual bills I always forget about - ADSBS, WSDB, ASDBA, and ACBL memberships, and subcription to Livestock Weekly. I remember to pay them in October but don't have the renewals yet, then in December I forget about them.

Tonight we will vax, band, and worm the last lamb and ewe. I don;t think anyone else is goilg to lamb. A couple may be taking a trip to the stockyard auction after I check over their history. I am going to cull heavily on unproductive ewes with the possibiity of drought.

We will probably be heading for CA in February. If Ozel's foot bones have not healed, she will have to go with us. Oh no! I just realized that the bottle lamb will only be about a month old. I really don't want to have to schlep her along as well! Hopefully, Barbie will be able to feed her. I can put her onto commercial formula if it would be easier for Barb. Maybe Barb will not mind mixing Bay's formula. We will be moving the newest lamb and her mom into the creep pen tonight with the others. I might move the ewe with the twin rams out leaving only the bottle lamb and her mom and twin in with the new single.

 

[Ridgetop]

Moved the mama with twin rams into the second creep that opens to the outside pasture and barn. Tomorrow that ewe can join her flock mates in the pasture. Her lambs will folow the ther lambs into the creep to eat alfalfa and grain. Then moved the FF mom with her little ewe over. The bottle lamb is good on the bottle, taking 12 oz 2X daily. Her bro seems to be interested but when offered the bottle he backs away. We'll keep an eye on him and make sure he keeps growing. Otherwise we wil catch him and teach him what a bottle contains. LOL The ewe lamb looks almost bigger than her brother now. She has her mother's dead straight topline. Her mama, 8111, had a thick white discharge from her vulva yesterday and I thought for a moment maybe she had a dead lamb inside. Then I realized if something was wrong it would have shown up by now in her behavior. She is eating well and completely normal in behavior. Her udder is evening out now.

That reminds me - I need to call around and find some bagged corn. I need to put weight back on the ewes.

 

[Baymule]

Look for rice bran pellets. They are 18% fat. My horse has been losing weight, on same feed, gets alfalfa hay, not a lot of weight, but I see it. So I got him rice bran, 1/2 cup twice a day. At first he left it in the feed pan, now he’s cleaning it up. I’ll up him to 1 cup twice a day and see if it helps. I think he’s fretting over losing his friends at the stable where he was kept. I was using cracked corn but it wasn’t helping.

 

[Ridgetop]

How much is the rice bran?

Monday we made a good start on the tool shed. Hauled out a lot of junk that is trash, and sorted out other stuff that needed to go in the conexes. While doing that I moved all the good paint I had stored in my conex to the pump shed so it wouldn't freeze. DS1 bought a special thermometer that stores the temperatures it records. It showed that the interior of the conexes went down below 30 degrees while the pump shed (which we had insulated heavily) didn't go below 40-45 degres. We are keeping the Christmas stuff in the pump shed, along with the paint and anything that can't take freezing like the extra cases of water which I buy when it is on sale and store for use in the summer.

Anyway, we moved a lot of the building materials and specialized tools that we won't use all the time into the connexes. Then we measured the interior of the tool shed and decided where to move the shelving and install any cabinets. DS1 wants/needs a workbench so we decided to build one 4'x8' using double sheets of plywood for the top, but weren't sure where exactly to put it that would be accessible from all sides without losing any tool storage space. I drew up a scale plan of the tool shed last night, cut out scale drawings of the shelving and tool cabinets. Then I moved them around to see where they would fit before drawing them on the plan. I find it actually saves time to do it that way instead of erasing and redrawing everything. You just have to be sure to measure the walkways between stuff or you end up with a 12" walkway!

I discussed the layout with DS1 and we moved the cutouts around until we figured where to put everything. The tool shed interior measurements are 11.5'x19.5'. The 43"w door is in the middle of the one long wall and a 24"w window straight across in the other long wall. At the narrow end of the shed in the corner will be our 6' outside freezer (which is frosting up outside on the porch). Above the freezer will be more heavy duty wire shelves attached to the wall. The two 76"wx24"dx72"t heavy duty shelving units will be in the opposite corner from the freezer on the narrow end. On the other narrow end of the tool shed on one side be one 48"wx24"dx72"t shelving unit, and the 51"wx14"dx48t cabinet with doors against the long wall. That cabinet will also have wire shelves hung on the wall above it. The 4'x8' work table will be at the same end of the shed centered in the remaining open space on the short wall. The 4'w metal tool bench with drawers will form one end of the table base. Under the 48"w table against the wall will be his small dorm fridge. He wants to build the work bench with open shelves and install slide out shelves or baskets on them for easier access to the heavier tools. The air compressor will sit under the work table also. DH has to run more outlets on different ciruits for his power tools. There is a new electric connection feed from the farm electric supply on the wall of the tool shed. The pump shed and barn also feed from the new farm electric but not through the tool shed box.

There are currently two sets of what look like 6' wide wooden magazine/periodical racks that are not very usable since they are only 12" wide and the shelves are fixed at 12" height. They are pretty sturdy so those will go out to the curb with a "free" sign on them or to the recycle store. They're not usable for us to store anything.

Finally got some info about hazardous waste disposal here in TX. Our dump says that if the paint is completely dry (add kitty litter) we can dump the paint cans there. TXcog suggested checking with a mechanic shop to see if they will take any waste oil - maybe charge for disposal which would be ok Not sure about weed killers and bug spray, maybe dump the weed killers out in a spot that we don't want weeds LOL and take the empty containers to the dump. Anyway, I went out and checked and there are not that many items other than the old paint that needs to be disposed of. Actually opened a box in the tool shed and found 2 cans of spray marking paint for the sheep.
We will need that when we start sorting the keeper lambs from the auction sheep.

8111's lambs are both on supplemental bottles now. the ewe lamb has grown and is looking really good. The ram lamb is now smaller, and still looking hungry. He has learned to come to the fence for a bottle although he is not as friendly as she is. Good thing, because I don't like bottle rams - no respect for humans. I think we are finished lambing until the next batch of ewes in April. The remaining 6 ewes look oprn but have until the end of March to lamb. One of them looked big and had a full udder but her udder has gone down and she is not looking pregnant anymore. It'd possible she had a dead lamb that Hazine took away, or she may have reabsorbed. She has lambed and raised successfully before and is one of my really good ewes. She will be moved to the breeding pen and get another chance with the catchup ram, aong wth one or two others. A couple of the open ewes will be culled. At least one is too short in the loin and is carrying a lot of wool. I will go through the others, check records, and decide if they can have another chance or not.

I like the looks of most of the lambs this season. DS1 has decided to keep them in the barn pen when we wean and move the ewes to another pasture. We will worm the lambs and ewes again when we separate them. I used Privermectin last time so will use either Safeguard or Cydectin this time. I need to look up the 3 different wormers and make sure that they are all different.