Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[RollingAcres]

I have 9 ewes and one ram. They are all named. Even the lambs marked for slaughter have names-Dinner.

Since we live in Lindale and that is the home of the country singer Miranda Lambert, we have a ewe named Miranda Lambert. We also have Lady Baa Baa, Ewenique, Domino, Lucy, Lily, Eve, Lil' Cutie, Moon Pie and the ram is named Speckles.

Those names cracked me up!
Lady Baa baa

 

[Ridgetop]

I bet they are all different colored or marked though right? Dorsets and Dorpers are all white so harder to recognize without some sort of ID. Maybe I will order plastic goat chains for them in different colors. That way they will be instantly recognizable from a distance. I will have to have some sort of extra links though for when they grow their wool out and be able to take them smaller when they shed out. The chains will also give me something to grab onto if I need to lead them into a kidding stall instead of chasing them around and upsetting them. Ideas come in the funniest ways! Thanks Bay!

 

[Baymule]

They are Katahdin and Dorper crosses, all blotchy and splotchy. Lady Baa Baa is white with faint brown and black freckles on her ears, Lil' Cutie is white. But it is like a rancher I knew with a herd of black Angus, he knew them all by their faces.

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, their faces are different and they have different expressions. I will get to tell these Dorpers apart because they are so sweet. It is easier to get close and personal with a sheep that wants to be petted rather than fleeing across a field while you give chase! You also want to tell them apart when they like you. LOL

 

[Ridgetop]

We have almost finished the barn. DS1 wants to chip off more of the compacted area now that everything has been picked up and dumped. 7 more barrels will be coming up the hill from the trash collector today. Now we are clearing the old milking shed (concrete block 10' x 20') and have emptied it halfway out. The furniture was going to Goodwill, but now DD2 asked us to give it all to her boyfriend who is looking for an apartment. Hope he gets one soon. Moved the "keep" stuff (all DD2's) to the Convex container. Found 3 unopened gallons of Iodine udder wash that I use for everything from milking to kidding/lambing, to general antiseptic for any injuries to my animals. I thought I was down to my last bottle. The dairy supply store in Chino has gone out of business so I was glad to find them.

Once the milking shed is empty we will put in freestanding heavy duty shelving. The boxes of livestock equipment can go back in the milking shed up on the shelves, along with boxes of drywall tools, concrete tools, painting tools, ceramic tile tools and tile saw, etc. from the workshop shed (12 x 24).

Once I started sorting out the equipment, I was pleased to see how much we have that will be usable in Texas. I have boxes of rabbit equipment, water lines, misters, miscellaneous cage parts, nest boxes, 6 new cages still in the shipping boxes, and 6 cages that I should take apart to store . Marv wants to set up another rabbitry. We have hot wire with 3 plug in chargers, 1 battery charger,1 solar charger, metal rebar posts to drive into the ground with pvc pipes we made to slip over them for a temporary hot wire enclosure. 6 automatic horse waterers, along with floats for water tanks. Giant boxes of horse blankets, hay nets, shipping boots, extra halters, pads, miscellaneous stirrups, leathers, bits, etc. I will probably give a lot of this equipment to my DIL for her horses, since I am not riding much and only have Josie the mule. Show equipment for goats, sheep, cattle, hogs, rabbits - pretty much what you would expect to find on a property where 4 kids grew up in 4-H with breeding flocks and herds. They used to show their dairy goats at every show in southern California. These are destined for my son's children unless DD1 and her family move with us. That does not look probable. However, we need to do what is best for ourselves - they have their own family.

DH was going to take a load to the dump yesterday, but we woke up in the night to 50 mph winds. The tarp we had placed over the kennel to give the dogs shade when we need to kennel them was completely torn in half. Lots of stuff blown all over. Too dangerous to try to load the truck with partial sheets of plywood, etc. in this wind. Hoped it would have died down today but still too windy.

Our LGD, Bubba, seems to be a big baby! He was whining and crying last night outside the kitchen door. When we let the dogs in before feeding them, he was walking slowly with his head down and kept crying. Kassy's boyfriend tried to feel his leg and Bubba growled at him so I took him to the carpet and laid him down to check his foot and leg. He absolutely didn't want his leg and foot messed with so I put a muzzle on him. I don't take chances and prefer to prevent any situation where I would have to punish dogs or horses. Prevention is the key. Anyway, I checked him and couldn't find anything wrong except a broken toenail. Every time he rolled over or changed position he cried loudly. I gave him some pain killers left over from Rika. DS1 said his shoulder seemed swollen and it did seem a little hot. It was strange since he put weight on his leg. This morning he came running up out of the gully, and then proceeded to chase R
Rika around and try to knock her down. DH and I cancelled our plans to take him to the vet. LOL I will have to call Erick and let him know about this since these dogs are usually very pain tolerant. I probably have the only 165 lb. Anatolian LGD that cries over a hangnail! LOL He may have caught his foot in something and twisted his foot/leg/shoulder. I will keep an eye on him.

I got a call from the carriers today that my Sydell panels are in transit and they will deliver them next Tuesday. That is a good thing since Sweetie looks really big. Hoping for twins. This weekend we will have to finish clearing out the milking shed, put up the shelves and move the boxes of equipment back into the shed from the barn. DS1 plans to finish scraping another layer off the barn floor this week now that our barrels are empty again. Then we have to lime the pen area, and set up the pens. Actually, DS1 will have to lime the barn floor and set up the pens assisted by Marv since I will be in the hospital. I like to do these things myself but DS1 is competent and has been raising livestock since he was 8 years old.

We did not buy the lambing pen sets from Sydell. The combination creep/lambing pen/guard panels are useless in my opinion. the openings are too big to prevent small sheep or hair sheep fro entering the creep. I see that they now sell a bar that you need to screw across the openings if you want to use them as creep gates. Obviously they had complaints.
I was going to get the 5' folding panels like I had 20 years ago. The are the most economical, but I realized that since they weigh 43 lbs. and I am in "late middle age" they might be a little heavy for me now. I decided to spend the extra money and buy the individual 5' panels and put them together in lambing en conformations. Then we can rearrange them to make a large pen and creep arrangement later. I did get another adjustable creep gate since these are terrific creep gates that can be adjusted as the lambs get larger. The gate comes with an adjustable horizontal bar so the skinny hair ewes can't get through unless they crawl under. I did have a Boer doe that learned to do that! LOL

Now we just wait for their due dates. I love lambing and kidding season.

 

[Ridgetop]

I have read through my earlier postings when I promised to tell you more fun Ridgetop stories. I was sidetracked by politics, the evil bane of democracy.

Which stories would be fun to relive? Here is one about one of our Weimaraners. I have had Weimaraners since I was 15. We always had a male and female. Our first 2 dogs we had after DH and I got married, were Rogue and Lisa. Rogue took life seriously. He would patrol the property every 2 hours - if DH was not home, he would up his game and patrol every hour. Lisa would relax on the floor usually going out with him (we had a doggy door at the old house) but sometimes she would not bother. If she heard a noise, instead of getting up and checking it out she would let out a sharp woof. Rogue would leap up and run to check on the situation. Lisa would lay back down. It was just like "Honey, I hear a noise - go check it out"! LOL On the other hand she could be very vicious in a fight, and was an excellent watchdog in her own right. I remember the two of them tangling with another dog and while Rogue went in from the front, Lisa came in silently from the back and slashed at the other dog's rear legs.

I have been lucky in my dogs. They were all wonderful and well trained, I spent a lot of time making sure that they were well trained since I don't like untrained dogs. When DD1 was about 2 years old, I realized that she had ben watching me with the dogs. As she started to run towards me across the wet kitchen floor I automatically put up my hand in the signal to "stay". She stopped dead in her tracks. Astonished I gave her the hand signal to "sit". Down went her bottom on the kitchen floor! I had a perfectly trained 2 year old on hand signals. Unfortunately she was not dependable outside the house and never really mastered the "recall" and "come to heel". Does that mean that dogs are smarter than 2 year olds?

Anyway, I think this s a good lead in to how we bought our first LGD.

The rabbit barn was built, the yard fenced, the rabbit cages hanging with water lines in the barn, nest boxes in place when we heard a commotion in the barn. We had put bells on our goats' collars so we could hear them moving around. We had had several stray dogs coming into the property even though it was fenced. We were actually more worried about coyotes back then. We didn't know that stray dogs were more dangerous to farm stock than coyotes. The bells were to give us a heads up if they were attacked. It saved them and our rabbits. The bells were jangling wildly, and we could hear some loud noises in the barn. Our dogs were barking in the hallway. Jumping out of bed I called to DH that something was after the animals. I had my shotgun. DH was hopping down the hall trying to climb into his pants. Down in the barn the commotion was getting worse. We ran down and caught 2 stray dogs chasing the goats in their small pen and going after the rabbits in their cages. Luckily most of the rabbits had litters and had jumped into their nest boxes. We had left our dogs in the house so they would not get in our way in the barn. We cornered the dogs in the barn and just as DH got ready to shoot them, I realized that he was facing the horse corrals right on the other side of the open barn. The shot would hit the horses! Realizing this, he handed me the shotgun, grabbed a heavy shovel and attacked the dogs who ran out of the barn. Making sure that they were headed home we returned to the house.

For the next few nights neither of us got much sleep. Every few minutes I would get out of bed and check on the barn. After 3 days I told DH this couldn't go on. I had read about LGDs and they were just becoming known and used by ranchers. The Idaho Sheep Station had done a study on their use, as had one of the large universities back east. This was pretty much before internet, so I had to call the Idaho Sheep Station and got some phone numbers of people who had LGDs. I spent much of the next couple days tracking down ranchers who were using LGDs to try to acquire one. Nowadays I just go on line, then it was a real chore. This was when shooting, poisoning and otherwise eradicating predators was being outlawed by the federal government. Many predators were being put on the endangered list, and new ways of protecting livestock were being looked at and tried. Lights, loud horns, and finally guardian dog breeds were studied. The dogs were the most successful.

After several days of long distance phone calls, I finally I located a sheep rancher in Idaho or Montana who had puppies for sale. This was back in the days of "don't socialize or pet the dog". "Ignore him and keep him with the livestock at all times". Seems silly now to think that this was how people were taught to use these dogs. Anyway, the rancher said he had a 5 or 6 month old pup that was working really well and would sell him. He was a Shar Planinetz Maremma cross. Both parents were working on this rancher's place, protecting his sheep flocks from coyotes, cougar and bear. A couple of stray neighborhood dogs would be no challenge. I sent him a check and an airline crate in which to ship me the dog. He called me back with the flight instructions. On the morning of the dog's arrival I received an apologetic call from the owner. there would be a delay in shipping the dog. He had gone out to catch him and load him in the crate but when he grabbed him, the dog turned around and bit him! He would have to drive to town and get some tranquilizers from the vet to knock out the dog so he could load him and ship him. "No, no" I said, I can't have a dog that bites it's owner! I have small children around all the time and would need to catch the dog and take it in for vet visits, etc. What did he do for that? The rancher said that he did not ever socialize with his dogs since that would "ruin" them. I asked for another puppy, possibly one younger. he had one but it was only 10 weeks old and not a trained guardian. No problem, I would take that one and he could ship it to me in a week.

When the puppy arrived, he was very large, black with a white splotch on his chest and soooo cute. "Now" I told the children, "we can't pet hi or play with him because it will ruin him as a guardian for the goats and rabbits." The children looked at me and agreed. The puppy sat at our feet and looked cute.

Maverick grew and grew. He liked the goats. He liked all of us. It was impossible to give him some caresses when feeding him. he needed to learn his name didn't he? The children seemed to find a lot of reasons to visit the barn and took a longer time over their chores. In spite of our disobedience to the going school of thought, maverick grew up to be an excellent guardian dog. I found out later that many ranchers who were told not to socialize their dogs had trouble with them. The dogs would not let them work their flocks because they didn't recognize them when they came out to their far pastures. One or two were badly bitten by their own dogs!

Maverick did a good job. At 4 months of age he drove off Wellington, the enormous Doberman that lived next door. This Doberman took a particular pleasure in pooping on our door step every day. No matter what we did, complain to his owners, hose him with water, throw things at him, Wellington came back every day to deposit his gift. Until Maverick turned 4 months old and decided that he did not want Wellington fouling our doorstep. Not only did he make it clear to Wellington that he was not to poop on our step, but he was persona non grata on our property. Wellington never returned. DH was ecstatic - no longer did he have to check the step before leaving for work in the dark hours of the morning. We never actually saw Maverick do any real guardian work, but no more stray dogs came on the property. One day when I was working in the yard, I noticed 2 large stray dogs on the adjacent field. At that time we hadn't bought it and it was not fenced. Maverick, age 8 months, saw the dogs too and I waited to watch my guardian dog go into ferocious action against the interlopers. Maverick strolled out to the field and to my shock began to play with them. as they moved away he would stop and sit down, They would return and he would play with them again. Finally the dogs wandered off while Maverick remained on the field watching them go. I did not realize it at the time, but I had been privileged to see instinctual LGD "play away" behavior. Faced with 2 dogs Maverick had enticed them away from the sheep. He was too young and while large, not full grown yet, so could not take on 2 mature predators. Instead he had played them away from the property where his goats were. Once they were safely on their way, he stopped playing and watched them go while maintaining his spot between the herd and the danger. I did not realize what I had seen, I just thought that the "guardian dog" that I had paid a lot for (the dog, vet check, shipping out the crate and shipping the dog out to me) had not attacked and dismembered the 2 strays. I called the breeder to tell him that I was unhappy with the dog since he didn't seem to be doing his job. The breeder asked if I had lost any animals. I said no. He told me to give the dog a little more time, and if I lost any stock to have the dog put down and send him the tail and he would refund all my money. He said that the proof of a good guardian was whether you lose stock. If you don't lose any animals, even if you never see the dog do anything, he is doing his job.

When Maverick was barely 1 year old, a cougar came down into our neighborhood. Maverick had been circling the property all night barking his alarm bark. Suddenly, the neighbor's beagles started baying. Maverick's bark became almost hysterical. Lady, our Weimaraner, began snarling and barking in the family room. Alarmed, I jumped out of bed and called to DH to get his gun because something bad was out there. Running into the family room I found Lady throwing her body against the large glass window. The glass was actually bowing from the force. Out on the driveway Maverick was going at it with something that was snarling back. I opened the door and Lady was out like a flash to join Maverick. Snarling the 2 dogs chased something big down the driveway and followed it down the road. They paid no attention to my commands to come. Up above us the lights were all on and the beagles were going crazy. Down below us the snarling fighting duo chased something. The beagle neighbor came out with a floodlight and shone it down onto the lower neighbor's barn. Their mare had just had a foal 2 days earlier and luckily they had a proper barn. The mare and foal were locked a stall. The owner came running up the slope to his barn. The dogs had reached the corral which was lined with plywood because of the foal. It effectively stopped the dog but not their prey. As the upper neighbor looked on in shock, the cougar in his words "flowed" over the 5' rails into the corral and disappeared from while the beagles bayed and Maverick and Lady snarled after the cat. The mare's owner threw open the stall door to find his dark chestnut mare completely white from sweat and foam. The foal was backed into a corner behind the mare as she faced the corral behind the barn where the cougar had passed. Maverick and Lady, duty done, returned to the house. Needless to say, Maverick retained his tail and I realized what a godsend a good LGD was. We slept very soundly from then on.

Maverick was a good dog but only lived to be about 5 years old. However, we had already gotten him a helper - a Pyrenees from a Basque sheep rancher in Bakersfield. Sandy was the best LGD we had and 20 years of our subsequent Pyrs were measured against her - until our Anatolians. Good LGDs are born not made . I am lucky to have had several good ones, and a couple of great ones.

I realize this post is not amusing, but it is one of the good memories we have. By the way, amid all that confusion and shouting the children never woke up! LOL

 

[Baymule]

Very good story.

 

[Rammy]

Stories like this make me wish I had more property to have a LGD. Maverick sure was a smart and a great LGD.
It was funny to read you had trained your daughter to obey commands too.

 

[Latestarter]

Stories like yours are a great testament to the value of these dogs.

 

[Mike CHS]

[QUOTE="Ridgetop, post: 573704, member: 13018"

I realize this post is not amusing, but it is one of the good memories we have. By the way, amid all that confusion and shouting the children never woke up! LOL[/QUOTE]

Amusing also is defined as pleasantly entertaining and since many if not most of us can relate, they are all of that.