Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

Ridgetop

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No worry here about flooding! LOL Even though the sheep eat off all the green stuff, we don't usually have any soil slippage either, probably because we don't do any slope grading. Mostly we just grade the top off to get rid of the manure and loose mud on the flat top of the ridge. However you can see why we are looking for something less steep. Slightly rolling is ok for pasture with slight rises for house and barns. Will be planning seriously for property purchase next year so we can move by 2020.

Yes, the puppies were all adorable. Here are pix of the males that are left. 20190124_095249.jpg output.jpg The puppy on the left is a black masked fawn, the puppy on the right is the black masked brindle, and the last male is white or cream. The brindle has a large white splash on his chest, a tiny white snip on his nose and white on his toes. Beautifully marked. They are currently with goats and Debra has started them on coming to her when called. I think she might have 1 white female left. They are all nice large pups, raised outside in the snow, with a partially enclosed well bedded shed. Angel is probably wondering why someone doesn't turn on the A/C here in 70 degrees! We barely drop to the high 50's at night! The parents are currently defending against wolves, foxes, coyotes, cougar, and whatever other predators lurk in northwest Idaho. Debra said someone lost a horse on another ranch to a cougar several months ago. The puppies are adorable! Angel already is attached to the sheep. She is doing so well!

I really loved the little brindle bitch due to her markings. She was allover brindle with no mask, but she was one of the smaller puppies. Debra is keeping her. Erick picked the puppy for me based on the videos of the puppies, size, conformation, and their behavior on Debra's Facebook page. He and Debra discussed their temperaments and attitudes and chose Angel for me before I went. Angel was actually the one Debra had originally thought to keep. Angel was more watchful, calmer, and seemed to have the makings of the kind of livestock guardian we wanted. She also has lovely conformation and Erick thinks she wil be little taller than Rika. Rika is a nice size bitch at 125 lbs. She is about 28" tall while Bubba is 33" tall. Both are as fast as a striking snake, and very athletic. That is what we need with these tricky coyotes, the steepness of our terrain and the division of our livestock area by the house which sits smack in the middle f the property on the ridge top. Great place for the view, but really awkward for the dogs to try to protect both sides from coyotes.

Rika spent all her time with the sheep so we got a second Anatolian, Bubba, to do double duty as sheep guardian and home protector. Angel will be Rika's replacement eventually, so we needed an Anatolian who was more sheep motivated than human motivated. She is cute as a bug and we have to be careful not to bring her inside except when the older dogs are off duty. She is sooo adorable that DH has to restrain himself from putting her in his lap! Only the realization that she will eventually be about 130 lbs. keeps him from spoiling her in that way. He actually had me take a photo of him with her on the bed to tease our friends! I have to be strict with DH more than the puppy!

We took our first walk around part of the property with Angel this am. She was on a leash so we could keep her with us since the mules and donkeys were loose. They came up to sniff at her and she was very happy to meet them. Lacey stomped at her though and I didn't trust the donkeys either, so we kept walking watchfully. We were trailed by 4 equines until they lost interest and started grazing. I won't let her loose around the donkeys and mules until she is older and can evade any stomping or biting. They are used to the larger dogs, but will sometimes try to sneak up on them. I am not sure what they will do if they catch them, but the adult dogs don't let them get close enough to find out either! LOL She was tired out when we got back and dove into her water bucket for a ling cold drink. The heat is hard on a furry puppy used to below freezing temperatures.

Angel's kennel run is right up against the ram pen which was actually the night fold last summer. DS1 is planning the layout of 2 other large corrals or folds for the ewe lamb we don't want to breed yet, and the 2nd ram that won't be turned in with the ewes this breeding. We will also make 2 more of the A frame shelters from the left over corral shelters. I think we will put up the shelters first, then build the pens around them though, that will be easier than trying to slide the corral shelter panels over the top of the 5' high corral panels again! LOL As we train her, we will keep Angel in one of the large folds, switching her between the different sheep - unbred ewe lambs, solitary ram, and breeding ewes & ram. Eventually we will let her be loose on the field with the other dogs during the day and shut her up at night in the barn pen with the ewes at night.

Rika is already teaching her to be polite to her elders. LOL Bubba has accepted her and is sweet to her.
 

Bruce

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"Mother Nature dumped as much as five feet of fresh powder at one peak in the Sierra Nevada during a 24-hour period over the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

The 60-inch deluge of snow at Castle Peak near Donner Pass "

Sure glad you weren't going for Angel yesterday!
 

Ridgetop

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Constant downpour today again. I would say it was an El Nino year, but a lot of the rain is coming from the Artic. For the last 200 years the San Fernando Valley has had alternating seasons of 7 years of wet winters, 7 years of dry winters. The wet winters coincided with mild summers and vice versa. Our climate hasn't necessarily changed, but we are experiencing some weather changes that are very strange speaking as one whose family has lived not only in California, but within the same 30 mile locations for 100 years! Anyway, as one of the lucky Californios who actually has a real barn, we were able to weigh lambs today in spite of the storm. Most people have corrals with just a small overhead shelter mostly to give patches of shade to their horses. We don't keep our horses in stalls anymore and they don't have shelters, but can shelter under the trees and behind windbreaks. We use the bsrn for the sheep and they have been inside for the last 2 days. They can go out, but we feel guilty bcause Rika and Bubba have to be out in the downpour with them. The sheep are wearing wool, and the dog have thick cots, but we feel guilty. Once we move and have more than a few sheep I don'tthink we will feel guilty any more. Also, we will fix up field shelters/windbreaks where the sheep and the dogs can get out of the wind and rain.

Our Dorper and Dorper x Dorset lambs have been gaining at a very good .73 lbs per day averaged over the past 2 months! We have not been creep feeding the lambs for the past 3 weeks (since Angel started sharing their creep!) and they still put on a respectable .70 lbs. ADG. They are all very long and wide. I am super happy with my new Lewis ram - my Dorsets were a bit square instead of as long as I like. This ram has put a lot of length in the loin on these crossbred lambs. I might keep the cross bred ewe lamb for a while so she can keep the purebred lamb company until the next sale. Then I can decide whether to put her in the freezer, or use her for breeding locker lambs.

Angel has gained 16 lbs. in the past 3 weeks! She is looking less like a fuzz ball and more like a miniature Anatolian. Here are R to L Rika, Bubba, and Angel during family time after sheep are in barn. The thing that looks like Angel's deformed foreleg is actually the large bone visible in the 3rd photo.
IMG_4347.jpg IMG_4329.jpg IMG_4332.jpg

She is doing well and learning about the property and her sheep too. Here she is in the ewe pen laying quietly watching the sheep. They are content to be around her. This photo is looking down into the barn from the driveway. because of the slope, the barn is built 4' below the driveway grade.
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We did have a bad moment when she got too close to one of the mules. She and Bubba were playing and she ended up next to the pile of hay where lacey was eating. In fact, she ended up rolling onto the hay pile. Lacey stomped ad Angel yelped an at first we thought the mule had stomped her (they like to do that and are dangerous around puppies) but DH had a good view of the scene and he said that Lacey stomped her hoof without hitting the puppy at all. More like "Yo Miss Inconsiderate! I'm eating here". Angel yelped and ran crying back back to Bubba. Then Rika examined her and made sure she was ok from nose to tail. She is smart and a fast learner.

It has been raining here for the past month off and on. The hills are nice and green which is probably one reason the sheep are able to graze and the lambs are gaining so well. We only do one small hay feed at night with 3 lbs. of barleycorn for the 4 lambs, and 5 ewes. These Dorpers are much better at feed conversion - I really like them. You will have seen in the news that lots of flooding is happening mostly in the burn areas. Lots of snow in Seattle (my sister in Renton is trapped with 3' of snow and ice on her steep driveway. Seattle and environs rarely gets snow.

We are starting our Move-To-Texas-Process. Got the information on our capital gains payments when we sell the house from our accountant. Won't be as bad as we thought so that is good. We are checking on value of Yelm property in order to 1031 exchange into rental Texas ranch property. Looking for and finding and finding property will be another trip to Texas end of September staying for month of October. Once we buy our ranch property, we will park our 5th wheel on Texas property, fix ranch house for rental, find tenant, and begin year long process of bringing all our moveable ranch equipment, corrals, etc., etc., to TX ranch property. Hopefully there will be a good barn to store it. The horse corrals we can set up. On each trip we will put up sections of the 5-6' woven no climb fencing for the dog and sheep. We will have to plan to put it in around house and barns or sheds. Later we can cross fence pastures for sheep with dog access. LOTS OF GATES! You never have too many gates in pastures. Finally, we will sell our house here, begin final move to Texas, live in our 5th wheel until tenant moves out of ranch house. Exhausted just considering all the packing! Not to mention if we have to do any fixing up or reno to ranch house after moving in! We can keep all our stuff in storage and continue living in the 5th wheel while doing work.

Thank goodness I spent all that time sorting and cleaning the workshop and milking shed. Now we can just load all those bins, break down and load the shelves, bring them to TX, set up shelves and buy more shelves, and unload bins onto shelves. We are planning to go through other 2 storage units and sort out all the stuff we need to keep, and dispose of rest. Have to wait for rain to stop to haul stuff out but can at least get in and sort what to keep from what to donate. We own a 20' Conex container that we can pack and have moved to the new property. DD2 is looking for an apartment and hopes to find one in next 2 months so that will take care of some of the furniture, paintings, and the giant storage boxes she is keeping in our storage unit. We still have a year before selling our house to dispose of or put rest into storage. I think I will have our kids go through and choose what they want (within reason) before packing to move. They can then either put it in their homes or store it themselves somewhere.

Speaking of Conex shipping containers. Do any of you have experience using them in Texas heat? Greybeard, I think you said something about the heat and humidity causing condensation on the inside of the roof. Here they eat up, but it is dry so no condensation. We like them for grain storage since pests and bugs can't get inside. Should we use them for other storage instead of feed? Maybe we could put in a roof vent and use packets of dehumidifier if we use them for storage.

So much to do to get ready. However, the final decision has been made and Texas here we come! Getting DH a gun rack for the truck window. Also going to smear mud on the license plate until we can get it changed over to TX plates. Need to put cattle and horses in front of property and hide sheep behind barns. Greybeard has issued warnings about Texas cattle country :ya and they did not fall on deaf ears. Well, DH is a little deaf without his hearing aids, but I paid attention. LOL

I hope we survive the move! :old
 

High Desert Cowboy

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Wow you’ve got a lot to get done! At least you’ve got a plan, though Eisenhower once said “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
Glad to hear your pup didn’t meet an early end to the mule, that happens all to frequently. I’ve had friends lose good dogs to an ornery mule. Llamas aren’t much better, I used to shoe for a gal with a llama that would attempt to kill any dog it saw. He made me nervous too, he’d creep up on me while I was under a horse and I never fully trusted him
 

greybeard

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Do any of you have experience using them in Texas heat? Greybeard, I think you said something about the heat and humidity causing condensation on the inside of the roof.
It can but I can tell you my experience is that they are also OVENS in mid summer!
Getting DH a gun rack for the truck window.
I assume you are being facetious, but no one here uses them any more unless they are going from home to their hunting lease. When I was a kid, every truck it seemed had a rifle rack, and most had at least a .22 in it...even when I was at high school.

Left in the truck rack most other times will mean a busted side or rear window and a stolen weapon. Many decades ago, when I was a kid, my father offered a bit of advice. "Son, people will steal a rifle when they would never steal anything else".
You will have to master the 'Texas/Oklahoma
(1 or 2) finger wave' tho. (no, not just the middle finger.)
 

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