Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

Senile_Texas_Aggie

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Miss @Ridgetop,

Here is what Texas summers are like, including east Texas where Miss @Baymule is, as well as the Texas panhandle: Miss Baymule and her DH were out working all day one summer, battling Miss Baymule's nemesis, green briars. Finally her DH had all he could handle and went in to take a shower and rest. Miss Baymule continued working for about 30 more minutes, and then she decided she had enough as well. She was hot, sweaty, and filthy from all of the dirty work and was looking forward to a nice shower. When she got into the house, she met her DH coming out of the shower. He had a sheepish look on his face. He told her, "I'm sorry, dear, but I am afraid I used up all of the cold water!"
 

greybeard

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I was on a drilling rig one day, out in the Permian Basin (Midland Odessa area) pulling 3 miles of 4-1/2" pipe out at 3/4 million lb hookload and looked down on the engine floor and saw a long line of them yellow/black stripped lizards cooling their feet on the exhaust pipes....
 
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Ridgetop

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Back again but very confused abut where to look in Texas. Also, it is getting expensive there now. Also, heard something I find it hard to believe - supposedly Dallas is no longer treating theft as a crime! Is that true? Or is the Dallas police community just letting Texans shoot thieves? Works for me and would certainly be cheaper than arresting, trying, and imprisoning them. Also heard that my beloved Texas is beginning to have similar problems (homeless camping out on sidewalks, etc.) as in the heavily liberal cities and states. Please say it aint so!

We are coming to Texas in July and will be there in August. Hotter than *&^%@! but might as well come out then as any other time. Especially if we plan to move there we need to face up to the general weather.

We have a movie company filming at the neighbor's house for the next 8 days. They have to give everyone a hold harmless, and pay to cross the private road since we all have to pay to repair/replace it. DH has rented them our field to park on so they won't be driving up and down the single lane private road all day. They are going to pay us, BUT WHAT A HASSLE! I don't want to do it since we have to put Josie the mule in a corral, keep the sheep locked up in a small corral, and kennel the LGDs so they don't eat the film crew. The file crew will have their cars parked on the field for 12 hours a day. At 7pm they are soused to leave and we can shut the gate and turn the dogs loose.

DH says we will buy a second Connex container in order to transfer all the stuff in the rented one and get out from under that payment. He is also putting the second one 10' away from the first one and will then put a roof over the 10' x 25' space between the 2 containers which we will then use for a hayshed. We are buying all the hay we can get right now. Prime alfalfa runs $20/bale (100 lbs) in the winter and we are getting it for $13.00. DS3 is coming down from Nipomo with his flatbed trailer tomorrow to pick up 100 bales since he is paying $20/bale right now in the central coast area. We have about 180 bales in our barn and sheds right now. The sheep have not cleared off all the acreage either so they still have plenty to eat on the field. We want to get more hay if we can find a place to store it. IT RAINED AGAIN LAST NIGHT! And looks like it might rain tomorrow too. Any rain we get just makes the forage grow and saves us on hay. So I say, come on rain . . . .

Most of the sheep are bred now. 3 are definitely bred for late September and early October lambing. Several more are bred for late October and early November lambing. 4 will be bred for late January or early February lambing. I am considering taking a couple of fall and spring ewe lambs to the Western States Dorper show to get opinions on them next May. All the ram lambs will be wethered for freezer lambs.

After our Texas trip we will be putting up more fencing to be able to turn the ewes and lambs into separate rotational grazing pens to clean off the forage before fire clearance season. We won't have to do any fire clearance that way. I have been trying to convince my family that was the way to go but they wouldn't listen This year DS1 had to Do a lot of weed wacking and has finally decided to LISTEN TO HIS MOTHER! Of course, to hear DS1 and DH tall this is their great idea! :he As long as it gets done . . . .

I m also going to get some 1" x 4" 8' cheap construction lumber and build some 36"-42" high panels to use for a runway and chute. It will be so much easier to handle the sheep for vaccinations, etc. instead of trying to catch them. They will come up to us but not if they see a halter or rope. Got to fix dinner - more later.
 

greybeard

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Back again but very confused abut where to look in Texas. Also, it is getting expensive there now. Also, heard something I find it hard to believe - supposedly Dallas is no longer treating theft as a crime! Is that true? Or is the Dallas police community just letting Texans shoot thieves? Works for me and would certainly be cheaper than arresting, trying, and imprisoning them. Also heard that my beloved Texas is beginning to have similar problems (homeless camping out on sidewalks, etc.) as in the heavily liberal cities and states. Please say it aint so!

I don't think the DFW police have stopped treating theft as a crime nor has the district attorneys' offices. May be a backlog on court dockets but it's still a crime.
Homeless and vagrants? Yep..everywhere. Always been a few just like any place but as more and more people move here and immigrate here, the problem has multiplied. In Houston, the beggars are on every corner. Scam artists, bogus doctors, snake oil salesmen from every sector..you name it, it's here. They did it where ever they were before and brought their idiosyncrasies with them. Never fails. Worse in Austin, El Paso, and Bexar than anywhere else but every place has their share.

Yes, it will be hot in July and probably dry as a bone. It's Texas, it's July...that's the way it's supposed to be, hot and dry.

If you cross the Tx Panhandle on US83/60, look for the big green dinosaur up on the bluff South of Canadian.
 
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Ridgetop

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Will do! Hot weather, cold weather, rain, you need to know and be ready to accept whatever the climate brings wherever you live. Growing up in So Cal makes me understand how to live in hot dry desert areas. Do all your shopping in the am or after dark, stay in the shade as much as possible, protect your skin with sunscreen and your head with a hat. If you have to do physical work in the heat of the day drink lots of water and take frequent breaks in the shade. In cold weather, dress in layers, and don't dress so heavy that you are sweating under your clothes. Drink lots of water then too, only it should be warm water or of course, COFFEE! Wet areas, know ho the land drains, where the creeks and ponds flood, etc.

IOW know your surroundings. Texas will b a whole new lot of stuff to learn, with no grandparents to tell us how it used to be. Those old stories of how it used to be are good learning tools to learn the weather patterns, etc. Too bad so many kids are not interested in learning from their grandparents and parents. It's their loss - the smart ones listen.
 

greybeard

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Do all your shopping in the am or after dark, stay in the shade as much as possible, protect your skin with sunscreen and your head with a hat. If you have to do physical work in the heat of the day drink lots of water and take frequent breaks in the shade
I haven't used sunscreen in 40 years, and don't know any ranchers that do and I tend to take my shade with me where ever I go. Still wear the same palm hat as in this 11 year old picture.
palmhat.jpg
 

Ridgetop

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Neither did DH in all his years hanging off power poles. Now he gets skin cancers all the time and has to be vigilant. I keep warning my sons but they don't use it either. However, they do wear hard hats at work, and feed caps when working outside. I wear a hat, and try to remember to use sunscreen and don't sunbathe any more. (But that is due to my advanced age and fear of traumatizing small children - although I should put it to good use clearing the beach quickly so we can have the best spot! LOL :lol:

DH3 drove down and picked up 88 bales of prime alfalfa - all the guy had left. He is cutting back on his hay business but will have hay 4 days a week so no problem except as winter comes in it will go up in price All the rain this year has brought in a bumper crop of high quality alfalfa here in the southwest. My Austin friend says that you can't feed alfalfa grown below the Red River to horses since it tends to have some sort of poisonous to horses bug in it. He says that you have to feel coastal hay and supplement with grain and concentrates. Here we don't have to supplement at all since our alfalfa is so rich. Different locations, different feeding practices.

DS3 is going to check for a Connex container for us. He said he can get the watertight/weatherproof used containers for about $2100 if he brings it down. He will load it on his flatbed trailer with the tilt bed and bring it up, then take back another 100 bales of alfalfa. That will save us the $250 delivery fee. We need 2 more of them. DS3 is also going to bring us some large power poles to use to roof over the space between the Connexes. He says to space them 14'-15' apart but he used his tractor to put those power poles in position and I am not sure we can get them in place without a pole cat or tractor. However, we can at least fill another container with more hay before winter prices hit. If we stockpile enough alfalfa, and we get good rains this winter again, we will make a profit on our lamb crop. :fl :fl :fl Break even is ok too, since the $$$ we would have to spend on clearing the property without the sheep would be considered profit.

I want to make enough of a profit/break even that we can deduct all the investment into the new sheep, fencing, etc. The Connexes are also deductible since they are for hay storage. If (when) we move to Texas, we will fill them with our boxes, equipment, etc. and ship them to the new place. Once we get there we will have to cut vents into them and install air turbines on top to avoid buildup of moisture in the Texas humidity so they will be usable.

I want to say right now that I have learned so much from all you guys about stuff we will need to know in Texas - we will never have the knowledge of Texans born and raised but I am learning as fast as possible. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! :hugs

CAN'T WAIT TO MEET BAYMULE AND DEVONVIOLET THIS SUMMER. ANYONE ELSE WANT TO TRY TO MEET UP LET ME KNOW. We will be travelling home through Atchison KS and Durango CO to visit with DH's cousins too, so anyone along the route want to get together to meet and have ice tea or coffee let me know. :frow

Greybeard: Bringing my old cowboy hat too! Keeps the sun off all around.
 
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