Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

messybun

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Apparently now the CDC says when eating Thanksgiving dinner you must bring all your own dishes and silverware to eat with! And your own food to eat! And sit 6' away from each other! With Gov. Gruesom saying to wear masks while eating and no more than 3 households 9we have to choose which children we can invite), Thanksgiving sounds delightful this year!
Instead of Thanksgiving this year our family will be having a BLM rally. After eating dinner we cook here without masks on Grandma's china and silver, shouting at each other in family tradition, we will go out looting for some really good Christmas gifts.
:lol:
It’s a funeral for your dearest friend Tom.
 

Ridgetop

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It’s a funeral for your dearest friend Tom.

Tom is sadly dead and his partial cremation scheduled for Thanksgiving Day, however according to Governor Gruesome funerals are now considered "cultural events" and also banned indoors (no church services in other words).

However, our nationwide "cultural" religion requires us to eat Tom's partially cremated corpse amid shouting, laughing, toasting, and other loud and noisy displays of passion. While we don't shout "Hallelujah!" we do shout "Yum!" and "Pass the gravy" with religious fervor.

We will keep you all in our prayers on this day of religious "cultural" celebration! :hugs No flowers please, but donations of cranberry sauce may be made to countless families (including yours) around the country.
 

Ridgetop

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Dearest Baymule:
Your lack of excitement saddens me. :hit But I am willing to share. Come visit us!

Having a deaf husband can sometimes be helpful, as when you mutter unpleasant things about his annoying habits. Most of the time though it is incredibly problematic. I have to accompany him to the doctor, translate questions (and answers that make no sense because he is answering what he thought he heard instead of the actual questions), when he makes business phone calls about anything I have a phone thrust in front of my face as I am involved in other chores with instructions to talk to whoever it is but without any information on who the call is to or about. (I may be an all-knowing domestic and farm goddess, but there are limits to my powers.) It also gives him a perfect excuse to not do anything I ask! LOL But he is a big cuddly bear and I love him. :love

My ewes will quietly give birth in their pens when they are confined to them, but if they are out on the field and go into the gully, UGH! Without excited shouting the dogs let them lamb quietly and don't mess with them. Shouting makes the dogs think something is wrong and they need to return the ewe to the flock pronto. Since we are chasing after the sheep, they join in to help. Most of our problem is living on such a steep hillside. NO ONE wants to go into the gully to retrieve a newborn lamb. FSIL was sent because he is young and fleet. Knows nothing about sheep, but is willing to try at the moment.

I really recommend that every sheep or goat owner acquaint themselves with proper presentations of lambs and kids, and with the various bad presentations that can occur. Usually nothing ever happens, but IF you ever do have to assist a ewe giving birth it is essential that you know what to do to be able to assist. It is inevitable that the close friend who has delivered multiple goats and kids will be out of town, at the doctor's office, or have his/her phone turned off or dead when you call.

We have no sheep/goat vets and I had to learn all this myself from a book. Then as a 4-H leader I taught it to my project members. They still called me every time there was a problem and with dairy goats - mostly Nubians who are renowned for litters instead of twins - I got a lot of extra practice. If there is a problem you have a certain time window in which to pull the baby. If the face is presenting usually the nose will be sticking out. This is a good presentation since the cord is probably intact and the baby will live for several hours while you get it out. Ignore the tongue hanging out the mouth and turning blue since it is normal. Knowing where the front legs are is a must since you need at least one of them out to help ease the shoulders out when pulling. It is also important to know that they are the front legs! If you have a malpresentation and are trying to pull a head and rear leg through it will never fit. If there is no room to get the front leg out, you need to push the baby back inside the protesting mom to give more room to rearrange its position. Just a hint here - she won't like this and will fight you ruthlessly. This can be painful as she contracts and pushes hard, squeezing your hand between her bony pelvis and the baby's skull!

If the lamb seems limp and dead when you pull it out, don't despair! The swinging trick really works!

Wrap a towel around the slippery rear legs, hang on tight and swing the lamb upside down vigorously. Don't be afraid you will break the lamb - they are very flexible as newborns. This is a lifesaving move and being too afraid to swing the lamb will result in death anyway. The swinging motion forces any placental liquid the lamb may have inhaled back down its throat from the lungs and out of the nose and mouth so it can breath.

The only lamb I lost after swinging it was last year when I swung it till it moved but then tried to do mouth to mouth. I think I forced some remaining liquid back into its lungs or windpipe doing that so I don't do mouth to mouth any more, just swing upside down vigorously.

After this exciting and exhausting process don't forget to iodine the navel. After all that work you don't want the baby to develop "navel ill" which is a joint infection caused by infection setting in through the navel cord after birth. While the infection enters through the navel, it manifests in infections in the joints. We use Iodophor full strength. A large pill bottle works best since you can dip the entire cord stump in the bottle. I hold the bottle tight to the baby's belly with the cord inside the iodine and slosh it up onto the belly to make sure everything gets disinfected. The full strength iodine also helps to dry up the cord to seal out germs.

A rear leg presentation is also possible to pull but is harder since the baby's survival is less optimistic since the head may hang up in the pelvis. Remember to use a downward pull since that is the normal sloe of the pelvis and birth canal and the baby will come out easier.

Because I have so many years positive experience in pulling lambs and kids, I don't wait too long. Sometimes I probably pull some lambs too soon. I am working on that. LOL
 

thistlebloom

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When I decide that my life is too boring I will raise sheep. But with my luck it would turn out like Bays and not be exciting and hilarious. My husband is however losing his hearing so maybe that will help some.
Please give Josie the Mule a carrot from her Idaho fan club. She's the best :love.
 

Ridgetop

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So now a new directive has come from Mayor Fartcetti. Everyone is to stay home and no one is to go to relatives' homes for Thanksgiving. While this may cancel Yi Pau's (DSIL's aunt) visit, my family of scofflaws will ignore it. Safe behind our deadlocked gates, protected by our 3 Anatolians lounging on the lawn with their dessicated coyote remnants, we will make merry.

DD1 wants us to host a sleepover for the grandchildren next week I told DH we culd do it on Tuesday when they normally come to work. That way the next morning DGS2 will be in residence to make pumpkin pies with me. He has asked to do this and I said yes in a misguided moment forgetting that DD1 would not show up with him till about 4pm on Wednesday by which time I will be deep in stuffing prep. This way we get more work done and pies made early on Wednesday am which is when I like to do it.

Thanksgiving weekend is also the weekend my sons bring in the Christmas decorations and I start the 3 day process of decorating. This does not include putting up the tree which is a 1 day process of its own since I no longer have small children to decorate it for me. :(

The following week I start the Christmas cookie baking rite. :drool This year DD1 wants to bake cookie plates of her own which means that I must go to her house and teach her the hidden rituals of my grandmother's recipes that she has never bothered to learn. This is necessary since one day I will wake up and find that the Christmas cookie baking spell has deserted me. It happened to my grandmother and I had to take over the Christmas cookie baking for her. Soon it will desert me too and I must prepare the next generation in the secrets of the craft. Or never eat another of the special Christmas cookie recipes handed down in our family for 5 generations. If this tradition is allowed to be lost I will be cursed by my children's children unto the ages. Oh the responsibility! :ep

DD1 is not a very good cook. It is sad since she does not really learn and never wanted to. Her cakes are ok but not light and fluffy. Her frosting is ok but not perfect clouds of delectation. I think she inherited my DMIL's lack of tastebuds. DMIL was not a spectacular cook either except for her pumpkin pies and homemade pie crust. Darling Daddy did most of the cooking.

BUT THIS IS THE YEAR! DO OR DIE!
 

Baymule

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Hey! I bet you don't know about your favorite governor! You have been so busy with weddings, illicit Thanksgiving plans and equally illicit, underground Christmas plans with :epmore than your own household in attendance! HORRORS! What a conniving little criminal you are with your super spreader events! :th You can play frisbee coyote with the grandkids!

Anyway, there it a petition in circulation to recall your buddy, Gavin.

You are welcome!


 

Baymule

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In response the the 10:00 curfew now imposed on the people of California, they were protesting in the streets last night. Where were the burning buildings, the looting, the out of control crowds? Don't these idiots know how to hold a peaceful protest?
 

Baymule

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