Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[Ridgetop]

DDIL2 is at work and DS2 is babysitting. This should be a happy daddy/baby bonding exercise but unfortunately, we are finding out that Robert has never been left alone in his life. Robert will be 12 months old in one week and not only does DDIL2 wake him up in the middle of the night to nurse him, but then she sleeps on a mattress next to the crib with him instead of returning him to his crib and going back to bed. DS2 told her that at 6 months he needed to be sleeping in his crib so she bought a roll up mattress so she can sleep next to him on the nursery floor! This is so wrong in so many ways!!! In addition, her parents put him in their bed for naps and sleep with him, so he has never slept alone! He is completely spoiled about playing in the playpen, and only is happy when being held by his mama. I don't know how this will end but told DS2 to go to the pediatrician with DDIL2 and Robert and talk to the pediatrician about this. Maybe the pediatrician can point out to her that this is not good for the baby or their marriage. When baby #2 comes along Robert will be so jealous he might be dangerous to any new baby. If baby #2 comes along since Robet sleeping with them is a real good contraceptive method! Well, I can't do anything about this since she has parents and sisters who enable the behavior. Her siblings are not married and have no children and since several of her sisters have decided they want to be Lesbians, this may be the only grandchild. I don't want to get involved. I want to leave all my grandbabies and children behind and go back to Texas! And work on my sheep ranch.

I have looking into any possible grants or special low interest loans for women farmers/ranchers. I have to be one of a group identified as underserved or discriminated against. Do women qualify anymore? Or do I have to be a woman identifying as a man identifying as a woman? DH would qualify under the Veterans' Act. I will look into that. It is possible that our ages would count against us in which case we might qualify as underserved groups as aged persons.

Better go down to clean out the jugs for the next group of ewes coming on to lamb this month. I also want to figure out how to redo their metal hay bins to have a box at the bottom to prevent the hay from dropping all those nutrition rich leaves of priceless alfalfa out onto the barn floor. Currently they are just hay bins with open bars curving under. I know there is something I could figure out, just have to think about it, The next ones I buy, I will not go cheap - I will buy the ones with the grain box attached underneath for the extra $125. However , I am sure I can figure out how to make a shallow box of wood to attach to the hay feeders with wire to make them work better. And for less than $125 each. I probably have some bits and pieces of left over lumber and plywood in the shed that will work. I need 5 of them. I also want to get some 3/8" plywood to cut into 24" widths to wire on to the portable chute sides to made the chute walls look solid. That will help the sheep not to turn around in the chute and made a sheep jam. Really annoying since our current chute runs between several horse panels which are 5' tall and hard to work through. Once in Texas, we might cut some of them in half vertically to get 30" panels for chute walls. They will make semi-permanent chutes.

I wish I could clone myself so I could just work with ME who knows everything and would need little or no instruction on what to do! Not only would we be able to do everything in record time, but between the 2 of us we would have one good body with which to do everything! Mybe I could clone myself several times and really get a lot done! On the other hand, we would all want to be the boss!

Going down to the barn now to check things out.

 

[Baymule]

Yes! Make a tray for those hay bits! Then the stinkers can jump in it and poop/pee in it. Or at the very least, back up to it and leave little brown pearls in it.
Let me know how that clone works out for you. It sounds like a good idea if you can pull it off!

 

[Margali]

@Ridgetop The part that seems crazy is sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of the nursery. And dad not having enough baby time so baby is used to dad. Baby needs to get used to snuggle to start nap then grownup leave.

The rest, well... You basically described my setup. I co-slept with side sleeper crib while nursing. Then baby transitioned to cot setup next to bed where we could pat back if he was upset. Then cot at other end of bedroom, then bottom bunk in their own room, We baby wore the whole time to. @Baymule can tell you my three kids are okay. They are 9, 5, and 3.

 

[Ridgetop]

Probably ok eventually, but only ok with his mom and since they live with us, and baby screams every time one of us has to hold him not OK. His dad is getting tired of never having his wife in bed with him too. Also not good for their relationship although I stay out of that.

I am really tired of living with my children and grandchildren and ready to move to Texas. Figured out why i want to move far away - I am tired of children using my home as dropping point for items they don't want to store themselves. Or take to Goodwill. Tired of babysitting when someone needs or wants to do something unencumbered by children. Tired of taking care of sick children when parents have to work. Tired of cooking for 5 adults every day. Tired of doing dishes and cleanup for everyone. Finally, just plain tired. DH bought me some iron yesterday so I can start taking it in case I am anemic. Left message for doctor to call and discuss bloodwork but no return call.

Today at 2:30 is Annabel's First Birthday party. Hamburgers and hot dogs on patio with cake to follow. I got up early and got a cup of coffee for DH and one for me. Then we both read our books in bed until around 8:30 when DH got up and had breakfast. I stayed in bed finishing my book until NOON! Got up, showered, washed my hair, dressed, got phone call from DD1 asking if we had a cone collar for their dog who got neutered. I asked why they didn't get one at vet and she said DSIL1 was too cheap (sorry, economical) to pay for one. Told her that Angel had ripped her cone off and then chewed it up last year.

Then I went into my lovely formal living room. Not a pleasant sight since it held 3 large car seats, a large cardboard box with a guinea pig house, and a toddler bed. Another large cardboard box was on the dining room table filled with cardboard egg cartons being "saved for DDIL1", along with a lot of miscellaneous stuff randomly shoved on the table or the floor around it! Also some empty shipping boxes that were stuck in there after the baby stuff was removed from them! They don;t even take the boxes out to the trash!!!

I muttered stuff that I cannot put into print and dragged the toddler bed down to the shed where it will go into the loft. Then put the guinea pig house in the laundry so DD2 (for whom it was made) can take it home after the BD party. Dragged some plastic storage boxes down to the shed along with DS2's folding sawhorses which were sitting outside the door. Once in the shed I realized the ladder to get into the loft was missing so I went to lo0k for it. DS1 said he knew where it was and fetched it forme. I was going to shove the stuff into the loft but he did it for me. Including the Jumperoo which I had put away a couple weeks ago. I had also asked DS2 to take the toddler bed down and put everything in the loft since apparently the toddler bed was brought over for his son. While we were in the shed DS2 brought down the box with the guinea pig house and said it needed to be oiled before going to DD2. He got snippy when Ii told hm to go do it right now and I got even snippier. Poor DS1 got the brunt of my complaints while doing all the stuff I had asked DS2 to do. Anyway, got to go finish clearing the dining room table and floor. Really disgusted that the kids figure they can just clutter up my house with their junk!
dragged the toddler bed

 

[Baymule]

When parents run away from home..........

 

[farmerjan]

 

[Ridgetop]

Yes, I want to run away from home and go live on my own little farm. Maybe alone.

Pulled out the Wood County Soils book I got from the County extension agent several years ago. Looked up the type of soil we have and then looked up what that type meant as far as growing, building, percolation, etc. Seems like good soil, silty loam with enough clay to hold T-posts, not too sandy or too heavy.

I started pricing 6' woven wire and 10' T-posts today for the perimeter fence. DH says we can put it in ourselves. If we start this summer, we might be able to get it done in the next 2 years. I will also price other fencing companies. The first one estimated $75,000 to fence the perimeter of our 45 acres with game fence! I suppose we could come up with that much, but do we need 8' game fence? Maybe we only need 6' high tensile fencing. And if we fence only half it would be cheaper. And if we do it ourselves, even cheaper. I have to figure out how far apart to put the H braces in the span of wire. As you can see from the property survey map, the property is L shaped with one long side running along Hwy 154. The house is in the far right corner with the barn behind it. The 2 ponds are behind the barn leaving about 30 acres of open Bermuda pasture to the left. My original plan was to fence in the approximately 15 acres of the short arm with the house, small shed, and barn, leaving the 30 acres of Bermuda for the cattle lease or for cutting for hay for our use. However now I see that 15 acres would include the ponds and Baymule has warned me about letting the sheep drink from the ponds due to the possibility of liver flukes. Between the Barberpole worms and liver flukes, I would have major parasite problems so now I don't want to let the sheep have access to the pond.
I

Instead I am considering fencing the house area, barn, and a smaller part of the short leg avoiding the ponds, then fencing across the front pastures for my rotational grazing pastures. The problem there is that I would need to pump water to the sheep from the well situated between the house and barn on the right side. We were planning to put in a storage tank since the well casing has pinholes in it and the well water tastes of Sulphur. I could drill another well since the property is sitting on a good aquifer with excellent tasting water but that will cost $$$. A storage tank would allow the water to dissipate the Sulphur so the taste would not be bad. Also it would allow me to fill the water troughs in the various pastures without continually pumping from the well. We could connect solar panels to the well for pumping. Another possibility is to see if the well can be relined somehow. At one time there were 5 wells on this property so the water is there. The house is connected to community water.

The 4 short sides average 800' each. The long highway frontage is +/- 1,500' while the long side front to back is 1,728'. The continuous borders are about 6,500' of fencing. I will need H braces both ways at each corner (forming an L) and at each gate opening. I will also need to place H braces at intervals in the fencing spans to maintain the strength. The fence has to be a minimum of 6' high for the dogs. I can get no-climb woven wire in 6' height. The soil is a good sandy loan with a clay base so T-posts should work well if we stretch the wire tight and provide good corner bracing without trying to wrap the corners. The T posts should be driven into the ground at least 2', so a minimum height of 8' would be needed for the T-posts. I will need several gates in the perimeter fence.

The interior fences for the sheep don't have to be 6' tall. They only have to be 42-48" tall and have dog openings that the sheep will not access. One problem will be the dogs going after the cattle tenant if the interior fences are 42-48". And he has to get in to feed his cows or take them to market. This problem means that I might have to fence only part of the perimeter with 6' fencing and leave the part for the cattle unfenced except for the 48" barbed wire cattle fencing there now. Doing that may be tricky since I have to leave Cody access to his cattle somehow. I could allow access on the far right side of the property between the house and the property line that would circle around to the back for Cody. Or as the flock grows I could divide everything into rotation pastures that would ensure the grass stays 4" high, since I was told that Barberpole only climb 3" up and that would help with control of Barberpole. At 5 sheep per acre I could conceivably run 200 head of sheep. However when you consider nursing ewes and lambs, that would divide the number by 3 down to 50-60 ewes and rams. I would like a balance of about 50 since I will have to dry lot the open ewes when feeding hay instead if pasture. Possibly less if I want to rotationally graze and not feed hay, or cut the hay on my land for winter feeding.
Lots to plan out.

 

[Ridgetop]

Started cleaning the barn jugs today. They need to be dug out and limed. Filled 2 large barrels then DS1 found me and scolded me. Said he planned to dig them out this week. I told him that he better hurry since we have 2 ewes due on the 26th, and another on the 28th. Running out of time.

Put Moyboy in on Friday evening and he marked Snowflake yesterday. So lambs in March, May, and August. Not sure what that will do to our plan to come to Texas with DS1 to start fencing. Might get back in June and July. But I won't now about my knee surgery till April 5 anyway. I need to call the doctor again tomorrow since I didn't get any response to my call about my blood tests.

Annabel had her birthday party yesterday SHE IS 1 YEAR OLD!l Robert was very fussy today. Every time she put him in the crib he screamed until she went back and picked him up. I went to my room and shut the door. Robert will be 1 year old March 26th. Getting to be a big boy.

 

[Bruce]

but do we need 8' game fence? Maybe we only need 6' high tensile fencing.

I suppose that depends on what you are trying to keep out?? If you don't mind deer jumping in and possibly becoming dog food, I don't think you need an 8' fence.

 

[Ridgetop]

Having deer become dog food would cut down the feed bills but I will have to find out if it would be illegal for the dogs to "take" a deer if it jumped inside my fencing. I don't think the dogs could get deer tags since they couldn't pass the safety tests for gun or bows. Don't want them tossed in prison because they can't pay the fine!

DS1 cleaned the rest of the barn jugs today. He limed them and sprayed for flies really thoroughly. Tomorrow he will get out the table saw and we will make the boxes to go on the bottom of the jug feeders. We will attach them to the feeders with wire.

Had a fellow from one of the houses below on the road come up to ask about buying a lamb. He said he wanted a BBQ lamb but when he saw the 50 lb. lambs decided they were too small and asked about a larger one. I told him I would sell a 60-70 lb. lamb for $400. I would prefer to just take everything to the auction but if he will pay that much fine with me. Then he asked if we would butcher it for him and I said no. I did give him a name and address of someone that would do it. He said he also has some rother Armenian people that sell lambs. I asked him why he didn't just buy from them and he said that he thought ours would be better. ??? Anyway, I told him I would call him in a couple weeks so he could come pick it up before the auction for cash. Told him I wouldn't hold it after auction day since prices are up for easter. Planning to take the lambs and the one ewe on April 6. DS2 said he would drive down with me since he needs to sign the books anyway and it is close. If he doesn't want to go I will just take them myself. DH scheduled an 8:00 am hearing test for that date after I told hm it was the day we would go to the auction. Said he didn't hear me say that! Obviously going to fail the hearing test!

Spent a lot of time today pricing fencing material and T-posts. Found 8' posts at TSC for $7.69 while the 10' posts are 13.79! Almost twice as much for an extra 2'! I suppose we could do a 6' fence instead of an 8' fence. Deer are not a big concern - I just want the dogs to remain inside the fencing due to the location of the house on the highway. The wire is also very expensive for 72" wire so we are considering using 49" wire and then adding some lightweight wire on the top for a visual barrier. Maybe with a hot wire although hot wires seem to fail even with a good charger. But since the hot wire would just be for extra deterrent it probably would not matter. These are not Pyrs.

Figured out that the total running length of the perimeter fence will be about 6,800 ft! That does not include any interior fencing for rotational grazing pastures. Those fences will not need to be 6' high so the T-posts will be cheaper because they will be shorter. But we will still need posts for H braces, fence posts, more gates than the perimeter, etc. I have finally convinced DH that we need to bring all our cross arms with us to use for H braces. They range from 8' to 14' and are 4" x 5". They are also creosoted so they won't rot in the ground. We have a lot of them in various lengths from the pool decking we took down and will bring all of the with us. Tomorrow I will go down and see how many are on the hillside to bring up. We used them for our original fence before putting in the big fence.

I plotted how many H braces we would need - 8-10 corner braces, if we put H braces every 100 feet in a run, we will need another 70 H braces. I can't find the thread abut fencing where Greybeard gave the footage for that. If we use Hi Tensile fencing and stretch it tight we can get away with using T posts every 20 feet? Anyway, I figured out we need 400 T-posts, 160 8-10' wood posts for the H uprights and 60 6' posts for the cross braces. This is assuming I use 3 verticals and 2 horizontals for each corner brace. It will be expensive, but much less that $75,000. Maybe I will get some other bids but considering that fencing 5 of our 6 acres with 5' high 3 rail welded oil pipe and no climb cost $20,000 20 years ago, probably fencing 45 acres with game fencing is not that bad at $75,000. Fencing the 45 acres ourselves at the prices I have gotten already will coe to over $20,000 with us doing the work.

I also checked with a few equipment places in Sulphur Springs to see about renting a power post driver. None available so I went on line and checked the prices to buy one. Prices to buy ranged from $350 to $1200 (and up), depending on the brand, maker and power so not so awful considering the amount of fencing we have to put up. The ones in the $500-700 range will also drive metal pipe and wooden posts. With the amount of fence we will have to run, it will pay for itself. There are some that you can pull behind the truck and operate with a bunch of hydraulic stuff. I would love to get one for DH but they are super expensive, complicated to operate, and more than we need. Some operate off a pneumatic air tank, but the tank needs fuel to operate out in the field. The hand held gas operated ones will be fine although we will have to stand on a ladder or something to get up high enough to use them on the 8'-10' posts. Maybe stand on the truck or trailer. Putting in the shorter rotational graze pasture fencing won't be as bad.

DDIL2 is trying to get Robert to go to sleep in his crib. Not sure if it is working since yesterday he screamed bloody murder for several hours till she gave in and got him. Went to his other grandparents today. DS2 tried to take care of him last night and he screamed hysterical until finally he took him to their bed and Robert jumped our of hi daddy's arm to him mama and immediately shut up. DDS was not very happy. Might not be so bad but they are sleeping in a double bed so space is tight and apparently Robert is a kicker while asleep. I don't say anything and luckily DH is so deaf that he doesn't wake up to the screaming.

Tomorrow I have to finish removing the banquette from the 5th wheel trailer. I started it then went to Texas so need to finish tearing it out of the trailer so it can go back to the shop for the non working electrical problem. We will need it for this summer. We will use a bridge table and a couple folding chairs and it will be more comfortable.

I got a call from Joslyn Adut center about starting up the bridge again. They want me to set up the club. Severa members have passed away over the past 2 years. At least we don't have to wear masks, produce vaccination cards, or negative tests, and we can serve coffee, so I will see if anyone wants to come back. Then we will have to set up a Board, etc. Guess I will send out an e-mail to the old board and anyone else I can reach. It will be nice to play again, but dealing with cranky old folks! UGH!!!