Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

[murphysranch]

So good to hear that all went well and that you have a sunny tone in your typing!

I have a friend moving from Vista to MO sometime in the next three years. She and her hubs left on Friday before dawn to head over to MO in their motorhome to start to lay out the acreage. They got as far as Amarillo, when the MH broke down. The mobile mechanic and the parts didn't get to them until this a.m., as they sat in a rest stop this entire time.

Sure glad that didn't happen to you!!

 

[SageHill]

So good to hear that all went well and that you have a sunny tone in your typing!

I have a friend moving from Vista to MO sometime in the next three years. She and her hubs left on Friday before dawn to head over to MO in their motorhome to start to lay out the acreage. They got as far as Amarillo, when the MH broke down. The mobile mechanic and the parts didn't get to them until this a.m., as they sat in a rest stop this entire time.

Sure glad that didn't happen to you!!

Vista?! That’s a stone’s throw from me.
Hope their MH gets fixed fast. It’s no fun waiting for parts and fixing. Been there done that in Gallup NM.

 

[Ridgetop]

We have had our share of breakdowns - DH would spend half our vacation budget ahead of time to get the car running well, replacing and repairing everything he could think of to make sure we had no car trouble. Then we would break down in some place far from civilization. One of the reasons we did not take many vacations when the kids were younger - we always broke down somewhere! One of the reasons now that I never travel without a case of bottled water, thermoses of coffee, travel blankets, and some form of food. LOL I don't worry as much when we are pulling the 5th wheel trailer because we have everything in it, but when the kids were small, we would travel in our Ford LTD station wagon and breaking down with small children was horrible!

Our puppy's name is Turkish. Erick gave me a list of Turkish words and meanings and I chose OZEL which means "special". She is very special because we have been waiting for this puppy for 5 years. Of the 8 names he gave me I liked that one best, and it sounded best for calling her and baby talking to her. I always baby talk to my dogs.

The rain started today and has been coming down heavy all day. Tomorrow is supposed to be worse. Our weather has changed somewhat. Our bad rainstorms used to come up from the south through Mexico or SW from the "Pineapple Express". These storms have all come in from the north. This one is not as cold as the last couple storms though so that is good. The grass along the sides of our hillside road is about 18" high. I really wish we could turn the sheep out on it. Our neighbors will eventually just have it cut down and dumped due to fire clearance. What a waste.

DH had a doctor appointment yesterday, I had one this morning, and we have our tax appointment tomorrow. She won't do the farm taxes so I told DH he would have to do them, and we will take them to the tax fellow in Quitman in May to file an amended tax return. I will get all the expenses for last year set up for DH. I have the inventory done. I am surprised at the amount of equipment we have. It is lucky I have bought it over the past 30 years. I regret selling the other stuff I had though, I had several 6' Sydell fence line feeders, a lot of portable panels, etc. We will probably take depreciation on the equipment. One thing about doing the farm tax return is that I can deduct the feed, including the LGD's feed and vet expenses. Not many vet expenses just vaccinations. Hopefully the farm tax return will help and while we don't usually get money back, it might bring our taxes down. Any money saved will be able to go on fencing. Luckily Erick said that we ought to be able to get away with just 5' fencing and a hot wire top and bottom. He said that once trained to the hot wire the Anatolians won't approach within 4' of the electrified wire.

DH and I discussed the electric in the house and he has agreed that we will just have John clean up the mess in the attic. Once we are living in the house, we can remove some of the paneling and see what is behind it. If no fire blocks, we can gradually run new wiring ourselves. I have decided that while I love the property and proximity to Sulphur Springs, I hate being right on the highway so we will fix up the house and property, then probably sell and relocate to a quieter location. We won't do as much fencing as we originally planned if we are going to move again.

When we go back this time, we will have to buy a washer and dryer right away. All the other appliances are working well. The older refrigerator makes plenty of ice, but Larry and Vikki said the ice maker shut off is broken so we will have to connect and disconnect the water feed to it each time we arrive and depart. We will use the old refrigerator until we actually move in and need a larger one. This one will do for now, especially since we will bring at least one of our freezers with us. When we get a new fridge, we can use this one as a spare or move it to the barn and use it for livestock meds and bottled water. That will save us having to come back to the house all the time.

Finished all the unpacking but did not get the laundry done since I had a morning doctor appointment. Won't get it done tomorrow either, due to the tax appointment. DD1 brought DGD1 over this evening to work on her California Mission project. All 4th graders have to do a report on the California Missions and build a model of one of the missions, their choice. DGD1 chose a little known one that was actually established as an adjunct mission hospital to San Rafael near San Francisco. Yay. The teachers have gotten smarter and now they only allow it to be on a piece of board 24" x 24". Our family's first mission was DD1's 4th grade project. The teacher was new and did not give instructions on the size. Our family drove up to La Purisma in Lompoc. It is in great condition and was not built in the 4-sided fort construction most of the others were. Our whole family had a blast with that project. DD1's mission was mounted on a 4' x 6' piece of plywood! 4' x 6' was not large enough for us though since we wanted to include the waterworks in the adjacent hills, and some outlying buildings. So those pieces were mounted on a 4' x 4' piece of plywood. I had discovered that I could do anything with a glue gun so we all went to the model train store and stocked up on stuff. We had "cowhides" drying on racks, a cornfield, wheat sheaves drying in another field, fruit trees, farm animals, etc. These days Hobby Lobby carries a lot of stuff for making missions, but back then we had to figure out how to make everything. After 4 children making missions, and 2 grandchildren making missions I have it mastered. LOL Tonight DD1 brought over the mission layout and the few pictures of it in a book. Using my scale architectural ruler, I was able to convert the mission measurements and we cut the walls for all the buildings out of foam board. DGD1 cut out the arches on the colonnade herself with an Xacto knife. We need to get the spray paint for the buildings and paint them before assembling them. DGD1 needs to cut out doors and windows from construction paper to be glued on the mission walls. We will use a cream color "stone" looking spray paint on the walls which will give it the look of adobe. Fine light tan sandpaper will be glued down for the dirt f the courtyards, trees will have moss glued to them for the orchard, the graveyard will be given a fence from twigs glued together, and green HO model train fuzz will be glued down for row crops. How to make the tile roof was my own idea 37 years ago. I wet one side of a corrugated cardboard box. When the outer layer of paper is wet it peels off leaving the corrugations intact. Once the cardboard is completely dry, you cut the roof out of the box, then spray paint it with a brick color paint - instant tile roof! So realistic looking. Anyway, DD1's mission was so good that a Benedictine nun friend of MJ's who visited us asked for it for their school. We drove it down to San Diego and it was given a place of honor in their school library for about 5 years at which time it probably started to disintegrate. LOL Making 4th grade California missions is a family passion - we all enjoy doing it and we all learn along with the child about the current mission. Just have to get to Hobby Lobby for the mission supplies and to Lowes for the sandpaper and paint. Another great Ridgetop production in the making.

Wow! Just had a weird glitch and lost my entire post! Was able to get it back so am posting now before it goes again.

 

[Baymule]

Making California missions! That sounds like fun and very interesting too. I really like the cardboard idea for a tile roof. Brilliant!

I love the puppy’s name. She really is special! Ozel, that suits her.

Having a farm means you can write off expenses for the farm. I keep every scrap of paper. I place several receipts, for the same thing, like feed, on the copy/printer and make copies. The thermal print on receipts fades away.

Moving again. The hunt will be on, for that place you fall in love with, that is not perched on the side of a busy highway. Don’t blame you. I love my dead end road in the middle of nowhere.

 

[Ridgetop]

Heavy rainstorm over night but has cleared this morning. More rain Got our tax appointment. She doesn't know how to do farm taxes so I will download the forms and instructions and try to do them myself for submission to Quitman TX CPA when we go back. We will have to file an amended tax return and then have our guy in Quitman do them every year from now on. Too bad DH was so stubborn about doing them before thi since I could have emailed all the receipts and info to Quitman for this year. Oh well, really determined to do them this year since I have a $25,000 hay bill (bought 1000 bales last spring) plus some equipment, meds, etc. I stocked up on. Will also write off purchase of Ozel and death of Bubba last August. Other expenses and losses of ewes as well will be a large write off. Lucky the IRS expects that in a farm start up. Next year will have fewer feed costs due to pasture feeding but will have fencing costs so . . . .

Got to leave for tax appointment. More later. And new fee on property tax bill to talk about.

 

[SageHill]

We've had rain since yesterday afternoon - with very little let up. Over 2 1/2 inches from this one so far. I don't think it'll stop until tonight.

 

[Ridgetop]

So the new fee on the property tax bill - since it is not a "tax" we technically can't deduct it. The LAFD and city/county have decided to charge everyone for property fire inspection. In fire areas you have to have your property cleared to 1" of growing stuff within 200 feet of all roads, fences, and buildings. Wedo live in a designated fire area, but since we have sheep that has not been a problem for the past years. Our property with the sheep looks like the aftermath of Sherman's march to the sea in the late "troubles between the states". However, the city/county have decided to expand the "fire designated" areas to neighborhoods with no brush. Those people are screaming about this new charge.

Until last year the fire department would drive around fire areas (properties in the foothills surrounded by heavy or light brush) and make sure they were cleared to specifications. They would send out notices of non-compliance to those people who had not cut their brush. If those owners did not cut brush by a certain date the fire department was supposed to send people to clear and bill the property owners. Often this did not happen. Before we bought the adjacent field, no one ever cleared it. We finally began to clear the brush ourselves to avoid getting burned out. If you cleared the brush yourselves there was no charge.

Now here is what they have decided to do. In order to pay for the fire department sending people out to determine if the property has been cleared, each property owner will be charged for the inspection. The cost will be $50 this year (2023) and it will appear on the tax bill for 2024. The following year the charge will jump to $100 and again it will appear on the next tax bill. It is supposed to rise every year after that. We can deduct it as a clearance fee on our acreage since we hold the field as investment property, but others can't. Even if the property is completely paved, this charge will appear on the tax bills. The reason "fees" keep being added to the tax bills is because we have Prop 13 which limits how much taxes can go up. They can't raise the property tax so they tack on fees. Bloodsuckers! And they have the property owners by the short h**rs.

We always clear the empty property -or rather our sheep do - since wildfire is not to be trifled with here in So
Cal. Still we can distrust and hate the politicians.

Anyway, the rain has stopped for a while. Still no sun, overcast, but dry. Here is a picture of the last northern storm which covered the hills in snow.

Here is the way the same hills usually look

Right now everything is green and the wild mustard is just starting to flower yellow on the hills. For a few months the hills are beautiful, all green, then gradually turn yellow with blue skies. In summer they go brown and gold, and in the fall the skies turn purple behind the golden hills. The state is named the golden state and it does turn gold when the green all dies out. Truly lovely here. If we had water and grazing and an intelligent governor and non-liberal populace, we would never leave.

Working on my farm return today. The tax preparer told us yesterday that she had done one farm return before, so I am doing it for her and sending it to her as a rough draft. She will make sure everything is ok and add it to our tax return this year. We won't have to file an amended tax return. I really didn't want to file an amended return because I think those get a harder look - unless you have to pay money. I spent 4 hours yesterday and 3 hours this morning pulling up forms and instructions. Then I had to pull up other forms and instructions for those portions that said "If you do this, file Form # ". However, I now have a rudimentary idea of how to fill out the form and just need to add everything up for 2022 expenses and income. Another several hours. Then I will scan it and email it to our preparer for her to add it to our return. At least DH has agreed that we should do it after explaining to the tax preparer that we actually sell lambs, sheep, and treat this as a business. She probably thought they were pets before, now she said that it would be a good idea to file, especially since we have farm property and are leasing out grazing, etc. and receive income. Hopefully, we will get a nice return.

Got to get back to my paperwork . . . .

 

[Baymule]

The first picture shows palm trees and snow covered mountains. That just doesn’t seem right…..

 

[murphysranch]

When we bought our first cabin in Calaveras County in 1995, there was no fire fee. But we were required to clear 50 ft around each cabin. Then several years later it was upped to 100 ft. Then came the fire. Our particular cabin at that time was spared the helo drop of water, which crushes decks. But others were not spared.

In 2012, the county added a tax onto the property tax bill. $150 a year for fire prevention. Since the Sierra's had been severely scarred by fires over the last several years and the fire dept was volunteer for the most part, they needed funding. We sold our last cabin in 2016. So I don't know if that tax has increased.

I always claimed the entire tax bill for the property, regardless of the line items.

 

[murphysranch]

Not the same palm tree variety, but there are some sort of palms up here when I live now. This is looking down on my elderly neighbors.