Ridgetop - our place and how we muddle along

Ridgetop

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AND EUPHORIA ENDS . . .
DH admitted to me this am that the truck radio is not working since its sojourn at the shop, and he thinks the trailer brakes again are not working. Possibly they did not get rehooked (this happened once before after we got the truck out of the shop - nearly sending us over the edge of a deep gorge in Nevada). We can't go to Texas without the radio and trailer brakes!

As I sobbed helplessly at the thought of returning Twinkles to the shop for these important problems, DH said he had already taken the truck to the radio guy who showed him a reset button on the radio. That fixed that problem. 😓 Desperate to console me, DH promised to take the truck to Eckhart Trailer to have the brakes checked. It might be that the shop just forgot to reconnect them. :fl Either way, wiping the tears from my face, I declared that I would rather pay Eckhart to install entirely new trailer brakes than allow the truck shop to get their rapacious hands on Twinkles again!

OMG! Looking out the office window and see Angel with a ground squirrel in her mouth! Good girl! Do I rush out to rescue the poor little thing? Is that the Ridgetop way? NO! I send many thought waves to Angel, "Eat it and catch more!" She puts it down on the grass preparing to munch when it jumps up and makes a break for freedom. she is quick and pounces on it again. This time she gives it a couple good crunches to make sure it is dead. Good girl! Another look out the window and it is still lying lifeless on the lawn. Angel is sleeping on the driveway. One down and hundreds to go. :D
 

Ridgetop

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DH does not check the mileage, although he had taken a picture of the odometer when it was towed into the shop because we needed that mileage for tax purposes. He will check it tomorrow but the shop said they had put about 200 miles on it checking for problems while doing the repairs, etc. Poor DH seems to take it personally when I diss the shop so I have not said much lately. I am just thankful to get it back. DH says we will take it to Nipomo and pick up the tractor to check how it runs.

Actually there are hardly any diesel truck repair shops here and none that are reliable. We have taken the truck to the dealership consistently for service since purchase. In fact, when DH complained about something the shop pulled the records and saw that they had done all the repairs, even the one they were dissing! They fixed it for nothing that time. DH said that they kept deciding more stuff needed to be fixed on the truck and kept doing those repairs for free. Like I told DH doing those items for free was what they should have done since we had the vehicle in for servicing countless times and those items should have been caught at the time. The last thing they did was when the service manager decided to drive our truck home "to make sure it was running properly". He went to put in diesel and found that the gas tank would not accommodate a standard diesel spout which is larger than a gas one. They replaced that because apparently our truck should have come with the larger gas spigot hole when we bought it in 1999! Not being able to take the larger diesel spout meant that we often had to go to different stations to be able to fill the tank. Sometimes stations that were higher priced. At least it is finally done and DH says it rides nice and quiet now.

We had our corned beef dinner tonight. DDI peeled all the potatoes for me. She made the mistake of asking if she could do anything while I was working with DGD1 and I set her to spud bashing. The Indian hut is finished. It is a specific type of construction of woven tule reeds used to make a round cone shaped hut. I managed to use some of the corrugated cardboard left from the "tile" roof and DGD1 painted it. It looks pretty good. DGD1 told me that there should be 6 more huts in the village :thbut I told her that there wasn't room on the board. She is going to make a sign pointing off the board saying "Indian Village". That was a close call there. We finished gluing the mission together and spray painted the roof pieces. DGD1 is dangerous with a spray can in her hands. I narrowly missed getting blasted with paint a couple times. She improved her hot glue gun tactics and solemnly assured me that 2 of her life ambitions were now accomplished. LOL We glued the doors and windows on the buildings DGD1 operated the glue gun and zi placed the tiny pieces of paper on the glue. Surprisingly no one got burned. DGD1 outlined the windows with a sharpie and drew panes and bars on the windows. The Mujanderia (women's and girl's quarters) in al the missions had barred windows to make sure that the men could not sneak in at night. the doors were also locked by the padres to prevent sin. We made sure that bars were drawn on the Mujanderia windows. DGD1 tried to get out of drawing the window lines by saying that maybe the blinds were all down. It didn't work.

DD1 then criticized 2 of the buildings because they had flat roofs. I told her I asked her about that and she said the roofs were flat. She denied this and I said that this mission would have to have flat roofs since we were out of sand paint and my Prime was not up to making any more mission buildings. The church building does have a peaked roof and I had wondered why the other buildings would have flat roofs, but she kept saying that this was not built as a mission but as a hospital for Santa Ynez mission and turned into a mission later. DDI had already insisted that the overhang on the portico had to be made of tule reeds instead of red tile which meant that I had to figure out something to use that looked like reeds and redo it. :mad: DGD1 painted the "tule" hut and the overhang, and then painted the red fruit on the apple trees orange. She and I also put the sandpaper on the base and even sprinkled some green fuzz "grass" on some of it to make a pasture for the animals. DS1 had the idea to take some of the corrugated cardboard that we removed the paper from and paint it brown and sprinkle dirt on the wet paint to look like garden furrows. That came out well too. We even cut out pieces of fake leather that DS1 had in the shape of cowhides. DGD1 drew spots on some of them. We made tiny drying racks for them and will hang other "hides" over the twig fences we made. DGD1 glued a bunch of small twigs together to made wood piles. Tomorrow we will assemble everything and glue the buildings to the base. Then the final decorating will begin with the garden, rows of corn, orchard, veggies, grapevines, shrubbery, trees, animals, and Franciscan friars. DGD1 has to make labels and put them on the buildings identifying their uses. I got a miniature stone birdbath and was going to cut the bowl off the base and use it for the Lavanderia. DGD1 said it didn't look right but I told her by the time we glued "foliage" and flowers around the bottom it would look fine. There isn't much room though so will probably omit it although the thought of all those people not having anywhere to wash their clothes is upsetting - especially since it is a hospital. LOL

I actually think the majority of the stuff we bought can go back. I will return everything that we did not use to the various stores, figure out the remaining totals, and DD1 will give DH a check. I have a lot to return since this is a much smaller layout, I didn't use any of the paint and only one package of sandpaper so that is about $45 return there, and we are only using about $20 of the other stuff so another $130 back there. :D =D Of course, I have to run around and return it all but . . . .

Oh yes, and I will try to remember to post a picture of it with the proud owner, now proficient with spray paint and glue gun.
 

Ridgetop

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DH got the truck to Eckhart today and they fixed the brakes. Said it was a solenoid. Now it has to go to the body shop. Just before our trip to Texas (6 month go) while DH was parked at the body shop talking to the owner, a woman backed out and into the truck then she ran away without stopping. The owner knew who she was so we turned it in as a hit and run but couldn't have the repairs done then since we were about to leave. And of course, couldn't have it done since then because the truck has been you know where. Want to get it fixed now.

The mission is done and looks really great. Added some Indians to it. Took photos with DGD1 and will post them as soon as I figure out how to load them into the computer. This new phone is more complicated or maybe I just haven't learned how to work it. Or both.

Maybe now we can get the last 4 sheep hooves trimmed. Premier was really good about the netting and immediately sent a replacement. I still have to go online and post another review praising their service.

Rained again yesterday and last night. Not too cold though. Very dark and overcast today. Might get more rain. The mustang chewed off Skittles beautiful long tail! I really want to get rid of him. All she had left is a hair covered tail bone! Her tail went to the ground before! She is out and running loose with the mule now. The mustang is in the corral. Bad Sage!
 

Baymule

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Poor Twinkles! Hit and run! Beat up and broke down. Now the broke down part is fixed, need the dents gone so Twinkles can look all pretty again!

Yes! Want to see pictures of the mission!

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Not Skittles long beautiful tail! That took years to grow that long. Is there hair growth products for horses? LOL
 

Bruce

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and will post them as soon as I figure out how to load them into the computer. This new phone is more complicated or maybe I just haven't learned how to work it.
If I have pictures on my phone to post online I use the browser on the phone to bring up BYH/BYC and post directly from the phone. Much as I dislike doing forums on the phone, that is easier than first transferring them to the computer. It SHOULDN'T be since they are both Apple products but they don't talk nice to each other.
 

Ridgetop

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If I have pictures on my phone to post online I use the browser on the phone to bring up BYH/BYC and post directly from the phone.
How do I find the browser? And what is browser? :he

Oh well, more rain for the past several days. Raining very heavily now. I took a pic of all the sheep crowded like sardines into the single small shelter and would post it IF I COULD. Will try to upload all photos to computer again. On my I-phone it had a way to send them direct otto my computer. This phone no. If it works I will have to send several days sorting out photos to delete due to duplicates or unwanted to save. Sometimes I just miss old cameras with film and printed photos. :old
 

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