First lambs of the year, and they're triplets!

K7's ewe "Yogurt" gave us her first set of triplets this past Monday, 27 Jan 14, at about 1:30 in the afternoon. It was 21 degrees outside. Our Missionaries came over an hour later to go out with K7, but first we moved momma and her three babies into the dairy shed.

Elders Blackburn and Holyoak are an awesome duo.

After returning from their appointment a few hours later, they checked on the lambs, and ended up bringing the 3rd and weakest lamb into the house because his momma was ignoring him. I used to have the Spartan philosophy that if they weren't strong enough to survive, I didn't want them. Then I remembered that I was in farming to make money, and if we nurse the weak ones back to health, we can still sell them! 

It was showing signs of hypothermia and starvation, and it refused to take a bottle. Mom the nurse arrived home from the hospital at the right time. She brought in her midwife's bag, and whipped out this gadget designed for the opposite end of the body and slid it down the little guy's throat, so we could get powdered colostrum into it's body. 

She also listened to his lungs and heard fluid in them. 

At least he was peeing and pooping, which are good signs, but I didn't expect him to make it through the night. I slept in the office next to this bathroom," the ICU", and got up twice during the night. He was sprawled out and looked dead because I didn't see his chest moving, but he was still alive Tuesday morning, so we ran the feeding tube down him again. Later in the day I started forcing him to take a baby bottle with a bigger nipple, but he wouldn't drink much. Wednesday I stopped the colostrum and started him on powdered milk, which he seemed to like much better.

Here he is earlier today, Friday 31 Jan. Five days old and eating regularly. He's peeing, but not pooping so much, which worries me. The goal is to get him to 10 days old, at which time he should be well on his way to recovery and health. At that point, I'll move him to the dairy shed with a heat lamp in one corner and add hay to his diet. I take him outside on the few days the temps get above 40. Mom named him "Sparky", and I am the guy who feeds him every 4 hours, so he belongs to me now. I wash his towel every day and have K8 wipe the floor with disinfectant to avoid stinking up the house. He can almost jump over the buckets blocking the door, so I'll have to start shutting it soon. 

Somebody is tired of living in the basement...

Well, after two years of living on the farm with us, K3, Danny, and Wiley moved to Columbia where Danny was accepted into the University of Missouri's Engineering School. That meant packing, loading, saying good byes, driving 3 hours up the road, and unpacking. They will be there at least two years. We will sure miss them.

We drafted K8's friend who had come over to butcher some rabbits. Many hands make light work.

The snow was just about gone, you can see a little on the hillside road through the trees.

Grandmama had the Wiley guard duty while his Mom and Dad worked.

Daisy curled up on the stump and watched for a while, but eventually fell asleep.  Hey, are those KT's old couch cushions next to the stump, the ones Danny used to back up his archery target? I wonder if she wants us to deliver them when we visit Mizzou?

A small wood cut...

Small means we didn't have very many guys helping on this one, but two families were out of firewood, so we were duty bound. Went to a large ranch owned by the Boy Scouts, and it was logged last year leaving lots of wood on the ground just waiting for us to put it to good use.

Team work.

By this point in the day, I had injured my right knee (moderate knee strain), and was stuck in the truck taking pictures. It hurt so bad I had to ask K6 to drive us home, where I spent next three and a half days immobile on my back with raised knee on pillows with an ice pack. But we accomplished our mission.

Brotherly love

Not sure what K8 did to earn the ire of his brothers...

...but he probably deserved it! At this point, I said, "Okay, now break it up, time for family scripture study and prayer...and we obviously need it."

Pics from previous snow storm

Early January snow. View to the southwest.

View to the east. K6 out on the frozen pond with three of the dogs.

We moved all the cattle and sheep into areas that had shelter from the ice and snow.

The wind was from the northwest, so the front porch got coated with snow, as did the dog food bowl.

So what did the boys do during the storm? K2 decided to conduct a scientific "blind taste test" of various water - #1 our straight well water; #2 softened well water; #3 Berkey filtered water; #4 Aquafina bottled water; and #5 Penta bottled water. Not sure of the results, but they had fun, and I enjoyed watching them while eating crackers with salami and cheese.

The sun came out, but not warm enough to melt anything.

Our St Croix sheep were showing their resourcefulness by digging down through the snow to reach the grass.  

Keep those dogs warm this record setting cold winter

K2's last project before the end of his winter break from law school was to ensure the dogs had warm shelter before winter got even worse than it has already. He moved the two big dog houses from the front porch into the barn, and rigged heat lamps.

The dogs thought he was just there to play.

He had to push them off to be able to wiggle out after finishing first house.

After finishing the second house, he laid there for a few minutes and said it was really warm. Daisy the young shepherd actually tried crawling in with him after this shot. Mom came out to admire the finished job. Later this night I found our big shepherd Dandy laying on her exposed pillow on the front porch. She has such an incredible coat of hair, she would be uncomfortable under a lamp, so the next day, we moved her house, which is insulated, back to the front porch. There is also another heat lamp hanging in front of the house in barn in case they just want to lay under it on the carpet. They are now ready for a bad winter. Since this particular night, it has gotten down to zero or below several times, once to -18. This morning it was -2 at sun up.

Here it is January and the geese are still headed south for the winter. Wait a minute! That's not south. They are flying west?

Okay, that's better. They turned south over our pasture, and now headed in the correct direction.

Castrating the bull calf

One of our Missionaries is a cowboy from southern Utah. He offered to castrate Darlin's bull calf. You can see Momma's concern.

Once the little guy down and tied, it was time...

He actually trained his city-raised companion to do it. K7 and K8 will be doing the next one. Take sharp knife and cut here...

K8 held the leg while everyone watched.

Pull hard to remove testicles. Repeat on the second one. It was a very cold day, so no worries about flies or infections. The little guy is now healed and doing well.

Tarzan eats worm

I had planned to start 2014 by scaling way back on Scouts and limit my time and effort to being an occasional merit badge counselor. But I was asked to help plan this month's Klondike Camporee, which required us to go to the camp site two weeks early and cut lots of firewood and lay out other preparations. As you can see, we had 24 volunteers who showed up on a cold morning and did good work. 

The boys found a hollow log filled with some carpenter ants and one big grub worm.  They must have missed breakfast, because they were hungry enough to eat the ants - taste like lemon drops. But one guy, we'll call him "Tarzan" to protect his real identity, was real hungry. He ate the worm!

***Warning. What follows is graphically funny***

Yep, Tarzan chomped down on that bad boy. How did it taste? Not like lemon drops apparently...

...maybe if you take a second bite? As you can see, other enquiring minds wanted to know as well.

Nope, not even close to lemon drop flavor. The crowds reaction was what you would expect - brotherly laughter.

The boys would like to thank Tarzan for his brave experiment and now suspect that there must be a better way to prepare a grub worm snack...maybe covered in chocolate sauce, or possibly grilled with garlic butter. Who knows, one of them may try it again?

Hey! Where's our latest Eagle Scout, Teddy? Why isn't he with us today?

Working at Chez Mac's restaurant back in town, earning money! After watching Tarzan eat a raw healthy grub, the boys and I were hungry for factory burgers with fake ingredients. For all the bashing they take, there are some positives about modern fast food...just ask Tarzan.

After Christmas Partying

We travelled to Tulsa, OK, for a huge re-union with "S"'s family. Stayed in this very nice suite...with a TV! Watched the late night BYU vs Washington bowl game.

K2 laid down the law on proper hotel etiquette and dress.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised by the presence of K1 and her new baby boy Trevor., who flew in from the Left coast.

Grandma and Grandpa were our very gracious and generous hosts. 

Some of the grand children played football outside in the 20-something degree weather. Crazy. 

"S" with her Mom and Dad, after her five siblings and their families departed for their far flung homes in California, and Texas.

We made a detour on way home to visit with my Dad and sisters. 

We had a surprise back in Tulsa when we found our old favorite Vietnamese restaurant. We thought it had gone out of business many years ago! Turns out they had moved locations, and then moved again. Still has excellent spring rolls.

"S" had her usual pho soup, beef I think.

K7 had sweet and sour chicken, and I had some spicey chicken and veggie dish. Not as great as I remembered it, but still good. In the famous words of a Terminator, "I'll be back".