Guess who just received his Juris Doctorate?

The Dean of the law school put K2's doctoral degree hood on him this afternoon.

His maternal grand parents could not make it due to health issues, but his paternal grand father made the trip with my sister. K1, K5, and K6 were also on hand to celebrate the end of three hard years of law school.

Great Day! Did Mom wear purple because she knew that purple is the color on law school robes? Mom's really do know everything...

Is he man enough to handle that big chainsaw?

Why, yes, he is. I bought a new bar and chain for our big saw.

I have been wanting to get rid of this big log, so I asked K8 to cut it into smaller rings, and it didn't take him long with the new bar and chain installed - like a hot knife through butter! The rings went to a neighbor for firewood.

Tough guy has a softer side.

The ultimate, light weight & portable sheep loading ramp

I am tired of having to lift sheep in and out of the truck. And I also want to be able to load a big ram or calf. Without borrowing a stock trailer. Time to build a ramp.

K2 was home for a week, so he recruited some helpers and went to work. Design, purchase lumber, cut and assemble. We wanted it to be portable and break down into 3 sections for easy lifting and storage, but we were stumped on the metal brackets to hold the side panel legs. Ben's welding skills came to the rescue. Problem solved. 

Team work.

Had fun.

Had to trim the legs to fit the brackets.

The boys added a bar to go across the top for stability on this prototype model. They also figured out some improvements for future ramps. Yes, they sense a business opportunity. We have contracted Ben to weld enough brackets for several more ramps.

Tested by our shepherd, and now ready to make a sheep delivery next week. Then deliver a ram to another customer, then take a calf to vet's...lots of practical uses for small animal hauling.

Past few weeks

Fox hole? No, it's a German Shepherd hole! K6 and our friend Jason were digging holes in orchard for new additions - two almond trees. Daisy got into it before they could plant the tree. She was evicted after photo.

Is Hogwarts missing an owl? This one departed prematurely from it's nest up in the tree. 

K7, first trumpet on left, and others rehearsing for the big concert this weekend.

The sheep ate all the grass in the chicken paddock, and needed new grazing area...

Our yard needed mowing, so this was a simple fix for a few days.

It's springtime, so fire up the grill! Cooked brauts this night.

White stuff in May?

What happened?

I ordered 66 tons of lime to enrich the soil of our pastures. Other than cow poop and pee, it is the only other stuff I put on our earth as a soil enhancer. I had a mountain of lime piled up in paddock #6. 

Which got loaded into the spreader trucks, which went to work spreading it all over my lower pastures... 

...then on my upper pastures...

...and finally on my brother-in-law's pastures down the road from our farm. Lime feeds the grasses which grow stronger and push out the weeds. The whole operation took 4 hours, during which I was praying it wouldn't rain - which would have gummed up the truck's spreaders and halted our fun. I enjoyed working with John and Rusty. I learned a lot from these two hard working and Godly men.

Purty

New Dexters on the Wanch

Nutella gave birth to a jet black bull calf yesterday morning. Mother and son will be for sale later this month.

Good looking pair. I wasn't expecting his arrival for 2 or 3 more weeks.

Nutella's sister Sandie came over to check out her nephew. Sandie is due early October, and she also will be for sale later this month.

We recently bought these two red girls. Gwen, on the left, is supposed to be bred already, and Wendy, on the right, will be bred to our bull this August when she is old enough. Both girls are polled. We bought a third red cow, Whisslemore, who is horned and in with Red and his herd, so she is probably now bred. Expecting lots of red calves next Spring! 

Are you pulling my tail?

Sort of, but more accurately, he's pulling hair from Sandie's tail. He first had to wash and dry her tail to get it clean. She was a good sport and waited patiently.

Checking to make sure he got enough hair with the follicles attached on that pull.

Wearing gloves? Taping the hair together? What are they doing? Getting DNA samples, so we can send them off to UC Davis' genetics lab. Washing the tail, wearing gloves, putting samples into zip-lock bags - all part of avoiding contaminating the DNA samples. Part of the boy's homeschool science class.

Nutella was next. Boys had to wear two sets of gloves per cow - the first ones for washing and drying, the second ones for pulling and bagging hair samples. Don't tell Mom they were using her midwife gloves. I'll buy her more after we sell these girls.

Starting to get an audience of curious sheep.

Each cow's hair went into separate zip lock bags. Did three cows this day, then I went online to UC Davis lab's web site to order and pre-pay for certain tests, then mailed the samples. Will get the results emailed to me next week. We will do it again next week with two more cows and our bull, Red. I want to find out what milk gene he carries - A1 or A2. It could make a difference when breeding him to certain cows, and selling his off-spring. 

New calf this morning

Looked out my bedroom window at 0728 this morning, and saw this little red spot in paddock #3. I'm guessing time of birth was around 0530, because it was cleaned up and fast a sleep, while Momma was eating grass.

A brand new little bull calf, which is half Dexter and half...

Jersey/Swiss mix. His Momma is MooMoo, the sole remaining full-sized dairy cow on the Wanch. We are keeping her for milk. Lots of milk, so we can make butter and cheese. The little guy will be castrated next month, and fattened up over the next year or two. I think I'll name him "Sir Loin".