A few more pics of the Happy Camper - K8

Bring it on!

The goal was to get over the wall any way you can...

...then turn around and help the next team mate. There were several walls in a row to conquer.

Dressing up for Science class. Biological, chemical, and nuclear science.

One of the tests was to work on a computer while suited up.

He also excelled at the physical stuff. His Msgt must have thought K8 was making it look easy, so...

...he gave K8 a bigger challenge - the oscillator!

Oops! Now what?

Their 3 mile run began with a river crossing, and finished the same way. K8 is 2nd from the right.

Doing another 20 pull-ups.

K8's idea of summer camp

K8 has been a cadet in the local Marine Corps Junior ROTC unit the past year. They spent last week having the kind of training every American lad and lass should have. He said it was challenging, but fun. He would go back in a heart beat.

They climbed ropes, and swung across pits and ponds.

They crawled under barbed wire in a hurry.

They ran many miles each day. He got a lot of use out of his wrist watch, because most events were timed. One evening his platoon took a 3 mile run which included a river crossing twice - a big river, holding onto a rope - going out and coming back.

Lots of water breaks. Each day was interspersed with physically demanding activities and a variety of museum tours and other educational opportunities. They had leadership and team problem solving courses, obstacle courses, swimmer survival course, PT courses, played soccer and ultimate frisbee, and even got to drive bull dozers!

They did high crawls and monkey bars.

More low crawls under barbed wire.

And climbed more ropes. He ran the final PT course 3 times in a row. In the words of his LtCol and Msgt, "He's a stud!"

He went to bed in the bottom bunk happily tired each night. Their Master Sergeant woke them at 0500 each morning by banging a trash can lid against the lockers, and they had 20 minutes to get shaved and showered. He said he loved the food in the mess hall. Of course, they weren't allowed to have any sugar until the last day of the week. The girls lived upstairs with their chaperone, and the boys were downstairs with their chaperones.

He said it was a blast, and he can't wait to go back next year. I'm thinking K7 should join up this year and go to camp with him!

Happenings at the Wanch the past weeks

We have at long last been able to build a quality, heavy duty water gap fence.

I hired a neighbor to put in bigger steel posts on each bank to hold a stronger fence than we used to have, so we won't have to go pull the fence back across the stream after massive rain storms when it would break.

K8 got a new bee nuc for his empty hive. We ordered it through one of our local feed stores back in November. The cardboard box sitting in front of him came with a queen and 5 frames already started with comb built and eggs laid.

All he had to do was transfer each frame to his wooden hive, and add 5 more clean frames on which the worker bees will build comb for the queen to lay eggs. He added two small boxes on top for his honey harvest later this summer. 

Time for sea kelp and Redmond salt for their mineral intake. As you can see, some of the sheep have lost all of their winter hair, but a few are still shedding.

We sold this Jersey/Swiss cross dairy girl on Craigslist a week ago Monday, and she gave birth to a red bull calf later that day. I delivered them to their new owner Thursday. 

I also sold and delivered some sheep last week - first time we used our new portable loading ramp. It has been a good month for animal sales. I left the carrier cage on the truck for a few extra days, because we had to take calves to the Vet clinic.

This is Maggie, our newest heifer. She is keeping her horns.

But she needed her shots and an ear tattoo - you can just see some green ink near the inside tip of her ear.

This is Sir Loin, a Dexter/Jersey cross bull calf. After getting his shots, he was castrated, so now he is a steer, and will be sold for meat after 18 months of fattening up on grass and hay. We sold 3 steers the past few months, and didn't keep any for our own freezer. Not to worry, we won't starve - we have several young rams fattening up in the pasture.