Autumn Ranch Chores

This Fall has been so beautiful and mild that we have been able to get a lot of work done on the Wanch. Just about every morning, after K9 has his bath and breakfast, he and I hop in the UTV and tour the farm...

...checking fences and animals, and making a list of more chores and projects. We have gotten all the fence line around the entire perimeter of farm repaired, and also cleared a lot of it of weeds.

Once we cross the stream, we head up this hill to check the other half of the farm.

I have been hiring my neighbor Daniel, whom I call nephew, about twice a week to do most of the work since K6 and K8 are in school during week days, and K7 is on his Mission in Ghana, plus Daniel is earning money for his Mission - he leaves mid-January 2017 for Chicago! I am clearing all the thorny brush from beneath big trees in the hill pasture, and cutting off the low hanging branches that whack me in the head or try to knock me off tractor when mowing. A friend of mine who owns a much bigger ranch and herd calls my efforts....

...."landscaping". He's right, and I love the results! Reminds me of well groomed English country side.

We cleared a couple dozen trees - Daniel is the one who climbs the ladder and cuts the big branches with the big chainsaw, after which I cut them up with the smaller chainsaw to fit them on burn piles. Daniel is such a great guy to work with - always cheerful, happy and hard working. We find plenty of things to keep us laughing while we work.

And of course, K9 helps pick up smaller sticks to throw on the burn piles. He's learning to work and take care of the farm.

Along with, and part of, the Wanch long range "landscaping" plan, we are constantly identifying and cutting down dead or dying trees. We are slowly opening up the woodlot to gain more pasture areas for the animals to graze. Jack cuts the trees down, then he or Daniel cut them into rings. This tree was a good sized red oak. We also cut down black walnut, hickory, and the less desirable sycamore.

After which K6 is the main splitting guy. Sometimes K8 will split on a weekend if he is not at an ROTC competition or rehearsals. K9 helps build the piles. The firewood is to be given to needy older people who can not do the work themselves or afford to purchase wood. 

We occasionally schedule a delivery date and arrange extra helpers to haul the firewood off, and then Jack drops more trees to continue the cycle, at least until the weather gets bad (too cold and/or wet).

New calves

Our herd matriarch, Heidi, gave us another little girl on 10 Sep 16. We'll call her Glen Creek Holly. Hoping she is polled (no horns) like her Poppa. 

Over two weeks later, Beryl (Momma cow on the left) had her first ever calf - a girl. Since calf was born on 28 Sep (my sister's birthday), we'll call her Glen Creek Tina. Poppa of both calves is Shep's Rowdy. He's laying just to the right of Heidi and her calf. Gwen also gave us a calf on 5 Oct 16, so we have 3 new babies this Fall...

...which gives us a total of four calves this year: these three new girls plus one older guy (the bigger one in the middle front). He was born in May to Wendy. 

Three little ones up on the hill pasture.

This fall has been mostly mild and wet, so the grass has continued to grow. We currently have 14 cattle in our herd (1 bull; 2 young bulls for sale; 3 baby calves; and 8 big girls who better be pregnant this winter). We also have 25 sheep in our flock (1 new ram; 1 wether for the freezer; and 23 ewes). We should have a lot of new calves and lambs in late spring and summer. I plan to keep the 4 best female calves next summer and then replace our bull with another young, red, polled guy as our permanent herd sire. I'll keep 12 female lambs as well, and sell the rest. Until we can buy more land, I'll have to cap the flock at 35 ewes, and limit the herd at 15 cows. 

Here is another "beast" on our farm - John Deere 45 horse power tractor, which I put in the shop last week for some maintenance: replace all the lights and fix the wiring (lights have never worked, so I have always had to quit work at sunset); install a block heater so it will start on cold winter days (and I don't have to ask my neighbors to come move large hay bales in the snow); oil and hydraulic fluid with filter change; fix a leaking line; and install a new seat. 

The 2016 Portland, Oregon, Spartan Race

K1 lives near Portland, Oregon. She does the occasional long distance running event, so this year she thought she would sign up for the Spartan Race on 6 August. She started having second thoughts about the rigorous obstacles, but I told her not to worry - I would bring two of her macho brothers out to help lift her over the big walls and such. K8 enjoys tackling obstacle courses, and was extremely happy to finally get his first airplane ride. I gave him my window seat. He doesn't smile for the camera like this very often. 

K6 had previously run a Centurion Race, so he was the veteran on our team.

We had the good fortune to fly on a day that the Pacific Northwest was having beautiful clear weather. We had this magnificent view as we flew right past Mt Hood on our descent into Portland. 

K1 and her two youngest had the stomach flu on the day we arrived, so they put us in the local Marriott Hotel. They soon bounced back. On the day before the Big Race, the team, which now included K1's hubby Mike, had to load up with carbs, so we visited "The Rock" pizza shop...

...with their delicious buffet of wood fired pizzas, and old rock and roll band theme.

Then off to a county park to do some last minute training...

...on state of the art equipment.

We finished up with a 1/2 hike across the dam and through the forrest. Then home to try out a new online edited movie service Mike found called Vid Angel. We watched "13 Hours", the powerful story of what really happened at Benghazi when our Consulate was attacked and the U.S. Ambassador was murdered along with 3 other Americans - the story is based on eye witness survivor's actual reports vs the made up fairy tales and official lies from Obama and Clinton. I highly recommend you watch it (the edited version cuts out the bad language), and form your own opinion. It is a prime example of failed leadership putting our people in harm's way, and then not sending "the calvary"(we had troops a few hours away in Europe) to rescue those men and women trapped by...I digress from my more happy story of the Spartan Race. 

Saturday morning! The big day, so it's time to crawl out of bed, skip breakfast and get ready with 1 1/2 minutes of stretching. Yeah, we're ready. Oh, and Mike woke up with the flu! Oh, no, but he suited up after his warm-up barf, and headed to the race.

The race was located up in the hills. We were in a long line of traffic creeping up the hill, but the beautiful scenery made it enjoyable.

K6 and K8 were getting eager - they bailed out of the car and headed up through the field of vehicles toward the entrance. 

Here is the "before" shot, when everyone was clean, happy, and naive about what would soon happen to their bodies. Notice the green wrist band on Mike's right hand - it is an electronic counter to record an individual's start and finish times.

The runners had to hop over this little wall to get into the Starting area. K6 and K8 in the center background.

The course was 4 miles long, winding up and down through forested hills and across part of a Motocross track, with...

...26 challenging obstacles of varying height, weight, and difficulty.

I could only get close to a few of the obstacles for photos and video. You can see some runners coming out of the woods behind the inverted metal V climbing thing. 

I waited patiently for my 4 man team, but I only saw Mike. He said K6 and K8 caught the competitive bug a few minutes into the race and ditched Mike and K1! K1 was coming along behind Mike chatting with friends. After this obstacle, Mike went down to the spear throwing event, then...

...the rope crawl, followed by one more mud hole obstacle...followed by...

...the final rinsing water hole in front of the finish line. Some runners crossed the line as individuals, and others...

...who had stayed together as a team, crossed as a group. Notice the guy on the left doing a flip into the water.

In spite of having the flu, and having to puke a few times during the race, Mike crossed the finish line - a real trooper!

K1 was not far behind in finishing.

The first thing you received was a "Finisher's Metal" and a banana, then...

Energy bars and drinks, and a cool looking Finisher's t-shirt.

Who would know? She had the flu two days ago and he had it on race day. But they had so much fun, they are planning on running it next year.

This area had lots of water hoses for a quick rinsing to get the top layer of mud off (it would take a few more showers at home to really start feeling clean, and to get rid of the mud under their finger nails).

They all finished. The "after" photo - not so clean, but still happy in spite of any aches and pains. K8's shirt was ripped to shreds during the barbed wire obstacle. Mike had to leave immediately after this pic to head home and back to bed.

We stayed a little longer to check out race results, and shop for stickers and t-shirts. K8 was our best athlete on this day - he ranked 441st out of all 5,401 runners (men and women of all ages)! He ranked 406th out of all 3,308 males, and he ranked 28th out of all 100 of the 15-16 year old males! Not bad at all for a guy who didn't train in the weeks leading up to race day, or even stretching or warming up properly the morning of. Just think what he could do if he set his mind to winning it? Both are already planning to return for next year's race. It was a blast, and we had a great visit with K1's family.

In door sky diving

K6 and I drove to Kansas City last Friday night to pick up K8, who, on Saturday morning, was finishing up a week-long attendance at EFY (Especially For Youth). On the way home, we stopped at the iSky in door sky diving facility. They suited up and I watched.

They don't simulate jumping out of a plane or off a platform. There is a powerful turbo fan in the floor that blows wind up in excess of 100 miles per hour. The first session is low level orientation with an instructor (in red), then...

...they had a 2nd session where the instructor takes them a lot higher. This is K6 going into the "air tunnel" for his second flight. Most of my photos were blurry, so not many pics for you this time.

K8's first trip.

Later, on his second "flight", he got airborne. It was fun to watch. I could not participate because of having previously separated both my shoulders - the waiver doesn't allow it, because of the stress of raising your shoulder blades so far up and back. Since my left shoulder hurts every other week of my life just from putting on my truck's safety harness, I didn't bother. I think if we lived closer to KC and the boys had more experience doing this, they both would be doing incredible flying stunts. After each group is finished, the instructor puts on a little flying show, jetting up and down and all around, which is pretty cool - made me think of Spiderman without shooting his silk webs or Superman without his cape. I would give this place and activity two thumbs up - highly recommend you try it if you get the chance.

Things start winding down at night as we get ready for evening family scripture study, prayer and off to bed (at least for the little ones).