Winter 2016, into Spring 2017

This is Jane, our friendliest St Croix ewe, after giving birth to the first of her two twin boys on Christmas weekend.

This is a little Jedi warrior using the "Force" to cast a spell on me...at a Vietnamese restaurant of all places.

A monthly requirement on the farm - burning another brush pile up on the hill. 

K9 covers his ears when the cows start mooing too close to him. They can be loud when they are hungry.

K9 playtime while getting ready for bed at night.

Three little bull calves in paddock #1, trying to figure out which one is the boss. My money is on the two-legged one!

Installing a new gate and holding pen system in our corral, so I can load and unload cattle in and out of a stock trailer by myself. Because of the sloping ground in our corral, I asked my friend Brian to scoop out some dirt, so the new gate will swing inward.

This is 2" to 3" of hail on the highway that fell in only 10 minutes a few weeks ago. The biggest was the size of a golf ball.

K9 loves tractors! It is one of his favorite words. He will sit on our tractor for half an hour pretending to make engine noises and driving around. He has at least 6 toy tractors, dozers, and backhoes (he calls all of them tractors).

K9 also loves "Fluffy", our only indoor dog. She is a Japanese Spitz, a $700 purebred dog that a friend gave us. All 5 of our dogs are expensive purebred dogs which were given to us by others.

My friend Jack dropping a few more trees for firewood and clearing out an area on the hill for future grazing land.

Some of our beautiful white St Croix sheep framed by red painted steel fence posts and gates down by the stream. In case you are wondering, I use International Red colored paint from Ace Hardware.

I took this pic from the Children's Ballet of the Ozark web page. It is from their production of "The Nutcracker" in December 2016. Four of our kids danced in it.

K6 and Daniel cleaning up the trees that Jack dropped earlier. All the firewood was donated: some to friends from Church, and some to strangers in need, like a 90 year old lady 10 miles north of town, and an unemployed lesbian couple who recently moved into town.

It is official - K9 can climb over any obstacle in his path. He is only 2 1/2 years old. Look out world, here he comes!

We now have three sets of twin lambs. Just the beginning. Should have a bunch more being born over next few months.

There is beauty to be found every day around us here in the Ozarks. This is looking out our front door at sunset.

This has been the mildest winter ever, and the grass is greening up months earlier than normal.

K6, the master pyro, at work, burning yet more brush piles. 

Two of Daniel's brother's, more neighbor "nephews", who are only 15 and 16, but so well trained in many job skills. Here they are welding gates in my new corral set-up. 

Here was a wonderful surprise found during my daily morning patrol around the farm yesterday, Saturday, the 11th of March. First time Mom, Flora, gave birth to this cute little bull calf on the stream bank after Friday night's freezing rain.