RIP

"Jimmy", our awesome barn cat, died today. He was not yet 10 years old, and don't know cause of death, but he died peacefully in our garden while taking a nap. K6 discovered Jimmy after we got home from Church. He will be missed. 

My beloved English Shepherd, Dandy, who was 13 years old, got cancer of the mouth. You can see how swollen the left side of her snout is.

Took her to our Vet's on 6 Feb and they cut out the tumor, but told us that it was a particularly aggressive type of cancer that probably would come back...soon.

Doc was right. By March 8th, Dandy had stopped eating and walking. 

She crawled out of barn to enjoy one last day of fresh air and grass. It was Friday and I could not see her suffer through the weekend, so K8 gently loaded her into truck and together we took her to Vet, who came out to the truck and gave her the shots that put her to sleep. K8 buried Dandy in our yard next to her father, Tex. She was beautiful and very loyal. She fiercely protected our family and farm to the point where most visitors feared her. That was a good thing in my view. She did bite several people, but her worst flaw was her mindless desire to kill any chicken or guinea that occasionally escaped into our yard from their side of the fence - a small price for me to pay for such a great dog. She will be sorely missed.

A new season begins

Spring is green. Sheep and cows are happy with new growing grass. They are done with hay until Christmas.

The pretty red bud and dogwood trees are blooming for 2-3 weeks.

All the other trees - oak, ash, walnut, sycamore, hickory, locust, osage orange, cherry, etc.  - will be totally finished budding out in green leaves within a few weeks. 

Took the little kids to Nauvoo, Illinois, for a weekend. Can you imagine being a 19th century pioneer family headed west across the plains and mountains? We would not be riding in the wagon, but rather all of us would be walking because the wagon could only carry 2,000 pounds: our clothes, sewing box, food & water, any precious valuables; books & musical instruments, sacks of seed to plant, fruit tree saplings; tools to build, a few pieces of furniture; a tooth brush?

Maggie had her calf on 18 April, in paddock #6.

Fish Day! Load the big trough in truck, fill with buckets of pond water and go to local feed store to buy some...

...Fish. We got a giant bucket of minnows, and 25 of these beautiful black crappie! One of the best eating fresh water fish. 

We also put two dozen minnows in the small pond up on hill to see how they do. 

We check on the growing flock frequently.

Busy Spring on the Wanch

We spend a lot of time dragging logs out of woods to be cut up for firewood.

Lots of logs, frequently.

Then burn the small stuff.

Fun surprise - I found cactus on our property.

I stopped in the stream to pull some big branches out of the water gap fence. The rock stream bed was super slippery with algae, and I let my mind wander just a split second, and the "ice capades" was on...despite fighting hard to stay upright, I ended up falling for the first time ever - went down hard on my left side. K6 took the pics while K9 watched me slide around like a crazy man.

Popped up quickly to get my phone out of pocket. Not such a fun surprise. I was thoroughly soaked and my left side hurt from my ear, neck, shoulder, elbow, down to my knee. Went to bed early this night after a hot shower, ice packs, and ibuprofen.

I spend a lot of time on a BEMER pad for healing.

Here's another high tech gizmo to come into the farm house: K8 wearing a Virtual Reality mask playing a zombie video game. Everyone was entertained watching him jump around screaming. The VR was a birthday gift to our son-in-law Danny. He had most of the adults and kids try it out after our weekly Sunday evening supper gathering (usually 25 adults & kids).

Our son-in-law Ryan's turn. It is a pretty cool devise and everyone had a fun experience, both wearing it and watching others react while wearing it.

Took K10, K11, and K12 to orthodontist to get evaluated for their need to wear braces, some time in the future, or so we thought. Bad news for the budget - both girls need braces immediately! K11 lucked out for now.

Lots of calves being born the past month. Up to six thus far. This is Flora with her little one.

Holly with her calf from last year. They are standing next to a little natural spring we have across the stream.

Juniper gave us a surprise - our first black calf born on farm in quite a few years. Both were delivered to their new owner this weekend, which brought the herd down to 26 head. 

K10, K11, and K12 will be training three calves this year to take to fairs at end of summer and early fall.

K10, K11, and grand daughter Laura performed in the musical, "Sound of Music", last month, and are rehearsing for the ballet version of,"The Little Mermaid", in June.

Ariel had a little red one.

As did Wendy. Several more calves are due through the summer and early fall.

It is always great to have K2 come home for a weekend visit. He hangs up his lawyer suit and puts on his handy man clothes...

...and fixes stuff.

Mom opens the barbershop once a month.

Kids and grand kids enjoy some early warm spring days. In another month, they will have to watch carefully around these rocks for the poisonous water moccasin and copperhead snakes. Did not see many last year, but usually shoot several a year.

K10 holding her tiny niece Irene.

K8 and K4

Son-in-law Ryan.

K10, grand daughter Evelyn, and K12.

K11 

There is never a shortage of playmates.

Our new flock large guard dog, Dinah, has been on the job a month. Half Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherd, she is still a pup of 7 months, but stays with the flock. She will prove her worth when flock moves to the south 40 and she takes on coyotes. 

In addition to calves being born, we have 42 new lambs, with more to come. 

This is "C-section", our first bottle lamb of the season. Her momma was one of oldest ewes in the flock, and unfortunately was too weak to give birth. She laid down in paddock and didn't move for two days, so K8 had to put the momma down and perform an emergency C-section with his hunting knife. Saved both lambs, but the little boy died first night. The tiny girl made it thru the first weekend with K2's personal care, and she is now thriving. 

We have a total of 10 bottle fed lambs on the front porch - mostly triplets and a few twins rejected by mommas. Only one ewe is successfully taking care of her triplets out in the pasture. The not so good mommas will be going to the sale barn later this year.

In spite of the freak snow fall we had this morning, 14 April, winter is over. We are done feeding hay. The next photos I post will show green grass and trees budding out with leaves.