The 2020 Spring Quarantine

Before the "stay at home" order was issued, I drove to Texas to pick up three registered bred ewes to add new blood lines and increase the size of our flock. Stopped in Denton, TX, for some Rudy's BBQ - best moist brisket on the planet. 

Since adopting our youngest four children a few years back, I have been wanting to have their blood tested, so we would know their blood type. I asked our daughter K5 to do it. She was a phlebotomist for a few years before becoming a registered nurse. The little boy in this pic is her oldest son. This was a perfect science class for our homeschool.

Both of her sons were born at home and she did not know their blood type, so she added them to the line up. The baby was pretty happy as his Mom warmed his foot in preparation for the "stick"...

...but that soon changed - he isn't laughing in this pic. In all, she tested 14 people: five of our children, K7 (home because his University closed and he had to finish the semester online) and our four youngest K9, K10, K11, and K12. She also tested Natalie and eight of our grand children who live on the farm. Only two cried. The rest were troopers. Busy afternoon with a lot of positives and a few negatives.

Fishing. I told the boys to get all the large mouthed bass out of the pond because they swallow our baby ducks. They had fun and enjoyed eating the bass. Still several big ones in there though...

A few months back K4's husband took down the top of a very tall sycamore tree behind K5's house (you can see it off to the right). I finally got tired of seeing the giant burn pile in their yard, so we struck a match. 

Lighting matches becomes additive. I burned fence lines and part of our hill side.

Our oldest son K2, a lawyer and public defender several counties away, came home for the duration because our State closed all the courthouses. Like K7, he worked online and via phone. It is always great to have him back as he plays with the younger kids and helps with farm projects. He allowed K9 to use a few unorthodox chess moves.

As Spring progressed, the days got longer and we worked until dark most nights.

This unfortunate deer got it's leg caught in the wire as it hopped over the fence one night. The coyote's had it mostly eaten by sun up! And this was only feet from our daughter K4's front gate! No one heard any noise... I told you K2 was handy for helping with farm projects.

He used bush snippers to free the carcass.

We loaded it into truck on a large cardboard box. Check out the girl's faces.

The kids had the hard part - getting it on top of the burn pile. Look at that face, not happy campers...

...but they are real troopers and got 'er done. Added some diesel fuel and a lit match. All gone.

These three small dogs would not last long at night in the woods with coyotes, so they sleep on our front porch next to the door. Sometimes one gets bumped by a cat if they don't get in bed fast enough.

Our 4th small canine (all rescue animals) is the only indoor dog. Fluffy is 8 1/2 years old and beginning to have aches and pains. This was our 3rd visit to the Veterinarian since January. Blood tests, X-rays, and three different rounds of meds. This last prescription seems to be doing the job. She is back to her happy self.

Meet George. He is half Anatolian Shepherd and half Great Pyrenees. He is the father of Dinah who guards our sheep flock. We had the opportunity to buy him when our friends moved to Wyoming and sold their large flock. He is bigger and more experienced than Dinah, so she should learn a lot and will be less lonely with his company.

I am much happier having two big dogs guarding our flock. With two big dogs on the hill, three small dogs on the porch, one small dog in the house and three other large dogs in the yard, we are up to 9 dogs on the property. Feeding that many is not cheap, but they earn their keep. 

This is our all girl burn team. After a few training sessions with me they are now fully qualified to burn even our largest brush piles.

They discuss their plan...

...get everything in position...

...add some fuel...

...light matches and drive away.

Pretty sight. Of course, I keep checking the fire's status during the night until it burns down.

Happy crew gets good results. We have a few more monster piles to go in next couple of weeks.

When not burning they are earning more pocket money by doing other chores - clearing fence lines.

Daughters and grand children visit here most days.

After selling 11 cows and steers over past few months, our cattle herd is down to 15 at the moment, which is a good thing since the temperatures are not warm enough for the grass to grow very fast.

We should have several more calves on the ground later in the year.

Mostly a mild spring, but still had freezing weather off and on right up until 15 April. No, this photo is not from April 15th.

Icicles can be a pretty sight...as long as they melt quickly.

K2 took charge of getting the barn cleaned out and re-organized. Not finished yet, but getting real close.

K5 and son Shiloh visiting Grandma and Grandpa White's grave in family cemetery.

We frequently try different ethnic foods on Sunday evenings, so one week K5 researched and taught the family about the traditional Jewish Passover seder meal. Obviously was not totally "authentic", but was very educational and gave everyone a little insight into the history and traditions. The food was yummy. 

Yes, we were in violation of the State max limit of 10 people in a gathering, but we have 23 living on the farm with 8 more in town, so 31 is our usual number for Sunday evening supper. No one got sick or tested positive for the dreaded communist chinese virus.

This is K9. No, he does not bite, but some of our four legged ones might.

We get almost a dozen fresh eggs each day, so they are on the menu daily. I read that the price of a dozen store bought eggs went up in certain parts of the Nation. Not a problem here. We also buy fresh raw milk from a friend's dairy once a week. 

We were still putting out hay just before the pastures started to green up. K11 wanted to try his hand at unrolling a 1,000-1,200 lb bale...

...then he tried his shoulder and legs...

...then his back...

...good thing I hung around with the tractor to help get the bale rolling down hill.

We have two bottle fed lambs this spring.

The kids have spent a lot of time outside riding their bikes and scooters.

Schools may be closed, but K9 still gets weekly speech therapy via video conference. We are grateful for this.

Mom spends most of her time in the garden, sometimes allowing the kids to help. I think the kids should be in there 2 hours a day, but...

Our older daughters like to get their daily work-out going up and down the hill.

With no TV reception in our home the past 15 years, I stay up on news and current events online.

With no school this Spring, the kids just hang out...

...and have fun!

Well, not everyone had fun all the time. We did have one minor injury on the trampoline one afternoon. Check out that face. As for the trampoline, it has seen better days, but man what a great investment it was! Will be buying a new one soon.

Dinah does more than protect the sheep. She takes care of the orphans until we pull them in and put them on a bottle.

We kept them on front porch, then dog kennel, then out in the yard until we got tired of them going potty in the barn and on the driveway. They are now with the flock about to be weaned off the bottle.

We made a run to the local metal recycling center on the last day they were open before closing for a month. I can't wait for them to re-open next week because I already have another truckload ready to go. 

Our 4 youngest help daughter-in-law Natalie bath her dog Maya, 1/2 husky and 1/2 German shepherd.

Quarantine? What quarantine? Mom is in her own special lonely place every Spring for hours on end.

Found these morrel mushrooms along stream bank.

I was lucky to spot them among all this camouflage.

Not a culinary fan, so I gave them to a good friend down the road who loves them.

I have been doing a lot of work on the hills and woods with the tractor, and kept looking at the front left tire while driving over logs and rocks - the rubber was cracked and splitting...

...time to get it replaced before it got me in trouble in some isolated spot. It was the last remaining of the 4 tires that came on the tractor when we bought it 10 years ago - and all 4 were pretty worn back then. 

Spring has arrived. The trees aren't fully leafed out yet, but any day now.

Not sure why they blocked off two of the three entrances to our main cemetery in town, but I doubt anyone will get the virus here...

Plenty of time to do service for others, here at daughter K3's house.

I love sitting on my tractor at the end of a day to watch the sun set.

Glad my sheep are eating the leaves off the nasty thorny multiflora rose bushes. Can not believe our own government imported this weed back in the 1920's to help fight erosion! I hate it, but won't use poisons.

I rented a skid steer from a friend to tackle several big projects on my "to do list".

Man I love this machine. I have got to get me one! Check out the glass window over my left shoulder - a branch came shooting through it later in the day just missing my head. I felt terrible about the shattered glass damage, but happy I escaped injury.

Obviously, when I buy my own skid steer, I'm going to need smaller mesh over the windows for protection...

Time to take a steer to the butcher.

We sold three and took a young bull calf to Vet to be castrated along with a few girls for de-horning, shots, ear tags and de-worming.

Busy morning.

One of the steers.

This is Stella, a pup that someone dumped off along the road a few months back. K8 brought her home. 

I love redbud trees.

We joined the worldwide fast and prayer to end the corona virus affliction, and that our frontline medical, police, fire, military, truckers, and grocers would be protected, and that our Nation will soon be getting back to work and our economy begin to boom again!