SURPRISE!

Dustin had a bit of a surprise last week.  When he was out checking cattle, he discovered that a two week old calf was missing.  He took the four wheeler and went looking for the missing calf.  He was unable to find it, so he ran all of the cattle up to the homestead and sorted off the mother of the missing calf and turned her out into the pasture on her own.  Dustin followed her down to the back corner of the pasture and found the cow, who had returned to her calf.  Dustin was relieved, however-as he got closer, he noticed another calf!

So he ran the cow and two calves up to the homestead and #10 (a cow that was supposed to calve on April 23rd according to the A.I. chart) was raising "hell".  So Dustin concluded that this "Surprise" calf must be hers.  He penned them up together and the surprise calf instantly went over to his mom.

Dustin and took the girls over to visit the new calves this past weekend.

There is never a dull moment!

Verayna checking out the cows in her cow outfit!

Olivia "cheesing" it up for the camera

Our SURPRISE bull calf

The corn is looking good-knock on wood!

The girls and I decided to check out Daddy's corn that is just up the hill from our house.

As you can see, the corn is just about as tall as Verayna and is up to Olivia's waist as of today, June 16.

Rayna loved the corn field, she actually sat right down and was going to play in the dirt!

And here is an update on the lambs.  As you can see, they are getting bigger and are being fed very well!  They are loving the fresh hay Dustin just got done making!  We are STILL waiting to hear from the fence people, but I'm sure the lambs will LOVE getting out to the pasture once the fencing is complete.  Another "knock on wood" moment is that for the time being, Jack-our farm dog (a golden retriever/yellow lab mix) is leaving the lambs alone!  This was a great concern of mine, and so far so good!

And now that I'm done writing this post, I'm going to go knock on some wood!!! I sure hope I didn't just jinx us!

Why is Everyone Sick Around Here?!?!?!

The lambs out on the lot

After making 3 doctors visits for Olivia, Verayna and myself in the past two weeks (sinus infections and strep throat) we discovered some worms in Rambo's manure over the weekend and decided it might not be a bad idea to treat all our new lambs.

My nephew Preston with Rambo on Sunday.  This is when we discovered the worms.

Olivia holding the hot pink marker

Now Katahdins are specifically bred to be more parasite resistant, but that doesn't mean that they still can't get worms and therefore need to be wormed every now and then.

All penned up and ready to go!

This was Dustin's first time worming lambs with me, and he was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was.  Especially when you compare it to treating a calf or cow!  He did tell me later that night that next time "Only one of us can be in charge".  Hmm...wonder what he means by that???

Olivia decided to play "photographer" while we were worming.

All the lambs got their hot pink mark on the head after getting treated.  As Dustin said, "the only lamb that probably objects to the hot pink is Rambo."

Olivia petting the sheep after they were done being treated.

Rambo

We brought our 12 Katahdin ewe lambs and 1 Ram, aka "Rambo" home on Monday.

In all of my years growing up on a sheep farm, we never owned our own Ram.  So this is a learning experience for me.  We were advised to halter train him early.  He has a few more weeks to hang with the "ladies" before we will have to isolate him. (Ram's can start reproducing as early as 4 months old!) Here is a photo from tonight, where he got a taste of the halter for the first time.  Olivia loved it, Rambo hated it!  Look at my little girl, she will be ready for the show ring in no time!!!