Orly

Today our cat Orlando, or Orly, is having a surgery to remove a really disgusting tumor/growth on his face. He's had it for a few weeks and it got bigger and bigger and bigger.

We all had to wake up at seven to do our chores, then bring him in to the vet. The vet said we should be able to pick him up later in the afternoon. He would have a small hole where the tumor was, but she {the vet} said it shouldn't affect his eating. We're all glad he doesn't have to live with it any more.

Ducks and Chicks!

Here are our laying hens.

Here's our roasters.

And there are the ducks.

Wednesday the chicks arrived. They came right as we left for our {Mine and Molly's} Journalism class, so we couldn't really see them. They kids also bought ducks this year, so we have ducks again. {Last time our ducks got et.}

Today we got our roasters. Last time we got roasters we just about starved them and they turned out like Cornish hens, but we'll do better this year.

Bye bye, Mac and Leia

We recently sent our twin calves, Mac and Leia, to a pasture to fatten them up for butchering day.

Mac, the 'slow' calf that would have died if not for Molly tube feeding him until he got up to feed from his mama, was a real problem getting into the trailer. We had to have one person push him in while the other pulled.

Leia, seeing Mac eventually defeated, gave up her struggle soon and just walked in. We all really miss seeing them, but when were holding a big, juicy cheeseburger, we'll forget about it.

More Bummer Lambs!

Last Tuesday we dropped off our lambs to the butchers. It was especialy hard for Abby, who owned one of the lambs. She went most of the day crying, so we got some more lambs. Well, that's not the reason we got more, but it works.

Molly, Abby and I all got lambs on Saturday. Andrei and Viktor got their lambs the day after and Landon will get one soon.









Me feeding my lamb, Sneferu.

Hay

Last Thursday we moved hay. My Dad, one of our friends and I drove over to the spot where we get our hay, moved four tons of it onto our trailer then drove home. We tried to drive the trailer up to our barn, but it got stuck in the snow. So we had to move the hay from the trailer about thirty yards, put it in the barn, then stack it. Eventually, we got it done, and I ended up moving eight tons of hay. Oy Gevalt!

Spring floods {Or, What do you mean every thing is flooding already?!}

Every year, when the snow melts and our creek floods its banks, we have water every where. Only this year its especially bad. And really early for it, I mean, come on, it's the middle of January and were having our spring thaw already!

So the water, which is still partially frozen, started flooding across our road and causing problems, so my Dad and I went out there with a shovel and pinch bar and dug several canal like passages through the ice to drain the water away.

And so far it's working great, I mean, we diverted several hundred if not thousands of gallons to our creek on the other side of our driveway. The only down side is, while doing it, since I was wearing tennis shoes my feet got all wet. Oh well. A small price to pay.

Boat work

To prevent our hunting boat from filling up with rain, we put a tarp over it, but the wind blew the tarp away, the rain poured in, and then it froze. So on Sunday we took our chisels out and started chiseling away the ice. It was hard work, and after the two hours it took us to finish it, our hands were freezing. We then went into town to get a new tarp. We then tied that on and stood back to admire our work, sore, but proud.

Tillie is Pregnant!

Today we got our cow Tillie tested to make sure she is pregnant. And She actually is! We tried to get her pregnant for the past several years, so this is especially exiting.
This will be her 3rd baby. So far all of them where males that we put (or in the process of putting them) in the freezer. We had a Holstein calf one time that we bought and after a while she finally adopted him.
So chances are Tillie's going to have another boy, but who knows! We will be able to see when she gives birth in August.

Gardening

Gardening in Montana is extremely hard. Last year our garden was killed by snow in June and the rest was killed in July in a cold frost. What the cold doesn't kill, the grasshoppers will. This year we tried a new strategy. We planted the seeds in small containers and kept them in the house under a grow light. During the nice days we had them in a cold frame. Soon the plants were to big to go in the cold frame. We now have them in our kitchen by a window so they can have both light and darkness. Today we're transferring them to bigger buckets to finish planting. We won't plant them out side until it gets much warmer.

Shearing Day

Today we got our three year old sheep Sarai sheared. This was the first time in three years she was fully sheared. My older sister molly sheared some of her about a year ago.After a few minutes of doing fine the shearers tool broke so he left to go get a new one. In the mean time however Sarai ran around her pen, half sheared. It was certainly a funny sight.

.Soon he came back with a much more powerful sheerer and finished up the job. Sarai ran around naked looking and Basil [the goat that lives with Sarai]ran around looking for the real Sarai, the whole time being very cautious of this 'new comer'. It took her a while to realize it was Sarai with out her wool

Bummer Lambs

A few days ago we got got several Bummer Lambs{ Baby Lambs who for one reason or another couldn't be taken care of by their mothers.}

After we got them, we brought them out to their new home. Soon they were acquainted to their new neighbors, the chickens. Since we have no milk producing Mother Lamb, we got to bottle feed them. So every three {soon switched to four} hours a day we went out to feed them. We all loved to watch them suck on the bottles, their tails waging ferociously. But at 12 or 3{like I said we soon switched it to every 4 hours} in the morning the cuteness kinda disappears. Soon they grew old enough to be let out side.

They would follow any one walking around, run to them and when they caught up to try to nurse their clothing.