Boycott

I'm on call for lamb watch duty tonight and was already called to help save a couple lambs and their mother. I just got home (at 11 PM) and felt the need to discuss some news I learned today.
About the boycott... McDonalds is no longer buying American beef, so the students at Utah State University have started boycotting the restaurant. We feel that American beef deserves a place in our own country's fast food restaurants. I have nothing against Brazilian meat, but with as much effort as we put into growing beef it should be served in our own country. We should be eating home-grown meat - just think, it should even be tastier. There will be less processing, less shipping, less hastle, and more money supporting our local agriculture and really the entire economy. So, here I am reaching out to all of you to join the boycott against McDonalds - support American Agriculture.

new pictures

I was bored today so decided to groom Tika up and take some pictures. She is completely out of coat, but I got some nice head shots anyway. Here are a few of my favorites.

After the photo shoot we took some time off to play. Tika makes that really easy. No toy required, only snow.

More lambs...

I couldn't resist sharing these picture, which I took yesterday morning. I went down to the farm late Wednesday night because there were a couple ewes having trouble lambing. Since I don't have class until Thursday afternoon, I went down to help. The next morning, I think we had 10 new lambs - unfortunately two of them died.

Anyway, I thought I would share a couple more pictures of our lambs to lighten my mood. I just like this picture of two of the lambs with their mothers. The ewe lamb on the left is only 2 weeks old - she's huge!

I had to share the photo of this little family because there is a story behind the birth of these two lambs. Shauna called me a little over a week ago trying to find out what to do because the ewe was lambing and had three legs and a head out. I talked her through the process of pushing the two back legs back in, then pulling the head and front leg out. It turned out that the little brown ewe lamb was not coming out fast enough for her bigger brother, so he passed her in the birth canal and was born first. She was 8 pounds at birth. He was a whopping twelve! So, there you have a success story.I just thought this last picture was fun. This lamb was playing with the cat - needless to say, the cat was not amused.
Otherwise, it has been a good week. The last couple days have been warm - a whole 40 degrees today! I walked home without a jacket, which was novel. I had two exams today and will have one more on Monday. Lamb watch starts next week for the sheep class I am a TA for, so I will be on call some nights. It can be exhausting but I sure enjoyed all the experiences I had last year. I saw a lot that I probably would never have had the opportunity to experience otherwise.

I have been doing a little bit of training with Tika. We can't do a lot with the snow, but she is enjoying the mental exercises.

Tagged

I have to write a biology paper but couldn't resist posting my picture since I was tagged.

Every year, my family puts up a Christmas village. We have two villages - the Snow Village, and the North Pole village, which of course has lots of Santas, elves, reindeer, and anything else you would find at the north pole. The village is never the same from year to year. This is last year's set up of the North Pole. This is only about a quarter of the total set up (we went a little crazy last year). The longer you look at the village the more you see - in this little section, there is an elementary school, Santa's workshop and observatory, a sledding hill, a skating rink, and more...

Now, I will tag:
Shout and Friends
Obay Shelties
Erik and Gus
BC insanity

Enjoy. Now, back to my paper.

Christmas Snow Storm

Darn it, I knew I forgot something else. Over Christmas we had a huge snow storm. As I have said, Tika loves the snow but even this was a bit much for her. She had been outside for about 30 seconds when I took these pictures.

Sherlock

I know it's late, but I had to share these Christmas pictures of Sherlock. He is my mom's dog - perfect for my parents. He is super sweet, ready to play whenever they are but happy to just lounge around as long as he is near them. He is a little slow on the uptake and somewhat obsessive compulsive. While my parents are out of town this week, he is staying with me in Logan. The point of this post was to show what a good looking dog he can be. Here is the pre-groom picture of him.

Then I groomed him for the Christmas pictures in front of the tree. Yes, Tika was groomed a little as well but not to the same extent, and her transformation was not so drastic. She usually looks nice - I had forgotten how nice Sherlock could look, though. So, here are Sherlock's post groom pictures.

One more thing. You can't really tell from these pictures, but Tika is in AMAZING coat right now. Hint, hint Shannalee...

Kelley Creek Farm lambs

I am house sitting at the farm in Huntsville right now. I love this time of year because we are lambing. We breed hair sheep, which were specifically developed for meat. Our flock is a mix of three breeds - Dorper, Katahdin, and Barbado. We have chosen this combination to create a moderate body type (not too light, not too heavy), which makes ideal sheep for working the dogs. We are also trying to breed for lots of color - we tan and sell the prettiest hides, not to mention that they are just nicer to look at.
Anyway, that's besides the point. This year's lamb crop is turning out to be particularly nice. This is the first year we have been really careful with our breedings (most sheep operations get a bunch of rams and put them in with all the ewes - we bred this way the last couple years), hand picking which ewes will be bred to which rams. I have really been enjoying this because I can see what each ram/ewe is producing. I am also trying to figure out how color is inherited because no one really knows. So, here are a pictures of a couple of our lambs - taking the pictures proved to be somewhat difficult, so these are the pics that turned out best. Enjoy.

On another note, I have been going to physical therapy twice a week, doing daily exercises, and wearing my ankle brace religiously. Oh, and yes, I have slowed down my activity... slightly (I'm sticking to long walks, rather than runs). I'm hoping it heals up... we'll see.