Jan 21, 2003

Good morning everyone!

Been hectic around here. Last week, when doing chores, I thought that our ram wasn't looking good and wasn't feeling well. I told dh. He didn't notice anything on Saturday but on Sunday a.m. he said the ram was straining and obviously was very sick. We just bought him last year and spent a good deal of $$ on him. We call the vet and the vet and dh thought he might have some kind of blockage. So we started drenching him with mineral oil and epsom salts but as we were doing that he pooped. DH then noticed later that the ram had a little blood in his urine. The vet thinks the ram may have a kidney stone. So we are crossing our fingers and saying our prayers that he passes the stone. This ram appears to have done a very good job for us this past year. We had 8 ewes that lambed in the last 24 hours. All but one were twins. One ewe has really big teets and we are milking her so lamb can get his mouth and suck. We did have one ewe that had pre lambing paralysis. She is doing better but still a little slow on moving around. She has nice set of twins that we bottle fed first few days. Unfortunately, this ewe decided to lay on one of the lambs and it died.

Now the bad news - it appears that we have 4 unbred nanny goats. The billy that we had on the place for 45 days must have been sterile. So, hopefully, our history of not having triplets will continue so we don't have to bottle any lambs. I did buy a bag of milk replacer yesterday to have on hand. Yikes - can't believe the price of that stuff.

I retook my accounting test yesterday and did much better but would still like a better score so I will retake it again. They will now keep my resume, tests, etc in file for future job openings. I have very mixed feelings about this. In some ways, I'm ready for a change but am not looking forward to the people problems and the other job related hassles. But we need the $$$ to pay for this farming and college tuition.

DD came home from Denver stock show yesterday. Said she had a great time. Our friends did very well in the show ring. And she did some bull semen shopping and has some recommendations.

Weather was very nice yesterday - 40's. Sounds like winter will be here the rest of the week and probably will snow tonight.

Well better go - need to get to mailbox and also need to check the ewes.

You all have a great day.