Ryan got in a little too deep this time. He can usually get himself out of trouble like this, but with worn out tires it wasn’t going to happen. 

Diane got this great shot of Noah playing with a few of the puppies.

We had another batch of puppies right before Christmas. They’re all sold now but one that we kept. Here’s an interesting picture taken from above.

Puppies are so fun to have around. I expect we’ll have another batch in the summer.

Oh I forgot to mention that we had a bunch of new goats. Baby goats are the coolest. Most of the nanny goats had twins this year. This particular baby was one of two twins that couldn’t move it’s back legs for a couple of weeks after being born. Diane and Rebecca splinted it’s rear legs and made sure the nanny goat stood still long enough for it to get some good drinks. Finally, it gained the use of its legs and was fine on its own.

Well this baby hereford bull calf was born to a Hereford mama a few days before this picture was taken, but the mama never recovered leaving this orphaned calf. We had to feed the calf ourselves by bottle for a few days but then decided to see if Sugar would adopt him. After a few hours of him chasing her around the corral, she took him under her udder. What a nice girl that Sugar is.

We sacrificed about a gallon of milk a day in production, but we would separate him at night and milk Sugar in the morning. We still had plenty of milk for our own use and the real nice thing was we could just leave the calf on her on Saturday night and not have to milk on Sundays! Hey now, that’s a pretty good plan.

Anyone who comes for a visit is likely to draw (and some seek) an assignment to milk Sugar. In this case, Alden Porter actually came from an hour away just to milk her. Said he wanted to see if he still had the knack after all these years. It was just like riding a bike.

Hey, good question, but these preceded us, let me tell you. We have had these silos sitting around for years. We don’t feed (or store) grain so we have no use for them. I finally decided we could make storage units out of them at least. First we had to clean them out good with a power washer. Then we had them coated with an inch thick of foam insulation.

These guys are prepping to spray the foam.

We even put a window in one of them. That’s going to be our Ping Pong silo.

We actually hooked up Sandy to the manure spreader to see how she would do. She did great. That’s me and Russell and Noah on the forecart to which the manure spreader is attached.

Final baketball game of Ryan’s high school career. We have to admit to not suffering from too much disappointment when the Milford Bulldogs were knocked out of the playoffs. Here’s an article in the local online paper http://neotrib.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2168

Andy Scoggin, my old pal from teenage years and college came down from Idaho on a business trip and was nice enough to pay a visit. We had to get out Sky and Sapphire — naturally.

We had this horse hidden in a back paddock for a week or two before Christmas. Russell never noticed her. She’s a Halfling. Halflings are a draft breed but they’re small. Now we have Shires and a Halfling. It’s a bit ironic for us LOTR fans. Her name was Robbie, but Russell changed it to Sandy. He just felt too wierd having a horse with the same name as his younger brother.

For Russell’s birthday in February, he got a forecart for her to pull and the necessary harness. He couldn’t have been more thrilled.

She can be ridden or driven. She’s a real sweet horse and a hard worker. Russell loves her.