Last Day In Montana

Hey Everyone,

So this is my last day here in Montana. I am definitely sad, but eager to get to warmer weather and more beautiful scenery. I can at least say that I have been busy up until the last minute, and will probably be very busy today as well.

I stayed overnight on the ranch on Saturday and Sunday, and then had to leave early Monday morning to go do a ton of errands for my trip. I got up early and wanted to leave between 8 and 9, and when I went to start my truck to warm it up, the battery was dead. So somehow I must have left a door slightly open by accident or something and it drained the battery. Luckily, Mike and Carrie were already on their way out so they had jumper cables with them. Mike and I jumped my truck, and I let it run for a bit, then left and did a ton of running around for hours. I got everything done, and I even got a new pair of cowboy boots, thanks to my Mommy for getting them for me! They are amazing, and definitely not ones I have ever seen in California. I am very excited to wear them and come back home and show them to everyone! After we all met back up at the house that afternoon, we took Carrie out to dinner for her birthday. We went to an 'authentic' Mexican restaurant, but perhaps they meant authentic for Montana, because it nothing close to the delicious Mexican food we have in California. It made me miss Cali even more!!!! Marv had a couple that are friends of his join us, and they were so funny! They are from Wyoming, and they own a cattle ranch so they know a lot about cows. They also own horses so they ride them a lot too, and use them to herd cattle. They also came out to the ranch with us after dinner, because we had to check to see if any sheep had lambs, and check on our new bum lambs!

Yesterday, we received 10 bum lambs from a sheep rancher. He sold them to us because he has over 1000 head of sheep, and taking care of bums is too much of a hassle for him. This is really common in sheep ranching communities, because bums take a lot of time to care for and ranchers with that many sheep cant take the time to do it. They sell the bums to other ranchers that want to take them on for very cheap, usually between $7 and $14 dollars each. This is a good deal because sheep are usually sold for around $200 or more when they are fully grown. So we got 10 bums that are between 1 and 10 days old, and they are so adorable!!! A few of them weight just about 1 pound, they are so tiny! The smallest one has an inverted eyelid, so that will have to be taken care of, and I am not really looking forward to that. But if it gets done when she is very young, it will only have to be done once and she will heal very fast. Carrie brought home 3 of the smallest lambs this morning because it is raining and it is too cold for them out in the barn still. They are sucking on bottles and doing really well, and all the other bum lambs out at the ranch are doing really well sucking on goats too. We also got a bum calf to put on our heifer because her calf died, and she accepted it and it is doing really well too. We got another bum calf, this time a diary calf, but the mother would not accept this one, so we have to bottle feed him as well. He is very cute and already jumping around and playing, and he was just born on Sunday!

My last day on the ranch was bittersweet. I said all my goodbyes to my pups and I know I will miss them so much, but it is time to move on and time for them to grow up into big dogs and forget all about me. Im glad they got their socialization in and we got to bond, but now they need to grow up into strong dogs and focus on guarding their sheep. I will definitely miss Penn, and all my puppies that I have watched grow. I will also miss the kids and lambs that I got to watch be born, and now they are growing up so fast. I will also miss Marv and Carrie. They have been wonderful hosts, and truly kind people. They have taught me so much, and been wonderful friends. I will never forget my time here in Montana; the good and bad times, of course. I will also remember everything I learned about animals, but also about myself. I really surprised myself out here. I learned that I am a lot stronger and tougher than I thought I could be, and I can handle my emotions really well when I have to. I have seen a lot of death out here, and plenty of heartbreak and tragedy, and I was able to handle it and grow from it and become a lot more mature from all the experiences. I learned that death is just a part of the life cycle, and it can happen at any moment, even when you let your guard down and think that it wont happen.

Overall this experience was wonderful, and one that I will never forget. Saying goodbye is very difficult, but I know that I am moving on to other things and there is so much more to learn. I cant wait to continue on to Kentucky and discover so much more about myself and the world out there.

Love you all,

Sam

P.S..... See you in Kentucky!!!

the barn after we cleaned it out, before we redid it

Penn and his little girlfriends

baby blue merle puppy

sunny afternoon on the ranch

relaxing in the sunshine

the new addition to our family!

new bum lambs. they look like they have donkey ears!

our new NEW addition to our family

bum calf sleeping with bum lambs

the barn after we redid it. these are 8x8 foot pens for dogs

these are 4x4 jugs for lambs and their moms

the barn looks so professional now!

our new barn! we built all those panels ourselves

this is the drop pen where all the sheep have their babies

If It Isn't One Thing, It's Another

Hey All,

These past few days have been very busy despite not having any lambs yet. We finished rebuilding the inside of the barn, which looks fantastic, and we are definitely using it a ton. We have a nice new milking stanchion that can hold 3 goats at a time, so we can feed bums easier. We also have about 7 new jugs for new moms and their babies, as well as a bum pen and 4 new dog pens for dogs that are going to have puppies.

No new babies yet, but we are still working a lot with the ones we already have. The weather has been really crappy lately, so a few lambs have succumbed to the cold and come down with pneumonia and other illnesses. We are treating them and keeping our eyes on them, because we cannot afford to lose any more babies due to this weather. One lamb started getting really weak and puny so we have to supplement her with goat's milk whenever she isnt sucking off mom, and she had an inverted eyelid, so I got to help fix that.

When a lamb has an inverted eyelid (which is actually quite common) their eyelashes start growing into their eye, instead of outwards and it causes them to get a nasty eye infection. Marv and I had to fix her eyelid by cutting out a section of her lower eyelid so that it would form a hole. Then the hole would close up as it heals, pulling her lower eyelid down in the process and then the eyelid would start to grow down instead of up after that. Sometimes you have to cut their eyelid multiple times to get it to grow out instead of in, but with her we only had to do it once. Basically, you hold the lamb, and hold her head still, then pull out her bottom eyelid and the skin below it with tweezers, then take a small pair of scissors and cut the skin that the tweezers are holding. This creates an oval shaped hole under her eyelid, and it will bleed. But it will heal very fast, and her eyelid will grow out normally. The lamb didnt even move or make a sound or anything, and it was a fairly shocking procedure for me. But we put the lamb back with her mother and she went right back to sucking like nothing even happened. And the day after we did the procedure, I looked at her eye and the cut was closed and scabbed over already, so she healed very fast. We use the Vetericyn product a lot, and it is like a miracle cure for the animals. We also use it on cuts on ourselves because it doesnt dry out skin, is safe to use around eyes, nose and mouth and doesnt burn. I highly recommend it; it really does work great.

Thursday night I had to stay out at the ranch, and it started to snow a lot that night. It was incredibly windy and snowing a lot, and I had to wake up every 2 hours to check to see if we had any new lambs. The weather made it more stressful because the lambs cannot survive in the snow for very long, so if you dont find them right away, they could easily die. So I went out at about 3am to do a check, and it was snowing like crazy. I went out to the barn, and the pen outside the barn where all the sheep are. I saw one ewe (pregnant sheep) laying down in the snow and mud at the bottom of the pen and she looked dead from the way she was laying down. So I knew I had to go and get her because I didnt want any other animals or predators to be attracted to the carcass, so I had to walk all the way down the hill in the mud and snow and when I got over to her, she was still breathing, so she wasnt dead. Then I knew I had to get her out of the snow because she was pregnant and not doing well if she was laying out in the snow and couldnt get up. I tried picking her up to get her to stand, and she was completely limp. She couldnt even lift her head. So I had to drag her all the way up to the barn, through the mud and snow. She was really heavy, I thought about 100 pounds, and I had to drag her the whole way because I couldnt carry her. So I got her to the top of the hill by the barn, and I was going to leave her there out of the snow, but she was so cold and sick and weak that I knew if I left her there, she was going to die probably. So I had to drag her all the way through the barn and into a jug with a heat lamp. Then I dried her off with a towel and got some medication down her throat. She wouldnt eat, wouldnt drink water, and couldnt lift her head up. She was barely even breathing. So I figured I should just watch her and see if she gets worse or better. I kept checking on her, and by 8am she was still alive so I called Marv to see if there was anything else I could do for her. He felt it was a bit of an emergency so he came out right away. He told me that if she died before he got out there, I was going to have to cut her open and pull the lambs out. I was prepared to do it if I had to, but I felt like she was hanging in there long enough to not need me to do that. I figured she might recover, but she wasnt sick enough for us to have to kill her and get her lambs out. So Marv showed up and we gave her a ton of medications, and got her eating again. He agreed that we wouldnt need to kill her, so we just had to watch her in case she went downhill again. By that afternoon, she actually stood up on her own and started eating hay and drinking water again. She made a complete recovery, and I was so relieved. She probably isnt out of the clear just yet, but she is doing great compared to how I found her. I was glad I could save her, and glad that I did everything I could to get her out of the snow and into the barn. I definitely felt like giving up, but there was no way I was going to let her die without trying everything I possibly could. So later on that day, I asked Marv about how much that ewe weighed, and he said she actually weighed about 150 pounds! He said he was shocked that I actually drug her to the barn because she was heavy and weighed more than I did. He said he would have had a difficult time with it, and would have wanted to be there to see me actually drag her all that way uphill. I laughed because I was pretty shocked that she ended up weighing much more than I thought. I guess I am getting pretty strong out here doing all this manual labor.

So that was a good feeling, but of course it couldnt last. Yesterday, Friday, it snowed even harder than the night before and we still had a ton of work to do in the snow. Then, as we were about to leave for the day, Marv noticed that one of our cows had either had a baby or was going to have a baby, because some afterbirth matter was visibly hanging out of her. This meant that we had to go looking around 35 acres in the freezing snow for a calf that could have been anywhere. We knew it would be black, but we had no idea where to start looking, so we all had to walk around the trees, valleys and hills on the ranch looking for a calf. It was one of the coldest and most miserable moments of my life! And I knew that the calf had to be dead because it couldnt survive in this weather, especially if its mother walked away from it. Finally we found the calf, and it was dead. I suspect it might have been born dead, because the mother walked away and last year she had a calf and raised it fine on her own. Nevertheless, we brought it back inside the ranch and got rid of it. That was a sad day because I really wanted to see a calf born, and wanted to play with a baby calf. But this weather has really taken its toll on the animals and their offspring. It has been a very rough winter, and it is still cold enough to snow on some days here. The rest of my time here it is supposed to be warm, but the weather is still miserable compared to beautiful California.

I am looking forward to heading towards Kentucky because the weather there has been beautiful and warm and I love warm weather and sunshine!!

I have to go back out to the ranch now, and I am staying overnight, so I will be back tomorrow evening. Happy Easter to everyone, and thanks so much mommy for my Easter basket! Im never too old to get an Easter basket ;)


Love you all,

Sam

P.S. I will post pictures of the finished barn, and new pics of Penn when I get back.

Lambing Season Begins

Today was the first day of lambing season and nothing happened. No lambs born yet, and I dont think they will actually start lambing until the 24th, but regardless, we have to start staying out at the ranch overnight again. So I will stay overnight Thursday night, Friday night, and Sunday night, and then I wont stay anymore after that because I am leaving on Wednesday and I need Monday and Tuesday to get my things together and get ready for my road trip! But today was a fairly busy day on the ranch, even though we didnt have any new lambs. One lamb looked really bad yesterday, so I had to make the executive decision to bring her home for the night and feed her by hand and get her energy levels back up because I didnt want to take any chances and have her die. She was almost dead yesterday when I started working on her, so I drenched her with a thick syrup called Nutri-drench that we give to all our newborn lambs and kids to give them a boost of energy. It is made with molasses and corn syrup and other things, so it has a very high energy boosting capability. I gave her a ton of that, and then I had to force feed milk down her throat, and I put her in an isolated warmer. By the end of the day she was able to hold her head up on her own, so I took her home to feed her more and watch her. This morning she looked a little weak, but I took her out to the ranch and put her back on her mom, and she had the strength to suck on her own, so she made a very positive recovery so far. I think we caught her in time and probably saved her life, so that was a good moment for us, especially among all this death lately. We had a billy goat die yesterday too, and we still dont know why. This weather has played a huge part in the high death toll, because it was sunny 2 days ago, then it snowed 6 inches yesterday, and today it was sunny and warm again. The stress of the drastic weather changes gives the babies pneumonia and really weakens them, so we have to watch them very carefully until the weather finally starts to warm up for the summer.

The rest of the animals are doing well. All the new puppies are growing very fast. They all have their eyes open now, and they are learning to play bark and growl and interact. They are so adorable! Penn is back out at the ranch now that he is old enough to eat puppy food instead of rely on milk. He is doing wonderful and will turn out to be a fantastic guard dog some day.

Today was Carrie's birthday, but I think we are going to try to go out to dinner to celebrate tomorrow because Marv had to go to Idaho to deliver dogs today, and just now got back.

Easter is this weekend but I dont think we are celebrating because Mike and Carrie have to work, and I am staying out at the ranch. But I hope you guys are all celebrating with your families and eating good food for me!

Love you all, and I will update pictures Saturday when I get home.


Sam

Almost A Brand New Barn

So I am still sick but I think that I caught it early enough to start taking Amoxicillin and I wont get as sick as I usually get. I feel okay, but I cant sleep and my throat is always burning and I just feel run down. Im taking Emergen-C too, so that makes me feel better.

This past weekend was really busy for us. We worked so hard to get the barn rebuilt inside, and it still is only halfway finished. Terry, Marv's best friend, came up from Grey Bull, Wyoming where he lives to help us, and with all 5 of us we still only managed to get halfway finished. But what we do have finished looks amazing. Everything is made out of really nice quality wood, and all the jugs look uniform and professional. We also got 2 8x8 foot dog kennels built, and one set of puppies and their mother is already living in them. They look so content and happy now that they have a really nice, sturdy kennel to stay in.

Yesterday, Sunday, we were supposed to finish the inside of the barn and build 2 more dog kennels and a small gate and a dog feeder out of the extra wood. That was our goal, along with a few other things. So we got out there earlier than usual, and then everything went downhill from there. It seems like if we have a goal of getting something done, it never works out. Something else always seems to come up. This time, I was feeding a few of the animals and checking on a few goats, when I noticed that one of our cows was inside our general population yard. There are no gates into that yard, so there was no possible way he could have gotten in. Then I noticed that the fence that separates that yard from the rest of the property was laying flat on the ground. This means that all the dogs in general population could have gotten out and gone off the property, and there are over 200 dogs in general population. Apparently, the cow's started fighting and one pushed the other one into the fence and he was so heavy he knocked the fencing completely down and stumbled into the general population yard. I had to get Marv and it took Marv, Mike and I and a couple herding dogs about an hour to get him back out. Then the stupid cow ran right past the gate that would have led him back out to his other cow friends, and kept running, thus trapping himself on another gated part of the ranch. So I had to outrun him and come around in front of him to try to stop him and turn him around. I succeeded, but then a few of the younger herding dogs followed me. These dogs think they know what they are doing, but all they know to do is chase cows. They do not listen to commands, and they only know to chase cows in whatever direction they happen to run in. They also do not listen when I tell them to stop either. So 2 herding dogs started chasing this cow along the barb-wire fencing, and they trapped him so he just jumped over the fence. Then his leg got stuck, and he ended up tearing down the fence while he pulled his leg out. He probably got cut pretty bad because he was limping away. But cows are large animals, and I am sure he will recover fine. He already has a clubbed foot anyway from where it froze to the ground one winter when he was a baby, so maybe he didn't feel anything on that foot anyway. So then we had to fix fences and put dogs back, and that took way to much time, so we were already behind on our barn project anyway. Then we had to move around different groups of sheep, and that is always near impossible because sheep are incredibly dumb. They always choose the path of most resistance, and they will always do the opposite of what you try to get them to do. So forcing them through gates and fences and trying to separate them is always a huge task. That took over an hour, and we had to catch a few dogs along with them so that took a while too. Needless to say, we never even got started on our barn project, and now Marv will be out of town today and Thursday and the project needs to be done by Wednesday, so that leaves us Tuesday to finish it all. We need it done by Wednesday because that is the first day of lambing, and we expect quite a few lambs to be born that night, so we need to have all the jugs and places for them to stay completed before they are born.

Carrie's birthday is on Wednesday, so we are going out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant that night. I am excited about Mexican food, but I know it won't be quite as 'authentic' as I am used to in California.

Penn, my little boyfriend, is doing wonderful! He is almost at a full recovery, and he is getting very feisty now. He is completely spoiled, and will cry and cry if he sees me walk by and not pick him up. He lets me hold him like a baby in my arms too. He will lay on his back in my arms and just sit there so content. He is going to be a monster though! He already outweighs the other litters that are twice as old as him. He is at least 2 times bigger, if not more. He will be an enormous dog when he grows up. He is so sweet and adorable and I know he will grow up to be a wonderful guard dog. I brought him home a little girlfriend because I thought he might be a bit lonely and want a play friend. Another litter of pups had a very weak and tiny little girl, so I wanted to bring her home to give her some extra nutrition, and I noticed another one of her sister's was also a little weak and very small, so I brought them both home. So now Penn has little play friends, and all the pups are doing very well. They are warm and full of food and very happy now. I think they will put on weight and grow out nicely like their litter mates.

That is all that has happened recently. Belle's puppies are doing fantastic, as are Auggie's puppies. All the puppies are growing out very nicely, and they all have wonderful little personalities. I only have a little more than a week left here, and I am very excited to get to Kentucky, but I am also sad to leave Marv and Carrie and all the beautiful and sweet dogs that I have here. I will miss them very much.

I have new pictures so enjoy them!

Love,
Sam

I am feeding Scarlett her bottle

Penn being held like a baby

He is so cute and curious

Scarlett loves her bottles

I put Penn in my jacket and zipped it up so he could hang out with me

I'm Sick

Hey Guys,

Im sick today so I am going to bed now and wont blog tonight. I will have a blog for you all by tomorrow night though. I have another tonsil infection, as usual. I am trying to sleep a lot and stay warm so I can fight it off. I really dont want to be sick when I am driving for 4 days to Kentucky! I am leaving in a week and a half, on the 27th. I cant believe it is already here. I feel like I just got here. I know Marv and Carrie are sad to see me leave, and I am definitely sad to leave them, but I am very anxious to see more beautiful scenery. I have had such a wonderful time here and learned more than I ever thought was possible, and I will always remember Marv and Carrie and their kindness and this amazing opportunity they have given me.

So lots of rest for me tonight, and a new blog post for you all tomorrow!!

Love you guys,

Sam

It's Been A Long Week

Sorry I have been gone so long!

This week has been so long! I had to stay out at the ranch for a whole freaking week!!!! It sucked! I didn't get to come back home until Monday, then I was so busy that I still had not had time to post anything until now. 

Last week, starting on Thursday, I stayed out at the ranch. It was a slow week because no one had babies, and I knew they wouldn't, but Marv made someone stay out there anyway and Mike had to work late all weekend, so that lucky person was me. I had everything under control, but I feel like when I am out there something crappy always happens. I am always the one to find my favorite dog dead or find pieces of dogs or find some horrible accident. This time, I found half of a puppy that had been eaten. There is a dog on the property that is what we call a 'hard keeper' meaning she is a pain in the ass. She is afraid of everything that moves, be it wind or trees or other dogs or people or bugs flying around. She is even afraid of the dog food feeder. She will not eat, no matter how hungry she is. She refuses to eat out of the dog food feeder and she refuses to come near us so we cant feed her out of a bowl, so she basically starves herself until she is so skinny that she can fit out of a 4 inch gap in the gate and get out of her pen. So this dog runs around the property and sulks around and hides everywhere and tries to scavenge for food instead of just eating her dog food like all the other dogs. Any time I walk somewhere even remotely close to her direction she starts barking hysterically and running away. You would think that we beat her to death if you saw the way she acts, but she is just strange and acts that way no matter what. So the other day, I saw her eating something from way across the field, and I knew it wasn't dog food so I wanted to see what she got. I walked over and she ran away and I picked up what I thought were the remains of a cat, but then I saw the back feet and knew it was one of our puppies. Then I started freaking out thinking she killed a puppy and ate it, because she had blood all over her paws and face. Then I started thinking rationally and I knew that she would never kill anything because she is afraid of everything and even a tiny little puppy would intimidate her, so there was no way she could have killed it. Plus, we don't have any puppies that small that are loose to where she could get to them. The puppies that were all this size are still with their mothers. So I called Marv and we went through his list of puppies that had died recently. Before I got here, they had a really bad stint with Parvo getting to a lot of their puppies, despite vaccinating them. There were quite a few that died, and he placed them in the burn pit. So we determined that she went and scavenged through the burn pit for food, and found a dead puppy and decided to eat that. I was relieved that she hadn't killed a puppy, but it annoys me that she won't just eat her dog food and I have to practically babysit her and run around to see what she gets into. I feel like I have to babysit every dog there. I am always taking things away from them, or telling them no, or chasing after them because they somehow found something that they shouldn't get into. 

I also did a lot of vaccinating this week, and now I can really tell how much all the puppies have grown! They grow so fast! Some of the ones that were newborns when I got here are now at the stage where they are playing and exploring and eating dog food on their own! It has been so much fun to watch them everyday and see the progress they are making. 

Tuesday, we had to take 6 dogs to the vet to be altered because they are being sold to ranches. I got to go to the veterinarian's office and take a look around when we dropped off the dogs. Her office is so nice and cozy. It is small, but she is also a vet-to-go, so she has a mobile vet clinic and makes house calls. I think that is something I would be interested in as well. The vet wasn't there for me to speak with, but her clinic was very nice. 

I also had to bring home a new baby puppy that we will have to wean by hand. His mother is the electric Cujo dog that trampled all her other puppies, and this one is the only survivor. We tried to graft him onto another mother, and at first she was feeding him and accepting him. But recently she started biting him on his face whenever he would try to nurse, so we had to take him home. She bit him pretty hard, and pierced his sinus cavity, so now he has 2 holes in the roof of his mouth. She also bit his eye, so one swelled up really big. He can only see out of one eye, but I have been treating the other one and it is starting to open again. I have been giving him penicillin to fight off any infection and to try to treat the holes in his mouth. He has made such a drastic improvement since we brought him home. We brought him home on Tuesday and already he is doing so well! Before, when we would try to pick him up, he would scream and growl and cry, just like his mother. But now he loves being held, and I totally baby him all the time. He is only 4 weeks, and I feel so bad that he has no litter mates to cuddle with and no mom, so I made a nice little bed for him. I found a stuffed animal rabbit and a little stuffed ball, so I put those in a little nest for him to cuddle with, and I found an old heating pad that you put in the microwave to warm up, so I warm that for him before bed and he curls up right on top of it next to his bunny and ball! I feed him puppy food soaked in warm goat's milk and a little bit of canned pumpkin and he is doing really well on it. Canned pumpkin is great for adding fiber to a dog's diet, especially if they have loose stools. We give it to our rescue pit bulls all the time. He is eating a lot, and he is just so sweet. I lay him on his back to treat his eye and cuts, and he just lays there like a little angel. He is so sweet, and I am determined to make sure he does not end up like is mother! The holes in his mouth worry me, because Marv did have a puppy have that same thing happen, and he died, but this puppy is doing so well, that I think the holes will heal up and he will be fine. I am making sure he doesn't get an infection and that he doesn't get sick. His name is Penn, and he is so adorable. 

On Wednesday, Marv, Mike and I went to a Sysco food trade show. Its a show for food vendors to go and try all the foods that Sysco distributes. There were hundreds of vendors and they were all handing out food to everyone, so we tried a little of everything. At the end of the show every year, the booths don't want to take home the food they brought, so they give it away. So we made a print-out donation letter explaining the wwoofing program and how we could use food to help offset the cost of housing wwoofers, and I handed the letters out to the booths that we thought would be willing to donate. So at the end of the show we went around and collected a ton of produce, bread and other food that was being given away. I was very happy the produce was given to us, and we got great things like tortillas and breads and cheeses and stuff. I even met another wwoof host! This guy from Scotland was here, and I think he lives here now, and he hosts wwoofers too. His daughter was with him, and she was so nice! She was about my age, and they really liked the wwoofing program. They own an organic diary farm, and they were wonderful to talk to. Marv liked talking to them, and now he has another wwoof host to talk to. It was also fun teaching people about the wwoofing program, and a lot of people were really interested in it. 

Today, Marv's best friend Terry is coming up from Wyoming to help us build new pens and jugs for our lambs. We are completely redoing the barn, and we are building brand  new jugs for the new lambs and their mothers, because we start lambing next Wednesday. Terry will be here for a few days helping us build jugs, and he is so funny so I love having him around. Last night, with our produce that we got, I was able to make a new salsa. I made a honey tomatillo puree. Its a green sauce to use on tacos or burritos or chicken, and it was really good! It was spicier than I have had before, but I used less jalapeno's than the recipe called for. You guys should try it sometime. It really is good! And tonight I am making grilled hearts of romaine salads for everyone. We got over 20 pounds of romaine heads, so I am trying to think of things to do with them. They have never heard of grilled hearts of romaine, so this will be something nice for them to try. 

I only have 2 weeks left here, and I feel that it has been a very successful first wwoofing experience; both for myself and for Marv and Carrie. I am excited to get to Kentucky because the weather will be wonderful and I know that Bobbett will be a very nice wwoof host as well. 

I have to go now, Carrie needs my opinion on lasagna. We are making lasagna with spinach and artichoke hearts, and I am using my fake meat and fake cheese on my part of it. 

Love you all, I will write again soon!

-Sam

Micah, a Great Pyrenees stud dog

puppies that are almost ready to live with their sheep full time

Micah

playful puppies

the maternity pen in the foreground, the bull pen in the background. all the white things are sheep 

triangle pen on the left, a small portion of general population on the right. general population stretches for most of the 35 acres

Micah standing next to a full grown goat. he is really big

Blue, our Akbash stud dog

Blue is our gentle giant

my bonfire, and a sheep in the background

sunset on the ranch

the property goes all the way to the top of that horizon line, and thats only the front part of the property

this is Penn. His mommy is the Cujo dog and trampled all his siblings, then she abandoned him so we tried to graft him onto another mommy, but she bit him really hard because he wasn't her baby, so now I am feeding him and taking care of him at home. 4 weeks old

he is a little on the shabby side right now, but he is making a 110% recovery. he is my little lover!

Scarlett, our bum lamb. She is too tall and jumps out of her plastic tub, so we have to keep her in a dog kennel

Scarlett looks funny in a dog kennel, but she thinks she is a dog now and actually acts like one

Its Warming Up Finally

Its finally warming up here in Montana, but I know that wont last long. Today it was sunny and about mid- 50s. I definitely got some sun today, and it was so peaceful to work in the sunshine. But tomorrow it should start snowing again, and be really cold all weekend. However, the weather in Kentucky is in the 70's so I am very excited to see some sun and start warming up soon!

No new babies have been born yet, but any babies that were going to be born before April 20th should be born by tonight. So that leaves us with 2 goats and 6 sheep that will either have babies tonight or not until April 20th. I dont think that is going to happen, but anything could happen so I just have to wait it out.

Marv and Carrie took me to Golden Corral tonight, and it was wonderful! I had so many delicious foods. I even found legit hushpuppies- with no meat in them! And I ate really really good banana pudding. It was so amazing, I would love to go back. I really enjoyed myself, and I think they enjoyed taking me there. I recommend you guys go there, but you would have to come here to Montana to go to one.

Not much new is going on around here. Cruiser is gone; he was sold yesterday. Im not sad about it- Im actually happy. I really wanted him to go to a good home where he will have room to run and play, and he was bought by a family with 5 kids so I know he will be a very happy little man. The reason they liked Cruiser so much was the fact that he was so social, so Marv wants me to take a little time every day to start socializing the rest of the puppies one by one, so they will be more appealing to buyers as well. It is important that the puppies are social, or else no one will want to buy them. So now I get to play with puppies even more, and know that I am helping them and not hindering their appeal to buyers.

My puppies are doing really well and growing very fast. They are so smart and playful, and they are only about 4 weeks now. Sadly, Brubaker, one of our most beloved and precious puppies, died yesterday. He suffered from some sort of brain aneurysm and died. I found him when I was out feeding the dogs. I actually already knew something was wrong with him when he didnt greet me at the gate when I pulled up. I started calling his name, thinking he was sleeping somewhere, but he never showed up, so I knew he probably wasnt alive. But I procrastinated looking for him as long as possible because I didnt want to be the one to find him. Eventually I found him laying out in the dirt behind a shed, and it looked like he was sleeping. But I started yelling his name as I ran over to him, and when I turned him over, there was blood pouring out of his ears, nose and mouth. I knew instantly what had happened. I was heartbroken, and called Marv to tell him the news. It was a very heartbreaking moment for me, because Brubaker was a very special dog. He was born with a few genetic problems that left him with poor eyesight, farsightedness, and a very slow mental capacity. But he was the sweetest, gentlest, most kind-hearted creature you could have ever met. And every person and animal that met him truly loved him. He was everyone's favorite personality, and he was a complete doll to be around. It was a very, very depressing day for me to have to find him like that. But I know that now he isnt suffering and all I can do is move on and know that I was at least lucky enough to be able to spend the little time with him that I did. Anyone else that comes to work on this ranch will never know the Brubaker that I got to know and hold and love. And for that, I am very grateful for. Whenever I think of him, I will smile because I know he was always smiling and playing and having fun when he was around.

Other than Brubaker, everyone else is doing well and growing very fast. We are selling out of all of our Aussie puppies, and 2 more litters were just born, so we will have a ton of new Aussie's to socialize and play with. I wont get to see them at that age, because I will be leaving at the end of the month and they will only be about 4 weeks then, but I will at least get to see them get on their way there.

I will be staying out at the ranch until Monday afternoon, so I wont be able to update my blog until after then. Mike has stayed out there for over a week, and really wanted Friday night off, so I said I would have no problem staying out there Friday since he gave me the whole week off. And Carrie doesnt like to have to drive Mike out there late at night after he gets off work, when she has to be at work at 8am the next day, so I said I could stay those nights as well, so she can get some sleep. So this weekend will be a little rough, but the other wwoofer should be arriving soon, so that will free up the rest of our schedules. Then I am off to Kentucky, and I am so excited to learn to garden and plant and play in the sunshine. I am looking forward to the drive as well, because I know the scenery will be gorgeous and I will get to see so many beautiful places I otherwise would have never seen. I am going through South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and then to Kentucky. I am eager to see all the sights along the way, and get to some warmer weather!!!

I got to video chat on my new iPhone 4 with my Mom this morning while she was at work. That was fun because I got to see her, and I know she really enjoyed seeing me as well. If any of you have iPhone 4's, we can video chat too!


I am exhausted and going to bed now, so I will talk to you all in a few days.


Love and miss you all,

Samantha

New Phone

Hi Everyone,

So I am now the proud owner of a brand new iPhone 4!!! I got it this morning, after waiting for about an hour and driving downtown to find the new ATT store. There were so many people in the store, because they all had to switch over from Alltell to ATT and they were having problems with the switch. I was just lucky they had iPhone 4's in stock! I got to use my upgrade and now I have a new phone. So I would love if everyone could email me your phone number's because I lost all my numbers when I lost my phone. My email is:

smittydidit1@gmail.com

So please email me numbers so I can call you guys now! And you can call me now too.


I will write again later, I have to go to work on the ranch now.


Love you all,

Sam

Golden Corral!!

Hi Everyone,

This weekend has been HELL. We rented a 'skid-steer', which is like a bobcat-type machine with a bulldozer bucket on the front, because Carrie is considering buying one and wanted to test it out first. We only had the skid-steer for the weekend so we had to be out at the ranch at 8am every day this weekend to get the most use out of it as possible. Mike controlled the skid-steer from inside because he used to be a mechanic for them, so he knows how to operate them well. Marv and I walked around and told him where to dump loads of dirt and what piles of manure to clear out. Carrie had to work at the water park (her other job) all weekend, so she wasnt there to help. Basically, our goal this weekend was to clear out all the packed down manure and mud from inside the barn, move those piles to the back of the ranch to dry out, and pack fresh dirt inside the barn about 12 inches deep. Then we had to do the same thing for another pen called 'The Triangle'. Then we had Mike pile dirt in certain potholes in the road. He also used the skid-steer to move really heavy shelters for the goats and dogs, and clean out large areas that we couldnt do by hand. Well, we have had the skid-steer since Friday morning, and we arent even half way done with all the things we wanted to accomplish. The skid-steer is being picked up tomorrow at 12pm by the company, so we only have tomorrow morning to finish all the rest of our jobs, unless Carrie can beg them to let us keep it one more day. The hardest part was the fact that we have been working out there from 8am to 8:30 pm every day this weekend, then Mike had to stay overnight to check on the sheep and lambs every 2 hours. So we have been putting in over 12 hour days of working non-stop, plus waking up every 2 hours all night to make sure the lambs are okay. On top of that, the weather has been crappy. Today it never got above 35 degrees, and it was pouring down sleet all day. Sleet is a mix between hail and snow. And its very cold and hard when it hits you in the face. But the worst part is that it will sleet for about 10 minutes, then the sun will shine, then sleet will hit us again. That happened all day, so we had to work and dig trenches and dig up mud and manure all day in the sleet. It was so cold I couldnt feel my toes or hands. This weekend definitely put me in a bad mood, but Marv and Carrie are taking me to Golden Corral on Wednesday so that made me feel better. I have always wanted to go, and we are going this week! I will let you all know how it is, and you can drive out here to come to a Golden Corral restaurant.

I went to Subway today and finally got to experience fine Montana customer service first hand! The sandwich artists were so incredibly rude that I couldnt even speak, I just stood there in shock. Marv was with me (thank God) and I asked him if that was normal, and he was so used to it he didnt even know what I was talking about. The guy making my sandwich didnt look up or make eye contact once, he was short and cold with everything he asked me, he didnt listen when I told him what bread, what size or what toppings I wanted on my sandwich. I asked for no jalapenos, so he piled them on anyway. He basically just made me whatever sandwich he wanted, no matter what I asked for. Then he didnt even put tomatoes on my sandwich, so I asked if they were out, and without even glancing up or pausing, he gave me a short, snotty 'yep' and kept making my sandwich. Then he asked 'Anything else?' Now, that is a vague question and I am a very rational, logical person, so I wanted to know how to answer him properly. Was he asking if I wanted anything else on my sandwich? Was he asking if there were any other orders with mine? Was he asking if I perhaps wanted a drink or an accompanying bag of chips or cookie? The question 'Anything else?' didnt really explain all of that, so I hesitated when answering him, which was obviously so very stupid of me, seeing that I am only a lowly human being, so he snapped at me and yelled the question again. So I just looked at Marv, and he answered for me. Honestly, I was so shocked at how rude and nasty the employees were to everyone that I couldnt even speak. Then I noticed that there was only a dime in their tip box, and I wanted to ask them if they were surprised that there was only 1 dime in there, but I figured it wasnt worth the effort. So I asked Marv if that was typical, and he said that any fast food restaurant, and some nicer restaurants will give you that caliber of service and it was typical. Everyone is used to that attitude in Montana, and they cant really do anything about it. Apparently they are so desperate for hired help, that they wont fire anyone for acting that way. If I had called the manager to complain, they might have apologized, but that would have been it. I felt kind of bad for the others in line, because they must be used to being treated that way. I guess people around here dont know any better, and they just got used to it. But it kind of frightened me, so I will not be going to any fast food places by myself in Montana!

We had a pretty bad accident with one of the dogs yesterday. Ashley, a mother of a litter of 10, was in her pen with her puppies. She is a skittish, flighty dog to begin with, but when I went to open her pen, the gate fell over and made a really loud crashing sound. None of her puppies were crushed or hurt, but the noise scared her so she darted out of her pen. Well, the top of the gate has snarled, old wire on it, and as she ran across the gate, it snagged on her bag and ripped open one of her nipples. Then she got even more scared and started to run away, and left huge puddles of blood along the trail. I couldnt catch her, but the wound was pouring out blood, not even dripping, but pouring. Marv had just left the ranch to go take Mike to work, so I was by myself. I had to use 2 of our herding dogs to catch Ashley, then I had to put her back in her pen and tie her up. I ended up getting covered in her blood, but I got it out of all my clothes. It was all over my hands, arms, jacket, pants and boots. I waited for Marv to get back, and he said we couldnt do much for her, but it should clot on its own. He couldnt see how bad the wound was because there was so much blood, but I gave her a shot of penicillin and sprayed the wound with Vetericyn and just waited it out. When I went back to check on her later that day, all of her puppies were covered with blood! All 10 white puppies were red, and soaking wet with blood. They were still trying to nurse on her, even though she was bleeding so bad. And she was letting them because she is such a good mom. I felt so bad! So we just had to let it run its course, and when I came back this morning, I went in and gave her another shot of penicillin and looked at the wound again. It actually did clot up and stopped bleeding, but I could finally get a good look at the cut, and it is so deep! There is actually tissue and blood vessels hanging out of the wound because it is so bad. But all her puppies were white again, which means she cleaned all the blood off of all of them. It just shows how amazing and resilient dogs are. They can be severely injured, or bleeding really bad, but they dont ever show that they are in pain. I know that cut must have really hurt her, but she never showed it. She never even made a sound or anything. Dogs really are incredible animals for how tough they can be. When I have to give a 140 pound goat a shot with a tiny, tiny needle, they scream like they are being murdered. But I can give shots to a dog all day and they dont even move. And like Ashley, she didnt even flinch or slow down when her bag ripped open. They really are amazing, strong animals. So Ashley will be fine, as long as the wound heals properly. I am going to keep dosing her with penicillin until it heals, and keep treating it with wound cleaner so she should be fine in a few weeks.

One of our herding dogs, Seth, was bitten by something in the backyard today, because we came home from working and his entire face was so swollen, he could barely see out of his eyes! The poor thing! It must have been a snake or a spider. Mike said they get spiders as big as the palm of your hand, and they make tunnels in the dirt. Seth has been digging at a dirt pile in the backyard all day, so I am sure it must have been something like that that finally got him. I told them to give him a big dose of Benadryl and some penicillin to be safe. If they give him Benadryl for about a week, he will be back to normal. I remember when little Buzz got stung by a bee, and his whole lip swelled up! Poor little guy, he looked so sad. But Benadryl fixed him right up and he was fine. Seth doesnt even seem to be bothered by it; he is still running around and trying to play with the other dogs, but he cant see them. Maybe he will learn, but probably not.

Belle and her babies are doing great. She had 8, but one was born dead, so she has 7 now. They are all gorgeous and she is a fantastic mother! I am very happy for her, because I think she is getting excited about being a mom now that she has it figured out.

Tomorrow I am going to ATT to hopefully get my phone!!! Wish me luck, and I hope that they have iphones in stock. Then I am staying out at the ranch tomorrow night and Tuesday night, and maybe Wednesday night. There are only 2 more goats and about 4 more sheep left to have babies, and then we wont have to watch anyone at night until April 20th.

I talked to my next wwoofing host today, and she said that it is in the 70s already in Kentucky!!! So that makes me very happy to get on to some nice warm weather. She said she is very short-handed and her whole family is eager to meet me and have the help. She is going into Lexington to the major grocery stores to stock up for my visit, and that is 1.5 hours away. That was very considerate of her, and she seems extremely nice and generous. I am excited to stay on her farm and meet a new set of people.

I think I have decided to come back to California around the end of July so I can be here for Spencer's birthday, and have a few weeks to enjoy summer before school starts again. And I want to be here for my mom's chili cookoff!!! I cant miss that one. So things are looking better, and I am getting very excited for warmer weather and gorgeous scenery in Kentucky!!!

Next week Marv starts banding scrotums and burning horns. I am kind of nervous for that part, because you have to use a hot branding iron to burn the horns on the baby goats so they dont grow. Carrie said they all scream and bellow and it smells like burning hair. I think I might not be there that day, but I feel like I should at least try to experience everything that I can while I am here. I will never see this again, so I kind of want to know what happens. That way I can be prepared and know what ranchers are talking about if they reference that type of practice. I still havent decided yet, but I will have to soon.


Im going to bed now because I havent gotten any sleep all weekend. I have pictures so enjoy them, and I should have more soon.


Love and miss you all!!!

Sunset on the ranch; taken about 7:30pm

The barn and the back 35 acres

relaxing sunset

this was the day after all that sun! it snowed so much that afternoon. 

Peek! My little Cruiser doesnt want to get up in the morning

guard dog puppies, about 3 weeks

baby lambs! the one in front was about 12 pounds at birth

tired little baby lamb

this is a baby Barbados sheep! She is so tiny, only comes up to about mid-shin

those baby goats are growing so fast

twins! but they look so different

this is Scarlet. she is a bum lamb because her mother only has one teat that produces milk and her brother is bigger than her, so he hogs all the milk. I bottle feed her and she knows her name. 

Belle and her puppies. Born the day this photo was taken

This is her first litter, and she is doing so well with them

a couple hours old

all the kids sleep in a pile together

-Sam