Life on the Ranch

We have had a few lambings the past week. One was by a Desert Sand ewe we have. She had a single eweling in the sheep shed one evening. We were able to keep her shut up in the shed for a few days to bond with her baby (and to protect the lamb from the cold!). Just last night, we moved our big, fat Katahdin ewe (Ewe Neek) into a stall at the back of our house. Sure enough, at about 5 am, I was awoken to the sounds of little lambs. I went down and she had 3 lambs out. It looked like the last one had just come out because it was still wet. There are 2 ramlings and 1 eweling. These are lambs that are half Katahdin and half dairy, since they were bred to our dairy ram. Here is the picture of what I first saw:

I thought for today's post, I would share this article about TACO BELL. This article was found on FOX NEWS  "You'll have to pardon the puns, but... Taco Bell might want to change it's "Think Outside the Bun" campaign to "What's Really in That Taco?" after a class-action lawsuit filed against the fast-food giant claimed its taco filler doesn't, um, "meat" federal standards. The suit against the YUM-brands chain also has a "beef" with the company's advertising, charging its claims of using "seasoned ground beef" or "seasoned beef" in its food products is false. According to the suit filed by the Alabama law firm Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, the YUM-brands owned chain is using a meat mixture that contains binders and extenders, and does not meet the minimum requirements set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be labeled as "beef." Attorney Dee Miles said the meat ...

Here are a few pics of a big 600 pound Boar hog we have at the ranch right now.

Well, it finely snowed several inches. The animals all appeared to be warm and had fresh water to drink. We have added more sheep to our ranch just recently. Here are a few pics of the sheep we have at the moment.

We had this hog that we have been getting ready for slaughter for the past weeks. Well, last night was the day to start the processing. After hanging the meat out all night (in the snow storm even) we cut up, grinded and packaged the meat today. Here are a few pics from today:

Between goat babies, the neighbor's puppy being born, Grandma's 75th surprise birthday party and life in general . . . it is hard to get posts up on my blog. But, here is one pic of the almost 2 day old baby llama. He is doing good and likes to be pet. This morning, my daughter put a baby sweater on him and we have him out in the front yard. He has been running back and forth, chasing the goats that are in that yard, sniffing and checking things out and stressing his mother out, as she follows him making noises at him!

This morning I thought our white llama mama (Salty) was acting different. I even asked my daughter about a possible due date (since we had a male llama in with her last year). We both thought her belly looked a little bigger and lower. Well, a few hours later, as we were going to let the livestock out, my daughter noticed A FOOT hanging out of the llama!!       We spent the next 20 minutes or so watching the amazing birth of a baby llama, called a cria. Here is one pic, as I am busy right now. I'm sure my daughter will get some more pics up on her blog over at   http://goodgoats.blogspot.com/  

Well, well, one goat has birthed, a friend's dog is in labor as I type this, we have 20 or 30 sheep that are due from now until into February (I think) AND, we have 25 or so goats lined up to kid over the next 3 months. I'll try to post pics of some of these exciting events as they happen!

We took advantage of the not-much-wind yesterday to burn up a pile in the pasture next to where the old pond used to be. One of my sons has been busy clearing and cleaning up our 40 acres. I guess you could say it is a long-term-restoration project. Some of the areas that he has cleared and burned are looking great. It will be nice to have nice pasture land for the livestock - although, even "bad" pasture land out here has more to offer than the dry, desert of CA!  Even Grandma goat was standing next to the fire, seeming to enjoy the heat from it. It was in the low 30's when we were out there and, last night it got to 11 degrees!