FarmBoy Prom

All dressed up and ready for a night on the town, Jordan's senior prom - Woooo-Hoooo! Jordan looks very handsome and Alex is gorgeous in her ivory gown. It was quite chilly on this evening, but I hear it was warmer inside the dance! The handsome couple had reservations at the Bonefish Grill in Tri-Cities before the festivities.

And they are out of the gate!

Well, he is polite and opens her door for her, but that pickup sure is dirty. Chivalry is still developing!

Oh, no - what is this? Alex waits in the truck while Jordan races to shut the gate before the sheep get out!
Don't worry, they made it to their dinner reservations on time and the night went off without a hitch, despite this minor detour as a country boy tries to get to prom without mussing his clothes, or the lady's! Everyone at dinner was polite and made only small mention to the slight scent of sheep poo wafting up from someone's shiny black shoes!

A Steep Price

The goat brothers, Snickers (above) and Hershey (below), came to live with us last fall after serving a term as therapy goats at Western Trails Therapeutic Riding Center. These guys are two of a set of triplets and were bottle raised. If you know anything about goats, you know they socialize to humans extremely well, so having been raised on bottles and then used as therapy animals for kids with disabilities, they are very people-oriented. They are Nigerian Pygmy goats, so are pretty small. This combination makes them difficult to keep in a pen and impossible to keep out of the yard. They quickly figure out gate latches and only complicated devices requiring thumbs are able to foil these guys. They are seriously like having twin two year olds around. I wouldn't mind them in the yard, except they have a fondness for my roses and other flowers. They also just generally get into stuff and drag it around the yard. Consequently, they have spent much of the winter in a large, hay-filled, chain link dog kennel inside the barn. I let them out every evening and we would go for lenghty walks together. They stay closer to me on walks than the dogs. It is so funny to watch them romp, stand on their hind legs to head butt each other, and just generally enjoy life.

Now that the weather is warming (slowly!) and the green grass is growing, I wanted to put up the electric sheep and goat fence for them. Behind the house looked like a great spot, a steep hill for them to climb and romp on, sagebrush to scratch those itchy backs, four large apricot trees for shade, and best of all, lush green grass to graze on.

Not to mention, the view from up here is spectacular. I especially like how the cow trails all converge at the corral as the cows have come in for water from all parts of the pasture.

Here is Jordan helping out. Notice how far down the trees look, and yes, they are the old apricot trees which are included in the pen also. It was so steep I actually had to crawl on hands and knees with rolls of fence on my shoulder to get up some parts. What a good workout! Well, it turns out old ladies with creaky knees shouldn't be hill crawling so much. I am now in a knee brace and the doc is not allowing any flexion on that leg as we attempt to avoid surgery. Hmmmmm . . . . . Anybody in the market for some really friendly goats?

Until next time, may the hills rise up to meet you . . . gently!

Sebastian's Surgery

"Hey guys, whatcha doin'?"

Sebastian was very curious about this unfamiliar pickup with people getting out of it. Little did he know it was the vet and his crew coming to geld him. I wonder if he will be so friendly to strangers in the future?

What a gorgeous day we had for this surgery, reasonably warm with no wind, yaaay!

For anyone unfamiliar with horse terminology, to geld a horse means to castrate, or neuter, him. Unless you are set up to handle a stallion, male horses should be gelded. Stallions are unpredictable and can be hard to manage, so gelding them makes them much safer and easier to work with. Jordan aquired Sebastian last year and had no plans to use him as breeding stock, so planned to have him gelded from the start.

Jordan steadies Sebastian while Dr. Lincoln inserts the catheter for the anesthesia drip.

And down he goes. Dr. Lincoln steadies his head as Sebastian went to his knees, then over on his side. It was apparent that Sebastian was unsure what was happening and it was a little scary for him, but he was soon sleeping like a baby.

Jordan offers a soothing touch and comforting words as the anesthesia takes effect.

Dr. Rademacher gets down to business as Dr. Lincoln monitors vitals and Jordan holds a leg out of the way.

Joni takes over holding the leg for Jordan as Dr. Rademacher takes the time to explain part of the procedure to Jordan.

Jordan mentioned Sebastian seems to drool a lot, so his teeth were checked and floated as he had some sharp hooks on several of them. The guys took care of that little job while the anesthesia was still working. He should be able to chew better now.

And the big guy is back up! He is still pretty unsteady, but is attempting to creep closer to people for comfort. He especially wants to be as close as possible to Jordan. I am a little worried that he wants Jordan to hold him on his lap!

Oh, man, Jordan, just stop this world from spinning and I will do anything for you!

A big thanks goes out to the vet team who came out and took such good care of Sebastian, allowed me to take pictures, and who went over and above the call of duty to take the time to explain to Jordan what they were doing and why during every phase of this procedure.

Just in case anyone is wondering, Sebastian still loves all people just as much as he used to! He is much calmer now, though, and safer to work with. Jordan walked him quite a bit during that first week to help with swelling and soreness. Sebastian followed everywhere as meek as a puppy on a string.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our farm seasons. Until next time, be careful if the world starts spinning, who knows what might come next!!!