You know it is

Spring time when there's chicks and kittens under the hen!

A surprise!

I 'm a little late getting this up, but hey, I'm a college student. I do what I want! Two weeks ago this Thursday I got a call from home saying I would never guess what they had at home. I went through my typical guesses. Puppies, kittens, lambs, chicks. It wasn't any of those.

Betty, one of the yaks, had just had a surprise calf. We didn't think Betty was bred when our last bull left for his new home last August but what do you know nine months later there's proof to the opposite running around the pen.

Yaks are so shaggy it's kind of difficult to tell when they are pregnant. Here we are thinking the poor gal was just fat off of hay!


This is the first purebred yak calf to be born at our place. Our first calf was a dzo or a cow x yak hybrid. The big red lummox in the photo is that calf. Her name is Ruby ( the yow). Cow +yak = yow...Get it? It's easier to explain than dzo in any case

Unlike most hybrids Ruby is fertile. Female dzos ( dzoes ?) are fertile while the males are born sterile.

In any case we're happy to have the new baby, whose been named Sophie, join us!

More picture of Sophie, Ruby, the new girls, and the rest of the gang when I go home for summer in 18 days!

Kindness Alone is NOT Enough

Some of you might be familiar with NPR's This I Believe series. If not please give it a look. It is filled with values and stories that will hopefully make your faith in humanity a little stronger.   

http://thisibelieve.org/

A week ago my Civics and Ethics professor assigned us to write our own essay about what we believe. At first I thought that this would be an easy assignment. It wasn't...Nothing seemed right or to fit. Nothing that I thought of held enough value or significance to even consider. Finally, I decided to write about something I felt guilty about. Something, that I would like to change. In myself and in others. 

 

Often times we believe we are good people because we are kind to one another. We don't hurt each other. I felt this way....But how could I justify this view of myself when I would sit back and watch others brutalize one another? How am I a better person than them if I do nothing to stop them?

 

This is the paper I wrote for this assignment. It's a little rough still only being a first draft, but I'll replace it once my final piece is done.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I grew up in a small town. The majority of the kids in my preschool were the same kids I graduated with. We know every little aspect about one another. We’ve seen each other grown up. We feel as if we know everything there is to know about on another.  We are familiar to a point of contempt.

                Fittingly it was Aesop, the author of many well-known fairy tales, who said “ Familiarity breeds contempt.”  Our familiarity caused some amount of cruelness  to occur to our classmates that for one reason or another  where viewed as different from the rest of us.  While I never took part in the cruelty I never did anything to stop it.

                One classmate in particular ,who I will refer to as Jeb, received the blunt of it. Jeb suffered from learning disabilities and behavioral problems.  In elementary school a game developed that involved touching Jack and then tagging someone else yelling  “Jeb Germs!”.  For elementary schoolers this behavior isn’t shocking . What is, is the fact it continued well into high school. Along with the game people called Jeb names. Two boys I even consider to be good friends made up a song taunting Jeb.

                As I said before I never took part in these bullying occurrences, but I never did give much effort to stop it. The fact that I never did will shame me till my dying day.  Jeb handled  the cruelties thrust upon him by his peers for the most part with a cold shoulder and occasional fits of rage. And although these actions seemed small to my classmates, and even to me,  there have been individuals who have ended their lives for less.

 Plato is quoted as saying “ Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”  I believe that kindness is not enough.  Often, kindness, no matter how great, is overshadowed by brutality. I challenge you, and who ever else might read this , to do what I failed to do for Jeb. I challenge you to stand up for the little man, because if you aren’t helping him you are hurting him.  

I leave you with one last quote from Aesop “He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.”

 

 

 



Toes for Tots

Today, I participated in the One Day Challenge.  The One Day Without Shoes challenge is an event sponsored by Toms.  For each person who walks a mile with no shoes there is a dollar donated to help purchase shoes for children.

Some of the people today went without shoes for the whole day. Others , like me, walked the mile with out shoes. Needless to say after a mile my little feetsies were pretty gnarly.

Besides the gunk the walk was easy and there was even dinner and games waiting at the end. I highly encourage people to check the event out and participate next year!

 http://www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

Homeward

On Friday I'll be driving home to see my dad. My mom and sister will be away at college orientation.
While I'm there I'll be working on my financial aid, performing bumble foot surgery on one of my turkeys, and baby sitting a rather rotund ewe who should lamb anytime now.

 

I'll also be going with my dad to pick up these lovely ladies !



These are Himalayan Yaks. The three heifers we'll be picking up on Friday are called Royal yaks due to their coloring. Royal Yaks are spotted kind of like Holstein dairy cows. They'll be joining our trim (black with white forehead or legs )cow, Betty, and our imperial ( pitch black) bull, Boris/Buddy/Smoke. There is a little bit of contention about the poor guys name.


More on yaks to come! As for now I need to buckle down and start on my calculus homework.

Chilly Monday

 

 

But gorgeous all the same!

Whose Your Daddy?

        These little darlings where born yesterday back at home. I haven't seen them in person yet so I can't vouch for their cuteness, but I'm taking the picture as good sign.
       
       There is a little boy ( don't get too attached) and a little girl.  Unfortunately, by this time next year the little ram will probably be taking up residence in the freezer. The little ewe will be having her own lambs. I would love to keep all of our babies but it isn't really feasible....and you know the fact I really do love lamb doesn't hurt either.

      That big white head getting in the way of the cuteness is their momma Molly. Molly and I need to have some words. You see last August I spent a good deal of time picking the perfect ram-friend for her. In September I brought in her gentlemanly lover, Eli, and they got to spend a good two months together....along with the rest of his harem.
       In December the ewes were all starting to miss their friends so for Christmas they traveled home along with their friend, Henry. Here is where we reach a problem. You see Molly's babies were born so late in the season she doesn't know who the father is.

                                        Is it Eli or is it Henry? The world may never know.


For shame Molly. I thought I raised you better than that.