I'm off!

I am headed to the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade show in Vegas. I took Friday off from Novell, Saturday off from Bullhead Ranch and Sunday off from Rock Canyon Church so I'll see all of you Monday!

The count is on!

After the last birth, we got everybody locked into the corral. We then spread straw everywhere trying to convince the girls to give birth in the shelter. It worked! We had the next baby born this year! Now we've had three so far and more are coming! I'll try to get some pictures soon.

We lost one

Unfortunately, it was just too cold, and our sheep that gave birth had two lambs but only one was able to live through the cold. It (we haven't checked it yet to see the flavor yet) seems to be doing very well, but unfortunately, it's sibling did not make it.

It's supposed to be warmer this weekend, so I'm hoping the other girls take this opportunity to have their lamb then.

I need a barn....

They're here!

The first Bullhead Ranch lambs of 2008 were born last night. One of my favorite aspects of the breed of animal we chose is the fact that there is almost no complications in birth. Some of the animals bred specifically for the most meat need help lambing but the Navajo-Churro does not. I';; try to get a photo soon.

The callout

Last night was my first evening being Mr. Mom. My youngest has another ear infection just diagnosed that day so he needed drops and meds and was cranky. The other two get along sometimes and at other times they don't. Things went fairly well until bedtime. We all agreed to clean up as we go so the house is not a pig sty when Mama comes home, so we cleaned up and everybody went to bed.

I tend to not go to sleep very early...I am up late almost every night and last night was no different. I was laying in bed, reading and listening to some jazz when I heard a dog barking. I'm attuned to dogs barking since that is the biggest threat to our sheep...domestic dogs. I listened and wondered where it was at. Nothing conclusive, but it continued to bark.

I did not want to leave the warm cocoon of the blankets but I knew I had to. I listened at the front door, opened the side window then tried the back door. Sure enough, it sounds like the dog (dogs maybe?) were towards the back of the pasture. So I bundled up being about 10 degrees out, grabbed some gear and headed out to see what was happening. As I opened the gate to the pasture, the dogs (by this time I knew there was more than one) really went nuts. They sounded like they were attaching something, so I broke into a jog to get back there. I saw most of the sheep over by the corral and Sarge, our llama, was stationed between them and the threat about 50 yards away. As I got closer, I flicked on my light and saw the eyes. The dogs were back there, but they were in a kennel. It turns out our new neighbors who have not built their house yet have decided to put up a kennel on their property for the dogs, and the dogs were in the kennel. I have no idea what the fit was, unless it was just the sound of metal on metal as I walked into the pasture, but everybody I was in charge of was safe and the threat averted. I finished with a walk around the perimeter and then headed back to bed.

It took a while to get to sleep after that...the adrenaline and all had to ebb from the system, but I finally dropped off. My kdis were nice enough to allow me to sleep in until around 0700 this morning when I had to get involved in my wife's tough job of raising them!

Doing a different job

I enjoy my job at Novell and I'm beginning to get better at it. I enjoy my job at church and while I'm behind on a couple of things, I'm beginning to get better at that. I enjoy my job on the farm and I'm beginning to understand things their better as well. But there is one job that I an going to be doing from 1530 today until around 1800 on Monday.

My wife's job.

Yep, I'm going to be Mr. Mom for the weekend. Her job is harder than any of the other hats I wear. On top of merely keeping the children alive and the blood on the tile (tough to get it out of carpet!) I have to try to keep the kitchen cleaned up and the floor clean and the clothes picked up and....ugh!

My wife definitely has the hardest job of any of the jobs that we do! Pray for me....

My 15 minutes...

I have had my 15 minutes of fame already. It occurred about six years ago. My wife and I were talking about various ideas of how to invest some money and something came up from one of my hobbies. You see, I enjoy the movie Star Wars. It was seminal in my life since when I first saw it in 1977 and I saw the wireframe model of the Death Star I knew that it took a computer to make it and I wanted to be a nerd from that time forward.
So one of my hobbies is collecting props. What George Lucas used back in 1977 for Luke's lightsaber that Obi-Wan gave him was made from a Graflex flash gun from Graflex cameras from the 1950s. So these flash guns were going for around $350 on eBay at the time and my wife and I decided to look into making a replica. Others had tried, but they just weren't as close as they could get to perfection, so we purchased one from eBay, tore it apart, and began making replicas of it. We have shipped Biskit Graflex Replicas all over the world! That was my 15 minutes...

Saw my neurosurgeon today...

which may sound innocuous, but it's a rather strange event. Sure I have appointments there, but I do not actually see my neurosurgeon, but rather his helper Matt. Today while waiting for Matt my neurosurgeon came out and we had a quick chat. It's amazing to me that he remembers me after so many patients over the year since we last spoke, but sure enough he remembers who we are and what we're doing and even asked about the church! Then my wife told him that he's a hero at church for being able to fix my back and he stopped her to make sure we knew that he gives all the credit to God.
It's interesting because we are talking about a very intelligent person who performs incredibly delicate operations and brain surgery. These are the guys that are generally fairly high on themselves, but my neurosurgeon wanted to make sure that the credit went properly to God.

Listening to God's voice

God loves each and every one of us and He has a plan for us. Whoever you are and wherever you are and whatever your circumstances, you are important to God and He has a plan for you.
This comes up because I've had a couple people approach me at church with some good ideas. They have some ideas of things the church could get involved in. The problem is they only want to have the idea, nothing to do with execution of it. Psalm 46:10 tells us

Be still, and know that I am God

And I think sometimes we get so excited about the new idea God has given to us that we stop being still too early.
I think a lot of this is the fear of that first step. I think a lot of people are worried because they have been given some God-sized vision for something to do and they realize they can't do it with what they know. That is where God's strength comes to fruition. Righ there where we know we cannot do the job. But stepping out, getting it done, just doing it is faith. If God really gave a vision for this, He will provide His provision for it.
You see, the church doesn't have people just sitting around trying to figure out what to do next, we all have our own jobs in the church. If you have a vision from God to do something, we are happy to provide you with some ideas of how to take that first step. We will be there to cheer you on as you go. But if God has given you a vision to accomplish a task, you need to step out in faith and get it done.
Be a good steward not only with your finances, but with your time and intelligence as well. Be a steward of the vision God gives you.

Kenya

This morning in church I talked about the Assemblies of God church that was burned down with people inside. We are trying to raise some funds to send to Kenya to help with relief efforts. There are some links to news articles and video here.

Changes...

There have been a ton of changes recently in my world. I recently changed positions at Novell and I'm working to understand all I'm doing these days with a lot of help from my boss.
And yesterday was his last day.
That's right, after 15 years of work, Dave has left Novell to work for the LDS church. He will be heading up a team in the IS&T division. I am certain he will make a great contribution to their team.
It puts me in a weird position at work now...I don't have any backup any longer. Now I'm all on my own for understanding this product, but I don't have it completely understood yet. Well, I'm working on it and I'm sure I'll understand it as well as I want shortly.

Farming morning

Man! I've looked over the last few entries and it's all about the cold. You get the impression I am not enjoying the frozen Winter?
This morning I had to go out and get the trap set to get the sheep into the corral. They are headed to the butcher either tonight or tomorrow morning so we need to have them in the corral so we can pick the boys we are going to eat out from the girls and boys we are keeping. So I was outside in the frozen morning with my long johns and sweats and t-shirt and parka and jacket and fur hat and full gloves doing that!
It was fun! I enjoy this part of farming.

Starting the new year COLD!!!