Well, call me "blushing"!

Dear Rebels,
I am an ASS.  I did not read that entire article before I linked to it, and if I had I would have known it was bogus.  There are a couple of ways to tell if your pieces are any good or not and the first is to do your research; secondly is to go with your gut and see if the article makes sense and is not too over the top.  This one was.  As I got closer to the bottom and the Author got more and more angry, I knew I was in trouble.

I have no excuses, but I will explain what happened.  It is Spring Break around here, but for only half of my children; we have a case of unexpected Chicken Pox (and yes we were vaccinated) and things are nutty; I saw that article come across my email and it REALLY scared me, more on that in a minute.  I started reading it, I swear I did....and messing with the "link to" buttons, and lo and behold there was one for Blogger.  So I thought, what the hell????  Something distracted me, and that was that.

So, let's tackle this thing shall we?  First and foremost, my apologies if I offended anyone (which I did).  Period.  Secondly, I truly am sorry for linking to bullshit; no other way to say it.  I really try to pride myself on being an honest and up front writer with you all and that just really put a chip in my "armor" so to speak so let's just forget it happened, "K"?  I could have just pulled that piece, but it still would have been cached, and it would not have been a reminder to myself of my mistake.  As you see I did make a correction on that page.

Okay, so I tried to think through why I fell for this and it is because I truly feel that this is not far in the making.  Through CREDIBLE research I have been reading all about raids on homes, yes homes of FAMILIES, that are being raided with guns abalazin' all at tax payers expense because of milk, eggs or cheese.  This to me seems really quite incredible when our country is in such a time of crisis; like a foreclosure epidemic, a couple of possible overseas situations, starving residents, dirty oceans, my list could go on and on...  Food that people are literally begging for does not top my list of things to prosecute people for.

I mean it really has nothing at all to do with what I do here on my own Ranch.  Even if I did not sell my own products of this nature I would think this is total "you know what".  I talked to a friend of mine, and this comes first hand.  He had another friend that had a customer for three years.  That customer talked him into harvesting some chickens for them; they begged him to do it, even after he explained the law, etc.  Well, he went ahead and processed the chickens for the customers; because he had had a relationship with them for so long...BIG MISTAKE.  He is still going through court battles.

See, it was all a sting operation.  The whole three years!  For that whole time these folks had been in the area befriending the locals, buying eggs and then just waiting to ask them to process their chickens and then BAM! they'd bust them for being neighborly!  Which, yes, technically is against the law, but I mean really, I kinda wonder how many murders went unsolved during that three year time-frame???

And as far as health concerns go, well you are never going to win that argument with me.  The whole reason we are having outbreaks of bacteria these days is because of commercial farming, not because of organic farming.  IN MY OPINION, what has happened with CFO farming is that they have robbed the ground of all the nutrients so they have to spray it all back on, therefore using all sorts of chemicals, pesticides, etc. and that is what then causes the outbreaks.  Overcrowding of animals is also a HUGE, I can NOT say it enough, HUGE problem of bacteria in CFO farms!!!  A person can follow the CDC (Center for Disease Control) paths for themselves of any outbreak of any food at ANYTIME by going to the CDC website.

Now, as you will notice I did not take the time to link to anything with this first piece as I am a bit link shy right now.  I have been looking at the great Cantaloupe breakout to see if I can use it as an example, but again the CDC didn't show it's findings very quickly and I really wanted to get my apology out there!  But, from what I can gather, they were NOT organic farmers.

So, the bottom line is I screwed up and I'm sorry.  And you will continue to see more of my REBEL side, just a bit more toned down! :)

Checking In!!!

Dear Rebels,
Hello, from your long lost Author, Judy Jeute, :)!!  I am so sorry this going to be a quick little post to let you all know that we, The Jeute/Prentiss clan are "Keepin On, Keepin On" so to speak.  Actually, we are doing quite well.  My poults are growing like weeds; and as you can see by the photo, they have some company.

 (Aren't they adorable?  The brown one looking at the camera is a poult and the black and yellow ones are chicks!!  Too sweet for words, really.)

I have learned that what is an instinct behavior in chicks, oh you know silly little things like eating and drinking properly, are learned behaviors in poults.  So one day when I was at my local Big R store (man do I love that place) to get the babies some vitamins to help perk them up, I heard some peeping and thought the sound had followed me from home in my head or something and lo and behold they had their own brooder full of chicks so I took a couple home to teach my turk babies how to eat and drink and within five minutes of me putting those chicks in there my poults were all standing around the waterer!!!  It was amazing. 

So, although my hatch rate has totally sucked, and I lost my favorite poult; we have figured out exactly what we are doing wrong so far.  And that is all a person can do, right?  Learn from their mistakes and go forward from there.  And that is exactly what I intend to do.  So we have more eggs going in the incubator today since we know what went wrong; poor air flow.  That just means more excitement in another month!  And even more exciting some of these will be sold for profit, what's that, actual money????  But I believe this is where the saying might apply.  Don't count your chickens before their hatched.  LOL!!!

Okay, so yesterday I think I might have had one of the craziest days.  I started it out with negotiating our new property single-handedly.  Thank goodness Tom is working overtime again, and we really need to get this property business taken care of.  As soon as the snow melts...we need to be moving our livestock up there.  Period.  We have fencing to do, barns to build, water to acquire, electricity to figure out, did I mention we will be off grid???  Oh yea, and a minor little thing like shelter for four?!?!?!

Oh wait, got a bit side tracked with my panic attack, JK! No, I talked with our friend who owns our dream property and yesterday I made sure... it is The Double J!!!!  I do believe that he, Tom and I will be sitting down this afternoon to finalize everything.  Whew.

And then....The High Timber Times arrived.  No kidding.  Yes, I knew they were coming, but I don't think it all really hit me til the guy with the monstrous cameras got out of his car and told me and Bella to act normal while doing our daily chores.  She joked that she wanted to go inside and hop on the couch-ha!  Anywho, the reason they were here is that they are doing a story on the Mountain Resource Center; and as I mentioned in The American Tragedy, I went to MRC for help with my electric bills.

I really have no idea how this story will turn out and to be honest, we were really nervous about doing it.  Could they make us out like the poor kids on the block???  This is a local paper, all of our family and friends are going to see it... they are ALL going to know now that we are in FORECLOSURE and that we have had all of these issues.  But you know what else they are going to know?  They are going to SEE me and Bella.  And I hope they hear the pride that we have in our ranch and our area.  But mostly in ourselves and our family.

Yeah, we have been put through the wringer, and yes, we have made some mistakes.  But we are being responsible for them now and moving right along.  Yesterday when I was being the pied piper and the turkeys were following me across the road as Bella gently herded them and the photographer snapped away I couldn't have been more proud.  I don't care about our mistakes or my pain or whatever, it was the smile on that girls face.... I could see the pride in her heart.

I also learned yesterday that Judy means praiseworthy.  And for some reason that really came at a nice time; when I'm negotiating deals and being a public figure and a proud mom.  So maybe this post was not as short as I intended, as I am behind in my schoolwork, but I needed to let my dear Rebels know....We are here, we are good, and we are doing what needs to be done.

JJ~

PS "Our" edition of The High Timber Times should come out Wednesday March 14, 2012 barring a local news emergency.

Royal Ranch Royalty

Not knowing exactly how much longer I will be representing The Royal Ranch has made me a bit melancholy, I guess you would say.  There is a good chance that this could be my last post in this series as the official owner of The Royal Ranch; therefore I really wanted to make it one that counts and one that really gets the point across of what I am trying to do with my livestock and my homesteads, yes I say that in the plural.

As I have NOT made a secret of, we are adding to our homesteads with The Double J; and of course I will continue with my heritage breeds.  I hope to even expand my heritage poultry business, raise pork for my family and anyone else who is interested and of course by now you Rebels know I am adding Yak to the mix.  But what I have been secretive about is what we are going to do with The Royal Ranch, and for another week or so, that is still going to be kept close to home (until I have cleared everything with all parties of course).

For now our plans are to continue to live in it, probably as caretakers, while we build our new dream home on the Double J.  I am spending my days learning everything I can...for now unofficially, but that may change.  I may go back to school officially if I think a GC (General Contractor) and Mother, and Rancher, and Volunteer and other hat wearer can also be student....  But right now I am a student on a quest for knowledge of all things heritage breed.

Meaning any breed of livestock that this country (and many others for that matter) was founded on to put it quite simply.  I am taking my homesteads back to their roots.  With their animals and with their supplies and with their needs.  I have told you I am going off-grid, and I'm not kidding, so I'm learning a lot about that too.  So I go to bed at night with my head swimming with ultra-capacitors and old-fashioned pigs; all wrapped up in one image.  How in the world am I going to make all of this work????

Well, I am going to make it work with websites like American Livestock Breeds Conservancy and Earthineer.  Those are today's Royal Ranch Royalty's; I bet you were wondering how I was going to get around to that weren't you?  Well, Rebels, it is very important for me to get my facts straight, and in one or two convenient, intelligent stops.  And I have found that in these two sites.  I can look up information about animals and capacitors and make new friends all at the same time.  So if you are living a sort of mixed up crazy weird life like me right now...check 'em out; more than useful!

Meet (or is it meat?) The Meatrix....

Go ahead, I dare you to check out this funny video about modern day meat production....no blood or gore and it really gets the point across!

Welcome Double J!

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the newest member of the family...The Double J Ranch!  You can find us at dbljdotorg (soon) and dbljdotorg.blogspot.com (NOW!).

'Nuf Said!

Dear Rebels,

I recently went into my local feed store because I was entirely out of my regular organic/Non-GMO/no-soy feed for my poultry.  I have to tell you I was so totally caught off guard by the owners total lack of knowledge and even defense on the subject of Genetically Engineered feed that I even had myself wondering if this was a lost battle.  That was until I got back in the truck with my kids and my fifteen year old son said "Mom, I could tell you were getting really mad; and I understand your point.  I just don't think I can explain it".

That is when I realized that I am so passionate about this movement and how it has affected the growth of our children (really, did girls used to have boobs and bums that size?) that I have a hard time coming up with the proper words.  So, although I promised my regular readers a different post for next time, I read some wonderful news online today that really brings my point home; and PLEASE take the time to read the entire article; you don't want to miss paragraphs like this:

Many NaturalNews readers will recall the numerous incidents involving lawsuits filed by Monsanto against non-GMO farms whose crops were inadvertently contaminated by GM material. In many of these cases, the defendants ended up becoming bankrupted by Monsanto, even though Monsanto's patented materials were the trespassers at fault.

And:

But it appears that the tables are now turning. Instead of Monsanto winning against organic farmers, organic farmers can now achieve victory against Monsanto. In other words, farmers being infringed upon by the drifting of GM material into their fields now have a legal leg to stand on in the pursuit of justice against Monsanto and the other biotechnology giants whose "frankencrops" are responsible for causing widespread contamination of the American food supply.

Just like the title, "Nuf Said!

The Royal Ranch Visits Oklahoma

Wow!  Did we have a wild and woolly trip to Oklahoma!!!  Literally.  We started the trip off by heading to my in laws place in Matheson, CO where we spent the night and got to spend a little time with my wonderful BIL (Brother-In-Law) and niece.  My poor SIL had to work that night, but we did catch her sleeping on the ground hoping to catch a glimpse of her nephews and niece that were happily all sleeping in her bunkhouse.  They had all spent the night playing Wii and who knows what cousins do to all hours of the morning.  I just about burst out in tears when I saw my almost grown kids all cuddled up in blankets out in this barn style bunkhouse and their Aunt keeping watch over them by the fire outside, with the rooster crowing and the horses grazing in the background...

We left the kids in the very capable hands of the family for the day while Tom and I went to shear and pick up some llamas a couple of towns away in Peyton, CO.  We had such a wonderful time at the Rivera place...Really.  Here we were there to work, and work we did, but we made some wonderful friends as well.  We sheared seven llamas in no time flat thanks to their great hospitality, a fantastic chute (Tom and I have never worked with a chute before, interestingly most llama people will tell you you have to have one to work with llamas!) and the fact that they had so many helpers.

While we were there, we found out that Henry Rivera (sorry no link, contact me for his information) is a fantastic artist.  And here we had just been outside swapping sweat with the guy!  Ha!  The Rivera's treated us like Royalty; they teased us that they had gone to the website and knew that we were The Royal Ranch and must be treated as such.  Lunch was wonderful, the shearing was smooth as silk, excuse the pun, and the loading went as well as could be expected for ten wild llamas.

We headed back to the in-laws to get the kids and some much needed rest, we thought; and just when I drifted off to sleep my cell phone rang and it was the gentleman we were to meet in Oklahoma with the llamas.  He was on his way.  What????  Okay.  So we loaded up the kids, oh yes, we were blessed with all our of our children this trip, and headed for Oklahoma!

See, these llamas had been adopted by a family in Washington, OK.  We were to shear them and then transport them to Guymon, OK to meet the new owners halfway.  I guess they got a little excited and I miscommunicated, but it all worked out because I wanted the llamas to travel in the cool of the night anyway.  But, the problem with that is the storms.  And let me tell you about the storms.  I mean I thought we were in a tornado at one point in time, the lightning was crashing and hitting the fields right next to us.  We passed a cow that had been hit even.  It was crazy!  And then once it got dark and the storms were bad, all you could see was when the lightning struck it lit up everything for miles....and then back to pitch black and that howling wind!

Amazingly enough, two people coming from six hours apart, arrived in the same little sleepy town of Oklahoma within five minutes of each other.  And even better, the llamas were so tired and road weary and afraid of the storms that we had passed through (and thankfully avoided while we traded llamas), did not give us one bit of hassle.  We found a hotel with a pool for the kids and piled in.  Goodnight, ya'all.

Sunday the kids wanted to swim of course before we hit the road to who knew where (that's sort of how the Jeute's roll).  My fifteen year old son went to jump in the deep end and couldn't get his footing because the bottom was so slimey.  All righty then.  Think I'll just stay walking around to get my exercise in the shallow end, thank you very much.  Kids, please shower after this one...But we all were giving my husband a hard time because he just seems to attract the "locals", if you know what I mean; and can talk to just about anyone, including the guy who needed to wait for my kids to get out of the pool to shock it with four pounds of chlorine.

Or the guy on the side of the road in the middle of the night holding the road sign.  Tom had decided to pull forward and ask him how he liked his job and about the local economy and such.  Well, all we kept getting out of the guy was a "Yuup", and I'm thinking to myself, can we back up?  How long could this wait possibly be?  Ha!

So anyway, we leave Guymon, and again in Jeute fashion we really have no idea where we are going, but decide that we want to go home through New Mexico instead of the same route we had just come.  We see a black road on the map that looks pretty good and we take it...not looking at the legend of course.  Remember, these accidents often happen for good reasons.  I had all of my family trapped right there in the truck with me. And we were on a dirt road...I was in heaven!

We saw turkeys and deer and elk and the plants, oh I was absolutely enthralled with the plants.  We stopped at Black Mesa Nature Preserve where there was an entire ecosystem that you could just walk right up to!  Complete with fish and cattails and dragonflies,etc.  The petrified forest nature hike that we took was really cool, there were lizards for the kids to watch and all sorts of species of plants for me to guess at.

We made it to Raton, NM Sunday night and the kids gave Tom and I a hard time because of course we chose this little hillbilly looking motel across the street from the big name Hotel.  While Tom was inside the boys were in the back just complaining away saying that this place was redneck and going to suck and be small and not have wifi, etc.  Then we opened up the door to our huge room (with all amenities), and they both (the eighteen year olds) said the other place had nothing on this one-ha!  It had a nice clean pool too; and we even got a late check out so that we got to spend some time there on Monday!

It was a tad bit of a bummer that the restaurant that they suggested was no good, they took forever and I got sick.  Yeah, I got sick, and I never get food sick.  And the day we were traveling home too.  But it was quick and over, so I was pretty lucky. 

The ride home was uneventful, but I will say that we are heartsick for the parts of  the country that are experiencing drought.  The little bit that we saw was devastating.  I have been hearing about poultry houses that have lost thousands of birds due to heat stress and it makes me thankful every single day that my birds can free range to go where they need to go to adjust their own body temperatures.  And I am so blessed to have had the rain these past few weeks.  We drove past fields that were simply left because of drought...

So thank you America, for another wonderful vacation and the chance to spend time with my family. 

Farmageddon; a great movie supporting local agriculture!

As you all know, I am very dedicated to supporting my local farmers as much as possible.  But for me, living in the mountains and not really having local farmers that is a little harder to do.  It is a learning process (one that I am very much still in the process of), Colorado may not be the biggest agricultural state, but by golly it is an agricultural state by some standards; mine included.

I am very proud to be a part of the agricultural business, I say it is in my blood.  It must have skipped a generation (my Mom is not really into the whole animal/growing thing-ha!).  See, my Grandparents were farmers in Iowa; they moved here to leave the farm life behind, I do believe.  But somehow it is just inside some of us, and I can't help myself...when I collect the eggs I am fascinated with the smooth little jewels of various colors.  And oh, my wonderful sheep that bleat for me if I am late to feed them...

And as for my packing llama string...I recently saw some pictures on Pinecam (our local gossip emag-ha!) of our ranch with Charlie Royal doing pack strings with horses...Well aren't we just going full circle?  I wish I still had that much land Charlie...But anyway, the joy that they bring me and our visitors is unparalleled; we get to teach our guests about our area, our way of life, but even better yet, how to be good stewards of the environment!

So to me, being a farmer these days is a lot more than just throwing stuff in the ground or raising organic animals.  It is about defending our rights to do so.  And teaching people about why we are doing it that way.  And why it is so important for us to raise heirloom varieties and heirloom chickens and sheep so that we don't have only one kind of corn or tomato or potato (and that there are still some nutrients in them).  No matter which way you say it; tomato or tomahto, potato or potahto, if there is no variety it would still suck.

Needless to say I was really excited to hear about this documentary:


Farmageddon - Movie Trailer from Kristin Canty on Vimeo.

Made by a Mom.  Check it out, there are screenings in towns all over the USA, or you can buy the DVD.  I have to wait for the movie....bummer!

A Party With No Trash...Okay Maybe Just a Little!

I woke up this morning feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders.  My biggest commitments for the summer are already over, and it feels wonderful!!!!  My sons graduated on Sunday and boy did we have a humdinger (does anyone still use that word?  And if not, they sure should, it's a good one-ha!) of a party!

We also had a baseball game yesterday that was a big deal as my daughter and the choir that she is in sang the National Anthem for the Colorado Rockies; and they showed the town how that song is sang!  I was so very proud.  The group of fourth and fifth graders walked onto the field with a march in their step, took their  places in the choir and belted out our National tune like any professional group could do....even my Grads were impressed!  And that my friends is pert near impossible to do these days, let me tell you.

But back to the party with no trash; really it can be done; with a bit of preparation (and a bit of yucky digging afterward, I must admit).  Now, if you have been a reader of mine, on either of these blogs, you know that I am not at all familiar with paper products.  I do not buy plastic bags or paper plates or even paper napkins; my one downfall is paper towels and I do buy those very infrequently in bulk.  So the paper product aisle itself was a bit overwhelming to me.

So, I headed straight to the party stuff.  I knew I didn't want any "crap".  You know what I'm talking about the kind of forks that break when you first put them into a bite of potato salad?  Or the plate that dumps everything on the unsuspecting kid?  Yeah, I wasn't having any of that.  Party stuff it was, and blue and black to match the boys' colors, easy enough.  From there, it is simply a case of turning the products over and making sure they are recyclable, if not, put it back.  There are plenty of choices out there people, we do not have to fill up our landfills.

Okay now we are at the party and of course we have not gotten the trash cans and the recycle cans marked like I wanted.  Actually there was a huge misunderstanding and we thought the neighbor was bringing some last minute supplies (like the grill, trash cans and bags) so we didn't have them to mark....but anyway; my point is is that it doesn't even matter if it all gets mixed up.  I was able to nonchalantly grab the plates out of the trash as I was going by and put them into a different bag.

This all may sound a bit yucky, but to me it was well worth it.  I had purchased cans for the kids to drink; we had recyclable cups for the keg (I even grabbed out a lot of the food trash for the chickens-ha!).....So let's run down what all was in my trash can when this party for about 75 people was over.  Bags for ice, bags for buns, plastic silverware (and damn did I try and find some that is recyclable, I will try harder next time!) and napkins; that is about it.  That is one small bag of trash for a very LARGE party.  Now, we have two HUGE bags of recyclabes, but that is okay.

We had a wonderful party to help send the boys off right; we won't be filling up the landfills and polluting my beloved Mother Earth in the process and I am done with my major commitments for the summer.  Now it is time to get to work on those campgrounds....keep those campers from burning down our forests and enjoy the time with my children.  Wow, I truly am a very blessed woman.

Simplifying, cont.

 A "Tick" (looks like a chick, but actually is a turkey)!

Okay...so let's get down to the nitty gritty.  What do I really mean by "simplifying" and "healing with the ranch"  (as mentioned in my previous post)?  It doesn't at all mean just quitting things, like the recycling, and TV; oh no this place is a buzz with activity.  We have "ticks" (we have no idea what to call baby turkeys, and they look just like chicks, so ticks it is-ha!) in the garage, a beautiful lamb in the llama/sheep pen and all sorts of stuff being planted!  My goal is to reconnect with the old ways I guess you could say.


I have been doing a lot of thinking about our property, and how it could be used to it's greatest potential.  I want to use each and every animal to its highest potential as well; whether it be for egg, wool, meat or even guardian purposes.

I absolutely adored making my jams last year for Christmas and the response I got was unbelievable...so I am going to grow berries this year for my own jams!  Amazingly there are a few berries that will grow at our high altitude and we already have a lot of wild raspberries that grow around this area, so I can only hope.  I am also changing the formula of Naked~Nure, by happy accident, adding a secret ingredient that should make plants soar!  More on this in a future post.

The point is to make the very most of what I've got.  I don't feel that the economy is at all stable.  I don't feel that our government is at all stable.  It is time to use my property to raise what I need for my family and hopefully have a little leftover for my family and friends.  My goal is to barter...I really think this is the wave of the future...I already do it with many of my friends.  I trade eggs for some of my friend Tiffany's wonderful products.  I recently got some organic beef and traded some of that for my organic chicken feed....the list goes on and on...

I have always hated waste...and now I look at my property in a whole new light.  There are already many plants on it that I should have been harvesting for years...Chamomile, Currant, Rosehip, Chokecherry, even dandelion can be harvested and used....How about you, do you harvest and use any of Mother Nature's wonders?  And what are some of your plans in this unstable environment?

Buttercup...

Her name is Buttercup, and she is the most precious thing ever:

I took these videos a little over a week ago, and she has grown quite a bit since then:

But the funniest thing of all, is that her new best friend since I took these is Avalanche the Rooster!!!!

Royal Ranch Royalty

Well, what a wonderful way to welcome us all back from my little break....A new lamb!!!  It is a female and it has been quite an adventure for this little girl and her mommy; and their Shepherd now that I think about it.  Tom says that I am a real rancher now that I have had my hands inside of an animal, but that is beside the point.  I was unable to save her twin...but I did save Mama and as far as I'm concerned that is almost all I could ask for.

This little girl was born Friday afternoon, after a very long morning of laboring for my ewe, Esther.  Although I knew that Esther typically has multiple births, we watched and waited; and waited and watched until I was frozen in position.  No more babies and no more signs of labor.  I checked with the vet and they said that not always do they have multiples and they couldn't obviously diagnose her over the phone, but that things sounded okay.

That was until I got up early to check on them yesterday morning and found her straining and pushing!  A whole day later...which is not a good thing.  We ran back to the house only to find that the vet had a morning already filled with patients...it was do or die time.  My handy dandy vet kit, a bucket of clean water and the daughter, husband and I were off!

Husband held Esther, daughter held baby right where Mama could see her and I went in!  Baby #2 was lodged in a breach position and was stuck in her pelvis, I had a heck of a time getting him out, but I did it!  I cried and mourned when I got back home, like any good Shepherd would, but I am still very grateful I have so far been able to save my Esther Girl, and we were all thankful that this guy was not in position #1.

Now, I have learned a few things from this experience.  First and foremost...call your trusted friends and neighbors in times like these.  I called a neighbor about getting the new baby some raw milk in case we need to supplement her and she had a great pointer for me.  When a female still has a baby in her belly, their tummies are still hard and when they are done with birthing, it goes soft; I sure wish I had this bit of info the day before.  There is a simple way to test for this, by wrapping your arms around the female and sort of hugging her in a downward motion as you straddle her.  This is something not even the vet had mentioned.

The other is to always trust your instincts when it comes to your critters, or anything for that matter (more on that and why I have been absent in future posts...), but especially when working with animals.  They have no way of telling you when they are in distress, and believe me, I spent hours on Friday looking for signs of labor or distress and saw none.  They are absolute masters at disguising any weakness.  My gut told me that I should have gone in sooner, but who wants to stick their arm in a sheep unnecessarily?  Not me.

Not only because of the obvious reasons, but for Esther's sake mostly.  I didn't want to infect her unless I absolutely had to.  I am also a newbie (second year) at Shepherding, even though it was my maiden name, and so I don't know if all sheep who usually have multiple births always have multiple births, you know?  I wasn't sure I would even know what I was feeling for.

Lastly I would like to say that the internet was no help at all (about things like how far apart lambs should be born, etc.).  Either people that have sheep spend a ton of money and really depend on their vets (they must not be hands on or in in my case-ha!), or just don't get online much.  But, after talking with my neighbor, I did find a very informative website about goats that will help me with these endeavors in the future.  Goats and sheep are very similar and so I will be able to take what I need and adjust and apply it where I see fit.

I say it time and again folks, trust your instincts, make a list of mentors and friends to help guide you through the emergency times, and then most importantly remember to use it!  Oh, and don't forget to let everyone in on the fun, even Avalanche the rooster had to be a part of lambing season at The Royal Ranch!

The things I am oh so thankful for...

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you all have had a day full of family and friends, turkey and fixins, but most of all I hope that you take just a moment to reflect upon what you are thankful for.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday I think because it is a day for celebrating, but with not expectations attached to it.  Meaning it still has managed to not be commercialized; no gift giving expectations, no plastic eggs and baskets to buy and fill.  Just a wonderful day to appreciate all that you already have.

So, here is my short list, in no particular order:

My family  (immediate and extended)

My friends

My health (although I have had a few struggles lately, in general, I am blessed!)

My ranch and home

My critters...llamas, sheep, chickens, cats, dogs, you name it, I love 'em

My businesses

My humble little town

My country and the soldiers that fight to protect it

My oh so loyal Rebels!

Something to say...

My Physical Therapy!

How many times have I said it?  If you don't have anything nice to say...don't say anything at all.  Well, it appears that theory has gotten me in a bit of trouble with my Mother-ha!  That's right, I have been busted for not blogging by my Mom.  I think she knows that something is up when I am not blogging, so I picked up the phone the other day, and immediately heard "Why are there no new blogs?" and when I told her I didn't have much to say, she told me I could even write about the weather.

Well, the weather here has turned cold and windy, fitting for my mood, since I last left you all.  Surprised?  I didn't think so.  Last week I wrote a post about being appreciative, for family and friends; and all of the help I have received during my recovery time.  And it never made it...because...well...I guess I wasn't feeling it.  I didn't want to be a fraud.  When I feel like crap on the inside, it's hard for me to publish happy crap, I guess.

So where does that leave me?  It leaves me in the same place as the rest of America, and frankly, much much better off than many, so I better quit my damn belly aching and get my butt back to work.  Lots of people are having financial and health problems.  And millions (?) of people each year have back surgeries, that to be honest, are an absolute bitch to recover from.  

Oh, and I wonder how many people turn 40 each year?  That little fact could have something to do with this silly depression, I suppose.  All this time I thought I was looking forward to being 40, but in the midst of life chaos, I'm not sure a benchmark birthday is a great idea.  Do you think I can just skip this one?  I promise I will still turn 41 next year.

So, I realized what a pity party I was having for myself, and how very stupid it all was, and put myself to bed at 7 the other night when I skipped one of my favorite classes ever; you know, the old cut off your nose to spite your face thing.  I woke up yesterday morning, and wouldn't allow myself one negative thought.  I also took back over my animal chores.  Not because my back is up to it, but because I need my critters, as badly as they need me.  The clucks of happiness, and the nuzzles of welcome back were all I had needed.  Man I love my little piece of paradise!

Animal advice from an, er, expert

Speaking of Rams!

I always have to laugh a little bit at some of these funny titles these days, many of them not requiring degrees or years of knowledge.  Animal behaviorist, animal psychologist, animal...you name it, there is an expert out there for it.  Now, don't get me wrong,  I am by no means dissing them, the title comes from me doubting myself, just a little.

I have been living with and loving animals most of my life.  Although Mom was raised on a farm in Iowa and was not fond of taking care of critters we did always have outdoor cats and dogs as kids.  Then within about a week of Tom and I cohabitating we realized that life with just two people was very boring after living in a house with all of his buddies; so we got our first orange tabby; Razz.  As you know, the story has grown and multiplied over the last twenty years...dramatically.

Even before I met Tom, I was an active volunteer with various rescue groups.  If I remember correctly, the first being the Inter-mountain Humane Society, or was it the Evergreen Animal Protective League?  I don't know which came first and it doesn't really matter, the point is, is that I have been doing this a long time, and I still doubt myself as an expert in the field of animals; crazy!

That is why you always have a good team to back you up.  Mentors are my first line of defense.  And I have different mentors for each group of animal; sometimes it is the person I got the animals from (like the sheep breeder or a llama breeder).  But most of the time, you need to search out your own mentors, maybe this can be your vet, or even someone you meet online; but make sure you have that person to call (or e-mail) for advice at a moments notice.  It goes without saying, that a person with animals needs a good, trustworthy vet.  Not a vet that you are intimidated by, or don't share beliefs with, but one that you know will come out for any reason what-so-ever!

But the most important thing a pet owner can have is common sense, no really.  Common sense enough to trust your own instinct when it comes to your critters.  Watching them and knowing them is the very best preventative medicine you can do for them.  Almost every training method (100% success rate) that I have come up with has come from simply watching the behavior of my animals and adjusting the routine.

Take for instance our dog Rosie.  She was depressed and getting aggressive.  How do you tell a dog is depressed?  Well, she attacked a cat, she was not hanging out with the family, when she did she had her head down, etc, she just seemed depressed.  She was also very aggressively going after Gigi, my little dog that we had recently inherited from my Grandma; so it didn't take a genius to figure out what was causing her depression.  She had been my Baby and now Gigi was going everywhere with me.  So, I started taking Rosie with me everywhere; she no longer had to be in the fence with the rest of the dogs she got treated exactly like I treated Gigi (the only reason Gigi wasn't in the fence was because she could squeeze out of the wire!)

Now, as for the aggressive behavior towards the cat and Gigi, I was not taking any chances there (not with kids and small animals in the house), and I got aggressive myself.  I attacked her back just like another dog would.  It scared the crap out of my kids, I must tell you, but it got the point across to Rosie as well.  I yelled, and growled and rolled her over in a submissive position and held her there until she knew who was boss.  Between doing these two very easy and minor things Rosie is a very happy and normal companion now.

Let's move on to my problematic Rooster while we are talking about dominance here, because this is a new battle for me.  As I mentioned dominance is something that I believe you should always show in your herd, so to speak.  But, this is just a chicken, a bird for goodness sake!  Really, what harm is he going to cause me, and why do I have to win that battle?  It really took some re-thinking on my part.  I realized that every time the roo would see me get worked up, so would he, and if I would just hold still...he would fluff his feathers and move on.

So I tried this new thinking with my teenage son yesterday when I made him go gather eggs for my friend Janet.  I told him exactly what to do, even though he insisted the rooster would not attack him.  Well, he said that bird followed him around trying to get him into battle.  He did exactly what I told him to do.  "No, chicken", and hold still.  The funniest thing was his response.  He said that it went against his grain.  He said "you know Mom, I'm a teenager, and I really wanted to teach that chicken who was boss, it felt like I was letting him win!"  It's very hard to turn the other cheek sometimes.

Speaking of battles you can't win, remember that it is time for the rut, people.  Elk are bugling, the deer have that wild look in their eye, and my ram Paco, well, he looks like he's gonna knock me flat on my ass.. So as soon as I can catch him, he will be locked up with his girlfriend Esther.  And let me tell you, I won't be catching him with my hands, that sheep has one crazed look about him, I will wait until he is in the right pen, and then I will simply close him into it.  Yeah right, and then watch him ram the hell out of the gate, but that is why they call them rams I guess!

While we are talking about advice, I thought I'd mention a trick I have been using lately on the dogs various leg injuries.  It is total and complete immobilization.  Iowa has hurt her leg twice since we have brought her home, and now Gigi has a hurt leg.  When a dog is limping there can be many causes; check the foot first looking for any burs or cuts on the pad.  If there are none, you may need to try this trick, and it has saved me big bucks, because all of the times I thought I was headed to the vet.  Although it seems a bit drastic, put the dog in her crate for a minimum of two days, only walking her on a leash for potty breaks.  The problem is that dogs don't know not to run on an injured leg, and will still run to the front door to bark or whatever.  This really is the only way to completely immobilize an animal, lock them up.  I always feel terrible doing it, but when the leg is better, I know I have done the right thing.

So how about you, do you have any great pet advice to share?  How about pet stories or pics?  I'd love to see them and share them here and on my Facebook page.

Firestarters

As I have mentioned a few times, I am helping my friend Tiffany teach a class on Wednesdays at our local middle school.  Our class is called Environmental Action, perfect for her and I, huh?  Actually, she got to choose the class, one of the things that I am so proud of, in this day of budget cuts, our school found a way to add a slew of electives for our kids!  Not only are our teachers getting to teach things they have never taught, some of them for the first time in more than ten years, but our kids had a variety of electives that our district has never seen!

Okay, enough bragging, and on to the nitty gritty.  Last Wednesday, our goal was to use up the huge amount of eighteen packs of egg cartons that I get donated to me.  Although I love my egg carton donations, most families only use a dozen, especially once they learn of how rich farm fresh eggs are, so the eighteen packs were really stacking up.  I had a stack about two feet high, and that is with them all laid flat into one another!

So, brilliant Tiffany found a recipe for Firestarters.  We had the kids bring in old candles, shredded paper and cotton material.  We filled the egg cartons with the materials (I found that a mix of paper and cotton works best) and then filled with the melted candles.  Interestingly, you can just toss the whole candle in a double boiler, when you go to pour it into the cartons, any wicks or labels will separate.  We even used recycled double boilers, as we had coffee cans for the water and smaller steel cans for the wax.

Let them dry, and then tear them apart.  The extra egg carton that will be attached to each firestarter will be the "wick".  Now, I have not tried any, because the kids have decided to donate them, doesn't that make a person proud, but I'm sure they'd make your fire in the woods just dandy to start, let alone one at home!

Sorry about not having any pics, but with them not being my kids, I didn't think I could take any...what do you think Tiffany?  But you can check out a picture and another post, as a matter of fact it's what we based our idea on, here.

Heritage Breeds/Varieties

I've been doing a little research lately on heritage breed chickens because of a hen of mine going broody.  Broody means that she has gone into the state when she is bound and determined to raise her own brood of chicks.  It has been really quite interesting to watch, and although I was not going to raise chicks, I have decided to do so because of the health of this chicken.

Broody chickens go into a zen, almost comatose state and will not leave their nest, and with my chicken it has meant even to the detriment of herself.  When I would try to put her back in with the other hens, they would pick on her terribly, so I just decided to let her stay in her nest.  The point that I am trying to make is that these chickens have a strong instinct that is almost impossible to override, and I got to thinking, why would I want to?

I have a huge demand for my organic eggs, absolutely adore having my chickens, and have the facilities to raise the chicks safely until they can live in with the rest of my chickens.  So, with a little research, and a couple of days of  collecting just the right eggs, we have placed the eggs under our wonderful broody hen.  But with that research, I have learned some very interesting things about heritage breeds.

First and foremost, heritage breeds are very hearty and intelligent breeds, just like my broody girl.  One of my new favorite sites is the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, and according to them: "The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy protects genetic diversity in livestock and poultry species through the conservation and promotion of endangered breeds. These rare breeds are part of our national heritage and represent a unique piece of the earth's bio-diversity. The loss of these breeds would impoverish agriculture and diminish the human spirit. We have inherited a rich variety of livestock breeds. For the sake of future generations we must work together to safeguard these treasures."

The site also has a great list of all heritage breeds, whether it be poultry, goats, sheep (which I have), cows or horses.  So if you are at all interested in raising livestock, look into heritage varieties, you won't be sorry.  It takes much less work as they tend to do part of the work for you.  And not only that, you will be keeping a part of our history alive!

The Chicken Dance Poem

 My rooster does not like my brown pants,

He made me do a very awkward dance.

He came running up from behind,

And really, I tried to be kind.

But that darn Roo, just kept coming back at me,

I think he even did it with a look of glee!

I assumed it was my pants,

and that I would no longer have to dance.

I went back the next day to his door,

And lo and behold that Roo wanted some more!

A hen that has gone broody,

And is feeling very moody.

A ram that used to be quite lazy,

now is acting a little crazy.

Hmmm...

I have done all my reading,

And hopefully patience is all I'm needing.

If it is the change of the season,

That is actually his reason,

Neither McLovin' or I... should come out bleeding!

The above photo is one I took this morning of Tom and our naughty Roo working on a desensitizing exercise!

Royal Ranch Royalty...or not!

A relative of my intruder?

(Pic taken in 2006)

There was a fox in the hen house!  Or damn close enough for my liking, let me tell you.  I went up to do my chores the other morning with my daughter in tow as usual, and thankfully had Rosie and Gigi with me like I always do.  

Well, that morning the chicken scraps were particularly yummy for dogs, so I set them up high on the top of the hay stack so that Rosie would not eat them.  As per typical fashion the baby sheep and the rest of the critters were cramming themselves up against the fence where the hay is stored impatiently waiting for their breakfast, when suddenly Rosie pushes past me to growl at my feet.  These vicious little snapping jaws come out from underneath the pallet from where we store the hay, just inches from where my foot had just been and the faces of my beautiful animals!

I freaked out and yelled for Isabella to run and tried to get the dogs away from the snarling and snapping unidentifiable jaws; all the while the llamas, lambs and sheep are still yelling for their breakfast as if nothing at all is happening.  See, I thought it was a badger, which are very mean.  Either way, I was getting the hell out of there!  

A badger

We got the dogs home, and got the live trap that we recently found in the campground.  I thought it through, and realized that whatever it was could really only have two options.  The first being that it was not a well animal and that it had accidentally gotten trapped under there when we went up to feed and might need some help.  The other option was that it was a very well animal and that it was waiting to ambush my chickens when they came out that morning after I did my chores.  It had chosen the perfect spot to do so.  Again, either way, I was not taking any chances.

I prepared the trap the best I could and psyched myself up into going back up there.  Isabella stayed at about the halfway point.  She said it was to keep the cats from going up there, but we both knew it was so she had a straighter shot to the house!  My feet stayed as far away from that hole as I could possibly keep them while I literally threw the hay to my critters, and then I used a looong stick to retrieve the bucket of chicken scraps that I had placed unknowingly above the attackers hiding spot.  

When I set the trap up is when I found out it was a fox, and the damn thing had the audacity to be napping.  Here I was on a total adrenaline buzz, and he's having nap time waiting for my chickens for breakfast!  Needless to say, the chickens stayed locked up that first day.  The fox did not go into the trap, because when it came out from underneath the pallets to have a look around, Isabella taking off for home like a shot, scared him off!

All joking aside though, this could have been very dangerous for me (I don't particularly want a bellyful of shots thank you).  We have talked with a few neighbors since then, and we are a little concerned about this fox being ill and/or aggressive.  It really saddens me, because it is only because people have been feeding the local wildlife that we find ourselves in this predicament.  The foxes are one of the worst up here as far as people being guilty of feeding them.  It's not until the bear shows up for the foxes portion that the people quit, and then the smaller wildlife is already dependent.  

This is something I feel very strongly about, and even touch on in my book.  When I was doing a little bit of research on this fox's behavior, I found a great link on living in red fox country at the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  There is of course a different one for each species ( bear, mountain lion, etc), so take a look around the website, it is quite informative.

Well, although we did not trap him, and have not seen him since that morning, I still feel his presence "hanging around", so I'm afraid we are not quite done with this little guy.  Hopefully I will learn that he is a typical healthy fox that was just after an easy meal, but my gut tells me otherwise...

ICU at The Royal Ranch

As soon as I walked in I knew I was missing a chicken, which is funny because with a dozen hens you'd think one wouldn't make a difference, but it did.  My little welcoming committee was smaller than normal.  I searched for her in the chicken coop, I looked for her in the barn, I looked for her everywhere...I even looked for the explosion of feathers; the telltale sign of a fox capture.  But no missing hen, I found her egg, but no hen...

So, I went to finish up my chores and start looking around the rest of the ranch for her, and that was when I found her in the water trough. OMG!  I mean Oh crap, did I feel like a schmuck, here I'd been looking all over for her and she was drowning in the trough!

Well, thank goodness I don't know how to give a chicken mouth to mouth, or I probably would have, because I thought about it.  I did put her under all except my very bottom layer of clothes to start absorbing the water and started praying!  Maybe that is why us mountain ranchers still wear layers in summer time, just in case they are needed to shed (or share) in an emergency, hmmm...

I was hoping that she'd warm up or die quickly, and she did neither.  She just sort of convulsed and shivered  for about a half hour while I wrapped her up and held on tight.  Tom finally found me and helped me down to the house with a crate, the hen and my soaked self and he got a roaring fire going.  Which is where I currently sit to report, in front of the woodstove with my hen in her crate; Royal Ranch's version of the ICU.

Amazingly, she made it through the night.  She must be one tough chick (sorry, you know me, I love a play on words!) to have survived her time in the tank!  Now if we make it through the next few days with no pneumonia, we'll be good to go.  Well, I better sign off now, my patient is anxious to get back to to the hen house and warn all of her friends about that very dangerous swimming hole!

A quick side note on safety here, I mentioned that we lost a squirrel in a trough a while back in another post, and after that drowning I placed a bent wire "ladder" over the edge of that trough so that a critter could climb out.  This trough that my hen was in isn't near any trees, so I didn't put one in it, now I really wish I had and today I will!  If you have any large amount of water on your property that a critter might not be able to get out of, take an old piece of fencing and put it along the side to allow a critter to climb up.  Obviously, I am learning this the very hard way, and am embarrassed about being dumb, but I do say I blog to help people, so I am putting this out there.  I feel about as tall as an ant today, let me tell you.