Emergency Medical Services, Caring for Friends and Neighbors - SMDC Heal...

I was told about this video today. I think this was 2 years ago at the Arrowhead EMS Conferance in Duluth, MN. Quite frankly, I'd forgotten about this, but walking thru the vendors today at this year's event, 2 of the SMDC folks recognized me and the story I told of my first 'bad' call. There have been a couple more 'bad' calls since, but the ones that turn out to be not so bad sorta make up for these bad calls. I know as an EMT, I'll never see it all or do it all. Being an EMT is my way of helping out my community. Funny, tho... now when I go places, I have at least one small kit with me and everyone knows I have band-aids and ice packs. I'm very glad to help.

Its now August! The summer has just flown by! Last week was the North St Louis County Fair, and yes, we survived. We entered 20 sheep and KJ and Jake showed 10 of them in the 4H section of the fair. Both are qualified for State and we go down later this month.
Jake will be showing a full Katahdin ewe we call Bert, and KJ will be showing a 3/4 Katahdin ewe called Carrot. Carrot is out of the ewe that KJ showed at the State Fair last year.

We had the top crossbred ewe at our fair, as well as having the Reserve Overall Ram.

The kids did well in 4H, too. Jake is going onto the State Dog show, with our Lab, Oshki, in 4 classes. Rally, Jumpers 1, Grad-Beginner Obedience, and Showmanship. He has lots of work to do between now and then. With school starting he will have to work harder to keep his grades going so he can play football, too. Jake also entered a pair of socks that he had made at a 4H meeting and eared a red on them.

KJ also entered a sewing project. He had made a camo hand muff to keep his hands warm while hunting. He earned a blue ribbon. KJ had also made 3 fishing lures in school last year. He finished them up over the summer and will be taking one of them down to the State Fair for the educational encampment. Im looking forward to seeing his improvements when we get down to the fair!
I made this "Doggone Bag" for a Relay for Life. I had alot of fun and learned a few things while making it. The more that I make the more I learn. Since this one had to go before the Fair, I entered one that I made for my Mom.

I told her to go pick out some material and I would make it. She picked out some really nice fabric and the bag turned out really well. I did some 'surprise' embroidery work on it for her. I wonder if she noticed it yet? =-)

Im getting ready to do a couple tshirts for the 3 kids that are going to the Livestock weekend. Im chaparoning this trip. KJ and Jake and a gal from another club will be my 'charges' They kids all seemed to report to me anyway, so why not do it for real! Im not sure if Im looking forward to the 4H Hilton or not! lol

I have a couple more quick embroidery projects then will tackle the other 4 Doggone Bags!

School is out!

Holy cow! It been several months since I posted last. Guess Im not doing a good job of posting at least once a week!

I will post more lamb pics as we now have 8 on the ground. There seems to be on more ewe that will be lambing in the few months.

School is done now (as of Thursday) so that should leave me with more time to get some pics up!

Ive been doing more embriodery. Mostly patches, but its still fun and a learning experience to learning the new software.

Been doing some sewing too. Will leave you with a pic of my latest project... the Doggone Bag.

Enjoy!

New Twins!

Today our spotted ewe, Spud, gave birth to twin red ewe lambs. They were up and looking for their first meal in minutes! Is always a joy watching them work at getting up, looking for their momma's udder.

For those of you that remember back this summer, Spud is who KJ showed at the MN State Fair this past summer. As of right now, I think we have 4 quality ewes to pick from for a return trip! But of course we need to get past the North St Louis County Fair first. Jake will be old enough to attend this year as well down to the State Fair. July is a long way off. Mark your calander for Sheep show day of July 31, 2010. Bring your cameras too, and plan to spend the day. After sheep is Beef in the show ring. And of course there is always the Midway to check out. Make sure you stop and say HI if you get to the fair.

Not expecting any more lambs for a few weeks. Maybe the ground will dry up some by then.

Is it Spring?

Well, the clock changing has really tossed a wrench into my day. OK... it doesnt help to have picked up a sinus cold either. BUT, its currently 56 degrees here at Double Barrel, so you know what that means??? YUP! MUD! But.. Im really not complaining as the sun is shinning and it seems that it hasnt been out for at least a week.

Just thought Id share a picture or too. We set out the trail camera out back for a while. Was pretty shocked when I found this:

Now, Im not 100% sure if its a young wolf or a coyote. Our coyotes up here are pretty big. I did see what I thought was a coyote about 2 weeks prior to this picture being taken just down the road from us. I have only been seeing coyote scat in the road, but that certainly doesnt mean that this could be a wolf.

No matter if its a wolf or a coyote, it was grand seeing this one. Hopefully more trail camera pics will come along. Maybe will take it out to a differant area to see what kind of birds and other fur bearers might be about.

Im hearing tales of bear waking up, so who knows, maybe Ill find one of those on the camera.

No new lambs. But of course we are 'patiently' waiting. Lots more ewes to go. Once the ground dries up, more fencing can be done. I think the frost is pretty well out of the ground. We didnt have much to begin with. Road restrictions went up for the entire state this past Monday. I wonder if they will be on until May?

Here are some other trail cam pics. Ravens spend the winters here. They were enjoying the snacks. It really makes me think knowing that these birds (along with the Eagles) manage to last out the winters.

Of course, Artie has to get in on the deal too. You can see that he has really filled out in the year that he has been here. Good groceries go a long with with all the animals.

Artie has been doing a fantastic job of keeping the coyotes and wolves away from the sheep. Yeah... he usually ends up waking me up. But thats his job. I cant complain. Once in a while I do go out to listen to what he is barking at, and its usually some neighbor dog several miles away

Thats all I have for now. Need to get out and take more pics!

2010 Lambing has begun.

Daisy, our big white Katahdin ewe, surprised us with twins on March 4. Jake found them when he went to do chores before schoo. Yarrow and Tag are very long legged lambs. Yarrow is a ewe and Tag is a ram. KJ had them named by Friday night.

Yarrow has a bit of red on the back of her neck and Tag is all white.

Unfortunately, we had to put Daisy down. Mastitis had taken over her udder, and our intervention wasnt helping. We are bummed about it as she is a good mom. These two lambs are strong tho. Soon they will go out with the flock.

This morning I found that Bob had given birth to a ewe lamb. By the time I was out in the barn, she was almost cleaned off and dried. She is almost all white but for her nose and black feet. She seems to have longer legs than the twins, but she has them figgured out!

Bob is also an all white ewe. Last year she gave us twins, which surprised us as she had been starved. Both her twins last year did very well, considering.

Im also going to work on grafting the orphan twins onto Bob. If I can do it, I think all will go well. Bob is an awesome mom! Last year she had made a nest for Amos and Amy. She nested them so well that I really had to hunt for them!

Spud and Curely are the next two ewes to lamb. Some of you remember that Spud is who KJ took to the MN State Fair in 2009. We are looking forward to a set of twins from her this year, too.

All our ewes were bred by a red Katahdin ram we call Buck. So far he has helped put some nice babies on the ground!

Watch here for more pics as lambs hit the ground!

New addition to the family!

Meet Misty! Misty is a 10 year old Border Collie. She has been a hard working girl all her life and it has come time that she slow down some.

Where she was living there were lots of sheep and moving from on pasture to another sometimes was 2 miles. Her last mom thought that it was time for her to goto a new place. Its a good thing I started thinking about finding a dog here to help us out with our sheep. I hope that we can give her just as good of home as she had.

Thanks to Janet at Tamarack Lamb and Wool for giving us the chance to give Misty a great retirement home.

It will take us some time to get used to each other, but time works wonders. So far Misty rides very well in the Jeep. I think she enjoyed her ride home. She had the whole back seat to herself. :) When we got home we had some time to stretch our legs before Oshki came home. Oshki (the lab) of course wants to play hard with everyone, but Misty wouldnt have any of it.

Even tho Misty had spent most of her time outside, she is liking the life of being an indoor dog too. Tomorrow she will have to spend the day outside as I have to work for a few hours. Im sure she will spend the time sunning herself in the warm winter sun.

We have gone on a couple walks and she does well. She goes off for a bit, then after 200 feet or so, comes back with a smile on her face as she jumps up to my hand with a look that says 'am I dont OK?' I tell her she is a good girl! and we walk more. She is a careful dog. almost as if she knows she cant pound on me.

I did take her in with the sheep yesterday. I was more interested in what my sheep would do. I sent Misty to 'come bye' and the sheep moved one way (shock). There are alot of obstacles in the pen, and it was ok until the sheep started for their shed. I thought maybe Misty could bring them back, so sent her and all I accomplised in doing was helping the sheep faster into their lean-to. I called her off and left the sheep be. It was pretty close to what I would call the sheep 'freeked' out! No harm was done. I know it doesnt help that there are a couple of ewes in there that are pretty flighty.

We are expecting lambs soon here at Double Barrel. There are 3 ewes that are due soon. I suppose since Im going back to work, then its going to be one of them =-/ Daisy is as big as a house again, so Im expecting Triplets. I think Spud (our State Fair attendee) is carrying twins again. Bob probly is as well, but she is a longer gal than Spud so she might have triplets, too.

All I can do is wait and take pics. =-)