12-17-04

I woke up this morning at 4:30 am and realized I hadn’t closed the gate on the pen where the breeding groups of sheep are kept. Oh boy! I knew I was going to get yelled at when I showed up this morning. As it turned out, Susan had to take some sheep to the vet yesterday and found the problem before it got out of hand. Whew!

The trip to the sales barn in Mexico, Mo was a long day as it turned out. I am not sure just how far it is up there and back but if you count all the ups and down and around all the curves it is much longer than you would think. It seems like all the roads around here are built on the roller coaster principle (Erp! the dry heaves again!). This is the Ozarks hills or mountain (as they like to call them) region and the roads must have been developed from Indian foot trails, saddle horse, wagon and finally car roads. They seem to follow the ridges for the most part and only occasionally dropping down into low lands where there is a river or creek. Speed is limited by the road conditions although these people really honk it down the road. I never like to go faster than I can see in front of me, but around here the practice is to just zoom around the curves and hope that there is nothing around the corner. So far that has worked for me, if I don’t I get a line of cars all pissed off behind me. I try now to get behind someone and follow them but often the little Subaru just can’t keep up. There are lots of big semi’s traveling the roads as there are sawmills everywhere and the trucks are hauling logs, railroad ties and cut lumber. I even went past the place where they make Ozark charcoal briquettes. I am not sure of all the different kinds of wood around here but oak and pine are the main ones I think. I seem to remember that they log off everything and plant pine, which is a big money maker as they grow fast here. Trees are something that is NOT in short supply around here. I like open country and when I see the desert in the movies on this damn TV I really get homesick.

I took a photo this morning from the haystack looking down the hill toward the creek. The small building is NOT Susan’s house but it shows how the pastures look against the woods. If the fields are not regularly cut or bush hogged, they will revert to these woods.

You will notice the smokey look, which is caused by the moisture in the air. While I was at it taking photos, I snapped this one of my helpers with feeding hay to the sheep.

Ike is getting old and E dog who is really liking being on the farm with ‘work’ to do again. I will probably leave E dog here as she wont be able to go with me to South America. She is a big help when there is sheep work to do and Ike is coming to the end of his working days. He now needs help to get in the pickup and the vet says he has emphysema and cataracts. He is still good at picking ticks. When he was on the farm in MT he would get E dog down and pick ticks off her. If i saw him working an area on her I would look there and pull it off.  I think he finally get them, but appreciated the help IF I gave him the tick to kill. I noticed that he has been working the guard dogs over in the morning at feeding time and snapped this one of him cleaning up Angle.

The dogs seem to like him doing this and will hold very still and let him work them over. He is also really good at cleaning up wounds that the sheep get. Somehow the sheep seem to know that he won’t hurt them and what he does is good for them. These Icelandic sheep dogs are the great.

Susan had some sad news that a friend who had Icelandic sheep died when a round bale of hay rolled on him. Jimmy was a fanatic on these sheep and started the first Icelandic sheep dairy (in the world!). He was fairly young and in good health and that always seems to make this kind of news sadder. 

I have made a couple of trips over to the antique shop just down the street. This place is amazing. The guy who runs it is the local historian but his collection of stuff is fantastic. One thing that bothers me about him is that he follows you around the store trying to get you to buy something. This may be a local custom as the guy in the Sears store did the same thing. I just go in to look mainly and don’t want someone trying the hard sell on me. I did end up buying a really cool belt buckle from him but the thing I was taken with was a cool bottle with wire stand that says;

Montana Bait Company

Rock Creek, Montana

the top has punched holes and you can just make out in the bottom is a funnel hole that lets the minnow’s in. he said that these minnow traps are really getting to be collectable and that I should have this one since it is from Montana. I don’t have any need for a minnow trap but I immediately thought of Bob my motorcycle mechanic and Pat who live almost on Rock Creek. What a cool gift it would be. He wanted a hundred bucks for it and even though I really like Bob and Pat and the trap, I had a hard time justifying that much money for something that probably wouldn’t be used and might get broke before I got it back. I told the guy I would be back after I thought it over. That night I cranked up the puter and googled minnow traps. Here is what I found out. the traps started to be imported from India in 2001 and they come in three sizes. This one happens to be the small size and after checking ebay they sell for around $20. SO, I went back and told the little asshole what an asshole he was for trying to scam me….. The computer age has sure changed things hasn’t it?

It looks like Sam will be here on the 21^st and will be here until after Christmas for a week or so. Susan thinks she is strong enough now and has caught up with her inside work that she will be able to handle things. I plan on leaving the 22^nd or 23^rd and should be back in camp in MT the day before Christmas unless there are sever storms or mechanical problems. The little Subaru and my knee have been doing well so the trip should be a smooth one. Knock on wood….

Cheers, Rx