IT'S LAMBING SEASON

Our shepherd friends invite us to the ranch every year to watch baby lambs born, but every year, we just pass it up. Sunday night, Tonya called and said that they were going for Family Home Evening and we were invited. It seemed a little inconvenient, but I decided that this was the year, and I am glad that we went. We, along with some of our other ward friends met at Dave and Tonya's house and caravaned to Grantsvile where their ranch is. It is so cool--probably a typical ranch, but to me it was cool. They gave us a little tour, and Carissa took pictures for me. We arrived just a few minutes after a baby lamb had been born. They carry the lamb to a special "newborn stall" and its mom is supposed to follow, but I guess a lot of times they don't. Well, this mom didn't either and so the shepherd had to go follow the mom and drag it to its baby. They spend a little bit of time in these stalls and the mom and baby get to know each other. Then, they take them to another stall with three or four other moms and babies. In these stalls, they learn to recognize their babies and learn each other's scents and become familiar with finding each other in a bigger group. Then they are put in an even bigger stall and then sent out to the pasture. This process enables them to be able to go to the mountain and to be able to find each other and recognize each other.

About 5 minutes after we got there, another lamb was born. We got to watch Tonya and Chad help the baby lamb come out. It needed a little bit of assistance.

We saw a big pen where they had these huge white dogs [piranese (spelling?)] that were pretty ferocious. They don't allow these dogs with humans. They don't want them to get familiar with humans or they won't do their job, which is to keep the coyotes and other predators away from the lambs when they are on the mountains. They also have llamas up on the mountain which are excellent at protecting the sheep. Cool, huh?

They gave our kids rides in their cool little golf cart type thing and a four-wheeler that they have. We saw their horses and goats. They also had a lot of peacocks which are great at catching mice that are in their hay stacks.

We had fun. Oh, and of course we all went out for ice cream afterwards. Thanks Dave and Tonya (and all the Howard family who have been so good to us).