Baby Sheep you little bundle of JOY!

It was a crazy morning at baby sheep yesterday!


We were at the meeting and we got a phone call from the people who live by the field where they sheep are and they said baby sheep are on the ground and so we all went out to check it out. Right now the sheep are out on pasture and if they give birth and all goes well they just do it by themselves in the field. Then when we visit and see lambs out next to the sheep we pick them up and carry them over to a little barn where we have little pens called jugs where we put a mama sheep and its babies so we can monitor them and they can bond. There were two ewes with two babies each that were all set so we moved them into the jugs and then things got crazy. There was a dead lamb way at the back of the field and then two ewes fighting over a live lamb and a hoof sticking out of one of them. We brought the lamb over to the jugs and both of the ewes followed because they both wanted it to be their baby. The babies make the cutest noises when they're being carried and the ewes follow them so intently. Good mothering instincts. We put both the ewes and one of the lambs them together in one jug and Al lubed up her hands and stuck them in the ewe and pulled out the lamb that was still inside the mama out which is no easy task. The ewe was making these horrible bellowing noises and you could tell it really hurt. Al thought it was dead but then it started breathing and we were all very excited. It was all yellow and slimey and coughing and weak but it was alive. We left that lamb with its mama and then put the other ewe and the other lamb in a different jug so everybody would get a lamb and everybody would be happy. Ala milked out the other ewe and tube fed the lamb that they were fighting over because it was little and shivery and she hadn't seen it nurse. She stuck the tube down into the lamb's stomach and kept on saying that she hoped it was the stomach and not the lungs because if it was the lungs the lamb would drown. She got it right. No drowning. Then later in the day the ewe that we were worried about had her lambs. She had been having recurring vaginal prolapses and we we had to put a harness on her to keep her vagina in but we were worried that she wouldn't be able to lamb around the harness which would kill the lambs and could kill her too. But at lunch time when they went they found her lambing and teacher Mi went and pulled her lambs and they all lived.

AHHH THE MIRACLE AND BEAUTY OF LIFE ON THE FARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not ok

I haven't been that happy recently. Good things have happened, like truffle night on Thursday. It was a wild success and I was happy about it but in general I have not been that happy. I'm lonely. I cry a lot. I don't really know what to do about it. Every so often I think things are getting better but they seem to be getting worse overall. I'll get to see lambs on Tuesday for my sheep check. It's lambing season. That's pretty exciting. We went to the animal shelter on Wednesday and found some really cute cats. Owl Cat was my favorite. I keep on thinking about the song that somebody wrote for class last year when the assignment was to interview a classmate and then write a song about them. The last line was, "Did you know Ra cries every day?" It is stuck in my head a little bit. Did you know?

BIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGG Sur

Oh man oh man oh man

What a day!

The farm conference finished up today. So much inspiration in that conference.

But the REALLY exciting part was our trip to Big Sur. A lot of people went to the aquarium but we got a van together and drove on down. And oh man it was FANTASTIC. First of all, my vet teacher is super cool. He once fixed a deer's broken jaw and an orangutan once grabbed his wrist. Super cool.

Mmmmmmm my hair is full of sand. I love when my hair is full of sand. When I was younger I used to rub my head in the sand just so I could have hair full of sand. Try it, you'll like it. Maybe. If you're weird like me.

Okay so today. We had a good group of seven and we went for an afternoon on the beach. OOOOOOOOH man the beach was BEAUTIFUL. I was freaking out a little bit looking at the view out the window as we drove. I had never seen anything like it! Mountains and ocean and waves and rocks and oh man oh man oh man.

The park ranger told us that we couldn't get to the beach because a tree had fallen over the road but we decided to try anyway and the tree was cleared. So that was nice.

The beach had purple sand!! PURPLE SAND! Just imagine you walk up onto a beach and there is pinky-purple sand. Incredible. The water swirled it with the normal sand and made patterns on the beach that looked like blood vessels.

Je and De and Ab and I sat on the beach for a while and had some refreshments in a rainboot. Then we climbed this big huge rock island cliff thingy. I don't know what it was called but it was great. Some of the rock climbing parts were really tricky. I almost got stuck on the way down and got scared and was thinking that I would either fall off or never make it down. And it was super tall and all made of rock with powerful ocean and more rocks at the bottom if I dropped off. I had a few moments of terror and decided to do Jack's counting technique from Lost. A little dumb of me, maybe. But it worked!

Je and I also went swimming in the ocean. In the Pacific ocean! My first Pacific ocean swim. Bikini in January. It was pretty cold but it was good. I felt so alive. I swear I could feel all of the cells in my body. That is what they all say but I think it's because it's true. A bunch of drunk old men watched us the whole time. No big deal.

Then Je and I hiked up the mountain and met the rest of us at the top. We all sat together and watched the sunset over the ocean.

Fantastic.

Who would have ever knew?

I’m in California right now. It is 7:45 pm and I got into this van at 5:45 am. We won’t be at our destination for a few more hours. No big deal.

But I’ll blog about all that later. Right now is weekend recap time.

This quarter got off to a somewhat rough start solely because my workload was absurd. No time to go out, no time to see people, sitting in my room doing soil science from six pm till bedtime every night. I did get to let loose one night and go on a whole lot of nice adventures with Bej. We went on a romp through the forest off the path and still made it to the beach in the afternoon and then explored the parking lots at night. We ran into a troop of jugglers and had our own personal circus, wrote down some suggestions for the school, contemplated the complexities of the abalone shell, and made friends with the goofiest tree.

So that was great, but then it was back to soil science for a bit. I think I got a better balance worked out now, though, because this past week to weekend was fantastic.

Wednesday was the first weekly open mic night at Bo’s apartment. Lots of people showed up and lots of people performed and there was a lot of talent. I had to leave early to get back to tons and tons of soil science. But it gets better.

Thursday night was sleepover night at Av’s for the rest of the apartment but I had homework (unlike me) and class at eight am the next morning so I stayed behind. I ended up going to a potluck and hanging out with people at La’s apartment and then coming home to an empty house where I could run around in Auntie M’s clothing and sing Johnny Cash songs as much as I wanted to. I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be but it all worked out okay in the end.

On Friday we had a soil organism lab in class which was pretty neat. We got to look around in soil for little critters and identify them. Then at night we had a nice casual gathering at the apartment combining my friends from class with the extended apartmentmates and then later adding the La and Mir crowd as well. My kind of activity.

Then on Saturday I went out to a very mature dinner with A and No and Bej. When I came back Je convinced me to go to an off campus party, but after the bus ride and 20 minute walk to get there we realized we did not like the party at all. I think we spent under seven minutes actually there before turning around and walking back to the bus. That might seem like it wasn’t a fun way to spend a Saturday night but I think it was my best party experience yet. Journey definitely better than the destination. I had a lot of fun walking around downtown with everybody and then when we got back Je and Bej and I had a study party and I got a lot of work done even with the party break.

Then on Sunday I lay around in bed all day and then woke up for Indian feast night at five. Ba came over and we cooked chickpeas, lentils, naan, and chicken with help from Mel. Everything was done at almost the same time and everything was delicious. We invited Da over as a thank you for his assistance on Friday night. After dinner I went to the best party ever. Everyone was hanging out and drawing pictures and singing and playing guitar and it was great. I didn’t get to sleep early as I planned but that’s okay because I got to sleep a lot in the van today.

Looks like my life is back on track. I like it.

Pictures from Farm Class

MEEERRRRYYY CHRISTMASSSS

Uncle M just threw a rotten eggplant over the bluff at a neighbor on the beach. Merry Christmas!


Yesterday night Rosie saw how clear the sky was and how bright the stars were and let out a hoot of astonishment. I asked her if she was trying to communicate with an owl and we all had a good laugh at her expense until she was answered by a real great horned owl in the trees behind us.

Another nice thing:
Every time it snows I check the snow to see if it is good snowman snow but I am usually disappointed. Not yesterday! Yesterday's snow was the PERFECT snowman snow. As soon as we arrived here I checked the snow and then got right to snowman making with Sister. So great. We could even do that classic snowman making move where you roll the ball of snow and it packs onto itself. I can't even remember the last time I was in snow that did that.

One bad thing: my boots leak.

I'm reading All Things Bright and Beautiful. I've been thinking about how I get to read it when I come here for months and now I'm here and now I am reading it. I liked it a lot when I was little but now I like it even more because when I got to the part where all the sheep are down with calcium deficiency I thought about milk fever and when I got to the part where the cows have mastitis I thought about mastitis and when I got to the part about how nice it is to snuggle up with your wife when you're cold I thought about snuggling. I would say that everybody should go out and read this book right now, but I think I'm a lot more interested in the life of a farm vet than the rest of you. I should go and read more of this book right now. That is what should happen. I think I will do that. Right now.

Today

Today I half woke up as Bej left for class. He fed me some hummus on bagel before he left while I was still partially asleep and under a bunch of blankets. Then I slept for a few more hours before fully waking up and finding that the ice cream I made a few days ago wasn't all gone. It was pretty much all gone by the time I was done with it. Next I went to the mail room when it opened to get my packages. I checked my mailbox last night and saw that I had three package slips but it was too late to get them so I had been thinking about them for hours. I thought one of them would be from Mother because she told me to be on the lookout for a package but when I looked at the return addresses they were all from book places. I was a little disappointed but thought oh well at least my textbooks are showing up on time, but then imagine my surprise when I opened one of them and found a popup Eric Carle advent calendar. After I set up my advent calendar I started a new painting and painted for most of the afternoon. Then Bej came over and looked at sunspots and I made a necklace out of a little sheep from the advent calendar. Av and I made an Indian feast for dinner and it was the most delicious thing I had ever eaten. He made chickpeas and flat bread (because my naan wasn't ready yet) and I made lentils and naan (that wasn't ready in time but is ready now). A and Av and Da and I all ate it and said our three good things that happened to each of us today, as is our family tradition during dinner. Two nights ago I hosted a dinner party that ended up getting pretty busy and wild and everyone there did their three things. I don't remember when we started the tradition but I thoroughly enjoy it. For dessert we had some ice cream chocolatey thing that was outrageous as Av and his mom would say. His mom visited with her friend yesterday and took Av and Mel and A and I out to lunch. I'm really into his mom and her friend. After dinner I made my naan and then went with Mel to hang out on the third floor of s where everybody sits around and does art and plays music. There are always people knitting or drawing or painting or coloring or playing guitar or doing something creative. Pretty neat. Then I came home. Now I'm here.