Our Life: Ranch at Randolph

After spending a few days in St. George after being in Costa Rica, my mom, Del, Geoff, and me and my boys went up to visit my Grandma Peart. My grandpa had passed away almost a year ago and my grandma, which we affectionately call "Grandma Love" has been doing really well since his passing. They had such a great marriage, he constantly left her love notes, but even though she misses him, Grandma Love has continued being a light and a pleasure to those who know her.

We spent most nights staying up past midnight, talking with Grandma Love, don't know many 80 year olds that can stay up that late and be up and at 'em in the morning.

Grandma Love lives on a ranch, and when we were kids it was the funnest thing to go and visit the ranch. Even as an adult it held a lot of special memories and magic, but to see my children finding the joy of going to the ranch is awesome.

There are so many pictures of me and cousins sitting up at this counter

LeNae and Liz met us at the ranch and spent the weekend with us as well. It was fun to see them. LeNae, of course, was showered with praises from my boys, especially Roger.

I was showered with sarcasm from Liz, of course. Liz harassed me about loosing my phone, I told her that it was kind of fun not having a phone, a lot like running an hundred miles is fun. She thought I was more insane. Both LeNae and Liz showed a lot of love and attention to the boys, enjoying their every move and word.

This particular time of May was Lambing Season, when all the pregnant sheep are giving birth to the lambs. It is one of the busiest times of the ranch, and one of the most enjoyable (in my opinion). The entire process is quite interesting.

First all the pregnant ewes are put into a field, away from any other lambs. A sheep will start giving signs of labor, then when she's ready, she will deliver one or even two lambs. A sheepherder will be keeping watch the entire time, making sure everything is going as it should, and will step in and help the ewe deliver if outside help is needed.
The new mother and baby are left alone for a little bit, allowing the mother to deliver the placenta and lick the baby clean. When sufficient time has passed, the sheepherder will grab the baby (or babies) by the legs and carry it to a stall with the mother following close behind.
Once in the stall, the baby and mother become more familiar with one another as the lamb suckles. Every once in a while, a mother will reject her baby. This usually occurs with the first time mothers, they aren't use to this whole mothering gig. These rejected lambs, called bum lambs now have a problem. If there is a mother that has extra milk or lost her own lamb, the bum lamb will be placed in a stall with this mother in attempts that the lamb will be able to suck enough milk into it's system that it not only gets nourishment, but enough milk so that the lamb smells like the substitute mother and the substitute mother would accept the bum lamb as it's own. It is sad to see these rejected lambs, they look so sad and weak, and it's usually no fault of their own, just an incompetent mother...happens in our society as well.

Here is one rejected lamb. Notice how small he is, need nourishment badly but isn't able to get any.

William loves to jump over things, like jumping over my legs while I'm kneeling saying my prayers. When he saw this bum lamb, he walked up to it, pet it on the head, then jumped over it!

After getting the lambs use to their mothers, the ewes and lambs are put into small groups of other lambs and ewes, about 3-5 pairs. At first the lambs and sheep get nervous, searching for their babies/mothers, everything is pretty crazy for them. Within a few short hours, the moms and babies are able to keep track of each other amidst all the other sheep and confusion. At that point they are put with another group of 3-5 pairs. The process continues, getting the mothers and babies more comfortable with sticking together even with a lot of other sheep around, until 20 pairs are put with 20 other pairs.

The sheepherder is aware of when the sheep are able to progress, pushing them to progress at an attainable rate, always with the sheepherder nearby to offer assistance and comfort, much like our own Shepherd.
When we first came to the fields, Grant refused to walk for he saw all the manure on the ground. He did not want to get dirty and he even went the entire day without sucking his thumb for I told him that his thumb was dirty from the sheep. I demanded that Grant get over his fear of getting dirty and reassured him that I would clean his shoes later. Rather than let Grant learn to deal with the dirt, Liz felt badly for him and swept him up onto her shoulders.

A couple of hours later Grant had a fit when Liz refused to pick him up since her shoulders were now tired. He threw an even bigger fit, but eventually was able to forget about the poop and walked around the fields and corrals without any problems.
First we saw a few lambs be born. It was pretty cool to watch and my boys loved it.

I explained a lot of what was happening, gave me an opportunity to give a "birds and the bees" talk. No, not really. Scientifically my boys are quite aware of the process of baby production. Liz and LeNae actually played the game of "last one is the Rotten Egg". Trying to not create competition amongst my boys, I never introduced this motivator to them, but they sure did have a good time playing it with LeNae and Liz. At one point Mikey exclaimed, "Nae! You're the rotten egg 'cause you didn't get 'spermed".
My Uncle Dan and Aunt Donna run the ranch now.

They are wonderful people that know how to work hard and have fun at the same time. They are so good about getting young kids involved in the work, even Grant, and making them feel as though they helped out SO much. They were very patient and encouraging with my boys. Then midway through the day, they invited us all into their home where they fed us a good big lunch.

In the field was one particular sheep that was about dead. My uncle had allowed it to lie down and NOT put it out of it's misery in hopes that it may perk up and continue to live. While we had walked around it all day, ignoring it, even being disgusted by it, Roger did something else. He grabbed some hay and put it up to the sheep's mouth. Using what little energy the sheep had left, she nibbled on the offered food. I was touched by his sensitivity to the poor animal.