This and that…

1. Why was it 41 degrees outside this morning? Leaving aside the fact that it would be nice to go skiing sometime soon, this is getting to be a tad bit bizarre. It says here that amongst the ranks of global climate change deniers you will not find too many farmers or people whose lives are connected to the land. I got a chance to speak with by brother in law, John, earlier today who grew up on a farm in southern Ontario and he was saying how his father, who immigrated to Canada from Holland after WWII, has never seen anything like it in all his years. You want the very simple, purely selfish takeaway from all of this? At this rate we’ll end up having to give Ivomec shots all the way into February. That idea makes Ian grumpy.

2. More than two weeks after saying I was going to get around to naming all of the anonymous members of the 2011 birth class, I finally sat down yesterday and did the nasty. Thank goodness for Google Translate, Wikipedia, and the book my dad gave me years ago that has the complete family tree of Greek mythology, a tome that is frankly over my head in many respects but really cool nonetheless. It pains me to admit that until yesterday I hadn’t realized that Hercules (Roman) and Heracles (Greek) were the same person. I blame Walt Disney. “Who puts the glad in gladiator?: Hercuuueleees…zero to hero, yes indeed!” It still make me smile though. I can trace my fascination with Greek mythology back to my father reading me children’s versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey when I was as young as seven or eight. That and the B movie awesomeness that was the original Clash of the Titans. Sweet.

3. The followup round of fecal tests done here on those members of the herd that had required some treatment due to elevated parasite loads, all seem to be coming back in much better shape. Again we are not looking for 100% clean slides but for the loads to have been knocked down to tolerable levels. That’s good for now. The original fecalish blog post can be found here of course.

4. The first round of weaning for the 2011 birth class is likely to take place early next week. Here’s a clue: when the baby has reached 60 to 70% of it’s mother’s body weight, it’s probably time. In fact it was probably time a while ago. The Main Barn as two empty pens awaiting the arrival of the new weaners, one for each gender. Why is it that the pet quality boys, especially those who were pet quality boys before they were even dried off, insist on continually picking out only their show quality female counterparts and mounting them? I wonder if the new judging book coming out next month has anything to say about fleece uniformity within the giant hump mark on the back of juvi females? In any case that particular behavior shall be coming to an end very shortly.

5. We’re taking the entire extended CCNF family out for the annual farm Christmas Party tonight at our local Japanese steak house. Hibachi + saki + sushi = holiday cheer! It’ll cover my sodium quota for quite some time too: we shall not be checking the blood pressure tomorrow AM. This has always been a bit of touchstone event for our family and the members of our staff and it’s been fun watching all of the various kids grow up over the years. I think the first time Kim’s little guy went to one of these he was still in one of those portable car seats with the carrying handle and now he’s in kindergarten, to say nothing of Jason Godin’s brood of girls. I always kid him about what he’d be worth as a Herdsire! Bottom line is that Jen and I feel very lucky to have the folks working for us that we do and this has always been a fun and dopey way of saying thank you to them all at the end of each year. Banzai!