Monday, May 23, 2005

What of this world of ours?

A friend of mine overseas has an incredible ability to find articles on the net that are funny and/or amusing. Regardless of their impact they are always telling, to some degree, about this epoch of society we find ourselves in at the moment. The link to this story is here.

After you read the article, ask yourself this:

What does the woman's reaction tell us about our modern world?

also

Is the desire to do good being crushed and driven out of people by the idiots of the world?

Thus goes the cycle of nature

In my last post I wrote about a newborn lamb, abandoned by its mother, that we took in to bottle raise. Well, the survival odds for such a little fellow are about 50:50 at best. Sad to say, but Louie the lamb died in his sleep late Sunday night. Despite the loss we've learned some lessons about bottle raising sheep. I did some research on the net and found a recipe for a milk formula to help raise abandoned lambs. It's mostly full fat milk but it also contains a beaten egg, some corn syrup and some cod liver oil. To me it sounds dreadful . . . I made a pseudo version (milk-egg-table sugar) of it last night in hopes it might help Louie to no avail. He was too weak to really do much of anything but sleep. So, if we end up with another little one in the house I'll let you all know.

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Louie the Lamb

As some of you may know, the wife and I are currently living on my in-laws' country vineyard property in the hills outside of Adelaide. Aside from the typical wildlife one might expect on a small vineyard, we also have around 25 or so sheep. Well, the sheep are all about to start popping out little lambs . . . one has already been borne and upwards of 10 or so more are expected. Anyway, this first lamb is named Louie and he's about two or so days old. The poor little fella was abandoned by his mother and we now have the job of raising him until he's old enough to be on his own with the other sheep. Now, before you go and get upset at his mother you should keep in mind why she abandoned him. Apparently sheep, during drought seasons, will abandon lambs as soon as they are borne because the mother cannot adaquately raise a healthy baby. Currently we're in drought conditions here in Adelaide so Louie's mother abandoned him thinking that tough times are on the way. Have no fear, though, we're supplementing the sheeps typical grazing with bails of hay and processed food pellets. The sheep go absolutely crazy over these things . . . I have no idea why, perhaps because they look like compressed grass and hay.
Louie, on the other hand, is being kept indoors at night to keep him warm and is currently being fed full fat milk from a bottle. He's a bit unstable on his feet but he seems happy . . . that is, as happy as you could expect. His days are rather full of eating, pooing, sleeping, making little lamb noises, and trying to follow the nearest person.
So, stay tuned to the blog for more updates on Louie the lamb. I might even see if I can stick some photos on here to show you the little guy.
Another project in the works is the "Beer Files" . . . all about my exploits during my first attempt to create a home brew. All in all there should be some good stuff coming up so stick with me . . .

Monday, May 02, 2005

Today in History, May 2

Here's another factoid to add to the collection of "Today in History" . . .

-In 1933 today, the very first modern sighting of Loch Ness monster took place. From this have come heaps and heaps of photographs, first-hand witness accounts and really bad television shows.