Helping Hands

The guys are all loaded up and ready to go.

Actually, Kyle is already gone.

He had to run to the ranch today and

shoot all the cows with fly spray.

Have I told you about that yet?

He has an air rifle that shoots

paint balls, but these paint balls have

fly spray in them!

He just pours some feed on the ground,

the cows all stand a round to eat

and he shoots each one in the side.

The paint ball explodes, the fly spray

does its thing and the cows don't

even seem to notice.

Pretty nifty!

(And fun!)

Anyhow, he left about an hour ago.

Finally.

First he had to lighten his load a little.

So he shaved his mustache and I gave

him a "summer cut" (short) haircut.

He hasn't let me near his head for 

many many months.

There was a lot to cut off!

He once again looks like he

is around 18.

Which is kind of a bummer.

But you never know, there might be 

some nice girls up there helping...

They just got an email changing their

assignment from the town they

were going to, to another, different town.

This one (Bristol) is closer to the coast.

They had 17 jobs all lined up where they

were headed, so now the organizers

are starting over.

There is a large group going up from our two wards.

The 2nd ward volunteered to take care

of all the food for everyone (they have the

bulk of the folks who are going...)

Rod and Kyle are "unofficially" adopted

by the other ward anyway, because they

have the best equipment and work ethic.

Kyle painted his new grapple.

It looks great!

Rod is in town right now (took the day off)

picking up... something or other.

When he gets home I'll feed him some

lunch and then we'll go back into town to 

Sams and get another couple of flats of water

and some gatorade and maybe some snack-ish things.

He isn't leaving until the morning.

They are meeting for a prayer service

at the church at 5 am tomorrow and then

heading north.

Rod will peel off in Ocala and meet Kyle

there at the rest area and they will

follow each other up from there.

Prayers and good wishes are always welcome!

Meanwhile, I'll be packing up and heading south

Friday evening after I feed the animals.

We met some new folks in the ward last week

and I was impressed to ask if she would like

to take care of the animals for us.

Lisa has a very experienced horse person,

she came over Monday evening and I walked

her through the process.

And printed up a cheat sheet for her.

This morning when Rod went out to feed,

Buddy was "cast". It means stuck, basically.

He had laid down and rolled over under the

hay shelter in the pasture. Got his legs wrapped

around the roof support pole and couldn't roll 

back over (hay behind him so like rolling 

up hill) and was basically stuck.

Poor guy, he was exhausted from struggling.

Looked like he had been there for several hours.

Rod wrapped a rope around his back legs,

Kyle wrapped another around his front legs

and they flipped him over.

(sound MUCH easier than it actually was...)

Awfully glad he did that this morning

and not this weekend when poor Lisa was here!

He looks good.

A little wobbly for a little bit.

I didn't feed him anything for awhile.

I was a little concerned he might get

a gut twist, but he seems to be ok.

I'll give him a bath this afternoon

when things calm down here a bit.

Meanwhile - Rod just pulled in,

so I'd best figure out some food.