DEA Agent vs Texas Farmer

A DEA agent stops at a ranch in Texas, and talks with an old rancher. He tells the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs."

The rancher says, "Okay, but do not go in that field over there," as he points out the location.

The DEA officer verbally explodes, saying, "Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me." Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his badge and proudly displays it to the rancher.

"See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish... On any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?"

The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.

A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased by the rancher's big Santa Gertrudis bull......

With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely that he'll get gored before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified. The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs.....

"Your badge. Show him your BADGE!"

By Tozer

A Pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself, but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.

Operation Diapered Thunder

Since we wanted to keep the new goat kid, Thunder, in the house during this cold and wet weather we went looking for a solution. We do not have a barn or a decent housing solution for our goats currently and to optimize his first few days of growth and to help him build a strong body we wanted to keep him inside our home and let him roam free during parts of the day. Solution: Goat Diapers! The solution is reasonable from a cost perspective and allows him the opportunity to run around and allows us the opportunity to not have urine and fecal matter around our home.

We took this web page, Why would anyone even dream of diapering a baby goat?, as inspiration for Operation Diapered Thunder.

Another Kid!

During the evening or the early morning one of our pregnant does gave birth to a new baby boy. Due to our recent weather we named him Thunder.

Jaundice in Newborns

Recently I have a brother who had their first baby born. After a few weeks the baby had continued problems with jaundice and after some tests it appears the baby may have Biliary Atresia. This post is here to help others out there searching about extended jaundice and to not take it lightly. Although the disease is very rare (1 in 10000 newborns) it is fatal if not caught. The chances of the child recovering are significantly increased the earlier it is caught, below are some quotes and links.

The first two links below are a good starting point.

Biliary Atresia Overview

Biliary Atresia

Nearly a decade later, funds raised through a foundation the Meehans established in their son’s name have fueled a research discovery that may one day help give children like Zachary a future. Hopkins Children’s researchers, led by Maria Grazia Clemente and sponsored by the Zachary Meehan Biliary Atresia Research Foundation at Johns Hopkins, have discovered that a rotavirus (SA11), known to cause the disease in mice, also grows in human bile duct cells and normal liver cells. “In the lab, those infected cells became spectacularly malformed, which is exactly what happens in biliary atresia,” says Kathleen Schwarz, M.D., director of the Pediatric Liver Center at Hopkins Children’s and senior author of the study. “We’ve known a lot about its inflammatory process, but not what causes it. This may be about to change.”
source: http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/tpl_news.aspx?id=4944

Growth Failure and Outcomes in Infants with Biliary Atresia: A Report from the Biliary Atresia Research Consortium
source: http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/researchDetail.aspx?id=5310

Our biggest recommendation after years of health problems with one of our children is do not wait on your doctor to figure things out but do your own research and be open to alternative health but always keep a critical eye.

May 2010 be a healthy and happy new year for you!