The day before DS1 left for California he put up most of the Christmas lights. DH finished putting them after he left. We will put up more next yeat. This wl be a quiet Chrstmas. We need to buy a new artificial Christmas tree. It can't be more than 6' since our ceiling here is lower than in California. I can't put up a real cut Christmas tree since the stuff they spray them with to keep them fresh gives me a rash. Didn't realize it until I had to decorate the tree myself when the kids had left home. Until then DH put on the ights and the kids hung the decorations. We will get one with lights on it. Easier to put up for me. We may wait until after Christmas or right before when they go on sale. There is nowhere to put it at the moment since moving boxes are taking up most of the living room!
Wrapped the Christmas gifts for TX family today. Had wrapped all the others and left them in DS1's room before we left. Still need to send $$$ to DGS1 since he will go to college next year. Forgot to leave it in CA so will have to mail it.
The NAHMS (National Animal Health thingy) vet came out and took fecals on 10 ewes, drew blood and did a hoof swab on 25 ewes. The fecals were put in one bag since it will be a grop sample for parasites. The hoof swabs are to check for hoof rot. Not sure what the blood samples are for. This is an every 10 year study on sheep. Each year they do a health study on a different species. We pulled out several lambs that we wormed since they looked bad, one black head cross had bottle jaw, and kept one ewe in quarantine to lance an abscess.
I ordered the punch test kit to do the Codone testing at the same time on my foundation ewes. The tool is like an ear tagger but it punches a tiny hole in the ear and captures the tissue in a tiny container to send in for analysis. You can have several types of DNA and health testing done on the samples. The tissue lasts 10 years at room temperature before you have to send it in so no rush. I need to do the rams but will have to wait for DS1 to come back for that. I can advertise lambs for sale with those results when they come in. The Dorper people are not concerned with the Codone results, but the Katahdin people want them when buying terminal rams for meat production.
This morning the tree trimmers came back to trim or old tree. They needed to wait until colder weather because there are hornets or wasps in a nest inside the trunk. The assistant wanted a lamb to butcher so I sold him a ewe lamb. The owner wants some ewes later when he has his fence up. Not sure if I will have any for sale depending on when he gets his fence up since they are due to amb in January/February. He wants some pregnant ewes but this close to lambing they will be expensive. I would like to put together a young flock with a ram lamb and several ewes for him. I need to look over the ewe lambs and decide who to keep, then everything else can go to the sale. I have a couple that are going to the butcher on Friday. We kept them penned separately after the NAHMS tests were finished so DH and I can load them easily. We will try to separate off some others to take as well. Emory has an auction on Saturday.
DS1 arrived in California and called me to complain about the way his room was left. I didnt understand what he was talking about so he sent me pix and I was shocked. DS2 and DDIL2 had moved everything from the rest of the house into his room instead of putting it in the Connex! Also one of the children, probably Annabel since they were sleeping in that room before we came back, had gotten hold of a Magic Marker and drawn all over his walnut desk. He is really upset because you can't get that stuff off and the desk is an antique one that my grandmother had given me and DH had refinished 50 years ago.
Looked it up on the computer and Magic Marker can be removed with hand sanitizer, alcohil or nail polish remover. I am going to tell DS1 to try the hand santiizer first. It can also be removed with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and alcohol.
If t takes off the Varathane finish, I can lightly sand around it and then redo the varathane.
We planned to leave early Wednesday but things had to be done so we got away later. It didn't matter since the shop was closed on Wednesday. The father had gotten a blister or stepped on a nail and it became infected to the point he ended up in ICU with sepsis. The daughter had to call her grandmother and her dad's best friend to force him to go to the ER. The nurses took one look at his foot and rushed him into the ICU. According to the daughter he has recovered enough to make the nurses' lives miserable by demnding to go home! 
I am sure they wil be happy to discharge him eventually. Anyway we drove to Cleveland (north of Houston) stopping in Lufkin to have dinner with Dana and a nice visit. 
Can't find the dining room table so will eat at the kitchen counter. LOL
