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2003
has come and gone with celebration and loss.
In the spring Ray and
his brother, Robby, built a large covered concrete patio onto the carport area
off the back of the house. We have
always enjoyed spending time outdoors watching the sheep and lambs, cooking out
on the grill, and relaxing. Our
back porch was a mere 6’ x 10’, but with the addition it now measures 14’ x
50’, not including the 3 bay carport.
This
year 12 of our 15 ewes had lambs between March 14th and March 31st.
That is 22 lambs in 17 days! It
kept us very busy. The other 3 ewes
had lambs in April and June, another 3 lambs.
The 2004 lambing season will start in mid February and end by the first
of May. To see our lambing journals, visit www.palmerfarm.com
In May
we went to Kentucky to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Janet’s
parent’s Dewitt and Wilma Garrett. (While
their golden anniversary was actually June 15th, the event was
planned for May in order to facilitate attendance at the celebration by family
members that lived a great distance from Winchester.)
Family and friends came from all over the country.
On July 7th
our
next-door neighbor, veterinarian and good friend, Dr. Mack Brittain died.
He is missed greatly. He was
always available to assist us with our sheep.
He has pulled lambs for us and done C-sections as well as other surgical
procedures. Janet got to assist him
neutering our male cat and our male Great Pyrenees.
We were able to help him in other ways.
Ray and Mack were running buddies and did a lot together.
It has been a big change in Ray’s life and we miss him a lot.
We enjoyed seeing
Leslea, Ray’s niece, marry David Williams on July 21st.
Leslea and David live in San Antonio, Texas where Leslea is attending
dental college and David is an electrician.
David is a good guy. We are
pleased to welcome him to the family.
On August 29th,
Janet’s grandmother, Dollie Garrett celebrated her 100th birthday.
She served as a missionary to Southern
Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe, Africa for 55 years.
Grandmother Garrett has a great sense of humor and has brought hope to
many people.
In
2003 we decided we wanted to breed livestock guardian dogs. We have always
enjoyed our dogs and after seeing our Great
Pyrenees, Marty, develop into a really
great livestock guardian dog we became interested in breeding livestock guardian
dogs. Knowing Marty is protecting our sheep gives us peace that our
animals are safe. After much research we learned about another breed of
livestock guardian dog, called an Anatolian
Shepherd, which we found we liked. So in September we purchased Maggie,
an 8-week-old Anatolian Shepherd. We are amazed daily at how fast she is
learning. It will be the end of 2004 or the first part of 2005 before she
will have her first litter. We
don’t know yet where we will find a stud for her, but we weren’t ready to
take on another puppy to take care of and train.
.
Marty
Maggie
In
October, Ray’s parents celebrated their 55th anniversary.
Dad is in the nursing home so he can get the best care possible.
Mother spends as much time as possible with Dad.
It has been a big adjustment for Mother and all of us.
We take dad out to lunch and family events when he feels up to it.
On November 11th,
we lost Ray’s uncle, his mother’s brother, J.W. Martin.
J.W. lived a life of helping others and was a jack-of-all-trades.
We’ll miss J. W. but will always remember the good and fun times with
him.
On
November 25th,
Ray had Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass surgery and is recovering very
well and losing weight. After years of struggling with being overweight
and with the knowledge that losing weight could help his heart last longer
(diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 1999) and that he couldn’t qualify
for a heart transplant without significant weight loss, Ray and his doctors
agreed that gastric bypass surgery could be helpful to his health.
On December 13th Janet’s
grandmother,
Dollie Garrett went on to be with the Lord. She will be missed, but we
know she has gone on to a better place. So while we are sad to see her go,
we rejoice that she is where she wants to be.
We
have two nephews serving in the U.S. Navy. Clay Dyess (Ray’s sister’s
son) is a HN (Hospitalman). His title in the Navy is a Hospital Corpsman,
best summed up as a nurse, EMT/Paramedic, and medical specialist all rolled into
one. He also has two other specialties “FMST” Field Medical Service
Technician “medic” with the Marine Corps and Pharmacy Technician. He
is now serving as a Pharmacy Technician at Naval Station Pascagoula in
Pascagoula, Mississippi. Airman Apprentice (ATAA) Scott Palmer (Ray’s younger brother’s son) is an Aviation Electronic
Technician with the Aviation
Intermediate Maintenance Department (AIMD), 600 Division Command and is
now serving at NAS Whidbey Island,
Washington. We are proud of Clay
and Scott for their willingness to serve and protect our country in a time of
such uncertainty.
Clay Dyess Scott Palmer
We
pray that 2003 has been good for you and that 2004 will be great.
Love,
Ray & Janet
