Animals

The res. is an animal lovers paradise, especially if you love dogs and horses. There are dogs, dogs, and more dogs. Luckily the mean dogs are tied and the rest are either happy to see us or ignore us so we get along fine. The dog on the right is carrying a soft drink cup so we know someone picks up garbage here.

These are our sheep leaving the church yard. They come to visit often but when they see us they head out. The young missionaries have them well trained. The cattle guard doesn't slow them down but then it is a cattle guard and not a sheep guard.. They were here today with some new little lambs. Their owner says when they are missing she knows where to look because they love the church yard. We do have a few spears of grass growing here and there which is more than other places. The sheep here graze on sage brush and higher up there are pine trees that they eat on so if they can find a blade of grass they are after it.

Several farmyards have a menagerie of animals that reminds me of when I was growing up. One of the Navijo's told us they are about a 100 years behind the rest of the world but I told him I didn't think it would be any more than 50 years.

There are about a hundred sheep in this heard. It was interesting because as we were driving we could see them approaching the road to cross it. The dog you can see on the right came around in front of the sheep and wouldn't let them cross the road. Some dogs really do have a purpose. There are lots of sheep here and they are always hearded and put in an encloser at night. A lady about 70 years old we visited last week has about sixty sheeps (they always call them sheeps). She lives alone and rides her horse herding her sheeps 4 miles to a spring and 4 miles home every day. When we were there she looked so tired and said she wasn,t feeling very well because she had fallen from her horse twice in the last few months and her arm and leg on the left side were very weak. She told us that her daughter may be coming to stay. We plan on getting out to see her again shortly.

This little goat was chewing on some sagebrush next to the sidewalk on our street and posed for a picture.

A mighty fine steed. He was standing there this morning and he's probably still there. There are horses wandering most everywhere. Having horses seems to be popular with the people here. Many horses graze on what they can find but others are owned and fed some hay. They bring small hay bales in from Colorado and sell it here  for $12 for a two wire bale and $18 for a three wire. The Chapter house sometimes brings a whole semi load in and sells it to the registered voters for $10 a bale. Trucks are lined up for two blocks for several blocks when this happens. 

This week we haven't done much visiting with the members because on the first of the month they get their gov't checks so they are all gone shopping or otherwise. On Monday we knocked on several members doors that we hadn't met yet and they invited us to come back so this coming week we hope to meet with them. We have a lot to learn yet when it comes to teaching but I beleive we are improving. The gospel is so important in our lives.
 Friday we left for the day to Monument Valley and saw some great scenery which was a pleasant change.
Love to you all,
Elder and Sister Lybbert