The video captures a candid, diarized conversation between Victor Justin Rhodes and Rebecca as they tend to a sick lamb named Smalls on their farm. They discuss feeding Smalls kelp and minerals, administering drench treatments, and monitoring his vital signs such as eating behavior, stool consistency, and mobility. The dialogue oscillates between hopeful optimism and deep concern, reflecting the emotional strain of caring for a critically ill animal. They weigh the difficult decision of euthanasia versus allowing a natural death, consulting a mentor and considering the lamb’s quality of life. Practical logistics are explored, including contacting local butchers, arranging on‑farm slaughter equipment (gambrel, hooks, rope), and planning to practice dressing out Smalls to prepare for harvesting the companion lamb, Biggie. The conversation also highlights community support through videos and advice from other farmers, and it ends with observations of Smalls showing signs of improvement, leaving the outcome uncertain but underscoring the dedication and emotional resilience required in small‑scale animal husbandry.
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Well, it's a foggy one this morning. Always nervous to go check up on Smalls. Is he still there?
Let's go see.
How is he?
Good. They ate all their kelp, which is— it's about 2 cups is what I put in that thing. They ate it all, so I replenished it, and then I held it up for him and he ate it.
He ate it out of your hand?
Out of the bowl, but I was right there. And then, uh, and then he went over and had some minerals too. So here he comes back for the kelp. He's been eating a lot of it this morning. I have made up 3 drenches so far, and been feeding him kelp. He's already up. Oh good. So they went over to their pan. I was like, oh, you guys want to eat? So I was— but I think Victor just knocked him over.
Miles, you sure are fine, buddy.
Just came down, checked on him a whole bunch, petted him, sat with him. Some of me thinks that his chances of living are, are good, and then some of me thinks that his chances of living aren't good. So it's hard. It's— sometimes I feel really hopeful, and then sometimes I feel really not hopeful.
So we have our paddock here. I went 6 down, 2 over, 6 back. It's gonna do it right here too. We got plenty of fence. You're getting it, you're getting it. Come on, you think you can do it or you want me to do it? Okay, let's get him out. We're probably gonna have to help Smalls. Come on, come on, come on, buddy. Come on, get up. Come on, please get up. Get up. Come on, come on. Can you go? Come on. That's a good boy. That's a good boy. We're hoping the walk he seeing the green grass, sunshine will be good for him. You're doing great. You got some life in you.
The hardest part is just having to sit and wait to see what happens. We've done what we can, and then you wait. That's I mean, that's how it is with everything.
Rebecca in particular is upset about Smalls. It's real hard on her. Um, I don't think he's gonna make it, but we're gonna keep fighting as long as he's got life. I can't let her hammer on these lids all by herself. Another frustration, so I'm gonna help her. It's 3 o'clock. Smallest is taking a turn for the worst. He's not walking on his own, so we're making some hard decisions. Big's doing great.
You need to drink your mama? Is it time?
This is a fighter though. That's a fighter. You want to look into the eyes of a fighter?
Get him some water out of his, out of his pink thing. I'll bring it here. Let's see. Maybe he'll drink some water. I gave him some water after I changed my contacts.
I texted Thanom and about maybe a What time? That's okay, we'll be gone with the kids by then. So I texted Dan— well, I texted Andy from Ann Hune Farm a few days ago to see if they could come and we could harvest these guys before before it got too late, and they're booked until November. Texted Dan Omen. I said, hey, are there any videos online? And he happened to have a really good one. I'll link it there and in the description. So we're thinking we're going to— well, I was thinking of pigs, you know, if this guy dies. Biggie can't be alone. It's going to be a management nightmare to maybe put him with the cows, to managing him by himself. And I was watching that video that Dan put up, and Brandon the Farmstead Meatsmith said, you know what the lamb's number one fear is? Yeah, it's being separated. So Rebecca did just ask me if we should put him out and put him out of his this mystery.
I mean, he's standing up.
He's a huge improvement.
Yeah, from even 30 minutes ago. So I don't know, I don't want to—
I don't want to kill him if he's gonna live. It's a hard decision, but we don't, you know, we don't know enough to say, hey, is this guy gonna bounce back? But in my heart, I don't think It's gonna bounce back.
Yeah, but I don't know if I trust my heart because I thought he was gonna die so many times.
Let's email your lady.
I did.
I asked her about euthanizing.
I brought the paper towel, but the candle fell in it. It's fine. Okay, just bring it over. She has a cover.
Okay, well, let's wait and hear from her. Yeah, I don't want to do it No, I'm gonna get stuff ready because we're gonna be harvesting him. We do have a butcher that is taking bigs in an emergency situation. We can take him there tomorrow at 9. We can take him alive, but when you move an animal before death like that, it stresses them out. The amino acids release into their meat, and you pretty much, in our opinion, you lose your good husbandry So no, I think he might be trying. Can you set it down there and see? Okay, his, his, his jaw is wet. So we're gonna, we're gonna, out of respect, kill him on farm. Least amount of stress. But that means I need to gut him, skin him. I think have him.
Can I help him?
So basically dress him.
Can I help?
Based off of a YouTube video.
Can I help?
Yes, of course. Good. Lay him back down.
Out of his pee.
Yeah, he doesn't want to lay in his pee.
He's grinding his teeth, isn't he? Mm-hmm.
I had to carry Smalls in. He's now peacefully at rest. I don't think Mom wants to give up. I don't want to give up. I think at this point we're just going to let him pass away, and then the plan is I'll practice on him. I'll practice dressing them out. Then we'll most likely harvest Biggie in the morning. We don't want him to be alone very long. So would you rather just let him die peacefully? He looks like he's at peace now.
Yeah.
Or would you rather us kill him?
I don't know.
Well, we've got to eat supper. It's past suppertime, so maybe we'll eat supper and—
Come back and see what's happening.
Yeah, if he's not—
I just don't want this to go on for hours. I don't feel like it will.
If he's not dead after supper, we'll—
Are you gonna— are you gonna kill in here?
Yeah, I am gonna actually kill in here and then bring them out. So I need a knife. Got it. What you call a gambrel. It hangs them up for skinning and gutting. That's interesting. That might work if we had a— we need hooks. Okay, so Jonah, I did find some hooks. Yes, I think it's It's too thin to go in. Yeah. I don't know, if we do pilot holes we might be able to hook and then we'll do this to hang it. Jonah, do we have some rope somewhere?
No.
Where's all that nice climbing rope we used to have?
Oh, that's a good question.
There we go. I don't know if it's heavy-duty enough, but we have two straps if we need to. They're pale and swollen.
That is pale.
I'm no expert, but I think he's gonna die.
He's pooped. He didn't—
it's attracted to flies, huh?
He didn't even get up.
Now that is more solid poop. It's a poop.
Yeah, it is.
One of our sheep mentors in this told us, you know, if he's just laying there, that we could end it.
It's like flat out laying there, which he is kind of.
He was flat out laying there. He's not now. He was like laying on his side. That's what I imagine, was flat out laying there, and then— She also said we could stop the drenching altogether and just— what was the purpose of that?
Just offer him nutritional support. Oh my gosh, his poop is like normal.
His poop's back to normal. He had had diarrhea.
He's getting up, like what in the heck? What are you doing, bud?
So, we'll take a break from the drenches.
Yeah, she thought that. This is crazy. Smiles, man, you are— he's such a fighter. Is he looking at his belly? Is that what he's doing, looking at his belly?
Is that a sign of distress?
Yeah.
Grinding teeth, not ruminating, looking at his belly. But then he does try to get up. We decided to wait a little bit more, get the kids in the bed, see what happens. Now Rebecca's not feeling that great all of a sudden, and I don't think we could do anything about it right now if we wanted to. So it's about getting the kids in the bed and then making the decision and just watching to see what happens. It might be that I'm getting up super early in the morning to practice on smalls and then do the dressing out of bigs and getting them to the butcher to cut into parts by 9 AM. I think it's pretty far away. Oh, it's in the, it's in the, uh The messenger from Stephanie. See you guys tomorrow. It's gonna be interesting no matter what happens. Either we're gonna have a miracle lamb, or I'm gonna be harvesting a lamb for the first time unassisted.
