a warm winds last gasp

I'm sure this is our last hurrah for mild , delightful temperatures.
It has been unseasonably mild here as of late. Past few days up in the 70's F.
I have had my windows open at night, fresh lovely air blowing in for good sleeping conditions.
We had a spectacular sunset the night before last.

This Morning I was up early before the  sunrise and the land was covered with fog where the water runs. It was really pretty . I did get a shot of it but I guess the flash was not activated so It's a bit too dark to show the contrast. I must have not been awake enough to notice the flash not firing.

Over this past weekend I took the young dogs up to visit a friend and see how they handled taking sheep off set out person. I was happy with what I saw. They were not too concerned with dog or person and even handled a few flusters of things going bad just as they came around top of the sheep. I fooled a bit with driving but the two sets of sheep were not right for the stage of training they are at. The first group were belligerent  , and the next set were just too fast and heavy to the pressures of the field. They did give it a good go but just not ready for this yet. I will admit I was a bit disappointed , but not going to fret too much . Something to keep in the back of my mind though . At home things are progressing nicely. Both Rush and Flint are doing well with their flanks and have been picking up the whistles. Both are  (at least at home) driving the sheep out good distance, holding line  and taking flanks to turn .  I have been using about 40 sheep the past few sessions, most are my wool flock but for a few hair wethers. I have been challenging them on outwork as well. Up hills, down hills , blind runs. Both are good out runners and so I don't want to stretch them out too far and loose my top end. I want to make sure they are close enough that I can still make it up there if they are not stopping or flanking.

This is Rush taking sheep out on a drive. She is just about at the end of her comfort zone here but still a good distance away from me.

Flint starting his drive away

Flint taking sheep off me for the drive away

After the work session I usually take sheep down to the E net for the day. Both Rush and Flint are able to drive sheep down and put them up for me if they are the last to be worked. It is nice that they can do this so I don't need to walk back and change out dogs to do this. I think it has helped them to do something to make it mesh in their minds. Now they are understanding why I need this or that flank to get where we are going or to negotiate the opening for the E Net.

Yesterday was warm enough that I could not blame Flint for cooling his feet in the sheep's water.



Finally finished

" Workin' all day and the sun don't shine
Tryin' to get by and I'm just killin' time
I feel the rain fall the whole night through
Far away from you, California Blue "


Well , not really California Blue. More like Sydell Blue.
The past week or so I have gotten busy resurrecting my used sheep handling equipment. If you remember I bought it over the summer and had a difficult ride down and back to pick it up. Managing to loose at least half of the support rods out the back of the horse trailer on the trip back.
When I picked it up it was loaded on a pallet and never really had a chance to inspect it. One of the items was a swing/slide gate that when unloading I came to discover was broken at a weld. I was just so disgusted that I put it off to the side for several months.
As the weather changed, I knew I had better address this stuff before it was too cold to give it a proper face lift. So I got to it.
My neighbor Randy was able to weld the swing/slide gate for me and so that was fixed. He also let me borrow his drill with wire brush and so I got busy removing the rust and chipped paint off of the MANY pieces of equipment. I spent several days from morning till dusk grinding down this stuff . I then got to painting all equipment with a good coat of Rust-Olem paint. As close to the Sydell Blue as I could match. This also took me several days to complete and at the end ( yesterday ) I was really disliking the color blue . My back was screaming at me each night from many hours bent over this stuff and picking it up each morning and moving back under cover each night. 
Yet in the end I am really pleased with how it turned out. It looks as good as new and was worth the effort as it saved me quite a bit of money to buy it used. It would have cost me twice as much brand new.

Though I will confess I just got my Premiere Sheep catalog and hot dipped galvanized is looking really good to me about now .


I did manage to get the dogs lightly worked.
Focus on the two young dogs, but managed one of the adults here or there as well.
I have started putting some whistles on the two young ones. Amazing how fast dogs pick up on the stop whistle.
Right now Flint is looking really good.  I am getting him driving and cross driving at good distance from me, he is holding his lines really well and getting better about his flanks.
It changes as time goes between the two dogs .
Rush at times seems to excel where Flint struggles or the other way 'round.
Rush is more solid on her flanks but her pace is a bit too hurried at the moment and she wants to be too close to the stock and boring into them.
She has not learned to rate herself on her own and stay back a bit . I am needing to keep reminding her of that "bubble"
She is very responsive and whippet fast in her work.
Rush seems to learn things faster, but Flint seems once he learns things he is good to go and needs less handling to keep him right.

Both work differently but I am enjoying them for what they are teaching me about training as well as how they are learning from the training I am giving them !

a year gone by

Last year on this day we had an early snow fall. Even for this area.

This year , while we were lucky to not have snow flying about we had a very windy, wet , chilly day . It was quite raw out , almost needing gloves.

I look at these two pictures and see that old apple tree still hanging tough to life. Half dead on one side, almost hollowed out at the bottom. Yet out of all our trees this was the one that had fruit this year. We had a really strong wind storm just as the blossoms were at their peek for becoming fruit and all were pretty much blown off the trees. This old tree still somehow managed to bear several apples this year.

I always seem to take account of the year gone by just about now. Not sure if it has to do with my Birthday around the corner but I'll bet it does. My Birthday holds more significance to me that the traditional New Years. My Birthday is my personal New Years day. I think of what I have done, what I had wanted to do as well as what I did not get done. I look back on the year.

 I said good bye to my long time equine companion Badger last New Years Eve . He made a bad turn on some ice , fell and never made it back to his feet. I had him in my life for over 30 years. Through good times and bad. He was a great horse and it was so sudden and horrible but thinking back it was in many ways a blessing. He was in great health right to the end , had a wonderful life . I am glad in many ways he did not linger with a long standing illness or had been in horrible pain with colic.  

This day last year I was also cloaked in ignorant bliss. Unaware that My Deigh was silently being attacked by Cancer and that we would have just a short time left to enjoy her. I took this picture of her last year on this day. It's still hard for me to believe she is not here by my side .

We miss her very much .

We also had to say good bye to our cat Splotchity over the summer. She too, had Cancer.

Though these are the sad things to reflect on there was also good to the year.

On this day last year my then just coming five month old pups got to see snow for the first time.

They were not too sure of it at first and huddled close to each other. They blinked when the snow flakes hit their eyes and it was so cold to their feet. But it did not take long for them to find the fun in it.

I think I like it....weeeeeeee

Me too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today at a year and almost five months they have matured into useful, talented young dogs. I am thrilled with what I am seeing in them . I am looking forward to next season and getting them out running in sheepdog trials.

We are blessed to live in a beautiful location and are making great progress at reclaiming the pastures that have layed fallow for so many years before we breathed life back into this old dairy farm.

The sunsets at night rival any western sky and living up on this hill gives us spectacular long views .

And each morning we are the first to be greeted by the Mother Star and the promise of another day.



who'll stop the rain...

" Long as I remember, the rain been coming down
Clouds of Myst'ry pouring confusion on the ground
Good men through the ages, try'in to find the sun
And I wonder, still I wonder, Who'll stop the rain....."

That old favorite from CCR has been running a loop in my head the past few days.
Yeah , yeah I know just a few days ago I was singing praise to the rain.
Today, well...not so much.
I'm done, sick of it already.
Flooded basement, flooded barn . Slick mud.
We had some record rain fall around here last week and then this week going on the third day of steady spritz with a down pour thrown in here and there.

our little stream that usually is a gentle flowing, bubbling, peaceful place to go

was now turned into a  churning , fast moving , swirling body of angry water.

Many of the local roads were impassable due to streams overflowing onto the roads
Poor Paul found this out the hard way as he was trying to get home and was getting turned back on each road he traveled .

Around the corner from us, an area the locals call the "flats" was now a huge lake. There is a road that runs through it with a small bridge that goes over what is usually a small stream. You could see no evidence of either the road or the bridge during the rains last week. The road just dropped off into the water.

on the bright side, this past Saturday we went to our neighbors Al and Ruth Johnson's "End of the Summer" party.
We had a great time. Good food, people. LOTS of laughs! The weather was just perfect that day/ night. Warm sunny day. Crisp clear night with little wind. They had a huge Bonn fire going all night and it was nice to step over to it and get the chill off when you needed to.

The young dogs seem to be finally getting it! I tested them the past few days and was able to get both flanking where I wanted (for the most part) on a drive out of about 100 yards. It is thrilling to climb to the next step and always makes the struggle of getting to it seem worth it. I am excited about these two dogs.
We have a long way to go , but overall I am happy where they are at for under a year and a half of age.