the last day of 2010

It's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and today is the last day of 2010 .

My Brother Michael and his wife Linda had sent two snow saucers to us for Christmas. I was hard pressed to convince Rush that they were not custom made dog beds for her.She would hear nothing of it . Each time I would tell her they were not dog beds she would shoot me "the look" so I finally gave up explaining to her that they were to be used to slide down a snowy hill .

This last morning of the year was nothing less than spectacular in it's beauty . A pleasant break from weeks of below normal temperatures and relentless blowing ice cold wind. Wonderful mild 40 F , calmness to the air.

The year had many ups and downs for us. Starting with last year on this day we lost our old time equine companion Badger. He had been part of my life for over thirty years. Through good times and bad.

He took a bad turn on a patch of ice under snow and went down, never to get up. While it was heartbreaking and traumatic it also showed me the wonderful network of people I am surrounded by and feel lucky to call my neighbors and friends. Many of them spending several hours on New Years Eve hoping to get Badger back on his feet. I know they had better things to do , but came to my aid when I needed them. I would and will do the same for any of them if the call comes . In the end when it was growing dark and the temperatures were dropping they helped us with letting Badger go .

We also said good bye to our oldest sheepdog Deigh. Just 11 and seeming too young , but Cancer has other idea's .

We also said good bye to one of our cats, Splotchity, only nine years old. A sweet loving cat who also lost the battle with Cancer.

It was also filled with good. We had a great crop of lambs. Both hair and wool. We also gained a new addition to the equine herd. A sweet little six year old mare going by the name of Diamond. She fit in as if she has been here her whole life and has taken over the leader role that Badger had  over his lifetime.  We have done many little improvements to the farm and are hoping to host our first sheepdog trial in the fall.



Today Paul and I are making lambing jug panels for the upcoming lambing season.

Spending a quiet night with a top shelf surf and turf meal and saying "so long" to this year .

So here's to 2010 . 

Hoping for a better year to come with more good than bad for us and all the people and animals I hold close and dear to my heart.

Happy New Year !

Christmas Song

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas . Peace / Love.

young dogs training blues

A Facebook Friend has turned me on to this website . I fiddled around a bit and made my first "film".
It is my young dog Rush coming to me to tell me her and her brother Flint are not happy with the lack of sheepdog work as of late.

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Frank Kelly - With Lyrics

"The One"

"There are some who bring a light so great to the world that even after they are gone the light remains."

Today I am going to write about "the one". The dog who was and always will be the dog I will compare every dog before her or after.

I called her Swift .  She was so very fast and agile even as a baby she reminded me of the little quick birds I admired.
I named our farm after her and in tribute to her.

She was a good dog. She taught me things I was unable to absorb before she came into my life .

Was she a "great" dog ? Well maybe not by some standards.

Was she a great dog to me and for me, YES.
Without a moment of hesitation I say this.

She was born in December and sadly six years later in December she would leave me forever.

She was the most precocious little pup anyone could want. A sweet and kind personality. Willing to please , a loyal and devoted partner. Quick to learn with just a little willfulness to her nature.

I had one other dog at the time , my first Border Collie "Kilt".
From day one they became fast friends.
Kilt showed her all the important things a young dog needed to know. How to properly chew a stick. play tug of war. What chairs were the most comfortable to sit in and offered the best views. Which dog beds were the most plush.
Swift fit in as if she had been born here.
She loved cats and they her.
She was always well behaved and never did one destructive thing.
Housebroke as easy as any pup I have had.

 Her eyes were deep and full of expression and when our gaze met we had a connection unlike any dog I have ever had.
We could talk to each other through our eyes. Our souls spoke to each other .

Her start as a sheepdog was a slow one.
As time went on though she became a very dependable , natural dog. Just the right amount of stock sense yet giving enough to do as I asked.  I was still raw in my handling skills but she made up for my mistakes.

As we moved up through the classes at the trials , she always managed a placement and even several wins. Something I had not ever accomplished before her.
She was a comfortable dog to run. I never felt any pain of anxiousness or worry about "what she would do" . I never seemed to get that shrill in my voice or whistle that I can and have fallen victim to more times than I would like to admit. When things did not go as well as I had hoped  I never seemed to feel disappointed in her work or sad .
Swift ALWAYS gave me 110 percent each and every time she was on sheep. She never once let me down. I wish I could say the same for me to her.

                

A few memories I have running her was once at a trial in Pro Novice I stopped her too short at the top. The sheep then bolted for a cluster of trees just off the side of the fetch. I flanked her into the trees but had great trouble putting her in the right spot I would flank left  the sheep would go right I flanked right the sheep would go left. Not coming out of the trees. I finally said " Swift get 'em up, bring 'em "  With in seconds she got them out of the trees and back onto the fetch even to making the panels. The rest of the run was clean and we managed to finish with a solid pen , ended up placing even though I had eaten up much of our time and caused a huge point loss on our lift and fetch.
Another trial in the Ranch class on a fairly difficult course we had a killer run going. As we were about three quarter way through the cross drive the sheep started to drift a bit low. I whistled for an inside flank to keep them on line , Swift took an outside flank and pushed them lower. I whistled again and she took an outside flank. I then growled the flank and she took the outside flank. I was thinking to myself  "what is wrong with her?!" Again I growled the flank and she stopped and turned to look at me. Disgust in her eyes.
I know if she could have yelled back down the hill at me she would have said  " Michele , you have asked for the WRONG flank more times that I can remember!"
 Ding, I finally realized what I had done and blurted out "oops sorry Swift"
I think a few people laughed behind me. I gave her the CORRECT flank and managed to salvage the panels but lost a good chunk of points for my mix up.
We managed a placement , maybe ninth or tenth place.
Our Judge at the time was Scott Glen.
While out walking dogs after the trial Scott was walking ahead of us. Swift picked up pace and fell in along side of him. I called and called her but she pretended not to hear me. Just kept up with Scott's long stride and never looked back. Finally Scott with his good natured quick wit turned to me and said " Well, looks like she has not forgiven you for blowing that class for her today. You would have won it had you not kept up with that wrong flank".
Swift at that moment looked over her shoulder at me with just I hint of "Yeah, jerk!".
The last memory I'll bore you with was our last run together.
Swift drew a group of sheep with one splitter. She was awesome at keeping it together and while in the shedding ring this sheep was impossible. I was green as grass in spring and was trying for the textbook shed. This sheep was taking advantage of my inexperience and bolting out of the shedding ring hot for the exhaust each time I moved Swift into the wrong spot. Each time Swift would faithfully head her off and push her back to the shedding ring . The sheep backing up stomping  or bolting left only to swing to the right to beat Swift. She got her each time but we never did get the shed.
 As we walked off to the water tub my lanyard broke from around my neck.
I still remember saying to a friend " Uh Oh, hope that's not a bad omen "
Later the scribe came over to me to tell me the Judge Eve Marshark had commented to her that  she thought Swift  was one good dog with a ton of heart.
She was at that.
Little did I know she was actually very sick. With in a week of that trial I noticed something wrong.

I will not bore you with the grim details.

Swift had a rare and terminal , Cancer Peritoneal Carcinoma .
I would only have a few months left with her .
In fact I had three months left to come to terms with my Heart dogs illness and passing.
I did not handle it very well and a huge part of me died that day I had to let her go.
I don't think I will ever really get over her untimely passing .

I wear a necklace around my neck that is a large silver heart. Inside is a bit of her ashes.
She was close to me always and still is .

My bright shining star . One who streaked so fast across my heart, my life . One who I could never look away from in her beauty. A rare one, that I feel blessed and lucky to have been witness to her gift of faithful love and compassion.
But like all  bright Swift Stars, they burn hard and fast and then are gone .
Only are we left with the memory of what they had given us.


Thank you Swift. I love now and forever.
 You were the "One " for me.

Polar Express

Well here it is not even  " officially " winter and yowza we have had some frigid temperatures the past few weeks. Other than this past Saturday ( we made it almost to 40 F ) it has been hovering in the teens and twenty's during the day and single digits at night. The wind has not let up . Not much in the way of snow though, just a dusting overnight the past few nights.

We took advantage of the warm day Saturday and I made sure I trimmed my pony Nuggets feet. She has a condition called Insulin Resistance , and one of the complications to this is laminitis. She has had a few bouts of it and I have FINALLY gotten her feet to look normal again with careful trims. This time around I dropped her heal a bit more dramatically than I have in the past but I figured I may not trim her again until March unless we get a break in the freeze.  With the frozen ground and the aggressive trim she is a bit tender in foot but in comparison to last year at this time she looks great.
I also stripped out the chicken coop while the temp's were mild. I hate that job, chicken crap is just so (excuse the pun ) foul.
Still it has to be done and I know my birds were happy to have a clean coop with fresh bedding.

We had moved the little hair ram in with the big boys a few weeks ago. What I ended up doing was taking a 10 foot pipe gate and locking him in half the shed for a week. This way he was protected from them if they wanted to harm him and it gave the boys a chance to meet the new kid. We let him out after the meet and greet week and all went quite well other than a few shoves here or there. I know him being a youngster helped.
I will put my woolies in with my Cheviot ram next week for mid May lambs. I am going to use my little Brecknock Hill Cheviot "Prince" this year.
I have hair lambs due in February and am hoping we get this freeze over and done with by then.
It maybe was not the brightest idea I had to expose the ewes so early, but I needed to get the little guy out of the flock and so I figured I would just turn him loose with some lady's of his own kind.
I'll let know know if I am sorry for it.

I am now feeding hay at a blazing pace. The sheep did not even bother to go out into the pasture yesterday, spending most of the day in the barn or hovering around the opening to it. While there is still grass to eat I know there can't be much nutrition left in dormant grasses to keep any condition or finish on them.

I strung a tarp up over the barn door to the sheep side of the barn a few days ago since it faces west .
I hoped to keep it a bit warmer inside and it seems to be working well enough. There is just a gap about two and a half feet up from the bottom for the sheep to get in and out and it has felt warmer inside because it it not getting the wind blowing in as it had .

Have not done much with the dogs other than whistle work with young ones. It's coming along well enough.

I managed to get my Christmas cards done and mailed out. I have cut back drastically on my sending. One because the postage is getting a bit much and two seems no one really does the card thing anymore other than electronic e cards.
Got the tree up and decorated as well as a few lit Christmas things for in front of the house.
I never bothered to figure out WHY the lights that I painstakingly strung on the eave of the roof do not light but for a few.
My plan is to take them off the house first chance I get and stomp them into oblivion.
The lighted Santa and six candy canes is going to have to be enough this year.

Milestones

There have been several Milestones in our family since my last Blog.
One : We celebrated my dad turning 90 ( ! )  on Dec. 1

Two : My dad is one of the few survivors still living who was at Pearl Harbor the day of the attacks. He was interviewed by our local paper


Ret. Air Force Officer recalls Pearl Harbor bombing - Honesdale, PA - Wayne Independent


Three : My parents are celebrating 68 ( Yes, that's right ! ) years of marriage today.

What else can I say but  WOW.

Other than that not much to write about. Winter though not officially here has come in full force.
It's been cold, not brutal but still cold. The drag of it for me it the wind. HATE IT!
I kid you not when I tell you we have had days of relentless wind, morning, noon and night.
At this point when it's kicked down to oh 15 mph steady it seems like a gentle breeze . It has been more like 25 + most times and laying in bed at night there were a few gusts that came roaring up the hill that I really thought the house was going to take off of the foundation!
We have had persistent snow squalls and showers over the past several days . Not adding up to much , but I do wonder if the wind was not blowing as hard as it has been we may have more on the ground. I think most of it just has been blown away !
While it is still blowing to beat the band out there today, at least it is sunny and not snowing.


The dogs on the other hand have no issues at all with the current weather pattern.
They love the cold weather .
It's been hard to keep the edge off them because I had not wanted to stay out long enough.
If you look at one of the photographs you can get an idea of how  eh hem... " breezy"  it has been lately.
Spirit's ear is blown straight up when she had turned into the wind!

Bracken enjoying a nice back scrub

Spirit hunting for field mice

Dream enjoying a good face rub in the snow


I am getting used to all the extra clothes needed to stay warm , but really am having trouble moving around. I feel like the Michelin Man with all the layers of clothes. I feel hindered and sluggish in my movement.
Everything just seems to take longer to do. Usually I can knock the feedings out in about 30-40 minutes. Now it's taking me close to an hour. I have the tank heaters set up for the horses and main flock so that will help (I'm sure PP&L will enjoy the extra revenue ) but still need to maintain the Ram's water, keep it open for them to drink. I have been bringing in the chicken's waterer each night and you would think they were in the Sahara Dessert each morning when I bring them their water!

I have not been doing much with dogs. Still out of sorts but better.
Have worked to young dogs a few times. I stayed down in the lower field just off the main pasture. It has a pretty solid tree line on the west side and has kept the wind slightly tolerable. It has several low stone walls to add a bit of challenge for the youngsters to negotiate. Mostly working on getting the whistles .
Rush is pretty good with them either fetching or driving. I have not made anything difficult and have asked for a flank or stop or walk up where it would feel right for them to do so.
Flint is doing well with all but his flank whistles. Now I'm not saying he is bad with them but he just is not quite sure yet. He knows when he hears either one that it's a flank ...oh but what one is it ?
Should I go left or right?
Rush is just a bit more solid here.
I am using all of the main flock to keep the sheep a bit more heavy so that they can push as well as not need to try to learn a whistle on flighty sheep. That will come later , once I feel the really do have a understanding of each tweet.


 Flint

Rush














Lastly,  two of the litter mates have stepped to the post and made their first outing at sheepdog trials.
Liz Phares who took a pup off this breeding ran her pup Juniper in the Novice class at a benefit trial in ( I think) MO.
She ran against a handful of other Novice dogs and took a first and second place respectfully.
Maggie Chambers has a pup too that she named Strike and ran her in Pro Novice at Leslie Whitney's fun trial this past weekend.
She was very happy with her work but said that the sheep were quite light and since it was a fun trial she walked to help her dog get a better handle on the sheep on the drive out. She said she was pleased with the way her pup handled the pen having never worked her at one. She managed the pen , telling me that they were not easy to get in.
So looking like pups are off to a good start in both of their trialing careers!