While I am very happy not to see snow on the ground , that nasty four letter word has been replaced with another. RAIN.
Is Mother Nature having some torrid affair with Old Man Winter and just can't seem to let him go?
Will Spring EVER grow a spine and kick him to the curb?
Is the Sun feeling so guilty about the devastating effect it's causing due to global warming that it has hidden it's self away in deep depression ?
I have more questions than answers.
It's been some time since my last Blog. Sorry about that. No real excuse.
I'll catch you up.
I am feeling better each day.
I had a friend come up last Thursday to work her dogs at a different place. (BTW, it was a rare beautiful day) I have not seen her in years. It was great fun. She had told me about her dogs and what she was concentrating on.
I really liked how kind and thoughtful they were to my sheep. Nothing rash and the sheep were a good indication since they do not get worked often by outside dogs. They were very relaxed to have any of her dogs engaged with them.
These dogs suit her too. She had such a nice , calm way of working them. Her one dog who is about three she had told me had been getting away with some "on his own" stuff. She has worked very hard this winter to correct these bad habits. Of what she told me he had been doing and what I saw the day she came to work, it has payed off. Her dog showed none of the things she had told me he was doing. I am sure this made her very happy.
While she was here I asked her to set sheep for my two young dogs. Up to now they have only taken sheep off dog/handler once before this past Fall. I had no idea what I would have. I had not worked them in months. I was really pleasantly surprised with the work. Listening for the most part. They remembered their whistles. Heck I was happy I REMEMBERED the whistles!
She set sheep and I had each dog do an out run in both directions. They did well. They were deep enough and lifted well.
Many times young dogs sort of do outrun and fold in behind the sheep. A little tight and cut the top off. Both young dogs had a distinct break between outwork and lift. I was glad to see they were not too bothered by a person or dog. I was most impressed with the fact that Flint was able to take control of his sheep while the bitch that was being used to set was in heat.
A risk, but he passed with flying colors . Never even gave her a glance.
This gave me a jump start and am getting dogs out a bit each day.UNLESS it's raining too hard. My open dogs are too fat. I have been trying to trim them down and fit them up. The three of them look like blimps with so much down time and too much kibble!
I have a girl coming while I am recuperating from my surgery to care for the farm animals She works for my neighbor Nola and her name is Erin. She (thankfully) likes the sheep. She was calling the last little hair lamb we had Layla. She mentioned she was not sure why she called her this . So Layla it is!
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| Erin feeding the sheep. Layla is the little lamb just to the right of the fence post |
We also had a scare with my father . The weekend before last the phone rang at 3:00 AM on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I don't even remember hearing it ring but somehow found myself standing in the living room ,phone up to my ear saying "Hello?" It was my mom telling me my father was having chest pains. Thankfully they live here on our farm so we threw on some clothes and went to their house. My dad did not look good, but he was alert and sitting in the kitchen.
A call to 9-11. They were here in pretty good time. Maybe 20 minutes from when we called. It could have been less but time seems to stand still in these situations. Thankfully after a trip to the hospital and several tests the Doctor said it was an Angina attack. He is doing well. As well as any 90 year old person can do!
We have had a few visitors to our bird feeders as of late. The bird feeders are less than 30 feet from out house and was surprised to see deer out there one evening. Now we know why the bird seed has been vanishing overnight. I managed to get a photo of one of them before they moved off.
A plus is that if you recall both my two young dogs were under the impression last year that they were Scottish Deer Hounds and not Border Collies. They were really irritating (scaring the s*** out of me to be honest) me with taking off to chase deer if we stumbled on them while walking the farm. I worked hard at teaching them this was not going to become a habit.
So a few nights ago around ten I took the dogs out for "last call". I always take Flint out first because he is too busy and interested in the other dogs that he takes forever to do his business. I'm tired and it just works better this way.
Out the door we went and there was the deer. Less than a stone throw for a fast dog. I said "ahhh you, get out of that" and he stood staring at the deer. I called him back into the house and he turned without hesitation. The deer moved off and we went back out when it was all clear.
I would not have been too happy to be calling after him in the dark of the night if he had chose to chase. Good dog , Flint.
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| A deer in the flash bulb light |
Lastly, as I mentioned the weather has been pretty dismal .
On Saturday evening I took these two photographs of the weather situation.
To the west was some angry heavy rain and strong winds on it's way in, to the east was a Rainbow.
Today the fog was thick enough that you could maybe see about 100 yards. It's predicted it will make it into the low 70"s F. That would be nice.
Well, I was biding my time waiting for the fog to burn off. Looks to be mostly gone so heading out to do a little training with a few of the dogs.
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