Rainy days and Monday's, Tuesday's Wednesday's.....

What is going on with this weather pattern ?
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!




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.

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.

Today is April 7

let me repeat that. Today is APRIL 7.
When I think of April I envision grass starting to get green, warmer air to breath, less clothes to wear.
Was I a "happy camper" when I looked out my window this morning to see this?

Hell NO!

on the plus side went out to the barn and found a little ewe lamb had come into the wintry world overnight.

Genetics are an interesting thing. Black mother ,black with some white father and she is mostly white with some black and brown spots.

So I have one yearling left to lamb and I will FINALLY be finished with the hair sheep for lambing.

I am feeling pretty good . I had a sciatic nerve issue after my surgery that was making it very painful to walk let alone get around. One minute I was fine and then bam I could not even bear weight on my leg without it feeling like someone was stabbing my right ass cheek. I was getting quite down about it. Between that and the bacterial infection the surgery was a breeze!

Then one night I went to bed and woke the next morning and as the day went on ...no twinge. Then a few days went by and nothing. Whew.

Why it was there and now gone I don't know. I just hope it stays away.

I plan to start up with the dog training next week. I have a good friend who I have not seen in a very long time going to try to come up and work her dogs and set sheep for my young ones. Looking forward to getting back to it and spending some time with a friend is always a bonus!

April Fool's Joke?

Sorry to say but it's no joke, North East Pennsylvania is snow covered once again.
At least the storm moved just a bit more east and we have more of a nuisance type snow than the eight or so inches they were predicting for today.

Still , what is going on ? Where's the " early " spring that stupid groundhog predicted???

What happened to March being ..."in like a lion, out like a lamb" ?

What kind of twisted game is Mother Nature playing?

Two more lambs were born since my last blog. A very tiny black ewe lamb and a brown badger marked ram lamb. Neither looked too thrilled with today's weather.

To be honest the mature sheep don't look thrilled either. I am sure they are looking forward to tender fresh shoots of spring grasses to feast on instead of last years hay to grind through.

Little by little I am feeling better each day. I hate that taking a few walks with the dogs has me spent by the close of the day.

I am sure once I finish with the antibiotics on Tuesday I'll start feeling stronger. I have found myself falling asleep for a half hour in the day and hardly able to stay awake past nine at night lately.

A strange thing for a person who usually has trouble with sleep!

The dogs are completely irritated with my health situation. SO much down time . If they thought I was slow moving before my surgery , I can only imagine what they think of me know. Still, they have been civil for the most part. The two sisters Dream and Spirit finding comfort with each other on the couch. Both knowing soon I'll be up and around and back to my old self.

Hopefully feeling even better than my old self !

 I have entered a few sheepdog trials in May .

I am hopeful that I'll be feeling better and that the weather will be kinder so I can tune up the dogs for them.

I was really wanting to get to more trials this year. Still when I add up entry fee ( three Open dogs , two Nursery/Pro Novice dogs)  travel expense and farm care while I am away it might end up not being as many as I would have liked to get to .

Mega Millions , Power Ball can you help me out here?

 

a setback

"I get knocked down, but I get up again
Your never going to keep me down"....

Had a bit of a set back Late Sunday night and hit me hard by Monday afternoon.
Had been keeping close eye on my temperature after coming home and Sunday night it started slowly rising.
Monday morning I felt  "off " . Nothing much . Just a little more fatigue than the past two days. A little light headed. A little hyper sensitivity to sound, taste, touch. UH OH...

Called my Doc and told him I think something was going wrong. He said until my temperature had reached 101.5 I'll be fine.
As the day went on I felt worse each hour. Now wracked with chills, sweats and muscle aches. My fever hit the magic number and I again phoned the office.
Not good, back to hospital for blood and urine work up. He phoned in two antibiotics for me and we picked them up and headed home. I was feeling so crappy that I just dropped the seat back for the car rides.

My fever kept going up and I spent a little over two days in bed. Very sick. My surgery was a cake walk to what I felt during that bacterial attack on my body.
The antibiotics are harsh , strong ones and this complicated my system even further...Let's just leave it at thank goodness to the chemists who invented Imodium.

Mother Nature was up to her old tricks and dumped another ten inches of snow on us during my illness.
At least Paul did not have to deal with muddy dogs on top of everything else.
Finally by late Thursday I felt better. Weak as a kitten , but it beats sicker than a dog any day!

Got my surgical staples removed on Friday.
Much to my relief my abdominal area no longer looks like an angry Rapper with a metal mouthed  ( or Grills as they call them ) grimace.
The Doctor told us the blood cultures and urine tested positive for both E Coli and Streptococcus.
No wonder I felt like I had been hit by a bus!
Must have picked these up before I left the hospital.
My tumors were benign so we were happy for that news.

So, I'm really glad to have this over. Just a bit of bad luck I guess.

Just before I went in for surgery Paul and I went out for Chinese food.
My fortune cookie read
"your troubles will cease and fortune will smile upon you"
Anyone who knows some of the odd twists of fate that have been thrown my way will appreciate the irony of that little slip of paper.
I think my friend Lori was right when she said
"You grabbed the wrong cookie"

Back Home Again

"Hey it's good to be back home again.
Sometimes this old farm feels like a long lost friend
Yes 'n' hey it's good to be back home again - John Denver

And it does!

I went in early Tuesday morning for my surgery. I managed to hold it together just up until the anesthesia Nurse informed me they were just about ready for me. My phobia took hold and the tears spilled, much to my embarrassment. The Nurse was wonderful and steadied me with jokingly telling me she did not want a "snotty patient" to put under. She talked to me and comforted me and took my fears seriously. "What are you worried about , Michele?"
I answered "never waking up"
She reassured me I was such a low risk having never been a smoker, heavy drinker and had no underlying health concerns.
I had talked to a few trusted friends who are employed in the medical profession as well as this very nurse in the days prior to my surgery. I had a very good understanding of the sedation process but being phobic, it was too hard to over ride my emotions just as time came for me to be sedated.
Yet, it was just as described to me.
The nurse indicated she was administering the first part of the sedation through the IV....and the next thing I recall was hearing a nurse saying "Okay Michele, your out of surgery everything went well".
WOW.

I was in my room by 8:00 AM . My brain was active but sluggish and it was hard to stay awake. I was hooked up to a Morphine IV . I felt like I had been hit by a bus! After several hours I started to be more aware and the nurse explained to me that if I needed pain relief there was a little button just off my right hand that would give me Morphine as I needed it. The first day I did pop that button some but asked the nurses if I was abusing it at all. They said that after surgery I was given a measured unit of Morphine and that in the following 12 or so hours I had used the equivalent amount . I felt like I was pushing that button a lot the first half of the day but they assured me that they have had patients that they had to take it away from because they kept pressing the button.
The one thing no one had made me aware of was that there would be a catheter inserted in my urethra the first 24 hours.
Having never undergone any major surgery before this was the most irritating thing to the surgery.

Your encouraged to get up and about as soon as you can.  Somewhere in the late afternoon I gave it a go . I wanted to get the clouds out of my head but to be honest the catheter was the issue more than the eight inch incision in my gut!
Clutching the IV pole with one hand and the bag of my own urine in the other as I made my way over to sit in a chair was not a walk in the park.
SITTING in the chair with the catheter feeling more like a flagpole shoved in my urethra was MUCH worse!

That night around 4:30 AM I woke up and counted down the hours...that catheter was coming out around 6-6:30 AM I was told the night before and it could not come quick enough.
Nothing worse than the nurse adjusting your blankets and some how tugging on that line from the urine bag to where it was going in your body, I felt like my urethra was now located somewhere down around my knees.

The next day I felt much clearer but was running a fever. I kept at the breathing exercises they ask you to do even though they hurt like hell . I was also taken off the Morphine. While it did help with the pain it also made me very sick to my stomach . I think between the anesthesia and Morphine just made me feel horrible and as soon as I was relieved of it and that catheter things felt much better. The fever was troubling but thankfully broke on Thursday.
 I was doing my best to be up and walking and wanted bad to go home.

What a treat to leave the hospital and be greeted with 70 degree temperatures!
My overall first time hospital experience was a very good one. I hope it will be my last, or that it will be a very long time before I have another stay to compare this one to it.
 It was so good to get home.
 I missed the dogs. Paul said they missed me too. When he would take them out to walk they went hunting for me. When he brought them inside they searched the rooms for me.
It warmed my heart to find so many messages on e mail asking how I was feeling as well as several of my closest friends calling me in the hospital to check on me. Thanks everyone, it means much to me.
Paul did a great job of caring for the critters , though I had no doubt he would not do a fantastic job.

My few remaining hair sheep obliged us and did not have lambs while I was in the hospital.  I was happy for this, but more happy for Paul because I know he was worried about dealing with a lambing while I was not here.

We did have a ewe deliver a single a few days before I was to go in. When I was looking through my records I saw that she had had her own lamb on her birthday. Now, what a sweet present  for her. She is a great mom, something you worry about breeding sheep that are just coming on their own first year.

So, now on to healing.
I hope I'll have the dogs and myself tuned up and in good shape for our first trials this spring.

March madness

I hate March, always have. Weather is too changing. Windy , rainy, snow sleet . Cloudy more than not. Yet it can also be warm , sunny , calm. So far this year we are not seeing the "Lamb" of March, has been behaving much more "Lion" like.
I have noticed some of the birds are making their way back.

Nice to see them as well as hear them. Geese honking, song birds feeble in their early spring songs.
Soon the air will be filled with many birds courting mates . I love listening to them.

Had two more lambs born a few days ago, and as I had worried the "runt" of the triplets died. Tried the bottle with him but he just did not take on enough. I really need to learn how to stomach tube them.
I still have five Maiden ewes to go of my hair sheep. Thankfully none look eminent so hope they hold off a bit while I'm in the hospital next week and then needing several more weeks for healing.

Took the young dogs out a few days ago and worked them. Finally melted off enough to give it a go. It's been a good solid two or maybe a bit more months that we have done any training. It shows. My handling was lazy and the dogs were not really listening . As soon as I am feeling well enough I'll get back at it, more at hand stuff to keep them honest. I guess for dogs who are just about 22 months of age they did not look THAT bad, but they have looked better! Both blew me off for the most part, no stop, no flank. I nagged for obedience but never did much to get it!
Well this was the reasoning behind the camcorder purchase.
So I could take a critical eye of the dogs and myself. I don't like much of what I am seeing in the video's but if I only shared them while all looked fantastic am I really being honest with you about the dogs?
 I am having some issues struggling with the upload process and can't seem to figure out how to get them up , maintain the full length or the quality. They look grainy and choppy  to me or are cut short of their full time. I am hoping I can figure out at some point how to clean them up. As well as offer some better work of both myself and dogs!

Rush