Well, isn't that just peachy!

Just a little dribble on the news tonight, something we here locally have all suspected right along.....

it's official.....

This has been the coldest summer on record.

We knew that. The garden knows that. Even the animals know it. My goodness have they been consuming the groceries around here!

So now that July is over with, the skies have parted and the sun is shining and temps are hitting in the upper 60's and low 70's for a few days anyways....

it's about time!

Sheltering Pines Windsprite

We have a new Shaela lady arriving in the next few weeks if health testing goes well. Sheltering Pines Windsprite, originally from Stephen's flock, and who lived with Peeps for a while, producing beautiful lambs, went on to Garrett's farm. She's a traveling girl, isn't she?? LOL! Well, Windsprite also happens to be the mother to 2 of my favorite sheep here - Topple, the magnificent ram, and Flutter, dam to my #1 ewe lamb this year, Princess (yep, had to name one Princess - everyone needs a princess!!). When Windsprite went looking for a new home, I just couldn't resist. Her pedigree is

http://www.mtn-niche.net/NASSA/nassa_pedigree.php?pregno=S13231

I'm looking forward to having her up here, provided she passes her blood test for Blue Tongue titers. Alaska requires that BT testing be done on all sheep and goats over the age of 6 months coming into the state, and that they test negative. So we are sitting and waiting for the test results to see if she will indeed be able to fly! Here's crossing fingers...

Breeding sheep

I have bred Shetlands for more than 11 years now. And a few other species of livestock, as well as my beloved and dear-to-me dogs. You learn things along the way, there is no doubt about that. A good thread recently is one that refers to keeping some of your 'produce' vs not keeping any, or somewhere in between. It's been a good and thoughtful discussion amongst Shetland breeders with many varied thoughts. Here's mine......

Murphy's Law prevails when you run a farm and try to derive some, not much, income from raising livestock for others as well as yourself. Hobby breeding of livestock is something else entirely. What I consider 'hobby' is when, if all your sheep died one week from some horrible poisoning, you would just take part of your off-farm paycheck and go out and buy some more. A serious breeder of livestock can't afford to do that unless of course you are very well insured as a commercial producer. Proving tho the actual value of the stock, above and beyond market meat prices, is impossible. You can't replace years of hard work in a breeding program...there is no replication of 5 year old ewes that produce triplets of show quality year after year after year and that represent 5, 10, or 15 years or more of a careful breeding program for certain traits. Nope, that ewe can never be replaced.

A few years back I had a couple of dogs come through during a few hours trip to town. They slaughtered all of our rabbits used for meat production, but worse, they killed all but one of my ducks. Ok, so we caught the dogs, animal control came out, and we settled with the owner of the dogs for the value of the livestock - but that was actual meat value, not what they represented ...........those were my HERDING ducks. From which I earn a little income. For which there were NO replacements available.....afterall, ducks used to dogs working them are not found at the local feed store or hatchery. Especially not a meat breed of ducks. No, I lost money, and training time and ability.

Now let's look at your sheep.........or mine so it makes it easier. I have 2 very special rams - the cornerstone to my breeding program. If something got into the ram paddock and killed them, where would I be come breeding season? Oh, you say go out and buy two more. Where? Where can *I* go to get them? Fly them up? Nope, I'm sorry, the airlines won't ship animals with nice big horns unless they are in a specially fabricated wooden crate with all the whistles and bells, and you can bet your bottom dollar it would cost $400-$500 or more to ship up one. Do you have $400 plus the cost of a ram in it's prime in your back pocket you'd like to just give me? I don't think you do, but if so I'll give you my mailing address! HA!

So, I've kept a son of the ram that I needed to sell...I didn't really need him but actually I do for his genetics. I would have kept Captain Hook's ram lamb too had he survived. Did I need to keep them -no, but DO I need to keep them - YES! They are the survival of my breeding program. Same for my ewes....I will not sell all of my ewe lambs. I must keep some - again, if anything happens to one of their mothers, I have my genetics still intact in my own yard.

Of course, if you have little space, then you may want to sell all of your lambs. But what if your favorite ewe dies? Do you have a lovely daughter to hug or gaze upon to remember her fondly by?? I have a few ewes in my unregistered flock that are 9 generations removed from the original ewe from which they descend. Yes, I remember my first 4 ewes fondly. I also know that I eliminated one of the lines of descendants after it was pretty clear that they were subject to bloat - the only sheep I have ever had bloat here. Any major stress and I'd be running with the bloat med to save them. It can be inherited, and when you use sheep for herding you need hardy sheep. In all fairness, it was a line descended from a ewe that was half Shetland and half Alaskan Mutt of unknown variety. Whatever was in there was not hardy, and one of the best things about Shetlands is that they are indeed very hardy. So they were sold off slowly but surely.

I know which of my registered foundation ewes I like better than others. I know that my criteria is pretty straightforward and defined. Do you know what your criteria is? What you will, and better yet, will not accept in your breeding stock? I hope that you do. Do you like the lambs from a particular ewe? If you don't but others do, then maybe that ewe is best in someone else's flock. You must be happy with the individuals you have, if not, why are you wasting your time? I had a great working wether here, but he liked to jump fences. I hate fence jumping. I put up with him for a while, but enough was enough. Do you have a mean ewe that bullies others in your flock but has beautiful lambs? Why are you keeping her? Why not keep one of her lambs and say good riddance! She may do much better elsewhere, she may behave better elsewhere and they will be happy to have her for her beautiful lambs.

I keep some lambs for their genetics, for their beautiful, and for their personalities. Afterall, I must care for them several times a day and it's just easier to care for the individuals you like and enjoy. And isn't it nice to have a son or daughter from your favorite ewe too? Hopefully your favorites are also some of your best. It makes for a good foundation for your breeding program!

The mob and the birch branch

Bend it down and they will come...........

On to more cheerful things now........

Group grazing....mom, we have NOTHING left to eat..really mom!

Before the rains came Rick set up a run of electronetting, a car battery, and a 12 volt charger. Everyone in the sheep community was happy about that! So is Rick, who has an overgrown area now cleaned up. We'll move it again soon once they've chewed a little bit more of the saplings we don't need growing there....

Need I say more?

A picture is worth a thousand words........click on it for a closeup....

new snow on the mountains

Oh brother......once the deluge stopped this evening, the clouds rose enough to see the mountains again. Fresh snow on the tops! AUGH!!! Too early......

sigh.............

Lousy weather

I'm seeing red.......lousy weather! Just look at today's graph for Anchorage (an hour and a half away)......

the dark gray is the annual averages....

the light gray above and below is just that - the record highs and lows.

See the red lines? We're not even getting warm enough to get to the AVERAGE temps.

My garden is chilled and limping along.

My greenhouses are ho-hum, but at least the tomatoes are turning red in there, the cucumbers are tasty, and the yellow squash is doing well. Even the sweet corn in the big greenhouse in pots is tasseling. But if it's OUTSIDE the greenhouse, it's.......ho-hum.

I know what my goats are thinking....to them the cool weather signals breeding season. So that's what some of them are doing. I've never had successful breedings in July before, so IF we see kids in December, I won't be surprised at all. Don't worry, we have nice warm kidding stalls for birthing in the barn.

Now, the sheep......we'll see what September looks like. If it's still cold and gray out, bet we'll have February lambs again - eeek! That means by August I better have a line on some oat straw for deep bedding. But if it gets warm for some reason, then we'll have late lambs. Either way, good clean straw will be needed for comfort.

Because it's been so cool in the mornings, my thoughts have gone to heated water buckets and new electric cords for the winter. So I've begun looking at the different store's electric sections to see what they have to offer and at what prices. I also think I'll pick up a few cans of that spray foam insulation while I'm at it...you can get a bigger bucket, fill it with foam then quickly insert a smaller bucket and let set to cure. Then you have an insulated bucket that won't freeze so fast. If you use a 5 gallon bucket for the base bucket, you can get really creative and cut a hole in the top of a bucket lid, then spray foam the underside of it. That helps a little bit too. Today at the store I even bought a covered outdoor timer to put in place for the stock tank heater. That way it can come on and go off for an hour at a time instead of being on 24/7 when the cold cold cold hits. They're so easy to use, you can always adjust it as the temps drop or come back up. I will NOT let my electric bill get any higher than it is...and everyone knows the electric companies are next in line to raise their rates too!

No, my sheep will still have their simple luxuries this winter to stay nice and cozy and warm.....it's just going to take a little better preparation to keep the Shepherd's wallet from running dry!

At least I get to look forward to a few new sheep arriving in the next few weeks! There's a neat Sheltering Pines girl coming my way and then that rainbow boy below will also be flying in. They ought to help keep me busy this winter!

Rainbows

Look at that cute little Gulmoget....

I like rainbows. Rainbows of colors. Looking at a flock of Shetland sheep, I enjoy the rainbow of colors out there. I like spots and flecks and caps and socks and tails that flash a different color. Light colored bodies and dark faces and legs, or dark colored bodies and light colored faces and legs...

doesn't matter, give me a painter's pallet of colors and markings and spots and splashes....

my arm has been twisted.....we hope to be flying up an Ag Gulmoget.

Gray body, brown legs, belly, and up the chest under the chin.. colors fade on a gray or grey, but that's ok, he'll throw a few Gulmoget marked lambs someday. Bred to a Gul ewe someday will help solidify the pattern. Whenever we find one to bring up.

A rainbow of colors......who'd want just plain white sheep anyways? Especially in snow country - blech!

Oh, but Blanche, my white girl, is special so she doesn't count in the blech category, I just don't want a whole flock of white sheep. Hehehe.....

Oh, did I say the lamb is scurred? Carrying the poll gene. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll have polled boys so that us herding folks don't have to have horns jabbing our legs out there when we're training! Scurred or hornless rams have a place here.....but back to the Rainbow thoughts, I'm a sucker for huge curling massive horns on my boys like Topple has. Just that I also accept there's room for one of every kind....

Some of the Dogs I've had the joy of training and trialing!

I am truly blessed.....I have had the pleasure and joy of training and handling the dogs below for qualifying scores and titles....this is just some of the photos I've come across in my files, and I'm sure there's others I have yet to find. Most of these are from the last 3 years...remember, this is only some of them and none are in any particular order. I'm not that good at uploading photos so it's a hit or miss process for me....enjoy!!

Aggie, my beloved shadow - ASCA High In Trial , one of at last count 13 HIT's she's earned. An amazing girl and the foundation to my kennel.

Another of my favorite and well-loved dogs, Jake, finishing his PT title...my first home bred conformation champion too.

Kissy, a GSD, finishing her AKC HSAs....
Caya, a Rottie, with my dear friend and her owner, Linda, getting her AKC PT title...

Dusty, Anna at Emberglo's Belgian Tervuren boy, finishing his AKC title.....
Shadow, owned by Julie, taking Reserve High in Trial and her HSAs title.....
Tango, owned by Sharon, and her AKC High in Trial winnings...this dog was amazing and fun!! Yeah, ok Sharon, she was brilliant and also full of herself too....a great dog.

Bear, finishing his PT title, even tho sheep are ho-hum compared to cattle.....
Another Dusty photo, he is an awesome dog to work with a real stockdog brain that I love...and here he's taking High in Trial in AKC HSAs work....
One of my favorite dogs to work, my Betty who has incredible natural talent, taking Reserve High in Trial for her HSAs....

I'll find more pics....

Another herding photo

Another photo - here Anna and I are doing a parallel drive going into the Z chute...the Y chute from the photo on the posting below is just out of the picture to the left. The sheep have a harder time going into the Z chute as they see a panel directly in front of them and may think it's a closed pen rather than a place to walk through, so may decline entering. The dog must push them into and through this obstacle too.

Herding with dogs

Herding is an interesting leaning curve. Using a dog to take 3 head of Shetland sheep through various obstacles at different designated angles is always different each and every time. Here is a photo from our 4th of July AKC trials. This is Anna putting 3 head easily into the opening of the Y chute. She is allowed to follow/push them through the obstacle but me the handler is not allowed to go into the obstacle to lead the sheep through. This is a very nice clean entrance with no points lost.

Flowers

Lovely flowers.......I grow a number of flowers in pots on my deck each summer...

the rose is Strike It Rich, from Jackson and Perkins, and is a Grandiflora...be sure to click on the photo for a close up!

This of course is Calendula.....click on it for a close up!

Awt and whites....

I took a bunch of photos today...and it's raining out now and I have my chores done so I can sit and blog a bit...

Awt is interesting....genetically it can enhance other colors. Now, Blanche is out of an Awt ewe by a Musket ram. As Blanche gets older, she's expressing more of her "Musket" side....

the first photo below is a group of lambs and one ewe. At the bottom right is Princess...flecket, yuglet...but look how white and bright her fleece is compared to Blanche's creamy colored fleece... click on the photo and you'll see it in a larger version....

Now look at Blanche in these photos below - click on them to enlarge.....

Color genetics are very interesting. Look at Blanche's legs and nose...as she gets older, I'm seeing more 'color' showing up. Perhaps she carries a modifier...perhaps she's a brighter, whiter Musket....we'll know more this winter, stay tuned....hehehehehe.............

Next, Barbados's son out of Domonique

Domonique's ram lamb...sired by Barbados. Only 2 months old, we're seeing plenty of good things here so far....good wool on the poll, good direction of horn growth, and a gorgeous tail and wide leg stance. He has a white Krunet, and carries spots. Also, his fleece is a nice rich Moorit with even crimp distribution. Not bad for a young boy.....

The Rams - first, Topple

Pretty incredible yearling ram, Topple shows off his best qualities in the photos below!

What vacation?

Peeps has been talking working vacations again...and feeling the need for beach time.

Silly me, the only time I like the beach is when there's something worth watching in the water. Like whales. Maui in February, as the mother whales teach their babies to spy-hop. Popping up out of the water with their heads for a good look-see. Or, myself with a snorkle mask on looking down at the fish swimming around you...preferably in shallow water.

I liked walking the Michigan shoreline and looking for Petosky stones. That was always fun. But I was always lured inland to look at old farms and old houses and lovely fruit trees and perrenials that grew around the old farms.

I'm afraid I'm not much of a water lover, unless it's in a small boat and with a good fishing pole and good bait. I can sit out there all day fishing.

For whatever reason I prefer forests and alpine country and rivers and big creeks for fishing. I love to fly fish for Grayling. I think that is one of my most favorite pastimes that I miss doing. There is nothing like a big Grayling hitting your fly either dry and floating down a river or sinking deep into a hole, just right. And the taste of fresh Grayling skinned, rolled in flour, and fried in butter. Absolutely divine!

Salmon fishing is fun. I have a 58# female 1st run King I had professionally mounted years ago on my livingroom wall. 48 inches long. That was a great day...caught on 20 pound test too. And I've fished and caught many red salmon through the years, a great fighting fish when fresh to the rivers.

Camping out with a good mattress and sleeping bag and plenty of dry firewood in the middle of nowhere is a good thing. Even if it's in the back of the truck in nasty weather. Because I usually camped out next to a creek or river with good fishing to be had if the stars were all lined up right.

I think I need a vacation too! LOL!!

Flowers, you say? And Hay hay hay..

The South field was harvested several weeks after the North field and the hay came off bright green and in beautiful shape - no shattered leaves. Here the John Deere 4010 is getting ready to pull the load up a very steep hill...our friend Cliff at the wheel with Rick making sure the load will stay put... the Case IH 4 wheel drive tractor is at the base of the hill to the left...the one I use around here, especially with the bucket on! I'm not so hot using the forks tho...

Someone loves his B Farmall. Same one he used to drive when he was a little kid - well, almost. As close as he could find in Iowa at the time anyways, and it had to make the long long trip to Alaska to soothe his soul....hehehe. Still works quite well, obviously. The north field of hay got rained on, but was cut early so it will probably test out around 14% protein still. Who knows, at this point who cares! It's dry and waaaaaaaaaay up in the barn loft now too.....

Trolius at the base of a flowering pink crabapple tree....Trolius form a beautiful mound, and my mounds have grown in diameter over the years from tiny little starts. They are cheerful little bloomers...I have both the early and late blooming types here.

One of my favorites to grow, Stock. Night scented stock is perfect for up here in the north country. I put 8 or 10 plants into a big bowl or planter and set them by the deck doors...we open the doors in the evening for fresh air and as the temps go down in to the 50's, their scent comes on super strong and fills the house with a perfume that reminds me of Hawaii or Tahiti......or Moorea or Huahine....heavenly!

Shelties and Shetland Sheep

So here she is, Miss Lola, a lovely Shetland Sheep Dog, the judge Marie on the right and myself on the left, taking the High in Trial award for highest score in the AKC trial held July 6th!! How special that a Shetland Sheepdog trialed on Shetland Sheep won it too! What a wonderful accomplishment, and a joy to train and handle such a sweet and talented girl too!

The sheep worked today

Today was the first of 4 days of herding trials held here on our farm, both AKC and ASCA trials - 2 of each. Judge Dana MacKenzie was an enjoyable as ever, always a wonderful judge to trial under. 2 out of 3 runs that I handled today were good runs, but I terribly botched the 3rd and thanked the judge and left. I simply had the worst brain fart and couldn't recover the run, so to be fair to my hard working Sheltie that I was handling, left on a good note. The GSD I handled took 3rd in her class and I finished her title, that was good. And my Anna, an Australian Cattle Dog, is getting better and better as she gets more time on stock and as she gets older. She's allot like her grandma Aggie, but since Aggie I've learned a bit more so Anna gets to take her time to learn things her way rather than just my way. :-) The sheep worked their butts off but some were quite recalcitrant today, and several gave the dogs a very hard time complete with foot stomps and head butting. Yep, that's a Shetland for you! Here's Anna, myself, and the judge after a very long, sweaty, and dusty day! Thank you, Sheepies!!

Working Hard

I'll be working hard for a while so won't be around to blog much. The weather has been very cool and damp with showers every couple of days. We have finally gotten the stretch of 4 days with no rains, hopefully, to cut and bale our first cutting. So we are hoping for good winds and a dry evening with no late evening thunderstorms off the mountains so that we can bale hay. We have about 250-300 bales laying on the ground at the moment this morning, waiting to be tedded this afternoon and windrowed late in the day for baling. We need 1,000 square bales in the barn for the year here, but it's a start anyways.

And the girls are working now for their living too.... this Friday, the 4th of July, starts 4 days of ASCA and AKC herding trials held here at our place followed by 2 days of herding clinics. So I'm getting the farm ready, the house set, and all the animals squared away because I'm going to be one very very busy person for the next 2 weeks! The sheep are sorted into groups of three that work well together, and are marked - color coded - so that the stock handlers know which 3 go out each time for a herding trial 'run'. The sheep are kept in 14 pens down at the arena in their respective groups of 3, fed and watered together, then at the end of the day all let loose into the big arena to graze and relax. It's a big management job to ensure they are happy and comfortable and handled easily. The grounds are about ready and all the facilities are almost ready for the 50 to 60 people that will be here each day. Yes, let's just do all this AND haying at the same time - EEEEEEEEK! But we'll get 'er done, we always do...and the girls earn some money to pay for their upkeep too! So if you don't 'see' me for a while, you'll know where I'm at, and it won't be inside the house! HA!