Planting season and Summer is Here!

We've been lucky the past week or so, finally temp has hit 70 degrees and we've been enjoying copious amounts of sunshine. Those who haven't been outdoors much are now sporting sunburns around town. Me, I'm just dark tan already. Rick's planted a bunch of potatoes with a bunch more to go. Red Thumb fingerlings, French Fingerlings, LaRattes, Purples..........lots of specialty potatoes this year. I have some heritage beans I need to get into the ground too. Since it's so hot and dry - ok, the sun is up from 4:30 till 11ish now and it stays high above so it's intense - watering everything is taking allot of extra time. The livestock are drinking twice the amount of water right now. With lambs we're up to about 75 head of sheep, 45 head of goats and goat kids, a few Black Angus, and lots of poultry. That in and of itself is allot of watering. Add to that all the flowers, a bit of lawn, 2 small greenhouses (small for a farm anyways) and a big garden, allot of hoses and faucets all over the place getting turned on and off, moved around here and there, all day long, buckets and troughs to get filled daily. This really has been beautiful weather tho! The problem is you can only be out in it for so long before you get fried!

We had a guest herding instructor up for 4 days from Saturday through Tuesday so I tried to be down at the herding arena as much as possible to watch and learn. You can always learn something. Everyone had a great time and the sheep did really well. They are in good shape for the summer trial season. Right now I'm teaching lessons Tuesdays Wednesdays Fridays and Saturdays - it's great to see all the dogs and their owners coming out to enjoy it!

The dogs are all doing good too. Another dog show coming up soon, this one held by the Alaska Herding Group club, an AKC Conformation/obedience/herding approved Group 7 club. Since I'm Vice President I will be busy for that weekend at the shows, and entered some of my dogs too. Some of my grand older dogs are doing quite well. Martha and Ella are both 8 years old now and still as beautiful as they ever were, and still in working weight - nice and fit. Chuckles is as happy and affectionate as ever, soon to be 8 years old. Sarah will be 9 shortly, Xena 10 soon, Jake, my love, is 10 going on 11, Aggie is 11 going on 12, Spice will be 13 soon and Jessie 14 soon. So all of the older folks here are doing well all things considered. They are all still so much a part of my life with many good memories of Conformation championships, herding titles, and moments of joy and appreciation. The younger ones are up and coming and I can only hope they can fill the shoes of those who have made my life the joy it's been for years now. I could never live without a cattledog at my side!