A prayer for lost airmen....

My heart goes out to the immediate families, friends, military families, and community surrounding the tragic loss of 4 Arctic Warriors airmen at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska when their C-17 crashed into a fireball while training Wednesday evening. May God give you the greatest wings ever earned so that you may forever fly high without the limitations known to man.

7 is the magic number

Today's vet visit was to x-ray Anna to see how many puppies will arrive - there were 7 little ACD's in there! So now the mud room/dog room is being torn apart from wall to wall, disinfected, new whelping box being made, and all the important things being washed and gotten ready. How exciting!! Anna is the mother to be, Jake is the sire, both AKC Champions with OFA good hips, clear eyes, and bilateral hearing. Anna had her elbows done too and she's OFA Normal, Jake was never done way back then and will be 11 years old shortly. You can visit our puppy webpage for more info and links to the sire and dam by going to silveraurora.com . I'm excited!!

More new ewe lambs for sale!

I just posted a bunch of new photos on the sheep's "for sale" blog - the link is on the right! Go take a look at the beautiful girls! More to come.......

Pictures! Sheep!

Princess's Ewe Lamb

Blanche and her gorgeous ewe lamb that's sold!

Cheesecake and her modified ewe lamb.

Cheesecake's stunning ram lamb.

Hope you enjoyed the quick pics - it wasn't raining for a change!

Wet sheep!

Yesterday evening was a bit wild. Around 5 or 6 it started raining. By 8 it was pouring and by 10pm it was still pounding down on the metal roof of our house. I wouldn't doubt if we didn't have a notable rainfall amount in a short period of time for the record books, water was streaming everywhere, rivers of it. The sheep of course wanted to eat more hay so would dash out of their shed for a bit, get soaked, and dash back in. You know how it is, sheep can't seem to stay away from the hay now can they?! HAHA! Normally fluffy sheep look so funny when they are sopping wet tho, sort of like a woman who's getting a perm and just had the rollers taken out - LOL!

Hay for most farmers is now rotting in the fields. Allot of money will be spent to bale rotten hay and dispose of it on the field edges, it has to be gotten off the fields so the new grass underneath can grow and you don't end up baling old junk in with the new later on. We were very lucky, we managed to bale 2 out of 3 fields, the 3rd has gone to waste. Very few farmers have gotten any hay put up at all, so there's no hay to be bought right now to speak of. Up north isn't any better. A few got in some during a few windows. Maybe there will be some 2nd cutting hay in squares or dry rounds, but most 2nd cutting hay here goes into sealed moist round bales because it's never warm enough in September to do dry squares. It has rained 1 out of 3 days since the middle of June......what a strange year for weather.

It's another girl!

Today my Saanen Leesa gave birth to a beautiful little doe kid! Good girl Leesa! The goats are done kidding for a while........now to enjoy all that beautiful milk!

Rainy weather brings........

Rainy weather always brings with it complaints. But, fond memories of April in Alaska will make you grateful for what you have - here is what mid-April looked like this spring.......

...........I think the rain is just fine afterall!!!

Hay in the barn

It's nice to have more hay in the barn again! With the help of friends, we put up 520 square bales of hay and also got them into the barn loft safe from the rains that started on Sunday. We also put up 29 wrapped round bales of very lush green hay back in late June, and are waiting for the next break in the weather to bale another 50 or so rounds. Along with the hay left over from last year, everyone should be well-fed this winter here. PHEW!

Herding Trifecta

The ASCA herding trials were hosted here this weekend on our farm. I am quite pleased to report that Stockmaster's Red Roisin from Ireland has completed her ASCA STDs title with a 3rd and a 1st placement for her 2 runs! Roisin is sired by my boy Rocky, aka Ch Silveraurora's PW Tom Thumb, who lives and works cattle in Ireland with his owner Daryl. This completes her 'trifecta' in 2 weeks - her AHBA HTADs-I title, her AKC PT title, and now her ASCA STDs title. It's been a very busy 2 weeks and I've not been on the computer much at all. So perhaps this week I can finally catch up with emails, while Roisin gets extra special treats like fresh raw bones as my thank you to her for being such a good girl on stock!

Excited for puppies

We're expecting our litter of puppies in August! I have a litter only once a year, or once every year and a half, or even two years. So not many puppies to be had here. But this litter is terribly exciting, one that has produced some outstanding working Australian Cattle Dogs. I had the privilege of placing a number of them locally and later working with them in the herding arena, and they are enthusiastic, fast, confident workers that heel extremely low and have no fear of going to the head either. The mature pups, now 3 years old, are wonderful with people, not a usual cattledog trait, and have been very good with children. It's a very unique combination of Anna and Jake that has worked so well. My pic boy in the first litter ended up being a Uni - cattledogs are up there with Dalmatians for congenital deafness in one or both ears - so we have them tested by a professional BAER hearing tester around 7 weeks of age when their hearing is fully developed. The boy that I thought had the most talent ended up hearing in only one ear so was placed in a great home where he is now the center of attention and sleeps in their bed with them - where he belongs. He is very special. Anna had 10 puppies in her first litter over 3 years ago; I am hoping for 5 in this litter but the vet thinks possibly 7. I'll be taking Anna in the end of the month for an x-ray and we'll know then for sure how many to anticipate. I really hope there are a few people out there wanting a serious working pup as several that are in working/trialing homes have gone High in Trial or Reserve High in Trial. But they've also been great dogs with their families, as much as any cattledog can be. I'm really proud of them and really excited for this litter to arrive!

Today was work day here and with my helper Karen, not only did the stalls get their weekly stripped-bare cleaning and fresh bedding put in but we also trimmed hooves on more than 20 head of goats - including all the bucks. Pee ewww!!! We took our time and 3 hours later, beautiful feet everywhere. Moved some goats around too. Next, waiting for the tractor bucket to get fixed and strip the outdoors runs back down to nice gravel again!

Heard there's a heatwave in the lower-48 - it's been showers or light rain every other day or every 3rd day since the middle of June here; a few days into the high 60's and maybe a 70-ish, but plenty of weather in the 50's. Ok, tired of showers now!!

Busy week!

It's time to tag lambs with their big tags.......ugh.......such a fun job but it needs to be done, -so does that mean we'll be playing "Tag! You're it!" around here??
HA!

New Saanen kid arrival

Today brought sunshine in the morning and with it, Entrepid decided it was time to kid! She gave me one huge buck kid.........she was quite large, and since she's the tallest of the girls I expected her to have twins in there but instead she grew one very big boy and presented him easily. Photos later............both are doing well.

Beautiful lambs for sale

The lambs are beautiful this year! I have some very flashy ewe lambs available and they are ready now to go to their new homes. I also have lots of colorful Muscovy ducklings ready to go - blues, light browns (fawn), black pieds, white, and everything in between. They are growing super well and I even have a small group of young Juveniles feathering out. Sold straight run only. Come visit the farm if you're looking to add lambs or ducks to yours!

28 round bales of hay

Considering our constant weather pattern of showers at least every other day since early June without a break, we managed to squeek in baling 28 rounds tonight off the north field. If we'd of had one more full day of sun and wind, we could have had it all in squares but baled hay is baled hay and better than no hay, any day. The harvesting for winter feed has begun. Phew.

New herding titles

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday were the herding trials here. Friday was 2 AHBA HTAD sheep trials, with Roisin gaining her first official herding titles. Saturday and Sunday's AKC trials were just as productive, gaining her AKC PT title on sheep. Saturday was also a good day for one of my puppies, Tucker, owned by Doug - finishing his AKC HSAs title! Arra, a younger puppy from another litter qualified today with her dad and did a great job of getting it together. So the Silveraurora dog crew had a wonderful 3 days and I am beyond pooped doing the trials and all the other chores. To add the icing on the cake, one of our beautiful Saanens, Dearly, had a big single doe kid today with Rick watching over her while I was at the trials. PHEW! Oh, and of course the sheep all did good too....