Two sets of twins last night

Well, by late last night we ended up with two more sets of twins from the registered Shetlands - too bad they are both set of twin boys! LOLOL! Blanche had 2 solid white guys and Cheesy had a Gulmoget and a black w/krunet. All 4 are doing great except that Blanche wants to steal all 4 as hers, and Cheesecake is not happy with that idea - ha!

Minwawe Sleeping Beauty Lambs

Sleeping Beauty had twin lambs waiting for me very early this morning! It was a little dark out but I still got a nice photo. Black ram lamb on the left with a Krunet, I suspect he'll turn a nice gray. Gulmoget ewe lamb on the right! Peyton is the dad, a gray Gulmoget with fine fleece.

Easter's most excellent delivery....

Oh what a wonderful Easter present today! Slipper's daughter delivered twin ewe lambs late this afternoon - very colorful HST's no doubt! Aren't they beautiful???? Minwawe Captain Hook is the dad...he always produces some really nice fleeces too.

Excuse the girls please!

Please excuse the girls......last year one thing led to another and the girls were not fully sheared; you'll see pics in the next few weeks of them with their ever-so-thick wool still on them. Soon tho they will be 'nekked' again - the shearer is scheduled for mid-April when he returns from his honeymoon!

Lambing season has begun....

Lambing season has begun! Flutter presented us with 2 beautiful ewe lambs late this afternoon. Black with a big white krunet and nose spot, the other what could be a Blaget - black and white ground in together. Or she could be a very interesting gray. Too early for me to tell when she's still sopping wet . Flutter has always been an incredible mom; the closer I got to the lambs the more she had to have her face in there too. Good momma! Dad is Peyton the Gulmoget.

Quite the year....

2011 was quite the year. Suffice it to say it was one of those years you'd prefer to forget but you know you never will. My best friend and long-time companion cattledog passed away in June from a sudden illness that nearly took my heart with her. She had had surgery in April - only 2 months later she was gone. I lost interest in many things and just plugged along doing what needs to be done daily on a big farm. At the same time, as I carried her outside daily to sit with her in the grass when she could no longer walk, I got a spider bite and came close to being sent to the hospital and was told I could loose my leg. After 2 weeks of daily doctor visits and 3 time a day wound cleaning and dressing that literally made me scream each time, it closed up and life could finally proceed. The whole nine yards was life-changing. I didn't bother registering lambs, instead I sold a few to spinners to enjoy and for folks who wanted pets. They went to good homes and that counted for allot. Lots of others things happened last year and we'll just say I'm glad it's done and we've moved on to 2012!

This year most of the Minwawe girls are bred to Peyton, my lovely Gulmoget from Garrett. A couple of very nice lambs from a few years ago are bred to Minwawe Captain. I'm sure we'll have some nice lambs available to those who would like registered Shetlands - some will be Gulmogets, some spotted, all quite colorful with some having exceptional fleeces. Feel free to email me if you're looking for some lovely lambs this year in Alaska! Lambing will start the end of March/beginning of April.

We're waiting for lambs

When Peeps writes, my heart sings. There is a connection there that shepherds, or shepherdesses, have.....sharing the excitement of birthing and what colors are we going to get this time. Boy or girl, 1 or two, doesn't matter, it's spring and it's lambing time for primitive breeds like the Shetland.  Mine are doing very well. They are fat and sassy. With the terrible loss of Topple this winter, he only got a short breeding time with the girls. For those who didn't know, his necropsy showed a blocked, enlarged, and very red bladder. He was too young, and too beautiful and kind, to loose, but he is gone and his lambs will be his last glory. I will keep 2 ram lambs, if the girls have any for me this year of course since they rarely have ram lambs for me, and grow them up. Maybe I'll keep three, just to be sure Murphy's Law is kept happy too. And maybe Peeps will finally have a brown spotted ram lamb for me, who knows. I have been waiting for one for two years now, from someone, and I hope I see one this year. I would like some pretty brown wool here again. And spotted of course. I know a nice spinner now, I think she would spin my wool for me and make me a few things from my girl's wool. So that will be fun. I don't have the time to spin and make glorious yarns, I did use to crochet at one point in my life and I'm sure I could learn again. The only time I work with my wool is when I grab a hank and twist it into a thin 'yarn' while I am teaching herding lessons. It has an irresistible feeling to it, I love it. I hope we start lambing soon, they are certainly late this year.

Welcome to 2011!

I'm still here! And the only reason I've stopped in to post once again is because I've found my lost sheep - Peeps said hello today!! YAY!! Waiting for lambs to arrive here but that should happen any day now. It will be nice to post lamb photos once again........spring is in the air even tho there's still plenty of snow on the ground!

30 days and counting...

And we're still going...30 days of rain showers non-stop. I used the tractor and put fresh sand in the sheep paddock, they are very appreciative of the drainage too! No more standing on any wet manure or dirt. I hope this ends soon tho........

We broke the record!

Oh just lovely! We broke an all-time record here -
27 days in a row that there has been measurable precipitation.

Yeah, it's rained 27 days in a row.

Lovely.

Highs in the upper 50's low 60's, low's in the lower50's and upper 40's.

Gee, isn't that exciting................ not..................HA!

Puppy pics of Anna's litter!

Puppy pics I took today! They were born starting Friday night, August 6th, 2010.

Below, the 2 girls - plain face top, eye spots below.

3 boys below - 2 are red with half masks! The blue is plain faced.

And here is the whole crew, all 5 taking a snooze!

Ahhh, another day another thought...

It's good to have some time to think. Sometimes when you run a farm, and things go upside down, you don't have time to think - you just 'do'.

I get time to think when I milk my goats. It's a very special time, one that is all my own to spend with the girls and enjoy them. Why would anyone scream and yell and yank on dairy goats (except for when one kicks the bucket over, then of course there's a few minutes of choice words to be shared)? What good does it do? Why bother to own them and milk them if that's the norm in your barn?

Life is short, we have to enjoy the moments when we get them. My moments come during barn time. To that end, I decided that more than 10 years of a crappy radio with a tinnie sound was going to finally be retired. I bought a nice radio. With a big Sub Woofer. And big side speakers. An iPod dock. A CD player. And no one to tell me TURN IT DOWN!

I put it together and set it up where I could use the REMOTE (oh yes! It has a REMOTE! WOW!) from where I sit milking. I turned that puppy up full blast. The goats ran to their corners, and I walked around and told them it was OK. Then I started dancing in the barn aisle. They ran to their corners, sure their mom had gone daft. I called to them and told them they were fine. Flower looked at me with her head cocked sideways...she must have seen Carol dance in the milk room when she used to live with her! Eventually the girls all did their own little dances in the stalls, finally relieved that all was well, mom was just happy, and they too could enjoy themselves.

My thought today is that although things get a little wild and weird now and then, and sometimes downright depressing, we have to take the good moments when we can and truly appreciate them. I hope you had a good moment today too.

The puppies...

The puppies are doing very well as is momma Anna. We still have the little one that is hanging on, but she is so very small compared to the others and she was the one stuck in the birth canal a long time, so I am guarded as to her potential survival. This line is my best herding/working line, also incredible in structure and movement. That said, the girls always take their time having their puppies. Anna is my 3rd generation since 1997, so I know the line well! Never a problem with contractions, just how LONG they take to have their puppies. Anna has had one litter before -in November of 2006, a long time ago in dog years! In her first litter she had 10 puppies.....over a 24 hour period! UGH! Her mother's sister once had a litter of 3 puppies.....then TWO days later delivered the last 2 in the litter!

This time Anna took her time and drove me nuts. The first 2 puppies delivered within 1 hour of each other, but BOTH were feet-first breech births. Those are VERY hard presentations for the mom! Both were boys, born at 9 and 10 pm Friday night. Then nothing........she slept, cared for her 2 boys, slept more. I stayed up with her all night of course and got no sleep. At 4am she delivered a puppy with a disconnected umbilical, so probably got caught up with other puppies in there. Sadly, the little girl was DOA. I was so dismayed, and began to get worried. But, at 6am, contractions began again and a healthy screaming boy was born without incident!

Since Rick was home and is GREAT with birthing animals, and Anna was once again resting, I decided to take the girls to the last big dog show of the year only 30 minutes away as planned. I kept my cell phone on me, rushed to the show grounds, ran into the show ring, ran back out and drove home. I was gone for maybe an hour and a half! I kept in touch with Rick and Anna was still just resting and feeding her babies. So I unloaded the girls, changed clothes, and sat with Anna. By 1pm I was not only tired but telling Anna I was getting tired of waiting and starting to worry if the other 3 in there were alive. I now always take a pregnant mom in for an x-ray before birthing due date - it will help you make informed decisions! And worth every penny as these puppies are precious lives! I called the vet, told the details, and said I wanted to come in and check the heartbeats on the remaining 3. The ultrasound showed 3 heartbeats - 2 very strong and 1 a little weak as it was sitting in the birthing canal........not a good place to be waiting. We decided on going for the c-section, and I'm glad we did. 3 girls were waiting in there. The one in the birth canal was the very tiny girl - all the others weighed 350 - 400 grams but this girl was a tiny 250 grams. No wonder Anna was 'stalled' - it was so tiny it didn't stimulate the birth canal hardly at all!

She's a tiny girl and it took a very long time to revive her. Because of this, she may also not be a 100% baby either. Not all babies are perfect, and we are wrong to assume all will be! It's impossible to know at this time if she had any oxygen deprivation or if she was ever meant to be in the first place. She is often on her side as the others crawl on their bellies to eat, so it's possible she wasn't meant to be with us long. I am making sure she gets plenty to eat. So only time will tell. I hope she's going to make it, but I am not God nor do I play Him on any television shows. Only He knows if she is a temporary gift!

So you could say this weekend, along with the "Ram Lamb Affair", was a very loooooooooooong weekend! By yesterday I was exhausted with little sleep for days, but this is the life I chose and I am happiest here with my animals. There will be time later to catch up on sleep. I'll take photos of the new kids when I'm sure we've made it over the hump. They are all white teddy bears right now anyways, since ACD puppies are born white then color in weeks later. Off to check on the little one.

What a week!

Well, if you're on the Shetland list, you know all about that! UGH! If not, go take a look at my post there. UGH UGH UGH.....

Today the sheep pen got a cleaning. We have been under siege with rains since the middle of June, in a place that only gets 32 inches of precip a year. 2 months straight, it's rained, showed, the sun peaks out, goes away, and rains again. Not even 3 dry days to cut and bale hay SINCE EARLY JUNE! My poor sheep have had 3 'hills' and one dry shed to go into, but they are muddy. All of them. We have been battling the rains with our soils that don't soak in rain here, it just runs off downhill. We're on Glacial Moraine, lots of the state is, and why there are so many tiny lakes too......the ground doesn't soak up much water. So my sheep pen is no different. THANKFULLY Rick decided to bring down some old trees with the big excavator, and I talked him into removing the overburden in the sheep pen down to the sand I had trucked in for them in years past. So I just let them out and they are running in the sand and feeding at their round bale, quite happy. I don't expect them to be any less muddy, well, ok, maybe a LITTLE less, but they will be happier. And now the hayfields and pastures are full of mushrooms - good and bad mushrooms. So no pasture for the sheep! At least we can walk around the herding arena and PICK all those mushrooms and get them out of there......sigh...and no change in the forecast either. Rain and mud until freeze up ........I hope not, but it isn't looking good! Pray that we get a week's break later this month to bale hay, there's a huge shortage of it here locally since very few fields ever could get baled.

Went to the dog shows this weekend, and my blue girl Mimi took 2 3-point majors so she did well! And Roisin took the Reserves, good girl.

And Anna had her litter of puppies - 3 boys and 3 girls - starting Friday evening into yesterday. Momma and babies are all doing fine so far! But I'm pooped having stayed up all Friday night with her...phew!

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!