So fall is already here in the North

Fall is already here in the far North. It's not too cold yet, but the winds are trying to change direction from their summer flow out of the south, to their winter flow out of the north. You can smell it in the air. I'm not the only who's noticed it. Friends feel the need also to stock up their pantries and get the outdoors around them in order... canning from the garden and making preserves from the wild berries. Even the sheep have had enough of summer, and dogs. The last 2 weekends of herding trials will begin this weekend, along with several herding clinics. They will once again work for a living, earning their hay for the winter and getting a well-deserved rest. Breeding pens will be set up afterwards too. Since several of the ewes decided to lamb in late February last year, our earliest lambing ever, it's time to get them sorted since a good cold front could send them into esterus now. And that, of course, brings us to the ever-exciting part of being a Shepherd... who will we put in with whom! Yes, it's that time already, fall is in the air...

So here's the blue ribbon winner.... TaDa!

Above is Cheesecake and some of the many children that thought she was just wonderful!

And here he is... the blue ribbon Shetland Ram. Well, ok, so he's not posed, neither am I, but it was a good moment anyways! Look at that lucious wool...what a lovely boy he is!

Remember this song?

When the moon comes over the mountain... ahhh, it was a beautiful cool night here with the moon rising, I thought I'd grab my camera. It's 3 hours away from the lunar eclipse, so I thought I'd take a photo now since I won't be awake at that time of night.

Still celebrating our wins at the Alaska State Fair Open Livestock Shows. Captain, a son of the magnificent Pan, took the blue ribbon for Shetland Rams. Cheesecake, Flutter, and Sleeping Beauty all took the top 3 placings for ewes too. We are pretty darned thrilled with Mary Ellen's Minwawe sheep she sent us - thank you ME, the kids are happy and healthy and well loved and admired. They have many new friends now I'm sure and were a hit at the fair!

Another win was our Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goat named Wahooroo. Wahoo won Division Champion over all of the other goats entered. That was a huge win, a best in show. I am thrilled! What an honor... and I am her breeder too.

The sheep got to come home tonight. They were very happy to be all together again, afterall, it's too early for breeding so they get to stay together in one big happy group. The older ewes of mine were non-plused of course...oh ho-hum, the kids are back, now we have to share again...hahahaha!

Did I tell you? Cheesecake is my new kid. She is my light moorit ewe, and my favorite to hold. Why? Because she is like a squeeze toy! When you pick her up and hold her in your arms, she will make the most lovely, soft sound...she says 'Maaaaahh'. No, it is not a bah, nor a scream, not even loud...just a tiny soft gentle Maaaaaahhhhh....it is the most beautiful sound. Children love her, she doesn't scare them with her soft voice. We ALL own a loud obnoxious ewe that can make the hair fall off your arm, right? If not, then you haven't had enough sheep long enough! I think Cheesecake is going to have to go with us to our goat club charity events in the future...time to get her a very special wool rope halter lead I do believe!

I hope you enjoyed tonight's photo, and I'll type again soon!

Wait, did I hear you humming that song???

Summer's are too busy!

I'm sitting here too tired to type, but I just realized that I hadn't posted in ages. People might think I fell off the edge of the world into the Arctic Ocean, so I thought I'd drop in to say hello. Hello! Thought you'd like a photo of my Delphinium in bloom. If you look closely, you'll see a bee with an orange butt from collecting pollen, hiding in one of the blooms. I like my camera!

How do YOU like winter? Do you mind tending to your flock's needs in the winter time? I don't think I mind. I mind extreme heat much more than the cold. I feel badly for all the people who are having to deal with 100 plus degree heat. There is nothing you can do for animals or humans in extreme heat. You can take all of your clothes off but still not be comfortable. Someone, actually several someones, have asked me just how can I handle the cold. Well, it's pretty easy. You keep putting on layers until you're warm. They make very nice layers nowadays, but when it's all said and done, sheep wool is still the best warmer-upper. When I was a kid, wool itched. It stung. It hurt. I could NOT stand wearing anything wool. Now tho, the processing of wool must have gotten much better. It's soft. It's warm. When I'm going to be working on something wet, like pulling ice chunks out of something, I wear wool gloves. My hands are still warm although wet. Same for my tootsies... toasty warm.

When the daylight begins to shorten, I begin thinking of winter. I guess I'm a survivalist. I also care very much about all of my animals and their long winter ahead. I want them to survive well too, then I will be able to enjoy spring and lambs and all the other babies that arrive with the longer daylight hours. The garden is already half way finished... the broccolli has come to an end, so they are being cleaned out of the beds and everyone with 4 hooves or 2 chicken legs are eating leaves and stalks with joy. We've been eating a few servings of young carrots. Lots of tomatoes in the greenhouse this year too - yes, toasted tomato sandwiches! Red cabbage up the kazoo already, there are at least 9 more heads weighing 5-10 pounds each sitting there, still growing. The lettuce is pooped out, it finally bolted so more animal food now. The onions are coming along well, as are the beets and brussel sprouts. Did I mention that 'the boys' decided they wanted to plant potatoes this year? No, not the nice few rows of red potatoes that I always plant in the garden. They planted a half acre of potatoes. And they've grown. And grown. and Grown. I believe the expected yield is around 2,000 pounds. Like we need 2,000 pounds of white potatoes with pink eyes on them. But hey, there was room in the new hayfield to plant them so I guess we'll be having a potato picking party next month. Lots of potatoes grown up here, it's a pretty huge business for some farmers anyways. So with the great garden harvest underway for the next month now, again my thoughts go back to the sheep and the upcoming winter. They are getting extra hay right now so they gain plenty of weight before the cold hits. No use waiting until the cold is already here, they can't gain weight fast enough as they deal with the cold, so best to put it on early.

Now, what else.......oh, the state fair starts this coming Wednesday night. The sheep go to the fair on Thursday morning before the public comes. I think they will be a fabulous hit! Maybe some people will want lambs next spring... and I will be happy to take orders for them too should I get any! Some of my goats are going to the shows too, so today I drug out the stock trailer and the pressure washer and cleaned the white beast. Put a bale of straw, a bale of hay, and a bale of pine shavings into the manger. It's supposed to shower for the next few days so until I'm ready to load up next week, things will stay put, stay dry, in the manger.

Someone asked if goats milk makes good fetta cheese...of course it does! That is what the Greeks have used for centuries. Sheeps milk, goats milk - both make great cheeses. My favorite is Chevre - in part because it's so easy to make, in part because my breed of goats, Nigerian Dwarf, also produces tons of butterfat and their milk is very sweet, not goaty tasting at all. The Chevre tastes better than cream cheese, is not so sticky in your mouth either. Even notice how chilled cream cheese sticks likes peanut butter to the roof of your mouth? YUCK! Chevre doesn't do that, it's a tad more crumbly unless you mix it up to blend it smoothly. Has anyone out there that you know made sheeps milk cheese? I wonder what it tastes like! Sheep?

So how are doing?

Oh hello hello hello!

I'm back.... I went away for a little while. Not away from the farm of course, just away from the computer. Hello!!! What did I do wth nearly a month? Ahhhhh, that's easy...

500 square bales of hay and 19 round bales of haylage. I have personally picked up, at least once if not twice, every one of those 50#square bales. I am 50 year olds. Hmmm.... I see allot of 5's and 0's there - HAHA!

Also, there was a 2 day ADGA goat show nearby. I show my dairy goats, Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats. I took one of my girls - my breeding - and one of my boys - a yearling buck purchased from another herd. My girl took Sr. Grand Champion Doe the first day, Reserve Grand Champion the 2nd day. The next day was ADGA Linear Appraisals on 20+ goats... I'd never done it before, boy did I learn a few things.

Let's see what else - oh, last weekend we had another herding trial here again. ASCA herding venue, just one day one trial, got a good run and ualified with one of my girls, took 2nd place with another, and failed by making a bad handler mistake with my third dog. Got to love learning tho, we learn from mistakes very well!

Right now Rick's making raw goats milk cheddar cheese with 2 gallons of fresh goats milk... it will be ready for eating late in the fall when we crave eating cheese near the woodstove on a cold evening.

The sheep - well, as the herding season goes on, we find a few ewes that need to go bye bye. They are too sweet, too slow, too easy. They would be WONDERFUL for someone who wanted to start out a dog on calm sheep. They would be great for someone wanting a few sheep to keep their grass mowed. They don't cause any trouble, but they also don't move with the rest of the sheep any more. Nothing bothers them, they don't run, they just stop and graze and pretend the dog can't see them. That's ok...they will be happy in someone else's home. :-) The sheep are having a good summer. The sun has come back out, the mornings are cool, and now they can get more hay, more calories, and more interior body fat for the upcoming winter. Winter is never far away in the far north, just like way up in the mountains. Today is 78 degrees outside with the sun beating down - take away the sun and give us clouds instead, it would have only been 64 degrees. 64 is nice and warm still, but think of it as only 32 degrees above freezing...hehe....so it's time to put their winter fat on, slowly but surely. Now it's time to go mow the lawn around the house, and give the sheep some nice fresh grass with a little clover in it. They will be happy with me in a little while when I arrive with their evening treat!

I'm back and the sheep did well!

Oh my I feel human again! My sheep are happy. They've been up at their shed for 2 days now. Lots of rest, lots of food, more rest, more food. Funny thing tho, after 5 days of working hard down at the herding arena, you'd think they'd never want to go back there.

Wrong.

Every morning I'd look out and there they were....standing by the gate that leads down to the arena. At first I thought maybe there was something that caught their eye down in the south hayfield...then in the late morning, same thing. Afternoon, a group would be at the gate. Evening again.

You know what? I think they wanted to go down to the arena! They like it down there. The dogs don't bother them much, they get to eat grass and a little bit of clover, they get to lay down in a new place.

They are happy being 'herded sheep'.

Good sheep.

I'm happy with them too!

Above is Anna with her ribbons and her judges and myself. I am very wet and very muddy, but very happy...see the wet pants from where the sheep would walk with me while they too were sopping wet?

I'm still here and sheep compliments

Yeppers, I'm still here! This past weekend was our first set of AKC herding trials this year, held here at our Sunset Acres farm. It keeps raining...someone kind must have sent it our way tho, breaking many weeks of drought. After the trials this weekend we are holding 2 days of herding clinics - the judges are teaching us better ways to efficiently move sheep and how to get ready for the next level up of competition since almost everyone did a bang-up job of getting new herding titles! So today we are working in the rain and showers again, tomorrow we are doing instinct testing for those wanting to get started. Yes, the dogs I handled and trained did well too, and so did all of my students, I am very proud of them!!



I have a huge brag...... one that I am very proud of actually. The judges have greatly complimented my sheep. They are excellent sheep. No, not pretty sheep, not cute sheep, but sheep that every herding trainer and livestock provider would die to own as trial sheep. I've heard that comment before from other judges that have been here, but each time it reassures me that I'm doing a good job with my sheep. No sheep running into fences in a panic from a strange or powerful dog, no sheep that faint or fake dead. No, my sheep are very very well dog broke. They don't stay with the handler/shepherd unless the dog keeps them there (or is carrying a 50# sack of barley, which is not allowed in a trial of course). They are honest sheep, capable of working for both starting dogs and advanced dogs. They are wonderful. And do you know what the secret is? You start them as baby lambs right alongside their mother. And you keep only good mothers with good brains in their heads, no wild rebels allowed to teach bad habits to their young.



I once had a judge several years ago that was soooo impressed with this breed of sheep that she went out and bought some. And friends who taught lessons and took lessons also went out to buy some. Funny thing, one of the judges commented to me that she, too, bought and owned some thanks to that one judge's high reccomendations after seeing and working with mine.



That's a huge compliment. And a huge plus for the breed. If you sell Shetlands to someone wanting to work them and traing their dog with them, sell them calm, very young sheep, preferably lambs. Give them your good stock, not your culls. No, they won't be shredded by mean dogs, and most have the life of Riley, very well fed and cared for. Afterall, you can't work sick or weak sheep, only the best are good enough for trials, that is, if you want people to come back and pay you to use them again and again. Shetlands make WONDERFUL herding stock, remember that when you sell your lambs, or someone comes looking for wethers to work with their dogs.