Dog Brags

Above is Rocky, still a puppy here in Alaska, taking a Group 4 in the show ring against some very strong competition!

I have a dog brag worthy of a little blogspace!

Crufts 2009 held in Birmingham, England, is now over with. It has an even bigger entry than the US's Westminster dog show and is considered the top show of the year. A few years back now, one of my cattledog boys was exported to the UK and now lives with his owner in Northern Ireland, working cattle and sheep occasionally like a good Australian Cattle Dog should (be able to do as needed). Rocky is happy there with Daryl, this I know first hand because I went over there last fall and saw for myself. Well, Rocky sired a litter a few years ago now and one of his daughters, Taz, won Best of Breed at Crufts 2008. Well I got news that she won it again this year! WOW! More often a Best of Breed in the dogs goes to a boy rather than a girl. But even harder is winning it all, 2 years in a row! Rocky's mom and dad are here, his mom Spice is 11 years old now and still healthy and sound for her age. His dad Chuckles hopes to sire a litter for us this year too. I'm glad that Taz won again. I'm even more happy that her sire was one of my boys from a long line of working, herding dogs too. Congratulations Lesley for doing a wonderful job of showing your lovely girl!

Still Waiting

It's that time of year. For some, the crocus are popping up. For others, the grasses are green. And still for some of us in the northern tier, the snow is deep and still falling out of the sky on occasion. But, for all Shetland breeders, it's time for lambs to start appearing. Do you have lambs already? I don't. My girls are tucked in nightly, in the morning it's like holding your breath - the gate opens and they slowly head on out to their hay. As the numbers thin out, I look in their shed to see if anyone is staying behind, or if there's a new little body or two back in the corners. Nope, nothing yet. I find myself wandering out there more often now. I'll pick up the binoculars in the house and peer out there carefully in between my wanderings. Usually I don't have lambs until late March, but one year they appeared in February so I've learned to turn on the watch mode earlier now. I'm not pacing, but I'm certainly more alert!

How about you???

A snowy winter

It's been a snowy winter here this year! And I've been bad about blogging, haven't I?!

How have you been? I'll bet you're looking forward to spring and lambs and everything that comes to life in the spring - me too! But I am indeed enjoying the sunny days in between our snows this winter. My time for blogging kinda wentdown the tubes when 6 Nubian kids arrived in January since I spend a good amount of time in the mornings and evenings bottle feeding them. You know, the bottle feeding itself is VERY enjoyable, it's the washing out and filling of the bottles that gets to be a pain time-wise - LOL!

And just look at that handsome Peyton, my scurred Gulmoget! Imagine polled rams sired by this boy - wow, I can't wait but I guess I'll have to, his 3 girls are taking their time and I don't expect to see their lambs for a few months yet. Come on Peyton, we'd LOVE to have more Gulmogets here!

Good to be back.......

Oh for Heaven's sake!

We're still in the deep freeze. This is getting a bit ridiculous! We don't get cold like this for days and days on end and frankly, we aren't prepared mentally for long cold spells like this starting in December and rolling on through well into January! BRRR!! We woke up this morning again to Minus 21...sheesh.

I have to take a moment to thank a good friend of mine for supplying me with some wonderful compressed bales of flaky timothy hay. The bales come in on a van from the lower-48 for hay sales to horse people, but there were a few bales here and there in the van that were dirty...as if the floors had been swept up and the dirt baled with it. When you take the bales apart and shake them out, dirt falls out of them. No, not mold, just earth. Not good for horses or any animals indoors, but fine if you take the time to shake out the flakes onto the snow-covered ground for the sheep. They love it! You know how sheep don't like stems, well there are no stems in this stuff! So, she's been selling the hay to me at a reduced cost so the sheep can keep their energy up especially since we're at the end of breeding season. They are eating VERY well! The bales weigh 60 to 80 pounds each, and although heavy to pick up are so small it makes them pretty easy to heft around. So in this cold we've at least had the luxury of feeding everyone some really nice rich hay and that's kept up their energy and health.

They say it's suppose to get into the 20's next week, that the cold snap will be over with soon and we'll be relatively warm again. We all here can't wait!!!

Weird winds bring a 27 degree rise in the temperature....temporarily

The winds are desperately trying to bring in some 'normal' temperatures. All day we sat around -20F. Suddenly this evening the winds picked up and in came some warm temperatures - relatively speaking! Check this out - from the NOAA weather site in Wasilla. And you ALL know where Wasilla is now after the Vice Presidential run for the Republican Party this year...hehehehe.....
it will crash back down to -20 or -30 when the wind lets up. It did this yesterday too, except in the middle of the night when you couldn't appreciate it. So here's hoping and waiting for the long cold snap to go away and things to go back to normal again! The sheep are really tired of this too!


04 20:36 NE 13 G22 7F
04 20:16 NE 15 G 36 7F
04 19:56 NE 15 G 29 7F
04 19:36 NE 9 G 20 7F
04 19:16 E 7 -0F
04 18:56 E 9 -4F
04 18:36 E 5 -20F
04 18:16 NW 3 -20F
04 17:56 Calm -20F

Houston, we have a problem....

looking out at the sky at 5pm on Saturday, I think we do have a problem. It's the temperature. At this point I can stand being outdoors for an hour, ensconced in insulated snow bibs, down coat, trappers hat secured over my ears and under my chin, warm gloves and shoes. If I go out to work on goats, dogs, or sheep, I can work out there for about a half hour then I need to go into the dairy room to get warmed up and eye lashes dried back off from the frost.

I'm a super-cold-weather wimp.

I don't tolerate THIS kind of cold very well anymore. I am 51. I have frostbit exposed parts since I was a little kid and those ear bits, face bits, and hand and foot bits just don't tolerate the cold like they used to.

Oh, did I tell you today's HIGH temperature here was -20F??? The low was -29. We haven't hit -30F yet. Perhaps tonight it will happen - the coldest we've ever seen at this house in the 9 years we've been here. This is a serious cold snap that has me out checking the animals 4 times a day. It takes me 2 hours to get the burning sensation out of my cheeks - like you've been smiling too long and your face hurts. Once I'm thoroughly warmed back up I can head back out again. Seems rather silly doesn't it!

How are you doing? Are you staying nice and warm??

Happy NewYear and 18 Below

Happy New Year!

We're at 18 below zero Fahrenheit. Lovely. A good day to have stayed inside as much as possible, get a little extra rest and a good nap in, and then do the chores in the evening like usual. It was a good relaxing day.

How was yours?