Posts from — March 2009

Wally and I brought Sarah down with us to bring up the sheep.  As we walked down there I said to him that I hoped one of us wouldn’t be having to walk back up to get another dog.  The good thing was that we didn’t have to wear muck boots to get down there.  It is treacherously slippery going through several of the gate openings and it was nice to be able to just walk without worrying about slipping and falling.

Sarah was incredibly chipper.  I never seen so much bounce to her step.  When we got to the ElectroNet, I stood back and let Wally call her to the gate.  She stopped, looked at me, looked at him, then came back to me.  Whoops … Poor Sarah, she so wanted to bond to someone.  Whenever I was with her and her former caregiver was as well, she didn’t give me (or anyone else) the time of day.  I remember one weekend her former caregiver and I went down to Red Creek for one of their clinics.  I brought Gel and Sarah (she was staying with me at the time) and paid for both of them at the clinic.  I took Sarah out to work her and hoped that her former caregiver would stand back out of the way, but nope, he stood right there and Sarah was having trouble deciding who to work for.  She eventually chose him and he took over.

Since Sarah has been spending time with me and I’ve worked her some, she’s bonded to me. These dogs, they so want to please.

I think if Wally took her down by himself, she’d probably bring the sheep up for him.  We’ll have to try that one night.

She did okay.  She’s working very close and several of the sheep turned on her which brought out some “yea ha” moments.  Sarah may be more suited to cattle or goats.  We’ll see.  Again, I saw lots of spark and bounce to her during our trek back.  She ran faster than I’ve ever (now or when I had her before) run.  I think she’s feeling pretty good.  For now, I’m just letting her work her beans out (thanks Helene for that bit of terminology).  Eventually I’ll start to ask for more accountability.  In a month or so, I’ll advertise her and see if I can’t find her a farm home.

I didn’t make it back down there with the other dogs because  I got into cleaning.  We’ve got a minor tick infestation problem and I was trying to find out where the rotten creatures were coming from.  I think I found it, I hope so because I’m getting tired of picking up ticks.  I started taking mega doses of Vitamin B complex and garlic in an effort to make myself less attractive to bugs of all kinds.  With all the rain we’ve been having, I’m sure I’m going to be prime mosquito dining.

Agility was postponed to today which was a good thing because I would not have been able to go yesterday.  I don’t know what was the matter with me Sunday night.  I don’t think I slept all night.  I slept better last night, but still not great.  The noise of the dogs moving around in their crates disturbed me.  I need to stop at Lowe’s to get some rubber matting to put in the beds of their crates to stop the noise.  Also, Bubba (one of the new black cats) has an upper respiratory infection and was sneezing quite a bit last night.

You may recall that I was working with Bubba homeopathically to address his over grooming and the old woud at the base of his tail.  I switched to the remedy Hepar Sulphuris Calcareum and the tail seemed much less sensitive to the touch and he didn’t seem to be grooming quite so much.  On Sunday Wally told me that he had started with upper respiratory symptoms.  That is a good thing!  In cats, upper respiratory infections (”URIs”) are more often than not treated with antibiotics (often mega doses over extended periods of time).  I’m sure if Bubba had a URI when he was with the rescue lady, he was given antibiotics.  The thing about URIs is that they are viral in nature so antibiotics are of no use.  They are only given in an attempt to counteract any potential bacterial infection.  In my opinion, that’s pretty stupid thinking.  Why use an antibiotic if you don’t need it?  Antibiotics seem to have an antihistamine effect and the URI symptoms often abate while the cat is on the antibiotics.  Once they are stopped, however, the symptoms come back, often worst.  So either the same antibiotic is given again or a more stronger one is prescribed.  Many kittens spend a good part of their early lives on antibiotics.  This isn’t good for them long-term.  Many continue to break with URI symptoms throughout their lives (stress often triggers this) or they may go on to have recurrent urinary tract infections or even digestive tract issues.  I am frequently contacted for help from caregivers with cats with these symptoms and I’ll always ask them if the cat was on course(s) of antibiotics for a URI while they were kittens and they always were.

So why is it a good thing that Bubba started with a URI after treatment with Hepar Sulphuris Calcareum?  Because it caused him to exhibit earlier symptoms; also called a reversal of symptoms.  While I don’t know that Bubba had a URI while with the rescue lady, given what I saw was going on at her house, I’d be willing to bet he did.  Even if he didn’t, a URI is a less serious symptom than the over grooming (which is a mental symptom likely due to the tail trauma).  I wish I could explain this better …

I’m glad to see improvement in Bubba and I hope he continues to get better.

Lately, however, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the animals.  I think it may be partially due to all the rainy weather we’ve been having.  It seems so much easier to do anything when the weather is bright, sunny and warm.  Unfortunately, more clouds and rain are scheduled for the next few days.  I started some eggs in an incubator and I’m wondering if all the work involved in hatching eggs this way is worth it.  It seems like it would be easier to pay $1 to $3 for chicks and raise them up from chicks, but it makes more sense to raise up chicks (and ducklings) from my own flock.  The temperature is supposed to stay at 99.5 degrees, I forget what the humidity is supposed to stay at and you are supposed to turn the eggs so many times a day.  Geez, does a mother chicken or duck keep a thermometer in her nest to make sure the temperature stays at 99.5?  Does she count how many time she turns the eggs?  Likely not.  I started the eggs on the 24th so they should hatch (if they do hatch) sometime during the week of April 20.  Chicken eggs hatch sooner than duck eggs and I don’t know if you are able to hatch chicken eggs with duck eggs.  I guess we’ll find out.  I’ve considered just throwing the whole shooting match out, but I’ve started it so I guess I’m obligated to finish it.  So far, there’s no rotten egg smell so I guess they are okay.  I might try to candle them later today.  Of course, this is just what I need if the eggs hatch, chicks to take care of …

Until later …

I don’t think I got a lick of sleep last night.  I don’t know what got into me.  I worked yesterday from 8:30 to 5:30, but that shouldn’t have had anything to do with it.  Weird.

As a result, I slept in until 8:30.  Something almost unheard of for me.  I got out, fed the chickens and ducks, milked the goats and then let the sheep out to drift down into the back field.  I got the wagon hooked up to the ATV, filled the water barrel and headed down.  The sheep had drifted up to Red’s so I unhooked the wagon and headed up to get them then started to set the fence.  Off and on, the sheep would attempt to drift out of sight so I switched out which dog I was going to use to bring them back.

I was very pleased to note that for the most part, both Kessie and Fern were well behaved loose in the field with sheep.  A month ago, Kessie wouldn’t have been able to do that.

The paths are marked for moving the fence in two days so I need to go down later to mow them, but I needed to come up and get something to eat and drink.  When I do go back down, I’ll take the dogs and work them.  The plan is to let only a few sheep out of the ElectroNet at a time, work that group with one dog, let those sheep drift off into the next field and take out a new group.  We’ll see how that pans out.

Last week I took in a dog to finish named Sarah.  She’s well started and has run and placed in a couple of Novice/Novice classes.  I had kept her for a few weeks a couple of years back and would have bought her then, but her caregiver wanted more money than I thought she was worth.  She’s an older bitch, but from what I’ve observed, she’s sound.  She’s moving a bit slow now, but I think that’s because she’s spent most of her life in a kennel.  She’s taken to eating meat like a champ and every day she moves quicker and freer.  She knows her flanks, doesn’t quite think stopping is a good idea and has a good amount of push to her.  She works cattle as well as sheep.  She’s very well bred.  She’s a granddaughter to Julie Simpson’s ##Moss with the bottom half being all the late George Conboy’s dogs.  The nice thing about her is that she’s very easy to live with.  She leaves the cats and poultry alone and is quite keen to work.  That keenness has increased daily.  I had a hard time keeping her off the sheep this morning so I ended up tying her to the ATV.  What is particularly satisfying to me is seeing her physical transformation.  It hasn’t even been a week yet, but she already looks better.  When she first came here, her coat was dull with clumps of dead, matted hair throughout.  Her teeth were horrendous.  Today, her teeth are already whiter and her coat is sleeker and shinier and I haven’t brushed her yet.  I wish I had taken the time to take before and after pictures, but when she came, it was raining.  The funny thing is, she was given to me.  Her caregiver is moving to Arizona next week and had to find homes for his dogs ASAP.  The unfortunate thing is, she’s sat around for the past years doing essentially nothing.

We’ll see how it goes.  Ideally, I’d like to get her into a farm home.  Even though she’s pushy, she’s pretty easy to handle right now because her pace is pretty slow.  I’m going to let Wally take her down to get the sheep tonight to see how that goes.  I think in time she’s going to get faster so she may turn out to be more dog than he can handle.

Until later …

I only have a few minutes because I need to get my butt in gear and get out and milk and then haul sheep down back because I need to be in work at 8:30 today (groaning!).

Last night I went down by myself to get the sheep.  It was raining lightly and I had on my Frog Togs suit and muck boots.  Wally and I had been out in the rain most of the day setting up the Shelter Logic shelter that we picked up that morning and I was about tired of being wet, but the sheep needed to be brought up.

I just took Gel with me.  I opened the gate and Gel brought the sheep out.  Then, because it was warm, not raining too hard and the grass looked so green and beautiful in the next field, I went in there with the sheep.

Meanwhile, Gel was about going out of his mind because Rose is now in standing heat.  He continued to work, but I could see his mind was on other things.

I let the sheep drift down into the field and called Gel to me and sat up on top of the hill and watched.  Gel kept trying to go to see Rose, but I told him to lie down beside me and eventually Rose drifted back down to the sheep.

As we sat there, the sheep got further and further away and were essentially strung out from one end of the field to the other.  The wind was picking up and there were severe thunderstorms forecast so I figured I had better send Gel to bring the sheep up.  Also, I didn’t bring a whistle with me and in the back of my mind I was thinking that Gel might not work as he should once he gets down there  and without a whistle, I might be up a creek without a paddle.

I sent him to the left and he swept wide and deep bringing in the sheep that were on that side of the field, then he kept running to the right.  At first I thought he was over flanking, then he stopped, perfectly, straight as an arrow on balance.  Good boy!  He stood there for a minute, I didn’t say anything.  The sheep started to lift as a group and he brought them up.  He was a bit distracted bringing them back, but he did all right.

One of these days I’m going to remember to bring a camera down with me.  The scene was so beautiful with the green grass, the soft light, the sheep and a good dog.

Until later …

As I write this, it is 9:30 AM and I’ve got the goats milked and put up, the ElectroNet reset and the sheep put up.  The dogs have been fed and I had to go back down to the ElectroNet to get the Pygmy goat who is temporarily residing with us.  I had forgotten that she went down with the sheep this morning and given that it’s going to rain off and on all day today, she needs to be up where there’s sufficient shelter for her.

Yesterday I worked from 6:30 to 3 and initially I started to hate how my life was going now.  Then I thought about it.  I had a very well paying job and a regular schedule; but was I better off then than I am now?  I honestly don’t think so.  When I was working the high paying job, I very much lived paycheck to paycheck and used my credit cards quite a bit.  Now, I have some money in my savings account and a good amount of money in my checking account.  Granted, I have some bills to pay, but I think taking a huge pay-cut and having to live more frugally has done a lot of good.

Also, think about all the cool things I’m doing now that I would likely not be doing if I was still working full-time with an hour commute each way.

I have to work tonight from 7 to 11 which is going to be rough.  I am not a night person, but I have to take the hours that WalMart gives me and be happy with them.  I’m lucky to have that job.  Hard to believe I’m feeling lucky for having a job at WalMart, but things have changed dramatically.

At some point today I need to go and pick up the lamb that we had processed.  I have a huge bowl of over ripe bananas sitting in the kitchen and I really need to get them made into banana bread.  I also need to walk back down to the ElectroNet to get my ATV because I ran out of gas (stupid!) when I went back down to get the Pygmy goat.  I’ve decided cleaning the house is not a good idea given we have two more days of steady rain to get through.  Steady rain and warm temperatures makes the grass grow.  I’m having to reset the ElectroNet every two or three days now.  I hope that stops soon.

So, I guess I’ll got and get me some breakfast, throw the load of clothes I washed this AM into the drier and then figure out what I should do next.

Until later …

I worked all three dogs yesterday and I am very pleased to say that Kessie worked the best.  Fern wasn’t bad, she just wasn’t her usual self.  Gel was okay, but he spent a good amount of time with his nose to the ground sniffing Rose pee.

Rotten Horn Dog!

I made an appointment for Rose to be spayed on April 8.

As her reward, Kessie went down with us last night to bring the sheep up by herself.  She did a pretty good job of it.

Yea for Kessie!

I’m in the process of getting my expenses re-entered into Quicken so I can get my taxes done.  What a boring, tedious task.  I try to commit myself to doing at least an hour of it every day, but it doesn’t always happen.  The computer guy was unable to retrieve the information off the hard drive of the water damaged lap top.  That means not only was all the financial data I had entered on that lap top destroyed, but tons of pictures as well.

Back-up your files!

In addition to the unpleasant task of entering expenses, I’m having to deal with this horn-dog of a black dog.  Rose (the livestock guard dog) is in heat and Gel is hell bent on getting to her.  I caught him trying to slither through the pipe gate this morning.  Given his size, that was not an easy feat.  Damn dog!  I have to head to Hickory Wednesday or Thursday and when I go, I will be stopping by the Humane Society and scheduling an appointment to get her spayed.  I had wanted to wait a bit longer on her, but I don’t want to risk her getting bred, either by him or a stray dog.  Given that it’s going to cool off for the rest of the week, it will be a fine time to get her done.

Got to go and milk and then load up the lawnmower, fill up the water barrel and head down back and mow the paths for the fence.  Those sheep are going through grass quicker than a wild fire.  It is supposed to rain for the next four or five days which is good because it will get the grass growing.

Until later …

Agility went well, even though I was a little bit late.  I felt like Gel and I were running more as a team.  That’s a good thing given that his mind is on other things.  Rose is in heat.  He’s working well around her, but I can tell he’s not altogether there.  It’s almost time to go down and get the sheep.  Every time I get up, he gets up too and walks towards the door.  I’m not sure what that’s about.  It could be a couple of different things.  My landlord is down at the pond; or he could be waiting to get down there to Rose.  The interesting thing is, he isn’t as interested in Rose as he is in marking around where she is.  That could be because she’s not quite in standing heat, but I’m not so sure about that.  I think that when he’s around the stock, he knows there’s a job to be done.  Anyway, I’m thinking when I go down to get the sheep, I might just take Fern.  This is for a couple of different reasons: I want Gel to be sharp as a tack when I ask him to work so it doesn’t hurt to use another dog when he’s so interested in going down there and I need to make sure I am not relying on Gel to do the work because it’s just easier than using a green dog.  I need a back-up dog.  I considered taking Kessie down, but Kessie is still not looking at me as part of the picture and that’s something I need to work on.  As I wrote earlier, Cian is put up for now.

When I got home from agility I worked some in the garden that’s off the back of the house.  It was pretty hot out there so I didn’t spend a lot of time.  I manually tilled up a section at the front of the garden so I could get my peas planted.  The cattle panels that I intend to put around the garden were bowed so I put weights on them to straighten them and will put them up in the morning and then get the peas planted.  I have several bales of straw to put down on top of the garden to keep the moisture in.  I had to move a Russian Sage plant from the garden behind the house and decided to put it in the main garden.  When I dug the hole to transplant it, I was amazed at how moist the soil was under all the mulch.

Back to agility. After Gel’s class was through I took Fern out and ran her through a couple of the sequences.  She did okay.  If I were to focus on training her I might be able to run both Gel and Fern in the Masters class.  Of course Fern wouldn’t be able to run the full course, but I could do some of the sequences with her.  It amazes me how well Fern does given how little training she’s received.  Imagine how well she’d do if I trained her.

After I worked in the garden, I re-taped my tire and then when Wally got home, we got it remounted on the frame.  The springs holding the tire in place had rusted out and needed to be replaced.  I also started working on sand bags to hold my tunnel in place.

Maybe I can get my act in gear here …

The funny thing is, I’m doing this training, yet I am not aspiring to trial … weird.

We spent a good part of Saturday just running around.  I wanted to go to a feed store in Statesville to pick up some Western-grown alfalfa for the goats.  I was told the bales weighed 80 pounds so I figured they’d last a long time.  They had better given they cost $16/each.  I cringed when we backed up to the loading dock and they brought the bales over to put in the truck.  They were approximately two feet by two feet square.  I knew I was going to hear something about that from Wally and I was right.  As soon as we got up on the highway he said, “the truck is handling pretty well given the amount of hay we have in the back.”

The hay is extremely compact and they do weigh about 80 pounds.  I flake off a small piece for the goats and put it in their hay feeder after I bring the sheep down to the ElectroNet.  It’s working.  I had to milk a second time yesterday.  Penny was the one who really needed to be milked again, but since I was milking, I did them all.  I got over a gallon of milk in the morning and a half gallon in the afternoon.  It was a good thing I milked again because I had used all the milk in the morning to make cheese … which didn’t set.  Weird.  I may have miscalculated the rennet.  Oh well, Rose will have it for breakfast this morning.

After going to the feed store, we went to Southern States to get replacement bolts for the wagon.  They didn’t have what we wanted so we stopped at Tractor Supply and got them.  Then we stopped at Lowes to look at lawnmowers.  Mine is, unfortunately, about dead.  I’ve had it for about five years now and used it hard.  Since we will be doing a good amount of yard mowing this year (including the agility field) as well as paths for the ElectroNet, I’m going to need to invest in a new lawnmower sooner rather than later.

We got home and I ran down on the ATV to let the sheep out of the ElectroNet with the intention of letting them graze in the back pasture while we worked on putting up the monster chain link enclosure which I mentioned a while back.  We were going to use it for storage and a new milking parlor, but decided that it would be better utilized in the fenced-in area as additional shelter for the sheep and goats.

Damn, my heart dropped to my feet when I let the sheep out of the fence.  One the lambs was hopping on three legs and the ankle on the leg she was not walking on was dangling.  She belonged to the young black-headed Dorper ewe we had been having problems with.  I have no idea how she broke it, but I don’t think she was being fed all that well and perhaps her legs had not developed as they should have.  I caught her and carried her up on the ATV.  I asked Wally if we could possibly splint it, but he said it would likely get infected and of course she’d suffer so he had to put her down.  I had not planned on butchering a lamb that day, but it had to be done.  I got it done in record time and put the meat up in the refrigerator for the dogs and cats.

We only had time to get the sides of the chain link enclosure up before we had to go in and take a shower in order to go and visit Wally’s mother who is in the hospital recovering from surgery.

Yesterday we ate breakfast (scrambled eggs, turkey sausage and goat cheese) and then went down to reset the ElectroNet.  I mowed the paths on Wednesday so it didn’t take long.  Having lengths of clothesline cut to the length of one roll of ElectroNet and using that to measure where the paths need to be mowed seems to be working quite well.  It’s about time we mastered setting this fence.  On the way back to the house we took down my A-frame and dog walk and moved them to a different location in anticipation of having the leveling work down this week (we’ll see …).  I set up the equipment in two difference places and plan to build sequences around each piece of contact equipment.  I haven’t been inclined to use my equipment down where it was because the ground is so uneven.  I was afraid of stepping in a hole, falling and possibly injuring myself.  I talked to Marcus on Sunday and he’s still planning on coming out late this week to do the work.  Esme has one more surgery session scheduled today and then she’ll be all done.  I asked if she was afraid to get in the truck after her accident, but Marcus said she wasn’t.  In fact, she wasn’t afraid of anything.  He also said she was bringing up the sheep and calves for him at night.  I find that hard to believe … wouldn’t it be nice though?

I am going to agility today.  I have three pounds of cheese and six dozen eggs sold.  Good thing on the eggs as I had the biggest bowl I owned over flowing with them.  It is helpful to have the animals paying for at least part of their feed.  When I get back, I need to get out there and get my peas planted.  I spent some time thinking about where I wanted to plant them: in the main garden or in the garden off the back of the house.  I decided to go with the garden off the back of the house for two reasons:  I could water it easier and I could put up shade cloth to protect the peas (lettuce and spinach) from intense sun and heat which is bound to come before the crop is finished.

On the way back from Statesville on Saturday we stopped at a garden center that I knew carried a different selection than most garden centers in the area.  I was looking for heirloom tomato seedlings.  The only had one variety in stock, but more were coming including Cherokee purple which is the variety I was most interested in.  Heirloom tomatoes are a bit harder to grow and take longer to grow than conventional hybrid tomatoes, but the taste is well worth it.  I will plant Roma tomatoes to make sauce from, but I’m going to try to grow just heirloom tomatoes.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’d like to have started all my seedlings myself, but I’m afraid the cats would have a field day with anything growing inside.  The lettuce that I grew in my cold frame is doing reasonably well.  I moved the cold frame to a different location yesterday, hoping that more sun will make it grow better.

Until later …

Picked up the sheep that was for the dogs this morning.  Surprisingly, he dressed out at just 10 pounds more than the younger sheep.  I would have thought he would have dressed out at closer to 100 pounds, but I guess the wool was deceptive.

I packaged up the quarters and put them in the freezer and then went through the garbage bags full of hide, guts, etc. I pulled out the hides and heads to bring down into the far back field.  Then I squeezed the contents out of the stomachs and bagged up the stomach linings for green tripe.  After that, I picked through the rest of the organs for the hearts, livers and kidneys and bagged them up.  What’s left is in a pile out in the side yard for the dogs and chickens to pick through.  I’ll bring what’s left down back tomorrow.

The smaller lamb dressed out at 50 pounds.  The processor said we should get 20-30 pounds of meat, but none of it will go to waste as I left instructions for all of the bones and trimmings to be set aside for the dogs.  We should be able to pick up that meat mid-week.  Say we get 25 pounds of meat, that will work out to about $2.20/pound.  Since there’s very little money into feeding the sheep, that’s pretty good.

Over the winter, we’ve gone through about 200 square bales and maybe six round bales.  The square bales cost us about $400, the square bales probably cost $150 total.  This is to feed 60 +/- sheep and four +/- goats.  I feel sure if we were feeding cattle, one cow would probably go through that amount of hay in a winter.  This year we will do only round bales.  They are more economical and easier to feed.  Of course, we need to factor in the labor in transporting the sheep back and forth to the ElectroNet and of course setting the ElectroNet, hauling water both down to the ElectroNet and out to the fenced-in area.

Raising animals isn’t cheap.

What I was glad to see was how lean the meat looked.  There was very little fat on the meat.  While the sheep were at Wally’s, he grained them, but since they’ve been here, they’ve been completely grass/hay fed.  A few weeks before we breed the sheep this year, we’ll grain them to increase their fertility, but other than that, they’ll remain grass/hay fed.  It’s amazing the condition they stay in on just grass.  They are much easier keepers than goats.  My dairy goats only get grain once a day, mostly when they are on the stand.  I only put a little bit of feed out for them while they are waiting to be milked.  Other than that, they eat hay.  I wish I could get them out with the sheep, but they won’t stay in the ElectroNet.  I have been getting them some vegetables from the grocery store like carrots and cabbage to supplement their food.  On Saturday Wally and I are going to go to a feed store in Statesville to pick up a bale or two of Western alfalfa hay.  I want to see what feeding that does to their milk production and the taste of the cheese.

Speaking of cheese i just mixed up about a half a cup of goat cheese with some chopped basil and garlic.  It is really good!  For the most part, I’ve been eating the cheese plain.  I’m looking forward to trying different things with it.  While I got a lot done today, I spent some time going through cook books and flagging recipes.  I love good food.

Until later …

Last night, I went to bed a bit early and asked Wally if he’d put the dogs up before he went to bed.  The dogs are crated in a room right outside my bedroom.  This is in an effort to keep any ticks that may come off them contained.  The room they are in is pretty wide open and it’s easy to pull the crates out and vacuum under them daily or every other day to get the ticks up.  Yes, it’s tick season again and I’m still trying to figure out a way to keep them at bay.

I heard Wally bring the dogs in and heard the crate doors rattle as he opened and closed them.  Then I heard him say, “Fern, what are you doing?” (in that Redneck speak that he uses).  When I asked later what the problem was he told me that when I was cleaning yesterday, I had turned the door to Fern’s crate to the wall.  When he opened the side door to put her in that way, she jumped on top of the crate and sat down.  Given that I have my crates up on furniture dollies, that was a big jump for a little dog.  We always give the dogs treats when they go in their crates so I assume since Fern couldn’t get into her crate the normal way, she decided to offer another behavior to get her treat.

Crazy dog.

Wally calls her “Footsy” because she is very (VERY) bad about putting her front feet on him.  She knows better than to do it to me, but she can’t help herself with Wally.  He thought he had cured her of this bad behavior until one morning he went out dressed for work and told Fern, “you keep your feet down.”  Fern waited until his back was turned and came up behind him and put her feet on his backside.

Sneaky bitch.

She was a bit sharky yesterday.  After we loaded the two sheep we took to the processor, I used Gel and Fern to bring the sheep back down to the ElectroNet.  The sheep were a bit confused because they thought they had been brought up to be put up for the day.  They moved quite quickly on the way up, but were sluggish on the way back.  I turned back a few times and saw random sheep darting up closer to the front of the flock.  It took me a while to realize Miss Fern was back there nipping them in the heels to move them along quicker.

I know better than to correct her too harshly for that at her age.  In fact, Kessie was pushing a bit hard yesterday, but I let her push.  Just like with agility, if you slow them down, it’s hard to get the speed back again.  Should I ever start another dog, I’ll be extremely careful about teaching a lie down.  Fern’s lie down is quite extreme, meaning she becomes one with the ground when she goes down.  I wish I had listened to my gut instinct and kept her on her feet.

Given that the weather is getting better, I’ve thought a lot about trialing.  Quite frankly, I’m not terribly inclined to do the type of training I need to do in order to obtain the exactness I need in my dogs in order to be successful in trails.  Heck, I can’t walk a straight line, never mind keep a dog driving on a straight line.  I want to train my dogs so that they are useful in their work here.  There will come a time (it already has to some extent) that I’m going to need another dog to step in Gel’s shoes.  Fern is next in line for that, but I hope that Kessie can become useful as well.  As far as trialing, well, I might do local trials with the goal of getting the sheep around the course as best as I can, but I am not going to worry too awful much about lines, etc.

Besides, I don’t have the money to trial.

There’s way too much on my plate right now to worry too much about competition of any kind.  I’m hell bent on growing/producing/making as much food for me and mine as I can this year and that takes a tremendous amount of time and effort.

I had a brilliant idea about a chicken tractor last night.  It’s hard to figure out a way to construct an enclosure on wheels that is light enough, yet sturdy enough, to be a chicken tractor.  I know lots of people have done it, but both Wally and I are still struggling with construction plans.  I’d love to be able to put chickens in the fenced-in area to work up the manure and hay, but Rose has other ideas about chickens in there.  On the days that she goes down with the sheep, the chickens and ducks can be in there to their hearts’ content, but on days where it’s too hot for Rose to be down there without shade (another thing we need to construct, portable shade), she’ll be in the fenced-in area.  Given that Fern is quite talented at moving chickens I thought I might be able to make four panels out of welded wire and use plastic T-posts to hold the fence up.  I could throw some shade cloth over the fence and it just might work.  I’d make the enclosure 8-foot x 8-foot.  I’ll have to think more about that.

Speaking of chickens and ducks, we are getting over a dozen eggs a day!

This afternoon I’ll pick up the skin, organs, head and feet from both sheep and the quarters from the sheep that was processed for the dogs.  I’m sure the dogs (and chickens) will enjoy that.  We won’t have the processed lamb until next week.