Interim

Well, I've discovered the first pitfall of blogging. When there's lots of interesting things going on, there's no time to write. When there's time to write, there's nothing interesting to write about.

We've been shearing, entertaining like crazy, I've been getting Ted ready to go to his trainer next month, and I'm getting two dogs ready for goosedogging (I hope), and one ready for his new life as someone's full-time companion. Until the travel madness of week after next starts, I'll have a chance to breathe over the next week.

Breathing means catch up work, though! We still have to finish up shearing (I sprained my wrist pretty badly and had to stop last week). Plus, we will be putting in another line of fence, bringing our total paddock space to twelve acres (four three acre paddocks). I don't foresee our ever fencing in the big pasture. If we fence in anything, it might be the four acre hay stand across the road. It's a crying shame to let that go to waste but it's bounded on two sides by highways so we'd have to fence it very securely, to the tune of about $1000.

So this entry is a placeholder. My apologies for that. Later, I'll post more on shearing, Ted's training, ducks, and goosedogs. Not all in one post though. This will help me remember later when things get boring again, what to write about!

Lynn's New Diet

Lynn starts a new chapter today. While three of the dogs are on 100% raw, anyone who isn't up to now was on kibble with fresh food supplements "just in case." I think, for one, that Patrick was a bit uneasy about the hodge-podge approach.

So when puppy Lynn came into our lives and presented me with several health problems (her age, her rough start in life, feeding a "giant breed" who wasn't really because of undernouishment) - I decided to call on an expert.

I just got my consultation back from Sabine Contereras at Better Dog Care. This will be fun! I'll replace her breakfast meal (now kibble with some toppers) with a meat, fish, rice, veggies, and organ meat mixture (the meat will be raw, the grain and veggies cooked and pureed).

These will be mixed on a weekly basis and portioned out in daily servings for the convenience of the menfolk who sometimes take over feeding (like now since I injured my arm shearing!). Freezing in cupcake forms and bagging up the "meatballs" means that PJ can take a more proactive role in feeding Lynn.

Raw meaty bones will also be portioned out and bagged separately just for her as Ben's, Maggie's, and Zhi's currently are. Her diet will consist of turkey, chicken, and pork - this is nice because these are all already currently a part of our diet. That's what I like about "Mordy" - she works with what you are most comfortable doing, or have access to.

Lynn will not miss out on sweet treats like berry smoothies and freezies, and recreational bones like this week's goat shanks, so that will be nice.

Our goal with Lynn is to improve her tolerance for a wider variety of fresh foods and challenges to her immune system, and help her continue to recover from early malnourishment and gastro-intestinal infections (parasitical and disease).

Dog Food Geek on Aisle Four

Today the selection at Compare Foods (Hispanic market) was particularly good. Goat on sale, calf heads, chicky feets, whole cow feet, pork kidneys and hearts - everything I was hoping to find basically. So I'm mumbling to myself estatically, exclaiming at new finds, throwing stuff in my cart with cackles of glee.

Suddenly I notice on my left, a store clerk looking at me fixedly. I looked to my right and yup, there was a mother and a teenaged daughter, also staring at me.

The odd thing was that I was so happy with my full cart, that I didn't really care that much! I just smiled at both of them and went to check out.

Bet on Sheep

Bitty Bet has an interesting love/hate relationship with sheep. Since coming here, she's settled down a lot, but she still doesn't like being "fiddled" with. Since "fiddling" is necessary here (the dog often doesn't know best how to get the sheep or even where they are), I've had to build up her tolerance for this slowly. Thus, since sheep require a lot of listening for a dog to be useful here, she greatly prefers working ducks and geese in the water, an activity which only needs about a quarter of the input from the handler.

Soon after Bet arrived, for instance, we had to put about 35 head, ewes and lambs, in our 15 by 15 lean-to pen. The sheep can play ring-around-the barn indefinitely if the dog simply follows the heads blindly in this situation - new dogs have to learn how to block that game, and how to act as a team with us to get the sheep in.

Since Bet Would. Not. Stop. - it was a minor disaster and she ended up frustrated and exhausted. We had to use a second dog to stop the merry go round action - once the sheep know they can do it, they'll keep doing it dog or no dog, unless you get a dog that can stop them, or a backup.

Today Bet made me proud. For some reason today the sheep were all over the place in our 15 acre back field, and Bet took every direction to find them in a blind corner about 200 yards back, then over the hill and down to the pond, then back down and further across the dam when I realized that wasn't all of them.

Not only that, but each time she brought them quietly and not railroading them along - very important since it was 91 degrees out there! She did need many reminders but she took them all and they didn't make her sulky!! Then, when we got to the gate, she took several off-balance stops and partial flanks, allowing me to sort off the ewes with lambs without any fuss. These were a real issue for her when she first got here.

She's going next month for a tryout with a wonderful goosedog handler in VA and I'm pretty sure she will make my friend very happy. But now I'm starting to think it wouldn't be so bad if she flunked out. . . .

Livestock and Heat

I've been re-reading my Pasture Profits book again (on forage-based livestock systems), and giving some thought to the problems of raising sheep in the southeast. In the past, I've thought of it as a heat tolerance problem related to the ability of the animal itself to survive in heat and humidity. I've focused on my sheep's natural ability to resist worms, thrifty feed use, and kept up with mineral requirements to try to ensure optimum health during this time. It works well, but I still hit a real hard wall with regard to growth at this time.

Now I'm considering this as a feed management issue. If we lived in an area where we had harsh winters and snow cover, we'd have to ensure that food was available and accessible. There's no snow cover, but the hot sun means the sheep can only eat at certain times of day, or in the shade, where the forage is soon stripped.

If I had zillions of dollars, and we actually owned this place, I'd rework all my summer pasture over to heat-tolerant forage and ensure very dense ground cover, particularly near shade and water. But, that's not possible. So I've come up with a plan that will include concentrated feed for the lambs through the summer, as if they were being dry lotted, plus access to good but not superior hay in a shady area (the concentrated feed will provide energy). I estimate that I'll only be feeding a few wether lambs, some bred ewes for fall lambs, and my replacement ewe lambs, over the summer, so this will not be a big hardship. It will pay off in heavier and healthier lambs I hope, and a good pregnancy for my ewes that will be bred over the summer.

I'm very thankful that we have the paddock space to do this!

I will continue as we've done, with the open ewe flock, just rotating them over pasture until the big dry spell. I hope we'll have some hay stocked up for that - I'm planning to purchase some rounds now while the prices have dropped - they are a quarter what they were going for just a couple months ago!

The ducks, our Rouen flock, are doing great with access to their little swimming pool. They are about twelve weeks old now and swimming like, uh, ducks. The kid's job is to feed them twice a day, and change the water every time it gets ooky, which is a few times a day now. I love my ducks! They are keeping bugs low in the yard and garden now - last year I had tons of slugs - this year, not a one! Go little ducks, go!

Do No Harm

I haven't posted in a while because I'm still unsure what direction we'll take here. I've been reading various blogs. Some I've enjoyed greatly, and I've taken note of what I liked about them. Some have not interested me as much, though sometimes the subject matter is a topic that appeals to me. Some have downright horrified me, and I've given them a wide berth after reading enough to ascertain that it doesn't fit in my standard of things that should take up my time.

. . .Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Phil 4:8 NIV)

Not only do I want to follow this in my own life, but I want to offer something that fits in this guideline.

I've seen blogs from people who seem to delight in hurting others. I cannot understand this. One person, one life - we have only one chance here to make a difference one way or another. Why be one who is adding to the hurt in the world?

Obviously I am a theist. More specifically, I believe Francis Schaeffer's manifesto that "He is there, and He is not silent." I think we have a responsibility to reflect God here in this plane of existence, of space and time.

Thus, I'm seeking a purpose that not only refrains from harm, but also will elevate readers in some small way.

I know what I don't like, as detailed above. Plus, there are blogs that inspire me to move on quickly but for no reason other than boredom. I greatly fear being one of those myself!

What I do like are blogs that are humorous, and also provide some service, whether it's information on a topic, or recipes (yay for Pioneer Woman!), or just really wholesome entertainment (yay for Pioneer Woman again!).

All of this being a long winded way of saying, I still have no idea what to say here, yet! And, I just realized to my chagrin, that this is a blog about blogs - even worse, about my blog. Arrgh. Does that make this post a metablog?