Hard Working Paw

Hard as a rock, stained with sheep dirt. This paw would be very out of
place treading the carpets at Westminster.

Tully on Alert

This picture makes me glad Tully is one of the Good Guys!

Tully on the Job

The ewes are "mowing" the lawn for me, so Tully is watching from his
favorite spot on the front porch.

Shear's Looking at You, er, Ewe

I got exactly one sheep sheared today. She's grateful even if she
doesn't know it yet. I hope "Baaaaaaa!" means "Thank you!"

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Beautiful

Glamor shot. I love this early morning light. In the previous pic I
said, "Sheep!" and now he's looking for them.

Did you say sheep?!?!

Also Handsome Ted

Ted is getting to be such a ham. He just turned three and he's just
starting to look like a grown up boy dog.

Handsome Sam I Am

Sam is slowing down growing and filling out some. That includes hair!
I'm hoping how furry he us now means he'll have really neat full coat.
None of my other pups have been this fuzzy as teenagers.

I Am Really Not That Fat

Wow. My apron bagged out and I'm having flashbacks to my pre Weight
Watcher days. Yikes. Anyway, more Ted helping me with my new drenching
method.

Ted in Action

Here's Ted doing his new special duty. Knee protection. While he
pushes the one I am working with a bit forward, I cup the ewe's nose a
bit. This makes her open her mouth slightly, allowing me to pop in the
meds before she has time to react to the syringe in her face. I don't
even have to grab or restrain the sheep in any way. Necessity is the
mother of invention!

Same Breed, Different Styles

It's kind of cool to see in this pic how the different dogs handle the
group. Left to right. Ted, still not quite found his groove but
definitely a plain style worker. Cord, with lots of eye, takes a back
seat and scans the whole group. Gus has very little eye and tends to
get distracted by the troublemakers at the expense of holding everyone
together. He's eyeballing Spot the new ram lamb at the moment.

With a Little Help from My Friends

With the orthopedist's permission, a BIG dose of Vicoden, and the help
of PJ and Joey, it was back to work full speed ahead today! I'm happy
to report that the Corid actually seems more effective than the Albon.
However, next round I'm going to use what Pipestone recommends,
sulfaquinoxine.

Bad Hair Day

And you think YOUR bad hair days are traumatic? An illustration of
why I keep Zhi shaved down. This is what she looks like after missing
two grooming sessions in a row (weekly bath/trim/condition).

Sleepy Sam

Morning just comes SO early. Sometimes I forget Sam is still a baby
after all. He'll be just six months the first week of September, still
a couple of weeks away.

Sentry Duty

Sam has assigned himself guard duty apparently. He doesn't bark. He
simply watches silently. I like the impulse control evident - more
like a young livestock guardian learning to evaluate what is unknown
rather than just react blindly to it.

Holy cow, look at those feetsies! Sam is either going to be big or
he's going to walk like a duck!

Handsome Sam

I still call him The Smidge but he's a smidgen no longer. I really
hope he is going to be a big boy.

Sam Says "Good Morning!"

Then Sam notices me stirring and says, "Roooo!" That's Sam-speak for,
"Good morning!"

Ted Does His Morning Workout

This is what usually wakes me up. Ted gets impatient after first light
and goes and finds a toy and amuses himself.

Summer Sunrise

One of the pleasures of warm weather: sleeping outside. Our house has
a nice sized porch and I've been taking advantage of it to escape the
heat of the house at night. Zhi, Sam, and Ted (not shown here) all
keep me company.

Nosies

I just love nosies. Ted's is particularly adorable and smoochable.

In the background you can see R2D2 the shop vac. R2 keeps the dirt and
hair from rolling us out of the house in our PJs in the dark of night.
I date my pet and kid cohabiting life Before R2 and After R2.

How to Break a Leg Without Really Trying

I'm really a genius at accidents. This time I stepped in a hole during
a walk and fell. Not very interesting, and the stress fracture in my
upper fibula that resulted should have been a very minor injury
requiring just a couple days of rest and a couple weeks in a wrap.

The genius entered the picture when I had no idea, shrugged it off as
a bruise, and went on with my usual farm and housekeeping activities.
For a week.

When I finally saw the doctor, he wasn't even sure what TO do, other
than tell me to get off it for a week and see the orthopedist if it's
not vastly improved.

Well, it's been impossible to stay off it. The ewes have been plagued
with a coccidia outbreak, requiring daily medicating. The laundry will
overwhelm us if it's not watched closely though the kids have been
good hellers there. Patrick starts teaching again this week.

So I'm not doing that great. It's off to the ortho sometime this week.

Maggie has been very attentive this whole time. That's one nice thing
to come out of it. Maggie likes having a job.

Dream Team

Cord and Ted holding sheep for treatment. The field behind them is the
last one we had cleared and will be seeded next.

Spot the Ram Learns the Ropes

"Yo! New guy! I'm Ted and you listen to me or else!"

Moving Sheep

Ted moving sheep for us to medicate them. Drenching sheep with a
broken leg isn't much fun, but a good dog literally makes the
impossible possible.

Ducks and New Grass

This is our flock of baby ducks. I know they are runner crosses but
not sure with what. The crested duck is a dilute. We don't know
whether it's a male or female. I'm rooting for male.

This is the field I seeded last Sunday (exactly a week ago). I
simply broadcast it over bare ground, cleared out of the woods. It's
browntop millet.

Besides growing really fast, it puts weight on hard keeper sheep like
nobody's business. Normal sheep we have to restrict access or the ewes
get too fat.

Maggie and the iPhone

Maggie hates cameras and usually hides. She doesn't know the iPhone is
a camera though. I've gottten some great pics of her lately! It seems
impossible that she could be turning sixteen in December. But she is!
Here's to a great old dog.

Smidge Update!

Sam's going to be six months old in a few weeks! Time is really flying and to be honest, I'm just as glad. I'm not one whose favorite part of having dogs around is puppyhood. I stress out too much over the lifelong implications of the decisions I make.

The weird thing is I don't have the same lack of confidence when it comes to the kids. I think it's the time span. Puppyhood is frighteningly compressed and intense.

We're doing fine though. I like Sam's personality a lot. He's really upbeat even when he's being corrected for mischief. He's super honest. And it doesn't take much to let him know I don't appreciate whatever he's doing.

I really can't wait to start doing serious training with this guy. I think he's going to be a lot of fun for me. I'm hoping that we will be able to go up to Christine's for regular lessons this fall. I'm seriously downscaling my sheep operation to that end. The less money goes into feed this winter, the more I'll have to spend on training for Ted and Sam! ;)

Big Bloggin' Break

True to form, I skipped an entire season here! When last we left our intrepid blogger . . .well, never mind.

Anyway, the nature of this thing seems to be, as I think I mentioned before, that when there's enough time to keep this up to date, it's yawningly boring. When I actually have news, I don't have time to update this site.

Here's the biggest reason for my being "too busy."
Meet Fieldstone Sam, born the first week of March this year (2009). He's a son of Christine Henry's Tweed and Bess. Sam has already seen sheep and has made it clear that he's going to like working a lot!

We had Creek Ridge Corp clear two fields and a path through the woods to a third field, effectively making about nine acres available for future pasture. They have the coolest toys. They used a "forestry mulcher" which looks like a giant lawnmower set on a bobcat. It can take anything down to the ground and even below ground level, if you want that (and want to pay for the time it would take). We could only afford a couple of days, so we "only" had them "mulch" the four or five acres. :)

This is what it looks like when they are done, doing about one acre per hour of super-heavy five to ten year old trees and brush (notice the ground underneath and behind Ted):



They also fenced everything down near the house for us. Right now there's almost no grass because we are now in the dryest part of the summer, but the sheep are keeping it brush free until we can overseed this fall.

The kids are out of school for a few weeks. They did great on their year end CATs. They'll both be doing third to fourth grade work this summer, then I hope they'll both be in fourth grade by fall. PJ is a smidge behind in math, while Joey is a little ahead, but a bit behind in grammar and spelling. Summer work will be light and fun though - being able to cater to the kids' moods is part of the fun of home schooling! They've got so much around here that they "have" to do that learning is often a welcome break. :)

I'll be spending more time the rest of the summer really buckling down on learning to handle Ted in trials, my goal being to run him in Open in late fall. And I'm sure there will be more adventures with "Sam I Am" as he's known around here, AKA The Smidge.

All Together Now: "Awwwww . . ."

Don't you wish you had a bed this cozy? I wonder whether this lamb will keep doing this when she's twice as big, and mom is sheared at the end of the month?

Ted Working Videos - Ewes and Lambs

Video of Ted working our ewe and lamb flock. It was super hard to see with the sun so low! I was trying to practice getting Ted to tuck in the sides, hold this entire group together. Umm, we kinda did.

What I didn't realize was that the lambs were starting to react to Ted for the first time, instead of just following their mamas. And Ted did realize this.

He kept looking around at me to see whether I wanted the lambs tucked in, too. He decided to do it anyway, if you look carefully - I thought he kept flanking slightly off contact but I didn't, fortunately, touch that, because I felt he was stressing and couldn't figure out why.

The dog barking frantically is our neighbor's dog, who runs the fence and presents a bit of a challenge working in our tiny space. The sheep are used to her now somewhat, but she still keeps them jumpy if we are close to that fenceline to the left. On the other side of the yard, there are dogs on the other side of that fence, too. The sheep hate standing in that corner because of that, and desperately want to bolt diagonally down to the right to their Zen Place in the back of the house.

I Love This Dog

Shh. Don't tell the Border Collies. But Lulu is my favorite.

Is it any wonder?
I had a WW non-scale victory last night. I threw away pizza. Vinnie's pizza. It's a milestone in my life.

Just Figured It Out

In a previous post I puzzled over the meaning of the zillions of ewe lambs we've been blessed with this year. Over Valentine's Day dinner it hit me. We are ready for the next step in our three tier program - we now have a nice flock of mules - my dream, "Southeastern mules" - version 1.0. Probably then I will only breed our Blue Face Leicester ram to a few of these older ewes this upcoming fall, and instead find a terminal sire sometime over the summer. If I don't find anything really outstanding (I'd like to find a production Columbia or British-style Suffolk from a Southeastern flock), I'll simply use my first tier ram on his half-sisters and aunts.

That solves the population problem and it's very exciting. My three tier program's been ten years in the making. It will be nice to start judging the merits of these young mules and planning what steps to take to improve on them. I've already got some ideas . . .

I'm very excited.

Today we started work on our first official pasture at this new farm. Patrick cut down the small trees that were in the way, and pruned the Giant Cedar Tree. I learned to use a chain saw, too! It wasn't too bad, really - I definitely need to start lifting my weights again, though - I've gotten to be such a wimp since the whole surgery thing last fall.

You might think a one-acre paddock is nothing to write home about (write in the blog about?). But, when the new paddock is in use, we'll be back in business as a real farm - with the land growing the sheep and the sheep improving the land. Until then, we're basically a petting zoo. A petting zoo with really cute lambs.

We had one set of triplets born last week. The smallest lamb was a bit weak at the start and took a couple of tube feedings to get going. They all are from a North Country/Border Cheviot cross and are just the cutest things. The smallest especially looks like a toy lamb. I'm used to our ten to fourteen pound baby "ponies" now, so this little guy at about two pounds, is hilarious in comparison. He is very alert and has a look like he finds everything absolutely amazing, so I named him "Shaun the Sheep." His brother is Sam and his sister is Shortly. Their mother is Snorty. The name of the sister, Shortly, is a sort of complicated inside joke. Since I have an order for three wethers and other than Shaun, that's all I have right now, it looks like Shaun the Sheep will have a good long chance to catch up growing. Realistically, I don't see him at 90 pounds in August. So he may end up someone's pet once he's weaned.

Ted's driving continues to improve. It's probably the Worst Idea Ever to practice on a bunch of ewes with newborn lambs, but that's all we can manage right now. It's a real testament to how good this youngster is, that not only his driving is improving, but my handling is improving too. Plus, the sheep are settling much better for us in what may be the most awful training situation possible.

We've found quite a few lines now where we can set up a straight drive away, and cross drive, working various draws. Ted reallyreallyreallyreally enjoys driving now - it's hard to remember now that we had such a time getting him started. It's hard to get him to stop now!

Plus, now the trees are down in the new paddock and I can let out a few lambs from the feed lot, and drive them up and down the back lot. That's about 100 yards, we figured out today. And, the people next door said they didn't mind my coming over with a few lambs and practicing on the small area right next to their house (as long as the lambs go back when we are done!).

Another fun thing we are practicing is shedding. This is kind of a no-brainer on these ewes and lambs. All we have to do is let them settle for a minute and they'll let Ted come right through with hardly a blink - and it's super easy to pick off basically any group and just go with them - the ewes only care about their lambs, not each other, so Ted's main job once we've got control of a cut, is keeping them together.

So I'm taking advantage of this time to let Ted feel out this job with a view to more challenging training to come. It's already paid off - a couple days ago I let out all the sheep together, then had to split them up again.

Gate sorting in our current setup is nearly impossible and dangerous for the last couple of pregnant ewes, plus all the newborn lambs. So I left the gate wide open and we stood int he middle of the feed lot. I used Ted to "be a gate" and we sorted off the mamas between us and allowed them to go out the gate, while keeping the rest in the feed lot.

Ted was fantastic. After a while he figured out the job and could anticipate from my body language whether a ewe/lamb was a "keeper" (requiring him to make a move in and turn her off) or a "leaver" (requiring him to do nothing). That was pretty cool.

The only thing is, he's getting a bit big for his britches with all the control I'm encouraging him to take, so I'm going to need to set up a better controlled situation soon where we can have a little chat about who's ultimately in charge! :)

I sold off all but nine of my adult ewes this year. The idea was, that we weren't going to have much pasture so I wanted to keep flock growth to a minimum.

A little sheepy math here:

Normally, my lambing rate is about 110%.

I usually have about 50% ewe lambs (females, the "keepers").

I usually lose, to old age or the occasional accident or disease, or culling (selling off ewes that don't meet my breeding standards), about 25% of my grown up ewes, each year.

I normally grow out my ewe lambs and keep from 10 to 25% of them, depending on how many I need.

This year, for some reason, my ewes are lambing at 214% now. That means seven ewes (so far, two more to go) had 15 babies.

Of those, ELEVEN are girls (ewes).

I could have a bomb blow up every adult ewe I own (God forbid) and I'd still have nearly twice as many ewes as I had a month ago.

Do these girls know something I don't? I'm hoping they know that someone nice is planning to purchase the 30 acres next door and let us lease it. Otherwise I'll either be culling a lot of really super lambs , or else looking for a remote lease somewhere.

I'm not COMPLAINING. I'm just amazed and wondering what's in store here.

Useful Dog

Today Ted earned his dog food. Pretty much all of it.

I was briefly tempted to call this "Ewesful Dog" but then I'd have to put out my eyes with forks. I'm very annoyed by sheep puns. Wether they are good or baaad.

Well anyway.

Today I looked out and in the "nursery" pen a storm had broken loose. One of the ewes who lambed first was trying to steal the lambs of the latest ewe to lamb. The two ewes were going at it hammer and tongs and not only their lambs, but also other lambs were getting knocked over and trampled in the melee.

The "nursery" pen is just getting too crowded. Normally I pasture lamb and the ewes are used to having plenty of space to give themselves a few days of privacy before rejoining the group. But, I also don't have the space here yet to jug more than one ewe at a time (jugging is putting the ewe in a small pen with her lambs).

I had a simple answer though. Just push them out in the house yard. No problem, right?

Well, I'm kinda slow sometimes. What I hadn't realized was that we'd changed the configuration of the area around the gate so that we forced the sheep to go right past where our neighbors' dog amuses herself by barking at the sheep through the fence. I love our new place and I really love our neighbors and the dog's okay, but she has a pretty sad boring life and this was a really exciting event for her.

So I'd get the ewes out the gate, past the dog, tough but not too bad - Ted handled it well. But then the lambs would see that dog and bounce back the way they came. Then the mamas would run back too.

Eventually we just sort of got the mamas going so fast that they left the lambs behind long before they got to the gate. That took some cowboying on Ted's part. I was really proud of the way he would gee up on them, but also turn it off just as quick as he turned it on, when I asked him.

We got everyone through but the oldest ewe, who stopped cold in the gate. She's a wise old thing - the saying about ewes not knowing that lambs fly doesn't apply to her - she always knows where her lambs are, whether up or down, under something, through a fence. She's been a real dog buster in the past but only if she thinks she can get away with it. As it happens, she was the single we worked the other day (Groucho).

So the most she did was make feints at Ted, who held her nicely and didn't break one way or another. Best of all, he didn't get drawn off balance - I only gave him a couple "hints" and he took them nicely. The more he worked the pressure point, the more he was liking it!

Finally he "broke" her and she turned and went through the gate. I shut it and started gathering lambs up and returning them to their frantic mothers.

This made me really glad I'd spent the time doing our "homework." There are people who scoff at "trial training" and certainly training without the natural power and instincts Ted has, wouldn't have fed the bulldog in that situation. But by the same token, Ted as he was just six months ago, with only a so-so stop and flanks that only happened if he agreed they should happen, Ted would have been a little flat black dog pancake in that nursery paddock before he got those ewes out of there.

Speaking of nursery, we are really close to taking the plunge, I think. We've just got to get out and practice my driving, which always was terribly rough and now I seem back to square one. We also need to get whistles on him (more than the stop, I mean). I think that would help both of us.

Ewes and Lambs

Ted and I had a good lesson with Robin, Saturday. I saw where I hadn't been doing Ted any favors (um, not to mention all the rest of my dogs), with my habit of letting the dog overflank. Over. And over. And Over.

Someone may correct me if I'm wrong, but it suddenly occurred to me that Jack Knox using repetitive flanks to open up the flanks, get the dog to release pressure. Yeah, great, and I tend to do it when the dog needs forward strength and power most.

Isn't that brilliant of me?

It happens because I get focused on what the dog is doing and forget to watch the sheep. Until they are pretty much facing at 90 degrees to me.

Yesterday I needed to get a single ewe with twins up to a corner of the yard that was directly opposite the pen where they feed, and the rest of the flock. She parked herself by a large tree got her back to it, and wouldn't move off unless Ted was exactly right. I'd get him there, then he'd weave a bit and let her start back, I'd try to correct this, and then we'd have her doing flips back and forth at my feet again while Ted got more and more off contact.

I stayed calm (an improvement on previous similar situations), but I will freely admit that I felt like sitting on the ground and crying. My frustration was largely in that, I needed to learn the thing that would stop all this, but I always got to this point so fast and ran out of dog. My sheep aren't particularly forgiving, particularly in this situation right now where they can easily take advantage of things being not quite spot on.

Ted gave me the answer (or reminded me of the answer). He finally decided to try something different and made a flying leap at the ewe's nose. He came down and held her eye but wouldn't take a step forward. It was like he was saying, "I've got her now, if only someone who knows what they are doing will tell me what to do next!"

I realized we needed to "reset to zero", let him take some control back, for a bit. I have a bad habit of training with the idea that we've got to get one particular thing accomplished, rather than going with the flow. I need to work on my flanks, sure, but Ted needs to go that next step in confidence.

So we wore that ewe around as fast as her lambs allowed, let Ted really push her around. Gradually, I started throwing in stops and tiny flanks (mostly correct, wow!), then worked up to driving past that same place (we did some driving in easier places first to get me "in the zone"). Much better! Then we turned at the corner and drove about half the fence line at right angles to the hard draw. Finally, I walked around the corner of the house and I had him drive the last fenceline, where the end of the line brought him to the fence where the sheep were. I was really thrill with how calm and "in charge" he was.

Yes Robin, ;) I was able to see where I needed to bring him around - we got to practice that several times and then he was able to do it on his own for most of these lines.

It probably would have been better not to do this on a ewe with lambs ("probably"? Um, duh?), but we've had to keep the mamas in the yard until I figure out how to keep the guard dogs from breaking down the electronet. Or until I put up permanent fencing back there.

We also practiced working a small group of ewes doing fussy stuff. He already can work them sort of pushing them generally in one direction, but it's a different matter to work them into a 10 foot wide lean to, or through a small gate, or through a chute where the lambs can get out one side. We also did a short easy assisted drive on that same path away from the corner that keeps booting me in the rear end. Short flanks. Keep them straight. Watch the sheep. OK, we're getting there.

We've made a feed discovery that thrills my heart. A couple of months ago I noticed our feed store had something called "breeder cubes" out and a really good price on them. Curious, I looked at it. No added copper. Check. 20% protein, whoa! They are not really "cubes" but cylindrical things that are about the size of a lighter. They are made so you can just feed off the ground if you want. They are formulated so the sheep self-regulate their intake, nibbling through the day instead of gorging in one feeding.

The sheep have done wonderfully on these this year. I also added a rice based supplement that ups their calcium and vitamin E intake. You can play like this when you've only got twenty sheep!

As I suspected, we've had a wet cold winter. The grass is going to be very lively in the spring! I'd better figure out how to tune up a lawnmower because ours is going to be working hard, I can see. I put grass out front - the soil is very thin and barren looking so I may end up bringing in some topsoil, later.

I got some flowers for the front but not sure where I'm going to put them. I think I'll do one bed, with some annuals around the rest of the house, so that I'm not overwhelmed trying to keep up with weeding.

Small Victories

Two more lambs were born yesterday, twins from one of my two oldest ewes. They are both ram lambs, which is awesome because this ewe is a terrific wether producer (strange side note: I just had to tell my spell checker that wether is a real word - it's not that obscure, is it?). That means, to put it more bluntly, that her lambs, um, make great lamb chops.

They had a rough start - they were born in pouring cold rain and got thoroughly chilled and were slow eaters. I went ahead and supplemented them with tube feedings through the day yesterday - they just needed a wee topping off and that did the trick. By this morning they were bouncing and following their mom around and were able to get out and enjoy the sunshine we had today. Small victory #1 today.

Two small victories actually. Psst. Hey mom - we're gonna stick around if you don't mind!



Speaking of bouncing, is there anything cuter than lambies bouncing? Possibly lambies yawning, but I favor the bouncing since it shows their mamas' milk is really hitting the spot.

http://www.vimeo.com/3008339

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14eovadlB7M


The Tedlet had a small victory too. He learned to handle the ram without either backing down, or cowboy tactics. Our ram is an honest guy but he will not move just because a dog is "there." He waits to be invited, and he'll test a dog's nerve the first time. He's a pretty big boy - his head's more than half the size of Ted's whole body!

Fortunately, he tends to use psychological warfare rather than throwing his weight around. So all it takes it for a dog to stand firm once and he'll move off. He's not interested in ouchy noses.

Before Ted went for training, I didn't have a flank-even-if-it-feels-wrong on him. Today, I played with flanking Ted past the pressure of that ram, and making it clear that he wasn't allowed to opt out. Thanks Christine, for "Do you hear me?" Ted heard that once and said, "Oh, all the sheep, including that rotten ram. I guess I'd better figure this out."

With "Watch his flanks!" ringing in my ears (Christine and Jack) and the memory of a lesson from Robin where she me how to help a dog find that sweet spot on difficult sheep - it suddenly all came together. I could totally see the cartoon lightbulb hovering between Ted's ears, and I saw him relax into his "grown up dog" persona and just take charge. So I let him take them off.

We drove in a big square the length of the yard, down the width, then down the back fence which is difficult because there's barking neighbors' dogs on both corners. This is where I should say, "And he never hesitated," but that wouldn't be true - he looked back quite often with his, "Are you sure?" look. But as Jack pointed out at the clinic a couple weekends ago, "Are you sure?" is a huge improvement from a year ago, where he'd just improvise if I were slow in my input.

Good boy Tedlet! (Thanks to Kristie Urbine for the picture)

Lambs and Other Stuff

Stirring title, no? Cut me some slack, it's one a.m. here. . . .

We have three lambs now, the first of 2009! Most likely this will be the last for a couple weeks if not longer. My calendar notes say that the weather was scorching the week after we ran the rams in (called "tupping").

Before the tupping season, we give supplemental feed to help the ewes "settle" better. If their body condition is increasing, it sends signals to their ovaries to drop multiple eggs rather than just one, as their bodies sense "good times on the way." The magic happens from increasing condition, not just good condition with no change, so they start slightly underweight, then we add gradually more feed until tupping begins.

We'll continue to feed so they don't have to spend as much time browsing (the rams particularly). This is particularly important here in the south where "fall" weather can be as brutal as summer with 90 to 100 degree F temps. If the sheep are fed concentrates during this time, then they don't have to go out grazing in the hot sun. This is one of the many reasons 100% grass-fed stock raising is so hard to accomplish here in the Southeast.

Anyway, when it's hot, there's no getting around it - the rams become pretty much inactive and temporarily sterile. So I often have to put up with mid-season breaks in my lambing season. Some day I'll learn not to try for early lambs. I'm an optimist. After eleven lambing seasons I'm still an optimist. Just call me Pollyanna.

I'll try to get pics of the latest arrivals tomorrow. It poured rain all day so not a great time for taking my rode hard and put up wet camera out. I have to dock tails and tag them, anyway.

Ted's back from Christine's and he's looking awesome! Me, not so much. Heigh-ho, it's back to having a terrific dog to live up to. But, there are certainly worse things.

Ted's so good about letting me catch up. We worked at a Jack Knox clinic a couple weekends ago and it was the best JK experience I've ever had. No crying, that's always a plus.

Ted makes me so relaxed. It was that way when we ran at the trial at Robin's last summer. I thought it was running on my "home field" entirely but now I see it's just the teamwork Ted and I are working out.

Anyway, Christine skillfully (and quickly, wow!) ironed out all the bits that were hampering my ability to move forward with Ted. She also increased his confidence working away and I've got a dog now that drives pretty much as far as I need. I need to continue working on his confidence holding pressure and balancing.

Ted's started working his first lambing and we're taking it nice and easy. I can see he's going to have a wonderful way with the ewes and lambs but like everything with him, it's best to largely let him work out in his own head first, how he's going to handle the pressure. Already he's reading the ewes very well and hasn't caused any trouble. He can drive a single ewe and lambs, or both ewes who have lambed, as far as I need (right now only about 25 yards). We just take it nice and slow.

All I'm doing is making sure the ewes don't take advantage of him and show him the point is to keep the ewes and lambs together by stopping him when the ewes get antsy about their lambs. I'm going to try to get some video tomorrow.

I've been communicating with a person near me who has 100 sheep and is willing to let Ted come up and work. Actually, he's eager to see it. I'd love it if it would work out for me to come help him regularly - he's lambing about 50 ewes and I'd like Ted to get as much experience as possible doing serious farm work. We'll see.

We are settling in. I saw the Big Giant Tree Cruncher in action the other day and I can't wait to get it here and open up that pasture! It was amazing - if the post driver was a testosterone raiser, well, I'd better get plenty of snacks together for the crowd of men that are sure to come "help" when we schedule this.

40 Things You Don't Know About Me - Tag, I'm It

All right, I've finally got some time to respond to my "40 Things You Don't Know About Me" tag. I take no responsibility for anyone keeling over from boredom if you dare to continue.

1. My mom's "M" encyclopedia opens to "Montana" because I was obsessed with living there when I was a kid growing up in the city. I used to run around in the tall grass growing in empty lots and pretend it was Montana. Not so much now. I hear it's cold there in the winter. I think winters here (North Carolina) are cold enough, thanks.
2. Speaking of which, I grew up in San Francisco, or rather, a town south of San Francisco, called rather originally, South San Francisco.
3. South San Francisco has a sign on the hill above it. Kind of like Hollywood but not as cool, famous, and it wasn't lit. It was, however, regularly set on fire (the hill, not the sign) so it is made of concrete (the sign, not the hill). To wit:
4. One of my pet peeves growing up was having someone call where I lived "Frisco." Since then I've decided life's too short to spend brain power on pet peeves, but it still makes my teeth hurt to hear the word Frisco. Like biting wet yarn, yuck.
5. I used to walk through projects and rival gang territories on my way to the public bus stop to get to school, and home again, before and after dark, each day. I don't think my mom even realizes how dangerous this was.
6. I know how to use a ring of keys as a weapon. See #5 above.
7. Don't surprise me while I'm walking alone, after dark. See #6 above.
8. When I was about 15, I got into a total stranger's parked car, because he asked me to while I was walking to the bus stop. See #5 above. I'm not sure why I did it, nor am I sure why he did nothing but talk, and then let me go when I said I'd be late.
9. I've only had anything alcoholic once in my life (on purpose I mean) and it was when I was a little kid and my father gave it to me. My Not Step-dad (I hate the terms real dad or bio-dad but that doesn't count as a 40 things). It was vodka, by the way - in a Seven Up can (probably to hide it from my mom). I've never been able to drink Seven Up since then.
   
10. I never did one single piece of homework at home. Ever. Ever. I got straight A's though - literally, I think I may have only gotten a B in one class in high school once.
11. I've started six novels and always quite because I would get horrified at how awful they were, before I was halfway through.
12. After I took what is called ASVAT today in eleventh grade (we all had to take it), I got calls from the Navy and Air Force pretty much regularly for the next year, and even my first year in college continued to get letters. Probably not a big deal, as this happens to many people I'm sure today, but it was back then. The Air Force was particularly persistent and I was sorely tempted. They were offering a very sweet deal - and in retrospect it probably would have been a good thing for me.
    
13. My college short list choices were Pensacola in Florida, Biola in Southern California, and a school in Lynchburg, VA - Liberty University. I picked Liberty. Yeah, I'm still not quite sure about my reasoning there either.
    
14. Jerry Falwell called us "Young Champions." Champion is French for mushroom. Therefore we called ourselves Young Mushrooms. If you spent any time in the hallowed halls of LU you'd get the connection. Decoration and upkeep of the educational buildings was not a high priority.
15. I started out as a TV major, then switched to Psychology my second year, which I didn't finish.
16. I finally finished my degree (changed again to History and Classical Languages) after a break of a few years, at UNC Greensboro.
17. The longest job I ever held was a stint for several years as a manager at Chik-Fil-A. Oddly I really enjoyed it and constantly toy with the idea of going back to it.
18. The shortest job I ever held was two days - a job at a fabric store. I reacted violently to the dust and had to quit the second day.
19. I drew obsessively through high school and college. Mostly horses in high school, and candid portraits in college.
20. One summer I sneaked down to the race track several times to draw, and secretly longing to be offered a job. One guy did offer me work, but I didn't have the guts to even ask my folks. No one had exactly told me I wasn't allowed at the track, but I had a feeling the support wouldn't quite be there.
    
21. I learned to do gymnastics on horseback (it's called vaulting for some reason) at a camp I went to every summer. Even though I have vertigo and am terrified of heights, I was pretty good at it.
22. I always (except for the horse camp experiences and trail rides) rode bareback and Western when I couldn't, but I've always wanted to learn English style riding.
23. I thought briefly about going pro with horse training because I had a real knack with the naughty ones - enough that I did demos for the horsemanship classes at horse camp.
    
24. I can barely ride a horse now to save my life.
25. I played piano from the time I was five to the first year of college. And then I dropped it and have barely touched a key since then. Ask my mom about Für Elise, I dare you. I can still play a lot of that one.
26. I also sang from the time I was three until college, and like the piano playing, I dropped it. Except, I sing in the car along with the CD player, but that doesn't count.
    
27. I know the following languages sufficiently to sing songs in them. Which is not impressive in terms of competency, but this is "40 Things You Don't Know About Me," not "40 Super Cool Things About Me." Fortunately for me. German, Finnish, Norse, Swedish, Gàidhlig (Scots Gaelic), Irish, Cornish. Plus two English forms, Middle and Lallands. Notice Italian is not in the list. I don't get Italian and am not a fan of most Italian music.
28. I can read the following with a dictionary: Spanish, French, Gàidhlig/Irish, Koine Greek, Hebrew, and Old English.
    
29. I've read War and Peace about twelve times, literally. Possibly more. For fun. I love all Russian literature. I think War and Peace is way too short. And I was seriously disappointed when I came to the last page of Brothers Karamozov. It ended really suddenly, I felt.
    
30. I have a not very secret desire to learn Russian sufficiently to read War and Peace in the original.
31. I hate dog and cat hair. Actually, any hair gives me the willies. I love my shop vac. Everyone knows that - now you know the real reason.
32. The reason hair creeps me out is I'm super touch sensitive. But my sense of smell and taste is very dull, so food is all about texture, or strong flavor.
    
33. I may be the only woman I know who didn't inherit the chocolate craving chromosome. I do like many chocolate things, but they have to fit into one of the categories in #33.
34. My favorite foods are all savory. Cheese is my favorite food of all. I once ate most of an plate of Wensleydale while waiting for dinner at a Jack Knox clinic . Jack and I nearly came to blows over the last piece. It was not a proud moment in my life.
    
35. I make awesome biscuits. Seriously.
    
36. I haven't watched TV news in more than three years, about the time I noticed that the main difference between TV news and Entertainment Tonight is the people don't smile as much on the news. And the stories are longer on ET.
    
37. I haven't read a real paper newspaper other than to glance at one, in about ten years. See #36 above, except substitute The Enquirer for ET. In my opinion, journalism is dead.
    
38. I'm a starter, but not a leader. I loathe being the center of attention. Piano and singing are kind of about that, and this probably also hampers my progress in competitive stockdog training/handling.
    
39. I'm an extreme night owl, and every single close or semi-close friend I have (including my husband) is a morning person.
40. My circle of friends is so small that I can't tag three people who have the ability to respond and haven't already been tagged by my friends.

I really thought when I saw everyone doing this, "I can't come up with 40 things about myself, much less 40 things that people don't know." Obviously, this is heavy on the childhood reminiscences which is a bit of a cheat because I grew up in such a different culture/geographical place from everyone I know now. But, I actually culled out ten items when I was done!

Who knows the way it is?
Who knows what time will not tell us?

Where is the beginning?
Where is the end?
Why did we fall into days?
Why are we calling out into the endlessness?

From Enya, "The River Sings"

The answers to these questions shape who are are, and the way we act. For quite a long time I've intellectually answered these questions for myself with Francis Schaeffer's elegant summary "He is there, and He is not silent." But I'll admit to not really internalizing this point of view.

I ignored with my choices what I knew was true, and constantly tried to go it alone. And yet, always, He was there, and He was not silent. "He chastises His loved ones" and now I look back and see that my pursuer is also my Friend and my hunter is my Father. No action is so awful, so irrevocable, that it is impossible for the Creator to make bridges, smooth paths, and open doors. It's only for me to seek the strength, grace, and ability to do what's right.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
 I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
 Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
                 Up vistaed hopes I sped;
                 And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
                 But with unhurrying chase,
                 And unperturbèd pace,
               Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
                 They beat--and a Voice beat
                 More instant than the Feet--
               "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

Francis Thomson.  The Hound of Heaven.