Eirene

My location

2011-02-24T17:40:00.001-08:00

My location:
1203 Jacob Ridge Rd
Pinnacle, NC 27043
USA
36°24.024' N, 80°23.479' W
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=36.40040,-80.39132

Popovers on Weekend Diner

2010-01-08T10:07:00.000-08:00

http://www.wdbj7.com/global/story.asp?s=11669210

Becca Shouse
Irena Farm, Semora NC
276.451.4315

Sam picture

2010-01-07T13:58:00.001-08:00

Thought this came out kind of cool.

Edited with Photogene

Becca Shouse

Irena Farm, Semora NC

276.451.4315

Hard Working Paw

2009-08-28T04:31:00.001-07:00

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

Tully on Alert

2009-08-28T04:27:00.001-07:00

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

Tully on the Job

2009-08-28T04:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-27T13:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-27T05:55:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-27T05:50:00.001-07:00

Did you say sheep?!?!

Also Handsome Ted

2009-08-27T05:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-27T05:47:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-26T14:00:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-26T13:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-26T13:49:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T20:22:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-24T20:19:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-24T20:11:00.001-07:00

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!"

2009-08-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

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

Ted Does His Morning Workout

2009-08-24T20:04:00.000-07:00

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

Summer Sunrise

2009-08-24T20:02:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-24T06:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-24T05:59:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-23T16:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-23T16:32:00.001-07:00

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

Moving Sheep

2009-08-23T16:28:00.001-07:00

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

2009-08-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-22T18:10:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-08-12T16:42:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

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 . . ."

2009-02-26T21:56:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-19T04:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-15T21:37:00.000-08:00

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 . . .

2009-02-14T21:41:00.000-08:00

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! :)

2009-02-11T18:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-05T11:38:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-03T06:44:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T22:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

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.

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.
Speaking of which, I grew up in San Francisco, or rather, a town south of San Francisco, called rather originally, South San Francisco.
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:
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.
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.
I know how to use a ring of keys as a weapon. See #5 above.
Don't surprise me while I'm walking alone, after dark. See #6 above.
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.
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.
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.
I've started six novels and always quite because I would get horrified at how awful they were, before I was halfway through.
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.
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.
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.
I started out as a TV major, then switched to Psychology my second year, which I didn't finish.
I finally finished my degree (changed again to History and Classical Languages) after a break of a few years, at UNC Greensboro.
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.
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.
I drew obsessively through high school and college. Mostly horses in high school, and candid portraits in college.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I can barely ride a horse now to save my life.
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.
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.
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.
I can read the following with a dictionary: Spanish, French, Gàidhlig/Irish, Koine Greek, Hebrew, and Old English.
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.
I have a not very secret desire to learn Russian sufficiently to read War and Peace in the original.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I make awesome biscuits. Seriously.
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.
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.
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.
I'm an extreme night owl, and every single close or semi-close friend I have (including my husband) is a morning person.
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!

2009-01-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

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.

Where in the World is Irena Farm?

2008-12-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

It's been two months almost exactly and what a two months it's been. Two surgeries for me, Ben passing away, training for Ted, a Christmas program, and most of all: The Move.

We have moved about half a mile down the road to "Jewel Pond." We already love it. We have moved most of the house stuff and we have a game plan for the farm stuff that doesn't fit here.

We've scaled back our sheep population dramatically. It feels very good. The core that is left is the best of the best of the best. Hard thoughtful culling is always a positive step for a flock. All my ewes are hardy, need very little to thrive, are parasite and heat resistant with minimal inputs, lamb with little need for supervision - no jugging for most of them. So it's hard to come up with a new culling principle.

I decided to go for uniformity. I kept the ewes that either look like or are good producers of lambs that favor my Blue Faced Leister rams. This is not an arbitrary decision. The ewes with wider heads and shoulders from my brief dabbling with Texel stock, do have some trouble when they have singles. I've done a bit of pulling of large ram lambs from these ewes. I never regret it - they mother quite well after that, but it's annoying to have to keep a close eye on only these sheep.

Ted is away for training. I thought it was important that he work in a different place, with a different handler, and no matter what always intended to send him somewhere for a few weeks. Then when we had first the one surgery, and then the bigger surgery and long recovery required, I asked (no, begged!) Christine Henry of Fieldstone Farm to take him on during this time and she was gracious enough to give Ted a shot.

It seems to be going well. Christine's been smoothing out some bothersome issues and I couldn't be happier with that - just getting that done is worth missing him for all this time. He's still weak on inside flanks but that's most likely due to my only working in a weak way before he left. I really was feeling awful the last few months and every practice session required a couple days to recover from for me.

It sounds like he should come back at least ready to move to PN. After lambing he should be confident enough driving to run in Ranch and Nursery. That's one thing lambing does for you! Especially when the pregger and nursery fields are in different parts of the farm - but that won't be the case this year. Still, there will be ewes who need to go up to the lambing shed and that will be about 200 yards from the part where they will likely choose to lamb (farthest from the house).

Lu, my oldest livestock guardian dog (going on twelve), has moved into the house for retirement. Keeping Min inside for her spay recovery gave me the idea. I realized I didn't need three dogs, especially with paring the flock in half. Min and Tully make a good team and when the weather warms up and the lambs start being born, I'll let Lu out during the evening shift again.

Lu has pretty severe degenerative joint disorder. I have noticed some slowing of her step and some limping in the wintertimes, but had no idea it had progressed this far. She's been on some supplements for joint health for a couple years, but I realized she needed more aggressive therapy.

I did a consult with Sabine Contreras of Better Dog Care. Sabine recommended a diet of high quality, low inflammatory protein that was easy on the liver (and kidneys). Lu's eating mostly fish, white rice, and potatoes, basically. She recommended a couple of supplements and I've got Lu on Cetyl-M as well. I wish I had before and after videos. It's been about six weeks and the difference is like seeing time turn back. Lu is wiggly and bouncy again!

Lu has also been on a very restricted activity level until this week. She didn't mind at all the first few weeks - then the next few she kept trying to slip out again.

I will try to keep this up again but currently Blogger runs like a snail on my poor little MacBook. I need to clean off the hard drive again.

Jewel Pond

2008-10-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

This has been a wonderful place to live, but we've always known we would have to move on sometime. The owners have no intent of ever offering an option to purchase, and have made that known from the start.

We found a new place to start again, where we will be able to purchase when the time comes.

This will truly be a start from scratch. It's a lovely little farmhouse, and just 14 acres. I'm planning to make an outside gathering area in that carport. There's a front porch, too, and it's pretty nice, but it's probably going to be pretty warm in the summer with a direct southern exposure.

The majority of it is woods, but there's a couple of smallish paddocks to start off with.

Most of it is woods and very old paddocks or very young woods. There's a tiny little pond up near the northernmost side of the property. This is the one I've named Jewel Pond. Doesn't quite live up to its name yet. I'm going with the vision here!

The inside is very well kept up. The entry/living area is a real treat.

The entry - the door has lights all the way around - currently painted over and covered up from the outside (!).

And the living room. Fireplace not functional.

Next post, the guided tour.

Intermission

2008-10-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Well, been a while. I just haven't had the motivation to take care of this blog. It's certainly not been from a lack of events here. Too much rather, maybe - I seem to have trouble translating big events in my life to the restrictions of the blogging medium.

A rundown of intermedium events, probably topics for future posts. Ted's first trial - we won our class! It wasn't a cakewalk, either, the sheep were rather savvy to the young dogs. I do have a video, as well as a video of Patrick and Gus finishing their first trial run together.

We started tupping and it's going well. I'm looking forward to a good lambing.

Chad the 4-H lamb, bred right here, is going to be shown at the NC State Fair this coming Friday. I am excited. He's grown out very well. If my guys get the bug to do 4-H sheep it will apparently be no problem to supply them from our own stock.

Our old Ben, my first Border Collie and my right hand dog until this year, passed away from hemangiosarcoma just a couple of weeks ago. It was rather sudden though Ben's never had prime health. He was almost 13 and still quite active and overall free from typical "old age" issues. We had the opportunity to say goodbye to him with a lot of grace. We will surely miss him. I'll have a lot more later.

Finally, we are moving! I'm keeping the name Irena for our business and operation, but the new place is called Jewel Pond. I will follow with a separate post with pictures and more details.

Homeschool

2008-09-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Homeschool is going full steam now. We are short a couple of subjects for now as the materials are on back order, but that's okay. The conventions and nominations are providing lots of material for current events.

Homeschooling is getting very popular! People talk to me and think it sounds like a great idea, but not for them. The results are pretty obvious - most people remark on how nice the kids are. But I've noticed people seem afraid that it's something only special people can do.

Really though, it's just something you do because you feel like it's what needs to be done. Like raising a special needs child. You just do it. And there's so many methods and kinds of people that do it now that no one really has to re-invent the wheel. Although I'm thinking of developing, later, when the kids are not taking up so much time, a curriculum for teaching Koine Greek for kids. But that's not the wheel, more like the Cuisinart.

Poor Ted went from a lot of work back to just one little training session a day. Maybe. But all the work I did when I had the time has really paid off. He's super useful now. He's really turned into the go-to dog here.

We had a chance to run a for-fun trial course this weekend, a couple of times. Although he was shaky on his outrun, he did the rest of the course with no problem. The sheep were not feeling in the mood to pen but both times we did it, we got them in. Eventually.

And we did it without lots of running in circles - mostly we stood at the mouth of the pen with Ted going, "Is this it?" and the sheep going, "So now what?" and me going, "I'm forgetting something." I was picking away at them forgetting that not all sheep are sensitive to body pressure and need glaring and stomping to get them to respond to people. Finally Robin yelled, "Stomp! Glare!" Oh yeah.

I'll post videos and say more about this next time.

Ted Is Sick of Sheep

2008-08-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

It's all our guard dog's fault.

First, they started coming over the (admittedly too short) fencing - first jumping, then getting lazy and stepping over it, squashing it.

Then the more athletic sheep started following. Not too much of a problem. There's plenty of grass right there to make them happy.

Then the late summer scorch hit this week. The grass is no longer yummy. It takes way more to satisfy them. We could set out hay, but it's hard to justify it when we've got 30 acres for them and it's only going to be a couple weeks until we start setting out feed for flushing (increasing condition for breeding).

My flower gardens are much yummier. Soon the whole flock was coming over the fence, and not just the squashed part, tally-ho.

The plan is to top all the fences with electric wire, and that will be just fine, but it won't happen until this weekend. Meanwhile my poor flowers!

Today I hit on a plan that worked! I am making the yard a place to avoid by training Ted there when I got "volunteers." Funny thing, I'm not getting many repeat customers! But I've got close to sixty sheep, and they only are coming half a dozen or so at a time.

This means Ted has worked, today, already, about eleven times, and each time we work the sheep for about ten minutes. The sheep just stand in one place the whole time, pretty much, so they are not stressed - except they don't get to do what they were hoping to do when they sneaked out of the fence. Most of them prefer not to come back, once they are finally put away.

The first four times, Ted leaped up the second I moved towards the back door, as usual.

The next five times, Ted leaped up when I said, "Look, volunteers!"

The next two times, Ted just rolled his eyes when I said, "Look, volunteers!" and waited for me to actually call him out the back door.

He's still working with enthusiasm and physically he's holding out just fine. He's not even breathing hard. It's no just longer a big deal.

The last time, only two sheep ventured out, and I tried something fun. I stood on the porch and asked him to push them as close to me as he could. He actually got one of them to step up on the bottom step, then one of the other dogs realized what was going on and barked in the window and the two sheep exploded in opposite directions. I sure wish I had had video of that. It's very encouraging for his future as a Useful Dog.

Tomorrow a friend is coming and I hope to get her to get some video.

I still can only get him to take that inside flank every so often but Robin has some ideas to share when we go over there Sunday. He's also still blowing me off when the pressure gets really tough, but his default behavior has gone from "grab and ride" to "dive and chase." And I realized today I can work on this weakness and break my sheep from running, now that he's listening better.

Harvest

2008-08-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

The kids have been picking literally bushels of apples and pears this week. The first year we were here, we barely lived here so we missed that harvest. Last year a very late frost blighted the blossoms and actually killed two of the fruit trees here, sadly. One of them was our only peach tree, and one was one of the pears.

But this year we've had a bumper crop! The ducks kept the trees free of insects, I sprayed once in the winter and we actually pruned, and the trees are rewarding us with delicious fruit. I've never tasted a heirloom pear before. Wow what I've been missing. I dislike store pears very much, but these are so different - very tasty and interesting in texture. Not squishy and floury at all.

The apple trees bear small, very tart apples, probably suitable for various apple cookery. I'm bagging and freezing them. Some will be used for us, and some for the dogs. Next year I really want to learn how to can. Our kitchen is probably a "canning kitchen" as it's huge for an old small house, and has a large walk in pantry that is original to the house. This large country-style kitchen been wonderful for the weekly dog food preparation, but I'd like to utilize it more for us, too, as food prices go sky high.

The beginning of each school year is a "harvest" on the previous one, since it's the things that have been carried over the summer, that are the things that you know they've really learned. We've been off for six weeks, so I'm delighted that both boys have fallen right back into math and writing. We never really leave off reading and science (living on a farm is one long science project!). We are having to do some review on handwriting, but that was a new subject for both of them the last couple months of last year.

This year we'll be doing some serious current events, of course, with its being a Presidential election year. Today we talked about registering to vote, and some of the reasons wars start. I try to keep our lessons neutral, though you can never teach in a way that's completely free of a world view, since we are not machines. But, though we are very strong Conservatives, and the kids know it, I also want them to know why other people think like they do, and I also want them to know I don't think a hole will open up in the time/space continuum if they grow up to vote on the Liberal side of issues.

Ted and I have been putting in the time lately in all weathers, on sheep and ducks, and in various locations. I think we are finally reaping the fruits of that work, too. Ted's attitude has suddenly shifted to one that is workmanlike a lot more of the time. More importantly, I feel a lot more confident in trying one thing or another, and acting when necessary to correct him if he gets to fooling around. One really needs to be able to act almost without thinking many times, and the ability to do that and have it be the right thing (!), only comes with practice. One really can't buy it, or get it from books, or the internet, or even clinics or lessons.

We had a fantastic visit with Ted's breeders this Sunday, who came down for a visit at Robin's. I'll post more details about that later when I get some permissions to share some videos.

Mark Billadeau held sheep for us for a couple of outruns and Renee videoed them. I was sure that this would be a disaster if the camera were "rolling" but to my surprise Ted did well. This was also Ted's first time taking sheep off someone holding. Again, he was very sensible about it, only showing a moment of hesitation the first time.

This first one takes a little while to get to his actual outrun - Mark and his dog are the first ones you see at the top.

Contentment

2008-08-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's natural, I think, for people to want to improve the things around them. And I believe that's a healthy instinct. The New Testament talks about "reaching for the goal." So I imagine that there are many things in our lives that could use improvement, and that it's important to discover those things and do our best to raise the standard.

But, there's lots of things that I'm learning fall into the category of "leave it." And some things do need improvement, but not in the way I think. I'm starting to see that almost always, the "leave it" things are the ones that are out of my hands anyway. And at other times I need to be cautious about my motives for wanting to "fiddle" with something, and my methods for doing so.

My brain hurts from all that abstractness. Let's get down to concretes.

The dogs have certain characteristics. I get into trouble trying to change things when sometimes these things are basic to their nature. Instead, what I should be looking for is how to shape these characteristics in a way that we are not clashing over what the dog wants versus what I want. When I do this, an amazing individual emerges - and if that dog doesn't fit here, there's most certainly somewhere that dog fits.

The more I focus on the dog, the fewer regrets I have for the choices I make. If I'm alert to the dog's personality and needs, and issue a correction in the wrong place, the dog will tell me and we can take that information and take a big leap forward next time!

I feel like I may have gone back over the bridge to the Land of Unicorns and Rainbows again.

I realized I've been making a somewhat major error in what I'm doing with Ted and really confusing him. But for the first time, maybe ever, I caught it myself and didn't spend time beating myself up about it.

It didn't feel like the end of the world and indeed we almost immediately got over it as it turned out. It's not that I care less about training than I used to, it's that I've finally learned how to enjoy the journey, I think. It's all about working with what's at your fingertips right now, and not comparing it to what "should be" at some future time. And that goes for my own progress, too.

The mistake, by the way, was that instead of a mild correction for taking the wrong flank, I was simply lying him down then reflanking. So, every time I stopped him, he was getting to where he'd automatically flank in the opposite direction. I was also using a bit too much drama to get him pushed back to where he'd cheat on me. Once I discover a level of drama that works, it's hard for me to let go of it and let the pressure off the dog!

Good Sheep Make Good Dogs . . .

2008-08-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

I thought this was really cool. A friend and Open handler suggested on the Border Collie Boards this interesting way to help a dog learn the point of a nice, even paced fetch.

My sheep have drawn my dog into a cycle of fetch, push past me, and then circle around to head them off. This is so wonderful and reinforcing that each time it happens, if I'm not riding Ted's rear end with corrections, Ted will speed up even more so the sheep will go farther than the last time!

In this video you can see in the beginning where the sheep are galloping way down the field at the end of the fetch, forcing me to send Ted around. At the end I try to correct this with downs and scolding. This works okay but it does increase the tension.

In the next video, I'm following Denise's advice to try to settle the sheep and let Ted hold them quietly. Her idea is that if you reinforce the end behavior that you want, that's what will be strongest. It's good learning theory! And it fits well with Ted, my task-oriented dog. There's nothing he likes better than to be shown the job and then figure out his own way to do it.

In this video I'm not succeeding 100%, but it's hard to teach these sheep to stand still. The last time I got closest. I have been working hard at this and it's been an eye-opening lesson in itself! I use a different set of sheep every time so they are fresh. Gradually pretty much everyone will be broken, and they will be willing participants in training rather than nervous and looking to beat the dog all the time. Ted is teaching them to trust dogs, and in the future they will teach dogs to be good.

We're also continuing work on those off-balance flanks. Today I got Ted to confidently flank inside for the first time - that's more than half the battle on driving!

Obedience

2008-08-08T11:58:00.000-07:00

Obedience is
The very best way
To show that you believe . . .

That's an old Sunday School song that's been running through my mind this week. In my mind, I want my dog training to be all about trust, the dog trusting me and me trusting the dog. Ironically this is probably the number one issue I have when I'm actually out with a dog. I don't trust my dogs, not really, truly, and they don't trust me.

If I ask a dog to do something, I'm instantly overcome with a wave of second guessing myself and the dog's ability to do it. Then the dog gets tense because that's a really strong vibe of indecision I give off at that point. It translates, for instance, into physical hesitation on my part.

Ted's a pretty eager to please kinda guy. He picks up on my signals really fast and he currently thinks it's his job to figure out everything himself. That's something we've been chipping away at, and now Robin thinks we are ready for the next step. I'm working him pretty much mechanically, giving him commands that don't feel "right" necessarily. He's still in control of the stock, but what happens with them all comes from me.

It's proven to be incredibly hard to make myself do this, until I thought of it in terms of allowing Ted to show me, one way or another, whether he trusts me. And it allows me,
to show him, that if he gives me a little I can give him a bunch back.

If he wants very badly to go one way, or the easy/correct way is in a particular direction, I send him the other way. And he's got to stop when I ask, not after or (more often) before. But, one thing I've noticed is that it's interesting trying to make this about just one difficult thing, not giving him a whole bunch of reasons to refuse in a row. Eventually (soon, I believe), he'll be ready for being sent where it's hard, and stopping off balance, and doing it in places that are scary, on sheep that are scary, but not now. When I get it right, I can see the tension melt out of Ted and he becomes "looser" - no hesitation about flanking or stopping or walking up when asked.

One time today, I was out working him and marveling that he'd gone so fast from very hard to move off balance, to seeming to enjoy swinging right around. In my usual way I was so busy thinking, "Wow, isn't my dog cool" and poor Ted was still executing my last command - "Come bye." I think he did two and a half complete revolutions before I came back to Planet Earth. So, that was good but a good example of too much of a good thing. We did some nice outruns and fetches and driving after that to cool things down. The ducks seemed very amused.

On that note, I quickly figured out one way to simplify this for Ted. Robin's sheep are, of course, lovely - mine, not so much. It's very difficult to translate something we are doing there to my sheep sometimes. But, I figured out my ducks are perfect for this sort of thing! They cooperate perfectly, since this is what they were raised to do, and they've never been significantly harassed.

I need to put a video up of one particular place where I feel I'm not quite getting it. It's when he's balancing them right to me - it's really hard to get him to flank off balance there. I accidentally got him going around a couple times but I'm not sure how or if it was right. I'll work with it some more and see whether it will just come out in the wash.

And Now for Something Completely Different

2008-07-21T20:20:00.000-07:00

Some comic relief in the middle of today's Ted training video. A sheep steps on my flip-flop and then walks off wearing it. Otherwise it's more of the same. I do see in this one, that Robin is right, I'm behind him and need to get in the right place. Significantly, after the flip-flop incident, Ted goes very nicely and guess where I was when he went?

I set out some markers to help me see when Ted "leaned" - and to make it more of a job than a drill. I think that helped us both be a bit more relaxed.

A Fresh Start with Cord

2008-07-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Cord loves ducks. But he doesn't like working them on water and I will need him to do this later when we release these ducks on the pond. Ted will work them on water but I'll need both dogs to push them right up on land, most likely.

So, I'm starting from scratch with Cord. Cord doesn't like to "mess things up" on ducks. His eye is telling him to seek equilibrium. I want him to enjoy pushing the ducks past his Happy Place. So all I'm doing is asking for him to move them as he wishes, as long as he keeps moving. He's fully trained, but I'm using few commands so he associates the various pitched shushing sounds I'm using, with Fun and Frivolity. I hope this will increase his confidence as we go.

There's a Reason

2008-07-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

I was a bit disappointed when I had to reschedule Ted's much-anticipated trip to "college" but I very much understand that his future trainer wants to make sure she does well at the Finals in September. Heck, for selfish reasons I'm very interested in her doing well - not to mention my best wishes for a friend and one of this year's few representatives from the East Coast. Now Ted will probably go in November instead.

But, I should know better than to have regrets over things that are not in my control. First, if everything goes as planned, he'll get a ride there instead of our having to take time away from the farm. That's a small thing.

But, the exciting thing. Since we are not driving to his trainer the first weekend in August, we might be able to do something I've wanted to do for a long time - participate in a Habitat home raising! Our credit union is supporting their latest push and supplying workers from their employees and any members that want to volunteer, too.

Meanwhile, I continue to grow and learn from Ted's training. After my week away we were both really rough this afternoon. It was hot, this exercise was a bit intense, and so I only worked him a few minutes. The idea is to discourage him from pushing all the time on the sheep - on flanks especially he's got a really lovely leeeeeeeeeaaaaaan in that drives the sheep a bit batty.

It's difficult to work this on sheep that are not dog broke, as I'm also working with his tension about "losing" them. I believe next time I'll work in this in the round pen. There's no dishonor in returning a dog to the pen to fix something, I believe - especially if we can make a major breakthrough on this!

An interesting fact is that there is a direct relationship between this problem (which I don't have the understanding or terminology to describe yet), and the fact that Ted doesn't really look for sheep when he runs out. Once he's got a set of sheep he keeps them together till death, et cetera, but he will blithely ignore sheep that are inconvenient for whatever reason. It's a maturity thing and I'm not worried about it. I sense that it's one of those "problems" that has a positive flip side.

I am using (well, attempting to use) two different approaches to helping Ted correct his "lean." In the first, I've placed the sheep so the fence and me keep them stationary. This "makes the right easy." As Ted begins to lean, I simply scold him, but also step back a bit wider (or try to do this - amazing how a week off will throw one's timing all off! We'll see whether I can get better at this.

The next phase, which was our assigned homework, was a bit of a disaster. I wish I had had time to practice this when I got home last weekend, before I hit the road for the week, so it would be fresh, but it was just impossible. My failure to execute this, I think, has to do with the difference between the lovely sheep at Robin's, and my knuckleheads (actually they are fine sheep, they just aren't hip to the whole "dog broke" thing).

What I'm supposed to do is create distance by, well, it's hard to describe but I need to keep him moving while at the same time make him think twice about "claiming" the space I've designated as "mine." Problem is, I am in this video, at no time, very clear about that message, and Ted finally breaks the tension with some tomfoolery. That's actually fine too as he needs to learn that he gets nowhere doing that, and also how to recover when things go badly (reducing his tension more - he gets scared that things "might" happen).

Enough yammering (nothing worse than novice yammering, probably - I'm sure there's much wince worthy in this but it will be helpful to me later to see how I perceived Ted's progress).

Graduation Day

2008-07-20T16:21:00.000-07:00

Friday, we took Bet up to Northern Virginia to begin what I hope will be her new career. We took the opportunity to make it a much needed break from both the farm and the kids. This was to be our anniversary trip also - our fifteenth!

I am grateful for the help of good friends like our neighbors, who watched the boys, and Laura, who came and watched the farm for us. she did a bang up job and I really hope we can talk her into doing it again sometime. I.e., that she was not too traumatized by the experience. I promise next time that we will not booby trap the swing and the water hose!

It was a lovely ride up the Shenandoah Valley and we arrived an hour or so from sunset. We had a wonderful time after we dropped off Bet, in breathtaking Prince William County, including a tour of the Manassass battleground. Well, just a small part of it around Henry House as we had forgotten to bring sunscreen for Patrick.

As usual, I took some "Graduation Day" pictures of Bet before we left.

Is this my good side?

Hey, what's that?
People who have seen Bet in person are probably amazed that I've gotten so many pictures of her holding still. It's the magic of multiple frames, my friends . . .

Hey there! Got sheep? Geese? Ducks?

So, I got a bunch of pictures because, really, how cute is this dog?

It's really her main "fault" because she knows she's so adorable and oh, how she can work it!

Seriously, how could you even think anything this dog did could ever be wrong?

See, if you had her you'd want to talk like a chicken too. You know you would.

Bitty Bet on Geese

2008-07-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

Bet's been here since, I believe, March. Ish. She and I are really starting to come to an understanding, I think. She's now almost done with her training and in fact is going next week for her "on the job" training and, I hope, her forever home!

Bet lost her last three homes because she has a bossy personality and way too much energy to burn, and it's a little hard to get her to focus on anything for more than 2.7 seconds. Training her has been all about walking the line between a serious "my way or the highway" attitude, and trying to show her the rules of the game. Every dog teaches me something and Bet's lesson to me has been how to play this balance.

The idea here is to show her the trick that these farm geese do, that I call "lame duck." One goose from the group lures the dog away while the family group heads for safe water. Finally at the end Bet gets that she's supposed to stay with the big group! Yay for Bet!

I'm going to try to embed this thing.

Holy moley, it worked, another milestone in my blogging life! There's more where that came from, mostly Tedlet videos, so I hope I'll have some time later to post those.

As the philosopher said, "Ta-ta-for-now!"

Interim

2008-06-30T19:33:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-18T03:28:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-16T22:15:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-13T22:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-13T08:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

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?

Update! Kids' Demand THIS Recorded

2008-05-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

So we had so much of the above left over, we had leftovers tonight. I shredded the chicken as it heated, added a smidge of water, and then made a simple cheese sauce (below). We served it with tortilla chips (blue chips, our favorite!), smothered in the cheese sauce.

Slightly More Diet Friendly Cheese Sauce

1/2 cup fat free sour cream
1/4 block Velveeta

Start heating the sour cream over very low heat in a heavy saucepan. Or, better, use a double boiler (I don't have one of these - it's on the List of Things to Get When I Remember). Meanwhile, cut the Velveeta into teeny-tiny chunks - less than 1/2 inch ideally. When the sour cream is bubbly hot, add the Velveeta. Then stir until it's all melted (you don't have to stir as much with a double boiler). Makes about a cup.

Chicken and Chili Beans

2008-05-23T13:31:00.000-07:00

Many times I'll go grubbing around in the pantry and freezer and throw something together. Sometimes it gets rave reviews. Sometimes, not so much. The problem with the former is that invariably I forget what I've done (the problem with the latter should be self-evident). Hubby pointed out this blog is a good solution to preserving the randomly-generated successes for future use.

I've been informed by hubby that I must put this one, whipped up last night, on the blog:

Chicken and Chili Beans

2 lbs chicken, boneless thighs or breasts (these you'd cut up into quarters)
2 cloves garlic, diced or just smooshed like I do
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can chili style beans in sauce, not drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained well
1 tbsp dried cilantro or about 1/4 cup fresh chopped
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup hot water or fat free chicken stock
1/4 cup salsa, any style

Heat the oil in a large heavy skillet, on medium and add garlic, saute until golden brown. Add the chicken and saute until opaque, about five minutes each side. Reduce heat slightly and add remaining ingredients except salsa. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes. Add salsa and cook five minutes more, to warm salsa through. Serve with warm tortillas, or over brown rice. This makes lots for four.

This recipe is Core for Weight Watchers, and very low fat and cholesterol for others watching their diets for various reasons. And the kids loved it with the tortillas - especially topped with cheese and sour cream!

A Useful Dog

2008-05-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

My standard for what makes a Border Collie, a good Border Collie, is "usefulness." To me, this doesn't mean my dog could do something if he had training, or a better handler, but that he will do it. Usefulness is the opposite concept to letting me down when we're out there working.

I know that many times it's my fault my dog can't do something, or doesn't know to do it, but there are other times when a dog should just be there, keeping contact but not making a mess, and that's all I need. I'm not trying to win the Bluegrass or Soldier Hollow here, just getting sheep from Point A to Point B.

Ted delights me more every day. I know, it's sort of reminding me of the coach who admonished his young athletes against showboating in the end zone: "Act like you've been there." It's still wonderful after so many disappointments, to have a youngster with all the pieces in the right place.

This morning we had a new experience. The newly weaned lambs took a field trip deep into the woods, probably after the poison ivy and other brushy leaves currently at their tasty, tender best. This would be okay with me, but the woods are outside the fence, with the paved state road bordering them, and after they browse their fill, the sheep tend to wander down to my landlord's beautifully landscaped small pond, drink, and then top off with a few of his wife's perennials for dessert.

Ted worked in the woods like there were no woods. He was ~~fantastic~~ (Ack. Act like you've been there.) level headed and found each lamb, plus made sure the mamas with younger lambs all came with as well (and weren't flustered).

The nice thing is that I think this may be the first time that these sheep haven't had the upper hand in the woods. They like to play games with my dogs, who all being hand-me-downs, or trained by me in - ahem - previous years, all have major weaknesses.

The other nice thing is that I think this was my big payoff for all the work we've been doing on fences, in corners, and in the lean-to. Weird pressure was always Ted's Achilles heel, and here it seemed like it was almost the opposite - he really seemed to relax and get into the "busy" nature of the job.

The only bad thing was that he was so "into" it that he was hard to stop and about 50% less obedient. He was handling things just fine on his own most of the time, but there were a couple times that if he had listened, I could have helped him a bit.

I think we'll do some putting sheep in woods on purpose, in the near future, and see what we can do about that last bit.

I Totally Should Not Be Doing This

2008-05-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

I tried the blogging thing several years ago, when you had to explain to most people (meaning all but the geekiest of geeks), what a "blog" was or the meaning of the verb "to blog" (I blog, you blog, thou bloggest, they will have blogged). I didn't like it for a lot of reasons. The blogging sites either offered not enough control over look and feel, or too much, meaning you had to do it all by hand via html. I'm too much of a control freak for the one, and too lazy for the other, to be worth it.

Then a short while ago, I started realizing that my long e-mails about, well, not much, were boring people. It's now de classe to put that sort of thing in personal communications. I could almost hear their thoughts - Why don't you blog instead? Then we could pick and choose what's interesting?

So here we are.

I’m one of those “too much or too little people” - both phases supremely boring to read, I know. So, what my hope is, is to make this as extrospective as possible (though blogging is de facto an expression of introspection, even on external topics). Not to make it less boring, but in the hope that I’ll culture that habit in my thoughts permanently. And that's the last really "me" focused bit I hope to bring here. I have to plead indulgence for spiritual reflections however - this is the inevitable result of writing to a diverse audience.

Plans for the week: I’m working on building Ted’s confidence holding and working with pressure. This paid off many-fold when I had a customer come for a lamb. Ted held them for me for about thirty minutes, largely on auto-pilot, while we yakked and I pulled out one lamb after another to compare and narrow down our choices. It was only when they’d gone that I realized that was his first time doing that, solo, for that length of time. And afterwards, just curious, I took him out to see what doing the “cutting horse” thing for that long had done to his “outwork” - and lo and behold he now has twice as long an outrun, and shows no more than a normal baby dog amount of nervousness on the drive.

Thus, I’ll continue to work on his “at hand” pressure, and play at training trial type stuff pretty much only when others are here - or to set it up for a video. Meanwhile I’m delighted that he will now go out reliably for sheep as far as he really needs to anywhere on this farm, with the exception of the large field. The issue there is less the distance (in sight gathers are around 250 yards now since we fenced the bottom chunk), and mostly the fact that the dog must work out of sight for most gathers.

I'm also going over to the lake twice a day with Bet (except days I'm too busy). She's gotten amazing at spotting geese even before I do. It's hard to see them on the hilly, woods-surrounded lawns since we go when the light is pretty low. The geese have gotten to where she doesn't even have to move, they just go where she can't see them, uplake.