In an effort to get a photo of the sheep for a holiday card...Trouble, Jim and I spent about an hour trying to convince the sheep to cooperate!








Trouble gets their attention and tells them to 'look sharp, sheep!'



"Wait! Wait! Don't go THAT way!"








"We're OUTTA Here!!" Oh, a gate??

With Trouble's help, they were loaded out in the pitch dark at 6:45 - I had them in the barn that unfortunately doesn't have lights - so I was worried a little about how it was all going to go - but the stock trailer has running lights so there was a dim glow. The did not want to go out, especially with the scarey tall stranger standing next to the door - but she pushed them just right. The guy was impressed. I"m back in the house for coffee. Trouble wants to go help some more.... oh how I remember those days when it was me trying to drag lambs by their wool into the trailer...or having them run down the road away from the trailer...she's such a help, you can hardly imagine...

Looking out the kitchen window - wood stacked for the winter, the dog trailer ready for it's trip south, and grey skies promising rain.

Lemon meringue pie made from scratch - is there any other way?? Thick and tangy, the best!! The big trailer will arrive on Wednesday morning to take the lambs away - good to see them go this year when the prices are still high and the new ram is due to arrive later in the week. We're staying once again with a Dorper ram and the 'hair sheep' genetics that seem popular. Hopefully the winter WON'T be colder and snowier than normal!

The dogs are doing well, herding trial season is over and we're gearing up to take Solo to obedience trials again in preparation for the 2012 trial season. He's a great, fun dog to have as a partner!

We picked up a couple bags of daffodil bulbs, trying to figure out where to plant them that the moles won't discover too quickly - a futile task, I fear! The gardens are all tilled up for the winter, new clean straw has been put in the chicken coop and the new little Call ducks are all snuggling down in it. They are supposed to be great for herding training - we'll see!!

Have just finished watching the HBO series "John Adams" ~ it was wonderful and made quite the impression on me - the dedication of those men and women who felt the drive to mold the future of a restless and raw country! How lucky we were and are that they took upon themselves such a responsibility!

I know it's not polite to brag (my parents have told me) but I can't help myself! Trouble outdid herself this past weekend at the ABdFC National Specialty by going High in Trial on Saturday with a score of 95 (out of 100.) This trial was open to all breeds so she won over some very good border collies and other breeds as well. I am thankful to have as my friend and neighbor Phyllis Clark who loves to trial dogs -- she took Trouble to this prestigious win, saving my blood pressure meds for another day :) Trouble was entered in 6 trial runs - 3 on sheep, 3 on ducks - she not only qualified but went first place in all but 1 of the sheep runs where she 'pulled some wool' as they say. It was a good ride home!

Toby (Ch. Briarlea Restless Robin x Briarlea Sabine)

He is 10 years old this Fall. He is a very handsome Bouv. We love him dearly. He is moving slow but otherwise healthy, maybe a little rotund. He arrived when my son went to Kindergarten and now my son is a Sophomore in High School! Toby has been great with the little dog too. She's his best friend really. Thought you would like this photo. Thank you for breeding such a wonderful dog. Hope all is well with you.

I have attached a couple of photos of him to show what he has been up to since he left Wisconsin.

Thanks so much for the photo; mostly thank you so much for loving this dog for the past 10 years....Sunny

I turned 60 on 9/11/11; for my birthday my husband Jim presented me with a wonderful surprise ~ a cruise to Alaska with my sons, their wives and their kids. Here we are, on the boat - Jim, me, Anthony and Crystal. It was great to be able to spend time with every one of them.

Home now, it seems all the tomatoes DIDN'T freeze!! So, I hauled out the wheelbarrow and filled it with lovely sweet red tomatoes (Jim can freeze this batch!) It seems the zillions of butternut squash did freeze however so the cows will be feasting yet.

My friend Phyllis and I are packing our bags (and dogs) and heading south to St. Louis on Friday for the Bouvier National Specialty -- this is the annual show for mostly conformation people who have Bouviers -- but they do provide a venue for herding which is where we'll be found with Trouble over the weekend. She's racked up a lot of titles this summer at the tender age of 2 so it'll be fun to see how she does next year as a more mature dog.

Summer is beginning to wind down; we dug half the potatoes yesterday - they are beauties! We moved them up out of the swampy garden area of last year which turns out was the right thing to do. Looks like the reds were the most prolific; I'll be curious about the Yukon Golds since it seems to me we've had quite a bit of rot with them in the past.

We hosted a cattle herding trial here this past weekend using our steers, then co-hosted a sheepdog trial at my friend Phyllis's at her place. It was a lot of fun; the dogs did well and the people are generally a good bunch. Thank goodness the weather cooperated!

The pigs Alice and Arlo, are doing well and are planning a trip to Mike's sometime the first full week in September. We'll miss them as they've become great pets. This picture was from the weekend, Alice is watching the dogs from under the big pines in her yard. I have a great pile of old hay and straw in this corner that they spend quite a bit of time digging and playing in - their yard is big and keeps very clean and dry with the exception of the mud bog they insist on creating near their water!

I'll need to get a little picture of the quail - we're collecting a few eggs every day (I only have 6 of them) and the plan is to make pickled eggs. Too much fun!!

Here are some pictures of Trouble dog-breaking some steers for a stockdog trial we're hosting in another week. Look at the tails on the steers and you'll see they're just flicking flies, not concerned about the dog. She moves them in both directions (flanking them) and turns them back without biting, maneuvers them where she wants them to go in an orderly and calm manner....keeping that expensive weight on them - !

What to do with those Quail eggs we have now that we have Quail??

Quail Eggs Benedict and Caviar

1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
12 quail eggs
12 2-inch round croutons
Hollandaise sauce (recipe follows)
Osetra Caviar

Bring a medium pot of water to a simmer. Add the vinegar. Gently break the quail eggs, one by one, into the simmering water and poach for 1 minute. Remove the eggs from the water with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Place one cooled, poached quail egg on each crouton. Top with a little hollandaise sauce and caviar.

My grandkids Anthony and Crystal - one last visit before Crystal heads home to Colorado!

Happy 8th Birthday, Hudson! Thanks to Jolie for taking such good care of you since you were a baby!

Say 'Hello' to Gale - Briarlea Nightingale of Rustic Road from our long-awaited litter of Solo x Birdie. She's a little pistole!!

The raspberries seem ready to pick this week along with our little planting of blueberries (12 plants) from last year. We FINALLY got some rain this morning after a month-long drought; the hayfield looks pathetic enough that I've found and purchased 15 big round bales of hay for the sheep. Today I may get out to mow the weeds out of the hayfield, more likely tomorrow since it's supposed to be 90F here today and cooler tomorrow.

Cherry pie in the oven as we speak so it looks like a good day all around!

My granddaughter Crystal is here this summer; here she is at riding lessons with Porter, a 28 year old Arab gelding. He's a wonderful horse for a first-time rider!

Wisconsin Youth having fun, I guess ... this is what we woke to this morning! And no, insurance won't pay to have it repaired....the 16' gate is pretty much scrap and the corner posts will need to be replaced, the wire restretched. Just a little more work, thank you kids!

Happy Birthday, Stryker!
Briarlea Common Virtue MX MXJ

Friday we had an enormous dumpster delivered to our farm. Actually it is only a 10 yard dumpster but it looks huge to me; it was placed on the new gravel turnaround I had created with gravel from the local quarry and our new front loader (with help from Shorty Fender, our neighbor who has a bobcat with some kind of magic leveler on it.) The local quarry which is actually only a mile from our farm has been a godsend for folks around us - we order gravel to make driveways, to fill in basement foundations, to help keep the barnyards dry - and now we understand it may be a source of sand for fracking operations in North Dakota. Locals are of course up in arms at the prospect.

But back to the dumpster. Jim and Crystal spent much of the day sorting through 30 years of miscellaneous hardware, flowerpots, scraps of linoleum, old doors, lumber, etc. and making decisions whether to keep or toss. Lots tossed, I'll admit, but the 'keep' pile seems pretty healthy to me.

I had hesitated whether to mention that we have 2 peachicks - both are still thriving after 10 days so we're hopeful that they will continue to grow. They are in the milkhouse right now, in a cage with a heatlight. There were about a dozen or 15 peachick eggs under one of the broody hens but today in our frenzy to clean, clean, clean we decided to toss them. I don't know why they weren't fertile but they weren't...either that or they got chilled somewhere along the way. I've noticed a very fat garter snake in the henhouse lately but don't think that had anything to do with the eggs. At any rate, the pigs were happy to be the recipient of these goodies.

Trouble's pups are all gone now but for one who leaves on Tuesday. They were a very fun litter - friendly, active, smart - and we are fortunate that our friend Cory is co-owning one of them with us.

Now we can focus on Birdie's puppies - Crystal is a great puppysitter and cuddler - which really is wonderful for all concerned!

I was recently reminded that my blog had been pretty quiet lately so I'm taking a minute to send Happy Birthday wishes to our Solo x Ruby puppies who just have turned a year old.

Thanks to Susan for this picture of Noche' - we share ownership of this feisty young gal; Susan's been great about getting her out and about to obedience, agility and herding lessons.

and to Sally for sending along this picture from Montana of Tilly and her friend Wally. I'm so fortunate to have had you folks find me and choose a puppy from this combination!

In other news, the puppies from Trouble begin to leave home this coming week, lightening the puppy responsibilities and giving me some time to spend with our girl Una who has been getting the short end of the stick she says. We have Birdie's puppies coming along to also help fill in that time!

The chickens have been growing and growing and will be ready for their final adventure on June 20! Now how much closer to free-range can you get, guys? We did see a fat garter snake in their yard yesterday; I think it may be a mother snake full of babies - I doubt they'll be around long in that yard though.


Yesterday we hatched out 2 pea chicks - they're hard for me to keep going though - so we'll see how these fare. The piggies are growing well and have made themselves a sort of nest in the duff under the pines in their yard; as with most of our pigs, they have interesting and delightful personalities making it difficult when the time comes to part with them. Chuck Draxler brought over 6 big hefty steers a couple weeks ago - Trouble has been working with them to get them dog broke for our summer clinic and trial. She loves and is good at it!

We have puppies here at the farm right now ~ I decided the little greenhouse could do extra duty for a little bit!

The morels are out! It's asparagus, trout and morels for supper tonight :)

Almost forgot! The newest Papillon is coming all the way from Germany's Kolibris Kennel...here are pix of the beautiful parents of our boy James Bond von den Kolibris. We will always have Bouviers of course but I think these wonderful, friendly little companion dogs will add a new dimension to our lives. We will be co-owning him with Flirt's breeder and will take him to dogshows for fun. I guess with all that lovely white coat they aren't going to be barnyard dogs!

It has been a long week here at the farm; a couple nice days when we worked around the place cleaning, Jim hurt his back hauling firewood and began gimping around yesterday and I've been sleep deprived...all of which means we're a bit of a zombie family here. I hauled some of the houseplants outdoors (too early??) and have set up the front porch for Trouble's puppies so that they get maximum exposure to our comings and goings. Trouble began duck and chicken chores, putting them in the henhouse of an evening to keep them safe from Brother Fox...and so that they can go inside at a time that seems reasonable to us humans (ie: Before 10 pm!) She enjoys the work and I've entered her in an AKC herding trial at the end of June...on ducks...so we will keep working here. The calves are growing well, they are almost done with the second of two bags of milk replacer and seem to be grazing enough that when it's gone, it's gone. We've been out looking for morels but none yet - - although the trillium are now carpeting the woodland floor here in the lovely valley.

We're glad that the membership drive for Minnesota Public Radio is coming to an end although it is interesting to listen to the many fascinating interviews that come along with the drive.

Birdie's puppies were born today - 6 healthy, good looking babes! Thanks to Seth, Bonnie and Anthony for taking such good care of her that she's turned out to be such a great mama. Check out her blog at www.birdiepups.blogspot.com!

A wonderfully warm, sunny day here - time out for a lunch break and some time with little Flirt!

From Gretyl Kay's family, this great photo! Gretyl is a littermate to Ziva, Cayuse and Rey and lives in north eastern Wisconsin.

New animals at the farm! Here are our two new piglets - Alice and her brother - her brother actually belongs to our friends Lynn and Betsy and they will need to name him :)


And here are the 'cow-boys' as we call them ... "Here cow-boys!, Here cow-boys!" and they come running for their pails of milk (most of which now seems to go on the ground or all over my pant legs in their haste to get it drunk down and FAST....) I was telling my son Seth that it used to annoy me when people would comment about how dumb sheep were - after all, sheep know what is important for sheep to know - but now if someone were to comment about how dumb calves are, well, I'd have a hard time making an argument.

Trouble's pups are doing well, growing and eating and sleeping a lot! She's taking excellent care of them although I think she pines for the day when she can come help work stock! They were a week old on Monday and it looks to me like they will be nice-sized pups.

The weather's been, well, dreadful - cold rain, snow flurries - clouds.... O New Mexico, how we miss you!

It was a busy weekend here on Rustic Road 4; my sister Suzanne came down from northern Minnesota for a visit which began with a trip to IKEA (new bathmat, some little glasses for dessert wine and new chairpads for Jim's cafe) and then the giant Mall of America for lunch at Nordstrom's with my niece Rachel. Rachel works at Nordstrom's in their handbag department where she has been a top seller of handbags that cost as much as my car. A very different life; when I showed up with a dozen of our gorgeous blue eggs she hardly knew what to think...it was one of those moments when I realized I am truly a hick!

At any rate, we put up the little greenhouse and I moved the lettuces out of the house and will transplant the head varieties out of the flats and into pots later this week; we fixed the fences that hang over the little Beaver Creek - this is a yearly chore that really only takes a little time but looms large as a project, I hauled one load of manure out of the barn and put it on the asparagus bed, Jim helped me castrate the calves (better now than later...) then we burned a pile of boxes and branches, and I began the process of cutting buckthorn. Indeed, I also found time to paint a "Open Saturday at 7:30" sign for Jim, did some maintenance cleaning on the kennel, took the dogs for a walk and swim and handled Trouble's pups - along with a little tiny video for their video diary. Last night I watched a great movie about an artist named Vik Muniz called "Wasteland" about a collaboration with Brazilian catadores.

This will be a busy week as spring starts to gear up - and we prepare for Birdie to join us on Sunday!

Deb Birnie's Aggie says "Happy Easter!"

We're waking to snow again this morning; it is coming down steadily although according to the news on MPR it should stop by noon. I've been outdoors already and it just doesn't seem all that cold...or maybe I'm acclimating.

The pups are doing well, even the little gals, and Trouble is being a great mom for a first-timer. She's a lovely Bouvier. For those of you who were waiting, yes BIRDIE is PREGNANT! She'll come here in a couple weeks to have and raise her pups. Seth (my son whose family companion Birdie claims) has conveniently planned a roadtrip to the east coast during that time. He tells me he had enough puppy raising chores as a kid!

I did move the chicks out of the house yesterday; it was all a bit much for even me ~ my friends know that our old farm kitchen has been home to orphan lambs, ducklings, chicks, piglets ~ as well as a place to make chevre and bottles of milk for calves ~ but even I needed to draw the line this time around!

Trouble's pups are born today! She flooded the kitchen floor around 1:30 a.m. and went into labor at around 4:45 with the first pup born at 5....I've set up a blog for her pups at www.troublepups.blogspot.com

An early morning here, up at 4 a.m. to do chores before heading out to a trial with Solo. He did well, getting a first place with a score of 197/200 and the best news is that we were back home by noon. We took the calves outdoors for some sunshine and introduced them to the bucket which will make feeding them easier (if messier for a while!) The little chicks are doing okay although the idea of having them, Trouble and her pups, plants, etc. all in the house is making me have second thoughts....looks like a cold wet week ahead!

I was busy in the kitchen yesterday when I realized that a peeping noise was coming from our family room...meaning, you guessed it! The chicks were beginning to hatch! We have 12 right now, all from brown eggs - none of the blue eggs have hatched, wierd!

The new calves are doing fine, glugging their gallon of milk replacer and cavorting about the barn during the day. At night they are put in pens so that the sheep can bring their lambs inside during this nasty weather.

Yesterday I snuck away to the big city to the American Crafts Council show - wonderful things, most too nice or too expensive for our life - but I was certainly appreciating the gifts and talents of the artists who have stuck with it. Today we went BACK to the city for some car-shopping since my van is now almost a luxury item....we looked mostly at volkswagon jetta sportwagons...they seem great with the exception of the unfortunately uncomfortable seats. We're going to keep looking however.

Mr. Beautiful is still very young so his tail will get thicker and more colorful as he matures ~ having said that, here he is, displaying. He will raise his tail and make it shimmy as he walks sideways - it's sort of funny when I think about it - but I suppose it's part of his display behavior as he courts the peahens or the ancient goose or the birdbath...whatever...he's not particularly choosy!

It was a busy weekend; we got the sheep sheared and were amazed that the price of our clip went up to a whopping 54 cents per pound, almost paying for the shearer this year who charges a trip charge of $30, a $2.50 fee per sheep to shear plus $1.00 to trim their hooves. They came through the winter in better shape than I'd feared what with the extreme cold.

I see that the bees actually did make it through the winter as well - and have ordered some bee cake (pollen, sugar, vitamins, medication) from B and B Honeyfarm which should come this week and give them a boost.

I moved the chicks out of the kennel into the henhouse in their own section along with feeders, waters and a heatlamp. They adjusted well and I'm sure the dogs are glad to have them gone! Then I transplanted tomato seedlings into peatpots and planted head lettuces into flats; all of which are still in the family room. This weekend we will put the cover on the greenhouse and get that set up for lettuce. I see that the raspberries had a really tough time over the winter; either mice or some other rodent seems to have stripped most if not all the canes. I know they will recover for next year but wonder if we'll get any crop at all this year. Time will tell - the rabbits stripped the dwarf apples I'd planted near the kennel and I highly doubt they'll recover. They didn't get the bottom so much as up the trunk; Jim thinks that the snowpack was so high that they just ate higher up as the snow piled up.

Most of the snow is now gone; there's still some in the ditches and in the woods but the pastures are mostly clear and we have not had the flooding that was predicted which means they should dry out and kick in to growth fairly soon. We still are feeding hay of course.

The little calves should be coming this afternoon; I'll post when they actually get here. Trouble is heavy with pups now so I don't know that she'll be much help with any of the stock for a few weeks. She's due on the 19th. Her sister Sam had a great weekend at an AKC herding trial, coming in with a 93/100 on Saturday for a Reserve High in Trial! Sunday she didn't do quite as well but still qualified...one more qualifying run and she'll have her title. The fellow who has her has done a wonderful job training and trialing and I really appreciate the effort he'd made so that we can see what our dogs are made of.

Here are a few pictures of lambs from the new Dorper ram. All these 'circus lambs' are ewe lambs! Jim wants to keep them all.

Gail was a beauty as a youngster - she's now 12 years old and still a wonderful girl.

Ch. Briarlea Blackstone Cadette

The chicks arrived on Thursday, 51 of them, all lively and chirping away at the post office when I picked them up at 7:30 a.m. They are in the kennel building with a heat lamp, feeders and water and I honestly believe they have grown since then! I'll be surprised if they still fit in the little kiddie pool by this time next weekend.

Also on Thursday, I drove over to Phyllis' house to visit with Susan and Noche' and to let Trouble work sheep a little bit. One of the old ewes at Phyllis' house had milk fever and was doing poorly - I brought her two lambs home with me yesterday and they're on milk replacer and creep feed now. I rounded out the day by taking Solo to Warren's for training (french ringsport) - it was his first session since last December and he was hot to go! It was great! Then yesterday we went to Eau Claire where we trained obedience at a new site ~ we're entered in trials this month and he needs de-sensitizing to all the commotion that comes with indoor spaces and lots of dogs and kids.

Today we worked around the place, Jim hauled hay out to the pasture where there are some dry-er spots for the ewes and lambs. The barnyard is a mess of course between all the melt-off and rain and the less time they need to spend there, the better. We are up to 28 lambs now; it has been a relatively uneventful lambing season (thank goodness!)

We sat down with pad and paper this morning to figure out our costs for the chickens - it used to be that they were cheap, cheap, cheap...but last year between buying the chicks, buying feed and paying for processing they cost us about $12 each. That's expensive. On the flip side, a chicken will last the two of us almost a week since they tend to be BIG and, of course, tasty.

Lots happening here this week ~ the chicks were shipped today which means they will arrive either tomorrow or Friday. I've set up an area in the kennel building with a heat light and a kiddie pool for their first couple of weeks. The kennel is heated to around 55F right now so it will be a great place for the chicks. I also put 3 dozen eggs in the incubator which sits on a low bookcase in the family room - I need to monitor the temperature pretty closely and also turn them a couple times a day. They will be fine for the next 21 days! I only put brown and blue/green eggs in - our rooster is an Americana so I'm hoping for mostly pullets to hatch! The tomato seeds went into a flat over the weekend; we're checking them daily for those first signs of green now.

I think we are done lambing now - there is one ewe that either is going to lamb later or isn't at all - the lambs are extremely variable this year, lots of color and size differences which is to be expected with this cross of wool and hair sheep although I don't think I'm going to continue to breed into the hair sheep breeds. They haven't really done well under our management program and I like to see more consistency in our flock...so we'll be searching for a replacement ram; either a Dorset (good mothering) or a Texel (great wide lambs but issues with copper toxicity)...so probably a Dorset.

It's in the 40F range today and we're getting some melting out in the pastures; they are predicting snow for tomorrow but not much.

Solo went to a fun match over the weekend and then to a huge obedience class of about 30 dogs on Tuesday morning. His eyes were spinning out of his head trying to look at everything! It's good he went since I"ve entered him in obedience trials in April! We go to work French Ring tomorrow - this will be our first session since returning ~ and then on Saturday we will go to another training place for more obedience. We may as well do this as long as it is almost impossible to do much outdoors what with the ice and snow!

It looks like we have Quads this year! The Dorper ram has given us these neat colors ~ we won't be keeping any ewe lambs back though, the wool will be worthless.

This is 9 month old Noche' from Solo and Ruby working with my friend Phyllis. Noche's in season right now so this lesson was a bit distracted but I figured as long as I had my camera with me it wouldn't hurt to document her progress! Noche' lives in the city with our friend Susan who takes her to agility and obedience classes. On another topic, we are glad to report that Solo had his eyes checked today and is eligible for CERF certification.