Supreme Champion Dorset Ram

We decided to go back to Dorsets with our little flock having had mixed success with hair sheep (Dorpers) so today I went to Rocky Knob Farm in Roberts, Wisconsin and picked out our new flock sire.  Picture to the left is his father - a dandy fellow.

Trouble helped me once again this evening to put the ewes and lambs back in the barnyard after they had been on pasture for a few hours today.  And finally, a set of twins and another set of triplets from our old girls.

New chicks!  This year we have meat birds as well as some replacements for our hen flock.  Our hens are laying well but when I incubate eggs my percentage seems to be overwhelmingly cockerels!

I have the chicks in the kennel building for this first chilly week then they will go out to the coop.  The dogs are, in the meanwhile, fascinated!

Nine new puppies!  5 girls, 4 boys!

We started the morning by going out to the barnyard in the wee dawn hours to put the sheep in the barn in preparation for shearing.  I was so pleased to have Trouble help me - she moved all the ewes, heavily pregnant ones as well as the yearlings with their new lambs - quietly into the barn.  We were done in all of 10 minutes and back in the house for coffee.  What a champ!  I decided she should stay in the house while we did the shearing and let the sheep into the pasture.  This early evening she brought them back into the barn, again very quietly.  She's turning into an excellent farm hand.  About 8:30 p.m. she decided it was time to get with the program and have those puppies - the first one was born and we will check back in tomorrow with the rest of the story!

Trouble moved into the kitchen yesterday and I moved to the TV room and slept on the fold out couch.  It wasn't too bad since I was able to watch TWO movies!  Jim generally is up and out of the house by 5 a.m. so I suspect he also slept better.  She's not due until next weekend but today would be the first day she could have viable puppies and it just seemed like the right time.  She was restless all night trying to convince me she should come sleep at least NEXT to the couch if not exactly IN it but no, I held firm and she stayed in the kitchen, baby gates at every exit.  This morning she thought she should check on the lambs and ewes with me so off we went, sure enough there were a couple new lambs to move out of the barnyard so we had a little job to do.  She also met Clover the new goat who was NOT HAPPY to see this big black dog.  She didn't remember her from when she was a kid, I guess.  Trouble thought having goats back on the farm was a good turn of events and after all, she is the one in charge of keeping them in line so its good she approved.

You can see by the pictures that she carries her pups up under her ribs rather than back farther - she doesn't stick out on the sides much at all but rather down.  She's in very good spirits and is eating well although I can already see that she's getting a little thinner than I like to see.  This morning I supplemented her kibble with 2 eggs (those hens are laying like there's no tomorrow) and also about a cup of goats milk all cooked to a kind of custard.  Actually, this is what I start pups on when I have had goats in the past and they eat it readily.  Imagine that!

Here, also just for fun, is a pix of Mr. Pea as Jim calls him.  He's displaying for the pigeons.  Silly bird.

Here is our beautiful Clover.  We drove almost to Sioux Falls, SD on Sunday to pick her up (along with her kid.)  She's a lovely doe that we bred from 14* Six M Galaxy Fawn's Callista.  I milked her for the first time this morning and she was very cooperative for a first freshener.  We are only going to keep one or two goats for milk after realizing that two people can only use SO much milk after all!

We had a nice rain last night and it looks like more may be on the way.  It is so strange to have this balmy weather in March but honestly, it is very welcome as this coming week we begin lambing season.

Clover's kid

The 2011 National Bouvier Club rankings are finally out - our little tiny kennel has done just fine with the following:

 

Alta (mom to Trouble, Sam, Kaida and Bennie)  #5 Top Producer

 

Trouble #1 ~ herding, dogs defeated.

Sister Sam is #4 ~ herding, average score 86.25

 

We also have:

#2 Open Obedience - average score 190.4

#2 Utility Obedience - average score 185

 

#1 Open Obedience - dogs defeated 236 (19 Q legs)

#1 Utility - dogs defeated 84 (7 Q legs)

 

Agility:

#3 Open Standard

#1 Open Preferred

#1 Excellent Preferred

#1 Excellent B

#1 Excellent B Prefererd

#3 Excellent A

#3 MACH Points

We stopped at the vet in Capitan to have an ultrasound done on Karen and are delighted to report that she has puppies! We are slowly making our way home to Wisconsin and should be sleeping in our own beds on Monday.

We are stopping by the library once again to take advantage of their faster computers!  We plan to leave the sunny southwest on Saturday and head north to the cold and dark that is Wisconsin in the winter!  Here it is warm but the spring winds are upon us, gusting sometimes up to 60MPH and filling the house with a thin layer of dust, coating virtually every thing.

The dogs are doing well, TROUBLE is definitely pregnant and has taken to mooning around the house, eating voraciously and sleeping in until 8 a.m.  KAREN may be, she is off her food the past few days which is sometimes an early indication but sometimes it just means the dog isn't hungry.

We have been battling a little flu the past few days which has slowed us down some but not so much that we couldn't take in the Alamogordo Public Library Garden Party on Saturday complete with original western art auction!  We bought 2 great paintings and Jim also got an odd litho of a French street scene (!)  As his mom says, that is the way collections get started although any of our friends will readily comment that 'collections' started a long long time ago!