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!

We are adding Karl from Montana to the list. If you are sending a deposit for one of Trouble's pups please note that we will not be home in Wisconsin for a few more weeks.

Jim buying dried chilis

I am writing from the Alamogordo Library where it is possible to upload images to my blog.  Here is Jim this past week buying a sack of chili peppers from a young fellow.  The peppers are from this past seasons crop and are hot, hot, hot!

We will be traveling to Hatch this coming week to meet our friend Nancy Culley for a chat and more chili purchases :)  Nancy and Terry have Bouviers and a Wire Fox Terrier...they run agility with their dogs.

 

Yesterday we traveled to Roswell to view the wonderous treasures at the Roswell Art Museum and Goddard Space Center where there was featured the workshop of the  father of modern rocketry and his early rockets.  Fascinating!

On to things dog for a moment!  Congratulations to Lynn and Ziva on their leg in Gamblers Agility and to Susan and Noche on the first leg of their Beginner Novice and to Solo for being issued a certificate for garnering National Placement #4 in CDSP Obedience.

Pregnancy Calendar for Dogs Date: Sun 11 Mar 112 Sire: Solo Dam: Karen Breeder: Wed 15 Feb 112 First day of mating. 48 hours after the first mating the bitch should be mated again. Subsequent matings occurring over a period of time enhance the chances of fertilaziton taking place. The spermatozoa migrate up through the cervix. Thu 16 Feb 112 Sperm travel searching for a mature ripened eggs. Thu 16 Feb 112 - Fri 17 Feb 112 Spermatozoa reach the eggs in the oviducts. Fri 17 Feb 112 - Sat 18 Feb 112 Fertilisation occurs in the oviducts which lead from the ovaries to the uterus. Sat 18 Feb 112 - Mon 20 Feb 112 Fertilised eggs migrate down the oviducts and into the uterine horns. The migration continue to enable even spacing of the embryos. During this migration the eggs will grow into a blastocystes. Sun 26 Feb 112 - Tue 28 Feb 112 The blastocystes implant in the wall of the uterus. Sun 26 Feb 112 - Sun 11 Mar 112 The blastocystes will grow into an embryos. During the next two weeks the important organs will develop. Wed 29 Feb 112 - Wed 7 Mar 112 Dams nipples begin to pink enlarge. The fur on the dams belly and around the nipples may become thinner. Tue 6 Mar 112 - Tue 13 Mar 112 Morning sickness might occur due to hormonal changes or stretching and distension of the uterus. Dam may appear a bit apathetic. She may be off her feed for a while and vomit from time to time. Feeding the dam several meals spaced throughout the day might help. Your veterinarian may want to prescribe a drug to relax the uterus Thu 15 Mar 112 An experienced person (a breeder or a veterinarian) can tell by careful palpation whether the dam is pregnant. It's now the best time to do this because the embryos are walnut-sized now and easy to count. Wed 14 Mar 112 Start to increase the dams food ration. Don't overfeed, excessive weight gain should be avoided. The foetuses are now and are fully developed miniature dogs. Tue 20 Mar 112 The Dams abdomen starts to get larger. Fri 30 Mar 112 It's very easy now to feel the puppies, counting them might be a bit more difficult. Mon 2 Apr 112 - Tue 10 Apr 112 Dam begins to spend a lot more time in self-grooming. Her breasts become even more swollen. She may become a bit restlessness and begin to search for a suitable place to have her puppies. Wed 4 Apr 112 The dam might lose her appetite during this period. Her abdomen can be crowded with puppies. It is better to feed several smaller meals spaced throughout the day. You can easily detect abdominal movement now. Wed 4 Apr 112 - Thu 19 Apr 112 Nipples and vulva should be gently cleaned with warm water, you might want to trim the hairs surrounding the nipples, to allow easier access for the puppies to suck. Sat 14 Apr 112 - Tue 17 Apr 112 Milky fluid may be expressed from the nipples. Sun 15 Apr 112 You might want to start taking the dams rectal temperature each morning and evening. Wed 18 Apr 112 Twelve to 24 hours before she is due to deliver, the dams rectal temperature may drop from 101 to 98 degrees. Clear discharge from the vulva might occur. Thu 19 Apr 112 Expected date of whelp. Of course this is just an average. Whelping may take place from the 59th to the 65th day. Puppies born before the 58th day will probably be too young to survive.

A little snow overnight, about 4 inches at our place. The road was closed off due to the treacherous conditions and accidents on the mountain, coupling that with. Big otero county drug bust and we indeed felt like we weren't in Wisconsin anymore. In the meanwhile, Solo and Karen have been living at the vet's in Capitan trying to get her bred. after an ultrasound showed cysts on her ovaries. They will remain there at least until Monday which puts in doubt whether we will make the obedience trial in Lubbock on the weekend.

Here you see (if you look very closely) part of an enormous dairy..yes, those are Holstein cows...this is between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces.  I'd guess there are somewhere in the tens of thousands of cows here, the stench was overwhelming even in the car.  No green fields with daisies here!




Driving east from Las Cruces toward Alamogordo through the St. Augustin Pass there is a place to pull off and survey the vastness of the Tularosa Basin wherein lies the White Sands Missle Range and Holloman AFB.  It's quite the sight and quite the drive across this moonscape.

The past few days have been full and fun, a trip to Capitan, n.m. Home of Smokey Bear and a great feed/mercantile/tack store where I bought a snazzy headstall and a concha belt. Then over to Ruidoso where we made our annual pilgrimage to Casa Decor for Mexican tiles and some really great cheese and onion enchiladas. This is beautiful, high desert country, bordered by the Mescalero Indian Reservation. Last night we went to the Flickinger Theater and participated in the chocolate buffet and the Sons of the Pioneers show. a few days ago we bought some gunny sacks of Hatch chilis ($13/bag) in town and are now headed south today to El Paso, Tx to have my iPad looked at and to go to the El Paso Art Museum where there is an exhibit of Diego Garcia Cubist paintings...who knew?? More to come...

A little snow flurry this morning after a great warm, dry yesterday. We are at the high rolls general store finishing up breakfast burritos and coffee. Jim is busy booking us lodging in Rome for nov 3 - nov 12....he is in his element!

We are now in High Rolls, N.M., some 7000 feet above sea level - it is clear and dry, the sun is shining and the temperatures are in the high 40F range.  In Alamogordo, where I am spending some time in the library, it is almost 60F.  We took the dogs for a walk in the canyon; Karen on a long flexi and the other dogs more or less loose depending on their interest in the range cattle who seem to be all over the place looking for something...anything, it seems...to eat.  We all pooped out fairly quickly with the altitude.

So much for the convenience of the new iPad - I am unable to use it at the house - too bad!  However, we did find a local hot spot at the High Rolls General Store where we will be spending our early morning coffee time answering emails!

We are in Guymon, Texas this morning, home to half a million head of cattle.  When we come through here on the way home each year we are amazed at the numbers and the clouds of 'dust' that they generate.  We were surprised to see snow in Des Moines on our way out but it was dry through Kansas...and even dryer into Oklahoma yesterday.  There are a LOT of cattle on dry pastures ~ we sure hope for some moisture for them.  We did see a flock of turkeys yesterday, displaying their heart out, the fields that have winter wheat are green and the water is flowing in the rivers and streams so it seems spring can't be far off down here.  The good news however is that no little towns have gone missing from tornados and the dogs are restless but coping well with their extended confinement on the trip.

It is always with renewed anticipation that we head down to the southwest each year - which little towns will have grown? will we get through Kansas City before rush hour begins? will there be big cotton bales in Kansas this year and will have any towns blown away in tornadoes since last spring? We've been taking the same route - Highway 54 - for the past dozen years now and have become attached as much as one can to those little farms and homes on the byways. We head from the cold and cloudy north through the flat and farmlands of Iowa and Kansas to the warm bursts of air that welcome us to southern Kansas and then New Mexico. Our New Mexican friends will be chilled but we'll have stripped down to shorts and shirt sleeves and sneakers and grins. We'll pull out our sunblock and hats with sunbills rather than ear warmers and will keep one eye on the weather channel so that we can bask in our good fortune down in the southern tier.

A mostly cloudy day here today making it perfect for last minute cleaning and packing for our trip south to sunny New Mexico! Karen has come in season, making me quite happy that she didn't decide to wait until we were ready for another obedience trial with Solo! He's working very well and is ready to go!

We will miss our friends both human and otherwise; there is some talk about possibly coming home early this year if the weather in Wisconsin continues to be mild. We'll see, talk is cheap when the sun is shining and that warm southwestern breeze is blowing!

Noodling around online trying to find some information brought me to a little blog I was working on when Solo was a pup. Here's a most charming picture of him as a 5 week old baby. He's still a charmer :)