Some more pictures from the great sheep move

I wanted to share the links to two other blogs for the other two gals who were along to help with move.

http://bcreese.blogspot.com/2010/12/real-work-for-working-dogs.html

http://fulltiltbordercollies.blogspot.com/2010/12/sheep-moving-party.html


I will say it again, it was great fun and thank you, Loretta and Sarah for coming along to help.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvfGNSR2isA&feature=related


I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday Season. Enjoy your families.

December Blizzard/Snow Storm of 2010

We got hit with a snow storm yesterday. It left behind 20 inches of snow in 24 hours. This is a drift on the south side of the house.

This is Steve showing just how high the drift is.

Cash and Jet in front of the garage showing how there is no driveway.

Stryker following Steve into the snow as he is wondering what Dad is up to.

And he got rewarded with some loving from Steve.

Steve and some of the dogs heading back up to the house.

Snow drifted on the north side of the barn.

How it looks going back up to the house.

There should be a driveway there just to the right of the fence post.

This is what greeted me as I opened the garage door this morning.

And yes, there is a porch under all of that snow.

Snow drifts by the house.

Snow drifts on the north side of the driveway.

Snow drifts on the way down to the barn.

The great sheep move, December 2010

I made the 2 hour drive up to Hinckley, MN to help Janet McNally move a flock of about 110 sheep from one farm to another on Sunday, December 5, 2010. We met at Janet's house with a neighbor of hers and Loretta, her two dogs and her friend Sarah. We then drove over to the summer farm that these sheep were at so that we could start the great sheep move. We trailed the sheep about 7 miles down county roads and down the RR tracks. The dogs did need to cover a couple of driveways so that the sheep didn't go into someone's yard. I would hop off of the ATV at these times. We did have someone's German shepherd come out at one point and we had to chase him away. Not sure if he would have tried anything with the sheep or not. It was kind of like our own little Sweetgrass thing. This picture shows Janet up on the lead ATV.

This is Cash at the beginning of the move. He is looking back at me riding the ATV as if to say, what the heck are you doing up on that thing? You can see Janet's young dog, Odie, up by the sheep.

Then Cash figured out, oh this is what you want me to do. Just push the sheep. At the beginning of the drive the sheep were moving at a pretty good clip, about 5 mph. We didn't want them to move that fast, but we couldn't keep them slowed down.

Cash and Odie moving the sheep down the road.

Then Bett took over for a little while. She just fell right into doing what we needed. She didn't care that I was riding.

Keep them moving Bett.

Then we moved them down a set of RR tracks. That slowed the sheep down.

Here you can see Loretta and me, with Bett and her dog Klink continuing to move them down the tracks.

Here we are doing under I-35. This was the whole reason that we needed to go down the RR tracks, to get the sheep past the interstate.

Then we switched dogs one last time. Cash came back out and Loretta brought out her Zip. These two completed the last miles of the sheep move.

When Cash came out the second time he really was understanding what I needed him to do. I didn't hardly have to say anything to him. Good boy, Cash.

Cash coming around to tuck sheep in.

These are a couple more shots of Klink and Bett moving the sheep down the tracks.
All in all, I had a blast doing this and I look forward to going up and helping with moving the sheep back again in the spring.

Winter Storm; 12-04-10

Yes, it took a snow storm to get me to update my blog. This is what the birder feeder looked like when we got up this am. That is 9 inches of snow on top of it.

The snow was almost to the middle of this old wagon wheel. We got a foot of snow in less than 12 hours. Lots of fun digging out from under it today. Luckily it was a light, dry snow.

The mugo pines in front of our house were completely covered.

Of course the dogs thought the new snow was great fun. From L to R, Jet, Stryker and Bett.

Even Jet with being a NC dog thought that the snow was great fun. You can see that it is up to her elbows.

Sting doesn't get phased by too much. He was just plowing thru it like a little truck. Too bad it wasn't snowing as he was sticking his tongue out as I could have said that he was catching snow flakes.

We had somebody who tried to get into the garage. I opened the door this morning to find all of these tiny tracks.

All of the pine trees were adorned with snow. It makes them so pretty. We got the Christmas lights up on the one tree and the front of the house.