A morning of hoarfrost

We were supposed to have fog this morning and instead I woke up to hoarfrost on everything. I like how the sun reflected off of this shepherd's crook.

And this shepherd's crook also had a nice coating of ice/frost.

This is the view of the trees on the way to the barn.

This is Steve's Austrian pine tree. It was so cool how it was covered in frost.

Yes, the Christmas lights are still on the tree. It was so cold for the two weeks since Christmas that we haven't been able to stand being out long enough to take the lights off.

Here is the wren house with frosted branches all around.

Just playing around with the depth of focus on the same shot.

There was lots of frost on the branches around the farm.

It even made weeds look pretty.

In with the new, out with the old

I could look back on the last decade, except that some of the changes that affected me started before the year 2000. I met Steve in October 1998. We met on a blind date and we are still together. Yes, I lost my Dad in August 1998. I then lost my heart dog, Bogey, on Father's Day 1999. But this decade started with Steve in my life.

In November 2000 I bought this farm and moved out into the country. The following summer I bought a few sheep from a neighbor and have never looked back. I brought the first Katahdins onto the farm in the summer of 2001. I remember standing out in the field on a beautiful sunny afternoon on 9/11/2001 and thinking about all that was happening in NYC. Hard to believe when you're that far away.

Lost my Mom on Veteran's day 2002. May she rest in peace. She suffered from Alzheimer's and is in a much better place now with my Dad.

Jag came into my life the end of 1999, so I began the last decade with Jaggie. We lost Jag on July 30th of 2009, so we begin the next decade without him. We also lost Ripley in August of 2008. Hard to imagine this next decade without them. But they still touch our lives. Jag and I had a wonderful time at trials. Without him I wouldn't have met a lot of people and have some of the friends that I have today.

Steve proposed to me on Christmas day 2003. We married on March 22nd, 2004. We are coming up on our 6th anniversary in March 2010. Oh, we built a new house on the property and moved in February of 2004. So as we started our new life married, we started it in a new home too.

We've had a few dogs join us in the last 10 years. Phire was born on January 4th, 2000 and came here in April of that year. Bett was born in October 2001 and I flew down to Florida to bring her up here. Stryker was born in November 2002. Cash was the first one born here in the new house in February 2004. Then came Corbie born in January 2005. Sting was not born here, but he came to join the gang in June 2009.

We have lambed every spring since 2002. Some lambs have stayed here and some have moved on. We look forward to seeing the little lambs every spring.

I had surgery this past September. A good thing in the long run.

We look forward to another decade on our little hobby farm. Raising lambs, working and training our dogs. Enjoying walks and enjoying life out in the country. I look forward to a few trials this coming year and to be able to continue trialing and to spend time with friends.

There have been ups and downs over the last decade. There have been sad times and happy times. Tis life I guess.

As I look forward I hope to be that much of a better trainer, always trying to understand my dogs and to work with them as a team.

Our New Year's Day visitor on 1/01/10

We started out the new year with a visitor. First one coyote went by and the dogs ran out and barked at it. That one took off really fast. Then the dogs took off down the driveway barking and I saw this one. It was across the county road in the neighbor's corn field. When I took this picture it had crossed the county road and was trotting across the neighboring alfalfa field.

It then went to the north of us and just sat there and looked at the dogs.

It would do some yipping and the howl at them. It sat there for quite awhile. I think that it was teasing them, as if it wanted them to chase it. Luckily there was a fence in between them and it.

Christmas visitors - 2009

We had Mrs. Cardinal here today.

Along with the male.

Coming in for a landing.

Having a little snack.

And then we realized that there were two pairs of cardinals flying around. The two males were chasing each other in the trees.

We also had some gold finches who came to eat.

We also get a lot of mourning doves.

Random shots of the dogs on 12/21/09

I know, I know, it has been ages since I updated this blog. Shame on me. I was outside with the dogs yesterday and decided that I should get some updated pictures of all of them. This picture shows Phire to the left and Corbie on the right. Phire will turn 10 in 13 days. Hard to believe as I can still remember when she came to us at 3 months old. She flew in from Michigan and when she came in, the airline called wondering if I could please come down and get this puppy. I guess she wouldn't stop barking. She still likes to talk a lot. (c:
Corbie will be turning 5 the end of January. She is a Bett daughter and is a neat little dog on sheep. I am working on building her confidence in a lot of ways. I think that it will be a constant. She especially needs confidence building in regards to lifting sheep off of a set out team. Sometimes it seems that she doesn't want to lift off of a stranger and sometimes it seems like it is the other dog that bothers her.

Here are Stryker and Cash. They are half brothers out of our Ripley. Stryker is on the left and just turned 7. He is our great white one and is actually Steve's dog. Cash, on the right, will turn 6 the end of February. He is my up and coming trial dog. He is strong eyed and is also a line dog. If I let him get too focused on the sheep for too long, boy is it hard to break his concentration and get him to flank off or something else.

Here is Cash giving his opinion of having his picture taken yet again.

Stryker, just looking adorable.

This is Bett who just turned 8. Where do the years go?? She is mother to Corbie.

This is the newest resident here, Sting. He will be 8 months old on January 2nd. He is a handsome smooth coated boy. He is full of himself and I will have my hands full when I start him on sheep this spring.

Here is Sting with his best bud, Corbie. If you want to know where Sting is at, look for Corbie. He follows her everywhere.