Lambing 2012 is all done

We are all done with lambing for 2012. We finished with a set of triplets this morning, of which I will need to take some pictures of. This little guy above seems to be saying Hi World, I have arrived.

These are a set of twin ram lambs that were born earlier.

This is one of the first born set of twins. This is the little girl. We ended this lambing season with 17 lambs, 10 ewe lambs and 7 ram lambs. We are happy with this year's lamb crop and plan on keeping all of the girls.

I do need to go down and take more pictures of all of the lambs now. It was not an uneventful lambing as one of the ewes had a vaginal prolapse and I had to deal with that. Because of that we will need to cull her and her daughter from last year from the flock.

Made it..........

Made it to six miles this morning! As of this morning I made it to 6 miles on my recumbent bike. Been working up to it over the last 2-3 weeks. Now I just need to keep up on it. Also been watching what I eat more closely again.

Yesterday was a beautiful day with our highs somewhere in the upper 30's. I raked out the barn, the shelter area and by the boy's feeder. It all needed cleaning as it was too cold last weekend to get it done. We also wormed all of the lambs. Hope to nip this worm thing in the bud before we lose any more lambs.

Have a gal coming up from Iowa this afternoon to deliver two foster BC's. We will evaluate them for herding and then I will be transporting one of them up to the adoption event on Saturday to hopefully his new home.

A beautiful day in December

Hard to believe it, but it reached 45F here today. The tiny bit of snow we had from yesterday is all gone. The dogs loved the temps. The chickens really enjoyed it as they were out scratching around and eating to their hearts content.

I enjoyed it as I was able to work with Sting on sheep. I used Corbie to bring the boys out so that I wouldn't tire Sting out before I even got to work with him. He did some nice driving in spite of the boys wanting to run. At one point they started over the hill, Sting split one off. I laid him down and after a couple of look backs, he turned and took his come by flank and brought the other four boys over the hill. I was very impressed by the fact that he took the look back and then the flank. I have never really trained that with him yet. I was happy with his work and had to quit when he got tired.

Hopefully this winter will continue like this and I'll be able to continue working with him over the winter.

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving day.

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward~

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Things I am thankful for:
My loving hubby.
Our small farm.
All of our mambos (the dogs).
The sun that is shining today.
The friendship of all of my dog friends.
My health.
A roof over our heads.
The 7 lb, home raised chicken we will be eating today.
Family and friends.
Our jobs.
Being able to work/train my dog on sheep and going to sheepdog trials.
Waking up in a dry, warm bed this morning.
My hubby who is cleaning up the kitchen after last night's supper.
And my hubby who keeps the house clean.
Getting to be able to travel for the sheepdog trials and see different parts of the upper Midwest.
Being able to have our own sheep.
Our chickens, love watching them each day.
Oh and the eggs that we get from our chickens.
I am very thankful to my neighbor for letting me work my dogs on his fields.

Fun Trial weekend

I went out to a fun trial at Portage, WI the weekend of 11/12 & 11/13 with Sting. I stayed with friends and had a wonderful weekend. As I was arriving at my friends I saw this beautiful moon rising. It was good to get out with sheepdog friends one last time before winter sets in.
I ran Sting in pro-novice. I wanted to see how he would do since I was able to work him on the neighbor's field. I am happy to report that he did very well.
Our first run on Saturday morning he had trouble spotting the sheep in the snow. Yes, I drove from fall in Minnesota to winter in Wisconsin. I went out and helped him to find the sheep as he was starting to cross over and wanted to go to where the sheep had been exhausted. Once I got him behind the sheep his fetch was nice and straight. We had a good turn at the post and then his driving went so well, we hit both drive panels. Then penned the sheep right away. I was very happy with him as I felt that the outrun issue was something easy enough to work with, but to have that nice of driving already!

Then on Sunday morning we had another run of pro-novice. It was a rough run, I had to redirect him multiple times, but did get him out behind his sheep. Fetch was nice and straight. I am loving how I am able to place Sting where I need him on his fetch. I had to unwind our turn at the post and we started the drive where the sheep took off for the other end of the field, but Sting did get them and bring them back down the field where we penned them. Before our run I was thinking of heading home so that I could get home at a decent hour. But after the run, I really wanted another try at it.

So, we stayed for our second run and boy am I glad that I did. I sent Sting to the left again and right about when I was going to blow the whistle he kicked out on his own and landed up behind his sheep. I did need to give him one come bye whistle to keep him from under-flanking. Then his fetch was straight and thru the panels, nice turn at the post, we hit the first drive panels. And then we lost the sheep a little high, but got them back on line and missed the second set of drive panels and then right into the pen. We scored a 76 out of 90. I was ecstatic with him.

On the run on Saturday and his second run on Sunday I really felt like we were connected and communicating so well. It felt good.

One other thing that I would like to mention is that we never practice pens at home, yet we got 3 perfect scores of 10 on our pens that weekend. It is so nice when you're working as a team with your dog and he takes your flank commands so freely.

Have I said recently how much I love my Sting boy?! I am really looking forward to trialing in 2012!!