Palm trees!

The flying J outside of Tucson...65 and sunny...cool in the shade but
warm in the sun.

Spectacular sunset in El Paso

We drove into El Paso at dusk and witnessed the most awesome sunset!
The clouds reflected a rainbow of colors as the sun dropped below the
horizon, with sillouettes of the mountains creating a dramatic frame.
Simply breathtaking!

But that was soon to be topped as twilight blanked the valley and the
lights began to glow like a million twinkling stars...and as we
approached the darkened foothills which rose above us - the tiny
lights of the city surrounded us as if we were contained within a
beautiful snow globe. Wow!!!

We drove on to Los Cruses NM and spent a pleasant night at the Motel
6, which takes "pet friendly" to the extreme. The small and
comfortable room had pergo floors! No icky carpeting! Now that's
impressive! Of course the tick tick tick of Luc's nails on the floor
did wake me a few times as he plotted a break-in to Maya's crate.

The hot shower felt great after a good salad at Applebees...and our
road cooties got washed down the drain.

We're nearing Tucson and the scenery is spectacular. What a beautiful
road trip this is!

Dreaming of sheepy days ahead

Finn is getting ready for the big driving day ahead while Nancy checks
the weather.

Checking the weather forecast

So we had to stop in Gainesville cause the wintery mix got a bit heavy
and we decided not to go the extra 60 miles to ft worth. We stayed at
the not so Super 8 and had dinner at the nearby Luigi's Italian
restaurant where the extreme garlic disguised the taste of the gravy
laden pasta...a good thing I suspect!

Nancy checked the forecast for wed and it looked great- and so it is!
Sunny and 55 as we drive thru west Texas. We hope to make it to Les
cruses tonight.

We passed quite a few signs promoting what seems to be a local
favorite - Fried Pies - and we have been building up the courage to
stop...but we may have missed our opportunity...haven't seen a sign in
50 miles. Bummer!

California here we come!

Do you think those californians are ready for us?
.
We got off to a later start than planned but we are now getting close
to Tulsa OK after spending the night near Purina Farms in Missouri. At
the oh so familiar travelodge motel.

After a warm night in the motel that only two menopausal women can
create, we hit the road before 7am. It was so cold last night the side
door froze on the van and we had to load the dogs thru the front door.
Geez!

All went well with the dogs in the room which is an amazing thing
considering Maya is in full blown season and we have two intact males
with us. Maya was sequestered in her crate as was Nick, while good boy
Luc was loose in the room taking turns sleeping on the bed with me or
Nancy.

All good so far! We are on a mission, and plan on stopping in Ft Worth
tonight.

Yeehaa!!!

A job well done!

All of our St Croix and cross bred (St Croix/Cheviot) ewes spent the fall with Sam the Ram here at Dancing Hearts. Sam was quite busy breeding all the girls, so we plan on having lots of lambs in March.

Sam went on to meet his new harem in Minnesota with our friends Gene and Pat Weringa. Pat took this photo of Gene and Sam posing when they arrived back home. What a handsome pair!

We borrowed a Cheviot ram from our friend Margaret, and that wool ram did his work at Nancy's farm where all of our cheviot ewes were bred this fall.

So, we hope to have a nice crop of lambs at both farms this year...some pure bred St Croix, some pure bred Cheviots and some crosses from Sam the St Croix ram. Because we haven't lambed the last three years, we decided to go with two different rams to increase the number of pure bred ewes in both of our favorite breeds.

If you're not up to speed: my friend Nancy Flynn and I co-op our flock and rotate them between farms to keep them fresher and to move them around when conditions warrant. It works out very well, and we have happy healthy sheep as a result!

We are both looking forward to early spring when our lives will be blessed with the new lambs...nursing, playing, having lamb races and just generally being cute!

BTW: You can now easily post your comments!

I changed a setting in this blog that allows anyone to post comments, but I have the option to remove the comments in case some stranger posts rude or inappropriate comments. (ya never know...)

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Working Lambs and a puzzle unsolved

Thanksgiving weekend was much fun...after the family dinner at our house on Thursday, I got up at 3am Friday morning to leave for Vergil and AnneMarie Holland's beautiful farm down in Kentucky for their Turkey Trot Trial. It was an easy drive, and I got there in plenty of time for the Ranch class, which Sue and Luc were entered in.

The trial field is characteristically Kentucky...with rolling hills and interesting terrain, lots of trees on the edges and some in the center of the field. The people are warm and friendly - and competitive! The Holland's have quite a few sheep these days, with choices of several flocks, and he decided to run the flock of spring hair lambs for the Ranch class. That was it - 4 lambs, no ewes. No leader. These lambs had never been worked in small groups and proved to be quite challenging for the young dogs! More than half the class either retired or got dq'd. Challenging may be the understatement of the day.

Luc went first, and the hills caused him to cross over. I did get him stopped, but not before he crossed the center line, and he did then go out on the same side I sent him after all. Success! (Last year was Maya's first time on this field, and it took me two runs just to get her to find the sheep, and finally by her fourth run she was able to get herself out there.) There was a dog-leg fetch thru a deep valley that runs across the field and we did that OK, then an interesting drive which was also good. These lambs had never been penned, and didn't want any part of it, and we timed out at the pen, after Luc gave a great effort and worked the lambs quite well. I was very pleased with his run.

Sue went last, and she ran out well, having no problems with the hills at all. Just like her dad! She lifted beautifully and had a great fetch. Our drive was going very well until the cross drive panel when Sue was pretty sure she had to cover the pressure and insisted on taking a very wide flank at the panel, (just like her dad) so I worked on that a bit and showed her how to hold the pressure in a different way. She got it, and we then worked at the pen, but did not get them in before the timer went off. She had a very nice run!

None of my young dogs have worked lambs very much, since we haven't lambed for the last three years...and they did a great job, I was very pleased with their maturity and the way they handled the lambs!

Maya ran early on Saturday in Open, on the same field with a longer outrun and a much longer and very difficult drive. This time we ran 4 spring lambs from the wool flock...even more challenging than the hair lambs, but their behavior Saturday was easy compared to the next day, as it would turn out. Maya's outrun was a little tight, but her lift and fetch were good. We had a bit of trouble at the drive away panels, but overall a nice drive. Our task was to split the lambs in the shedding ring, which we did very well, then regather and pen. I was closing the gate on the pen when the timer went off...so no pen points!  Bummer! We ended up in 6th place, even with no pen.

Sunday proved to be the most challenging run of all. The group of lambs that we drew to run the course and prove our merit was about as tough as it gets. We had one lamb that just wanted to bolt - anywhere - all the time. And the other three just wanted to eat. Apparently they worked up an appetite the day before.

So, we did our best to manage our small flock, but I didn't handle it very well. Nor did Maya. By the turn around the post, I realized just how difficult this run would be, and by half way up the drive away, I was considering giving up. What I managed to do was create a situation where my dog was holding the running lamb quite well, but because of her positioning to do that, the three others felt free to just drop their heads and graze. Every time I tried something to get this flock moving well, it failed...and what I ended up with was a dog who was not releasing on her flanks at all, and eyeing on her sheep, moving them at a snail's pace. Yiikes! My worst nightmare.

I decided not to give up, but to keep trying to solve this puzzle so that we would have more information for the next time this might come up. Eventually we timed out on the drive, puzzle unsolved. Wow...that was a humbling experience! And, yes, I will keep working on it and let you know what we figure out!

We'll have lambs in the spring and lots of opportunities for new skill building!