Diet Pop

Well I've officially had no soda (diet or regular) for nearly two months now. I'm glad I quit! Just read this link:

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/eatthis/22630/the-truth-about-diet-soda/

Gross is all I have to say! I can't believe I was so hooked! The first week was terribly painful with no pop..huge migraines, dizziness and lack of energy. Now I can't believe I ever drank that gross stuff!

Christmas Photos

I tried to get a few shots of the babies in a group....that didn't work very well.....(except for the Christmas Ice Cream treat!) so I had them take 'individual photos' with their dad :)
The word "TREAT" works wonders for EARS! (except for Ell...who was too busy squirming away!)

The Princess Sadie and yours truly

Mitcham

Oliver

Zoe-Miester

Ell Bell

Ell doing the "We're touching" pose and a kiss for good measure (the dogs always need to be 'touching' me with one of their paws)

Mac was elated to have company of his own kind and he LOVES to play with Mitcham! Mitcham just knocks the Corgis over with his leg and then goes in the for the "kill" lol

A group photo of the babies waiting for their Christmas Ice cream treat. Sadie was a pig and devoured not only her own, but Mitcham AND Ell's so Mitcham and Ell had to have more scooped for them. Sadie then sat in front of the freezer and wimpered..What an OINK!

My pretty girl sittin' next to me on the couch.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from all of us at Ebonwald Cardigans...

Update

I'm alive! This snow is amazing! With maybe a day to try and recover between two-three or more days cleaning and shoveling/blowing/plowing all my clients out....I'm wiped out! My back hasn't hurt like this since.....last snow storm LOL. Ah its great...January will be a great income, but I'm not physically prepared for this work......

Hopefully soon I can sit down and not feel so exhausted!

Happy Holidays everyone!

6th Photo

Here's the deal: You have to check your Photo Archives (or wherever you store your images) then select the 6th file folder, open it & post the 6th picture contained there, with the story behind it.

My 6th photo's story:

Well I'm sorry to say that my photo doesn't really have a story, except I love to take hundreds of candids of my dogs just being themselves! Here is Zoe chillin on my old couch in the living room last January. It must not have been a snow day as I would not have taken any photos that day :)

I have to tag some people and I think most of the dog blogger friends are already tagged so I'll tag some sheep bloggers!

Corrine R, Nancy K, Michelle M, Jenny H, and Kristi!

Snow, snow, snow or "Silent Sunday"

Maggie's pups

Here are a few candids I finally got from Barb Peterson on her Dewi x Maggie pups.


The two girls are the red/white girls ...one with the widest blaze, and one with the tiniest blaze.



These two are the boys on the gold chair (its very retro yes)

I was Tagged (new one!)

Penni wants to know what six things make us happy. Sadie, Oliver, Zoe and Ell have asked me to type their answers because their paws do not work on the keyboard.

1. Herding. We don't care if its Guinea hens, chickens, ducks, sheep, goats, cattle or each other! We could do it all day and love to see what might be needing a good chase.

2. Raw Diet. We have never been this excited for 'breakfast' ever! We have gotten things like chicken wings, hearts, livers, ground lamb or beef, eggs, veggies, yogurt and our favorite is cottage cheese! We also love ice cream when its one of our birthdays or Christmas! We have what dad calls "ice cream eyes" which nearly bug out when we hear the ice cream dishes clinking in the cupboard.

3. Sleeping in bed with dad. We are not shy about being bed hogs. Sometimes when dad gets really upset he'll go out to lay on the sofa and we just follow him out there. We like to be as close as possible to him while we sleep, sometimes even on top of him to make sure we are close enough

4. Going to our kennel club. We have a fan club and a following at the kennel club! We love to see our doggie and people friends there and every week someone different gets to go along for the ride and we love barking at cars on the two lane roads that meet us and drive really fast past us. Sometimes we almost get them! (so we think)

5. Our back yard. Every time our dad says "kennel" we race to the back door barking and trying to push the door open so we can be the first into the back yard. Now that there is actually snow we love to roll around in and chase each other around the dog igloos,the trees and we could spend hours outside only dad doesn't think thats a good idea when its so cold, but we don't seem to mind!

6. Toys (both squeaky and chewable kinds). We love it when we get new bones or chew toys (nylabone mostly) or squeaky toys. some of our favorites are "squeaky frog", "squeaky pheasant", "squeaky ball", "the puppy", THE ball, and raw bones to chew on!

We like lots of other things, but those are our favorites. We want to know their six favorite things from:

Holly at Visions

Laura at Cooper Creek

Sarah at Hurrikane

Dawn at Daybreake

Sherilyn and Rus at Winjammin

Carolyn at C-Myste

Micron Repots back!

I sent 12 ewe lamb fleece samples to Texas A&M for a whopping total of $15.00 I pretty much was reassured of the ewe lambs I wanted to keep, and who to move out next spring/summer. There were a few I was really surprised at, but most were where I thought they would be.

Sedalia, the spotted grey katmoget out of Jazz and Minwawe Sterling came back an amazing 22.3 AFD, 4.2 SD, and 18.8 CV with a comfort factor of 97.5 out of 100!

Rush, the cute little white ewe lamb out of Aman (F1 Orion) and Rachildas was 21.8 AFD, 5.5 SD, and 25.4 CV. Comfort Factor was 92.9 out of 100.

Others in Alphabetical order:
Name AFD SD CV Comfort Factor
White Pine Columbine 20.0 6.5 32.5 90.5
Minwawe Dark Chocolate 25.5 7.9 31.1 76.4
WhitePine Denver 24.4 7.2 29.6 77.7
Wintertime Galina 24.4 6.6 27.1 77.8
SheltrgPines Myra 25.4 6.2 24.4 80.3
SheltrgPines Nessebar 26.9 6.5 24.2 71.0
WhitePine Sheridan 29.7 9.6 32.2 55.7
Black Forest Tilly 25.8 6.4 24.6 75.0
Lil Country Uma 20.8 4.8 23.3 98.2
WhitePine Westminster 26.9 7.9 29.4 63.8

Ok so Westminster I knew would be higher. Her mother at the same age was 30 AFD and as a yearling was over 35 AFD. So Westie is an improvement on her mother. She is smirslet and is a Jazz baby so I think there is potential in her breedings if bred to the right ram, while she herself may not be spectacular. Another one that I knew would be rougher but not THAT bad was Sheridan. Sheridan is a defininte intermediate, border line primitive out of Jazz and Shasta, who both have UK fleeces and %UK in them. I guess this was a throw back? I've noticed since the sample that there is iset coming in...probably from her mom as she is Ag and that hides a lot! We'll see what we get from her this year and she may just go to the BFL next year for market lambs in 2009. She's built like a house and is the black ewe I showed at Jefferson.

For me personally, anything with a CV close to or over 30 is way too high in a ewe lamb. SD's above 7 are too high period and AFDs over 27 are unacceptable to me. While they may work for others in their programs, they just are not what I'm looking for in my breeding program. Several are available now and have been exposed to either Jazz or Barish, both my soft yearling rams that were 20.6 AFD, 4.5 SD and 22 CV so the lambs should be improvements.

I'm happy I kept this many this long, and now have the micron reports, health clearances and pedigrees to asist in my decisions on who to keep and who not to. they may not fit my program TODAY and therefore might make nice additions to your flock if you are looking for nice structured, nice pedigreed, nice temperaments with just a fleece that is not as soft as my other ultra fines.

A few dog related photos from this weekend first of all!

A couple of dog related photos from the Wine and Cheese tasting party. They did NOT taste either mind you, but Briony brought them some (People Crackers) (instead of animal crackers...get it?)


Babies begging from Briony


More of the babies begging from Briony

The girls are begging again from Briony (do you see a pattern here?)

Mitcham and Oliver waiting their turn to come see everyone.

Mitcham telling Briony how much he loves her (she was there to pick him up with me in September and he slept on her lap the whole way home!)

Zoe-Meister

Oliver showing off his pretty neck and big ears! He took a liking to Jamie at the party (I think it was to keep away from Jatten and Wush) Oliver has seen Wush 100x and yet he just doesn't like him. I tell everyone he is my best judge of Character LOL

Good News!

Two good points of news quickly today:

1. I made it through my two-day Birthday Bash...both the wild house party on friday and the calm and relaxing Wine/Cheese tasting, formal party on saturday! I'm ready for some 'down' time and won't get it! My nephew's Baptism is today and then I have to go to work because its finally SNOWING!

2. Zoe's litter sister, Lily, and her half sister, Busy were both tested for DM and both came back normal, non carriers! Wohoo! I am waiting for Ell and Zoe's results as well, but that is good news!

29 years young

Well this was my cutest stage. I couldn't find a 'baby' picture so this will have to do. I think i'm 2 here? Anyway, I feel old today, and overwhelmed and having a break down.........too much to do before the big party tonight! and the kitchen STILL isn't done for it! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Worldess Wednesay

Here Chick Chick Chick!

I decided against bringing them into the house, but I did set up a heat lamp above this lovely rabbit cage that I'm using for the mother and her two chicks. When I went out to the barn this morning the trio were walking around and her other eggs were cold. The chicks couldn't drink out of the dish I had in there for the other chickens and Guinea hens so I got a little waterer with some scratch feed and put into the cage and new shavings.

These photos are for Dawn b.c. she asked for photos :) The first one is of the tikes with momma. The second has the standard light bulb next to the cage for a size comparison. They are TINY!. The mother is a Fawn Silver duckwing Old English Game Bantam. The father is also a fawn silver duckwing and I believe is a half sister to the mother. It gets confusing I know!!

I think I'm jealous?

We still have no snow! Drive to the south 30 miles and they have snow. Drive 30 miles to the east and they have it! We don't even get dustings here...just the bitter cold. Today's high was 20 with a low tonight of around 6 I think. If its going to be this cold, we should have snow.

I went out to the chicken pen and i heard PEEPING! Yes two chicks happened to hatch in this unbearable cold to a mother who already had a clutch this year. I didn't think she could keep the eggs warm enough but there were indeed two chicks. If no more eggs hatch by morning I'll bring them into the back room (it stays about 40 degrees back there) so they can have a chance at survival. Just when I thought babies were done for the year! :)

Yes I still have sheep

I wanted to get some photos posted of my sheep to prove to you that I do indeed have them on my farm :) Its been awhile since there were any photos of the woolly beasts.

Penni had asked for a few head shots of my sheep to be used in a silent auction/fundraiser item for the CWCCA National Specialty. I can't seem to send them to her directly as I think the photos are too large. I'll keep trying Penni!


This is Justalit'l Shasta, an Ag/Aa Black Smirslet Flecket. She is also horned and one is 'wonky' and sticks straight up. She knows how to use it to. She is AI bred to Campaign Timothy. She's one of my tamest girls begging for attention.


FirthofFifth Barish is my F1 Campaign Timothy son and is an obvious poll carrier due to his long scurs/aberrant horns that are perfectly symmetrical. He got a large group of ewes this fall and is quite happy about it. I thought the sun shining on this photo was kind of neat.

WhitePine Castle Rock. She is out of Jazz and Justalit'l Chloe. She could be homozygous katmoget but for sure carries moorit from her momma. She has a very fluffy hind end which makes her look not level, but she is...... She is in Barish's breeding group. Hoping for more gorgeous dark blue katmoget fleeces!



This is White Pine Skor and River Oaks Lucy. Skor is a shaela out of Bourbon and the late Meleng. Both parents were modified and so is she. She is with Barish in hopes of a polled ram and modified to boot! She is one of my softest ewes with gorgeous crimp and single coat.



These two girls are Wintertime Galina, a solid sided black gulmoget out of Wintertime Black Forrest and ShelteringPines The Holy Grail. The white ewe lamb is WhitePine Rush, the F2 Orion daughter of out the F1 FirthofFifth Aman and RYL Rachildas. She carries modified and moorit under that white and I'm excited to see what both girls throw next spring as they are with Jazz this fall

Going Raw

I've done a lot of research over the past few days about Raw Diets. Pro's, Con's. The Pros are by far more abundant on my list. I've never really fed straight kibble to my dogs. Granted some days yes its easier to just dip in for a cup of kibble, but the dogs seem to get a bit grumpy about the same old same old. Especially the girls.

I have been feeding Sadie green beans and pumpkin in addition to her reduced kibble for some weight loss, which worked. Ell and Oliver and Zoe were getting kibble, plus different things each night like cooked rice, cooked hamburger, tuna, salmon, mackerel, eggs, cottage cheese and all dogs were getting yogurt. Boy were my parents nervous when I left for a weekend and they had a 'menu' to fill :) Thanks Dad!! Thanks Mom!

I've been following Carolyn and Penni's advice with the raw chicken wings and gave it a go tonight. The dogs thought it was someone's Birthday :)

I have just a little over a week left of kibble for the Cardis and perhaps 2 weeks left with the Hollistic puppy food that Mitcham is on. I've ordered Missing Link as well and have been giving fish oil or salmon oil.

Any helpful hints on what to feed or what not to feed would be great! I was nervous about feeding them apples as I didn't know you could but read Carolyn's blog and felt much better about that!

Pretty nervous about the whole thing but stocked up on cottage cheese, yogurt, rice, chicken wings, beef, lamb, veggies and i hope I'm ready!

After eating much healthier myself, I think its only fair the dogs eat healthier too!

Does the poop eating stop?!

what's the big deal?

Charlie MacInnes wrote on ShowCardi-L today and I took these sentences from his post.

"What is a backyard breeder? First of all, they are folks that the
speaker does not like. Usually they live far away, because it's easier
to dislike people you don't know. In some cases it is as simple as the
fact that "that damned person's dogs keep beating mine in the ring", but
the speaker doesn't like the breeding behind the dogs in question. And so on . . . There is no clear definition of the term backyard breeder, there is only a list of the terrible things they do. How many of those terrible things apply to us depends on who is listing, and why."

Its kind of like the Religion issue. Anyone who is more in tune with God than us, is a lunatic,and those with less, are lost souls. Why are we the perfect 'ideal' person?

I laugh when people call me a puppy mill. Really? I've had zero litters. Now I'm a dog hoarder. Really? Last I checked I have equal to or less dogs than any other Cardigan breeder/show-er in Minnesota. I'm thinking what Charlie says above holds true for my situation. There always has to be someone worse than you so you can feel better about yourself and your dogs.

Pity really.

This is honestly the last I have to say about any of this nonsense. If you took the time to get to know me and not assume or make up stuff to rub your own ego, you'd realize I'm not a bad person and quite open to discuss any misconceptions you have about me.

Now. On to much happier and realistic things!

Hog Gone

A few weeks ago (I've been meaning to post this!) my Grandpa, age 82, brought his last nine pigs to the Locker Plant (butcher) with my help. These pigs represented a line of pigs nearly 100 years old, that has been in our family without interruption for that period of time. Now they are in our freezer (which is good!) I'm just kind sad that the line is gone forever and we have nothing to show for it. I'm already looking for feeder pigs for next spring to raise and butcher over the summer. I'm thinking the place where we have gotten our replacement boars from....its the closest we can get to 'our' pigs!

Aren't they just the cutest? I always loved the black Hampshire pigs...and our line also gave us red ones too that were just so dang cute!

Breeding Groups together

Well I just got done putting my breeding groups together. And of course last minute, I did a few switch-er-oo's :)

I decied to put FirthofFifth Rooibos back in with Jazz as I let her ewe lamb from this year go live in Michigan with Stephen Rouse :) RiverOaks Lucy was going to go with Jazz, but last minute put her in with Barish as they both are poll carriers. Both Rooibos and Lucy were AI'ed and these are just the 'clean up' groups.

I also decided to put my Sedalia in with Arapaho at the very last second. I've decided to only leave my groups together until Dec 31st and then the ewe lambs will be put BACK together in a group so they don't have to compete again for feed.

Jazz was quite excited to in with the girls and he came up to me after I was done moving everyone around to say thank you and begged to be scratched on the neck...The trance and the glossy eyes, uplifted tail and squatty stance never changes. And for a boy who SHOULD be sniffing girls it was cute to see he appreciated the girls finally :)

Barish was like "oh hey girls!, but then turned to continue eating. He did eventually walk around sniffing, but those poll carriers seem to be so more laid back than the horned counterparts.

Arapaho was ecstatic, and was busy grabbing mouthfuls of hay before running back after his small group of girls.

Burma - the natural colored BFL got in his pen and stood there is disbelief! He started doing the "ram grunt" but just stood frozen in the pen while the girls surrounded him. Bea, even tried mounting HIM, which he didn't like and I think it kicked in his hormones as then proceeded to sniff everyone and then they all got down to business of eating hay. No one seemed receptive today but I've never witnessed a mating, so I'm not worried.

Due date is April 20th, which is the day after I return from the CWCCA National Specialty! I hope they all decide to wait until I get back! The AI group will have lambed March 20th so I'll know for sure if those girls settled to the AI, or if the groundbreeding boys did their clean up duty. Time will tell.....

Weight Loss Challenge

Howdy folks! How are you feeling?

I feel AMAZING! No more migraines, no more limbs falling asleep at night when I sleep. I no longer feel tired. But WOW is my family out to get me!

I have been faithful in my eating habits. No deep fried foods, no pop, no white bread/rice/flour/sugar. No candy/chocolate. We went to Zorbaz, an amazing pizza and mexican place. I had a grilled chicken salad (which was amazing FYI!) I didn't even have one nacho.

Last night we went to the bowling alley. My sister said it would be ok to eat there. they didn't even have a side salad. Everything was deep fried or pizza. I ordered the nachoes (thinking salsa, lettuce, tomatoes, olives are better than french fries)

I've lost an amazing 12 pounds so I'm down 21 pounds from when I started. I'd like to lose another 20 pounds but don't realitiscally think that my body will want to do that. And can I keep it off til the National? Let's try.

Last year this time I was going through another weight loss challenge with Rayna. I was running every day and eating right....the morning of Thanksgiving I ran twice and far so I could feel ok about pigging out for the big Turkey day meal ;) It was almost painful I ate so much but I do love food so it was good to 'reward' myself for one day.

And I'm not cutting ALL bread or ALL dairy or nothing like that out of my daily meals. Its all about moderation and thinking about what I'm eating before I eat it.

Breakfast: Cheerios or something healthy in 1% milk. No sugar.
Lunch: Spinach salad with low fat whole grain croutons, light ranch, shredded cheese and sometimes grilled chicken, bacon or ham roast (wow that was good) sometimes I add some multi-grain tortilla chips to it for something different.
Supper: Usually a spinach salad again, sometimes I do a 'wrap' and have it in that for a different meal (usually tomato basil or spinach wrap)

I try to eat more meals a day, just smaller, so I'll have a can of light soup or atleast a soup that is broth based and not gravy based. A can is less than 200 calories and fills you up (if you eat slow enough, which is always my problem).

I haven't ran as much this week, but I've still been very active in my remodel of my kitchen, cleaning pigeon lofts, sheep pens and whatnot.

AND its quite cold here so that burns calories trying to stay warm right? :)

How is everyone doing? Let's see if I can keep it off til April...that's almost 5 months away!

8 Things

Laura M tagged me, so here's my answers.


My 8 favorite foods:

1. Chocolate!
2. bacon
3. all meat pizza
4. blizzards from DQ (or ice cream in general)
5. salads!! (no lie, ususally spinach)
6. apples or bananas
7. Chocolate Chip Cookies - home made!
8. Chocolate Cake - home made frosting!

8 Things I Did Today

1. Went out to lunch with my brother in law
2. Went to walmart with the family
3. sold cattle
4. went on a date! ( I know shocked me too!)
5. played with the 'babies'
6. took a nap!
7. texted my bestest friends
8. ate supper with my family

8 Favorite Stores:

1. Express Men
2. Target
3. Fleet Farm
4. Petsmart
5. Walmart
6. Menard's
7. Dog show vendors
8. Home Depot

8 Favorite Restaurants:

1. Erbert and Gerbert's
2. Taco Bell!
3. Subway
4. Quiznos
5. Chinese
6. Mexican
7. Zorbaz
8. Earl's

8 Things I look Forward To:

1. Meeting my Savior
2. Getting Married
3. Having kids
4. Spring
5. Seeing My Friends (both blogger and ones I've met) at The National in April
6. Being Debt Free
7. Expanding the Biz
8. Losing weight!

8 Things I Like To Do With Family:

1. Go out to eat
2. Go on a trip
3. watching old "Super 8 video" filmstrips (the ones with no sound)
4. deer hunting
5. Play games
6. BBQ
7. continue traditions
8. Have them over for a meal

8 Things on My Wish List:

1. a new house
2. new furniture
3. health and prosperity to my family
4. health and longevity
5. someone special in my life
6. peace on earth
7. 60 degree, no wind, sunny, crisp fall days all year long
8. Win the lottery

8 People I’m Tagging : (If you were tagged by someone else, then just ignore mine. ;-0)

1. Corinne

2. Nancy

3. Stephen

4. Suzanne

5. Michelle

6. Carol B.

7. Kristi

8. Becky

Note: Copy mine and paste to your post, and change answers accordingly.

Have fun!

Last minute changes?

Ok..Tomorrow is the big day! I'm putting my breeding groups together!!

I've been feeding my lambs seperate from the mature ewes and wow is it showing! I'm not graining, just letting them eat the better parts of the hay without having to fight for it! I REALLY want to breed Sedalia (Jazz x Sterling) and I think the reason she looks so small is that she is the most single coated..She's the same height as the other ewe lambs, but most of the others have a more intermediate fleece type.....

D'oh decisions decisions!!

Any last requests before I put them together? The boys are READY!

Happy 4th Birthday Sadie!

A couple photos from today!



She sure is a happy girl!

The following photos were all taken AFTER her terrible accident. For those of you who thought we couldn't do it and to those who would have put her down, those who thought she'd always limp, to those who thought I was just keeping her to be a 'puppy mill', these photos are for you! Thank you for making me work harder :)

They are just a GLIMPSE of how far Sadie and I have come together....a long, bumpy road....but when the love is shown from both sides, it really truly is a glorious thing to behold. After selling my car to pay for her surgery and her amazingly quick recovery, I thank the many vets and rehab specialists at the U of M = St. Paul, that helped us get this far and to all of those who were real friends and believed me and stuck by me and helped me, these photos are in honor of you and my Sadie Princess!





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Everyday is an extra day with her, a true gift from God, and I could never be happier with my decision to keep my heart girl here. I know I did the right thing.

I love you Sadie!

Ramblings

Let's see...so many things I want to write about, and since I have TBD (too busy disorder) and ADOS (Attention Deficit .....OOOH Shiny!) I tend to forget to write them all down for later.

A few points to ponder:
1a. I was on my way to the LAI near Oconomowoc, WI. I stopped for supper at a Subway at a larger gas station. I was friendly to the quite seriously hot gal working there. I mean I'm always nice, but was REALLY nice to her, almost flirty, but not quite. It worked ;) And to think I LOST my 'game'....I just haven't had the opportunity to use it often!

1b. A week or so passes and I'm able to strike up a conversation with a gal at one of our grocery stores. It turns into a 'numbers' exchange again and much to my surprise she called me first! WOW! Could I really be 2 for 2? That is surely an amazing feat.

In HS (high school) I was voted Biggest Flirt.....I can't help that when I talk to people in general...I'm always grabbing their arm, or shoulder or hand to talk to them. Some girls took it as "i'm interested" and it got me into situations I didn't know even existed! It also happened in college and I had to learn to not touch people all the time when I talk. Just because I'm open, friendly and upfront, doesn't mean everyone else likes that! :)

2. Where the heck is the snow? I refuse to believe that winter needs to be so cold and no snow. If its going to be this cold we should have 4 feet of snow. Instead we have ZERO snow, it hasn't snowed yet here and the high today here was 12 degrees. Without windchill. With windchill it was -2. That was our 3pm high. Exciting times yes.

3. I'm excited for the St Paul three day dog show! Some great friends of mine in Cardi's are coming to the show and it should be a REALLY good amazing time with people with like minds and goals. I can't wait! I hope it doesn't storm that weekend or I won't be able to go!

4. Breeding groups are edging closer and closer to reality. I want to wait until next tuesday (or monday) to put my groups together. And its none too soon! My boys are getting ANTSY!

5. The sheep bloggers have been lacking in new blogs (except for Michelle and Kara)! Even Nancy is posting less than usual! Come on folks! Its free to post! This is one of the only things NOT affected by the recession! :)

I think I'm going to go to bed and re-read all the past CWCCA bulletins I've gotten. There is a lot of information there to be learned if you are willing to take the time to read it

Wordless Wednesday