Getting ready for the National!

I've been quite busy talking sheep the last month or so, so for my dog friends, here is another post for you :)

I've been talking to JoAnne Beashau about our trip to the National. I'm bunking with her and Ferris again and we have LISTS of things to bring. She is already mostly packed. I think if there was a fire in her house, only the dog related stuff would survive as its already in the truck :)

My grooming spot is already planned out with quite a few people. We've got people from Ontario, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, New Mexico and Minnesota grooming together....oh and Louisiana I believe. Talk about a wild and crazy bunch! I can't wait for the wine....mmmmmm

I am NOT taking Mitcham (sorry Sarah!) as there is just no room. I'm taking five dogs down, and bringing six dogs back, and add to that all the extra crates, dolly, crate pads, grooming supplies/totes, dog food and water and then MY stuff like suitcase, bedding (they are making us bring our own comforters for the beds) and a cooler for food and adult beverage....i will definitely need to take the Expedition. I've even purchased a Cargo Carrier for the hitchplug as I don't think I'll have enough room.

I've entered Sadie in the most things: Open Jumpers, Novice Standard, Rally Novice. Oliver is in Rally Advanced but I don't think with all the practice we are doing, he will ever settle down enough to do it off leash. He's just so super excited to be doing rally with his daddy that he can hardly concentrate on sitting and instead runs circles around me several times at each station. Silly goof! Justice is entered in breed mostly for the experience. It'll be his first time in the ring...just like big sister Ell's was last year. Ell is maturing so we are not showing her and Zoe is not something that Jon would like. He told me so last year at the National, so why would I enter him now? :) I have Zoe, Ell and another dog getting their CERF at the National and then I am attending the DM seminar. Justice, Ell and Zoe are entered for the Three Trails CWC Club Specialty on the Sunday following BOB.

Add to that a night in Kansas City with some of my buddies from college for a night out on the town, a stop on the way back at a well educated friends house to go over Cardigans and many nights of wine and commodore at the National each night.

I ran out of money to do anything in the Herding Trials. I wanted to do the Herding Instinct Test but Dina told me they were not sanctioned by the AKC and I could think of other things to spend my $35/dog on. she told me to enter Sadie and Oliver in the herding trial but they have no professional training and i wouldn't know what to do with them if I tried. Sure make them go through some cones....it SOUNDS easy enough. If only Suzanne in Alaska would take a long week to come visit me and train my dogs with me :) I can't fly with Sadie....she has too much metal in her body to pass through the metal detectors :)

Next year's national is a hike and a half for me but I plan on attending, even if for a few days. Way out in Gettysburg, PA! Lord knows what I will have to show any way, and I wanted to get out there to see Kathy Davidson's BFLs and Shetlands in PA and she has volunteered to take me to Baltimore and D.C. to sight see. I've never been to the NE or mid-Atlantic states before so that should also be very exciting.

In it to win it

Dog showing is a sport. It is loved by thousands of people all over world and followed by more. As any sport, there will always be competition (its in our humans minds to do so) and there will always be a 'winner' and a 'loser', a bad team and a good team (which team you are on is typically the good, while the other is the bad), a good sport who wins and a poor sport that loses.

From my very first dog show experiences to my very recent ones, I keep learning for everyone ELSE is that in the end, its really only matters who wins, as long as its you. I've told people I'm not that competitive I just enjoy showing. Sure I like to win but I'm not going to stomp the winners down behind their back, talk crap about their dogs or fault judge. My mentor tells me to virtue judge everyone's dogs...even if there isn't much nice to say.....if you can't say something nice, don't say it all.

There has always been a concerted effort by most to join in on chat groups in regards to who is showing where, to build a major that everyone is searching for, which shows or judges to avoid etc. As with anything, there is always two sides. One that tells you to come and show and what great judges, the other saying they won't show to that judge (or don't respond at all). Being a kind hearted person I tend to assume that those who do not respond are more than likely not going and have no ulterior motive. And if someone else's dogs win, then I was told to politely congratulate them, even if I didn't think they deserved it.

Quite honestly I'm happy if anyone wins. The look on that person's face is priceless as most are overjoyed, or shocked or both! Deep down I may be bummed about not winning but I don't stew over it and try to make excuses for my own dogs. " Oh she's just got to grow up yet" or "oh she's blowing coat" or "the judge doesn't like blacks" or something random. Does it really make me feel better? Not really. And I'm sure the people listening are thinking to themselves that I'm full of crap. So I don't do it. I wish others would stop as well.

Each dog needs to be groomed according to its needs. Some may need to blown out to look fuller, some need to be thinned out to make the curls on the butt lay down or something. I am so amazed at the amount of time people spend in grooming their own dogs, yet seem reluctant to help show me a helpful hint or a tip of advice on how to do something....unless they don't have a dog/bitch entered to compete against mine, then they seem to offer more assistance.

I also laugh over the part where people encourage me to show somewhere and then find out later it was really only in hopes of getting their dog the points and they had a scheme all worked out and planned ahead of time without my knowledge. Makes a person feel a bit used eh?

While I'm never one to enter just for point fodder (who can afford to do that?) I do still hold out that this only happens in my area and not to the greater extent of all CWC exhibitors? I have found the Briard people all over, and Cardi people from other areas to be most welcoming, offer advice freely (if i choose to take it or not is another thing) and welcome me to bunk with them, set up grooming with them, go out for supper etc.

When I went to college at NDSU I had many friends that went to UND our huge rival 70 miles to the north in Grand Forks. During the game we'd jokingly make fun of each other and cheer extra loud when our team would score over our friends, but at the end of the day we didn't back stab, lie, cover things up or persuade our friends to do something. After the game we'd go out for a beer and supper and talk about all the finer points of the game and those that were ridiculous calls or shots or something. Why can't dog showing be like that too? And why try to make our team look better even though they may not have one? I'm not buying it if my friend tries to tell me otherwise. Nor do I do it when they talk about their dogs that way.

If you are 'in it to win it' and nothing else you will soon find yourself alone with few friends and nothing to do at the end of the day. If that is what you like, so be it, but I don't own dogs and/or breed dogs or buy dogs just for the sole purpose of winning. I like to have them with me to play with, learn with, love with and cuddle with. each of my dogs has a distinct duty or job that they do on the farm. Each one does something unique with me and has 1-on-1 time with me each day, whether to train or just lay around with. While I'm training I only want to see improvement in their day to day training and the excitement I see in their faces and the way their eyes sparkle gives me the most pleasure and satisfaction that I could imagine....even if we never qualify or get those last pesky points for our CH.

I guess having friends in other breeds is better for all parties involved. There is no competition with them as we show different breeds, there is no backstabbing, lying or persuading...its just folks that like dogs in general and are ready to talk about the show over supper and a couple of beers.....or wine.....whichever is colder ;)

My trip to Canada this summer will be SO MUCH FUN traveling with people that do not have the same breeds as I do. Why didn't I think of that before? And there is no drama, and I am surprised that even though I am one of the youngest by age that shows dogs that hasn't been a junior prior to it, I'm one of the most mature acting. Something to think about.

Mitcham Monday

For Sarah :)

Why I don't like to lamb in March

I live just about at the very right tip of the dark blue area. We had four inches of snow a few days ago but today its 40 out and the lambs are out doing races. Looks like they will be back in the barn for a few days until the snow melts again. yipee skippy.

AI stats

Well here is the break down of lambs for AI:

Total AI Lambs: 17
Total Ram lambs: 14
Total Ewe lambs: 3

Nice ration huh? :)

Colors:
three black rams
two fawn katmoget rams
two musket rams (one is Hst)
two white rams
four moorit based rams
one gray katmoget ram
two moorit based ewes
one fawn katmoget ewe

Weights: Average weight was seven pounds
lowest weight: 5.5#
highest weight: 8#

Mostly all nice sized lambs!

Seven ewes twinned, three ewes singled with the singles coming from two year old ewes, the twins from mature ewes.

Orion I used six straws and got 8 ram lambs and 2 ewes
Holly I used one straw and got 1 ram lamb and 1 ewe
Minder I used one straw and got 2 ram lambs
Timothy I used one straw and got 2 ram lambs
Jamie I used one straw and got 1 ram lamb.

Overall I'm quite impressed with structure and many of the lambs have a very single coated, even fleece with very few primary follicles. They did not necessarily come from my softest ewes however.

I did get spots (krunet, smirslet and sokket) and modified (mioget and fawn) and the Jamie lamb appears to have no horn buds at this time. His grandfather Sheltering Pines Bombarde is a poll carrier and down from Roban Dillon lines, so its a possiblility as most of the other boys already have substantial horn buds.

Photos from the flood in Fargo 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Fargo-prepares-flooding/ss/events/sc/032409fargoflooding#photoViewer=/090326/480/e7e2fde7eba74c6ba4821996109c39c3

Also a news article....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090327/ap_on_re_us/midwest_flooding

It must be big when Good Morning America was there....except no one was waving behind the anchors like morons! People were just busy working! I love my region!

WORTH THE WAIT! ULLA LAMBS!

Ulla waited until Day 151 a whole week later than she was due.

But it was worth it!

Ulla produced me TWO rams :( But....A fawn katmoget and an HST musket! Ulla was bred to Shirehill Minder, who is Ag/Ab....so could only produce Ab (katmoget) or Ag (fading gene). So I was shocked that Minder carried spots....did you guys know that???!!!

Underhill Ulla with her HST musket ram and fawn katmoget ram.
WhitePine Uphaz (HST musket) and WhitePine Ulam (fawn katmoget)
Just two white socks and one yuglet, one smirslet eye patch but look at that tiny tiny crimp! WOHOO! These boys are 69% UK, F1 Minder, F3 Jamie, F5 Timothy/Holly.

The Real deal. Please read.

This flooding thing is getting out of hand. I realize that Iowa and Wisconsin had huge floods last spring and the Hurricane Katrina did havoc to New Orleans but this river flooding is a big deal in Fargo. There have been BUS loads of people coming from all over ND, MN, SD and even WI to help save the city of Fargo and its sister city across the river Moorhead.

I like to stay on top of the situation and if it weren't for my snow removal business and lambing I'd be up there with my dad helping sandbag. I have so many friends and family that live in this city I ask for your prayers for their safety and their property is saved.

A few links:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7172039&page=1

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/midwest_flooding

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/midwest_flooding_moorhead

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7171334

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Weather/wireStory?id=7166541

There are also several links at the bottom of both pages of other videos.

I am proud to be a Northern Midwesterner where no matter your race, religion or sex, people of all walks of life come together when its important and it make me get emotional every time I think of it. UGH i'm a big softy.

Photos of most recent lambs

Last night FirfthofFifth Rooibos starting have contractions standing up. She never laid down and gave birth to her son, WhitePine Rufus a very lively moorit based ram lamb out of Heights Orion. I've watched Rooibos lamb all three years I've had her and she's never stood up. Nirvana was in the next jug over watching intently (she was in early labor and her first lambs!) and after the lamb plopped onto the ground Nirvana looked at me with an expression like "HOLY CRAP! WHAT IS THAT! AM I SUPPOSED TO HAVE THAT TOO??!!" I laughed out loud it was hysterical :)
Here is WhitePine Rufus! A spunky single boy. He is 62.5% UK out of Heights Orion.

mom and baby

Sheltering Pines Nirvana gave birth about 20 minutes after Rooibos and also gave birth standing up (she took notes from Rooibos) and produced a wildly patterned gray katmoget EWE LAMB with smirslet face, body spots and a white tail. 30 minutes later I was getting upset because she hadn't twined and the first one had nursed and was dried off. All of a sudden I see feet and in the blink of an eye a gorgeous fawn katmoget ewe lamb also came falling out (she was still standing). The gray kat is WhitePine Neriah and the fawn kat is WhitePine Naomi. Both have very tight, even crimpy fleeces. Father is Jazz's twin brother Wintertime Blues! THANKS STEPHEN! >:)

Nirvana with her girls. They are 62% UK out of Wintertime Blues.

A shot of Neriah (gray kat) and Naomi (fawn kat) ewe lambs.

Another shot of WhitePine Neriah.

Poor poor Underhill Peep! She is F2 Greyling F2 Jamie and has been miserable for WEEKS panting her babies were carried so far up in her belly. I thought for sure she was my best bet for triplets but she gave me two almost identical 8 pound babies (one moorit, one musket) out of Heights Orion. BOTH RAM :( But they are 75% UK and their fleeces should turn out wonderful with age. WhitePine Phineas and WhitePine Philemon.

Here is the musket, WhitePine Philemon

Here is the moorit, WhitePine Phineas

Underhill Ulla is still chewing her cud. Will report back when I have more to say :)

Three more ewes lambed! One to go!

Well its been an eventful evening :)

FirthofFifth Rooibos was bred to Heights Orion and produced a modified moorit ram lamb.

ShelteringPines Nirvana was bred to Wintertime Blues and produced TWIN EWES! A fawn katmoget and a wildly spotted gray katmoget :) :) I'm keeping them Stephen!

Underhill Peep was bred to Heights Orion and produced a moorit ram and a musket ram (so far) they are big lambs but I think she is done....I'm going to bed! Only one left!

Underhill Ulla is bred to Minder and she's the last hold out!

Photos tomorrow (today morning) I think i'm going to bed!

Chloe gives me twin Holly lambs!

I just KNEW that Chloe was going to go in the early hours so after talking to Stephen Rouse last night about his new lambs I went to bed and set TWO alarms in two different parts of my room so I had to hear them and get up. At 5am Justalit'l Chloe presented me with a fawn smirslet katmoget ewe lamb and a gray katmoget ram lamb with 1/4" horn buds already. I'm sorry Juliann we didn't get our poll carrier from Holly this year :( But that just means that I am keeping this guy :)
Meet WhitePine Ciaphas the F1 Holly, F3 Minder gray katmoget ram lamb. They are both 65.5% UK
Here is the smirslet fawn katmoget named WhitePine Candace. She was born first and is the smaller of the two.

Red River Valley Flooding

http://valleyfloodwatch.com/

A great source of information...its quite interactive and up to date information on the flooding of the Red River and all its tributaries.

So far all my friends and family that live along the river are safe and dry....for now....

And more!

Ok I overslept.

I was sleeping in the barn last night in the torrential rain (on metal roofing no less) and it was so deafening I couldn't even hear the sheep 20 feet from my 'nest' in the straw.

I stayed out there until 2am and figured that the next two to go would be Rachildas and Booto (I'm not even kidding) and figured I'd set my alarm for 6am and go back out. Well it didn't go off and I didn't wake up until NINE AM! Its so dark and gloomy and rainy here that the dogs didn't even wake me up to go outside it was so dark. I went racing to the barn with camera in hand and here is what I found.....



Aren't they just the cutest?!! I love white lambs! This is RYL Rachildas with her twin RAM lambs out of Heights Orion. Rachildas is Awt/Ag and since she gave both babes the white gene, then I know that they carrying Aa from the sire...........AND Bb (moorit)!. Just look at the crimp on these buggers! These ram lambs are 56% UK and are named WhitePine Roman and WhitePine Rhodes. The single photo with the lamb is Rhodes who has just a tiny bit more even fleece...but again crimp all the way down his tail head. I'm am LOVING these AI lambs!!


Not to be outdone, FirthofFift Booto (F1 Timothy) who I didn't think was a bred just over a week ago gave me a single fawn katmoget ram lamb out of Heights Orion. He is 76.5% UK and is named WhitePine Barnabas. He's my first fawn katmoget in two years!
That puts the total at EIGHT rams and TWO ewes! Its ok Its ok! Really! I wanted to keep a ram lamb from every UK sire and in a perfect world I would have hoped for ewes from Rachildas and Booto but these boys are pretty amazing so I can't complain!

Another ewe!!

I've got this thing down Penni! I had just finished cursing the vacuum out and stormed to the barn to find Lucy and Lambo in the midst of lambing so I decided to try my luck and run to Subway (just a quick 8 miles each way) for supper....and had just got home, changed into my barn clothes and went out to see the girls and feed them their evening meal. There was FirthofFifth Evidence of Autumn in labor! She was SO dramatic....I had to keep telling myself to not interfere and just sit on my stool like a good little boy.

Here is Autumn with her twins, a ram and a ewe, out of Heights Orion. Autumn is a mioget and the ram lamb looks like he will be also. the ewe may be a fawn or a light moorit. Time will tell.
The ram is on the left, and the ewe is on the right. She has a little bit uneven fleece towards her hips but nothing we can't work with :) both lambs are 62.5% UK. This little girls name is WhitePine Eve.

Eat your heart out Bill!! This little powerhouse looks like he'll be going mioget...and look at that FLEECE!! Could you get any more EVEN? Even his tail head is crimpy :) He's going to give Levi (Jamie x Lucy) a run for his money for the most consistent fleece! His name will be WhitePine Ephraim. He is a full sibling to Bill's ram that he purchased from Cynthia Allen named FirthofFifth Aman who is a mioget and is the father of my Rico (bersugget) and Rush (white) lambs out of Rachildas last year. Rachildas is bred to Orion this year and we are awaiting her fuits of labor :)

MORE LAMBS

I just walked out into the barn and saw that RiverOaks Lucy had just had a little black ram with a krunet with the most amazing tight crimpy fleece I've ever laid eyes on! (THANKS BECKY!) He weighed in at 7 pounds. He is my Willowcroft Jamie lamb! I'm sorry I don't have a wonderful camera...only 3x optical zoom with 8.8 megapixel....I need a 10x optical zoom!

Isn't he a cutie?

As I was checking his gender I notice Justalit'l Black Lambo was in labor (its about time that poor girl!) and she was pushing but only one leg and the head were coming out...I scrubbed up and felt for the other front leg....it was just bent back at the knee and i quickly corrected it and out she came! A GORGEOUS MOORIT EWE LAMB! WOHOO!! As she was cleaning her off she kept pushing (standing up mind you) and out came a MOORIT RAM LAMB backwards! She was so intent on the ewe so I went in and picked him up and brought him over to the front to be cleaned. Lambo is 8 years old and no one ever knew her status if she carried moorit recessively...well she does! These lambs are out of Heights Orion! Again sorry for the fuzzy pics...i didn't want to get too close while she was bonding.
Lambo cleaning up her children, ewe on left, ram on right. (with orbs, not spots)

Ewe lamb in front, ram in the background. The ewe is a pound heavier than the ram.
Ewe is on the left, ram on the right (you can see the boys' horn buds already!)

Justalit'l Shasta gives me twins!

Justalit'l Shasta was bred to Campaign Timothy and I was hoping for a black ram and an Ag black (gray) ewe lamb to replace Shasta. I guess they had other ideas :) Shasta is Ag/Aa, BB/B?, Ss/Ss so these boys could carry spotting, moorit (from their father) and I've heard if a horned ewe is bred to a horned ram the chances of getting larger horns on the boys is better? Has this been confirmed? These boys are 62.5% UK and have great structure already. The boys' names in keeping with my theme this year (Biblical names) is WhitePine Simeon and WhitePine Solomon. Simeon is the one standing up in the photos.

Shasta is such a good mom......there was one ram lamb who was a bit 'slower' in getting to his feet...she worked on that boy until he stood...and then kept working on him until he moved to her udder to nurse. After he ate his fill, she licked him into the corner and promptly laid dow in front of him so he couldn't get out and let her fleece help keep him warm. The other boy was trying to 'popcorn' around the jug. Rachildas, my white ewe was trying to climb over the panel to get in with what she thought were 'her' lambs. I'm guessing that she'll be the next one to go...she didn't eat her breakfast this morning and isn't chewing her cud......

And sadly no one guessed Shasta so that means I will do a new version of the contest when the ground breeding group starts to lamb...which should NOT be for another month.

Will now keep you updated with photos for those who are going through lamb withdrawls.....and it doesn't help that I have two to look at....now I want MORE to look at ;)

LAMBS glorious LAMBS!!

Ok I think it worked Penni! I had it all wrong! I thought I had to make plans and drive somewhere. Actually others had to make plans and I agreed to go along and wasn't driving so THAT is when it happened :) I told them we had to be back in 90 minutes and we were back in 89 minutes and I had twins already standing on the ground!

For those that haven't guessed yet I'm giving you until the morning to wager a guess of who it is, the colors and the sexes.

You can go to THIS blog entry and enter your guess.

Corinne...thank you very much for the "Food glorious Food" blog entry...I sing it all the time now and think of the Ice Age 2 movie when the vultures are singing it! I love those movies!!

I'm done, I quit. I'm going to town

Well I haven't posted any lamb photos because I don't have any yet! Ugh.

I was told by several shepherds that have been 'in the biz' longer than I that they can go earlier than their due date. One even moved the due date up two days for me. So since last Sunday I've been sleeping the barn in preparation for early lambs, lambing problems, detached placentas (yes I'm Debbie Downer all doom and gloom) but its better to be prepared than go out and find a dead ewe with a stuck lamb!

The wireless security camera doesn't work for my parents house or mine. We have a one hundred year old solid stone barn whose walls are a good foot thick. Add to that a few silos in the way of the signal and big metal doors and you can see why the camera doesn't work. My house is a good 300-400 feet from the far side of the barn where the ewes are currently at, so I was not expecting this security camera to work. I thought about a cable one but stringing 400 feet of cable across three farm roads where our huge tractors drive over the constantly freezing and thawing roads just didn't seem feasible. So sleeping in the barn works. I think I'll make our last horse stall into a 'waiting room' for me and get a small table and futon in there wtih a plug in heater. I saw at someone's farm they had an 'office' out in their barn with huge windows to watch the sheep out of from a warm(er) room.

Online gestation calculators tell me my sheep are due SUNDAY and not TODAY. I have so many girls with tails sticking out, constantly looking back at their sides, pawing, nesting, panting, waddling. I've never been such a nervous wreck, especially since they are AI lambs out of some of the last straws of these rams....it makes me more nervous. I'm sure everything will be fine, but I am done! Those ewes are too selfish and holding in all those lambs. I'm going in to town for coffee :)

Wordless Wednesday!

Bummer!

Well my 'over-night shipping' that was supposed to get here Saturday...finally came. Yes it is Tuesday. No it doesn't work!

I purchased a security camera aka BARN CAM for the ewes so I could watch what was going on. Just to make sure it worked I plugged it in to my TV and the in the next room set up the camera. There were my dogs...napping in their crates :) I took it to the barn and raced back to the house. It said 'no video signal'. So I thought maybe it wasn't plugged in.....so I ran back to the barn (while slopping mud up on myself and slipping all over the slippery stuff) and it was indeed plugged in. I ran back a forth a good six times (great exercise!) and finally took the TV part to my parents house...as their house is closer to the barn. It worked. UGH. So now I will have to sleep on their recliner in the office to watch the tv in there for the girls.

Not so fast.

If I moved it even slightly the focus would come out. UGH! Now I either need to make some sort of contraption to screw it to, as the 'ideal' spot is about 2 feet from the wall, 5 feet up from the floor and 3 feet down from the ceiling.

Ok folks get creative! How can I get this to work? Maybe I should just send it back and continue sleeping in the barn.....

Ewes in the sunshine

Some of the ewes I tried to take photos of that I haven't gotten in awhile.

(do you see I'm trying to keep myself busy not thinking about lambs?)
The above girl is Bono Creek Lavender Brown. She is a really dark fawn and was bred to Jazz again this year as she wasn't able to be AI'ed (too much fat in the way!) She will be available for sale after weaning her lambs. (Hey Rich! This is Leyland's grandmother!)
Sheltering Pines Nessebar - smirlset gray katmoget (very spotted head at birth) is bred to Jazz. She was out of ShelteringPines Starry Starry Night and Sheltering Pines Morgan Le Fey.
This a hodge podge group. Sedalia, Rush, (katmoget and white in the back that I raised) Wintertime Galina and Black Forest Tilly (both gulmogets out of Wintertime Black Forrest) and Sheltering Pines Snow Cloud out of Underhill Thelonius Monk and ShelteringPines Snowy. She is here to get bred and have lambs for Suzanne In Alaska! She was bred to Jazz, as was Galina and Rush.
This is WhitePine Westminster out of Jazz and LittleRedOak Wren. She was exposed to Barish. She carries moorit, was very spotted at birth (including large smirslet face) and is available for sale right now. Contact me for more info.
WhitePine Skor out of FirthofFifth Don Telmo Bourbon and FirfthofFifth Assam Meleng. Skor is a gorgeous shaela ewe who was bred to Barish in hopes of the ever elusive emsket. She is a probably poll carrier as well and so is Barish so we have hopes for polled and modified! ShelteringPines Fleur de Lis is in the background who was bred to Jazz for spotted kats!


Here is a hodge podge again! The white in the back is RiverOaks Eliza, the fawn kat laying down is ShelteringPines Myra who is out of Starry Starry Night and Canosia Farm May. The Gray Kat is WhitePine Castle Rock out of Jazz and Justalit'l Chloe, then White Pine Rush who is out of FirthofFifth AmanAI and RYL Rachildas. And the two gulmoget ewes again, Galina and Tilly. Myra the fawn kat was bred to Jazz and Castle Rock is bred to Barish.
RiverOaks Eliza was supposed to be AI'ed but the day before the sponges were to be pulled her's came out! She is ground bred to Barish. Rush the cutie pie is bred to Jazz.

White Pine Centennial. The gray katmoget I showed at Jefferson last year and was 8th out of 16 I think? She was 1st place single coat :) She is bred to UndertheSon Arapaho. She is Castle Rock's twin sister out of Jazz and Chloe.


And below.....


Is my favorite.....if you didn't know already.....

WHITEPINE SEDALIA! Out of Jazz and Minwawe Sterling. She is a smirslet gray katmoget with two sokkets (not four). You just just see her perfect body....topline, tail, rear leg set, single coated fleece and she has presence in the pasture. She takes my breath away. Last second I put her with Arapaho as well....time will tell if she took.
The dark shadow across her face is the shadow from the gate. Otherwise a cute photo :)

Biding My Time

Penni gave Holly a great idea on her comments for her last blog. Simply make plans to do something like go out for coffee with a friend, or something that would require you to be busy. THEN the puppies/lambs will come. So today I took Penni's advice and went to town for lunch with the family. I took Oliver along and he was the official greeter at my brother-in-law's shop that he owns. Oliver liked a few people, others he barked at and then went over to wagging his tail and some he just plain didn't like. I told them he was my tool for good judgment of character ;)

I took some photos of the snow. JoAnne cannot believe we still have so much snow and to counter Michelle's blog with all her beautiful flowers I thought I'd show some photos of day 3 of the big melt down. (snow that is, not me.....at least i don't think so?)
Looking at my house from the driveway. yes that is a full size Expedition :)

Looking at the red barn which is now home to my pigeons. It used to be our dairy calf barn. 28'x54' with electricity, running water, (and heated waterers in the winter), ventilation system, insulated and soon to be a 'office' with an old bathtub as a sink so to wash their waterers, feed pans, and perhaps dogs as well...stay tuned!

The water has no where to go but THROUGH the huge snow banks. This is where there IS a road in the summer months but who can tell. I thought the water was kinda murky for spring but nonetheless peaceful.

A view of the first sheep pasture. Look at that standing water in the SNOW. There is really no where for it to go yet. We are just finally seeing the stalks of what is left of the thistles....so spring must surely be coming!