Naughty Dog

When I woke up this morning, I went into the kitchen to feed the dogs and I noticed there was a plastic container on the floor which had been left on the counter. So I knew Dare had been counter surfing and as I looked around, I could tell he had helped himself to the dog food so no breakfast for him. My bad for not locking the kitchen gate last night although he's been known to just jump it. I took Dually out with me and left the other dog in the dog kennel area. The sheep and goats were out loose and I wanted a calm dog to put them back and he did it very nicely. Then I went to the shed and started the tractor. I wasn't sure it was going to start after being idle all winter, but after a fewe o choking and sputtering spurts it started up. I backed it out into the field and left it running. I got off of it to close the shed door and when I turned around Dare was sniffing around the tractor looking for me.Bad dog incident number 2. He had jumped out of the dog kennel when I started the tractor. He doesn't like the sound. #3. I was eating chips on the couch and one fell on the floor and he go all over Peaches for being in the vicinity like he owned that bag of chips or something. So I got on his case and told him to go lie down. He disappeared and I thought he went into the hallway to sulk but then I heard something fall in the kitchen and there he was counter surfing again. This time I made him go in his crate for a while. BAG DOG DAY

Stall work

Today was relatively warm out for a while, so I took Dually out and had him fetch all the stock into the stall and then we separated the goats out into a smaller stall so I could work the sheep. We worked on flanks and getting around all the stock even if it was standing still in the corner. "Much easier to go around that single goat you know." Dually said a few times. I just kept telling him " Tough Noogies -go around that one too" He got it after a while and was a good boy. I worked Dare next and he was much calmer and the sheep were much calmer which really surprised me. I thought they were more scared of Dare than Dually but apparently not. Dare went around all the sheep and was better at getting between the wall and the sheep than Dually was. I tried to get him to walk thru the sheep away from me. That was stupid,I should have asked him to walk thru them to me. Tomorrow maybe we will try it again. Tried Edge in there too. He though biting was a real good starting point, but when I told him I didn't like that, he settled down and worked both ways. His go bye was a bit of a struggle, but Betty had the same issue in that corner with one of her dogs so I will see if I can figure out why there is so much pressure there. At least in that small and area, he doesn't try to stare at me.

Lambs came home from Harvard a week ago

Sorry didnt mean to keep you hanging, but I thought I blogged this already. The lambs were originally supposed to be returned Mon morning, but she texted me and asked if she could bring them back Monday afternoon because they ran into some shooting problems. I was fine with that. I immediately texted Nat and told her I would be delivering them back to her on Monday around 5. A few hours later, Heather texted me and said Leah(her driver) was not done with a class until 7 could they come then. I told her I would rather have them earlier. Ok . Then a little while later she texted me and asked me if I would be willing to go pick them up for the remainder of the money she had. I just said no. Frankly, there is not enough money in the world for me to drive to Cambridge in the dark to pick up a couple of lambs. Then I told her to bring them whenever. They showed up around 9:30 and told me they had been stopped by a cop just after loading the lambs because they had not turned their lights on. They said they could not figure out how but they must have because they made it out to Sturbridge in the dark. We unloaded the lambs and the junk that I sent them with and turned them out with my sheep for the night. They were glad to see others of their own kind. Heather promised to let me know when they were going to show the film at Harvard and off they drove. I loaded the lambs the next morning by myself and drove them back to Nat. They were glad to be there too. silly things.

Lambs travel to Harvard

I had a girl call me a few weeks ago trying to find a sheep for a movie she was making at school--Turns out it's Harvard University. I didn't have anything suitable but I knew Nat had some bottle raised sheep that might work. We talked and decided that she could use one of 2 sheep for $500. This girl was fine with the price and excited to boot. I told her she would have to come and get it for that price. No problem. I thought she would just back out after a while but here she is picking up 2 sheep for the price of one. Nat and I decided they would do better as a pair and be quieter. AFter all they were going to be staying in a courtyard in the center of Cambridge for 4 days, it might be better for all involved if they were quiet at night. So, after a quick lesson of how to handle, feed and bribe them, off they went in the Zip car rented for the purpose of sheep transportation. The movie will be a fairy tale type and she said it would be playing at Harvard when it was done so I plan to go and see it.

THe weekend

Well I have been busy this weekend. Started with a night out with a friend. We went to see the Michael Jackson cirque du Soleil show at the DCU center on Fri night.  It was dreadful.  We decided that it must be the traveling cirque shows that are so disappointing so no more traveling show, but I would go to the one in Orlando again.

Sat ,  I spent with friends watching herding training videos and eating munchies.  A good time was had by all.

Today, was the ASCNE ROM awards banquet at the Log Cabin restaurant in Holyoke. The food was good and it was well fun and never dragged today.  I sat with some nice people and enjoyed myself.  Dually won High ADV cattle and sheep and Dare won High ADV ducks and REserve cattle.  They had some pretty high scores this year.

Winter Nights Tale

I really liked this movie.  It was a little sci-fi but it was a good story and I really coudn't predict the ending.

Got my taxes all set and at the tax accountant today.  I am doing the happy dance tonight.

Dogs got to run a little in the arena because the snow has crusted over and they can stay on top of it. They are out of shape so not too much running and when they do fall thru something gets cut.  I have one bloody foot but I am not sure whose it is.

I had an electrician come in today for free and replace all my thermostats for free.  Now I can truly tell what the temp is in each room and it's actually a surprise.  It's still not warm enough.  I have the stove on high all day and the living room is barely up to 68.  Almost warm enough. 

Even though I had a big bad of popcorn at the movie theater, I think I will go out for some dinner. I am celebrating getting a lot done today!

Recovering Doe

The doe that lost the kid seems much better today.  I turned her out of her stall and she joined in fighting for food this morning.  Made me feel better. She was very uncomfortable after so many people had their arms elbow deep in her.   I removed her stitches yesterday which allowed the afterbirth to fall out and I think that made her better immediately.

So today was get up early and get ready to go to the RV show.  I had to load the car with trash so I could hit the dump on the way home.  I was one of the first 100  people so I got a free ticket to the Ice cats ==might go we'll see.

I did not go into all the rv's but just the ones I thought might be interesting. There actually were no Rear lounge trailers there.  I talked to a dealer from NH that had a bunch of trailers of the brand I am interested in, but I checked their website after he said he thought they had one and they didn't. And the other think was , he had a laptop right there and didnt' bother to look it up himself because my thought is he knew he didn't have one. 

Anyway,Mann's rv was there and they have the model I want.  I talked them down $900 and told them I wanted an on demand water heater and an electric jack and they agreed.  However, I am still thinking about it.  They are still $500 over what I offered makes me want to get something else from them  like a decent mattress.  Well, maybe if I wait a few weeks and call them, I can talk them down some more.

It was warm enough today to actually play outside with the dogs today. The snow is still deep but it packs when you walk on it so you are only sinking in 6 inches instead of a foot.  I took them out back and they sunk in quite a bit . Peaches had a hard time but she still tried.  Then I came back to the house and threw the wet sock for them for a while.



It's only 7:10 and I am going to get in bed.  I need to get up early to do a duck clinic tomorrow .