I've been saving up photos for a blog. Villa is asleep - or at least quiet - giving me an opportunity to post uninterrupted. Not even the cat is laying on my arms right now!
Villa's favorite chew toy is Thomas! They get into fierce looking and sounding battles with no marks on anyone.
She is such a smart puppy. She runs through tunnels already, spins, does Sit, Down, Stand, Come, Fetch, goes over jumps (really just the ground bar) and even did her first "back cross" yesterday! She waits for supper, runs into her crate, and is *almost* potty trained.
She is a little puppy in a big world, as she accompanies me doing farm chores.
Farm chores are something I can't do with Clifford, as he is so obsessed with the birds. I've failed to break him of chasing, catching and killing them. :-(
Thomas is a great chore dog, too. Both Villa and Thomas follow along as far as they can, then wait at fences and gates while Dave and I go in with the sheep and camelids. Villa thinks the sheep and camelids are all potential friends. She's going nose to nose with Acclaim, our alpaca.
Do you notice "something" about Acclaim? He rooms with the ram-boys and recently was discovered bending down the electronet fence to get at the succulent new grass on the "other side" of the fence. As he's overdue for shearing, his long neck fiber was protecting him from getting shocked. The last straw was one afternoon when Dave came home and asked "Why are the rams loose?" When we rounded them up, Acclaim got some special treatment:
We weren't ready to completely shear him, so he got a custom cut. It sure solved the fence issue!--------
We're in Waiting mode. Waiting for lambs, that is. Waiting for warmer weather. Waiting for construction at ERN (EverRanch North). Hortense is waiting (usually for her lunch/breakfast/dinner/snack) and lambs.
She's bagging up and broadening nicely. We're hoping for twins from her this year out of the Gotland ram, Daniel. Hortense gives us a wonderful fleece each year. I try to shear her every 9 months or so, sometimes I keep the coat on her, sometimes not. Coated, she has a beautiful variegated grey fleece. Uncoated the grey is tempered with some sunbleaching and it comes out a heathery brown-grey. I've got several of her fleeces ready to weave into "something".
The "Hilton" ewes are waiting. I'm guessing Eve will be our first to lamb. I'm guessing this weekend. Her lamb(s) will combine all three of the Scottish rams we imported semen from.
Scattered around Eve are 4 ewes expecting Gotland lambs from the ram Daniel, 4 ewes expecting Gotland cross lambs from our backup rams, her cousin - Sweet Pea, and the 4 Shetland ewe lambs that weren't exposed to a ram. No, not all of them are visible in this photo.
Here is the handsome ram that Eve was bred to:
This is EverRanch Butch Cassidy. He's the guy who was splinted for several weeks as a young'un. His leg appears to be completely healed.
Shetland ewe, Cinnamon shows what happens when Shetlands are sheared "in the rise". It is really difficult to get the shears underneath the old/new fiber mat when it's so close to the skin. These patches will either shed off, or I'll trim them off as her fleece grows out more.
And Gotland/Shetland Bunny is waiting.
Bunny should be "incubating" 75% Gotland lamb(s). We're hoping for twin ewe lambs from Bunny. :-) We'll know in a couple of weeks.
...lots to do while "waiting".
- Franna
8 comments:
Good to see a new post. Goodness, all of Villa's accomplishments make me feel like I have a flunky pup! Poor Jackson just needs more time; he's plenty smart. Today is his last basic obedience class. Would love to find and sign up for an agility class, but don't know where I would find the time. Horse show season is here, I'm co-teaching two classes in the upcoming homeschool co-op term, etc., etc., etc. (mind flew back to "The King and I" there!)
It IS nice to see you again, Franna! :) My has Butch ever grown! And I had to laugh about alpaca-escapades and the fence...that'll teach him. We have a shearer coming Friday - one less thing to worry about.
And thanks for all the photos...it's really nice seeing all the Ladies-in-Waiting. We won't lamb here until mid to late April.
Oh look dear, now we can get spammed in blogger too :(
Yeah, that's why I finally switched my settings to include one of those "type in what you see in the cryptic letters" things. I don't like them, but I was getting spam in my comments every day. Jerks!
heh... and I have the power to delete spammers! Sometimes I'm just slow. :-\
Time... I don't know where I had time to WORK! much less go to school. There must be some relativity going on here, too.
- Franna
I love it when pups make the "I'm tough" snarly face. So cute. We have a cholcoate lab.
You have such lovely animals.
I found your blog via Michelle.
Villa's been so easy! I take a few kibbles from each meal and play games with her while the rest are soaking. It doesn't take long and accomplishes a lot!
- Franna
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