The pressure is on.

What we have noticed  is that the coyotes have become rather brazen,

this year.

The teaching phase for the young coyotes is gathering momentum.

The pressure is on.

When we gather the ewes from the grazing area,

the coyotes come out and watch.

They are continually watching we do.

They lay on the newly made bales and observe our routine.

Here are some photo's, taken late at night ( about 10.30pm)

to show what is happening:

Where Fena is in the night corral of the sheep.

This corral is made with temporary electric nets.

The ewes just came in from grazing for the day,

when Fena suddenly stormed off to watch the coyote that came to look at what we were doing.

(Between Fena and the coyote is a pasture of  fenced off turnips.)

Fena is a very vigilant dog, so once she sounds the alarm,

the reinforcements,

Lucy and Katcha race to the scene.

As the fencing is in between,

the dogs can't really make an impression on this coyote.

So, I decided to let them out and give the coyote a wake up call.

When the coyote saw that the dogs where headed in his direction he packed up and left.

After a while, Fena and the others make their way back to the sheep and night corral.

It is now getting pretty late, so I feed Lucy and the others

while the sheep bed down in the back.

To give these girls some extra help, I have placed Beli and Tosoxs in the bush where the coyote was.

They spent a few days working really hard, and we saw and heard a lot of coyote commotion during these days.

With, 5 dogs out there, it does make me sleep a bit easier at night.

Snowy has guard duty with some training sheep and Vuk is teaching Shadow and Zina

how to behave themselves.

If the coyotes keep the pressure on then Vuk and Snowy will be added to the mix.

Boy, I am so happy I have some extra dogs to match the coyotes with some extra dog power.

I am hearing  from quite a few people that they are having trouble with the coyotes and I have recently had quite a few enquiries for trained dogs.

Having sufficient dog power to patrol the area and guard the sheep is key to managing predation,

along with night corralling, electric fencing and other management strategies!

What happened to last week?

Summer is Alberta is hard work.
The days are long so that means we can cram lots of work into them.

This last week is already a distant memory of long days on the tractor,
late night with kids and horses
and the constant daily chores...

We also have our home full with people; a Swiss farmstay visitor and a friend of Jess from the Netherlands.

We are right in haying season and with no one extra to help out with the haying,
and Eric's new full time job means that I am spending full days bouncing around on the tractor.
We have made some rain free bales but, this last week the hay got washed a few times after we had some heavy showers.

Eric did try to beat the rain, and baled a whole bunch on Friday night before the rain came.

We are waiting for a dry spell to get the rest of this hay dried up and baled before we start the next round of cutting.
Sigh.

These photo's are not of me :)

Some net wrap problems requires a bit more stepping out of the tractor to check on whats happening.

Raking is dusty work.

The flock grazing a distant pasture.

The rain has created a sea of clover blossoms that smell great.

Bringing in the ewes to the night coral.

The calves look small but infact it is the grass that is really high.

I managed to sneak up to some elk graing on a wheat field.
The elk are hyper sensitive with their babies,
 and knew that I was lurking in the trees...

The white tail bucks have thick velvet on their growing antlers,
not as shy as the elk.

Lad waiting for me after gathering the ewes in the late evening.

Well, I guess thats my last week..


Weekend

 

There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks.
Most of the time we are simply not patient enough,
quiet enough,
to pay attention to the story.

~Linda Hogan

Just a quickie

It is HOT.
It is late.
Eric is having a short vacation.
I am haying.

Here are some pics when we took the cows to pasture.

The grass is calf deep. The babies can get lost in all the grass.

Jess helps out with all the cow moving, driving etc.

She is my right hand girl for these jobs.

Jess took this photo of me in the distance.





More than balmy..

in fact the great white north is hot!
Hot like Africa.
When the sunshines we have to make hay,
so thats what is keeping us busy now.

It is so hot my brain does not want to think,
so todays blog will be like picture book.
No thinking involved!

In between haying, I drive up to our cows to check how they are doing.

While up there, I saw these two velvety mule deer bucks
hanging out at a hunters cabin..

Ten minutes later I saw this mule deer doe.
In the grass was a fawn.
I love seeing all this wildlife around,

it makes me happy!

Happy Birthday Canada

Seeing that it was Canada's birthday our local community hall decided to put on a big bash for the whole weekend!

The Saturday started off with a whole lot of fun.

Our neighbours decided that we needed some more automotive fun.
So, they decided to orgainise a demolition derby.
Roeby, my webdesigning (http://www.raptrading.com/) friend even built her own demolition vehicle.

This is the before shot...
Aah, oh so pretty!

Our tractor was designated to be the wreck hauler for the day.

The lady drivers were particularly aggressive,
and did some serious damage to the vehicles!

The vehicle of Roeby sustained a number dents,
had it not been for a small battery failure she might even have won.

Her Betty Boom vehicle ended up a very worthy 2 nd place,
considering that this was Roebys first demo derby ever!

Here is the after shot:

Uhmmm, not so pretty after all!

The men were also pretty wild..

And the winner is:

This fine vehicle won the 8 cylinder categorie
and,
with its lady driver the powder puff division!

This car, however never did make it  to the grudge round...
The ladies killed it!

It was sweltering hot and Jess and her friend had a ball!

to be continued...