Friends and Grazing Conference

Ok, so I have had a week away from home.
Some here at home think it was a holiday…
Others, like me,  saw it as work.

I must say the Sheraton in Red Deer has the best beds ever!!

Well, the trip down was fairly uneventful, the usual bad roads and snowy conditions.
I once again abused the hospitality of Carl and Michelle and spent the night at their place so the trip was divided up into two parts.
Thanks guys, you rock!

On the way down to Red Deer I made a little detour to go and visit Jacqui Turuk. We speak regularly on the phone, she has two of my shars and yet we have never met. So, this was a great opportunity to pop in and say hi. It was great to see Sophie and Lou (my pups) and of course to meet little Medo, the recent import from Macedonia.  

Lou, a pup from Snowy and Vuk, and sister to my Shadow.

Jacqui and pup Medo, he came from Macedonia.

Sophie, a pup from Fena and Beli, sister to my Lucy.

 After a great lunch and some more chatting I headed off to Red Deer to deliver two pups to their new owners. One of Snowy’s orphans has gone to live with Katrin and Jim at Minkhollow farm. He will start his training to be a poultry guardian dog.  Nuno, a naughty pup from Katcha and Vuk went to live with Dragan and Gordana and will be a home and family guardian. His first order of business was to get a bath as he really did smell like a sheep barn….

After saying good bye to the pups it was time to settle in the hotel, check over my talk about Predator management. As this can be a “hot” issue I felt the need to be really well prepared, check things over and do some extra reading.

The next morning things started off early at the Conference.
It was really hard to leave that wonderful bed…

The conference was well attended and some of the keynote speakers were excellent. The information was excellent and the conference was well organized. I had two sessions to do. Bill Gibson, a fellow sheep producer and I shared the sessions. He talked about Sheep grazing and the effects his flock had on the pastures, his vision and his passion on watching sheep graze…

Bill Gibson

After his session it was my turn to talk about proactive management of predators rather than reactive management.
No one threw rotten tomatoes at me so I assume things went well!

People were interested and open for ideas.

After a whole bunch of other excellent speakers, great banquet and trade fair, the conference ended late Thursday afternoon.

I was invited to a wonderful dinner at Nuno’s new family. I had a great lamb meal, good company and made new friends.

Friday it was time to head back to the bush. It was time to say goodbye to that bed and start the trek back home.  After about 8 hours I got home and headed straight out to feed cows and horses. Life was back to normal again.