Good news and adorable puppies

A few weeks back I announced the arrival of Lucy and Vuk's puppies.
In that blog I mentioned that the timing was a little off.
She whelped sooner than I had expected.

I have counted back on the calendar numerous times and still the dates did not quite match up.
In the aftermath of the fire Lucy came into season, I was not quite sure what day she was on when I confirmed that she was indeed in heat.
Up until then she had being hanging out with our male Beli.

I separated her from Beli and placed her in with Vuk.
 I only ever did see one mating with Vuk on day 17.

So, when the pups where born a little sooner than I had expected,
and the fact that the whole pregnancy was a little strange,
I started having my doubts as to whether or not Vuk was actually the sire of these pups.

Perhaps, Beli had snuck in breeding her sooner,
 and that would account for the earlier born pups?

I pondered this for a while and decided I needed clarity on this situation for myself,
and, for potential buyers!

So, I decided to do a DNA parentage test to verify who indeed  the sire of this litter was.

 I did the forensics: DNA cheek swabbing of mom, both males and all the pups, in order to remove all doubt.
It was painstaking to swab each pup and ensure no DNA transfer between pups and, any of the other dogs.
Vuk is not the easiest dog to to swab as he moves and wriggles about, he broke off at least two q-tips, and the pups,
all they wanted to do was  suck on the tips.

Everyone is  microchipped for ID and safety purposes.
 It all got done, mailed off and the waiting game started.
The  results came back today, nine days sooner than expected!

Vuk is the only sire of all the pups!
Beli did not get any sneaky sex in. 

The reason why this is good news is that I wanted a Vuk x Lucy litter and,

 because
Beli x Lucy would be a father/daughter breeding.

 Now that I know,  and am 100% sure that the pups are from who they are supposed to be,
I can confidently advertise the pups, 

up until now I have held back, as I wanted to be sure.

So, to celebrate, here are some totally awesome pictures of the Vuklets:

Jess has followers..

Hello

The Boys

The girls

Visiting the the 4-H sheep

The sheep  are so nosy..

Helping out with tagging.

Puppy and lamb cuddles

As our coverall is not "puppy proof", they have made the entire coverall their spot. We do always have to look for them under the feed bags, behind the sheep pens, snoozing in the hay, cooling off at the water troughs. In fact,  it is puppy mayhem in the coverall.

Have a great Monday!

Pride and joy

I am really not very vehicle minded,
a truck is a truck, a car is a car,
as long as it gets me where I need to be, all is well.
But, a tractor is something else.
A Lamborghini tractor, is even better!
It must be the Ferrari under the tractors!

Our wait is finally over,
this past week our parcel arrived from Europe.
It was like opening up a giant Christmas present.

Going first by sea to Montreal, then it missed the first train to arrive a few days later on another train.
The final leg of the journey was by truck.
The truck delivered the sea-can late Monday night.
This tractor was destined to go places!
It was initially headed to the Ukraine, however due to the unrest there,
 the sale was cancelled and we bought it and had it shipped to Canada.

We opened the doors and peeked in, way in the back, hidden behind some other equipment that came to Canada,  we could see our new tractor.
YAY

The next day, we had a crew of Martien ( our neighbour mechanic), Koos, another young fellow, Roy, me and later Eric,
 all come to sea this thing of beauty and to ensure it was carefully removed from the sea can.

It would take a few days to be put back together, the tractor was partially dissembled to fit into the sea-can. A few parts must have missed the boat, so we needed to wait another few days to get these parts in and on, but now it is ready to go to work.

The excitement is high is this is mostly likely be our first and last new tractor we will ever buy, so we really are savoring the feeling.
It is all still so shiny and new, clean and with  no Alberta mud anywhere.
The first scratch, will hurt, even though it is inevitable.

The next few weeks it will be learning how to use it, understanding all the buttons and controls.
Eric brought it home last night.

So, right now, we have that
 "feeling rich, but knowing the truth" feeling.

New Barn and New tractor!

Thank you for all the  help, support, love, work from the community in High Prairie, friends, family and some complete strangers!

I can honestly say this barn was built on an outpouring of love and support!

Update on the pups

The puppies are growing well and are super active.
It seems that they started venturing out of the whelping area sooner than previous litters.
They started eating along with mom, sooner than I had expected.
It all seems to be going faster than I am really ready for.

I have been so busy that I have had little time to take pictures and keep the blog updated with the development of the pups.
At times I snap cell phone pictures just to ensure I have some.

So, today is the day where I am going to pack in a whole bunch of puppy pictures.
One pup died, so we now have 5 pups 3 males and 2 females.

We still have a few pups available for anyone interested.
For more info about our puppy policy please visit our website at
www.grazerie.com/sarplaninac