Gathering the sheep

This last week was one filled with some mild frustrations,
and a few nights where sleeping did not come easily.
Perhaps the looming winter,
or the uncertainty of what is to come
contributed to the uneasy feeling.

One of the daily joys is gathering the sheep.
Every night, we gather up two groups of sheep,
the ewes,

 and the lambs,
 to bring them to their respective night corrals.

 The beauty of the setting sun brings a calmness to my soul.

The ewes slowly amble towards the night corral as the sun starts to set.
Some encouragement from Lad, gets them headed in the right direction.

The ewes are full and contented as they head towards the bedding area.

Under the watchful eye of Mali.

The last few stragglers get a nudge from Lad.

The second gather of the evening are the lambs.

The edges of the flock are tucked in before heading home.

The last rays, the distant howl of the coyotes, a dog barking, the mist rising.

Good night.

The B-Team

A few posts back, (HERE)
I introduced the A -Team of dogs.

This team consisted of two males, Beli and Shadow,
and two females,  Fena and Lucy.

However, we now have a hormonal Tsunami going on here.
With three of the females in heat, it was not manageable to keep things as they were,
and I certainly did not want to run the risk of unplanned breeding.

That meant once again switching the dogs around.

I needed the males as far away as possible from the females.

To keep the protection up at the sheep and cattle,
I made up the B Team.

In no way or form is the B-team inferior to the A team.
The B team actually stands for:

Bad-ass, Bitch Battalion

Normally, I don't like running all four females together simply because they can be so
bitchy and touchy,
over sensitive and very hormonal.

They are prone to double teaming, bullying and we have had enough cat fighting amongst them, to know that this almost always results in some blood, gore and mostly wounded ego's.

Lucky for me, the predator pressure is high,
they have a vast area to work,
they have cows and sheep to patrol,
and the males are far removed from them.

They females, actually seem to be getting on..

So, here they are:
My B team:

(from left to right)
Lucy and Fena ( mother and daughter)
Mali and Katcha ( mother and daughter)

The dogs can go under the fence between the cattle and the sheep. This is Lucy.

 As, I  did a little write up about Lucy and Fena during the description of the A team,
I will write a little about Mali and Katcha.

This is Mali.
She is a pup from Katcha and Vuk. Her nickname as a pup was "grouchy",
She has got better,  when she matures ( she is 14 months old now), I think she might be quite a dominant female. 

She has been living with the rams for a while now and has done well. 

This will be her first main stint out with the big girls.

Mali

Mail

Mali

  Katcha  was imported from the Czech republic,

from the same breeder as Fena and Beli.

She is a good guardian, prone to some naughtiness,

she is tough and can be rather pig headed at times.
She and Vuk grew up together and  are still best friends.

In this little photo session I must have been focused on Mali,
 as I only have this one picture of Katcha.

(She is also not my most photogenic dog, so perhaps that has to do with my lack of pictures of her!)

Katcha

Mali

Mali practising her wolf like walk

Mali

 Lucy is a mouse catching talent,her she is hunting mice for her late afternoon snack

Lucy

The sheep in the night corral.
Have a great Sunday!

This one is for the family..

The kid's grandfather is complaining that my blogs
 are only dogs, and puppies lately.

So, to keep the family happy,
 here are a few pictures of :

The kids

A bear

The sheep at sunset

Jess is riding her young horse.

He has had 6 weeks of training  and is now home.
Jess is riding him almost everyday.
(Usually she rides with a helmet, but for the pictures she did not want it on!)

The horse is called Ace and he is a Heinz 57 mix.

Another sunset

Moon

You see, no dogs this time around!