Sled-dogs, Ukrainian Dance and sheep

Some weekends are so busy, you need the entire week to recuperate.
This was one of them.

It started off with 4-H District Communications.
Roy had won the Sr Presentations category so qualified to go to Districts.
That meant early rising, preparing a potluck meal, feeding animals and getting morning chores done before 8:30 am.
Then a quick shower and on to Districts.
Roy did his presentations and tanks, and was a little nervous this time around.
He did well, but not well enough to qualify to Regional Communications.
It was amazing to listen to the quality of speeches and presentations from the kids!

After the communications, it was go go go, no time for coffee as I had to go and take some pictures of Sam Snow and her sled-dogs.
We had to first go and find them out on the frozen lake, traipsing first through the cattails to get out on the lake.
Sam, is a little unique as many of her sled dogs are rescue dogs. She is a self taught musher.
She invited me to hop on her sled, and go for a ride so that I can get the photo's we needed.
Wow, what an exhilarating feeling, totally awesome.
The trail was very hard for the dogs as the snow was in some places ( in the cattails) non-existent.

Here is a glimpse of the afternoon:

Thank you Sam, Sky and Marie and of course the dogs!

Here is a short clip on how it feels behind the dogs, it starts off sideways, but I soon get it straightened out..

As we were in our next time crunch, we were on our way to the local Ukrainian supper and dance.
The food was amazing, the dancing spectacular.

We came home and I slipped into a much needed sleep.

Sunday started bright and early, some house work and then time for some sheep work.
The January born lambs were vaccinated and de-wormed. I had great help in Roy and our neighbor girl, Ramona. Ramona is becoming quite the shepherd. She is in for anything and is really proficient at vaccinating and de-worming. Within an hour we had the lambs done. Unfortunately, she had to leave to her other paying job.

Roy and I then hustled the next group of ewes and replacement lambs into the barn to start vaccination them. This was a bigger job, but had it done in a few hours.
While we were doing this, Eric was out feeding bales, feeding grain, feeding dogs and ensuring all the stock had water.

Lunch time rolled around, we had visitors who came to see the sarplaninacs. It was good visiting with them and talking dogs.
After they left, it was back to the grind,
the barn needed preparing for the next lambing group, panels moved in, and a new pen built in anticipation for the next lambing group.
The cows start calving at the end of the month, the ewes start lambing in a few weeks and the ewes who had lambed already need to move out and make space for the newborns.

It is now 9pm and I am ready for bed.
Hope you had a good weekend.
I had a blast.

Puppies and their characters

The pups are doing so well, I can hardly believe they are already 8 weeks old.
I am so enjoying having this litter and seeing them grow.

I have been really slow about some character descriptions of the pups, because in reality they are all so similar and even.
They are pretty even in size and their character differences are small.
Not one pup stands out for being super dominant or very shy.

My first set of pups are red and purple.
I suppose I would describe these two as the most middle of the road pups.
Not the first out to go exploring, but always happy to participate in pack activity.

Next, we have Blue.
Blue is a serious, down to business pup.
He is one of the pups that is no nonsense, a serious pup who will make a strong guardian dog.
He has a strong personality.

Big Gray, is a little milder in nature, he is always one of the first to meet and greet you. He is confident and always up for some adventure. 

Green is probably the toughest pup in the litter. He is certainly not one of the biggest pups,
but is very similar in nature to Blue. He knows what he wants and is serious in doing it.
He is confident and determined.

Black and Green are a "pair", they are always hanging out together. Black is a tad softer than green, but is certainly not a softie.  He is part of the top 4 for being outgoing ( Blue, Green Gray and Black),
red and Purple are more middle of the road.
Black is very enamored by the lambs, likes to clean ears, and butts.

My last two pups do not have collars, I can recognize them quite easily in the group.
I call them the two dark pups.
 I will call them pup 7 and Pup 8.
These two pups, are perhaps the "shyest" of the whole group.
They like to watch things from a safe distance.
They are not fearful, but generally watch and wait to see what is going to happen first.
Pup 8 is the shyest of the two.
He is definitely one of my favorite pups. I think he will make a fantastic LGD, and be very bonded to his sheep or his people.

The pups are off to the vet for their first vaccinations and check up.
They will be microchipped and I will soon be looking into flights for some of these pups for when they will be leaving to their new homes.

Enjoy this little clip of the pups and lambs.

Mali, the new Cover Girl

Thank you to Lauren Dixon for a great article on utilizing LGD to prevent predation.

To read the whole article, you can go the link here:
The Rise Of Livestock Guardian Dogs