LHASA PUPPIES AT 1 MONTH OLD

The Lhasa Puppies are now 1 month old. Although unsteady on their legs, they move around their play area and mouth the toys. They have just started on solid food. Micki, their mom, is still in with them for most of the day and all of the night.

IT'S CCCOLD UP HERE

The temperature was -19C [-2F] early this morning. Brrrr.... The ice on the marsh and lake is now thick enough for the Newfies to walk on.

THE BOYS ARE BACK.....

The boys are back in their bachelor field - all the breeding groups have been dismantled. The rams have all survived the 30 hour ordeal of close confinement in the stock trailer while they accustom themselves to the sight and smell of each other. The ewes are happy to be back in their winter paddock. The pecking order has been re-established and peace reigns at Milehaus Farm.

ALPACA CRIAS

The alpaca babies have been weaned. While still with their mothers, they are quite skittish. Now that they are in a field on thier own, they come up for treats and alpaca kisses.

THE CRASH

This is a photo taken last Sunday morning from our front field. We heard a horrific crash. Dennis was first on scene of what turned out to be a fatal accident. The driver of the SUV in the ditch died at the scene. The purpose of this post - a reminder to all family, friends and fellow critter breeders to use extra caution when driving on winter roads.

FLEECE PHOTOS

While moving the ewes from their breeding groups back to their winter field, I like to take the time to look at each fleece. Here are a couple of my favorites.

A NEWFIE DOG BLOG

Tori, our contemplative Newf.

True to her breed - Lacey the Landseer Newf loves water - no matter how cold.

Jack, our grinning Newf and carting prospect, is next on the list for a grooming session.

A gaggle of Newfs.

WIND STORM

After a day without power and two days with no Internet connection, we are finally back to normal. A powerful wind storm hit the Pacific Northwest on Sunday and carried through to the Interior. Many of our trees came down, fortunately none hitting any of the out buildings. Our fence lines were not so lucky. Time for clean up. There is never time to get bored when owning a farm :-)

Skye and her cria survey the damage in the barnyard. This is one of the beetle kill pine trees that died this summer. It broke off at ground level and came through the fence. Luckily no animals were close by.

WHAT'S IN A NAME

On our "To Do" list next week is to gather all the 2007 lambs, who are now 5+ months old, for fleece evaluation. This year I am using the letter "B" to name the lambs that we will keep over the winter. I have lots of ram lambs names picked out that start with B, but I am having a difficult time thinking of suitable names for the ewe lambs. Too many years of having to think up names for puppies in a litter........This black and white HST ewe lamb deserves a fancy name, her claim to fame is she is related to the famous Shetland Dream. She will be staying here at Milehaus Farm this winter.

NEW LHASA APSO PUPPIES

This is a picture of our 10 day old Lhasa Apso puppies. The black puppy is a female and the reds are two boys. The puppies have doubled in size since birth although it has been a litter that has required a lot of supplemental formula feeding around the clock. These 3 remaining puppies are now thriving and the mom is able to take care of them all on her own.

ANIMAL SHELTERS AT MILEHAUS FARM

Here at Milehaus, we like to use a simple, inexpensive shelter for the animals. 100 Mile House is in the heart of log home building country so we are able to pick up log home slabs for free to use as siding. A friend of ours has a portable sawmill and is able to make 2x4's from our own trees. Poles are cut from the beetle killed pine trees on our farm. We use our old heavy duty hay tarp cut in to pieces to line the inside of the shelters to block out any wind. Next year we will buy green metal roofing for the top. This shelter also doubles as a catch pen as the paddock gate can swing in. This is one of the smaller shelters and is used for our male alpaca who shares a pen with two Shetland wethers.

In September, our son Dan came up to the farm for a few days to help Dennis with the framing of the 9' X 20' alpaca girls shelter.

We have just finished this larger shelter. The above picture is the inside of the new alpaca shelter. We left the rock there as it makes a good seat to sit on while visiting with the alpacas. We have built this shelter with two doorways as the alpacas do not like to feel closed in.

Sable the alpaca is happy with her new shelter.

WINTER IS COMING

With our farm at an elevation of 4000 feet, winter comes early to the 100 Mile House area.

The lake out back has started to freeze around the edge.

Mary says she is glad she is a Shetland sheep - she is tough and can withstand the cold - and she has heard that the barn has a furnace for those REALLY cold days.