COUNTRY LIFE AT MILEHAUS FARM

FENCING

2009-04-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

When we sold our farm in February, we put aside enough money to have a fencing contractor do the fencing on the new acreage. Dennis fenced the two previous farms so was happy to let a fencing contractor put in the 1600 yards of farm fence needed here. The fencing should take about 1 week to complete. We are aiming to move the 5th wheel travel trailer to the acreage by the May long weekend and then we can bring the sheep and other animals home.

Some More Lamb Photos

2009-04-26T12:30:00.001-07:00

WE'RE BACK

2009-04-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

After 7 weeks away in the desert of Mesa Arizona in our 5th wheel trailer, we returned home to 100 Mile House last week. The day after we got back, Bree delivered this lovely HSt lamb. The,sheep waited for us to get home before they started lambing! Co-incidental probably, but I'll choose to think that they waited. Twelve of the fifteen bred ewes have lambed. We have some awesome lambs born this year. I will be adding some more pictures soon.

I will also be blogging over the next few months about the development of the acreage that we purchased last fall. The plans for our new house are just about complete. Fencing of the 10 acres will start tomorrow. Later this week, the electrical contractor will be installing the power lines. Once power is in and the fencing is complete, we will consider moving our 5th wheel on to the property so that we can bring the animals home.

Meanwhile, Dennis and myself, our two Newfoundlands and two Lhasa Apsos are continuing to do well in the 5th wheel. The dogs were a big hit with everyone at the RV campgrounds we stayed at on our trip south. I also look forward to reading your blogs to see what you have all been up to.

ONE OF THE APRIL 2008 NEWF PUPS

2009-02-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

Eight months makes for a huge change in a Newfoundland puppy! The top photo was taken on June 14/08 and the second photo in February 2009. This is "Gordie" from our April 2008 litter. Gordie now makes his home on Vancouver Island.

OUR FARM HAS SOLD

2009-02-12T16:04:00.000-08:00

The girls will be packing their suitcases for their move this weekend.

It all started back in October when we came across a gorgeous 14 acre parcel of land located 15 minutes from our current farm. This property had so much of what we had always hoped for, a creek running though it, a hill where a house could be built to overlook the fields and it was surrounded by 4000 acres of crown land (government owned land that is leased to cattle ranchers for summer grazing). In early November we decided to test the local real estate market and list our farm. We really didn't expect much to happen until at least spring time. Well to our great surprise, we received a decent offer for the farm by early December. The one condition that the purchaser was firm about was a possession date of February 28th. Since the snow does not leave here until the end of March at the earliest, it makes for a challenging move. Since we have no house to move to, we are currently moving all our belongings into storage. Fortunately good friends of ours have agreed to take the Shetlands to their farm and lamb them for us. The alpacas are going to another alpaca breeder here in 100 Mile House for the duration we are away. When the ground finally thaws out (sometime in May) we will be building a basement and putting a modular home on it. Hopefully we will be living in our new home by August. Until then, we (and the dogs) will be travelling south in our 5th wheel holiday trailer returning to this area in late April or early May to start on our new home.

TWO NEW ANIMALS AT MILEHAUS FARM

2008-09-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Dennis & I have talked about getting 2 horses since we first moved here full time 5 years ago. Dennis spent 4 years on the Mounted Squad during his policing career so is very comfortable around horses. I have always dreamed of one day owning my own horse but wasn't sure whether at 'fifty-something' I was too old to restart horse back riding. Now that we have had the horses for a short time, I wonder why we ever waited so long! We are having great fun riding through the miles of trails here in 100 Mile House.

THE CAT CAME BACK.....

2008-08-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

(Click on any of the pictures to enlarge.)

We have spent a lot of time away from the farm this summer. Between a number of trips to pick up or drop off animals and then numerous trips to Vancouver to visit with my 88 year old father who is terminally ill, the summer has been incredibly busy. Thank goodness for a wonderful farm/dog sitter who comes to stay at our house.

When we returned from our last trip away, Remi (one of our two barn cats) was no where to be found. For 5 days were called for her and left food out but no sign of her. I was so sad as she is a really nice cat with a very loving temperament. Well didn't we get a surprise when she turned up two days ago looking fit and happy. Now that I know she is alive and well, I will post a couple of pictures of her that I had taken just before she went missing.

It is good to be back.....

ON THE ROAD.....

2008-07-06T07:22:00.000-07:00

WillowGarden Killimanjaro

We are on the way to Olds Alberta (12 hours driving time from 100 Mile House BC) to pick up our sheep from WillowGarden that will be arriving sometime tomorrow. The sheep left Paris Ontario last Friday morning. Once we get back home and settled in, I will post some pictures. The above photo is WillowGarden Killimanjaro, an F1 Todhill Glayva son. He is a moorit yuglet flecket katmoget and will add some new genetics to our spotted lines.

TWO YUGLET FLECKET RAMS

2008-06-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

The ram lamb above is referred to as 'Spot'.

We refer to this fellow as 'Spot Too'

Both our spotted rams born this year are sired by WillowGarden Rex Harrison who now makes his home at Windy Grange. Horns are looking good on these boys. One ram we will keep and the other will be for sale. There will be a some sheep arriving from Ontario sometime in the next 10 days - a few more spotteds will be making their home here. It was time to add some more spotting genetics to our farm.

MILEHAUS BABIES OF 2008

2008-06-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Now that we are caught up on most of the farm work, I will post some pictures over the next while of a few of the babies born here this spring. This is our only llama cria to be born this year - and it is a GIRL! I really like her colouring. She is sooo soft.

Click on either of the above images to enlarge.

GOTLAND/SHETLANDX EASTER LAMBS

2008-03-23T12:52:00.000-07:00

Last fall we imported five Shetland sheep from Franna in Washington State. Included in the importation was "Flash" a Gotland/Finn ram lamb. This morning, two ewe lambs from our Shetland ewe Mtn Niche Heidi and Flash were born. It will be interesting to see what colour their fleece changes to as they mature.

FIRST LAMBS OF 2008 AT MILEHAUS FARM

2008-03-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

Our first lambs of the 2008 lambing season were born on Tuesday March 18th. It is still very winterlike here with 12 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures dropping to -12C (10F)at night. WillowGarden Kitty Fisher, who was bred to WillowGarden Rex Harrison , gave us a gorgeous spotted ram lamb and an HST ewe lamb. Although our breeding goals are moving towards a softer, finer, crimpier fleece on our Shetlands, I do enjoy a few "spotties" born each year.

NOT MUCH HAPPENING

2008-03-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

There is not much happening up here at the moment. The ewes are still holding on to their lambs. I thought I would share of photo of Rudolph the alpaca cria who was born last December. He is growing into a handsome fellow.

NEWFIE PUPS GROWTH RATE

2008-03-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

Newfie pups at 1 week of age.

Newfie pup at 8 weeks old.

Our first litter of Newfoundland puppies was born on December 29th 2007. The story of this litter deserves a post of its own but for now I want to share photos of the phenomenal growth rate of these large breed puppies. The six puppies weighed in at approximately 1.5 pounds each at birth. By 8 weeks of age they were weighing between 15 and 16 pounds each. The two photos above show a puppy at 1 week of age and again at 8 weeks of age - a mere 7 weeks later! We have met some wonderful families through placing these puppies in their new homes. Our pups went to new homes as far away as the Eastern coast of the US as well as 2 puppies staying close by here in BC.

WE'RE BACK

2008-03-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting to post a blog showing newborn Shetland lambs. It is currently day 157 (147 days of gestation being average) since the rams were introduced to the ewes last fall and still no lambs! The girls must have been playing hard to get.........or the first week of October was too early for the girls to be cycling.

As the picture shows, it is still winter time up here. This year was the heaviest snowfall in the 5 years we have lived in 100 Mile. It has been a very long time since we have seen the grass. On the upside, we haven't had any mud.

Since I have last written, there has been a litter of Newfoundland puppies born that had to be bottle fed as well as some family health issues and computer issues that had to be tended to. Life now appears to be back on track.

In the next few days, I will catch up on all the blogs that I like to read while having my morning coffee and see what you have all been up to in the past couple of months.

WE'LL BE BACK IN THE NEW YEAR

2007-12-19T09:20:00.001-08:00

WISHING YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

RUDY - THE BLUE PERSIAN CAT

2007-12-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

I promised my 27 year old daughter that I would put a picture of her cat Rudy on the blog. Lisa and Rudy came to live with us for 6 months during the summer of 2006. Rudy is from the last litter of Persian/Himalayan cats that I bred. Back in the mid 90's, while still living in the city, I had a small breeding program of Himalayan cats focusing on the 'chocolate and lilac' colour gene which is still quite rare in this breed of cat. Chocolate (bbDD) and lilac (bbdd) are lighter in colour than the more common seal point(BBDD) and blue point(BBdd). The bb gene also has an effect on the coat colour of the Himalayans making it very clear and white compared to the seal point and blue point which often have a muddy colour to their coat. We would breed back into Persian lines to keep the type. Even with the cats, I was fascinated with recessive and modifed colours :-) Rudy is a very sweet, pleasant cat and I miss her living here (and Lisa, I miss you living here too!)

FAVORITE PHOTO

2007-12-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

Above is one of my favorite dog photos. I did not take this photo - it was taken at a show site on Vancouver Island. I have been rebuilding my Lhasa Apso website and came across this picture of Sassy at 6 months old. I think Sassy has a very expressive face! The bands are in her hair to keep her from chewing her head coat.

Sassy has grown into a lovely young lady who loves to show.

A DECEMBER SURPRISE

2007-12-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was a very busy day. We had three Newfoundland dogs to comb out, trim, bath and blow dry. We had a veterinarian appointment scheduled in Williams Lake for the following day to have preliminary xrays done to check hips and elbows on the Newfies. We like to make sure all the dogs are clean and nice smelling when we visit our vet. Each dog takes about 2 hours to do.

"Am I dry yet" asks Jack.

Part way through our grooming marathon, we happened to looked out the window. In the barnyard we could see four scrawny legs standing behind Starlett the alpaca. Better go check this out. What a surprise we had - an alpaca baby! We were not expecting any December crias.

The hour old male alpaca cria warms up under the heat lights beside his mom.

Young Rudolph, at 90 minutes of age, appears strong and healthy.

LHASA PUPPIES AT 1 MONTH OLD

2007-11-30T12:03:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-28T09:15:00.000-08:00

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.....

2007-11-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-16T13:20:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-14T08:10:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

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.

I'M BACK

2007-10-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

I am back on the farm after a week away in Vancouver. The weather was gorgeous with only one day of rain which is quite unusual in Vancouver at this time of year (I can say that after living on the coast for 40 years!). I spent the time visiting family and friends and attending the dog show at Tradex. This is the largest dog show in Canada and a fun one to attend. Although we did not have any of our dogs entered, as we had missed the deadline for entries, it was fun to visit the other breeders and watch the show. While I was in the Vancouver area at the dog show, our Lhasa Apso puppy Sienna was with Arlene at the American Lhasa Apso Show in Houston Texas. Sienna won her class so we are proud of her. It is nice to take a break from the farm every once in a while but it is good to be home again.......

WHERE'S THE LLAMAS?

2007-10-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

I was asked about our llamas. We have 3 female llamas here at Milehaus Farm. Stardust is pictured above with her May 2007 cria 'Sterling'. This year we had one llama cria born at our farm.

Sunburst, a fawn coloured alpaca cria, greets her new buddy Sterling.

Sterling peeks over top of his momma.

Sterling at 2 months. Sterling has a very fine, lustrous, silky fleece.

IMPETUOUS

2007-10-16T08:13:00.000-07:00

This is Fibre Works Impetuous. His sire is Todhill Hornblower - one of the UK rams used for the Canadian AI procedure last year. Much appreciation and thanks go to Kathy B, Linda W and Bill S for all their work and expense involved in making these genetics available to Canadian Shetland breeders. Impetuous is our main ram here this year at Milehaus Farm with 14 ewes in with him. Below is a picture of his fleece - his fleece feels very similar to the fleece from our alpacas.

SUNDAY BRUNCH

2007-10-14T14:31:00.000-07:00

These are some of our 2007 lambs enjoying a meal. From the height of the divots in this bale, you can tell that the alpacas and llamas have been the first to access this bale. This 4 acre treed paddock has been divided into 2 sections - one side for the camelids and one for the Shetland sheep. They will spend the winter in this area as our fields are finished now for the year. We feed hay 9 months of the year.

DRUM RAM SON

2007-10-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here is Whistlestop 0531"Willie" (a Drum Ram son) with Whistlestop 0221 "Daisy" (a Keir Gordon daughter). Thank you Franna for your willingness to go through all the hoops required to export these UK sired sheep to us in Canada! Also in this importation from WA was Whistlestop Daphne (another Keir Gordon daughter), EverRanch Mary (an Island Skeld granddaughter) and EverRanch Sorsha (a SheltrgPines Octavian daughter). Willie has 3 lovely ladies in with him for breeding this fall.

Autumn 2007

2007-10-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

We seemed to go directly from summer to winter this year. The above picture was taken in late September. Our farm is at an elevation of just under 4000 feet but this snow is at least 6 weeks early.

Today the weather is back to normal - a lovely 15C (60F). A good day for a swim in the back pond........if you are a Newf.

Our Spotted Group

2007-10-10T09:03:00.001-07:00

Each year we like to breed for a few spotted lambs such as the above 2007 ewe lamb. We enjoy taking the Shetlands to exhibit at local farm fairs and the spotties are always a big hit. This year three ewes carrying the spotted factor are being bred to WillowGarden Rex Harrison.

ps) There appears to be a glitch on our computer that won't allow us to respond to any comments but we are working on trying to figure it out.

Shetland Breeding Groups

2007-10-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

Since I was feeling sorry for myself all weekend that I was not down in Vancouver at the dog show plus we are missing the family Thanksgiving Dinner in Vancouver tonight, Dennis decided to cheer me up with "lets put the Shetland breeding groups together!". Now I was smiling again.

We spent 7 hours yesterday catching, penning, evaluating, vetting and moving in to 5 different fields, paddocks or pens the ewes and rams. I can spend 6 months planning and replanning and putting down on paper which ewe goes to which ram for which reason only to chance my mind at the very last minute who goes where. But it is done.......4 Shetland groups and 1 Shetland/Gotland/Finn cross group. Oh, I almost forgot, one NCC ram in with 3 of my largest Shetland ewes. I was so impressed with Theresa G's NC Cheviot crosses that I had to try it here. That actually makes 6 different groups. No wonder we are tired today..........

Above is a photo taken at he beginning of August of Fibre Works Hebrides - a gorgeous coloured, crimpy, fine fleeced mioget ram who has 5 lovely ewes in with him this fall. I just love the mioget colour!

Over the next few days, I will share some of the other rams in the other groups.

DOG SHOW WEEKEND

2007-10-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had planned to be at the Fraser Valley Dog Show near Vancouver BC. For various reasons we are still here at the farm 300 miles away from Vancouver. We had planned to show our Lhasa Apso puppy 'Sienna' and our 16 month old Landseer Newfoundland 'Lacey'. I have just picked up a phone message from our friend and co-breeder who has Sienna at the show - Sienna took the points today. Pretty good for a 7 month old puppy at her first show (shameless brag)! Here is Sienna at three months old practising to be a 'show dog' and above is a picture of her with her brother visiting at the nursing home.

SAD DAY AT THE FARM

2007-10-04T18:37:00.000-07:00

We have kept Shetland sheep for the past 4 years. We have heard stories of the aggressive behaviour of rams towards one another for the few months during breeding season. We have been very fortunate never to have experienced a serious injury or death of any of our rams during this time of year. Today our luck ran out. This afternoon, while walking with the Newfies past the bachelor field, we found our 18 month old emsket ram laying on his side in the field. We had fed the boys earlier that morning and all was well with the 6 mature rams but we have noticed that they have been banging heads for the past 2 weeks. Unfortunately this is part of life on a farm..............

HAY IS HERE

2007-10-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Our hay arrived at 7:30 am on a cold and rainy day last week. These are 1800 pound bales of 70% orchard grass and 30% alfalfa from Central Alberta. We will be sharing some of this truck load of hay with our neighbors. This is the 3rd year of feeding with the large rounds but it does play havoc with the neck fleece on the sheep. We use 6 sections of cattle panels wired together to wrap the bale of hay and the Shetland ewes and alpacas pull the hay through the squares of the panels to eat. It is always a relief once the hay has arrived knowing that the animals have their winter feed.

WELCOME

2007-10-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our sheep, alpaca and dog blog. Many of our city friends have asked us what we do to keep busy on our farm.........and if we ever get bored living WAY out in the country........We have created this blog to share what country life at Milehaus Farm is all about. We are two fifty-something, retired city folk who found our way to a 20 acre farm in the small town of 100 Mile House BC.