DOG SHOW WEEKEND

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

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

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.