Trial Updates- soon but Farm Updates now!!

I've been buried at work and home so I still need to do my trial updates from MacDonald's Trial as well as the Sheep Thrillz Trial. I still need to take about Tess's retirement and her Quilt. I will do this in the next few days. Really, I promise!

On the home front. The four goslings are down to ONE Goslings...yes, just ONE. The crows carried off three of them. The duck who had four ducklings now has three. Again, the crows. The black Muscovy Hen who was laying on eggs...well, they didn't hatch so I snuck in some farm store bought ducklings (2 Piebald ducklings) and she is raising them. One of them got nabbed by the crows. They are in the chicken coop (aka a dog run) and when the ducklings squeeze out of the kennel, the crows nab them.

Jennie, the Turkey hen died of old age, She just fell asleep and never work up. I need to get Tom a hen as he is lonely. I also need to get a hen for the male Guinea who moved in. He belonged to the neighbor but decided he wanted to live over here. He is a real personable Guinea. We know when someone is here because he announces them. I really like Guineas. When I was young, we had them and I have fond memories of them. I had several that were pets and would follow me around. I alos had pet geese, ducks and a peasant.

The coyotes have been active and got four lambs too. What do the wild animals think we are...fast food? Apparently so!! The LGD have been busy at night barking at the coyotes and recently we have had no losses. We weaned the lambs and for several night we were serenaded by screaming lambs. Getty especially hates that time of the year.

I had my fields mowed too. The marsh field which is in my bottom part of my lower pasture was mowed yesterday and we have a new nice square field to work in. The beaver dams down the road cause the water to back up and flood that part of the field. We have had record sunshine so it dried up and I had it mowed. Maybe in August if it is still dry, I will have it plowed so the swamp grass is removed.

My training field is being hayed now and should be done next week. I had the part of it which had lots of swamp grass all plowed up and now it looks nice. I also had the upper part mowed and just plowed up. I am trying to get the fields in good shape so I have more area to train and less swamp grass.

The two Arabs are doing well as guardian horses and they are fat. Emmy is 23 years old and runs around like a filly. She is my favorite horse and loves her sheep. Emma, the Desperado V daughter is very jealous and wants to be spoiled by me every time I am at the field. She is a former show horse and that might have something to do with that.

I haven't had much time to train Sava, Rainey or Belle the last couple of weeks very much as I have been out of town for trials. I will be putting more time on them soon. I do use Rainey or Sava for chores to keep them sharp. Rainey is just like her mother, Tess. She runs to one gate to the other and looks back at me to make sure I am going to open one of them to have her work. It's a younger version of Tess and sometimes I get a pain in my chest knowing that Tess won't be the chore dog anymore. Tess does help Getty with the chores in the morning. I try to use Sava or Rainey to sort sheep for lessons.

Lucy is the cowdog now. I need to have the cow moved sometimes and Lucy loves to work the cow. Tess will also work the cow but I try to use Lucy. Lucy will grip on the head and is more authoritative on moving the cow than Tess. She is not sure about the Turkey though.

The fruit trees are starting to bear fruit and the garden is doing well. I broke down and got a new sprinkler so it waters the garden without me having to go out and move the sprinkler every five minutes. (old one). The tomatoes plants are huge and we expect to have a huge crop. I was looking forward to eating the ripe raspberries but the birds got to them first. Oh well, I hope they enjoyed them.

We are off to the Mt Vernon Games this weekend and then home for a weekend. I will be taking Tess and Lucy to this trial. Tess won this trial two years ago. It is in a baseball field and with hair sheep. They have the Scottish Highland Games and I enjoy the food there. Janey will be running Scott and we all will have a good time. I'll have a Shepherd Pie for all of you!!