Author: fourfarmdogs

No Wensley’s for Now…

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Well, I did make the Wensleydale sheep owner an offer, but she could not give up her dog for any price, and I just feel too squeamish making such a big investment without a guardian dog. And, her price wasn’t consistent with what she originally led me to understand either, so that firmed me up on deciding these weren’t right for me at the moment.

I snooped around on the Web a bit to assess how accessible adult, working LGDs are. Not very! A friend of mine did tell me she purchased one, so they do exist, but I think they are hard to find. There was one listed on craiglist from a woman who was getting out of farming due to health reasons. But, when I emailed her, she said the response for the dog was overwhelming. So as I expected, they are in high demand, low supply. So that’s not going to help me with the Wensleydales.

So, I’m back to considering Katahdins again, there are a few options of them on the market from some good breeders. I like the idea of buying from an active breeder, because I know I can rely on that person for advice and support in the future as I learn the ropes. Though Katahdins are kinda plain looking, they are very practical– good feed converters, no shearing hassles, and they are fairly easy to find, so I shouldn’t have trouble maintaining a breeding program.

Decision Now Required on Sheep Purchase!

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We went to see the Wensleydales yesterday. They are lovely sheep, the wool is luxurious for certain! The animals had sound temperaments, they looked healthy, and the one I was able to catch had good feet and teeth. They weren’t quite as big as I expected based on photos I’d seen, but when I caught one, it was still a substantial and tall sheep. They were mildly flighty, but not freaky; they’d be easy to work with.

I pressed a little for more details on how much, precisely, the owner makes on an average year from this flock; but she seemed reluctant to talk specifics, as many people are when it comes to disclosing income. But, in a roundabout way, she cited expenses, how much she gets for wool, how much others have been getting for lambs, etc. So, I think (I hope?) I have a pretty good picture. I think that this may be a good wave to catch–while this breed is early in development here, it’s in high and growing demand. That may change in another decade, but there is a certain fad phenomenon with new breeds, I think, that can be most profitable at the beginning.

The biggest snag is this: I was hoping the owners would be willing to part with one or both of their livestock guardian dogs. I was figuring that since they are liquidating their livestock, they might not mind throwing a dog into the package too. But, when I inquired, she indicated they are very attached to the dogs, and had already decided not to sell them.

This is a conundrum for me: if I’m going to buy really expensive sheep, I want the best insurance policy against coyotes I can get. I had originally planned on trying out a llama or donkey, and I’d still do that if I were buying $100 sheep, because I prefer those to dealing with a big dog. But I think it’s too much to risk with expensive animals. And, it doesn’t appear that you can just pick up an adult, trained, fully-functioning LGD just anywhere. I think you pretty much have to buy your own pup and raise it up (and thoughtfully too, so it doesn’t learn bad habits).

So, I think I may have to tell the seller that one dog is a required part of the deal for me. I don’t mean to drive a hard bargain, but it’s a lot of money for me to lay down knowing that coyotes or loose dogs could destroy a large part of the investment in a one-hour spree.

I have such a hard time making big decisions, I’ve been waffling back and forth on this, dreaming about it, boring other people with the details about it! 🙂 But, I think my mind is made up that I want to at least make an offer on them, so the only thing left to decide is how much.

As a side note, the town where the sheep owner lives is a very tiny, old Northwest town. We had a greasy, but tasty lunch in a hole-in-the-wall diner there where the waitress sat down with us at our table to take our order. I was highly amused to observe and overhear some locals talking loudly and with strong opinion about the presidential election. It made me smile– a real piece of Americana– very ordinary people talking about their main concerns over the candidates. They weren’t discussing foreign policy, health care reform, the national deficit or the war– they were mostly concerned with Obama’s former pastor, Palin’s five kids and past beauty pageant win, and to which church denomination each candidate belonged. I love it.

A Day’s Mowing

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Mowing Progress

Yesterday, I mowed the whole center field. In the picture, it’s about half done. It doesn’t look too exciting from up top, but this grass was almost waist-high, so definitely needed a cutback before fall. My Farm Planner materials recommend doing your last mowing early enough in the fall that the grass has time to do its final sugar storage in its roots before going dormant for the winter. So, this seems to be a good time. It took me five or six hours to do this field. The first field, that’s completely fenced, I’m hoping will have sheep soon enough to maintain it during the winter so that it doesn’t need any more mowing. 

My duck flock is doing well. This 5-week old batch of ducks seems to be a big enough group, and noisy and flighty enough, that the older ducks don’t pick on them much. So, I’m able to let them all loose during the day, so they can forage. They are even starting to loosely flock together. I haven’t had any more predation after losing one Magpie drake almost two months ago. I hope it stays that way!

We had a good dinner at the local Thai restaurant last night, and I spent a few hours at the fair getting the final information ready for state fair entries to be prepared. Fortunately for me, another volunteer handles that part!

Sunsets and Weekend Work

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sunset
Sunset View from the House

August is the time for sunsets, and we’ve been getting a lot of fabulous ones lately. But, I’ve struggled to capture them in their full magnitude on camera. These modern day digital cameras–even with their special “sunset” and “night” settings–just don’t do them justice. This is the best one I came up with, and I admit, I digitally altered the colors a little bit to bring it closer to what it looked like in person.

 
I have a four-day weekend ahead of me, with hopes of high productivity (as always). I came to realize that the tractor’s brush cutter is just fine and needs no adjustment– the blades I thought were “loose” actually are supposed to spin on their bolt axes. It took me a while to think that through, and then of course when I re-read the manual, it confirmed this. I just didn’t interpret the instructions correctly the first time. So, I’m good to go, I can mow again. And I have the $75 socket set ready for the time when I do need to remove the blades to sharpen them!
 
Other to-do wishes for the weekend: smooth the driveway by the house and order gravel. Machete the blackberries around the duck pen. Build a sheep shelter in the pasture. Get ready for our weekend away next weekend-we’re going to Orcas Island.
 
And, of course, the fair– I need to go there Fri, Sat and Sun to finish up press releases, state fair entries and anything else that needs doing. Sunday we plan to visit the Wensleydale sheep flock.

Impatience

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I have been feeling impatient lately with my slow progress on things. Being sick last weekend (and I’m still not feeling totally well), being busy with the fair, and reading a lot about sheep have left me feeling like nothing concrete is getting done. And, working a lot of hours at work takes its toll, especially since one of my peers at work has been caustic lately, making the hard work seem less worthwhile. I try not to let it get under my skin, but it does get me down sometimes; engineers can be a tough crowd.

I did manage to find a local dealer of the Wedge-Loc T-post brackets today, and purchased some parts that would enable me to fashion quick shelters for sheep. (The store owner did say that he sells quite a few of those things, and that they do make for good corner braces on short runs, or for quick, temporary fencing.) I am realizing that if I get a ram now, I need to make him separate quarters asap! I had hoped to buy bred ewes and worry about a ram next fall, but I may need to accelerate my plans if I do end up purchasing this whole herd.

I tried out my new gigantic socket wrench on the grass cutter to tighten the blades, and had no luck–the bolts won’t budge. I even stuck a 2-foot pipe on the end of the wrench for more leverage, and then Kirk tried-not a mm of motion! So, I’m stumped, I don’t know how to tighten those blades, the owners manual doesn’t have further advice, so I’ll have to call the dealership to ask for suggestions. I’m anxious to mow the center field before the rainy season, so this is becoming my top priority.  

We are finishing up the movie series on John Adams and enjoying it. I like period dramas, and these kinds of movies fill in for my pathetic American education, which is totally lacking in history and geography-even though I always got excellent grades!

I probably need to slow down and enjoy life– things will get done, in good time. But, I really wish there were more hours in the day to finish all the things I’d like to be doing!

Cheap Sheep, Expensive Sheep

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These days my mind is filled with sheep considerations. I am going to visit this Wensleydale sheep flock in a week, so I have been doing a lot of reading about them, and about sheep breeds in general. There is a huge variation in price between the breeds, and between registered purebreds and crossbreeds. And there are many pro’s and con’s to weigh.

 

I can get a plain ol’ mixed breed wool sheep off of craigslist for easily $100, sometimes less. Wensleydales in general run from $800-$2000, by the looks of things; with maybe a poor-quality, low-percentage wether going for more like $350 (and that still seems too expensive to eat!!). Pro: This flock I’m considering is discounted if I buy the whole lot of them, because the owners are retiring, they are offering financial incentive to take them all at once. So, if Wensleydales are what I’m after, it’s a great opportunity price-wise as well as getting access to someone’s choice breeding stock. This is opposed to having to breed-up from second-choice animals that someone else culled out of their flock.

 

Pro: In theory, if they lambed a good crop next spring, the investment could not only pay for itself, but become profitable in the first year. Con: But, that’s making a lot of assumptions: that prices hold, that I can find buyers, that coyotes won’t get any, that I won’t have to buy a lot of supplemental feed, that I don’t have any horrendous vet bills, that the whole shearing thing works out, and that I won’t make some terrible management mistake and have a bunch of losses while I’m learning the ropes.

 

Pro: The owner reports that Wensleydale values have been staying strong, and indeed the few websites in the whole country where I can find prices, they are high! But, what I don’t know is how long you have to hold animals to find buyers, and where you find buyers. So, that is something I want to ask more about.  Con: And, then, there is the fact that she’s not selling hers very fast—they’ve been for sale for at least two months, and it doesn’t look like she’s sold a single one! I’m not sure what to make of that!

 

Pro: On the other hand– $100 sheep beget $100 sheep, and all qualities of sheep eat about the same amount of feed. So, if I can sustain expensive sheep on the same grass and find adequate market for them, the income potential for that piece of ground goes way up! Con: And yet, I’ll probably never feel I can afford to eat any of these expensive things, and part of the reason of getting sheep is to have lamb!

 

Pro: I do prefer registered purebreds for sure. There are a lot of advantages to purebreds-they are predictable in size, temperament, appearance, health history and quality of carcass, wool, or whatever else you are breeding them for. Mixed breeds are a roll of the dice every time.

 

And, more pro’s: the sheep are beautiful, the wool is incredible, they are a “heritage breed,” which I favor over modern breeds. I enjoy having unique things, so it would be a novelty to be involved with such an unusual breed recreation project in the U.S. So, I am leaning towards “yes”; but still have some thinking and research to do!

Food Poisoning Slows Progress

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Kirk and I both got food poisoning, of course, there is now way to know for sure what the source is. Kirk became very sick Friday night, was up all night, and then slept all day Saturday and marginally recovered. I was mildly ill Saturday and thought I had escaped the full brunt of it that he had. But Sunday night, I repeated his Friday night, so Monday I was pretty shot.

So, that has interrupted my big plans for a productive three day weekend. That, and work interruptions. I did get a few things done though, I weed-whacked the septic drain field. And I ran a lot of errands.

I am ready to mow the center field, but realized the brush cutter needs maintenance, its blades have come loose. It turns out, it needs a 1-11/16″ socket to tighten the bolts, a wrench won’t work because there is no way to brace the rotary part so it won’t turn under the torque from the wrench. So, after calling around, I found a socket at Napa in town. That, plus an extension was $75! I was able to borrow a 1″ bar from my dad, but will probably need to get one of those too. I am finding that the tractor, though easy to work on, requires a whole set of specialized tools of its own.

I found an ad today from some sheep farmers who are liqudiating their flock of Wensleydale sheep. They have potentially fourteen of them left, including a very nice ram. I was really set on hair sheep, because I’ve always heard that it’s hard to find shearers and the market for wool is drying up as fewer and fewer people hand-spin. But, I talked to this woman today, and it sounds like the sheep more than pay for themselves, that their wool is highly valued (if you can find a good shearer). She is emailing me more complete information on the animals.

So, maybe I would consider wool sheep after all, it sounds like a nice opportunity to take over an already well-planned breeding program. She was very helpful and shared a lot of information on how she markets the wool and runs her operation. The downside is, they are expensive animals, I would really lose sleep if I lost any to coyotes etc. Food for thought!

Have Fence, Need Sheep

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New view from house.
New view from house.

I have been so busy lately. In trying to take three-day weekends in July and August to get more farm work done, I think it’s just resulted in my working longer hours during my four-day week at work to keep up! On Thursday, I had a 13 hour workday, including driving time! 😛 This morning I had to remote log-in to fix a software build breakage I caused- so much for sleeping in. I am thankful I can do it from home, however, that is sure a convenience.

My plan for the remainder of the weekend is to take Monday off too, and mostly work on the farm. The first field is officially fully fenced and ready for animals- so that’s another task, is finding someone who has sheep to sell! I would prefer to buy eight pregnant Katahdin ewes, but we’ll see what I can find. I am also considering a llama, that would hopefully serve as a guardian.

Other goals for the weekend: weed-whack the septic drain field, mow the middle field, smooth the driveway by the house and order gravel for it. And, prepare for the fair, it starts next Thursday! My mom and I are meeting tomorrow to print out the hundreds of pages of schedules, score sheet labels, armbands, “spirit of 4-H” voting ballots, and state fair entry forms necessary for the operation of our 4-H dog barn at the fair. I am looking forward to eating a Russian Pirozki or two! Yum! 🙂

Magpies, Swedish & One Cayuga
Magpies, Swedish & One Cayuga

The photo above is the “new” view from the house-minus those scrappy, half-dead alder trees: Kirk cut them down last weekend. And, here is a photo of my purchased ducklings, now three weeks old and thriving. They are enjoying getting let outside in the grass, this is a new privilege this week. The two Swedish ducks have black on the backs of their necks, the solid black one is the Cayuga, and the other four are Magpies.

 

Week One Without Chessie

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At the agility start line (Cloud 9 Photos)

I guess it’s been just a week since Chessie died, it already seems like longer than that. Though, it’ll be a while before I adjust to making only three bowls of food, counting only three heads when coming in from the field, and loading only three dogs in the van. I have a lot of his “personal affects”-for lack of a better term-left to put away or give away. Extra dog beds, bowls, gear specifically for him, like his big tracking harness. And, now might be a good time to re-configure my van, which has semi-permanently installed dog crates and competition gear, since that’s one less big crate that needs to be in there.

I am dealing with the loss better than I expected I would, I think I was preparing for a long time. But, that dog was still a huge part of my adult life, so I sure miss him all the same.

I went back through my photo album of competition photos, and through his competition record book. The first entries were in the summer of 1997, when he was four years old and I had been out of college one year. He earned his AKC “Pre-Trial Tested” herding title with three straight passes, and his “Companion Dog” obedience title with one failure and three back-to-back passes and two placements. I remember  that weekend: his first run out, there was a minute of terrible loudspeaker feedback noise, it panicked him-so typical of Chessie. The judge, Christopher Cornell, was so kind, and re-started our heel pattern to let us regroup, but Chessie could not get it together. I had many runs ruined due to Chessie’s fears of certain noises, and umbrellas. But, he also almost always scored well, and often placed.

My last competition notes are from less than three years ago, where we finished our UKC Agility Trial Champion. He was still very athletic and comfortable jumping at age twelve. His final roster of titles earned was impressive for just a dog pound rescue, he had a good show career. His full registered name ended up being:

U-ACH U-CDX Chases The Sun CDX PT MX AXJ

Left is one of my favorite photos of him and me together; we were waiting at the start line of an agility run in this picture. There was a delay, I had already tossed my leash aside, and I knelt down to make sure Chessie didn’t jump the line before the judge signaled his readiness. The photographer had a good eye for capturing moments of teamwork and closeness between dog and handler.

Herding Trial

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Last weekend I competed in an AKC herding trial with both of my younger dogs, Maggie and Idgie. The trial was lovely, well-run and organized, the weather was sunny but not-to-hot, and the Whidbey Island farm where we stayed is always gorgeous. I love the drive to get there too. It’s a very nice weekend for camping in the trailer, and I rarely miss that trial because of it.

 

My dogs, however, didn’t perform as well as I might have hoped. Of course, it always comes down to one’s training; there is nobody to blame but the trainer! J

 

I ran Idgie on two different sheep courses- an open field course, and an arena course. She had nice outruns in the open field, but was way too pushy on both courses, moving the stock too quickly, which causes her to struggle to control them. And, she was “slicing”, or cornering too tightly, instead of offering nice “square flanks” where the dog’s turning does not affect the livestock’s course. Idgie ended up only passing one out of four runs, and her score was still not that great (though vastly better than last year at the same farm, so I guess she IS improving in some ways). But, I’ve hardly worked her on sheep in the last six months, so I guess I just need to brush her up on several things. She did call off nicely, every time, which I do appreciate. And, as always, she covers well—she will not lose an animal, which is something that many other handlers and other-breed owners cannot say about their dogs.

 

I only put Maggie on arena ducks, because she is struggling with flat outruns right now, as well as being able to listen to and process my commands while simultaneously using her brain to read and respond to the livestock. She worked hard on the ducks, and almost passed on Sunday. But, the ducks were very dogged from being worked at multiple trials during the season, and they were challenging for even the most experienced dogs.

 

Maggie does an excellent job of thinking on her own, she does not need me to tell her where to be or how to respond to stock movements, and she naturally gathers livestock together and moves them towards me if she is not given any instructions. Through much of her runs, I had few comments other than “good dog, wise choices.” I have worked hard with both dogs to teach them “intelligent disobedience” which is to override a command from me if they perceive that a different action should be taken. This is an important skill for a Border Collie, to be able to cover livestock in an open field, they cannot wait for us to tell them what to do or which way to go.

 

But, in young dogs, sometimes, they can take this freedom too liberally, it takes a long time to learn (and teach) good judgment. So, Maggie is going through a phase of using too much of her own judgment, and very frequently overrides my commands to push the stock in a direction I don’t prefer (usually she resists moving them away from me, as her gathering desire is very strong). So, we will have to work on that too. She is such a stylish worker though, I really hope I can craft her into a good trial dog.

 

So, I have my training work cut out for me. Hopefully getting my own sheep will really help. My fencing is just about done, so I’m staring to shop, hoping I can buy eight or so ewes in the near future.