Cycle Two

Breeding Cycle 2 is moving right along.  The rams marking crayons have been changed to a darker color so it will show up in case any of the ewes did not get caught the first time round.
So we’re off to Grantsville this morning… hoping to make a stop at Firefly Farms for some Christmas cheer.  Have a lovely weekend!

Just like Sam Sheepdog

Samson is in with the ewe lambs for the winter, and just like Sam Sheepdog he spends much of his day in a very business-like manner – sititng at the top of the hill by his dog house on the lookout for the bad guys or patrolling the perimeter fencing.

Hmmmm…. there seems to be one very tall lamb at the pile of hay…

Oh, it looks like our Sam has decided to employ the art of camouflage and disguise

or maybe he is just looking for a really warm spot in the sun.

Good dog, Sam.

Finally….Snow

It’s not very often that you find us using the words ‘finally’ and ‘snow’ in the same paragraph, let alone the same sentence…but here we are using it as a blog topic. After the last couple of days of cold, dismal rain downpours it finally changed to snow at noontime yesterday, turning everything from grey and muddy to pristine white.

And so we say “Finally….Snow”

Miss Bella is also enjoying the snow…. burying her dog treat
And the sheep are once again in their element…snow is always better than rain for them.

Appreciation for simple tools is felt once again:
New larger tires on the Ranger (which, by the way, work nearer to their full potential when you remember that you have 4-wheel drive)

And the trusty rubber mallet to get gates opened and water troughs usable.
And thus, we find ourselves saying “Welcome snow, we embrace you'”
At least for today…


 

Sunday’s Clouds

It has been raining or drizzling almost steadily for the past two days, and there is a winter storm warning of 4 -6 inches of snow for the next 36 hours.  Let’s ignore all of that… here are Sunday’s Clouds.  The morning dawned sunny and quite beautiful.  It seemed that every direction you looked there were lovely cloud formations – each quite different  each quite lovely.  These are not the big white, puffy clouds of  a summer day.  These clouds are dense but fraying at the edges, wispy, scattered, small white kernels of cloud – the clouds of deep fall.

Late afternoon and evening were not to be outdone by the glorious morning.  The clouds throughout the entire day were just spectacular… a gentle reminder that we spend far too little time looking up.

No Maintenance Beyond This Point

After last week’s Tuesday and Wednesday snowfall, we had some pretty warm weather the rest of the week.  So Saturday on the way back from the feed store in Eglon, we decided to come home the back way, possibly for the last time until Spring.  Here we found some very pretty drifts, and you can see why this section of road becomes No Maintenance Beyond This Point  once winter settles in.  The state road crews plow either end but this turn at the top of a small hill normally blows closed and stays that way until snow-melt.

In other news, we have found the Ultimate Flickr Group Obsessive Sheep Photographers – 1,952 members strong and 11,318 photos in the pool.  Oops… gotta go… off to make this photo of the lovely Juliet number 11,319! 

I Feel Pretty

Everyone wonders why it takes so long to do the morning chores.  Well it seems like there is always a helper… or two or three.  Sometimes it’s all a bit distracting… but hey… there are lessons to be learned here.  This weeks lesson – We all need to stop and enjoy those ‘I Feel Pretty’ moments.