Ryme working her sheep

Above are pictures of our Border Collie Ryme. She just turned a year old this month. I had been promising her breeder I'd take photos of her working and we finally had a sunny but cold day to do that. She has a lot of zip but reads her stock and balances  well. I'd say she has medium eye, not too sticky like some eye breeds can get. In herding terms "sticky" is when a dog will lock eyes on their stock and hold that position. Often sticky dogs will clap down (lie down) and just become "stuck". Ryme will lock on but will unlock as well.

For all those that think training a working BC is easier than a loose eye breed , I beg to differ. Although Ryme stays off and finds balance with little training she likes to split, grip and push like most young herding dogs. She is very sensitive and it doesnt take a lot of stick to keep things right. Shes a neat little dog.

CritterFelts

Here are 2 views of my latest CritterFelt or needle felt sculpture. This is a black bi Aussie pup playing with a ball. The subject was inspired by a real Aussie bred/owned by a friend. The wool sculpture is a Christmas present created by me.

winter land

A few days ago we got a true snowfall. This wasnt just a dusting, everything was covered with a thick blanket of white. It is amazing how the snow transforms the landscape. The stark contrast makes everything far more interesting. Even my humble clothes line becomes more visually interesting. And of course the most vivid of all is the sharp contrast of Ryme our Border Collie pup and her black and white colouring against the black and white background. Ryme by the way is an alternative spelling of rime a type of frost. Ryme was born in December and her sires name is Frost.

First Snowfall

About a week or so ago we had our first snowfall. I took some pictures just at sunrise. It was a light dusting,just enough to make everything look pretty. Second picture shows our old out building surrounded by our new paddock. I figured the old shack had some life in it yet and would be a good run in for the sheep. Last photo is Julip and Trinket sporting their wet weather wear. Trinket looked like a stuffed toy though the flash made her eyes glow.

Fall Farm Pics

First 2 pictures are of our geese, or I should say Hayden's geese. The single goose is our Gander we brought from Belwood. We bought him with a bunch of ducklings from the Fur and Feather sale a number of years ago. For the longest time he was convinced he was just an ugly duckling. Now with the introduction of 3 more geese he isnt quite sure what he is. Somedays he stays with his quacky family and other days he flaps and honks and parades around with the goose faction.

The picture above are our trio of Jacob rams. Fall is when the rams get to parley with the ewes. Smore (4horns) Aidan (middle) and Honor (lilac) are ready to begin communications. We expect beautiful lambs in April.

Autumn

We had some beautiful fall days and a lot of not so beautiful. I did manage to take a few photos to document our first fall in Harriston. This one is one of the ancient maples that grace our driveway.

summer views

Here are some pictures we took  this summer  The first picture is our Australian Cattle dog -"Hitch". This summer I competed with him in a CKC stockdog trial. We qualified both trials to complete requirements for our Stock Dog Started title.

Second and third pictures are views of our back field just before a summer storm. I thought the yellow grass and red hollyhocks looked great against the dark blue stormy sky. My sheep are oblivious, happy to be munching on the grass and weeds.

Fourth picture is one of my son Hayden's young geese. He is cooling off in the water bowl.

Last but not least is a picture of the new wheels (Ford) beside the old wheels (GMC) The truck AKA "Das Boat" can now slip into semi retirement. One of my many projects this summer was to get a smaller, younger and safer vehicle for the winter. Gee I guess I like blue.

summer's end

Hard to believe we are already into September. I had so many "jobs" I wanted to get done before summer ended. Two main ones were find another part time job, and get a car. Well I tried with the first and just accomplished the second. The "new car" is a Ford Focus wagon. Although it is a 2005 it has only 66ks on it and looks brand new. Parked beside my 1996 GMC truck AKA "Das Boat" The little Ford looks very spiffy. Poor Das shes carried me through some difficult times and difficult weather.

I also have a ton of other projects I wanted to complete before summer ended too but these I guess I can do over time. The exception is re-roofing our little barn. Who ever built it did not roof it properly and our first few months were spent retrieving sheets of roofing metal from around the property. Everytime we would have a big windy storm I would eye the barns roof with trepidation. "Would it stick?" Well other than clanging and flapping and leaking, we havent lost  any more roof since the spring.

julip

July has been a busy month and our Fjord horse Julip figures large in that busy-ness. In the picture my son Hayden is riding in the C-division for PPG. PPG is the Prince Phillip Games one of the many activities Pony Club members can participate in. Haydens club is High County. As you can see Julip is decked out in her clubs colours.

Julip is an awesome horse. She takes everything in stride. After a relatively long vacation from any activity, she casually walked on a strange trailer to be trucked to another pony club members farm so my son could practice the games. She stayed there for 3 weeks and behaved beautifully during practices and during the actual games. Now we arent talking about some seasoned show horse who has done all , seen all. Julip has actually very little off the farm experience. Typically once a year for the last 3 years she is trailered for a few weeks to someones farm for a bit of practice before PPG. That is almost the sum total of her off the farm outings. Once before at the age of 2 she was ridden at a Fjord specialty by my daughter. Consistantly she loads without a fuss and steps off without a fuss. Inbetween she does what is asked of her without so much as a snort. She is the most unflappable mount one could want. She is perfect for the mature rider who wants uneventful hacks(like me) or the beginner rider(like my son) to gain confidence on. But before you think she is perfection she does have one glitch... Julip likes to eat.

Prone to weight gain that can cause serious health issues , Julip is on a life long diet. That is a pretty heavy sentence for a eating machine like her. She is constantly on the mooch for the next meal. She will try anything once , likely twice. Hair , clothing, bags, ropes everything and anything is worth a taste, especially things outside her dirt paddock. Now here is where busy July comes in again. Julip the Fjord , come baby elephant can level a fence in a snap in search for grub. Everything is greener on the otherside of the fence for this equine. So I spent many hours stringing electric rope to deter Baby Jumbo from flattening her $2,400 paddock.

Truthfully though it is more than well worth it to keep Julip safe and slim for many hacks and PPG events to come.

Late Spring

More views from the farm. Everything is really green after all the rain. Cutting grass has become a regular chore now
Bottom pic is what I see when I come home. The wheat is ripening now and the trees are in full leaf. The horses recognize the sound of my truck and come galloping up to the front of their paddock when I come home. I'd like to think they are happy to see me and I guess they are, after all I'm their meal ticket LOL!

more critters

Here is another picture with more critters. In the front are two of my jacob ewes and in the rear are Julip the Fjord and Trinket the mini. All are sporting their shaggy winter wear. They dont look like that now. The sheep are sheared as of last friday and the horses are almost done shedding.

I am pretty happy with the fleeces I got from my jacobs and 2 shetlands. They are of good quality clean and have very little vegetation in them. Makes skirting them a breeze. I have quite a few nice fleeces for sale.

Spring

Finally I had the time to figure out how to post pictures. These are a few of the pics I took one late afternoon. It was early spring just when the snow had finally melted away and the grass was turning green. Too soon for leaves but warm weather was just around the corner.

The top photo is of our Aussie "Spinner". He is quite tuckered after a romp in the hay field. Secong shot is my son Hayden with Spinner. Third shot is what our view behind our property looks like and 4th is our little "Shack on the Hill" or as Hayden puts it more romantically our "English Cottage" This is the back view with Ryme our young Border Collie looking wistful.

Oops!

In my haste to start my blog I wasnt really thinking about how I was introducing myself. Lest my dear daughter Cassel think I forgot about her let me please add to my first post.

I have 2 lovely children. I couldnt be more blessed that way. My beautiful, brilliant, daughter Cassel and my funny, faithful son Hayden. My daughter Cassel is currently working on her Phd in English at Mac in Hamilton while residing in TO.

Cassel followed me in my crazy animal pursuits. She helped care for are assorted critters, ran on a flyball team with me, showed dogs and was my riding buddy for many years. Well life in the Big Smoke and more importantly pursuing a life of academia is what she does now and I'm so proud of her.

new beginnings

New blog, new place, new life. A reduction yet expansion at the same time. A life change created the need to move forward in another direction yet somethings are the same.
 Our family went from 4 to 2. Our home went from a fairly spacious 4 bedroom/3bathroom 70's home to a 2 could be 3 bedroom, one bathroom 100 year + home. Our new/old home is a combination of charm and glitches.We went from 7 and a quarter acres to 5. I think our view is prettier though, set up on a hill ,dab smack in mennonite country. We look up over fields free of buildings and wires, cell phone towers and turbines. It is actually quite lovely. Our local traffic consists of horse and buggies and farm tractors.

What remains the same is my childhood dream. Although a bit modified and reduced I am still dedicated to living a rural life and enjoying all it can offer from keeping and preserving a flock of rare breed sheep (jacobs) to training my canine companions to become useful stock dogs. Numbers might be reduced but the goal is the same. With help from my young son Hayden, Belmeadow farm and Triblue stock dogs is still going strong.