It was hard to keep Cora’s puppies in focus!
Tag Archives: Border collies
Ides of August
Cows and calves in the Smylie Meadow
Alfalfa windrows
All is green and warm. It’s hard to believe that we are not far away, in time, in temperature, from fall. Soon we will see frosty mornings, golden leaves, and critters headed for lower climes. For now, we hang onto these long sunny days. Each sunrise the sun sneaks south, while we breathe warm breezes, a little longer.
Cora and Sadie, looking ahead
Working Mom and Daughter
Cora and her mom Sadie on Monday
Here’s Sadie on Wednesday
Cora checking her e-mail
Puppies, and colts and lamb, oh my!
a plethora of guardian dog puppies
Siobhan with guardian dog puppies–we like ’em socialized!
It is only early February, but we do have lots of young animals around. We have had more than one litter of Livestock Guardian Dog puppies (hence the difference in sizes), a litter of Border collies, last summer’s colt crop, and–oh yes–one lamb. The little ones are fun, but soon we will have scores of lambs and calves on the ground, so this is the calm before the storm. Barring bad weather, which we have definitely not had, I consider the time between when the bucks go into the ewes in mid-December, and when the purebred lambs and the heifers’ calves start arriving in early March to be the lull. How can it be going by so fast? And why do I still feel so busy?
Maeve and Siobhan with an adult guardian dog,overlooking the sheep watering at Lower Powder Spring (one of them isn’t dressed right!)
Five (of seven) of Sam’s and Yonush’s Border collie puppies
the colts check out Maeve (no coat in early February)
the colts hanging out at Powder Flat
Learning to be horses
What does it mean when the (surprise) lamb sees its shadow on Ground Hog Day?
More Romance on the Red Desert
Apolinario bringing in the ewes on Eagle’s Nest
Today we put the bucks into the ewes on the Red Desert. Bucks in on December 15th means that we can look for the first lambs to arrive on about May 10th. The bucks have waited for many months to be reunited with their lady loves. The ewes seemed glad to see them too, although for them, a brief–very brief–dalliance means that they spend five months pregnant and five months raising lambs. Of course, it guarantees the ewes a good living, and a whole lot less boredom than the rams face the rest of the year. We were blessed to receive a badly needed snow the day before, ensuring winter water for the sheep. It was a Goldlilocks snow–not too little and not too much, and the 15th dawned bright and sunny.
A leap of faith
Bucks on the run
Love at first sight
Guard dogs on the job
Apolinario with his dog and horse
Pat, Apolinario, and the reason we buy dog food by the pallet
Trailing over the UP line and under I80
Coming through Rodewald’s gate
It’s that time of year. Pat asked, “Are we going to post ‘Trailing over the UP line and under I80 ‘ pics again?”…because, except for the weather, it looks pretty much the same every year, and I am grateful for that. I have said on this blog before, and I say again, this stretch of our long trail from summer to winter country, and back again, is one of the most dangerous things we do all year. The scariest part is heading up the railroad overpass. Even though we are flagging, fore and aft, sometimes it is hard to convince folks to slow down, especially before they can see the sheep on the road. So when the sheep are safely through the gate north of Interstate 80, I breathe a sigh of relief, and send thanks to the Lord. We trail three bunches, a day apart, so the crossing takes place three consecutive mornings. A difference I see this year, with the sudden drop in oil and gas prices, is the reduction in oil field traffic through the sheep as they thread their way through this needle. Soon we will be settled on our wintering grounds on the Red Desert. Next we will pray for a “just right” winter–not too much snow, not too little–not too much cold, not too much wind, and lots of good grass.
heading for the gate, and the highway
We’re headed north. The truck is headed south.
My flag, through the windshield, bringing up the rear
Creston Junction, just ahead
Under Interstate 80
Dances with Border collies
As one motorist observed, “a Wyoming traffic jam!”
not West, but true north
Oscar, Eutemio and Eduardo–a successful crossing!
North to the Red Desert
Sheep ready to cross onto the highway
Once again, the sheep have crossed the UP line overpass and the I80 underpass at Creston Junction, Wyoming on their trek north to spend the winter months on the Red Desert on Cyclone Rim and Chain Lakes. We crossed three bunches one after the other. The first two bunches were one day apart. Fog and snow meant that bunch three had to hold up a day. Our neighbors, the Rodewalds, told us to hold up an extra day on their pasture. They had planned to ship calves that day, but had to cancel the trucks due to road and weather conditions. The next day dawned bright and clear, if bitter cold (-23 degrees) and we made the passage without incident. It is always nerve-wracking, due to heavy oil field traffic. We flag front and rear, and sometimes run into over-eager truck drivers. Luckily, this year, the truckers helped us and we crossed without any problems. On the same day, we got our first load of corn in. Corn is necessary to sustain the ewes through the cold cold weather, and to flush them since we plan to put the bucks in in a week or so. It is important that they are increasing their nutritional level just ahead of the breeding season, in order to increase the conception of twins.
Under I80
Border collies at work
Pepe, Salomon, Modesto, Christian, shadow
Candy and her new red puppies
We raise Border collie and Livestock Guardian Dog puppies. I favor the red Border collies, although it is a recessive gene like black sheep. Candy, a daughter of my old dog Suzie, just had pups. She is on the trail with Eutemio and the coming yearling ewes. She had two female pups and one male pup (all red) a couple of days ago. I told Eutemio I could bring them home, but I think he needs her as a working mother. He has tied the pups into a feed bag onto his saddle. I plan to keep one of the females as my personal dog.
Eutemio, Candy and the puppies at Peach Orchard Flat
Candy takes a break to feed her pups.
Those are puppies in the white bag on the right.
Sheep camp supplies
Richar, ready to unload hay
As the year grows ever shorter, and the days wax with the passage of the winter solstice, the sheep are on their wintering grounds. Three bands are north of I80, where the ewes are keeping company with the bucks. This brings the promise of spring lambs, and gives particular meaning to the phrase “animal husbandry”.
The sheep are under the constant care of our Peruvian sheepherders, who make sure that they have fresh pasture (grasses left over from the summer), water, protection from the constant predators, and that they remain within the allotment boundaries set by the Bureau of Land Management.
Border collies on the Red Desert
We have been blessed, finally, with winter snow, which solves the water problem. We have mortgaged our future in order to buy corn to keep the sheep strong during the breeding season, and for the cold weather, present and future. As my Dad always said, “You can’t starve production out of an animal”–(not that I can imagine why one would consider it).
Today, Pat, McCoy (2) and I took supplies out the the sheepherders, and to Richar, the camptender who is responsible for feeding corn each day and making sure the herders have all they need. We took hay, firewood, coal, dog food, groceries, mail and new calenders.
Ladder Ranch
