On The Fly Training session...

Ended up with an unplanned training session before the sun was up.
Husband was up early and started chores before taking off Elk hunting , he had set the gates up for watering the bull pen.
However he forgot to latch a side gate he had walked through to check the maternity side....which the bulls discovered on the return back to their pen.
Bulls don't work like cows...cows move...bulls move in a cluster of heads butted up with each other as they play with each other with the excitement of a new place...and girls...regardless if they are in their maternity clothes. Driving in the dark leaves little depth perception
so a person has to trust their dog is reading the picture better than you ...had to do a few get backs as Quade wanting to tuck the heads back
on me..then the trick is to sort the group ( try that in the dark looking for a 'V' in the underline as it's too dark to see heads /shoulders )
A good on the fly training session for me , might have done a few things abit different if it was a pre planned event.
Got the job done...a little rough around the edges...see I need to keep working on square flanks...but happy I got the inside flanking directions,
just missing the finese that would of made the job abit smoother. Was happy with his holding the gate for me, while I set up the other gates to sort.
Weather warmed up abit, so I better get a few training sessions in with day light burning.

Cold Weather again...

Too cold to work dogs lately.
Temps are back to the usual January weather....3 hour pen checks are more frequent to make sure no one gets missed. Too cold to move the cow/calf out of the barn...so barn cleaning adds to the chore duty each chore time until we get a bit of a break. 5 cows left and by the way #212 is acting this am...maybe down to 4....she keeps hiking to the back part of the cow pasture and I keep walking her back to the cow bed...it's alot closer to the barn for skidding a calf...she tends to have big calves. She's an older commercial cow from when we were doing embyo transplants...great milker but terrible udder to get a calf started on.

Both litters hale n hearty and growing by leaps and bounds. Jinx concerned every time she hears Sting's puppies so either a radio or TV is played during the day to minimize her worrying about pups elsewhere in the house.

New pictures taken the other day and will do new pictures ...most likely after eyes/ears are open.

Ethan x Jinx litter

Derby x Sting pups

Ethan x Jinx

Ethan x Jinx litter of 5 arrived today.
3 Females and 2 males....blues and blacks in each sex.
Pictures in next day or so.....3 days of no sleep between whelps and
the barn checks :)!

5 is the final count ...

Derby x Sting pups arrived safe and sound..final count 4 males and 1 female...all merles except for a red tri male. All lined up at the bar and sleeping contently.

note red merle male is correctly colored...flash on camera washing face color out

Sting....

Very hard dog to get pictures of due to her very dark eye in a black bi suit...experimenting with different angles of light. A few more days until she whelps.

Well according to the Alberta Farmer Express newspaper the current El Nino is the strongest one ever ( the El Nino phenomenon occurs every 4 to 12 years ) Typically an El Nino winter in Western Canada is mild & dry... followed by below average temps and and average/above average precipition in SPRING. We will certainly need the moisture as last year the study done by the Alberta Beef Producers submitted to the govt's identified that 74% of the Alberta Beef cow herds were in a drought regions.....and considering Alberta is considered Beef country in Canada...that is not good for the livestock industry.
Down to 6 cows to calve.....will be happy when we are done...dont have many to calve in the first place but 3 hour shifts start to blend in with the next shift... :)

Foggy day...

Jan 21st ...

Foggy last few days...means rain in ? 90 days or is it 120 days...cant remember but usually holds true here on the prairies. Down to 7 cows to calve...things going fairly well. Working dogs each day and making things more solid.

Weather holding....

Weather holding for decent temps...really a bonus to get training done this time of year , the down side is if we dont get any snow....we'll be desperate for pasture and putting up feed for the next winter. Usually farmers and ranchers put up enough feed to get them through a few years in a row...but no one has been able to do that the past year or so. Cow herds have already been culled down several times along with people making an early exit from this part of agriculture. Really tough to be in the cattle business without off the farm income to patch a person through....
Worked Fly and True again today.
True's lesson went well today, need to work on ending the sessions as she will cut past you to work the stock...so more 'that will do' lessons where we end the session and walk away to leave and reset it up for a few more 'ending's'
Fly's lesson was the opposite...wanting to cover her sheep while they were getting out of dodge when we come through the gate...
so starting the lesson on my terms. Worked on squaring up our flanks and more work in the open.
Fly is almost where I have Dare working.
Off most of this wk so hope to get in as much as possible work wise with a few of the dogs.

Cooler out today with a raw wind to go along with it. Worked Fly and True today.
Did more in the open part of the sheep pasture with Fly .....walk abouts , staircases and changing direction
and having her reading her stock and rating them. Still wants to come in tight on her top but not gripping as much.
True...ended up with a small battle with taking her 'away' flank. After a few tries wasnt getting anywheres so I left
with the sheep to a different part of the pasture. She ended up wanting to work the sheep enough that it worked and
the lesson progressed from there to taking her flanks both ways. Did some 1/2 moons on the fence and moving the sheep
up and down the fence line as well fetching them off the fence with some walk abouts. Lesson ended with some that will do
work since True wasnt convinced the sheep work was done for the day.

Best advice is simply get out and take pictures...

Came off a stretch of nights this am and took a few pictures of 'first light' before tucking into bed for a few zzzzz's. My goal is to take as many pictures as possible ....experimenting with different times of the day so I learn as much as possible about my camera /lighting and it's kit lens before I get to the city this spring. ( I already know I need a tripod and more lens....have a long list of 'would love' to have's .... but reality is deciding only 'one' for now )
Didnt work dogs today, caught up on cattle chores / bedding etc and happened to have the camera with me to redo the same subjects only in setting sun light to compare.

Photos working with first light....