Viklund clinic sneaking up on me...

Only got the short end of the training building painted, including the back steps...want to replace those later this year but at least with 2 coats of fresh paint not look so 'weathered'. Started painting the outside foundation a darker grey that matches up with the shingles...hope to be finished by the wkend. Find I'm still juggling farm stuff with getting things fixed up at the building. Yesterday was spent re-seeding grass to the bare spots around the farm caused by wear and tear by both livestock and machinery. Finished cutting the neighbors farm yard....'poor man's silage' for the sheep to stretch the hay....what the sheep dont eat gets fed to the pigs. Managed to get potatoes and corn in the garden...need to pick up peas to plant today, with the rest to follow sometime next wk.
Viklund clinic sneaking up on me in a big hurry and I havent worked the younger dogs lately- yikes...wanted to be as solid as I could in what foundation training we have so we can work on new skills at the clinic. Am thinking of bringing 2 dogs and splitting the 3 day clinic between them. Will decide next week 'who' and get them bathed/trimmed up.

Little Brooke...

Well Mother's Day was spent in typical fashion...get caught up on yard work. The garden is worked so now it's just a matter of getting a few things in the ground. Usually potatoes , peas and corn get planted first with the rest following when it warms up a tad more.

Had a private lesson with a family who own a St.Bernard and young children. Leash pulling and mouthing the main issues. The kids caught on
right away with the lessons and made great strides with the basic's. Great temperament for a family companion ...just needed the criteria set
a little higher on what is expected. Family sent home with homework with return visit planned in a wk or so. Kids are interested in doing agility so
we'll see if one Saint can fold up and get through a tunnel on next visit.

Little Brookie coming along with chores twice a day...thinks she's a big girl helping Quade move the sheep off the feed and going with him on his flanks.
The sheep will turn off of a dog so she really thinks she's doing 'something' when the lambs on outer edge turn in. She's too young to train formally
on stock ....but until she is old enough will let her hang with us at chores until she starts getting into 'trouble'.

btw...I was very creative with her call name....looks like Brooke/Brookie is going to stick.

Happy Mother's Day

When God Created Mothers

In honor of All Moms on Mother's Day - Words filled with wisdom By Erma Bombeck
When the good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? --
She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; Have 180 moveable parts . . . all replaceable; Run on black coffee and leftovers; Have a lap that disappears when she stands up; A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; And six pairs of hands...
The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands . . . no way."
"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord. "It's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."
"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded.
"One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."
"Lord," said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, "Come to bed. Tomorrow . . ."
"I can't," said the Lord, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick . . . can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger . . . and can get a nine year-old to stand under a shower."
The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed.
"But tough!" said The Lord excitedly. "You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure."
The angel asked, "Can it think?"
"Not only think, but it can reason and compromise," said The Creator.
Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You You were trying to put too much into this model."
"It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."
"What's it for?" asked the angel.
"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride," The Lord replied.
"You are a genius," said the angel.
The Lord looked somber.
"I didn't put it there," he said.

Happy Mother's Day Mom - You are the Best.

This and that...

Tried snowing with the rain yesterday...still ice in the water pails in the morning.
Slipped to Lloyd yesterday to meet up with Kathy Kimmel new owner of 'Ash' aka
Caitland Kicking Stones ( Kick'n Stones ) a Johnny Read song that seems to suit him.
Quick visit with Kathy and Jackie before heading home. DH bringing home a trailer of pigs to grow out for fall butcher for family/friends. Cant beat home grown meat for the freezer...as well a good place to get rid of kitchen/garden stuff ( better than any garburator ) ...and for some strange reason...little kids are totally
fascinated with them.
Baby Brooke missed her brother abit the first night.
Came home from work to finding her riding the quad with DH harrowing the yard...she seems to think 'he' is her best buddy. Her butt is in constant motion...a little Ms Sunshine.
Yard work continues at the training building...people stopping in to check things out as they walk by, so a few impromptu tours given.
A couple of grade 9 students asking ( begging ) to be considered for work experience
( school program where students shadow on the site jobs in areas they may be interested in) Said sure would love to have them.
A few wks ago was asked to come in to one of the schools during Career wk and do a presentation...told them I would love to but felt I wasn't prepared
for this year with still things on my plate but to please book me in for next year's Career week.
Have students booked in from an hours drive both east and west of here by word of mouth...so being off the beaten track in this corner of the world does
have a few advantages...when it comes to offering a location to train.
So things are coming along slowly but surely.

Cattle out to pasture now...

Cattle processed and hauled out to pasture this past wkend.
1.5 inches of rain made for pulling the loaded truck/trailer out of the mud
by tractor with a few of the loads.
Finished cleaning corrals, barn cleaned out and sheep shed repaired after the high winds lifting the roof up.( note to self to get it painted asap to get a few more years out of an already tired building & price out metal sheets for roofing material )

Youngest son Wyatt traveling through with his big Hydrovac truck ( oilfield ) spending the night before heading 'home'to Swift Current from Fort Mac. Never seems to be a long enough visit when he passes through. Next trip through will be dropping his 2 dogs to babysit for a month while he is up north working in camp.

Terry and Ralf having a great show wkend not only placing in the group but winning it over the wkend in S'toon.

Note from Carly on the crew out in B.C. getting together for an Aussie pot luck...
' 16 aussies, 13 Caitland bred, or closely related (four of my pups and one of Jackies) and then 3 others. Not ONE grumble, not ONE fight, not ONE raised lip...and four of the dogs were intact boys, just awesome temperaments on everyone. Also, what a handsome group of dogs!!! We had an absolute blast, I wish you could have been here to see all your "kids"

Sounds like a great time and a hoot to see all the pictures up on Face Book of the 'Aussie party' , hats off to all the owners on 'time invested' in socializing & training their sidekicks....pays off in dividends.
This past wkend a classic example.

Ice in the water pails...where is spring?

Spring is suppose to be here on the prairies , still cool out....infact I usually have thin layer of ice in my water pails. Still wearing winter chore clothes for morning chores....needed a rain coat this am with some rain/wind. Singleton born yesterday and brought into the barn to dry off and get warm.
Cattle get processed this wkend and hauled to pasture.
Test drove the bathing/drying set up at the building to work out any kinks in the system, thanks to Deb, Derby and Baby Brooke ( yep...still doesnt have a name and how bad is THAT! :) are looking nice all trimmed up....ran out of time for pictures.
Have a few neat places cased out for Derby photo shoot pictures. He has matured into a very nice male with a gorgeous head that will never look overdone or coarse.
Have worked Quade on the flock a few minutes every chore time, will start working the girls in the next wk or so and go from there. Have to slowly leg up
the lambs for training the younger dogs.
3 day Viklund clinic in a few wks...I need to finish organising that and get meals shopped/cooked for over 20 people x 3 days. Also have to figure out which
dog ( dogs) I'm taking to clinic on...and pack the truck for any kind of weather.

Moved the new moms back to pasture....

A productive day with working a few of the dogs.
Since the flock was essentially 'sorted' with all the new moms and babes by the barn with the wethers and pregnant ewes in the sheep pasture, I decided to work Jinx and Sting on the ones in the pasture. The 2 pregnant ewes looking like they would lamb abit later but worked this group lightly anyways.
Sting didnt take much to polish to where we left last fall, covering her stock nicely. The pasture group definately lighter since a lower number of
sheep worked as well my 2 heavy leaders were amongst the ones in the barn. Nice to work the group without my old leaders who know the drill too well so
the dogs have to really cover heads and 'not follow' as the sheep themselves turn into me. Jinx came up short on catching the heads..partly as she needs
to either get out or speed up to get where she should...she was coming up short at the top with sheep getting away a few times...so we went back to some
corner work to end on a successful note.
Since there is so much muck in the barn yard I decided to move the moms and babes to the sheep pasture which had enough challenges moving a flock of
concerned moms and babes around 4 corners and keep them together enough to be bunched but not so babes got jostled or stepped on. Each Ewe was on the fight from the get go so the first gather took abit of time to get heads turned and moving....to be repeated with first few tight corners as a few babes got seperated within the group causing concerned moms looking for their babes. Things went smoother once we got out into the open to move the flock down to the pasture. Each family unit had hooked up by then and the pressure was off from working in the small space.

Found a few round hay bales to tie me over abit.