Two days with a pup

So we've had a few weeks of snow days. And recently one of the pups needed transport to a child in Alabama. It did surprisingly well in the house with our four family dogs. Sweet, calm, cautious and polite. Day two, tried to play. We introduced the collar and leash.

But I was happy. A day home with genuinely nice company.

The Ferocity and Fragility of Lambs

We are fairly new farmers.  City folks embracing a bucolic country setting with animals all around.  And it is daunting at times.  Usually Hilarious.  And today a little philosophic.  

This is our first lambing season that we have had multiple births close together.  We had nothing to do with that but the ram and the ewes apparently finally got their timing straightened out.  When our little single births were born we spent each day hoping they were staying with their mom, cause it is a big bad world out there.  They were timid and excitable.  Foolishly running alone when strangers came to call.  Lambs are gorgeous but as little singles in the pasture they scare me to death.

Now we have 5 born this week.  I worry about them too but now we get to see the other side.  When the little lambs travel together they think they are invincible.   The moms were hanging out with me getting some hay and the babies were hugging a tree watching.  Then one pounces.  Not on anything, really.  Just pounces for the joy of pouncing.  Then it was like watching popcorn in a pan.  They might just pop straight up or jump on the next one.  They pretend to fight and then whoosh off they run as fast as they can.  My five little babies running almost as far as they can in the pasture with their dad on the other side of the fence running along side them.  They have their moment of freedom and invincibility do a few jumps and back they come running as fast as they can to their moms.  

They just amaze me as for a moment in time they become their own little herd of children, mimicking their parents with no care for how truly fragile they are.  I guess they are like our own children, brave when they know they have a sheltering group to run to.  

Everybody loves puppies

A few of our puppies have gone to new homes with family and farms in Oregon and Oklahoma. Of course we are a full scale breeder, so we have more litters in the winter when the weather is cool and the mothers can enjoy bedding down in the field. Here's one guy standing watch at 8 weeks. Even though it looks like he could get lost in the standing hay, he'll enjoy a warning  bark as we enter the field.