Cat up a tree

I'm afraid Pete has been a little spoiled. While we were on our Fall trip, Petey managed to persuade our house sitter to feed him extras at the house. Now I'm afraid Pete has become like a guardian dog who was pet and spoiled too much. He spends more time at the house than he does in the barn yard. The mice still aren't getting into the grain, but Cali may be taking up the slack. Last night, Petey found himself the proverbial cat up a tree.

Hmm, this picture doesn't look too bad. Perhaps I should explain that I was doing the evening free run of the dogs and then show you the whole picture...

Now, I should let you know that after the mad scramble to the top, Pete was quite happy and was purring and scratching his cheeks on the wood post. He wasn't the least bit afraid. I was but I didn't know he was hanging out around the house or I wouldn't have let the dogs out. It did not teach him a lesson in the least. He was back out watching me walk dogs and commenting again this morning. This time, however, he stayed just out of reach on the other side of the fence.

Farm Labor

It's time to give the true workers of Alta-Pete Farm their due. The sheep work harder than anyone on this place. They train all the customer dogs plus all our kennel dogs and I rarely hear them complain.

Some of the sheep are keepers who will never be sold. We don't usually name our sheep but our two favorites are Blue Tag (aka Grandma) and the Cocker Spaniel. Blue Tag is 16 yrs old and well retired from work. Her new job is to stay with the lambs when they are weaned and keep them calm. She's a purebred Karakul and is the last of a set of 6 that helped train a USBCHA champion, a couple of reserve Champions and some Western Canadian Champions. We are hoping her granddaughter, the Cocker Spaniel, (she looked like one as a baby), will lamb this year. Karakuls are a very old rare breed and we've seen Blue Tag whispering the secrets of their breed to the Cocker Spaniel. We believe the secrets have something to do with run like hell every time you see a dog, and keep your head down in the shed so they can't cut you out.

Our sheep are a motley crew that have some Karakul, Katahdin, Suffok and Dorset crossed in. Our two main rams are young but they have convinced me that they are up to the task. One is a Dorset cross and the other is an old style Suffolk. I'm hoping that all their wining and dining of the women will pay off as we have a small flock this year and could use a boost by a good lamb crop.

The newest upstart is our Dorset/Katahdin ram lamb. He was born last year and promised me that he'd get to work right away and improve the quality of our meat lambs. I guess we'll see how things go when the lambs start being born in February.

A NICE DAY as told by Skid

With winter fast approaching, I wanted to mark the passing of warm weather - Skid said he had some thoughts on it so I decided to let him relate his idea of a perfect day...

First, find a dead gopher. Old and dried up will do if you can't find a fresh one.

Next, without putting it down, dig a hole.

Then, gently place your prize down in the hole. The last thing to do is to cover it up. This is very important so that no one can find it but you.
If you have time left over, and you haven't been called back to the house, sneak in a little swim and harrass the duck.

You'll Ruin Your Eyes

Jed is an odd dog, to say the least. One of his quirks is TV watching. You can tell him to lay down and behave, and he will until an animal appears on the screen. It doesn't matter if he's seen this kind of animal before, he knows it's an animal and he will jump up and bite the screen. The wierd thing is, if he saw that same animal live, unless it was a sheep he wouldn't even notice it was there.

His favorite television program is the PBR. He waits quietly while the bull is in the shute but the second the bull is released and starts bucking, so does Jed. He bounces and spins until the 8 seconds are up and then he waits again for the next bull. Needless to say, sometimes Jed's enthusiasm has to be cut short or the tv will be in danger of falling over every time he bites at it. PBR finals are this weekend. Don't forget to watch. Jed won't.

The Girls

It's not easy being a chicken on our farm. At least that's what I gather from the complaints I hear every morning as I gather their eggs. From the very beginning there was a great interest in them around here and things haven't changed much.

Sometimes it's the cats

and sometimes it's the dogs

but the birds just want to be left alone to eat and do their job. Their job? The girls are the breakfast providers, Scott is the breakfast maker and I am the breakfast eater. (Hey, someone's gotta do it)

Holloween Time

As usual, it is just me and the animals for Haloween. No husband (away doing clinics) no children asking for tricks or treats (it would probably make the dogs bark anyway) and no haunted houses (I'm too chicken to go alone). But we plan to keep the traditons going anyway. I've got a black cat named Salem (really, I do), my decorations are up and my pumpkins are ready to be carved. Lad chipped in last year and did his own interpretive carving but I think I'll go with a regular pumpkin face this year. If I really start feeling left out, maybe I'll let the dogs take turns ringing the doorbell and I can hand out dog biscuits. Now, if I could just think of a costume for Skid

Elder Statesman

Continuing with our Meet and Greet, I must introduce you to Chip. Chip is very important on our farm. His job is to, uh, well... Ok, Chip just keeps the bed warm at night. He is a retired movie and TV actor and that's gotta count for something. Chip was born to act. His father was Murray (border collie - x), on the TV show Mad About You and his grandmother was Bingo from the movie of the same name. Chip came home with me at 16 weeks and had to overcome an almost paralyzing fear of people and carsickness.






Fortunately, we overcame his phobia's and he appeared in his first commercial for Quaker Oats at only six months old.



After that, he appeared several times on the TV show Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Profiler, as well as a background player in the movie Bedazzled.
He took an early retirement when I quit the film buisness and was happy to relocate to Canada when we met Scott. Chip has free run of the house at all times and now, at 9 is our oldest dog.