Red Dogs In The Snow

Joy oh joy~ snow!

We love the snow , especially if we smell wild birds near by.

Yup, wild turkeys and grouse...where is my shooting hunter-master?

Cedar Pond's Barbarian ~ Yes, He's For Sale

This is Cedar Pond's Barbarian.

Barbarian is the son of Cedar Pond's Goth and Bide A Wee Buttercup.

Barbarian was born this February .

He reminds me a lot of his father, Goth.

Barbarian is for sale, his registration is pending. He is $250.00.

If you're interested in him please e-mail me. Meanwhile, come see his mother and father at the Puyallup Fair, in the Animals of the World Barn, this Wednesday thru Sunday~

Free your glee, do the Puyallup!

Faithful Has A Name.

Wonderful, loving, faithful beyond what faithful calls for, I throw out a stick and Bea goes to retrieve it....

...so far that I fear for her.( Bea is that little dot in the upper left of the lake) She has missed the stick and heads for the island in pursuit of the stick I have carelessly thrown. I have not worked this beloved and faithful dog enough for her to have the energy to reach the island AND have enough stamina to return. Come back Bea...

I toss another heavy stick into the waters while yelling her name...COME BACK BEA!

She does come back, finds the new stick and happily, but wearily puffing, comes back.

Very well deserved rest by the people she loves and a warm camp fire. Faithful has a name and it is "Bea".

Names, Names, What To Name A Ram Lamb

This handsome ( in my opinion ) ram lamb is the son of Bide-a-wee Buttercup and Cedar Pond's Goth. I named him Basil as a newborn, but have decided this will not be his registered name as I have watched him grow up. He has grown rapidly and at 2 months of age was as tall as his Mom. He looks very much like his father, Goth, at this age but I think his horns are showing signs they will be better than his father's magnificent rack. When I named Goth, it was after the Barbarian people groups of Europe, etc. For some reason it seemed appropriate given the nature of rams and invading, fighting barbarians.
Here is a recent photo of Basil with his mom, Bide-a-wee Buttercup. I named last years ram lamb 'Vandal'. The Vandals were a people group too and the name also fit his tendency early on to vandalize all our fencing, walls, and gates.
Here is a family group. In front is Buttercup and Basil, in back, daughter Valkyrie ( she has 5 horns ) and Chicory, Buttercup's sister , far left.
Valkyrie and Swallow Lane Barnaby produced this fine ram lamb. He has blue eyes, 4 nice horns, and a lovely fleece as far as I can tell right now. I am naming the son of Valkyrie and Barnaby 'Viking'. That would be another notorious invading barbarian people group. So, what to name Basil ? Why I think 'Barbarian', what do you think? Cedar Pond's Barbarian, works for me.

Outdoor Dog Bedding~ Problems & Solutions

This is Misty. She is old, deaf and blind. She still enjoys life though, and especially resting on the porch, which all the dogs love. The problem is , how to keep water dogs who enjoy the outdoors from ruining the porch and their bedding while drying off before coming inside for the night.
Look at the mud on the back porch. Look at the dogs cramming themselves into the crates. Yes, they love the crates, and tussle with each other for the chance to have the crate to themselves. Another dog will eventually roost on top of the crates. The problem is the Viszla loves to always have bedding under himself and he drags the bedding out into the grass, dirt , or mud to sit on. I have watched him drag the blanket or expensive dog cushion around as he follows the sun spots. Smart, but eventually the bedding is soaked or filthy or both and often ruined, especially if the dogs play tug of war with the bedding.

My husband and I don't like the place to look like a doghouse, which is why we put a gate on the back porch and the dogs have to dry off before they come inside for the night. But we also want the porch to look nice. Practical, and nice. What to do, what to do?
I found these dog beds when I googled "Durable dog beds". Up popped these dog beds by Coolaroo at HealthyPets.com . They promise to be durable, easy to clean, and they were relatively inexpensive. They also arrived within 2 days of ordering. I assembled them easily.

Look! Two dogs on each bed.

The dog beds are supposed to be cleaned by hosing down, I like that.

I think the beds are a winner as far as the dogs are concerned. Now I have to again pressure wash the back porch and scrub the railings. We are painting the house this summer ( if summer ever comes ) and then I think I will put a protective barrier on the back porch siding of the house, a WASHABLE protective barrier.

Shortly after I put the beds on the back porch I saw one of the Labs scratching fiercely at the bedding to do her usual shredding of the bedding. The canvas remains undamaged. So far these beds are a big thumbs up for me. I will let you know later if the beds withstand the abuse 4 dogs can dish out.

Barnaby's Babes

This post is spotlighting the lambs sired by Swallow Lane Barnaby. This little cutie is the last lamb born here, very recently. She is the first lamb of Cedar Pond's Saffron, and I have named her Sesame. I really don't see her sleeping much, she is very active and keeps up with the much larger and older lambs quite easily.

Sesame's tail is 'bout ready to drop off , looks funny doesn't it?

Here is Tilda, daughter of Barnaby and Cedar Pond's Thora. Thora is Goth's twin sister.

Close-up of Thora. Although I did not get a picture of her tail here, she was born with such a short tail I did not dock it. I kind of like her tail that way.First lambs who's tails I did not dock were born this year. It appears that the ewes bred with Barnaby produced lambs with much shorter tails.

Another view of Tilda. ( above) Tilda has 4 horns.

This is Pixie, so named because she is tiny, like her mother Ruth and sister Mally. This very tiny size seems to run in this particular line of my sheep. Pixie's mother is Cedar Pond's Ruth.

It is hard to tell here, but Pixie is brown. Not faded black, but chocolate brown, with light eyes.
Pixie has 4 horns.

You can almost tell here how brown she is in comparison with her mother Ruth. Ruth has 4 horns, 2 on each side. The horns are fusing to look like 2 fat horns on each side. Pixie's sister Mahlon ( Mally) has 6 horns.

Dinah is 3/4 Jacob, 1/4 Romney. Dinah is the daughter of Delilah and Barnaby.

I think Dinah is cute too.Note , she has no horns, or is 'polled'.

Dinah posing so properly.

Here is Viking, son of Swallow Lane Barnaby and Cedar Pond's Valkyrie. Valkyrie has 5 distinct horns. Viking is very handsome and a strapping big ram lamb with promising horns. All 4 are well formed and spaced thus far.

Sassafras with her little ewe lamb. I have not settled on a name for this ewe yet. She is the other lamb who's tail I did not dock because it seems short enough. She has 4 horns too.

This little ewe lamb does have a lot of black on her, doesn't she?

There you have it, Barnaby's babes, and a lovely group of lambs they are.

Buttercup & Basil

Bide-A-Wee's Buttercup resting with her ram lamb, Cedar Pond's Basil. Basil is as big as his mother and I have heard him baaing mournfully because his mother will not let him nurse any more. Can you blame her? Just look at the size of his horns! I have seen him ram her udder to bring her milk down and it looks awfully painful, and downright deadly to me. I think Basil looks very much like his father, Goth. He is mighty handsome and on his way to being a very big ram with great horns. ( I might be a bit biased about this though)

Would You Mess With This Lamb's Mama?

Look at the expression on Valkyrie's face I captured when I snapped her picture.

I was trying to get a good picture of her son, Viking. Viking's father is Swallow Lane Barnaby.
I am getting excited about him. His horns are looking good. His markings are nice. He has blue eyes too. He is pretty big, and although he was the last born lamb here he is among the bigger lambs. To get to him though you have to confront his mama....

...does she look like a creature you want to cross? ( note that she has 5 horns)

Hmm, look at his stance in this photo. He is going to be one big and beautiful Jacob Ram and I think he knows it!