Monday, November 30, 2015

Yes, We Are Having Puppies!


We're having puppies on the ranch again, It's Duelly and Darby! Please check the Heeler Page tab at the top of the blog to get the contact information. It's my daughter and she lives right next door. The puppies are due in a couple weeks. These are Dec. 2015 puppies.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Please check the Heeler Page For Our New Arrivals




We're going to be really a sad bunch giving-up these little ones they're all named, of course! Darby never loses her excitement of showing us what she made for us to play with and hold. I love the smell of new puppies!  

The puppies are only 2 1/2 weeks. They've just started playing. 

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Confession: We Have Puppies! Sneaky Dogs!

Please check our Queensland Heeler Page. Yes, it's those rascals Darby and Duelly. Friday pictures because today is a thunder storm. If it brings drops of rain we'll take it! Puppy love is happening all over again and all the puppies have been named. Of course, you can change it because they only hear "puppies!"

My grandson Charlie holding (I forgot the name) again last week. The puppies are growing fast. I have to look-up my baby goat's name--that's pathetic!  I'm very thankful I remember my 19 grand-children's names.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

It Seems We Just Meet Our Puppies and They're Gone

Our last two puppies are being picked-up on Saturday and one of my precious lambs. So hard to let go of the last babies. Our lamb is a yearling-past and skiddish. I had to put her in with the goat yearlings to get her away from our ram coming into rut.


See Laney, my daughter and family's Queensland Heeler trying to help me? She's peeking behind the gate.

The goats at this age are annoying! They both want to chew holes in clothing and do brodies off anyone's body. I think I have hoof bruises. I hope they settle-down before they knock me down. They've got to stop that behavior; I don't need to be pushed-over ever again. The buck just plain convinced me I don't need that type of rough play. These young does are still so playful and I know they're trying to get my attention.


I was taking a picture of the yearling ewe. Not a prize winner. She has such a thin face no brains at all (and that's a shame because she a sheep) Her general conformation shows she needs generally more width.


We just had our sheep shorn recently and I had a really hard time making a full load of hot water to wash our new wool. There's new regulations in temperature in water heaters so we all don't scald ourselves. I remember wearing rubber gloves when we had the older HOT water heater to protect my hands from the hot water. 

I tried and tried to carry scalding hot water from my stove-top to my washer.  It's pretty dangerous walking with heavy and almost boiling-hot water. 

Steve saw what I was doing and rigged a new method. I heated water on the BBQ and used Dawn Dishwashing liquid. We used the old washer that has a hard time agitating, but spins perfectly. All water spinned-out...goes directly into my flowers and plants. Here's the set-up. Grease is gone. (basically)


I'm looking forward to getting it all done and dry. Pretty long process when we have winds or RAIN LIKE COMING TOMORROW. Wool dries slowly out on the make-shift racks. We use our extra chain link fence, hog fencing and chicken wire over the big holes.


I completed one and one-half fleece of the white. I don't see much true white, it's still more like off-white and darker...I don't think I can use the darker. The wool has been felted on the sheep. I know most of it will spin. It feels like spider-webs.


The dry wool looks brown, but it's faded black with lots of silver from our older ewe. Most off the silver wool's still protected in the car and hopefully not getting glued-all-up together.


Is this the most fun, ever! Well...no. Finding someone in my genealogy gets a shout every time, but this is a dream to spin my own wool from my own sheep. I have a Schacht Spindle and it's called The Ladybug Spinning Wheel, and there's a secret ladybug hidden near the wheel. I found it! I received new cards because a lady took my old ones when I gave her some extra wool. That's okay, because they gave me blisters. These cards are curved. There's also extra bobbins and a drop spindle to learn how to draft to make my wool tightly woven. It'll be fun when I go with Steve and use the drop spindle in the car or truck. This spindle takes some effort and isn't weighted like the others, but my efforts will help give my legs and feet some added exercise, not to mention the concentration brain power to be able to feed the wool-in and not make "crazy yarn". Crazy yarn is my specialty.

Here's Trevor Hollenback Services for shearing our sheep. It was trained in Austria and New Zealand. The motor is above and never burns the sheep's delicate skin. He changes the cutters often and then goes home and grinds them sharp again. I bet there were 50 cutters on his wire-holder up hanging on the fence to change-out. The fleeces came out on one-piece like a blanket. Be sure to look at his website for more information. He's traveling the western states.


More wool washing after our rainy weekend.

Time tomorrow to say goodbye to the lamb ewe and our two little female puppies. The little girl puppies are both traveling a long way to their home. Tomorrow will be a good day with tears mixed-in.



The pups have great homes. Bye Mercedes and Jetta. We'll really remember this darling litter. Thank you very warmly to all for getting your puppy from us and we are thrilled they'll be blessed with such great families!


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

We Still Have Puppies Check-Out Our Heeler Page


 
Darby & Duelly
 



I think its my turn to show some pictures and they're really just starting to really play!
We over-worked them before the pictures and poor Chevy, he was sleeping at my feet,
it's a wonder we had pictures of him with his eyes open. 
 

These pups are still little and just starting to feel good about being without their mother and out in a field. They were either at my feet or in my arms or under the camera while Tanner was taking pictures. We tried for the middle of the day so not to have long shadows, but that's their regular naptime and their playtime was only about an hour before they were sound asleep. Wake a puppy and we get a grumpy face. I'll update again next week and we should have a "wild bunch" on our hands.

 Marnie's Puppies Are All Sold


Lottie Sold
 

Friday, January 23, 2015

Can I Just Say Blur? Puppies Too!

We have puppies!

Do you want to meet them? Go Here


       My grand daughter's caption was:
                 "Puppy Love Is Real"

I'd been working on taking puppy pictures. Yep, there's two litters! We have a bundle of girls and three boys. They're all growing so fast our pictures are out-of-date before I can load them. Here's some of my grandchildren's photos.

Snow White

Dallin, My Grandson's Favorite
I have been trying to be well enough to have my surgery on my thyroid done. And of course, I have another hurtle with my kidney infections not going away. I'm sensitive to a lot of antibiotics. Rare stuff and it's frustrating and really a bunch of nonsense to me.

In between all of my trying to stay on the healthy-side...we had a great Christmas with everyone around here and New Year's with our oldest daughter and grand daughter. So many of our family were gone or sick and we thought we'd be be on our own. Surprise! We had company! We had so much food and great leftovers. Really traditional. Very grateful for a New Year and a new start. 

 
I'll have to add some Christmas information and pictures in between blogs posts somewhere.

One of my Wyoming daughters surprised us and on Jan. 3rd. It was cold, but clear there in Wyoming, and super good weather here so beautiful. Kiely and baby flew-in to stay a week with us. She brought our youngest granddaughter Dune. I was so happy to see "the baby!" "The baby!" "The baby!" Echoes...


Kiely, as she stepped out of the Toyota FJ... said, "Darby is having puppies!" and then glared at me, puzzled. I totally didn't know! I think she thought we were going to surprise her. Darby let us know she was going to have puppies when she greeted Kiely. She was filled with milk. Darby wasn't supposed to have anymore litters and she waited for Kiely, her best friend and "Kindred Spirit." Darby had the puppies the next day and Kiely helped her. I know! How could we have missed this? We just thought she was eating a lot.


Kiely and Dune had a busy time. They went to Disneyland and Kiely was able to visit with old high school chums. Steve and I were in heaven watching our Dune sashay around the house entertaining us. We even had a family party here. I bought (you'll never guess) the movie, "Frozen" so we could make the Wyomingites feel at home. We've had wonderful warm weather here and all just so fun. All of us missed the working daddy, Matt. And I'm so thankful to him for sacrificing so much for us, that we could see each other again. I needed a "Baby Dune" fix.

Tanner the oldest grandson, did get stuck-in-the-mud in the arena. Okay, everyone whipped-out their phones to save Tanner's embarrassing moment for posterity. Tanner did get his car buried!


Our Dune and Kiely Pictures:



       Disneyland Makes All of Us Tired

Marnie's Family went also! It's a "monthly thing" for them.


Our Neighbor's! Our daughter and family!


              The Beach! Of Course!

          Out For Sushi! We Are Hitting 
                    The Hot Spots!

            Dune's An "Animal Lover* 
                    Like Her Mother

All the livestock were just drawn to the little person here on the place, even the chickens. I need to go back over this post and count how many times I wrote the word, "fun."  I may say "fun" but in my heart it's "joy!"


Dune looks like her great grandmother. Their hands are placed just the same. Steve's mother is 91 and Dune Marie, is 1 years old and was named after her Norwegian great grandmother, Dune Marie Patten Lazenby. Both Dunes were born in Payson, Utah. Fancy that! 

Is This Just The Sweetest Picture?
I should stop here...need to get busy and load puppy photos on the Queensland Heeler page. I have so much more to add here on my blog for my family. I know they wouldn't want to miss our sheep shearing marathon. Exciting and fun!