Move On Girls

When the spring grass come, the sheep and cows say yes, the grass is greener on the other side. The ewes made it their mission to squeeze under any any gate they could to get out of the corral into greener pastures. They must be like a mouse - if their head can fit, the whole body can get through.

Before they can go to their summer pasture, everyone must get ready, most importantly, Jenny.



Jenny with bells on and a new lamb skin.

An ass working on an ass.

 The pasture that the girls get to go to are inhabited by two elk, thus there is an elk fence, a fence that would keep even the smallest of lambs in.  And hopefully the coyotes out.

The Welcome Wagon

Jumping off the bus.

The kids jumping of their small bus.

Jenny and her troop.

 The sheep were interested in the elk, but the elk were a little snobbish

 The snobs looked at the girls from higher ground

 With the girls off to pasture, there was another job to do, send off Dolly Parton to market.  Dolly (note her size DD boobs) had quite a large bage as well as a large attitude.

 So large in fact, that this unit had to be used to move her. 

Some people have prods to move cattle - we have the big guns.  Come to think of it, a gun is what Dolly really needed.

As the days go by, more animals are being sent off to pasture.  Sometimes things go off without a hitch, sometimes it feels as if a hitch comes unhooked.  With a recent rain, the roads around these parts become greasy-sticky, muddy - and one day Chris set off with a load of cows and calves to the field.  After 3 hours, I and my nephew Jimmy went to find him - alas I forgot the camera, but you can imagine my gut rolling when I saw the liner teetering off the side of the road, and Chris nowhere to be found.  Jimmy and I tried to pull out the liner - with no success.  My tingling spider sense told me to go to the neighbors to find Chris - and there I found him with Doug and his tractor.  Now the neighbors is about 5 miles away, so Chris had his exercise that day.  You may ask - why not use a cell phone?  Well, there is no cell service, and there were no trees to get wood to make a smoke signal so Chris had to walk.  In any case, the liner was pulled out of the ditch, the cows and their calves were put into the field, and Chris finished three more loads with no problems.

Here is hoping the rest of move out is not as exciting as that day.

Green Is The Color

The color green - we are seeing a lot of new green these days - the trees are trying to spit out their leaves, the grass is coming quickly, and the portulaca which is in the garden is making a green carpet.  My white running shoes are also turning green - fresh grass in cows equals fresh green cow pies - and for the life of me it is like there is a magnetic force between my body and the recycled grass which comes out of the back end of the bovine.  Testing bulls without getting green conditioner in your hair is a skill - a third eye is required at times as you are crouched behind Mr. Testy fondling his testes.  Running across the yard to stop a cow (or to jump a fence away from a cow) inevitably ends up with a green paste on your Reebok's (and paste in your Fruit of the Looms).  Today I knelt in it - there was a BSE cow to contend with.  Now, don't be calling the media, when I say BSE cow, it is when a cow dies and the vet-who has gone to university for a minimum of 6 years, has spent $60,000 and more on tuition, and has studied all there is about many species-brings a little cup, a spoon and a (never) sharp knife and cuts the head off of the diseased deceased. After the head is of old Bess is removed, the brain surgeon then delicately scoops a portion of the brain with the spoon (like scooping a scoop of ice cream) and sends it for BSE testing - the Canadian Food Inspection Agency way of ensuring the masses that beef is safe in Canada. Money is spent to the producer (and this differs in the amount between provinces) and the vet is paid for their surgical skills (this also differs in each province - apparently Alberta vets are highly skilled surgeons who require about twice as much as Saskatchewan butchers - I mean vets).  Apparently Alberta cows are worth more dead versus Saskatchewan cows - that is obviously the Alberta Advantage that is always talked about.  In any case, while I was skillfully wielding my Wilkshire, I kneeled in a pile of you know what.  Crap.  Yes, I said "Crap!"  Not only did I do it once, but twice-I am sure if I had a third knee I would have done it a third time.  Decapitation completed, brain stem scooped and homeward bound I went.  When I stepped out of Dora the Explorer, I stepped in it - green sheep dung. 
Yup, I am a shit magnet - why couldn't I attract money - that is green!

Roll Out The Barrel

 Well the annual Clock, Stock and Barrel came and rolled out.  This year I had brought Floss -who is going to jump in the deep end - hope she can dog paddle well - and become my second open dog this year.  For her first time out this year, I can't say I was disappointed.  The first round she found herself with some cantankerous ewes and she had to eventually floss her teeth, and the second go round we almost penned the sheep.  In actuality, she was getting me dizzy around the pen - her middle name is after her mother Fly.  And flew she did.

Floss ready to floss her teeth

My old stand by Gin - I really could have stood on her head.  The first round was good, pens weren't that easy, and I got a pen, so all that we had to do was to pen the second round and get into the finals.  I guess she was watching Floss to closely, and decided that they had to be goosed at the pen.  Had a good suggestion from Shawna Burton - run the dog with a muzzle, put some nice rhinestones on it - nothing in the rules to say otherwise - I however may resort to duck tape.

Gin and I working for that pen.

There were some new faces in the competition this year.  Wife and husband team, Naomi and Bill Shields.  Word of advice for wife and husband teams - training together rarely works - unless one of you is dead.

Naomi and Nim

Bill and Blue

In between runs, there was other things to watch during Aggie Days.  My nephew Joey learned how to ride a bucking bronc.

I and Gin helped Jill Brodie with a duck demonstration - I may have to get her eyes tested - she tried really hard to move this plastic duck, but to no avail.

Jill Brodie working the crowd.

Billie Richardson and her Aussie also helped - no heads were rolling by the end of the demo - a sign of a sure success. 

We hopped to other demos to watch - Bunny Agility at its best! 

I got to visit with royalty briefly - Princess Dani Gariepy who is the daughter of our friends Ann and Reg.

 Then the top 6 got into the finals.  Tyler Harker was piggish and got two of his dogs in. He got second and third.

Steve Rosvold had to keep Saskatchewan alive in the finals - otherwise it was an Alberta affair!

 Cory Perry and Jill had trouble at the pen.

George Walker showed all that a Kelpie can do the work as well.

Judy Finseth and Kate turned out to be the big enchilada of the day.

So 2012 Clock, Stock and Barrel is in the recordbook. Our next trip will be out to Saskatoon for a cattle trial, and a stopover to do a duck demo for Pet Expo in Regina-the 2012 trial season has begun!

I've Been Everywhere Man

By the length of this blog, you better get a cup of coffee and make sure you have gone to the bathroom, it is a long one. I will start this by asking not to touch Dora the Explorer - she is very hot. Hot to trot. It started last Friday, April 13th , when I loaded up the Border Leicesters for a trip to Jamie Van Ryan's to get shorn (in which Rodge the Dodge was used to pull a trailer, not my poor little Dora). I had planned to get there about 1 pm, but as I was driving with my cargo, a message from work asked me if I could come in to cover . As I was driving by the clinic, I decided to stop in to apologize for not responding to the message that had been left an hour previously. My stop lasted about 4 hours, since often on Fridays there is only one person at the clinic - and that day only Dr. Alan was around, and a C-section on a farm had to be done which was about 1 hour away. A call to Jamie was made to make sure I wasn't going to miss the shearer, and I, Gin and Floss manned the vet clinic for the next 4 hours. While I was there, a dog that got hit by a vehicle came in (I am sure it wasn't me - I do not condone make work projects) and a splint was put on the back leg (I'll do anything Doc as long as it doesn't cost a lot of money, so I won't take the dog to another clinic to get x-rays done, I will just let you and your crystal ball decide whether he can heal and be normal again...oh, no, I don't want him vaccinated, I don't want to put too much money into him). The afternoon passed quickly, and I was able to leave by 3 pm. I raced along Southern Saskatchewan roads (which are improved goat trails) and got to Jamie's and Harvey's with time to spare. The sheep were shorn, and we went in and devoured the spread that was cooked. We almost ate the kitchen table but thankfully it was nailed down. Now, if anyone looked on the map, Shaunavon is about 80 miles west of McCord, and this year, we had mineral delivered as close to possible to us....this happened to be 20 miles west of Shaunovan. As I was in the vicinity, after I left Jamie's, I went to pick up the last shipment of mineral that had been dropped off, which also happened to be at a cousin's of Chris. By this time, the sun was setting, but I was sure I could remember how to get to Mike and Marla's place. I was wrong. I found myself calling them from a Hutterite colony after I had white knuckled my way down...then up a very steep hill - it would have made the truckers who are used to Roger's Pass in the Canadian Rockies pee their pants. If people think Saskatchewan is flat, they haven't seen a lot of the province! After I got my bearings and my directions, I gripped the steering wheel again to make it back down that valley to only go up it again from another direction. Eventually, I made it to Chris's cousin's Mike's - where I found a fish floundering on the kitchen floor. Alright, Mike's last name is Poisson, which is French for fish, and he was lying on the kitchen floor. It wasn't because he had drunken too much, but rather he was doing some electrical work for the renovations that he and Marla were doing on their kitchen. I stopped for a visit while I hoped I would not smell any fried fish, and after the mineral was loaded, I was on the road again. I eventually rolled back into the homestead at 2 am in the morning, and the naked Border Leicester flock joined the rest of the group. The next morning, I packed up and travelled to my Mom and Dad's to Broadview - with a quick stop at Walmart in Moose Jaw to buy a new pair of shoes (the running around had caused me to wear a hole in the ones I was wearing). I got there by the late afternoon, and found my parents as I usually find them - at the kitchen table playing cards. My sister Sharon and her family were also there, and the smell of chicken cooking was in the air. No, their last name isn't Pullet and no electrical work was being done. Before supper, Sharon and Terry's kids, Adam, Erin and Jeffrey, did their nightly 1/2 hour run. They run a lot of marathons, and Adam, who is graduating from high school this year, received a scholarship because of his running with the University of Regina. Man, if I had known running would have allowed me to have a paid education, I would have run as well....who am I kidding, no I wouldn't have. The supper concluded with a birthday cake - to celebrate Mom's 81st birthday. A fire extinguisher was on hand, but did not have to be used. Dishes were washed, and another game of cards were played. The Strueby's ran home to Regina, and the next couple of days I visited with Mom and Dad and played more cards...."Sticks" was the game of choice, and if you know the difference between runs and sets you will be all set! On Monday I set back home with a stopover at Eyebrow(which is close to Elbow...no really, go check it out on Google Maps) and picked up Scotty - a guardian pup who was to become Fiona's working partner. I know, you ask, what happened to Pete who had come the same time as Fiona. Unfortunately, a mother cow who was having a calf being fostered onto her thought Pete was a threat, at least that's what I think happened, since I had found Pete's lifeless body in the sheep pen the day the cow and calf was put in the pen to make sure she had bonded to her new calf. I would say she bonded. Now, any cows with foster calves are put in the front of the barn, and not with the sheep in their pen. Live and learn - often the hard way. So Scotty, a full month younger than Fiona, has been forced to learn the rules - that is.... "Sheep are good, and out of the sheep pen is bad!" Fiona loves her sheep and hopefully Scotty will love them like her. After getting back home in McCord, I worked a couple of days in the clinic - cat spays, limping dogs, semen testing bulls and prolapsed vaginas (in which one was called in as a prolapsed uterus but she hadn't calved yet....it would be a miracle to prolapse a uterus and still be pregnant..I have found it important to ask the question "Has she calved yet?" to people's calls, hoping not to offend the more savy ranchers who know what the difference is-the difference is about 2 Advil in my experience.) Nights after getting home, feeding Andy the orphaned lamb and training a few young dogs are done before walking into the house to call it a day.

A week has passed since the sheep shearing, and the sheep will be processed to go to pasture, since they think pasture these days are in my backyard...who needs pruning shears when you have sheep?

Get Outta Here Ewe Guys!

Then, I will pack up Gin and Floss and go to the Clock, Stock and Barrel trial in Calgary, with a quick stop back at Beiseker to load yet a few more of my worldly goods (slowly but surely we are moving in). Did someone say Saskatchewan has a slow pace...not in my books!