31 December 2010

Sheep, a Shiba Inu & Surprises

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Kim’s off to work.
Kim

She enjoys that. We started Tuesday’s job with Fly, but she was staggering about, and hardly fit to run after the sheep. Then it finally hit my Dad – Fly was old. Far too old for major work anyway. So we took Kim with us instead. The job in question was to gather the ewes from our fields in Bryansford and “draw” them up to our main farm in the Land Rover and trailer. It is a long process. The sheep are gathered, then they are loaded into the trailer in lots of around 20. The trailer will only hold 20 adult sheep, so we have to take the ewes home in trailer loads of 20. Whenever you have nearly 200 ewes to bring home, it’s a long process. That’s why we need a good dog – to force the sheep into the trailer, not too tightly and not too loosely.

Kim enjoyed that job. One of Kim’s advantages is that she has a lot of power in her eyes. Whenever she stares at the sheep, they soon move. Once, a ewe pounced off of the trailer and ran down the ramp, heading straight for Kim. Kim just stood and stared, and the ewe turned around and ran back into the trailer as quickly as she came out.

On boxing day, the snow melted, leaving a lot of mud everywhere. No wonder the sheep pens were so muddy.

Another thing that Kim likes to do is creep up on the sheep. Closer…
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And closer…
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Then she just stares.
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Huh? What was that? “Come bye” or “Away”?
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During the 2 day sheep drawing job, I went to the local pet shop with Pip to get a new bowl for Fly (who at this point had stopped eating). Whenever we arrived, I got a surprise. Meet Toby:
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He’s super cute 12-week-old Shiba Inu puppy from Omega Kennels. He was very jumpy, but the funny noises trick works every time.

Huh? What was that noise?
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Toby has free roaming of the shop, and has a habit of stealing toys from the shelves!

Who could be angry at this little guy?
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I hope to see him again soon.

Meanwhile, Pip had another go at riding on the quad. It was very windy.
Pip

But she still didn’t like it. Sigh.

Get me off this thing!
Pip

Fly Update: The new bowl did help encourage Fly to eat a little, but all she will eat is sausages and ham. We have tried many foods for her, but as yet we are unsuccessful in weaning her back onto her usual food. Fingers crossed she’s better soon.
And there’s ony one thing left to say…

Happy New Year!

From the Dogs of Greenhill Farm.

26 December 2010

The Three Days of Christmas

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Day One:

Christmas Eve Eve


Every Christmas, we hangup the collection of Christmas cards that we have received. This year, we had 49 of them (including the ones from the Christmas card exchange).

Usually, the one wall decked with cards was more than adequate, but because we had so many, we had to stick some up somewhere else.
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I came up with the idea that I would stick the cards that aren’t foldable to the cupboards.
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That worked well. This is our card from Ginger Jasper.
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To be honest, I’d never seen such cards before. Our cards were always foldable. This is Mr. Pip’s card.
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And here are some of my favourite cards:

From Charlotte:
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From Toni:
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And from my Granny:
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Thanks for the cards everyone!

Day Two:

Christmas Eve

 

Santa Paws is arriving soon. I better say up late tonight and wait for him.
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This is easy! How can Santa Paws go unnoticed when I’m on duty?
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Ten minutes later…

*ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…*
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Day Three:

Christmas Day

 

I woke up on Christmas morning, ran straight into the kitchen to rally the troops and we all went into the sitting room and we all unwrapped our Christmas presents… and look what I got!
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Oh my gosh! I couldn’t wait to use it!

I brought Pip inside once the camera had charged and I let her see her presents (she will have to share a few, though). She even got some doggy “snowballs”. The dogs love them!

What do you call this day again?
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Christmas.

Is that why these things are sitting on my feet?
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Yep.

Good. I like Christmas.
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And I got a toy shoe.
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But seriously, where’s the food?
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After helping mum with the dinner, it was time to eat up.
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And boy, it was good! The dogs got the leftovers, so they will agree with me.

Did someone say turkey?
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Here’s a video of Ben and Pip checking out the presents (you know, giving them a test drive!):


I hope everyone had as good a Christmas as we had. Merry Christmas!

~~~

 

23 December 2010

Deck the Dog

15 comments
With boughs of tinsel.
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Ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha.
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‘Tis the season to be Sprollie.
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Ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha!
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Don we now our festive apparel.
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Ha ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha!
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Time to sing a festive carol.
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Ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha!
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See the blazing tree before us.
Tree

Ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha!
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Time to join in the chorus!
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Fa la la la la, la la la la!
Christmas Ben

We’re off for a short Christmas blogging break for now, but we’ll be back next week! May your festive season be full of cheer, friends, family and of course, the dogs! Enjoy your turkey, and gravy, and above all, Merry Christmas everyone!

21 December 2010

First Time Lucky

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Finally, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for… here’s Lucky!

 
 And here’s her first movie!


She has been at the bottom of the field (the opposite end to the gorse bushes) for the last few days. Her mother appeared to be really hungry, as she was trying to eat the ivy off of the wall. Reminds me of that Winter scene in “Bambi”.


But they both seem to be in very good condition, despite the snow. We gave them some silage this morning, so hopefully they’ll travel up the hill to get it.


Lucky is being well fed.


And she even has time to experiment.


It took me a good while to get these photos because mum kept standing in front of Lucky.


I’m very pleased with the way that Lucky’s coping with the extremely cold weather. Pip wasn’t so fortunate. I was teaching her how to ride in the quad and you can see that her whiskers were frozen.

 
She was helping me to check on the sheep. Whenever she saw some of them for the first time, she sat on the quad and barked and growled at them! During the backing session, I could see that her fur was slowly turning white – her fur was freeing! Time for her to go inside.


Hope you’re warm and cozy where you are!