Flyer at 12 weeks

Flyer is twelve weeks today. He is a busy boy that keeps you on your toes. This morning during one of his potty breaks he was eye balling the sheep. :)

He is a growing boy. I have already had to move the rear support on the stacking stand back since we got him home. Here are the pictures we took this morning. The side shot is a bit off as I had his rear end closer to the camera on the stacking stand.



This face is courtesy of a kibble he's working on eating. :)

Introducing Flyer

Meet Flyer, C-Myste Baledwr SN Pilot Flies Over Spyrock (pending).

Flyer is the puppy formally known as Dasher from the Hannah- CH C-Myste Baledwr Kumalie, and Pilot - BISS GCH C-Myste Baledwr Free To Disagree litter.

We are very excited to have this boy and look forward to many great things with him.

House guest

For the past week we have had a house guest. He is formal name is CH Tailbrite Beltane Dark Before Dawn, aka Crescent and he is Minnie's suitor. He's a lovely black dog and we are very excited for this potential litter. Based on my calculations, and provided Minnie takes, puppies will due around April 25th. Crescent is a wonderful house guest who has just stolen our hearts. We will miss him when it's time for him to go home.

Here are some pictures we've taken of him this last week while with us.













Such a happy boy!

Agility Practice

We've had a fun few weeks with girls. On Jan 28th we started taking some beginner agility lessons. We decided it would be good for the girls especially since herding isn't an option right now with the new lambs. They have been having a blast! Today was lesson 3 and here are video's of the runs at the end of the class.

First up is Zoe.



Then it was Minnie's turn.




This will be their last lesson for awhile. Minnie is starting to come into heat (YAY!) and that means no more classes for her. Zoe isn't going to go either as we have a couple busy weekends ahead of us including getting Minnie bred. :) We will go back to agility in the future though, it's just too much fun for both us and the girls.

Oh my, how time flies!

Today marks 2 years since I made a very special day trip to Minnesota. I left Medford at 6 in the morning, flew into St. Paul. There I met Garrett for the first time and picked up this beautiful blue puppy who at the time was called Janey. I then got back on the plane with the puppy as my carry-on and we made our way back to Southern Oregon. I can't remember exactly what time I got home (it was 10 or 11 pm) and the puppy met the rest of the family. There were tears involved. This little puppy meant so much to my family (especially Glenn) as she traced 6 generations back to Glenn's original cardigans. We decided to rename her Minnie in honor of where she came and her registered name became Ebonwald A Minnesota Blessing, and a blessing she has been!

Minnie then... Minnie now




It was apparent from early on that she had a great interest in sheep ;)



When she was 15 months old, she saw and worked sheep for the first time. She had instant drive and desire to work.



Minnie at 2 years old.


We are so grateful to Garrett for allowing us to bring her home. In the two years that she has been with us she has competed in Rally earning her RE, earned her CGC, earned her STDs title with ASAC, and completed one leg towards her HTC with AHBA (we haven't had the option to test for the second leg yet).

We have several future plans for her as well. The biggest and soonest upcoming plan is that on her next heat cycle (due in the next month or so) she will bred to CH Tailbrite Dark Before Dawn "Crescent". We are really looking forward to seeing what this litter produces.

We also plan on training in agility (which we started last week) and will be competiting in that in the future along with more herding trials both ASCA and AKC.

Here's looking to another great 2 years/lifetime with her!

Seaside Fun

We went to Seaside for the end of the year. We got in on Friday and met up with Ron and Kathleen and their Cardis Dixie and Radar. We went down to the beach and let them loose for a romp on the beach. They had a blast!

Minnie ran and ran until her tongue was hanging out.


Dixie, Minnie, Radar and Zoe.


















Minnie hoping someone has a snack for her.


Minnie decided she'd try to play with Radar. He was a good sport. They played briefly until she squeaked then he decided maybe he shouldn't if she was going to make weird noises.





I love how Minnie has no feet touching the ground, she was booking it.


On our travel home we found a neat old time train and took advantage of some photos ops.











While we were in Newport the second ewe had her lambs. She had a ram lamb and an ewe lamb. Now to wait and see if the third ewe lambs. I figure if she is going to she should in the next week or so.

Minnie's Christmas Wish

Back in August we were loaned 3 Dorper Ewes to practice herding. Their owner referred to them as "cheap sheep" so if anything happened to them they wouldn't be too expensive for us to replace. We also assumed that they are older ewes. These sheep have been wonderful for working Minnie and Zoe on. We have been using them off and on since we brought them home.

Minnie loves herding and loves being able to work the sheep. We now believe Minnie had a secret Christmas wish of more sheep. Well she must have been a VERY good girl because on Christmas Eve morning, 2 hours after doing chores, Glenn looked out to see that one the ewes had 8 extra legs. That's right she gave birth to 2 ram lambs. We had no idea that she had been bred before coming to our house. Mom and babies are doing great. We have named them Dasher and Dancer in honor of the holiday season.

This is Dasher, he has a black down his neck and a black spot on his back.


Dancer on the left, Dasher on the right.










The above photos were take yesterday. Today the weather turned to cloudy and threatening to rain so we moved the ewes and lambs into the barn. Yesterday we also noticed that a 2nd ewe has developed and udder. I looked at her again today and she looks like she could go anytime now (keep in mind I'm not a sheep expert). Here are some photos taken with my phone in the barn.

Here are the three ewes. The one in the middle is the one who just lambed. The spotted one on the left is the one that is bagged up and I believe will lamb soon. Then we have the one on the left. After spending some time looking at her, we also believe that she is bred and will be lambing in the next couple of weeks!











With more lambs to come, I'd say Minnie got her wish. ;)

(On a side note-we have spoken with ewes' owner and will continue to handle the lambing for her. She is busy with her critically ill husband. We haven't had a chance to find out if this was as much a surprise to her as it was to us. However I'm guessing she would have mentioned it or asked for the back before now if she was expecting it.)