2007 Holiday Season on the Farm

Sitting here at work (sshhh! Don't tell anybody!) waiting for the last hour to drag by, it's spitting snow outside and 29 degrees. Winter is here. We raised a few turkey's this year for giving away to friends for their Thanksgiving dinners with their families and the turkey's have been harvested, picked up and delivered to their recipients for tomorrow's dinner. Thanksgiving is here. I feel like I should be doing something to prepare but we won't be doing our family dinner until Saturday and even with that, it's just Jon, Justin and I along with Justin's girlfriend. Nothing big or fancy, just the typical fixins. Maybe I'll have a chance tonight to put up the Christmas tree so we can all decorate on the weekend? That sounds like a plan.

I won't go into my moaning about the weather and the early darkness that settles in around this time of day. I'll spare you that this time around. I will, however, complain a bit more about the two new dogs. Gracie is my little 77 lb. challenge. She's a Houdini, escape artist and avid digger! Oh, and if I happen to squat to her level for an eye to eye chat with her, she jumps on me! If I were watching from a distance, I'd be laughing out loud at the comedy of it all. But, her huge muddy paws can easily topple this 5'8" tall woman! (Notice I didn't give MY weight!) Trust me, it's sufficient. Gracie is a sweet girl. I can't wait to find just the right tactic to contain her in the pasture where I want her. I keep finding her in places where she has not been given access. We are going to try hot wire around the base of the fence. if she tries to dig her way out, she will be stopped abruptly by a shock to those big, white paws. Maybe a few jolts of electricity will pursuade her to stay put? What we are learning is that she will chew through anything cloth-like a woven leash, if it's restricting her from going where she wants to go. She will dig under fences to get out of where she is to get to where she'd rather be. She will attempt to climb through any space that she thinks her body even has a slight chance of fitting through if it means getting to where she'd rather be. She loves to run and play and a 1/2 acre pasture is not doing it for her. She thinks an acre would be better...better yet, no fence at all! I tried to explain to her that her purpose at Shady Creek Farm is to grow up a little bit and then eventually she will be placed in the area that she wants to be in to guard our alpacas. Right now though, she just wants to chase them and play with them. Mind you, this behavior does not sit well with the alpacas.

Hooch, the 2 1/2 year old, on the other hand is learning very quickly what his job is and that he can not be at my feet 24 hours a day! When I leave the pasture, he follows me and whines when I close the gate behind me with him on the other side but he soon realizes that I'm not going far and if I do get out of sight, that I always return a few hours later. He's a big teddy bear of a boy. They are both very smart and have wonderful potential as livestock guardians and I hope that one day soon, I will write a story of my successful acclimation of these two big beautiful canines to my alpaca farm!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Until next time...