February 25th, 2011: Escape Artist

Two weeks ago I wrote about dogs climbing through our half mesh gates and helping themselves to an impromptu training session. Those dogs (9 and 10 months old) had their play privileges revoked and only reinstated for good behaviour once they agreed not to climb through the gate. This week it was the turn on the little scallywags (3 months old). Kele has decided to follow in the footsteps of Auntie Sioux and climb the gate too. I was out training one day and from behind me came Kele. She was desperate to be out in the field with me. So... temporary gate repairs have been made thanks to some garden wire and a bit of spare training rope. I see full mesh gates in the future.... So far it has kept Kele, Lad and Pixie contained...but god help me when they figure out that the gate at the other end of their play area is also only a half mesh. I will be in serious trouble then.

Kinloch Lad showing his disapproval from the temporary gate fix

We've got some extra visitors staying with us at the moment. From the latest news page you would have seen the photo of Mirk, Pixie and Merry. Merry and Mirk are brother and sister. Merry is off to Japan soon with Kinloch Lad. Mirk, Merry, Lad, Pixie and Kele all get on well but come bedtime...oh boy, all hell breaks lose. Talk about a barkfest. The other night they kept me up until 2am and then restarted at 5am! Not happy!!!!! Last night - same thing! Joining them is another 10 month old visitor who is completely obsessed with Lad, Pixie and Kele on the opposite side of the kennel! This youngster lies and stares at our three...and howls. I figured if I let him out with the 3 youngsters, he might settle down but he doesn't know what to do with them! When I let him out for a run around during the day, he runs back to his kennel so he can keep an eye on the three youngsters. Put sheep in front of him, though, and all thoughts of 3 puppies are quickly forgotten!

After the first sleepless night, I decided to let the youngsters have free reign of the play area while I trained dogs. They loved it. The weather was nice for them to be outdoors and they behaved themselves with only the odd disagreement. Not a peep from the kennel that night. Same thing the next night. Perhaps that is the trick ! The only downside to this strategy was that the pups demolished a plastic chair. How the heck they did that is anyone's guess but they obviously had a lot of fun.

Another visitor to our wee farm is 8 week old Mirk. He is by Kevin Evans' Mirk and out of a bitch who is by Richard Millichap's Dewi Tweed and is same way bred as Dewi Fan (the bitch that sold at the recent Skipton sale for £6,300). This wee fella is sweet. He's a happy wee lad but you have to be quick coz this little lad has a turn of speed about him. He has taken a liking to our chickens and is herding them all over the place! It's getting hard to keep him away from the chickens so the next step is collar and leash! This wee boy is heading to Australia soon. Wish I owned his litter brother...he's just as sharp!

All these extra dogs has meant a busy week! In addition, our ewes are still indoors in the shed but none of them have lambed yet. The other morning I went into the shed to find a couple of ewes standing on top of the haystack. They had broken down the barrier between their accommodations and the hay and decided it was self-serve. They weren't happy when I rebuilt the barrier. Sheep drink a lot of water when they are indoors munching on hay and high protein feedblocks! It is almost a full time job keeping the water buckets full. We have no automatic waterers but I'm going to smarten up on that one for next year's lambing. In the meantime, I am carrying water until the weather dries up a bit and I can kick these ewes outside to lamb.

The news of the week must be the devastation to the town in which I grew up - Christchurch (in New Zealand). The earthquake hit the same night the pups decided to keep me awake...so I had been surfing the net when I saw the reports coming in. In between sorting pups out, I was watching the first news reports of the damage. Shocking. Thankfully my friends and my sister's family are all OK, but naturally quite traumatized. One of the icons of Christchurch, the cathedral in the centre of the city (which is called the 'Square') suffered major damage losing its 63m spire. More devastating, though, is the news that 22 tourists are thought to be buried in the rubble. I spent many, many hours as a kid sitting in the square watching tourists and the famous Christchurch wizard, and every Christmas I would visit the cathedral to leave a gift under the huge Christmas tree. The tower of the cathedral gives a terrific view of the City of Christchurch and to think people have lost their lives there is gut-wrenching. The city was originally built around this cathedral with the first stone being laid in 1864. They will rebuild this cathedral because it is not only iconic but it will be a beacon of hope for a devastated city and a traumatized populace.