Little Christmas

Christmas has come and gone with a bit of snow, unfortunately not enough to do anything with, and not the right kind to make perfect snow cream. Though last year it snowed 6 in. deep with a crust of ice on top. We made snow men, snow horses, snow cream, and best of all went sledding down our rocky hill. Well that Christmas we busted the sleds on accident .
But this Christmas we had fun without snow. Our family's biggest two hits from Santa this year were Styrofoam jets that were powered by rubber band sling shots, and also by the elder kid's eyes The lord of the rings trilogy special extended DVD edition. The dogs loved their rawhide cow and pig ears.

Also just yesterday, I pulled a half drowned rooster out of cow dung. He looks very dead from the camera's point of view, but we warmed him up by the fire after a good wash, but the rescue itself wasn't as easy. Our chickens take a liking to going out in our neighbor's cow pastures and eating the cow feed set in a big sized feeder on the left of that picture. A incredibly dangerous sinkhole surrounds the feeder like a mote around a castle. Amazing how dung can be so dangerous. Any way, I had to scoot along the foot wide feed trough to get to him. He was all covered in muck, but more alive then others I helped in CA. As soon as I caught hold of his feet, (with some difficulty ) I threw him further out in the muck, (though I'd meant to toss him to the other side), and dad scooped him up with the pitch fork.
Well not that much of a Christmas story, but there it is. A saved rooster and a fun snow less ( mostly) Christmas.

Our nut stash has been broken into!

Around our farm we have a lot of black walnut trees, most of them are down in our sheep pasture. Black walnuts are much sweeter than regular ones, and we have so much that my siblings and I crack one any time we want, but we are not the only ones who like them. I caught these two sneaking from our nut stash in the barn.

I'm baking cookies n the top pic.

Emma's first weeks

Emma's Here!

We brought Emma home on the thirteenth. Since then I've been busy, busy, busy cleaning puppy messes, training, ect. She's a lot more dominant then I expected, trying to command Aiden to play with her. The picture on the left is of Me and Emma, when we picked her up. We took Emma to several parks to socialize her with people and other dogs, but all the dogs we met weren't very nice, so were still working on it. But the main thing I'm trying to get done is house training. Aiden is very tolerant of Emma for all the jumping and playing, though we wish he'd show just a little more alpha. Emma is incredibly smart and learns very quickly, loves to play, go on adventures, and hates to be left alone.

November Kitties

Aren't They cute? I took these pictures by chance last month and never got around to post them. Jasmine, ( the long haired gray tabby) and Tia, ( the tortishell ) love posing for their pictures taken, but any good pics. of Stripey, ( the short haired tabbey,) are hard to get.

The king of the prarie

Ducky found a speckled king snake half frozen by an old dry spring, while hiking with mom. She brought it home and tried to house it in many different places but the only container this King was a very tall unused plastic garbage can ( he climbed out of every thing else) . King speckles,(as Ducky named him) tried to bite bite people when his head wasn't being held, so Ducky put up a sign: BEWARE OF SNAKE ( HE BITES). on his garbage can. Other than that, he was a nice pet for a few days.
Speckled king snakes aren't poisonous at all. Many people think they are because of their behavior, or the name King tagged on them. But really, their name comes from their diet: other snakes, both poisonous and harmless. This is the smallest one I've seen, though the Adults are not much bigger. I've never seen them hunt before, It must be a remarkable feat to hunt down a larger venomous snake.

Another little gray visitor

Last night while my parents were away, my siblings and I watched an old movie we have not seen for a while. During the movie Ducky had scraps of food she wanted to give the kitties, so she went out side . All the kitties were there except Stripy, a little rescued stray, who loves attention. So Ducky started looking around for him. There was a little gray thing sneaking away from the barn, and it looked like Stripey to Ducky, so she walked a little closer to it and called. A little white face looked at her, then continued towards the forest. surprised, Ducky ran in the house yelling; '' a skunk! a skunk!'' I jumped up
''Where?!''
'' by the barn, it's going away! I thought it was Stripey, but it's a skunk!''
''A skunk?'' I asked, grabbing a flash light. ''Show me!'' I said, preparing to do what was done with pests here. I had never killed a possum, skunk, or raccoon but since dad was gone, I had the thought that I would have to do it, and that wasn't a pretty thought. Ducky and I ran out to see. ''He's gone.'' Ducky exclaimed, when we reached the barn.
''Where's Aiden?'' I asked,
''Somewhere over there, I don't know;'' Ducky pointed the opposite direction .
''Aiden!'' I called. Aiden came from our eastern porch. He stopped and looked where Ducky and I where looking. ''Aiden,---.'' Suddenly, he bolted towards the fence line that separated the forest from our front yard. Aiden leaped along it just like a fox trying to catch a mouse, then snapped up a gray fuzz ball and shook hard. The gray thing dropped and tried to escape but Aiden grabbed it by the tail and puled him back. They fought for a few short seconds, then it was over. ''It's not a skunk it's a possum!'' Ducky explained with realization,
''Good boy Aiden, Good dog! '' We petted him all over and let him inside to watch the movie with us. I was very glad that I didn't have to kill the possum. But I also am very relieved that it wasn't a skunk, now that I think about it. Ducky must have mistaken the possum's white little face for a skunk tail. I wish I got pictures though.

My dog to be

After coming home from CA, I was wondering what to do with all the money I earned. Should I leave it in the bank and use it for some sort of future grand investment like college? Or this or that...a camera, a crompound bow and hunting licence, angora bunnies, art supplies, a dairy heifer or goat, a canoe, an older horse or a barely broke one, (though Dad said no absolutely, so that was out of the question), a little beagle dog(to hunt rabbits) a laptop for writing my novels,....well, I better stop right there.

Mom talked to me about spending my money on something that would be a seed to earn more money. So I brainstormed all the business type things I'd like doing, like pet portraits, milking and selling ice cream (my homemade Molly-Jersey icecream sold for 35 to 60$ a gallon at the YW auction last summer:)) And then one day Mom said Aiden was sad and that after his midnight wild creature run-in and injury, he's never been quite the same. And that he would need to be replaced someday, and how hard that would be. I said that it was about time to get a puppy as we planned to breed him in order to keep one around like him someday when he's gone, and I started looking around at the different farmcollie possibilites.
I told mom that if she could be mine, I would love to train and take care of a puppy. And unlike our farm-fresh kitties, dogs good around other animals are in demand here. I wouldn't have a problem finding homes for the other pups besides the one we would keep from her litter someday. So that's where my future investment comes in.
Our family loves the capabilities and the history of the English Shepherd, and the beauty of a not-too0-imbred, not too narrow skulled rough collie. Which is exactly what Aiden is. So we decided to try to continue this. We've always liked the looks and working habits of these dogs, http://www.cedarcreekenglishshepherds.com/ES.html and one day I found a live "we've got puppies" link from those beautiful and smart dogs( who also 'own' katadin sheep, like us) and I emailed.
Turns out the puppies are related to this farm, but also to the Cimmaron farm line in nearby Oklahoma, Aiden's Dad's (Cimmaron Buccaneer, or Buck) home. And the Butcher farm dogs that have been the top English Shepherds in the nation. And that the puppies actual family was one of the Butchers, who don't live too far from us, and they were real nice to talk with, back and forth.
So to try to make my still-long story short, she saved a puppy for me!!!!, "the most outgoing sable of the litter, sweet, most playful and slightly bossy".

She's named D.J right now, but I am looking at scottish names to match Aiden and her celtic ancestry... maybe Jamie, Emma, Kira, Guenevere or Gwen for short, and I can go get her anytime we get the logistics figured out. Here are some pics of her, and you can see her mom and dad above. You can see her tiny puppy pic as part of her litter here at http://www.cedarcreekenglishshepherds.com/bjcallie09.html
Below are some 7 week old pictures of her that the Butcher family sent me to see if I approved of her. In these pics she is in the house suspiciously sniffing wood floors for the first time, and being held by 'her girls' "who think she is one of thier favorites and have given her lots of love." She does have a naturally bobbed tail like her mom, (my mom wanted a long tail, cuase they make such alert or happy waving flags) and a little bit shorter hair than mom would like, but I am glad, for tick picking's sake, "the better to see you with, my dear"! Dad is sceptical, (maybe he's thinking of the furniture, toys and rug casualties) but he'll see how wonderful a family and work companion she is going to be....


I can hardly wait !!!! (((((Isn't she cute?))))

Hiking squad

It had been a very cold October., but super recently it had been warm, so I took the chance and took my sisters hiking out back. We saw a wild turkey,a fox, and smelled a dead cow at the edge of a stream we wadded in, (the cow was further down stream then we were). Aiden our dog came with us, helping Brina move a heard of cattle out of our way. Here are some photos of our voyage.

Aiden's Coyotes

Last night, all of us were hauling logs except Mom,Ben and Jess. It was already dark, so Brina and I decided to have a little fun. We were pulling a big empty wood cart back to our forest to be loaded again, and about half way there we stopped and began howling like coyotes, meanwhile Mom was coming home from a walk with our dog. Aiden,(our dog) heard the first coyote howl and pricking his ears, he curled in an alert signal.The second coyote howl sent him dashing off towards the backwoods.
''Stay on my side Aiden,'' Mom said. Aiden heard Mom, checked himself and slowed down. Then a whole pack of coyotes began to howl (still with those same two human mouths) and at the same time Aiden heard Becka scream "DAAADD!" and that did it.
A whole pack of coyotes on HIS side, and one of his kids in danger. He was off like a shot. When Aiden got to brina and I, we had already stoped howling . But Aiden circled us, very puzzled, then took off to check on the other kids.
I'm glad we've got our dog. He kills possums, coons, and visiting male cats, chases large birds of prey away, told us when our outdoor water heater was boiling over,and when we are near a copperhead (very poisonous snake), protects us from mean bulls and herds marading cows off our yard, will put the chickens back in their pen if we ask and used to go with us to bring our "visiting" cow back and knew how to separate her out. He guards the home from the encroaching UPS truck, tells us when the mail truck comes(a more acceptable visitor), and we feel safe going out in the dark with him by us.
He's not feeling real well lately, though. He's had his share of scrapes and cut-ups. I don't want to be without someone like him, so lately I have been looking at litters of working English Shepherd farmcollies. Here's the place I hope to get a girl puppy from: http://www.cedarcreekenglishshepherds.com/links.html
Check back for further posts on the extending our heritage hill dog-line project !

Autumn deer season

A friend of ours knows a deer hunter who gives shot deer away so that he can keep shooting. The Friend told us about him, so my dad wrote down his phone number, and ever since, we've got deer from that guy at least once a year. Venison is very good, and tastes like beef, but some deer taste better than others, these last two year's deer were excellent. I guess it depends on what they ate. So far I've skinned two deer---well, okay, one of them got ruined, but the other was a total success. It lasted for two and a half years, till recently a stray Boston terrier tore it down and took it out on the grass, chewed on it, and left it on the dew covered grass . I found it when I came back from seminary; wet and moldy. The dog hasn't come back since. It ate two of our expensive muscovey ducks, and might be responsible for a chicken murder. Dad skinned this deer with it's tail still attached. That's special so I'd better get it out of the freezer.



This is dad cutting up last week's deer. I usually help dad, but this time Mom said Jo had to learn some life skills. He's ok with picking dead chickens up, but when it comes to cutting up stuff, well, he's a little squeamish.

September fishing

Last Wednesday, I took my sisters and littler brother fishing at a near by pond across the road that my sisters named Bass pond , because of all the large mouth bass we catch in that particular pond. but this time we just caught 4 little blue gills. Other times though, we've caught 5 to 4 pound bass. My favorite live bait to use in that pond are farm raised grasshoppers and crickets. Well actually we don't really mean to grow them. But the bass pond fish absolutely love them! We all like to use a blue sparkly plastic worm in the summer for bass fishing.

Opossum Invasion

Since we've come home, my dad's found four possums snacking on our chickens. We haven't had any raccoon problems for years thanks to our dog, Aiden, but he has been at a Friends house wile we have been gone, so the possums moved in. This last one I put in the freezer so I could try to skin it, but I forgot all about it and left it in our freezer for 6 days, so now it's way to old to skin, and it set off a horrible musky smell. I got in trouble for that. I hope our food doesn't taste possumy , I don't think that sounds very appetizing.

Memorial

During my visit in CA, three of our most loved pets passed away this summer .
last year Cookie, my sister's kittie, survived serious head injury when accidently smashed in a car door at 8 weeks, and ever since she'd been a bit crazy, but loved people. And some how it stunted her growth, and she's always been the same size since.
just last week when my family and I came home from CA, she disappeard.

Cookie had been reported sick before my family came to pick J. up. Tigress, My favorite cat, died caring for 4 orphaned litters of kittens. About four years ago, I rescued her and her siblings from an old farmer that was just going to shoot them, or feed them to his dogs. At first she was just a mean barn kittie, the wildest of her litter but with loads of Patience and a few bit fingers, I tamed her with the help of my sisters, and we be came best friends. Molly, our jersey cow died by some poisonous plant. she was also bloated, but when mom stabbed Molly to get rid of all the gas , she didn't improve . She was an excellent milker, giving 6 gallons of milk a day . Funny,.... I think I miss churning butter.

Limmited time

My wonderful days here at my grandpa's ranch in CA. are numbered, my special family have already left the ozarks to pick my brother and I home. I gotten to know amazing cousins, supportive aunts and uncles, and loving grandparents. brotherJ and I had a fun summer, And we have both learned to get along better. We have been cleaning with Nana, preparing for my family who might arrive tonight. We'll all stay till the 9th of september.

My studio

Here are some of my horse drawings ; none of them are perfect, I'm still learning, but I realy like certain things about each one, like Connie and her mother Ashlie's surroundings, (top) and Megan's (middle,) shading. I like naming my horse drawings and giving them different personalities to make them feel more real. Bottom: Sally may.

Toad hunt'n

Last night, cousin H, J, and I all went toad hunting around the chicken houses. we found over40 toads around the brightest lights where all the bugs were . Many of us got peed on by the little varmints , who tried their best to make us drop them. In the top two pics., cousin H is playing with her favorite. I liked the one on the bottom because it's pretty colors.

Owl came for dinner

On Monday a worker at my Grandpa's ranch caught this owl sitting on one of the rafters in a chicken house. Back at home I'm usually the bird expert, but I never really studied Californian owls. Nobody got hurt,( unless you'd count the worker's ripped shirt,). J. ,( left) didn't ever get to close, but cousin H. , ( far right,) and I,( middle) got to pet the big eyed visitor. I've seen many owls, but never got very close before they flew away, and I know he really looks like a stuffed animal, but he's not. We let him go after we took this shot.

Camera hunting

Aunt Isa has recently been helping me look for a digital camera so that I can take pics. of the things I wright about here on my blog. just today we found one I really like, a used digital rebel for $400! Back home my favorite things to take pics. of are our farm animals,( especially kitties), and the nocturnal critters that drop by(racoons and possums) , looking for a midnight snack. Mom always says we have way to many Kittie pictures. well, at least I can make a huge scrap book of all the loved generations of cats on our farm. Cats have always been one of my favorite animals, and I think it would be nice to tell my future kids about the time I saved brother J.'s calico cat from suffocating in a peanut butter jar, or the one at the animal shelter I volunteered at who had to walk in a wheel chair for the rest of it's life because someone stepped on him as a kitten.

Ocean picknic

A couple weeks ago most of my family and I went to the beach. We all had a wonderful time collecting pretty rocks, wave jumping, swimming and building sand castles. I showed some of my cousins how to look for moonstones and shark teeth. we found many moonstones, but only one shark tooth, and we later lost it . Brother J. and some other cousins went out to the deeper parts, riding/jumping waves. I joined them after moonstone hunting. It was both fun and scary. We might get to go again with the rest of my family comes to CA. But when we got home we found that three of our ducklings died because we did not feed them little rocks to help crush their food in their bellies. Cousin H is very sad. We have one left.