A Very Good Girl

With Nala's litter coming in just a few weeks, you're definitely going to be hearing a lot about this sweet girl... this is her time to shine, lol!

Every time I take Nala out in public somewhere, I am reassured that she is a truly excellent choice to be the mama of my first litter of farm Collies.  

To be clear, she is not quite my end goal as far as physical appearance goes - yes, she is gorgeous, but she has far more coat than is practical for a farm Collie, and I prefer a little broader muzzle, etc. But her temperament is what gets me excited. ♥️ 

This past Tuesday's outing was a case in point - we left the dome, and she happily hopped up into the truck, without fuss.  She rides very well, though she firmly believes that I should be petting her the entire time.  😂

We arrived at the vet's office, and she quickly won over the lady at the front desk, getting perhaps more than her fair share of cookies. ;) She made friends quickly with the vet and vet tech too, and submitted without any fuss or nervousness to the physical exam.

Then we went to the back room for the ultrasound, where Nala was lifted up and had to lie on her back on a special cushion.  My sweet girl held perfectly still while on her back - no struggle at all! ♥️ 

Afterward, we hung out at my parents' house for a while, where she behaved very well. On the way home, we stopped at the local pet store to pick up kibbles - and Nala totally ignored the shop dog that was sitting right by the door!  THAT impressed me - anyone who has had dogs knows that it's often a huge challenge to teach them not to go bonkers when they see another dog. 

She's not without flaws, of course - no dog is completely perfect.  She is a little OCD in some of her behaviors on the farm, though I suspect that's just because she has a high level of drive, and I simply don't have enough work for her.  And she is a little shy with some strangers, though it's far from the level of fear I saw in Thea, the English Shepherd I used to own, and she can be won over.  She's also sometimes annoyingly pushy about demanding attention, lol - you have to watch out that she doesn't nudge that long snooter under your arm while you're trying to drink a hot beverage! 😂

But overall, I'm extremely pleased with her temperament... I think her puppies will likely be very confident, friendly, able to fit into any situation, and very affectionate and eager to please.  She is such a good girl, and I can't wait until early April when I get to meet her babies!!  ♥️ 

Puppies are Coming!!!!

It's confirmed - Nala is pregnant!!  😍

The vet counted at least 6 pups on the ultrasound.  And, lol, two of the ones that she zoomed in on were VERY active... I'm thinking that some of these pups could be busy bees just like their mama!  😂

The due date is April 7th, give or take a couple days.

I'm super excited!!!

Now to go rearrange the dome to maximize floor space....

Learning Some Lessons

I've learned a lot in the few months I've been homesteading... and I'm sure the learning will never stop!  :P 

Today I moved some hay around because the goats were destroying it - sigh.  I can't wait for the snow to go away so I can put up better goat fencing!!  I had to leave some bales in the hay storage thingie and just hope they don't get scattered too, but I put a bunch of the bales on my firewood rack, since we're past the worst of the very cold weather and I won't need a ton more wood.

But here are a few things I thought of this morning as I lugged hay bales across the field.

1. People aren't kidding when they say to make your goat fence like Fort Knox!!  I thought I was prepared, but I really wasn't.

2. People aren't kidding when they say that loose goats can cause an epic amount of trouble - just look at my hay storage thingie!!  

3. People also aren't kidding when they say that few things are more annoying and itchy than hay when it gets in your clothes!!  :P 

4. Goats listen to Collies much better than they listen to people when the goats are being told to go into their pen in the middle of the day. 

5. Farm girls should eat a more substantial breakfast than 2 small muffins when doing heavy physical labor, otherwise they will become excessively hungry and buy too much food at the grocery store.  

What lessons did you guys learn today? ;)

Happy Friday!!

Monday on the Farm

Monday is my one real day off... it's always a toss-up as to whether I should get tons of stuff done or try to relax.  Usually I manage to accomplish plenty of both.  ;) 

Today I particularly wanted to chip ice around all the gates, as it was becoming quite the tight squeeze to get through a couple of them, lol.  And it was a gloriously warm and sunny day - perfect because it softened the snow.  Here's the chicken pen - after the morning's work, I can now use the hook and eye latch again instead of blocking the doorway with an old chair to keep the dogs out. 

Speaking of the chickens, I'm now getting anywhere from 1-4 eggs in a day.  The dogs get any cracked ones, which is why Nala looks so eager in the photo below:

Blackbeak says hi: 

It was so nice out today that I left the door open almost all day.  Thane approved. He and Breeze are still playing musical crates, but I think her heat is finally just about over, so life should go back to normal soon.

The goats approve of this weather too - I caught them sunbathing out by the hay "shed."

Rhode is due in early April.  I do think she looks bigger!  :D

Nala is also (hopefully!!) due in April... I have an ultrasound scheduled for March 10th to confirm pregnancy.  ♥️ 

This afternoon I took Breeze down to visit the goats... I don't think she's been to see them since the first day she arrived!  She was pretty excited, and definitely had some desire to try to herd them. 

In fact, she was so excited that it took her a while to settle down after we came back inside the fence.  I think we'll want to practice just being calm near the goats for a while before we try any more herding.  Here she is thinking about trying to squeeze back out through the gate: 

Anyway... now it's time to do the final round of chores and then head to bed.  It's back to my day job tomorrow, but it was nice to have the beautiful day off today.  :) 

Happy Monday!

Following a Trail

I hear coyotes fairly often - I think they include my property in their loop every few days, sometimes a little more frequently.  

The other night, one sounded closer than normal - I was guessing he was on the other side of the log pile circled in the photo below: 

Today I went out to see if I could find tracks.  To my surprise, it looks like the coyote actually came much closer than that.  I followed his path for a while, and it was fascinating to see how he moved. 

He actually first came out of the trees about here:

He kept going to the left, behind the solar panel, taking advantage of bits of cover, and sometimes taking a few steps toward the dome, probably to keep an eye on the dogs.  

To the left of the solar panel, there is a snow bank and a brush pile.  He came over the snow bank and circled through the pile of brush, coming to within maybe 25-30 feet of the fence surrounding the dome.  I'm guessing that's when I got home from work, or maybe the dogs started barking, because it looks like he then jumped back up over the snow bank and took off running through the trees.

The pawprints were spaced about 4-6 feet apart while he ran.

I widened my circle and found a few more tracks, probably from the same coyote or his mate.  I would have guessed there were a lot more based on all the noise they make, lol, but I only found 2, maybe 3 sets of tracks.

I'm guessing this is one of the spots where one paused to "sing":

The snow isn't a great type for holding the shape of the tracks, but I got one picture of the pawprint:

So anyway... that was kind of a neat experience.  I'll have to dig out the trail cam and see if I can catch the coyotes on video again.

I hope everyone is having an awesome Monday!  :) 

Syncing Up

Cutie patootie Breeze is now in heat too. I had heard that girls in the same house tend to go into heat around the same time, and apparently it's true!

For a variety of reasons, not least of which being that I don't think the dome has room for 2 litters at once, I definitely won't be breeding her on this heat.  Maybe next fall.  :) 

Poor Thane is an absolute wreck, with both of "his" girls in heat... I am thinking through plans for the future to separate boys and girls on my property so that I don't end up with unplanned litters, and so that the boys don't stress out when it's not their turn to be a daddy.  I'm thinking a nice big barn is definitely rapidly becoming a necessity, lol.  In the meantime, I guess I'll be listening to Mr. Whiny complain all night long... for the next week or so!  😂😂😂🤪 

In other news, I'm getting an egg almost every day now.  I guess in a few more weeks, I could be getting as many as 8 eggs a day, lol!  Good thing the dogs like scrambled eggs.  ;) 

Anyway, I hope everyone is having an awesome week!  :) Happy Saturday!!

Third Time's the Charm

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Nala had gone into heat, and that I intended to breed her.  Well, that ended up being nowhere near as simple as I expected, LOL!

So a female dog's heat usually lasts about three weeks, but generally they are only receptive to male attention somewhere between 9-14 days into the cycle.  I faithfully counted days and scheduled Nala's first visit to her beau, Hunter, on her 10th day.  Well, HE thought she was ready, and did his absolute best to do his job... but she rejected him completely, lol.  Hunter's owner and I figured she needed another day or two, so I brought her back Saturday. 

On Saturday, she seemed marginally more interested, but Hunter's level of interest had dropped to almost zero.

I brought her home, quite disappointed that there were going to be no Butterscotch Farm Collie puppies this spring... and as soon as I got home, Nala started flirting like crazy with Thane.

I wasn't sure what to make of that, but figured she was winding down, so I just let the two of them flirt for the next few days... Thane was definitely interested, but quite half-hearted in his attempts to do anything about it.

But then yesterday, Thane's level of interest suddenly skyrocketed, and he came pretty close to becoming a daddy, LOL!  It was Nala's 16th day, so a bit outside the norm... but that just goes to show that animals don't always do things the way the books say!

I decided to see if we could visit Hunter one more time, just in case.  Hunter's owner was willing to let us come, and my work was gracious enough to let me off early.  So we drove the hour and a half to New Gloucester, Maine... and this time we had success!!  

As long as the breeding was successful, puppies should be arriving in early April.   💕💞💕 See the tabs at the top of the blog for more information on Nala and Hunter.

Lol, the real heroes in this story are behind the scenes, though - my family is watching Thane for a couple days... and apparently he is feeling quite sad and lovelorn and howled all...night...long...  😬