Butterscotch Farm: A General Update

My apologies for being so lax in posting in recent months. Part of the reason is that there's simply not much going on as pertains to "Butterscotch Farm." It's pretty much just daily life and waiting...and waiting...and more waiting, lol.

But I guess there are a couple things I can fill everyone in on.

First, I had Thane's hips checked again, and the second x-ray confirmed that he doesn't have good enough hips to use him as a breeding dog. I'm pretty bummed, but God must have something better than for my sweet, goofy, handsome boy to become a daddy. So Thane will be neutered soon.

I will probably someday be the sort of breeder who re-homes adult dogs once they're done breeding, just so that I'm not accumulating too many dogs and ending up unable to give them the individual time and attention that they deserve...but I have a sneaking suspicion that Thane may be a permanent member of Butterscotch Farm.

So that means I need to find a new stud to use with Thea when she's ready to be bred. I plan to breed her to a full Rough Collie; she'll provide a nice infusion of genetic diversity, along with plenty of drive and working instincts. I have a couple very nice stud possibilities in mind.

I haven't decided yet when I'll be breeding her; the earliest possibility would be June or July for fall puppies, but I might wait until next December or January because it would be easier to take time off work in the spring. Depending on a million zillion factors, I may be looking for a new home for her sometime in 2020...preferably one where she can be the Queen Bee, bark to her little heart's content, and ideally have some sort of a job.

I've been thinking a lot about my breeding plans and goals lately...and I have a LOT of ideas....but almost all of them revolve around me being in my own house, and ideally working at least part-time from home.

That leads into the sad, sad story of my attempts to make lotion, LOL! Let's just say that it could be going a whole lot better. I whipped up a small, sample batch a couple weeks ago to see if leaving out the goat milk and using a good amount of preservative would eliminate my mold problems. Alas, I was just looking at the little sample jars yesterday, and saw a big, black spot of mold on one of them.

I'm leaning toward giving up the project. It was kind of cool making the lotion, but I'm not sure I could see myself doing it as a career - I like some detail stuff, and I really DON'T like other detail stuff...and I'm thinking the lotion-making process might fall under the category of detail stuff that doesn't exactly make my soul sing, lol.

I've got some other ideas for a stay-at-home job, but nothing solid enough to publish. And I'm sure that pretty much anything that ends up working out will still require a transition period of a year or two away from my day job.

So I'm pretty much just waiting and saving up money to build a cute little house next year...and then I feel like life can really start moving. Maybe that's not the greatest way to be thinking, but oh well. I'm sure I can find plenty to keep me busy this winter while I wait!

(Doing more training with these two little crazies, for instance...)