Sheep

It's a dog life....

And a good one at that! Here is a post that is mainly pictures of our pack of Great Pyrenese dogs and one deaf Border Collie. Let the photos commence! Whaaat? A new puppy? Heidi Grace is not too sure this is fun but Fletcher is winning her over- slowly. She is our full time watcher of sheep. She likes to come inside for a nap during the day and some brushing of her beautiful self!

This is puppy Fletcher- he has lots to do, lots to do!

Fletcher is 14 weeks old -and wonderful of course. He came to us as a deaf dog, who turned out NOT to be deaf! He was just being a Pyr. They are notorious 'I can't hear you' dogs. His previous owner taught Fletcher to sit, stay, lay down, shake hands, high five and the ever important word- no. All the hard puppy work was already done for us.


Our Noodle the deaf Border Collie. She can hear loud noises but like the Pyrs, she has very selective hearing- ha! She is 10 years old and a silly girl. She's not too sure about a new puppy..... This is how Noodle behaves when she doesn't want to be seen. If she can't see us, we certainly can't see her right? Looked like fun so Fletcher gave it a try too.


Teagan is a wonderful girl, a Pyr who we think is around 6 years old. We absolutely adore her too. She is such a good dog. She love toys and napping on the couch. She does like to work watching over the sheep-during the day. She barks and barks in the favorite Pyr look out spot. However, this is her bed. I don't have the heart to tell her she doesn't quite fit.


Teagan has become good friends with puppy but it took him a while to convince her to share that awesome bed. This is what happened at first, then Fletcher just started hopping into bed by flopping down right on top of Teagan. Doh! There is always a mad dash for the bed and/or couch when the dogs come inside. This 'win' went to puppy! This one to Teagan!


Here we have Milo. He has a misshapen mouth so his tongue doesn't stay in his mouth all the time. He is adorable and slowly learning to be a good sheep guard. He is a very sweet, kind dog and he's one of our 'Pack of Three.'  Teagan has taken over as Fletcher's mom. They play and run like TWO puppies. Milo gallops around with them but hasn't joined in the play time yet. He loves to run. Noodle is definitely not part of the Pack of Three. The third party was unwilling to give up his place in THE bed when I took this. Fletcher is behind Milo.


Where did papa go? When the day is over Heidi Grace goes outside for night duty. Milo sleeps upstairs in our bed- ugh. Noodle sleeps on the floor next to the bed. I've been sleeping on the couch to keep an eye on Fletcher. (I don't sleep much any way!) He sleeps as close as he can to Teagan. This is one tired puppy at the end of the day! I would love to just scoop him up but he says he's too grown up and doesn't want hugs like that. How embarrassing!

They definitely keep me on my toes. I'm the 'bad parent' as soon as Jim gets home from work- that's gratitude for you.

I think the dogs who lived here before them would be proud. At least I hope so. Maybe they'll guide me as I work with them? Or send down be good dog vibes? :0)

Hope you are all having a wonderful week- slobbery smooches (did you know Pyrs are slobbery?) from the pack!

ps- sorry for the alignment issues in this post. I gave up-wordpress beat me. ugh

Jim and Sandy Ryan www.homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com ...where sheep may safely graze.

Crashed tree clean up party #2!

 Here is the before picture of our poor old tree. We were very lucky it did not fall on anything important. Just my old iron corn crib that I was going to use for something someday...

During our second party she was comfy watching not far from where Puzzle, Mary and I were.

My Puzzle is the self appointed host of tree parties. He wants to know if we are ready to get our hinders to work. Chop chop people! (ha!)

 

We'll need a few more parties to finish up with this tree, then we will party on to clean up a few more. :0)

At one point during our supervision of events, Puzzle discovered my hair clip. He kept trying to pull it out of my hair so I let him try it on. He decided he didn't want it after all but doesn't he look cute??

Our little party host with the most also takes his job seriously. Unless he can find a stray Diet Pepsi (sorry Mary) or a bag of cheddar Sun Chips (again, sorry Mary).

 The first work day Chaquita was very unhappy with all the hullaballoo. VERY unhappy. She kept watch (all her sheep were in the barn) and gave us the stink eye all day long.

At the end of our tree party, Chaquita had to inspect our work. She takes her job very seriously,

 


Hope all is well with everyone- and if you need a host for a party, you know which sheep to call!

Smooches from Puzzle!

www.homesteadwoolandgiftgfarm.com...where sheep may safely graze.

Can you see me now???

puzzle714treeparty3seemenow
puzzle714treeparty3seemenow

A few weeks ago we had a few close calls with some nasty weather. Luckily we only lost one gigantic tree in the little sheep pasture and one tree in the little pasture next to the house!  The group in the giant tree pasture is my special needs/old/blind crew. I was out in the lightning that evening looking through the tree for anyone caught under it. Smart right? Every sheep and both llamas were in the barn giving me the stink eye. Guess they figured I better get my hinder back in the house? I quickly obliged once I knew they were all ok!

The sheep pondered and pondered- and fussed and fussed about who would get to run Jim's chainsaw. Really?? Now THAT is a nightmare I'd rather not have!

Instead, our wonderful, awesome friends Mary & Joseph came to our rescue. Our chainsaw came apart (figures) so Mary, Joseph and Jim took turns with their bigger chainsaw. I was too chicken to get under that big tree with all the creaking going on.

Turned out my little Puzzle sheep was not too worried, he was happily eating leaves off the branches. You know, doing a sheep's part of the work.

Puzzle turned into the host of the crashed tree party. He was absolutely hilarious all afternoon! Kept checking on everyone, following me around and just being cute. He just turned 1 in April and I hope he is always a little lamb character. He saw himself in the door of Mary's red truck. Now she has slobber marks and nose prints on the door because Puzzle was determined to figure out where that lamb was. He even looked under the truck!

He has a bad heart issue and the vet warned me early on Puzzle might not be with us very long. Every day with that silly sweet sheep is a gift. I absolutely adore him. He is like a happy, little boy skipping through the daisies of life. I want him to stay that way!

ANYhoo! I am amazed how quickly that big tree was safely on the ground, the big pieces cut up and loaded onto Mary's truck. Just wow. We have a few more afternoons of work to do but it is so fun to have them over. Mary's daughter Manda and her hubby Al came over later in the day and worked hard too. The work goes fast when we are together. We are blessed to have friends like Mary & Joseph!

During his hosting of the crashed tree party, Puzzle managed to steal Mary's cigarettes a few times, ate the last of her cheddar Sun Chips AND drank her last Diet Pepsi? Good thing he's cute right?

After the activity died down the other sheep came out to do their part eating leaves off the branches. I told them thank you and reminded them it was a very important job.

We will be sad to be with out that giant beautiful tree. I love trees but many of ours are old and not very healthy. Two years of drought took its toll on our poor trees. It is nice that the wood will be used to keep my friends warm this winter though. After losing two giant trees in storms, any we replace them with will be shorter trees, like weeping mulberry or twisted kinds of ornamental trees.

I am also sad that the big tree fell over onto my cute little iron corn crib. I always wanted to turn it into something but I guess it is a good thing I never got that accomplished?! I'm saving the top 'cap' to keep part of the corn crib here. I think Al is going to take the rest down for salvage.

SO, that was our weekend and I wish I could figure out how to add all the pictures here. Have to get this blog figured out. I miss our old one. You can still get to the old one via the 'archives' link on our website.

Hope you are all having a great week. Seems we have so much more crazy weather these days- stay safe ok?

Smooches from the sheep- specially Puzzle!

Sandy & Jim Ryan www.homesteadwoolandgiftfarm.com ...where sheep may safely graze.