Well, we finished crutching but I missed the Binnaburra trails, which was quite disappointing as it was the last utility trial for the year.
Oh well! There is always next year.
Sam Weaver has some results on her blog here.
The dogs worked well though, I always enjoy doing farm work, especially if I get to do it by myself.
I can then place the dogs where I want without interference from others.
Everything is pretty wet now, and the sheep yards are wet and muddy. Can’t do much about it really.
Lambs will start dropping in the next few days, so I will be busy going around checking them. We don’t usually have a lot of problems, but this year there are a few weaker ones due to the late season. Usually if we can find them in time and stand them up they will be fine. I also dose them with a glucose/calcium mix which seems to give them a boost of energy.
I haven’t done a lot of sheep work with the dogs, I had to turn my trainer mob out into the trees as their paddock is nearly underwater and there is not enough feed for them. We have a few large creek lines which are fenced off. We run the sheep in there in summer but it is a bit wet now for big mobs. There is plenty of feed in there for my 35 sheep, but getting them back might be fun.
They have wandered right up to the other end of the creek, about 4km away. You cant get a bike in there as it is too muddy, so I will have to send a dog after them and ride down the outside of the fence. Should be a good challenging job for a dog anyway.
I kept three sheep back to play with and the big lakes of water are useful for teaching a dog to kick out wider, especially Caleb, who resists widening out if he can possibly work closer.
My daughter Sam was blowing large bubbles and Pixel was fascinated so I got some cute snaps.
The creek was running and Sam was trying to sail her boat, but the dogs were not much help here. Balto actually tried to pick it up and run off with it.
Check out this sequence of photos. Balto can be really annoying, barking in the face of other dogs and in these snaps Caleb had had enough and let him know it too. It didn’t stop him though.
Sam has a new ATV. A bit big for her yet but all the small ones are not fitted with farm racks, so she will have to gow into this one. She rides it quite well actually.
The dogs have taken advantage of having another vehicle to ride on.
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