Well we have had a very busy "spring" (if 90 degree weather can be called spring).  We harrowed and hand sprigged 240 busshels of Russel Bermuda on 3 acres, of course it was the week when the heat index was over 100 every day and even though it was raining all around us we didn't get any for a full week, so needless to say we had to water with the sprinkler and drag the hose all over the place, it took 2 days to cover the field one time moving the hose every 30 minutes.  Ho hum.  But thank God it finally rained and we did manage to keep the sprigs alive and they are starting to do good.                                                                                                                                              We also planted about 3-4 acres in hybrid Pearl Millet, which is a good summer and emergency graze, as it grows very quick and regrows quickly.  Our Max Q fecue and Durana white clover are doing good, but have slowed down understandably due to the heat, therefore we have had to keep everyone off of it for a while.  So back to feeding hay for awhile until the millet is ready to graze.      Currently we are working on the horse area, we have put up 3 small paddocks (dry lot) and am working on an area right next to them, which is up near the house, where I can ride (since we have planted most everywhere else).  So finally with the good Lord willing we can slow down just a bit, if it will just keep on raining.                                                                                                        For those of you that have not had your sheep, goats, alpacas, llamas, etc. sheared, Rosemarie is still shearing, so let us know and she can schedule an appointment.                                           Well everyone have a great day and a wonderful weekend, maybe I will be able to keep up a little better here, now that we have a lot of the pasture work caught up.

If anyone is interested I have a black Kelpie female that should be coming in heat pretty soon, according to what my other dogs are trying to tell me and I was thinking of possibly breeding her to my red male, but only if I have some potential buyers.   So if anyone is interested, please let me know, I'm thinking it will be within the week that she will be ready to breed.  If not I will not breed with the economy like it is.  I don't breed very often anyway.  Well everyone have a great day!

   Alright I tried to post some pictures like I said I would, but for some reason I was unable to get it done, so will try again.  Grazing is coming along nicely and have increased the grazing time to almost a full day.  Boy are the sheep and goats happy, I can assure you of that.  Of course the horses are happy as well, since I have a few small paddocks that have been over seeded with rye and oats that I haven't needed for the sheep and goats.  For the first time we have grass on this farm that is over 8 inches tall.  Yee Haw  then once we get the Russel Bermuda in we will have grass for the summer months as well!  We have been told to wait till the middle of May because we will  have to lightly disk in the sprigs, because of the shape and size of the pasture they won't be able to sprig it for us (sigh) that means that unless I can find a manure spreader to borrow I will be spreading all those spriggs by hand.  To make matters worse our truck is down right now, therefore even if we find a spreader to borrow, I won't have a way to pick it up.  Ah life on the farm!   Lynn

April 19,2010                                                                                                                                   Spring is upon us and great news  WE HAVE GRASS!!!!!!  The MaxQ and the Durana Clover have both come up with flying colors, our timeing was just right for the fertilizer 10-10-10 and we had 2 really nice soft rains with sunshine in between.  The grass shot up a good 3 inches and changed 3 shades of green.  We put out bloat blocks and have been gradually  increasing the amount of grazing time and are now up to 2 hours twice a day.  Needless to say the sheep and goats are extremely happy and so is our feed bill (if you know what I mean).  Times like these make you really appreciate having a good stock dog, because without a good dog we would have a very tough time getting them back off the pasture after their alloted time is up.                                                              Which reminds me I will be adding some things on one of my pages (Lynns) so you might want to check back particularly if you are interested in pictures of Australian Shepherds, Australian Kelpies as well as some Briard pictures.  I don't know that I will get finished with it this evening or not, but will have it up in the next couple of days.  Well I hope everyone out there has a great spring, ours is off to a great start.  Lynn 

Well we did manage to get the Max Q as well as some Durana white clover planted and even though we have had several inches of rain  since we planted we have been blessed to see a tint of green covering the ground.  We were beginning to fear that all the rain may have rotted the seed in the ground.  But the Max Q as well as the clover are both coming up!!! Yee Haw!!  Now we just have to wait till it is strong enough and big enough to graze.  We are also clearing and prepping more ground to plant Bermuda in the spring.  It will be wonderful to be able to have more than enough grass for a change.  Our plans are to have as close to year round graze as possible.  Even though we might be borderline on timing we are going to go ahead and seed some areas with Rye and Oats for the winter.                                                                                                                 Needless to I haven't been able to do much training with my dgs, but I have divided up the chores into micro sessions, so they have been able to each do something no matter how short and sweet.   Since we haven't been having any AHBA trials, I am considering other herding trials.  Since Kelpies are not AKC and some of my dogs are NSDR I can't trial them at AKC.  I don't know if I can trial at any thing other than ASCA, but will be checking into The ASCA trials and any others that I can find out about.  Any one know of any other herding trials that I could trial at?