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Spring’s Thaw At Last

Artwork, Sheep / March 20, 2019 / By

A week ago we were still delaying heading out for morning chores, waiting for that titch of extra warmth from the sun to help us get through the cold. Today I headed out first thing, wanting to do chores while there was still a titch of cold left on the earth’s surface to avoid mud and making tracks with the tractor. After feeding sheep, the kelpie dogs and I detoured off the grid road and made our first spring foray across pasture on our walk.

I can’t recall feeling so giddy about Spring as I do this year. It was a tough, tough winter – natures way of reminding us to take nothing for granted and always be grateful. I have not heard the first call of returning geese yet but surely they must be on their way. Those first honks will sound extra glorious this year.

The ewes are rubbing on fence posts and trees and looking that little bit more scraggly with a full years of wool growth on them still. We are set to shear on Friday, April 5. This is probably the most succinct time when my day job and my artwork merge into one another. Aside from the necessity of it, shearing is also my harvest of art supplies. From here forward I will process, share, trade and purchase fibre with others enthusiasts.

The daylight is growing and with it the pace of work is shifting as it must for farming in a northern climate. With the earlier sunrise I find myself feeling slightly panicked at the thought of keeping up with artwork without a solid block of time first thing in the morning when there is no other demands. The struggle to pursue creativity without letting every other type of ‘real’ work supersede it is very real. But the plan is to hit some trade shows this year and promote both fibre and art and through each, continue to share a little of this lifestyle.

“Where’s Your Momma”
15 x 12 inches, for sale

Stock Dog Silhouette
10 x 15 inches, for sale

Of Being With Dogs

Dogs / March 13, 2019 / By

There are some moments you don’t want to come to an end. That was the case on this particular afternoon when I spotted Birdie sitting so stately on a hilltop (and I was nearby enough with the camera). She sat there for some time, glancing around, watching the horizon. When she was satisfied she rose and made her way back toward the sheep. Who knows at what particular point a guardian dog is satisfied but when they decide they are, they get on with it and go.

I think I could spend a lifetime moving from moment to moment of being with dogs but not influencing them. Of observing what they’re up to rather than interacting with them all the time. Birdie knew I was there, but having been raised with sheep and not with me she makes decisions on the level of interaction and most times wants none. The Kelpies of course are so vastly different. I can rarely get a moment of being with them without influencing them. As a result of living together and of their bred-for purpose, they are tuned into what I do, and I to what they do.

I used to feel poorly that the guardian dogs did not get loads of attention and interaction with us but now I recognize that attention and life with people is not automatically a superior life. They have a life with a pack they can understand, they carry out their purpose daily. I could argue that the Kelpies are worse off with having to navigate my inconsistencies and misunderstandings and while my Kelpies have a work load they were bred for, they still only fulfill that purpose when I need it.

Yet when it comes full circle I wouldn’t wish for it be that much different. So maybe it just boils down to how extremely fortunate we are to have this life with dogs of such varying purpose and function. And so maybe I’ll stick to feeling grateful for both types of dogs because even though it’s been aggravatingly frustrating and brutally painful at times, my life is certainly richer with them in it and all I can hope for is that the reverse holds true for them.

LGD Rule Breaking

Dogs / March 8, 2019 / 1 Comment / By
livestock guardian dog on winter prairie

This past year has been one of breaking rules and of reiterating how little I know guardian dogs.

Every day, twice a day, I head out for a walk with the Kelpies. Six of them zipping here and there. Cajun, now the eldest dog on the place, doing his usual stint of barking as we pass through the yard. These days two big white dogs also join us, one a guardian dog drop out and one a guardian dog juvenile delinquent under restricted duty. They too are full of energy as walks have become a regular thing for them.

As we leave the yard proper and head down the grid road, our sole walking path at this point in the winter, a third white dog blows in from the rear. Birdie, popping out from around back to join us. The first couple times she did so I sent her back to her flock but I didn’t keep it up. It’s late winter, the work load for the guardian dogs is pretty light right now.

livestock guardian dogs playing in snow

So we look like quite the sight me and my pack of herding dogs and guardian dogs, heading for a walk in the still full winter, prairie landscape. This breaks all the rules I established for guardian dogs when I started out in this sheepish venture. I’m not sure if it speaks to our growth and willingness to bend or something of the opposite – a caving in of sorts, a realization that rules are not nature’s way anyway. And just when you think you know something another dog comes along to show you differently.

I have to say I love walking with the big dogs; their way of silently padding along beside me, easily keeping pace. Then moving off to the ditches to investigate and play and mark territory. Then back up beside me for a few paces again. Their energy is big and yet so different from the Kelpies. It brings up a strong desire for a large sight hound type dog again. A type of dog I foresee having if ever there are less sheep (and less other dogs) here one day.