We thought this year's lambing was fairly smooth - after all - we only lambed out 13 ewes! The lambs all came in droves and between work, puppies and chores, we managed to deal with a few assisted births and had only one "sketchy" lamb who was not thriving as well as he should....
NOW all has gone to hell in a hand basket. Most all the lambs have Sore Mouth (crusty contagious scabs around nose, eyes and ears) and we have one ewe (a troublesome one in the past, but not a total write off, until now) with Blue bag mastitis, which we are treating as aggressively as we can but don't feel the prognosis is very good. Poor quality haying last summer and a harsh, long winter indoors probably didn't help as our little flock is in worse condition this spring than ever before - most loosing wool and thinner than we would like. However, we are very good about keeping pens cleaned, the flock "closed", etc., so hope that this is just bad luck and will not be the new theme! We are such newbie farmers - learning the hard way!
So, Pat and Tap have 4 yearlings only to work this spring - not ideal. And Pat seems to be stickier than ever after a long winter off, where as Tap seems to have hit the ground running and I feel I could trial tomorrow and do fairly well. So will be working on exercises to free up Pat and get her fast flanks back. I need a lesson!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Air Canada JOY!
Oh JOY!
I was surfing travel sites and came across this on Air Canada's site:
"Pets in the baggage compartment
...For travel on international flights, including flights to and from the U.S.A., your pet travels in a temperature controlled and ventilated baggage compartment on the same flight as you do when pre-registered with Air Canada Reservations within 24 hours of booking travel. Air Canada transports the majority of pets this way. Be sure to check specific government regulations of any countries you are travelling to with your pet.
Charge for one way travel(applicable taxes not included)
International
$270 CAD/USD"
This is WONDERFUL news for me, as I had "heard" AC was looking into their pet policy due to so much negative publicity - thanks to all who wrote, signed petition, lobbied etc. - but they certainly didn't make a very public announcement of it! The above policy represent the latest as of April 8th (I believe), 2008.
Needless to say, I called and booked both dogs' return flight as excess baggage, which will save me approximately $2,400 !! (They still must travel there as manifested cargo as per UK quarantine laws)
On another note - I FINALLY got some sheep out to work dogs. The first few days is always pandemonium, with the sheep so very excited to be out after a long winter indoors, dogs and handler very, very rusty. I will be developing a training plan when I see what each of my dog's weakest points are this spring. A daunting task, preparing for World's, when I have no experience in international competition (or even much National competition experience for that matter!). Ah well, a positive attitude, and all that...
I was surfing travel sites and came across this on Air Canada's site:
"Pets in the baggage compartment
...For travel on international flights, including flights to and from the U.S.A., your pet travels in a temperature controlled and ventilated baggage compartment on the same flight as you do when pre-registered with Air Canada Reservations within 24 hours of booking travel. Air Canada transports the majority of pets this way. Be sure to check specific government regulations of any countries you are travelling to with your pet.
Charge for one way travel(applicable taxes not included)
International
$270 CAD/USD"
This is WONDERFUL news for me, as I had "heard" AC was looking into their pet policy due to so much negative publicity - thanks to all who wrote, signed petition, lobbied etc. - but they certainly didn't make a very public announcement of it! The above policy represent the latest as of April 8th (I believe), 2008.
Needless to say, I called and booked both dogs' return flight as excess baggage, which will save me approximately $2,400 !! (They still must travel there as manifested cargo as per UK quarantine laws)
On another note - I FINALLY got some sheep out to work dogs. The first few days is always pandemonium, with the sheep so very excited to be out after a long winter indoors, dogs and handler very, very rusty. I will be developing a training plan when I see what each of my dog's weakest points are this spring. A daunting task, preparing for World's, when I have no experience in international competition (or even much National competition experience for that matter!). Ah well, a positive attitude, and all that...
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Entries Confirmed!
Just got my entry confirmation and official rule book from the ISDS !
Tap is #203, which means she is running on Qualifying Field #2 and will run on day 1. Pray for light racy welsh hill sheep for field 2!
Imp (Pat) (I hope they don't think her name is Imp! But I guess they don't do much importing of Border Collies to the UK, so maybe this is an unknown term?)- is #361, so will run on Qualifying Field #3 (with different sheep than what Tap will have) on day 2. Pray for accommodating lowland sheep, but a bit heavier is OK :) and not a steep outrun for the old girl!
Now if ONLY the snow would melt off the field so I could actually TRAIN!!!!
Tap is #203, which means she is running on Qualifying Field #2 and will run on day 1. Pray for light racy welsh hill sheep for field 2!
Imp (Pat) (I hope they don't think her name is Imp! But I guess they don't do much importing of Border Collies to the UK, so maybe this is an unknown term?)- is #361, so will run on Qualifying Field #3 (with different sheep than what Tap will have) on day 2. Pray for accommodating lowland sheep, but a bit heavier is OK :) and not a steep outrun for the old girl!
Now if ONLY the snow would melt off the field so I could actually TRAIN!!!!
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