Late spring excitement

Its late spring and the weather is cool. The moon is just rising over the farm.

The hunter is on the prowl for any lurking predator.

When out of nowhere the mommy hen let out a call. The babies ran for cover.

A local chicken hawk comes swooping in for a baby snack. Trying hard to catch one of the babies, they scurry around trying to escape when...
Sugar comes to the rescue, mouth open and hunger in her eyes. She trys to catch up to the chicken hawk, but alas the hawk escapes barely, fleeing from the certain jaws of death of a vigilant Sugar the guard dog.

Sorry no pictures of the hawk as it happened very fast and i didn't have the camera ready. But Sugar instantly identified the the target when i hollered to get it. She went straight for the hawk and not the chickens.
Today she gets a big atagirl.  :)

This dramatisation brought to you by life on the farm, happens regular. Ain't life grand

Balls are Sheep too

Well, we have embarked on a new training mission. Teaching Sugar to play with a ball and maybe one day herd it around the yard.

The big ball herding is a newish sport from Germany and involve the dog moving the balls one at a time into a goal. All the videos make it look like fun so we are going the try this out.

So far, she has started to push the ball a small distance. theres a whole list of things to learn so this will take some time, especially with her attention span being a little short.

Stay tuned for more ball herding!

Well, its been a long time since I did any updates, so I thought I would get to it.

Sugar has come a long way from a chicken catcher to a decent watch dog. She watches the chickens closely, maybe a little to close sometimes, but mostly watches. She likes to sit in the morning and watch for squirrels, which she will terrorize if they set foot on her ground. She has settled down some, minds fairly well and has even learned to play in the water some. A long road for us from rescued to chicken protector. She hates the crows, if a crow comes near she stalks them and rushes in for the kill, misses them but tries so hard. Yep a long road but well worth it.

This is one of the mommies, we have had several this spring, but she has taken them outside for the day. Sugar likes the babies way more then the mommy likes, but so far no chicken nuggets for her.

Here some of the chickens are getting a drink, its been hot here so they group up around the water.
The bee yard is expanding. I now have a hive of Russians, they seem to get on well with the Italians. several hives have gotten hot this year. They boil out when you open the top, it can be startling the first time you experience it.
More chickens, here the Americana rooster and a hen are walking around.

I'll post more later.

new hope

Well I found a new dog today at the humane soc. Her name is Sugar, she's 3 years old and was abandoned and found 2 months later in an apartment. The vet says she's a 3 year old puppy, o joy, but the high energy can be fund to watch except she wants to catch the chickens. I may have to rename her Sugar the sanguineator. Other then that she's the spitting image of Ginger. We will see how it goes but looks like a lot of training. O happy day

A Hard Loss

I just wanted to let everyone know, the Mighty Ginger has fallen.

I rescued her from the pound when she was about 3 and had her for 5 years or so, and while she didnt do much, she was always there and happy to see me.

I will miss you my old friend.

The years end

This was an interesting picture to get. It seems that for all her liking the lime light, she didn't want me to catch her sporting antlers. But it the time of year when all deers that can, grow horns. So ...

From Grumpy and the Dogdeer, Mary Christmas and Happy New Year

Hard working dog

Poor Ginger, she needed a rest badly after watching me work all afternoon. She settled in for a nap with the super sausage dog. A new toy she has picked up. She likes to toss em up and catch em and roll em around on the floor, very funny to watch as she usually does not play like that.