Happy Greenstone ISD water play

Hiking/Swimming/ and SKUNK!!

Hello Folks

Well its been a good day, got the two new rabbit hutches mostly painted, so that is great, we worked outside all morning, and then I surprised Jason with a picnic lunch and we loaded up Vaskur, Oppa and Freyja for a trip down to where the butterscotch and South nation rivers meet, and we hiked in and spent two hours out with the dogs, Jason as always brought home a very nice rock, the top half inch is a bone bed, will look great in my rock beds :)

The dogs loved their time out and I was so very pleased with how well Freyja did, this was her first time at the rivers and her first swimming lessions with mom, she did really great, and I am sure she will get better all summer long.

The big surprise was tonight when we went out to do chores, and found a baby skunk in our little barn, and that is not a good thing, first that is where we store most of our feed, and have all our baby critters in, including our litter of barn kittens.. needless to say, it became a interest excerise called, find the skunk, move the skunk out of the building, without getting sprayed if possable and then chase the skunk, (without getting sprayed) away from the farm.. needless to say, somehow it ended up being me, the girl LOL that got to do the close up work, it was just a baby skunk, and that surprised me to tell the truth, because now is the time that they should be having babies, so I guess it could have been a very small yearly female, as skunks normal hunting area is quite big, no point in putting the skunk down unless I really have to, as another one will just take over the area..

Truth to be told, I happen to be one of those crazy peaple that think skunks are sweet looking and have always wanted one as a pet, yes, believe it or not, there is a thrilling communtiy of folks with skunks as pets (desmelled of course), and they come in many different colors and patterns.. but this little one was a plain old single striped black and white, and it was interested and friendly in a skunk way, so we took it slow and steady and finally after 20 min of blocking this area and that area, and slowing pushing it out, out the freedom door it ran, and we keeping a very respectful distance, headed it off our place, I truly hope that it will keep going, and not come back..

I have baby chicks, ducklings and turkey babies and a very cute litter of barn kittens, as well as due any day litters of bunny kits.. so really can't have a skunk hanging about..

Well, took our second crop of rubarb, and put away another bunch of bags of chopped rubarb to go down to the freezer.

Everyone have a great day.

Barks

It Snowed overnight! The Icelandic Sheepdogs are loving it!

I on the other hand, want spring!!! LOL So in keeping with this, I am putting up some of our spring/summer hiking at our local river, that is only five min away or a good half hour walk, I love that our little area is ringed by the river and a creek..

Such a lovely quiet area to live in.. We had the most amazing sight the other day, we must have had thousands of geese fly overhead, the sky was just black streams of them, for a good hour, the noise was overwhelming and we just went outside and stood and watched, peaple on the road just pulled over and got out to watch it happen..

We are on the flight path so we always get a good number of geese coming though in spring and fall but not like this, I have never seen this many birds all at the same time since I was working at Black Dog outfitters Duck hunting camp in Alberta.. Truly a stunning site..

We normally take one dog per person or if its the older dogs and very well trained, we can take a extra dog, they love it, They like to go swimming and wading and are very happy to be there.. Right now the rivers is huge and swollen and would be very unsafe to even consider taking the dogs or ourselves near but in another month or so, we will be able to start our trekes again, and greatly looking forward to it..

We will be starting to take the dogs out for runs in the hiking trails and forest park near our place about a seven min drive the other way, its got just over 300 km of trails for walking, and cross country sking in the winter.. I love to go walking in it, its so peaceful..

Otherwise, not much else new at this point, birthing box is coming out of storage this weekend and we are planning on building more agility equipment for my own set up, and trimmng sheep feet this easter long weekend..

Otherwise, just the normal basic training and work with everyone, starting to gear up to my twice daily Show training for the two dogs going to the show April 13, 14 and 15th, and am up to daily grooming for them as well, they look wonderful and hope to keep it that way.

Barks

Dock Dogs Seminar coming-Can't wait to see an Icelandic do this!

Hello Folks

For those of you who know me, it will come as no surprise that I am up to trying something new with the Icelandics, there is a huge Dock Dog gathering coming up in Ottawa, there will be four days of events, including two days of seminars and training times available, and then you can choose to try out if you would like..

http://www.dockdogs.com/component/option,com_extcalendar/Itemid,53/extmode,view/extid,186/

I am quite excited, and looking forward greatly to giving it a try, I have a couple choices on who I want to take, but I am leaning towards Vaskur, he will chase a throw kong into a lake in a flash, but the only ISD that has learned to jump off a dock so far is Zander, and that was because he broke his stay, and was point in fact trained to go back to the dock and stay there..

Otherwise, it will be a dog that loves water but has never seen a dock before..we will see what we can do.. should be fun in any regards..

Barks