OK, I know. This will be the last post about the dogs for a while, seriously!

But, they are so interesting. 

Mike and Joe were brought to the farm at 5 weeks of age, early  because their mother was killed in a hit and run accident. They would have benefitted from being with the mother for another month or two. Livestock guardian dogs need to be taught the ropes. The behaviour to guard livestock is instinctive, however; natural as it is for these dogs that have been bred for several centuries to live with sheep and goats, the lessons they need to learn are best taught by older, wiser and bigger dogs, not humans. 

Mike shows more promise most days than Joe does. Joe is a big goof of a dog, lolly gagging around with his giant tongue hanging out and drool running from his lips. He has a big, big head and smoother coat than Mike does, but they are both basically the same size. They were raised with young lambs, which is a no no, so I found out later. They tended to play rough with one lamb in particular and used her ears as a chew toy. I was horrified and they were penned beside the lambs for a long while. They were also adept at getting out of the pens, digging first, then jumping later. An electric wire would have solved the problem, but I do not know how to set that system up. 

I have taught the dogs with positive reinforcement, praise, hugs and chastised them when they were not doing what they were supposed to. Joe, who should protect his sheep with his life, would join Robbie, the border collie, to chase them instead. I threw a stick at his legs  and seriously considered hanging one around his neck. It is known as a 'dangle stick' and hangs horizontally to the ground a few inches from his knees. As he would run to chase, then the stick would connect and slow him down, sort of self chastising. But our area is heavy with predators and it would have also given problems for Joe if he had to fight, possibly causing the loss of his life. So he did not get a dangle stick. 

Most days now, the two brothers hang out with the sheep. They sleep in the sheep pen and go out to the pasture with them in the morning. Joe tends to come back to sleep during the day, but Mike has stayed and slept in the pasture more and  more lately. I am hoping he will bond closer and stay with the sheep all the time. 

The job of a livestock guardian dog is to become one with the flock, but given their size and make up , they protect the docile sheep with their lives. They do that for sure already. There have been no predator losses so far, except a little baby goat to a fox this spring. Foxes are hard for the dogs, often sneaking up behind them down wind and running away before the dog knows the fox has even been around. The border collie is better at catching the foxes than the livestock guardian dogs, but they are far better at deterring larger predators. 

Along with Mike and Joe, Ofcharka, Harley, Jade and Jenna are livestock guardians too. Harley is  a Maremma, Charka a cross of Anatolian Shepherd/Akbash/Maremma and Pyrenees. Jade and Jenna are Maremma females. There are other breeds of livestock guardians and the whole concept and the breeds are new to Canada, only having been here for the last 100 years or so and really in the last 40 they are more common. 

This farm would not be able to survive here without the dogs. We have 100 acres of bush, backed on to more bush, beside more bush. There is an abundance of wild life including cougars, bears, coyotes, wolves and other things that like the taste of sheep and goats and chickens. The reason the birds can run free here is that the dogs even watch them and have kept them safe, except for the owl last winter. Arial predators are harder to catch. 

No more about the dogs for a while, I promise. In the meantime, can you spot the two that are not sheep in these pictures?

Generally, the dogs pretty much take care of themselves. They do not like dog food and consider it eating dry cereal, only forcing it down if there is absolutely nothing else. They are fed meaty bones, meat, skin and fat mostly. There is not much left over food at my house, but occasionally they will get a duck carcass or roast bones. The chickens get the carbohydrates that are left over. I seldom  eat bread, but will have it around if company comes. Then it usually goes stale, so the birds get it. Once in a while a dog will scarf some down, but not often. 

I have to drive about a half hour each way to pick up the meat scraps. I get them from the Hutterites near Glendon. Now here is something funny. They are opportunistic people. The scraps are loaded into a wagon or the bucket of the huge tractor and are taken to the burn pit where they are burned and buried. The meat shop is a custom cut shop, so they do wild game frequently. The dogs far prefer wild game, deer, moose, elk and bear to cows any day. They love bison. I do too. Bison is my favourite red meat, but moose is a close second. I don't get the moose though; the dogs do. 

I used to order the scraps and the girls who work in the meat shop would fill small boxes with scraps. They were very bad at doing so and some stuffed the boxes with more fat and bones than meat. Then recently they said they were too busy and I could buy a barrel of scraps for 10 dollars instead of a small box for ten dollars. I thought that was great, but the barrel had lots of things in it, plus huge bones,  which I did not want to bring home. So, I had to pick through the barrel. Now they just dump the scraps and offal, skin, heads and hooves, in a trailer and I have to pick through that. They do not supply bags or boxes anymore either, but they still like to charge for what they would normally throw away. Picking through the scraps is gross and not something I enjoy or want to do, but I will for the sake of getting good food for the dogs. 

Vermillion packers is about the same distance as the colony, but to the south instead of the north and they said I could have scraps for free. I have to make arrangements to go there and see how that will work. Perhaps I will get them there instead if it is just picking through the offal and loading what I want, especially for free. 

Feeding the dogs costs between 3 and 4 hundred dollars a month, or did. Now that I pick my own scraps, it is much much cheaper and if I go to Vermillion, it will only cost gas. The dry dog food I used to get was soy and corn free, but forty dollars a 50 pound bag. Then the company changed their look and made it forty dollars for a forty pound bag. That is a dollar a pound for cereal. In the winter I will boil some barley with meat and bones and feed that to the dogs to help keep them warm. Right now I have been buying cheap dog food. The magpies eat a lot of the dog food, but not the dogs. I think I have finally invented a way to keep the magpies out of the food. That is to feed the dogs in 5 gallon  buckets. The birds won't fly into the bucket! 

The 4 cats still around here eat some dog food and meat as well. I would like to catch the two tortoise females and the new cat, grey and white, I think is female too. They do not eat that much dog food to worry about at the moment. 

The only other things I have to do for the dogs is treat them for fleas and tick in the summer and worm them. Because the sheep carry a tapeworm that requires a dog host, the dogs also are wormed for c. ovis, which is the dog/sheep tapeworm. The dogs need to be wormed about every three months. 

I try to brush out their winter coats too, but that is only once a year at the end of summer when they shed and the new winter coat comes in. They need fresh straw in the dog houses and a good wind barrier around the dog houses. Last year I made dog city. I put straw bales all around the dog houses and a roof over top, but they hardly sleep in the houses and it really was a waste of time. If it is below 30, I bring them into the house in the porch. The girls don't come in. They sleep in barrels on their sides, just big enough for them to crawl in. The barrels are covered with straw and then snow, so they are well insulated. For some reason, the male dogs do not seem to seek much shelter. Mike and Joe have houses with the sheep, but mostly sleep with the sheep wherever they are and the lambs sleep in their houses. 

The dogs do need water, however; in winter they eat snow too. I think it is too cold for them to eat snow, so I bring them warm water at least once a day. Sometimes their meat is frozen solid in winter and I feel sorry for them and cook it and feed it to them warm. They work hard to keep the farm safe and protect everything with their lives. The least I can do for them is give them warm food in winter. 

I love my dogs. If picking through a wagon of disgusting animal parts is what I have to do ,I do it. If cooking supper for them is just one little thing I can do for them, I do that too. And in return, I have a pack of the best dogs one could ask for. Woof, woof!

She never had a name.

I did not intend to keep her, so how could I name her? 

But, she will have a place in my heart forever, this darling, sweet little angel. I rescued her from under the granary where her mother, a feral cat, had 6 kittens. Two other cats had kittens nearly a week apart, one under the porch and the other under the granary too. I wonder if one of the cats who had kittens is her kitten from last year? There are two female tortoise shell coated cats and one male living under the granary, I don't know how or if they will make the winter. They eat dog food when they are not adequately fed from their hunting and they could sleep with the dogs if they dared. Actually, Mike and Joe most likely would not mind and they are very big and fuzzy and warm. But they don't sleep with the dogs. There are several houses they could go into. 

The kitten was hiding out when I managed to capture all the rest of them, 9 in total. She stayed impossible to catch for some time and one day, she was in a 5 gallon bucket eating and I snagged her quickly. She bit, scratched, hissed, tore up my hand pretty rapidly, but I would not let her go. The dogs are fed in 5 gallon buckets to keep the ravens and magpies from eating their food. The birds do not like to go in the buckets. Finally, I found a solution that works for now. 

When I caught the kitten I put her in a huge dog kennel,  bit enough for Ofcharka to move around in. I gave her food and water and a litter tray and saw her every day. For three weeks, she remained crazy wild, but then I think she got lonely. I opened the door to the kennel one day and she did not hiss at me. I picked her up and she did not bite or scratch. She purred!

So, for the next week, I would carry her around with me while I was doing chores. It was getting cold during the nights and I brought inside to the porch. At first she hid whenever I came in, then she started running to me, always purring. She slept with Robbie, the border collie and she played with bits of things she found and tried to catch flies. But she always purred non stop whenever I held her. She snuggled and cuddled and was so loving, I really wanted to keep her. I started to envision her as the house cat, or rather, the porch cat, but then I would have to spay her and I still had two female cats to catch if I could. It was not feasible to consider keeping her. Still....

I advertised her on the local Facebook page and there was a taker. I was both elated and deflated. My little purring, sweet, nameless kitten was going. When she was picked up, I told the kitty I loved her and I do. I hope she has a great life and is loved as much as she was here. Bye  baby kitten. I love you. 

Of all the animals on the farm, the dogs are my favourites. I love my sheep and the goats are entertaining and friendly. The cows are really different from other cows in this area, and I love them too. The beautiful Sebastopol geese are lovely too, but the dogs, well, they are the dogs. What can I say? 

They accompany me wherever I go. if it is a long walk though the woods, like today, where I carried the chain saw to cut down a tree that had fallen on the fence, they are there. They might  not be right by my side, but they are close enough that if a wild animal came near, they would scare it off. I am never afraid. 

The first dogs of the farm are no longer here, unfortunately, except Sofi, my daughter's dog, who went home and is back again, while she is Australia. 

I started with my old border collie Josie, who was 14 then. She was my best dog ever for so many reasons and it was hard to see her get old. When she became terribly incontinent, she could not longer even come in the house, I gave her up for a better resting place. Anna and Joseph were the rough (Lassie) collies, but they did not last long. There was no fence and the neighbours across the highway had female dogs that were not spayed. First Anna got hit and then a few months later, Joseph did too. There was another half Maremma, Pete, that also disappeared and I never did discover what happened to him. I always suspected the neighbour shot him, though I will never know. 

Robbie, the new border collie came, then Ofcharka, the big black livestock guardian dog. He was a black ball of fluff when I got him at 10 weeks old, a very different dog from any I owned. Oh yeah, Harley came before him, but Harley was rescued from a guy who did not want him anymore and said he would just shoot him. Harley is a great dog and I am so glad I got him. He was my first big dog, but Ofcharka is bigger and Joe and his brother Mike are bigger yet. After Ofcharka, I got two female pups who were half starved and small for their age, not fed and abused. I hoped they would stay with the sheep, but part of their abuse history was being hurt to stay in the sheep pen, so they were terrified of staying there. So, Mike and Joe, two brothers, came later, with the hope they would stay with the sheep. They do quite well and and as they are getting mature now, at 2, they are more bonded to their flock than ever. They actually go out with the sheep to pasture and sleep with the sheep too, but they do come home during the day to nap if all is quiet. I wish they would sleep near the sheep. 

So, now the farm has 8 dogs, two border collies and 6 livestock guardian dogs. These dogs put smiles on my face every day and I love each one for the unique qualities they possess. Jenna smiles, big curled lip smiles. Jade is shy and will never ever trust men. She and Jenna were abused by a man who wore a cap. Ofcharka sings. He actually makes incredible singing sounds when he is excited, like when I come home after being away from the farm. Harley  comes up behind me through my legs and stays there. That is so sweet. Mike is one big goof. He lifts his head when he walks and sometimes runs into things. Mike runs and grabs Joe's tail and holds it like an elephant pack holding the other elephant's tail in front of them. Mike is quite sensitive and does not like loud noises or he will run and hide. And then there is Robbie. He is 4 and is still crazy, as crazy as any hyper border collie can be. Josie was that way until she was 5, so there is hope for Robbie yet. And little Sofi, well she barks at rocks. 

My companions make my days brighter, my sleep sounder and my happiness complete. I love those dogs!

Winter is coming and I am already back at it - soap making that is. I have been experimenting with salt brine soap called Soleseife pronounced sort of SZol eh sif eh. Eh?

When we go to the beach, the sea water leaves the skin soft and smooth. I have not done research as to why this happens, but it seems to for most people. For me, the sea water dries my skin, yet I still wanted to see what the hype was for the salt bring soap bars. I had previously made a salt bar. It is soap that has salt added. When washing, it does not feel gritty, and lasts a long long time, but it is like rubbing salt on the skin. On my skin, any knick, cut, crat or chapped area was stinging. Maybe it is for city folks and not farmer's hands. It is purported to be healing for skin conditions and good for acne.  I used sea salt in the first batch of salt bars. 

In the Soleseife soap, I used canola oil, one batch of organic canola and the other conventional canola. I do not use canola oil for anything, but would consider organic canola for soap because it grows locally and it is very conditioning, similar to hemp oil, another locally grown seed oil. Canola oil is cheaper though and has a long shelf life. Basically hemp oil will go rancid as soon as it is exposed to air and light. 

The first bar was organic canola oil, organic coconut oil and home rendered lard. The lye was dissolved in water and the soap was cooked so it was useable when it was finished. Only, I measured grams instead of ounces and although it made soap, it was all off for the calculations and lye heavy. When I tested it, the first layer of my skin disappeared. Ooops. The second bar was also made that way with the grams instead of the ounces. That would be fine if the weights were in grams, but they were not. It burned my skin too, so I am thinking it is lye heavy. I will test the soap with ph paper in a few days after it cures more. 

But today I did make a soap and used the scale with glasses on. Duh. I should be wearing glasses to read small  print all the time now, though my eyes are still 20/20 vision for distance. I know because I had them checked 2 weeks ago. The soap made tonight was measured correctly finally and is in the mold now. I am sure it won't be lye heavy. It is organic canola, organic coconut oil and home rendered lard, carrot juice instead of water and lye. C'est tout! Lush cosmetics use canola/coconut oil for their soap bases so I am experiementing. The store uses conventional canola, though it is grown with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and defoliation chemicals and is a GMO product too. NOT my preference at all. I would never ingest it, but it does make a lovely soap. 

I am planning to keep batches small this winter, 2-3 pounds only. I molded the soap tonight in cheesecloth dampened with water and laid in a cardboard box from canning jars which took exactly 3 pounds of soap. Tomorrow I will add a photo of it.Now, off to bed. zzzz. Soapy dreams!

I am tired. It is midnight here at the oasis, aka, The Fat Ewe Farm. The dogs are snuggled under their tails, sheltering their faces from the wind. That wind is not cold, as a matter of fact, today was very warm, almost, but not quite t-shirt weather. I worked outside all day with just a light sweater and tshirt on. Well, of course, there were pants too. 

I managed to finish repairing the hoop coop. Pete, my young friend, did the major repairs while I held the coop up with the skid steer. Then I put it in place next to the other two coops and the long house, a 16 foot coop. Three of the coops are for rabbits, the long one for ducks and geese, except the Muscovies, who prefer to sleep in the chicken coop. I made it so they do not get pooped on by the roosting chickens, and they sleep there. Muscovy ducks are South American and are not as hardy as the North American derived ducks. 

Then I built a small shelter for 3 Babydoll sheep, a breeding group. Next to that pen, I removed the old tarp from a shelter and replaced it. That will be the second breeding group of Babydolls. I put tin on the fence where the lambs had made holes to escape into the big world in the spring. It actually looks good and will block the miserable southeast winter wind. Yesterday, I cleaned the sheep and goat and cow pen and Andy and Irene, my handyman and his wife, cleaned the last little barn. Andy is 76 and partially crippled. He feels useful working and I enjoy having him around. He and his wife hitchhike because they do not have a vehicle at this time. They are Metis. 

I patched some other areas of the fence, too. It was dark when Robbie and I went to get the sheep. If they do not come in on their own in the light, they wait for Robbie to come for them. He never will make a great sheep dog, but he is a good companion for me. Sofi comes too and runs in circles, which she enjoys immensely. I took Mike and Joe, the sheep guardians, their supper, about 2 pounds of raw meat for each. They have a little less in the morning. 

Tomorrow I will finish fixing the goat shelter. When I came in I made a light supper and then a batch of soap. These are small batches wtih scent to them.Ah, it was a productive day!  And now, it is time for bed. Zzzzz. 

aIt was my father's. I am not sure where he got it, but I would guess it was a garage sale find. Innately, long before people paid much attention to plastic, my father shunned it. He said he could taste the pastic in coffee makers with plastic parts.All the modern coffee makers had plastic housing where the water was heated and also plastic lids on the pot. Once my father procured the coffee pot, all stainless steel, he never used any coffee maker again. 

My father would rise early, even long after his retirement, somewhere around 6 am. Who knows why? He wouldn't make the coffee until I got up for school though. He loved to have company and a chat in the morning, though I was a miserable person in the morning. I, to this day, am not a morning person, often staying up until 2 am and rising around 10.   I was grateful for the morning coffee, strong with good cream, no sugar. If we could only go back in time. 

I did not see how lonely my father was and how he was trying to reach out to me, to have some one to converse with, to not be alone. He had become paraplegic and was wheelchair bound. It took time for the neighbours and friends to come around after the accident and he really had no one to share his thoughts with. My mother was not interested and occupied her time reading the Bible and painting or watching TV.  As time progressed, and my father became more confident, the friends and neighbours came back. They were happy to have coffee with Peter or Pete as they fondly called him and came every day. But in the beginning, I should have been more ameliorative to his plight. I should have, but was not. 

Now, I have that coffee pot, minus the glass top and every day I think of my father when I make coffee. Every day I miss him and wish things had been different. He taught me so much and I am grateful to have had him as my mentor. No, he was not perfect, far from it, but he was my hero. I was by his side holding his hand when he passed away. I was listening then, listening to every breath he took. 

I will pass the old coffee pot on one day. Maybe those who have been close companions and shared my coffee will think of it one day, perhaps one of my children will inherit it. We should be like the coffee pot, slow to brew, tasty when ready and have no plastic parts. When you come over, I will make you some coffee in the old coffee pot, ok?

Running the bed and breakfast was the ideal 'job'. I was home all the time and although occupied, could still keep and eye on the farm. I could go out after breakfast and after lunch and work outside. In the winter this was important because it is dark here a long long time. The winter solstice brings darkness at just around 4 pm and doing chores in the dark is not fun, especially without a yard light (which I do not have). I bought one of those powerful little head lamps so I could at least have free hands. 

Well, it looks as though as early as Monday I will be doing chores in the dark whether I want to or not. My Alberta interin teaching certificate came in the mail today. I am now an Alberta certified teacher. Tomorrow I will go and complete the paperwork the County of St. Paul school board. They have been anxiously awaiting the completion of the certification so I could begin. Regional districts such as St. Paul are always short of teachers and substitute teachers. At the beginning of the year, there are usually enough to start the year, but in a short while ,for various reason, the teachers leave and the shortage begins. This year, the district started without adequate replacement teachers and it has just gotten worse. I suspect I will be offered a real job in no time. It it was a decent job, and not full time, I would consider it. Running the farm does take quite a bit of my time. 

I will have to be out and doing chores at 6 am and into the shower by 7 so I leave for school by 8. Because so many kids are bussed to school in the district, school does not start until 9 and goes until 3. There are several schools in Elk Point, but my preference is only to teach high school. Between St. Paul and Elk Point, there are 4 high schools, and one in Heinsburg ,I believe, which is not that far away. Driving more than a half hour is too far, so if the job is within that half hour drive, I would consider it. 

Not once did I think I would ever be teaching again once retired. It was not my goal to substitute teach as many retired teachers do, however; I am an experienced and trained teacher and employment here is scarce. This is the best paying opportunity I will have at my age. So, likely on Monday, I will be back in the classroom once again. This is IT!

Last year I did an experiment. I heated the little farmhouse with the furnace instead of wood during the winter. Wood is expensive at $175 a cord and if the winter is cold, to heat the house exclusively with wood takes about 10 cords. That is, with the old wood stove that is how much it took to stay warm. The old stove was just a cast iron box, not air tight and not efficient, so wood heat was wasted up the chimney. Then more wood had to be used but the inefficient stove burned it at a high rate. During the night the stove had to be stoked or the house would be frozen in the morning. 

I had researched efficient small stoves. This house is only 850 square feet, so a large model is not necessary and would likely have made the place unbearably hot. One of the top choices was the Intrepid 11 by Vermont Castings. It is a pretty little stove that comes in porcelain colours on the cast iron. The catch though, is that Vermont Castings does not make this stove any  more, drat. It was very expensive too, at around $3000 or more in Canada. Vermont Castings is as you would guess, an American company. 

I was on the watch for a small used wood stove then, since my budget was not rich enough to spend thousands. I had almost resigned myself to bearing with the old wood stove yet another winter. Wood heat, even at $175 a cord was still way less expensive than gas when in the dead of winter can run $300 plus in a month. Besides, there is something so appealing about a wood fire, especially coming in from doing chores in 40 below. 

Then one day, there it was. The Intreped 11 for sale second hand and local. I called immediately and went to take a look. It was in excellent condition but had a few chips out of the pretty biscuit coloured enamel. If I could find that colour, I could fix that. Everything else seemed to be in the best of states, so I bought it. The stove owner had purchased it for her home, but it was never installed and she just wanted to sell it. My gain! She offered to deliver it too, since I am alone and old (I am laughing. She did not say that, but she was much younger and had a strong young husband too). 

The Intreped came home in September. The local installation companies were booked until the end of October though, so I would have to wait to see how it works in the little farmhouse. Well, a cancellation today freed some hours for the stove company, and I was available ,so now the wood stove is installed and heating the house beautifully. 

It took a while to get the fire started. Part of the problem is that the wood is wet and there was no kindling. I never use kindling though, just paper that I save. Courogated cardboard is best, but today I did not have any. The firebox is small yet I still manaaged to stuff 4 logs in it. Big mistake! It took forever to get that wet wood to ignite, but it did finally and now, the two Eco fans that run on hot air only are moving the warmth throughout the house. Ah! 

The stove is catalytic, which means it burns the wood gas as well. There is little ash left and the amount of wood should be reduced to half of what the inefficient wood stove required to do the same job. I guess that now, time will tell if this was an improvement and will be more economical. It is small and rated for 750 square feet. I do have the furnace for back up on extremely cold days, though I am trusting the Intrepeid to do a stellar job. Come and sit by the wood fire and share a cup of tea, won't you?

Soap remaking time!

My 100% tallow and 100 % lard soaps are pure and natural and mild, but are not great sellers here. People in this neck of the woods want fragrance and colour, but I do not use either, at least nothing chemical. So, I began an experiment. I used one bar of coconut, 1 bar of lard, 1 bar of tallow and a small sample size of spearmint, plus 2 bars of Beeswax, milk and honey. The soap was soaked whole overnight. Normally I would have run the bars through my old Saladmaster grater and shredded it, but it is in the other house and I did not want to walk over to get it. The soap sat for 2 days, then I mushed it.The Beeswax and pure lard soaps were too hard to mush, even after soaking for two days, so I deliberate broke them up with my hands and a fork and soaked them some more overnight. I regret adding the spearmint soap because the few little leaves look odd in the new batch. 

When most of the soap  was soft enough I was going to stick blend the batch for uniformity and cook it in the crock pot to ensure even melting. The stick blender is still in the other houes too, drat, so I used the miniscule coffee grinder. I know, I know. I should have just gone to get the stick blender. But the job got done and then I left it to cook. All I really wanted was to melt the pieces to have a uniform smooth look. Had I blended it, it would have been perfect, but it was alright as is, except for the odd bits of the lard soap that still did not melt in. Hard stuff that soap is! 

The paprika infused extra virgin olive oil was just added in a tiny amount for a dash of colour, but it had little effect in such a minute quantity. After it was smooth and hot, I added the essential oils, fennel and Divine Essetials "Forgiveness" blended by myself. The fennel is very overpowering and all that one smells currently, but it might fade somewhat in the curing process, though the soap is already soap and does not require curing as much as it does drying. 

This fennel soap will mask human odours and is great for fishermen who bait their own hooks to remove the smell of the hands, plus it is excellent for lingering odours such as onions and garlic. Cooks whose paws smell strongly of onions and garlic will find washing with the fennel soap will help with fresh hands immediately. 

Now, onto the next new out of old soap! Oh yeah, the lather is creamy, not bubbly and very smooth as I would have anticipated, since the tallow soap does not lather at all. There is enough coconut in the mix, plus soft oils to give a lather though and the soap seems to be moisturizing, not drying. Very nice!