The Help

Molly has really grown and is just as big as Sara (the Border Collie) now.

She doesn't have the herding skills that Sara has but she is very determined to bother anyone or anything that is moving out in the yard area.  Today a guinea keet somehow found itself free of the brooder and before I could stop her Molly had it pinned down between her paws.  I thought the keet was a goner for sure, but neither Molly nor I expected one of the adult guinea males to respond to the keets warning cries.  I watched in awe as the male actually flew over to the rescue and then pecked and chased Molly away to the deck!

Sara could only look on in shame, "What will all the other dogs think?"

It didn't phase Molly at all because shortly thereafter she was out in the yard hounding after the adult guineas,  who ran off as they always do (except when they are apparently rescuing some of their own).

"Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the best pest control of them all?"

After a hard day of causing mischief Molly likes to collapse on the couch to catch a few winks...thereby causing more mischief as you see she isn't supposed to be up on the furniture!

Barnyard Comedy

This place is crazy.

Lambing Chaos

Yesterday we had torrential rain all day that transitioned to snow and ice overnight, so of course Lara decided it was the perfect time to lamb.

So at 05:15 when the Commander charged into the bedroom to let me know it was time I wasn't the least bit surprised. Meet Berkley, he is a 9 pound baby ram lamb.

Thankfully I didn't have to help with the birth, but he did give me a bit of a scare. Look how long his legs are! When he was initially presenting all I could see were two legs sticking out, I was very worried that his neck was bent back inside. Fortunately before I decided to intervene his nose popped out and I knew it was going to be alright.

Once Berkley was on the ground and cleaned up he was violently shivering and Lara wasn't yet interested in feeding him. I recalled the famous kid and lamb expert (OFG) stating that the best way to warm up a new borne was to bring them in the house to watch TV. I wasn't going to go that far unless I had to so I started with warm towels to dry him off. That worked pretty well but Lara still wouldn't feed him, he needed her colostrum to get his motor started. At this point I decided to bring him inside and feed him some goat colostrum that I had frozen last year. While I got to work Sara stood watch over little Berkley while he lounged in a laundry basket on the couch. Contrary to OFG's advice I didn't turn on the TV.

While all this was going on Molly was going berserk! Yesterday I noticed that she was getting a fluid build-up by her incision when they went in to fix her. I had called the vet to see if she needed to be brought back in for treatment, today was not ideal for a call back. As I was warming the goat milk the vet called and wanted me to roll Molly over and describe what I saw - she wasn't cooperating. With the lamb in the house everyone was way too excited. The vet told me that one of the problems was that we were allowing Molly to be too active and that we needed to calm her down. I wondered to myself if they realized what kind of a puppy Molly was? I told the vet; "It is very difficult to keep Molly calm, she makes my Border Collie look like she is on tranquilizers." Not only was Molly's incision a problem, but she had been able to defeat her cone to gnaw at her stitches where her extra toe was removed. The vet kept wanting to talk and talk not realizing how much of a rush I was in. I think the vet was wondering how stable I was when I said; "Look, I don't have time for this as I have a lamb in the house." Our conversation ended pretty quickly after that.

The answer to this problem was a larger cone. OMG! The new and improved larger cone is a disaster. First Molly is outside in the slush using it like a steam shovel to dig up all kinds of mush and then runs around with it sloshing around her face and neck. Next, whenever the howling wind catches her she looks like a top heavy weeble careening from side to side completely out of control. Once back in the house she is crashing into everyone and every body because she can't gauge how large the darn thing is. The edges of the cone are stiff and sharp, she is constantly ramming everyone on the calf and behind the knee threatening to knock anyone in her way off their feet. The vet recommended using duct tape to dull the edges of the cone - this is the same dog he wanted us to keep calm.

I had to take my daughter to school so I left my mom to watch over Berkley and the dogs, a job easier said than done. It seems Sara not only was watching the new lamb, she was GUARDING it! This meant that anytime Molly, Patch, or the cats came anywhere near HER lamb she actually drove them off with growls and flashing teeth. Sara has never, ever acted like this, she is normally very docile! My mom was really happy to see me return.

Of course I had to make a stop before I got home. I needed to pick up some medication and I was still in my sheep birthing clothes. I smelled. It didn't matter because once I got home and rescued my mom by taking Berkley back out to his mother I found that Lara had given birth to a second jet black ram lamb (Brighton) weighing in at 8 pounds. None of the pictures I took of him turned out so I will have to post something later. What a crazy day - four more lambings to go!

Cone Head

Still no lambs with little cone heads. I'm posting this picture for Stace who is an expert on judging lambing dates by viewing sheep from certain angles. "Stace, do you think Lara is ready to lamb yet?"

While I was waiting for the lambs I took a walk around the house and found this. How would some tupperware find itself half buried in the flower bed?

....and it looks like it has been chewed.

Now I see, it seems Molly wants to bury a plastic dish like it is a bone. Another bad habit that I need to stop her from continuing.

Molly has really grown, unfortunately for her it is time to get her fixed.

Molly does not like wearing her cone head. She doesn't do a very good job of judging how wide the cone is and is ramming into everyone and everything.

The cone is mostly used to prevent her from chewing the area on her leg where she had her mutant extra toe removed. Unfortunately Molly has learned that the cone amplifies her "talk: howling, it's going to be a long 2 weeks.

p.s.  I have not seen anything as funny as watching Molly try to run full speed outside with the wind blowing.   The wind catches in her cone and she is careening all over the place!

Blizzard!

We got hit with a serious blizzard today that was packing winds gusting to 50 mph and 10+ inches of snow.

We kept the animals in for most of the day but the Commander let them out later in the afternoon so they could stretch their legs. The snow doesn't seem to bother Azalea much.

Lara and Zoe seem more bothered by my taking their picture than by the snow.

I don't normally feed the sheep outside when it is snowing but they didn't really seem too hungry while their food bowl was inside. I read somewhere that sheep have two homes - the place where they sleep and a place where they rest during the day. The book recommended keeping their feed area separate from both resting areas.

More Azalea wearing her "Winter" coat.

Lara blocking the ramp inside...look how wide she is!

The snow didn't seem to bother the giraffe....ops, this is one of the pictures I took in Florida during my trip to Disney.

A shot of the rams totally covered in snow, they actually seemed to enjoy themselves outside during the blizzard.

Of course eating is always job one!

The chickens were tucked away nice and warm until the noon feeding, when I opened the door the guineas started flying around and a few escaped. This meant that the coop needed to remain open so they could get back in. I am really surprised that Leopold went outside due to his frost bite and all.

I built a wind screen under the coop to keep it dry for days like these, it allows the chickens a dry place to escape the guineas and a place for me to put their scratch.

There is always one in every crowd that has to show off how tough they are.

Molly loved playing in the snow, although I discovered later that her lack of height created problems in the house. Seems she collected a lot of little snow balls on her fur and dropped them all over the house and on the furniture to melt.....

Sara would live outside in the snow or with the goats if I let her. Note the huge piece of wood that she wants to play fetch with, she is totally ridiculous.

The goats would never go outside in the snow, in fact when I opened their door to feed them Chip jumped up on the igloo to avoid the cold draft that washed in along the floor. The other day snow melt was dripping off from their roof in front of their goat door to the yard and they refused to go outside because water may have dripped on them. Goats are spoiled drama queens!

Growing Up

Molly is growing up fast, unfortunately she learned to use the stairs the other day. She now "helps" me pick up anything that is left on the floor or is dangling within her reach.

She is a bundle of energy and is a good match for Sara, the two of them exhaust each other as only these kind of dogs can. When Molly first got here she would pant so hard and heavy while sleeping that the Commander thought we needed to take her to the vet. Turns out it was just her growing, growing so fast that her body would shake!

The Mocha and Chai are the big losers in all this as they no longer have anywhere to go to avoid "playing" with Molly.

At night Molly is put into her crate to sleep but whenever she gets tired she runs upstairs and lays on my bed.....when did she learn that?

Fearless

Molly is growing up fast and is totally fearless. I can't turn my back on her or she will be off getting into some mischief.

She has no fear of the sheep - none. She runs into their pen and hops at them, then she seemingly gets distracted and turns her back on them - no fear. I have to watch her around the rams as she runs right in with them as well, and they can be dangerous.

Today the goats were out and Molly was right in mixing it up with them. Addison was trying to headbutt and ram her but Molly was too nimble. She was no help at all, all she was doing was creating havoc. The Commander had to pick her up so Sara could herd everyone back to their pen. It is amazing to watch Sara work, she gets right under the hind legs of any goat who tries to hold their ground and literally lifts their hind quarters off the ground and runs them to the barn (like a wheelbarrow race).

Sometimes fearless crosses the line to death wish, and that line is crossed when Molly tries to herd the cats!

Molly got the drop on Chai Chai here, but since that time the claws have been out!

Molly the Mutant

Molly is a mutant. She has one brown eye and her other eye is 1/4 brown and 3/4 blue.

She has somehow discovered some non frozen soil to dig up, a true miracle in Northern Minnesota in January.

She is growing faster than wet gremlins who are fed after midnight.

...and she has a mutant EXTRA toe on her back foot! It is very odd, loosely attached to nothing but skin and it even has a sharp claw.

Molly tries desperately to herd the cats, Chai Chai is not impressed. Molly will try to get on Chai or Mocha's back and usually gets a "slap" for her troubles. The goats on the other hand don't usually fight back. The Commander reported to me that he caught Molly actually riding up on Mavericks back! I knew it was true because she smelled like stinky goat buck for the next several days.

Patch does not like the new dog at all..."raspberry sound"!

"I thought the dogs were supposed to play OUTSIDE!"

Nope, the floor is littered with dog toys, gloves, shoes, anything Molly can get her mouth on. Sara is going crazy as she started out jealous and is a compulsive retriever. The extra toys and puppy love have poor Sara wound up tighter than the core of a golf ball. It doesn't help that Molly follows Sara everywhere and emulates her every action.  (Note the huge bag of dog food in the background, food consumption has gone WAY up!)

Patch finds the whole thing a bit amusing but he doesn't have time for their frivolity. As the oldest he has to set the example.

Molly Christmas

Meet Molly Christmas. She is my Christmas gift to the Commander this year.

I got her for the Commander to be a counter part to Sara. Sara is great at the difficult task of herding goats, but she is just too scared of the sheep to be much help. This is where hopefully Molly comes in, when the sheep see how ferocious she is herding them will be easy.

Molly is an Blue Merle Australian Shepherd. She has one blue eye, one brown eye, and a greyish blue coat with black spots. Add in just a touch of brown on her front quarters and muzzle and you have one beautiful girl.

Right now Molly sleeps in a clothes basket. At her previous home she slept outside so she spends a lot of time panting while she is inside, I guess the house is just too hot for her.

I have just started potty training her, but since she is the Commanders gift he gets to take her out for the 2 am potty runs.....its what he wanted, really!