Shasta

We have a new puppy in our home. Actually, she has been here for a few months. We got her back in October. Shasta is an English Shepherd. She is a herd dog and we got her for working with our sheep. When our dog Boomer was around, we just loved him. He was the best farm dog. But, we decided if we ever lost Boomer, we would get a herd dog. Boomer passed away this past year and we put our name in for an English Shepherd. We purchased her from a gal whom we had sold sheep to a few years ago.

Shasta loves the snow. We were tentative about leaving her outside, but the gal we bought her from said... the dogs get too hot inside in the winter with all their hair. But a puppy? We still watched the weather and how she does and we have had an extremely cold winter, yet she is loving being outside. On these below freezing days, she is outside just running around and playing, not even hinting that she may be a tad cold. So, now we have relaxed and realized she is a true outside dog... meant for our winter weather!


English Shepherds begin to show their herding instincts early on. Around 6 months to a year they actually begin to work with you, rather than just playing with their herding instincts. Shasta is still young and still playing while she works, but sometimes she has been helpful. Dh finds her a great help when he wants to feed the sheep, he loads the hay on the tractor and opens the gate. Shasta keeps the sheep inside the field, not letting them run out the gate, as they wish to do. Here are three pictures of her at work. The one picture you will notice the sheep watching her and some starting to run from her. The second picture, is one of the momma ewes protecting their herd of sheep... stomping at Shasta. She is not afraid of the sheep when they do this, she is a quick little thing and just backs up, scoots around and comes at a different angle until the sheep start to obey.


I think she will be a great dog to work with the sheep, once she learns a few more commands. It will take a little time, but Dh is very pleased with her progress at this time.

Quiet Sabbath...sort of...*Ü*

This morning, I decided to stay home from church. I sent the girls with Paige. She woke up in such a happy mood and saw us all dressed up (yes, I was dressed and ready for church). She asked me, "Where are we going?" I said, "We are going to church." But by the time everyone was ready, I realized that I did not have lunch ready and the girls had invited guests and I have also been so tired lately that a nice restful morning seemed so inviting. So, I decided to stay home.

We are in the midst of lambing season and staying home was not necessarily a bad thing. While we are having a much better lambing year than last year, we've still have a few trials that seem to come. I praise God that not all these trials hit us the first year... or we'd have run fast from raising sheep! Each year a different trial has seemed to hit us. One year it was hoof rot with the lambs, another year a momma ewe prolapsed, another year we had our first lamb to pull, and another year toxemia. I could not tell you all the trials, but each one we learned more of how to care for our sheep and it was not necessarily overwhelming as God allowed us time to go through each trial. Last year was by far the worst... we experienced selenium deficiency... it was a horrible year, very exhausting, but it's very trials have been a blessing to our family down the road. This year, we had our first sheep with a back injury. The treatment did not work, rather it killed her. That was sad, she passed away this afternoon, she hemorrhaged as the medication which was to induce labor, caused hemorrhaging instead. We ended up losing her lambs (unborn) as well. We wonder if the back injury isn't due to these full to term mommas walking on ice and slipping. We got ice last month and it hasn't been warm enough to melt and run-off the field where they eat their hay. We have a new herd dog (still puppy) who enjoys chasing the sheep on this ice. It is hard on these full-term mommas!

Anyways, my Sabbath was sweet. This morning it was quiet and I read my devotions. I then listened to a tape from Restoration International in the Applied Parenting Series. I gained insight into leading your child to prayer and study in the Bible. While I have done this, I wondered if there were some better ways. I got some new ideas to try out. I found it interesting that the very topic I had been praying over... was the topic on the tape that I popped into the player. (I didn't look at a the topic, I just was on that tape in the series).

After that, the girls arrived home with their friends and we had a nice dinner together. This afternoon, the girls and their friends have been listening to music and just talking with their friends. It has been nice. Beings I am the only adult at home, it is rather quiet for me. I enjoyed a little time on the computer and just some quiet thinking time.

The sun is now down and the house is getting noisier. The kids downstairs are playing Wii. They are contemplating going bowling, although they want to wait until 9pm when the black lights come on and everything starts to glow. Well, I'd better go downstairs and find something for this gang to eat.

Warmly, ~Melissa