Early training
This morning Luna took a longer look at the flock. She barked a little, trembled a bit and stared a lot!
Meet Luna
We picked up Luna yesterday and she is everything I hoped for. We met the foster parents half-way between our homes as the winter storm made their drive from the coast of Maine risky. Luna is a love, stares deep into my eyes, loves hugs and kisses, doesn’t bark too much, is into everything and minds her Ps and Qs nicely! I also have to give high honors, though, to Sidney, our lab. He is not fond of other dogs unless they “belong” to him. We brought Luna into the house and had Sid on a leash until they sorted it out, took them for a walk across the fields and by the end of that walk they were bonding. 
Today I walked them both, Luna off the leash and she had a ball, letting Sidney show her the trails, chipmunk holes and mouse nests.
She came with a couple of leashes, one retractable, and her game is to take the cord in her mouth and do the leading!
I can’t give enough praise for Kennebeck Valley Shetland Sheepdog Club Rescue in Maine and Luna’s foster parents, Holly and Chuck. To say the least, we adopted a prize Sheltie. She has had some instant challenges to greet these past 24 hours, from leaving her foster family to meeting us, meeting a huge black lab, a huge Chartreux cat (who is afraid of nothing), to one hen and I introduced her to the flock but after 2 minutes this morning she’d seen enough of that! A bit overwhelming. For her first day out of the gate she’s doing just great. She and Sidney are asleep in the kitchen on their beds, and Luna is home.
New day
Sleep knits the ragged sleeve of care. Our sole hen, Bianca, made her way out and about the farm today. Not a really pleasant day weatherwise, but this chicken stands to be the last one standing. She is one tough hen. We feed crackers at the house shed and Bianca was there to get her fair share this morning. Schedule as usual. Late morning she found a patch of dirt in the drive and got to dusting her feathers, happy as a clam.
She was quickly thwarted by another round of heavy snow…so I gathered her up and put her in the coop for the rest of the day where it’s warm and dry, solitary for her, but at least she’s safe and cared for.
Damn it to hell
We lost another hen, Penny, to death tonight. I am sad. 
These hens have been our friends, day in, day out. They “got it”. Since this spring we have lost 5 out of our 6 hens. We have one left tonight. I can only surmise that the cross breeding stinks, Buff Sex Links. We have raised many flocks of hens and this flock has had issue after issue this year. Except for one, which was taken by a predator, the rest have just died across the summer/fall. Our coop is cleaner than you can imagine, the feed is clean and we change out the water daily. If I weren’t so bloody conscientious, I’d blame myself.
I knew Penny wasn’t well this past week, slowly seemed to be going down, just like the others did. Quietly, gracefully. We have had a nasty cold snap, like much of the nation, this week, so I have kept our last two hens in the coop this week. I checked on them this evening only to find Penny on death’s door. I picked her up and held her for the longest time. I put my face to hers and loved her. Knowing she was dying, I decided to bring her to the house for the night. Why? I guess she just deserved that extra measure of care. I got a box, filled it with straw, went back down to fetch her (all within 5 minutes) and she had passed away. Gone.
Death sucks. I’ve seen too much of it these past few years and I am tired of the training.
Tomorrow will come. Tonight I am sad.
Snowbound and excited
Today we are snowbound and I am loving it! We have about 10″ on the ground at 2PM and the wind has started to pick up. It’s still blowing out of the east and I am waiting for that to turn to the west. I kept the sheep in today as their way out faces east and it was way to snowy in the barn this morning. So they are hunkered down with plenty of room under cover, hay and some classical music on the radio. Actually it was Christmas carols when I departed this morning. Maybe they were having a sing-a-long, who knows. Looking into the barn from the west end…looking cozy.
I got a wonderful surprise for my combo birthday/Christmas gift from Jack…a lamcam! Shout out to Manise! I have wanted one for years but they are pricey. Well, Jack thought it up all on his own, no pretty pleases from me! There it is, up in the right corner, hooked up and ready to go. It is an audio/video camera with ultra-violet light for the nightime hours. It transmits to our bedroom television. So during the night hours in lambing season I can now turn it on anytime during the night to check on the ewes without disturbing them or us, unless it is actually “time”. Wahoo!!!
And lastly, we have been working on finding a new Sheltie to join us here at the farm. We lost Shelley last November and it is now totally time to have a new pup on the farm. So here she is! We don’t have her yet, she just went to foster care 2 days ago, but the foster mom says she is a love, no issues and is ready to come to us! Double wahoo! She is 2 years old, a sable with a bit of blue merle on her face and one blue eye! That blue eye that Shelley had also will melt your heart. I am soooo excited..she should be here for Christmas. I will post more when she arrives!
