Twig's Tales

You might enjoy this entry on the Meeker Sheepdog blog:

Twig's Tales, Chapter 1

Chiefie Smiles - It's Saturday!

Here's another of Lisa's great photos that I have been playing with in my picture software. Isn't it fun?

It's Saturday -- the dogs say Yay!

Did everyone see the lunar eclipse? Wow!

Ryme is Three Years Old

Original photo by Lisa Dillon

Today is Ryme's third birthday. We didn't get to celebrate by working sheep, as we normally would, because Ryme is still recuperating from the lameness in his left rear leg. I so hope that he and I can go back to working sheep regularly at some point. He sees the chiropractor in a week so I am hoping for good news then. Meanwhile he is laid off except for teeny bits of working, bringing in the ewes and new baby lambs which requires a minimum of running, plus a slight bit of freedom at the field or at the park with his friends. I played around with the original photo above with my photo software and decided on the grid pattern since it shows Ryme as a work in progress... and just putting it out there that his design is not complete and will be able to have more fine tuning! Tonight we made doggie birthday cupcakes which are now cooling on the stove. The dogs are all anxiously awaiting a portion of their baked treat! Special thanks to Lisa Dillon who provided me with a couple of CDs worth of photos that I am having great fun with!

New Mystery Novel Set in Northern California

Over the years I count myself very fortunate to have worked with and for some incredibly gifted, bright, and intelligent folks...and (near and dear to my frustrated writer's heart) some who are talented and published writers. While this new book has nothing to do with dogs or sheep, it is still a book -- and this blog being named One For the Book -- it seems most appropriate to talk about it here.

At my first job in Sonoma County, I worked in small firm that was basically a writer's shop where we produced written materials and the graphics to go with them, that were all about the utility industry, utilities research, energy efficiency and the like. I was not a writer, but was the lowly jack-of-all trades assistant; however, it was a great atmosphere in which to work. All of the writers were great to deal with and each had a special skill, talent, or specialty area. Come to find out, and not surprisingly, many of them had little personal "writing projects" on the side. My former boss, Frederick Weisel, had a novel started at that time and it has finally come into print. The website (and cover design for the book as well) was designed by our former graphics designer in that shop, who is also incredibly hard-working and talented. I count it as one of my many blessings to work with such great people. It was hard to leave that group when another job opened up for me that had greater responsibilities and better benefits.

The new mystery novel, "Teller" - by Frederick Weisel-  is available to shop locally at Copperfields Books . You can check out the book on the author's website, http://frederickweisel.com/. They have put together some neat videos where the author explains unusual background details from the book that are native or unique to this wine-country region.

Saturday Night Sheep

We didn't breed any of our own sheep-team ewes this year but we are enjoying the lambs belonging to our friend that we share a field with. Last Saturday afternoon we worked our dogs at her place and before we left to go home, we helped with chores, getting sheep into their "night places" and setting out hay for the various groups. There is an "older lamb" group, a "big woolie" working group, a pregnant group, and a just-lambed group. The group of pregnant, very expectant ewes came running into the barnyard from the pasture at the prospect of alfalfa, but one ewe remained, baa-ing and running frantically looking for a lamb that she just gave birth to. We walked out to the pasture to try to find the lamb, and there was none. The ewe had dug a couple of holes but there was no lamb. We'd all been sitting around chatting nearby, inbetween working dogs in the adjacent field, so we were sure that no big bird had swooped in and taken the newborn. So, we decided that she hadn't given birth yet, but thought she had...and if we left her alone that nature might take over and she would settle back down to finish her labor and delivery. We told our friend good bye and she assured us that she would watch the laboring ewe the rest of the afternoon.

I had been home a couple of hours, and it was dark out, when the phone rang. It was our friend. She needed help pulling the lamb from that frantic ewe, who had still not completed her labor and delivery process. I threw on a jacket and headed out into the cold and drove the ten minutes or so over there in the dark of a late-November Saturday evening. By now the ewe had been moved into a small pen. There isn't much light out there but our friend had a headlamp to see by. She gave me a halter and lead rope to put on the ewe, which I did and I held the ewe as best I could up against the wall of the pen while our friend pulled on the tiny back foot that protruded from the ewe. By now we expected a dead lamb and were only trying to save the nice big woolie ewe.

Our friend pulled and pulled. I held onto the ewe. It was a tough process. Finally some traction was gained and the lamb started to come out. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard, "I think it's alive". Pretty soon the lamb was extracted and yes, in fact it was alive, even after several hours waiting in breach presentation. I turned the ewe loose and she immediately began to lick and stimulate the lamb. He opened his mouth and "baa-ed". He was most definitely alive and kicking. Our friend and I were absolutely astounded by this amazing miracle. We wondered if the lamb would eventually even be able to stand and walk after all the pressure applied to his legs pulling him out. Meanwhile we got shavings to bed the pen for the pair and some alfalfa for mama to munch on, and a bucket of water for her to drink. When we got back with all those supplies for the ewe, we were shocked to see the little guy already attempting to stand, like a normal lamb. He was weak, but he kept trying and looked like he would be successful. The ewe continued to fuss over him and care for her lamb who had finally arrived!

When I talked with our friend the next day, she said that both mama and baby were doing fine and were indistinguishable from the other ewe and lamb pairs who hadn't been through such trauma. The tenacity and strong will of sheep is sometimes amazing.

A Song of Thanks

This article by Jon Carroll - one of my favorite columnists when I subscribed to the paper daily -- was published in the Thanksgiving Day version of the San Francisco Chronicle, but I am just getting around to reading Thursday's paper. I really enjoyed reading it and I hope you all do, too. Happy Thanksgiving!

LINK TO ARTICLE

Dunnigan - the Rest of Our Story...

On day two of the Dunnigan Hills trial last weekend, Coal and I drew up later in the afternoon to run. I helped by running and posting scores most of the day, mainly in order to keep warm on a cold, rainy, nasty weather day. I also feel that without help, there will be no trials; they are simply too much work for a small handful of people to handle on their own without volunteers. Originally slated to run dog #30, someone wanted to trade slots and since I was staying overnight, Coal and I ended up running dog #41.

Not wanting to mess with success, when it came to our turn, I sent Coal to the right again, as I had done on Saturday. He shot off over the hill and out of sight but I didn't worry. He knows those hills, I thought. Soon, however, it was apparent that too much time had passed. Coal must've gotten lost or he'd gone back to the letout pens. More tick-tock...starting to feel my energy drain. I was about to give up and go over to the judge when here Coal came over the top of the hill and lifted the sheep. So yes - he got to them somehow - but had wasted so much time I knew that any hopes of our completing the course today were gone. We completed the fetch and started on the drive; Coal and I were arguing about the whistles and drive lines, the sheep were squirrely in the wind, and I retired after much ado getting to the first drive panel. Enough was enough. I knew we wouldn't even have time to get our drive points finished. I was not unhappy, maybe a little disappointed at not getting to "attack the course" a second time, but  not at all unhappy with my dog. We exhausted our sheep and I went back to helping with scores. Later I found out that Coal had indeed gone back to check the setout pens but had not stayed there long - he checked in and realized that wasn't where he was supposed to be - but then moved on to try to find his sheep. I tried to take this as good news!

Later in the day we were asked to help with setout for the first Nursery class. Coal worked pushing the sheep from the letout pens by relay over to the person spotting for the working dogs on the trial field. Coal thought this was great fun and I was happy to do it, again to keep warm instead of freezing in a lawn chair watching the trial.

On Monday we helped with setout for much of the day, for the Pro-Novice and remaining Nursery classes. Luckily, the weather was much improved over Sunday so it was not so unpleasant to be out on top of the hill at the top of the trial field. Coal worked his heart out. He loves working in the pens to push sheep up into the letout. He is quiet in the pens and doesn't upset the sheep, yet doesn't give them any ground. He did not want to quit, when we got a break and someone else took over for a while. I have to give credit to the "heart" in the little dog.

All in all Dunnigan Hills was a very fun trial and I was glad I was able to go. It's our last trial of the 2011 season, so what a wonderful way to close out the year. Thanks to all who made the trial possible!

Coal - file photo
photo credit L. Dillon