Fun at the Calapooia Classic

Posted by kenleighacres on July 27, 2009
Posted in: Border Collie, Dogs, family, Herding, Uncategorized, whippet. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

We had plans to go camping this last weekend, but we weren’t sure where to go.  Then we got an e-mail from some friends asking if we could help at their annual stockdog trial.  So, we went camping at their place in Brownsville.  Our camping spot was great and we had so much fun, but boy was it HOT!

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My husband used Kate to set sheep for each run and they worked great as a team.  He was such a big help and did a fabulous job.

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I didn’t trial Kate and I don’t think she missed it!  She got to work half the day instead of a couple minutes.  It was so nice that she would work for him.

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Here she is taking a little break and cooling off.

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Our son made a lot of new friends.  This cute girl’s name is Cash and we tried bringing her home.  He was quite smitten with her 😉

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Here he is with his buddy Lisa.  She was helping him roll the big pipe back up the hill.  I bet you can guess what he was doing…

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yep, he was crawling in and rolling down the hill. 

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Everyone interacted with him so nicely and they couldn’t believe how much he has grown since last year. 

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Here is one of his rare, quiet moments.  I love this picture!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trial.

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Border Collie, Nell

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Australian Shepherd, Shane

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Border Collie, Zeke

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All of the dogs took their turn in the wading pool – this is Toby and Cole. 

The Calapooia river runs close to where we were camping and we had a refreshing dip in it Saturday afternoon. 

They offer an excellent BBQ Saturday night and afterwards they had an All Around Dog Competition.  It included agility, obedience, conformation, and herding ducks.  It was a Jackpot and all for FUN.  I entered my whippet Paisley.  We were all cracking up and had a great time.  I was able to keep her on a leash and she had no problem following the ducks.  Hopefully I will have pictures to share soon.  The most impressive part of it for me was the 20 foot sit/stay and recall that I had to do with her in an open field off leash.  She was such a good girl.  We placed 5th out of 9 – just out of the money.  Not bad for a whippet against a bunch of Australian Shepherds 😉 

Red Racer

Posted by kenleighacres on July 24, 2009
Posted in: family, Uncategorized. Tagged: , . 6 Comments

What have we gotten ourselves into???  Our son has always been really good on his bike.  We got him a big bike last year when he was four and he immediately wanted the training wheels off, he was riding his 2-wheel bike within a month and has recently been doing tricks and going over jumps. 

It got us thinking that we should look into the BMX track that is in our area.  We thought it would be right up his alley and a good outlet for all of his energy! 

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As you can see by the big grin on his face – he LOVED it 🙂

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His Aunt Meghan was there to help him with the gate – it was a little intimidating at first. 

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Here he goes!

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The course starts with a large ramp and goes into hills and turns.

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He did a good job powering up the hills on his little bike.

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On the way home we talked about whether or not it was something he wanted to do again.  The answer was – YES!!!  It was aparent that we were going to have to do a major bike upgrade.  Thanks to craigslist, we found a used one in excellent condition.  We knew we made the right decision when he agreed to sell his seldom used play structure to help pay for it. 

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Here he is showing it off.  Thank goodness it was the right color, he wanted a red one.

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Along with the bike, he needed a helmet…

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and gloves…

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and a neck brace – all red of course 🙂

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Even the brand of the bike is Redline!

We went to the races again last night and he was excited to tell everyone that he got a new RACING bike.  He is in the 5 and under division and rode in 3 races.  He is very competitive and we had several discussions about good sportsmanship.  He was very determined to do well and it payed off – he won 1st place!  He earned a medal for his win and this trophy…

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for his first 1st place.  After he earns 8 first places he will move into the Intermediate division – so much to learn!

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He is hooked and the whole way home he was saying – that was the best, bestest ever, I can’t wait to do that again, that was so fun.  I’m glad he has found something to be passionate about at such a young age.  I’m also thankful it is a positive outlet for his energy and somewhere he can learn good sportsmanship.

My goal is 50…

Posted by kenleighacres on July 21, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, sheep. Tagged: . 7 Comments

This is the number of sheep I want to get down to before winter!  I have been asked by several people recently how many sheep we have and I haven’t had an answer.  I knew ‘about’ how many sheep we had, but I was a little scared to get an exact number.  I thought it was in the 70’s and that meant a lot of selling needed to be done.  You can’t sell anything if you don’t know what you have, so I headed out to the pasture this morning to get a number and pictures.  I was pleasantly surprised – the number is 62!  That leaves only 12 to sell.

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Unfortunately, a few are too young still 🙂 but the rest are old enough.

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We have several wethers with beautiful fleeces that I would love to find homes for, including Smudge – look at all of that pretty black/brown fiber.

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These pretty girls are sisters – Sadie and Nelly.  They are daughters of Petunia.

You can see all of the sheep we have for sale on our website –

www.kenleigh-acres.com

I need to start thinking about breeding groups but I am having a hard time since we just had more lambs.  This year has made me realize that I really like lambing in January/February.  The lambs grow so well on our lush, green, spring grass.  That means only a month left to finalize who will be bred to who.  We will be breeding 5 rams to 30 ewes – so many decisions!

 

Small town rodeo

Posted by kenleighacres on July 13, 2009
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: . 9 Comments

We went to a local rodeo over the weekend and there was so much to photograph!  The plan was for our son to ride a sheep in the mutton bustin’ but he changed his mind at the last minute – smart kid 😉  He watched as all of his friend’s got bucked off and didn’t think it looked like fun. 

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I think he enjoyed hanging out behind the bucking chutes.  Here he is with his two cousins.

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Here is his friend, Cole, hanging on for dear life

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and his awesome dismount.  I thought it was awfully considerate of the sheep to jump over him!

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What a silly group! 

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The bucking horses

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and the saddles they would be wearing later.

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After the mutton bustin’ there was steer riding.  Our neighbor, Clay, was entered in this event. 

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He did a good job

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and got a round of applause for his dismount 🙂  He had a big smile on his face when he got up.

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I enjoyed the sites and the sounds of the rodeo. 

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This big guy was my favorite!

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He was quite the character and was very involved with playing with his bit. 

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He had a very important job to do.  This is my favorite part of a rodeo.

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God bless the USA!

 

All’s well that ends well!

Posted by kenleighacres on July 11, 2009
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: . 7 Comments

Remember the smiling girls?  They have lambs!  I was a little stressed about leaving last weekend to go camping because they were looking awfully close.  Luckily, they waited until I got home.  As soon as we pulled in I went to the barn to check on them and give them a little bit of food.  Rae-Ann came over and ate but Althea went in the opposite direction, to the corner of the barn – a pretty good indication that lambs are on their way.  Then nothing happened – not good!  I caught her up and evaluated the situation and decided to get my husband so that I could pull the lambs.  The first lamb was an adorable ewe lamb.  I went back to check for a second lamb and couldn’t find one, so I left her alone for a little while.  When I came back there was a very small, dead lamb and a big pile of goo.  It looks like this lamb died a few weeks ago and I am guessing that is what caused problems for the other lamb.  I am so glad that Althea and her ewe lamb are ok. 

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She is so cute…

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and so friendly.

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Her poor mother is not happy that she likes to be scratched and petted and loved on.  My son has named her Annie.

Shortly after helping Althea, Rae-Ann started pawing at the ground.  She continued to paw and paw and paw.  I checked on her through the night and still nothing was happening.  When she still hadn’t gone into labor the next day I caught her up and found that she had problems.  I couldn’t find the feet of the lamb anywhere and she wasn’t holding still for me to help her out.  So, I ran to the house and called a neighbor.  She arrived within minutes and assessed the situation with me.  Both lambs were trying to come out at the same time and both had their feet behind them!  She chose one to come out first and found the feet.  They were both big boys with very big heads. 

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Rae-Ann was relieved to have them on the ground and told us to go away 🙂

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Jacobs are supposed to have black patches around their eyes and they look a little funny when they are missing.  They are both growing on me though.

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Thanks for waiting for us to get home girls!

Our weekend at the river

Posted by kenleighacres on July 7, 2009
Posted in: family. Tagged: . 4 Comments

The weather was hot and the river was refreshing – who could ask for more!  Here is a view from our campsite…

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This part of the river is shallow and we walked for miles – up and down and back again.

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He had a great time 😉

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He wasn’t too sure about the deeper parts to begin with, but after a little bit of reassurance we couldn’t get him out of the water!

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Paisley, my whippet, made things a little interesting by tearing through her kennel on Friday afternoon.  Completely my fault, I usually bring the wire crate for her but forgot it this time.  Luckily, she was still contained in the camping trailer.

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Darby was more than happy to give her his crate 🙂 

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From this view, you can really see the big, flat rocks that make it possible to walk through the river without getting all the way wet.

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The rocks also make the perfect place for crawdads (crayfish) to live and hide.  The big net is for catching them.  They are surprisingly fast and fun to catch.

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Here is a close up of what they look like and yes, the pinchers do hurt!  We spent all day Saturday hunting for crawdads and ran into a small problem – where to keep them?

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Remember the kennel, it came in handy as a crawdad corral!

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It was perfect!  They had fresh running water and stayed fresh until dinner time.

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Yep, they ate them for dinner…

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and were super excited about it.

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For those of us that weren’t so excited, we had the option of some wonderful sausages. 

4 adults and 1 child ate 114 crawdads!!!  There is only about a nickle sized piece of meat in each one 🙂

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We enjoyed several walks and the foxgloves were in full bloom.

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We ate smores, watched some fireworks, sat around the campfire, and enjoyed each other’s company. 

I hope everyone else had a wonderful 4th of July!

Something doesn’t belong

Posted by kenleighacres on July 3, 2009
Posted in: Chickens, Ducklings. Tagged: , . 2 Comments

Look!!!  We have baby chicks.

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You may think it is the black one that doesn’t belong, but look closer…

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one of them is a baby duck 🙂

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The mama is being great to all of her adopted babies.  None of these babies are actually ‘hers’.  They are all from eggs from other hens.  She had her mind set on being broody and I felt bad for her, so I gave her some fertile eggs.  She has 5 chicks and 1 duckling.

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Baby chicks aren’t as fun to play with as ducklings, but he was still enjoying them.

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There’s a bunch of pretty colors – all the way from solid yellow to solid black.  I have no idea what they will turn out like, except for the duckling 🙂  All of the chicks are some sort of silkie cross – they are the best mamas.

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The whole family had to be moved because we have several camping trips on the calendar and the pen that the chickens are in isn’t chick proof.  They can fit through the smallest crack!  My brother made these off the ground pens for me when we had the raccoon attack.  I have two that are empty and they are the perfect place for a mama chicken and her brood.

Now that all of the babies are hatched and they are in a safe house it is time… 

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for…

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a…

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little…

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nap.

Have a great 4th of July everyone!

A new blog and a giveaway!

Posted by kenleighacres on July 1, 2009
Posted in: Felting, Fiber. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I have been struggling with promoting my fiber studio on this blog, I would like to keep it a little more personal and Wordpress does not support selling items, so I have started another blog over at Blogger.  In celebration of the new blog I am having a giveaway over there. 

Here is a hint…

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Join me at – Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio  

Favorites from the weekend

Posted by kenleighacres on June 29, 2009
Posted in: Dogs. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 5 Comments

I went to the race meets this weekend and had a great time.  SORCA (Southern Oregon Racing and Coursing Association) is a small club trying to get established and everyone is so nice.  I took pictures both days and enjoyed visiting with people I haven’t seen in awhile.  It was a little sad that Paisley couldn’t participate – she loves to run – but it isn’t safe for her to race after her accident. 

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I love seeing the hounds run!

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As you can see they certainly enjoy it.  These beautiful dogs are Salukis and came all the way from Redding, CA.

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The dogs ranged in size from these little Italian Greyhounds…

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all the way up to these guys. 

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They thundered down the field.  It was very impressive watching them – they are Scottish Deerhounds.

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This little girl is a Rhodesian Ridgeback and it was her first time running in competition.  She was a little confused and was looking for her mommy. 

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She had it figured out by the second day.

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This group of Whippets was a lot of fun to watch – they were very evenly matched and really pushed themselves.

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The Silken Windhounds were my favorite to watch.  They are about the size of a whippet and were created using the whippet, borzoi, and sheltie!  Quite the combination. 

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You can really see the sheltie influence in this little girl’s face.

The weather was beautiful and fun was had by all – not a bad weekend!

You can visit my photo website to see all of the pictures from the weekend.