Zaltana Anatolians

2011-08-21T17:37:00.000-07:00

Shopping Trip into Las Vegas,

Every 6 to 8 weeks I make a trip into Las Vegas to Costco to stock up on dog food and other items. From our house to Costco it takes just under 1 1/2 hours. It is a very scenic trip once I leave our little town behind. It takes me alongside the mountain range that we see from our house, with miles and miles of views of the open desert and the mountains on the other side. Then the trip takes me over the pass at Mt Potosi which is around 6000 feet, once I am over the pass it goes downhill on Blue Diamond Road with beautiful views of the Red Rock Canyon area. To get to Costco, I take the scenic Road through Red Rock Canyon as the Costco is just 5 minutes outside that area. None of those pictures were actually taken today, but I did see a few of the wild burros and it was as beautiful as ever.

Burros on the roadside. This is the road that goes through Red Rock Canyon National Preservation Area. Those same burros I actually saw today as I recognized this little group of a very dark male, a young male and a female, probably his mother. I took this and the next picture 6 weeks ago

A Jolla cactus

Nanuk next to a barrel cactus

Globe mallows in bloom

Close up of Globe Mallows.

I am not sure but I believe these are called Desert Anemone

Burros browsing along the roadside

Burro hidden in the bushes

Mother and youngster in winter coat. The ones I saw today had a beautiful shiny sommer coat. Makes me wonder how they have such a sleek, shiny coat with nobody brushing them or feeding them anything special.

Years ago I was hiking alone in this area and out of nowhere a herd of burros appeared and I was quite surrounded by burros who looked at me rather demanding for food. I never feed burros and I didn't carry anything with me that I could have given them, I couldn't leave as they where all around me, so I picked up a few rocks and threw them away from me in the opposite direction of where I needed to go, they all headed for the rocks hoping I had tossed them some goodies, and I headed quickly the other way.

this picture was taken when the first morning sun hit the mountains, note the shade in the foreground which receded as the sun rose higher.

another early morning picture

another one

a little bit later the same morning

same area as the light keeps changing

pretty yellow flowers

bush with blue flowers in foreground

I love our desert, there is a lot of beauty if one looks a bit closer

this was in early summer when everything was green after some spring rains

2011-06-20T18:25:00.000-07:00

Nanuk's 10 th Birthday

Nanuk celebrated his 10th birthday yesterday. He is still very active and he is still my very valued property guardian, nothing escapes him, wether it's a neighbor going for a ride or a raven flying too low or a loose dog on the horizon.
I am happy to say that up until now he has been pretty healthy with only some minor issues. He has had some issues with what I believe his knees for many years but it had not really slowed him down, the only time it is noticable is when he wants to lie down, it takes him a while to get into the right position to lower himself, but he has no problems getting up. Last fall we started him on an NSAID medication to help with pain and inflammation and it has made a difference in his overall activity level, I also give him at least 6 fishoil capsules a day and we have recently started giving him Adequan shots, I hope to maintain his mobility with this regimen together with keeping him lean and plenty of exercise.

here he is a bit miffed because I made him get up from the porch and he wants to lie down again, he wouldn't stand for me nicely, so here is a pic of him in the process of lying down again. He still has a gorgeous coat and good muscle tone. Yesterday was a windy day and once again I brushed out mountains of undercoat, it's amazing how much hair is on a dog. So now Nanuk looks a bit slimmer than he did in the winter even though his weight is still the same 114 lbs.
2 weeks ago we started him on thyroid hormone replacement therapy as his thyroid level was low. It has made quite a difference in his level of alertness. The changes I had seen were very subtle and I had written them off to old age since we were already giving him pain meds, so I knew it wasn't pain. We had done labwork back in October and I had been told everything was okay, but I hadn't seen the results myself, so wasn't aware that his thyroid level was very low normal. We went for a walk today and compared to how he was about 4 weeks ago when it was actually cooler, he was a lot more spiffy and investigating and trotting a lot more than last time when he just ambled along much slower. I am very pleased with this improvement. I really want him to have a quality of life more than anything else. And having the energy to enjoy life is part of that. Me and the vet suspect that it is not his thyroid that is causing the low level but something else, however we don't know that for sure, so I will just keep a close eye on him and we will repeat labwork in a few months and see if anything else comes up out of normal, but in October everything else was fine.

He is such a beautiful boy. For a while I was feeding him foods with grain again and had a really hard time with him having eye stains. As this pictures shows, he does not have a problem with this anymore since I have been feeding him just the grainfree foods and raw foods like turkey necks and chicken parts. I am making my own yoghurt and kefir and so he gets that too as well as raw eggs. This seems to be working for him. Since he started on the thyroid meds he has also taken to climbing into bed with me again. Really interesting, before he would just curl up on his bed, now when I go to bed he comes over and lets me know he wants to come up, so for an hour or so he will sleep up on the bed, then he usually goes outside to watch for coyotes.

Here is hoping that in 4 or 5 months when the weather cools down we can go for a few more hikes in the mountains together.

2011-01-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

Coyote and snow pictures # 2,

Another shot of our beautiful Mt Charleston

Our road, this is what I look at every day when I come home from work

low clouds in the foothills

Cici out for a walk

A pretty rock I found. Now here is the story behind it. Where I often walk my dogs there are usually no cars, but on that day there was a car coming up on one end, so I veered off and went a slightly different route, then they came my way again, so I was a bit p.......d off that I couldn't have a walk without these people driving around disturbing my walk, so as I was walking across the desert to avoid the car, I came across this rock. It calmed my anger about the people disturbing our walk, I wouldn't have found this rock if I didn't have to take a hike through this part of the desert because of those people.

On another walk with Nanuk and Ayla I spotted this coyote. It was actually pretty close, maybe 80 feet from us when I first noticed it. The only reason the dogs didn't notice was that I actually stopped walking before I even noticed the coyote and the dogs looked at me to figure out why I stopped, in that moment the coyote popped out of the bushes and headed away from us, I tried to keep the dogs focused on me because I wanted to take a picture of the coyote and didn't want the dogs to go crazy, but by the time I got the camera ready to shot it had already moved way out and at that point the dogs saw it too.

Here is another shot of wild canine. A couple months ago I was driving and saw some coyotes running across the street, I drove to where I saw them to get a closer look when I noticed it was two coyotes chasing a rabbit. As I came closer the rabbit ran across the street right in front of me. Another car came from the other direction, the coyotes stopped to let the car go by (pretty smart), then ran across the road to continue their chase, of course the rabbit was nowhere to be seen. The coyotes stopped and looked my way. That look said it all "those darn cars cost us our breakfast".

Ayla and Nanuk observing the coyote

they were standing there for about 5 minutes watching, I couldn't see the coyote anymore, I have no idea if they still saw it or where just keeping an eye on where they last saw it

Ayla

Ayla, almost 5 1/2 years old, time goes by too fast

Nanuk, drooling

chicken in the snow

these were some more pics in the snow, taken the same day as the other snow pictures right after New Year. Prince and Sammie playing

Sam wrinkles her nose, the lip curls slightly

more nose wrinkling and lip curling from Sammie as Prince is pushing her buttons

now her hackles are up, she is ready to pretend she is mad

she gives him the look

and there is sweet little Sammie looking like she is mad

Prince loves to run

Sam running

there they go on a wild chase

interestingly, Sammie doesn't even eat half as much as Prince does and has a tendency to put on weight, while Prince is always really skinny, he always gets to eat as much as he wants, on Sam I have to restrict it.

happy Princey, I love to see him so happy running around

Sammie girl,

close up of the ticking on her muzzle

Prince

Prince is ready to play

looking regal in the snow

Princey boy

2011-01-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

Snow in the Valley,

In the afternoon after New Years day clouds started moving in and then it started to snow. By 9 at night the ground was covered. Nanuk was so happy he had to roll around in it

Teddy coming out of the dark as it snows

this is what it looked like before I went to bed

we all had fun in the snow that night

Well Whitney stayed inside on her high spot where she sleeps every night

the goats stayed out of the snow and sat in their warm and dry straw

this what it looked like when we woke up, it was still snowing too

Ayla running towards me

still running with the ears flapping

got several good shots of Cici running too

here the two of them had a little standoff

Nanuk is really the peacemaker, he saw the standoff and he started the "hey let's play" action

Nanuk was very happy in the snow

Nothing like a Great Pyrenees in the snow, just looks so pretty

he likes eating snow

the chickens were not thrilled

My 2 Golden Laced Wyandottes didn't seem to mind the snow as much as the others

it was fun to have some snow for once

Enya in all her glory

Teddy headshot

Teddy had a really thick coat, it's really easy care, impossible to brush or comb, it's best left alone. Only at shedding time I am able to brush out some of it.

Another headshot of Teddy

Kobi was just running and running in the snow, must have felt like home to him, he came from the cold North

I was happy to see him having so much fun in the snow

Enya and Kobi

isn't he cute? Thankfully he is a little dog, because he likes to run up full speed and then slam into me.

he was barking furiously at the noise from snow falling off the bushes

Souzie looked at the snow with dismay, she did not go outside

Cici

This is Leydi, she grew up in Florida, so I am sure the only snow she has ever seen were the few times here in our valley. This was funny because she ran out of the house

but when Ayla came running straight at her Leydi turned direction, perfect calming signal

Leydi thinking of some mischief

Ayla and Leydi playing

And then Leydi got the zoomies and took of running like a puppy

she did several laps around the place when she was in zoomie mode

Ayla peaking out from the ditch

then she went underground

just a little bit of the tail is visible

gone

then she heard somebody barking and came out to see what was going on

and here she jumps into action, note the muddy paws

Ayla way ahead of Nanuk, they were running after a raven who dared flying overhead

Nanuk seems very pleased with himself to have run off the raven

he loves to eat snow

those pics were taken before the snow, this is Cici

Nanuk running off another raven, he actually responds to "birdie" and if I point in the direction of the bird he responds to that too

Cici was a bit cranky here and Nanuk tries to get her to play. He has done that a lot with Simba in the past, when she was trying to attack him, he would just act like a playful puppy and she would leave him alone.

Ayla and Cici

Cici is filling out nicely

Full speed

the two of them playing, Cici is the master of play bows

they both love a good wrestling game

Nanuk digging at the cave site

trying to get into the tunnel from the top of the hill

picture of the chickens having a party at the muddy puddle. I don't know what it is about chickens, I have 4 clean water containers sitting out at all times, two of them are heated so the water is never freezing cold, but when I empty out a bucket they all come running to drink the dirty muddy water like it's a special treat. I try my best to avoid creating puddles, but this just doesn't make sense that they are so crazy about drinking dirty water.

Enya out for a walk

Enya

another one of Enya looking into the distance

Teddy, he loves going for walks and he is so sweet and walks very well with me

something got his attention

2010-12-26T22:49:00.000-08:00

Sunset on Christmas Day,

the following pictures were all taken from our property on the evening of Christmas Day. Just before the sun disappeared below the horizon the low sun created a stunning view of Mt Charleston and the surrounding mountains. One can see that the valley is already in the shadow of the mountains on the other side of the valley while the mountain is still getting the sunlight.

2010-11-21T14:02:00.000-08:00

Tumbleweeds and Craters

A raven flying close by taking advantage of the windy day

a couple weeks ago on a very windy day I took the dogs for walks, I spend much of my walk with Prince and Sam thinking about the tumbleweeds. Our winds sometimes come from the North and at other times from the South, no such thing as "the prevailing winds". I have seen the wind blown hard from the North for hours, then it stops and an hour later the wind blows just as hard from the South. So before we had our first frost I noticed that we had a lot of tumbleweeds growing and I wondered why there are so many this year. Well, here is the answer, it seems like after the first frost the tumbleweed bushes get very brittle, and then they just sit tight until the windstorms come. The wind then breaks the little stem that connects the tumbleweed with the roots and off it goes. The above picture shows a fence that has become an unsurmountable obstacle for the tumbleweeds, they are piling up against the fence. This year we didn't have enough rain for the tumbleweeds to reach their full potential, so they are rather small, just 3 to 4 feet in diameter. Usually they are more like 4 to 5 feet and last year there were a lot of really big ones, they could be seen for quite a distance as they tumbled across the desert. Of course the bigger they are the more they catch the wind and they can travel quite fast.

here is an airborne tumbleweed coming towards us. Note the round shape, perfect for bouncing along with the wind. As they bounce across the desert, pieces of the now dry and brittle tumbleweed break off and that's how they must spread their seeds. For anybody not familiar with tumbleweeds, they are nasty, thorny bushes, can't pick them up without getting some of those thorns painfully stuck in the fingers. I try to rid our property off them as best as I can.

here is a smaller one tumbling across a road.

Teddy and Enya sitting on the little hill on the corner of our property

Leydi standing and Cici lying down

Cici on the ground, Leydi and Ayla mock-biting her

Cici and Ayla play very well together

Ayla was 5 years old in August, Cici will be 3 next week

Prince sitting in my car ready to go for a walk

"Who dug that hole"?

Cici and Ayla next to the newest excavation site

Nanuk sits next to the crater which is connected by a tunnel to the hole in the foreground, the crater is big enough for Nanuk to disappear below the surface of the surrounding area

Nanuk near the crater after digging in it

view of the crater, it's about 3 feet deep and the inside diameter is about 5 feet

Prince loves to sit in this spot, it is smack in the middle of this side of the property, he sat in this spot at 9 weeks old prior to me selling him, he still thinks this is the best place to sit, 160 feet from the front and the back fences. He will be 3 years old next week.

2010-10-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for winter in the High Desert,

Enya enjoys her refurnished "dog bed", we have had the turtle for a long time, used it for the pups when they were little, used it for the chickens, now I am using it again for the dogs. They love to curl up in it when I put some blankets inside.

first snow on the mountain, the leaves are still green, last week the temperature dropped below freezing in the early morning hours, but not long enough to kill the leaves yet

the chickens love the new water setup, the small cooler is small enough for me to take back to the house in the evening and in the morning I bring it back out filled with lukewarm water so the chickens don't have to drink ice cold water after a night of freezing temps. I also got a heated water bucket for the chickens and one for the goats, so I shouldn't have to carry around a lot of hot water this winter.

We get lots of cold windy days in the winter, with the wind coming from all different directions except for the Northeast direction. So I have wind breaking cloth up all over the place so depending on which way the wind comes the chickens have a place to get out of the wind

I put two layers of plastic over the chicken door entrance to keep out rain and drafts.

plastic tarp over the feeding station, the corner behind it protects from winds coming from the South and Southwest

feeding station protected mostly from the North and Northwest, the left part of it is filled with straw so they can take a break from the wind if needed. A few weeks ago I started spreading straw in the chicken areas. Throughout the summer I had taken all the ground cover out and had just the bare soil, but this wasn't working very well, anytime it got wet the ground gets very slippery and the bare soil doesn't hold he moisture well except for getting really slimy and muddy. We recently had several days of rain and the straw worked out very well to keep everything in good shape. I am just going to add more straw to it little by little to allow it to break down as the chickens turn it over and over.

lots of wind breaks on my original coop area, I just put some more up, so this is a place they have lots of protection from high winds

the new water station as seen above, in the winter things don't dry up as well as in the summer, so I set the water container on a wooden platform so the chickens won't have to stand in water or cold mud to get a drink

the area to the left where the fence posts are on the ground and the flower pots is my future vegetable garden. The area is about 60 feet long (20 meters) and 10 feet wide (3 meters). It is fenced off so none of my critters can't get to it. Anything that is not edible for us can immediately go to the chickens and if I give them occasional supervised access they should be able to keep the numbers of bugs down I hope.

Sam patrolling the chicken yard

Teddy squeezed himself into the new revived turtle doggie bed

Teddy all pleased with himself, when I move any blanket, he immediately wants to be on it, so here he feels he won the war over the blanket. I sure can't move it anymore once he puts his weight on it

here is Enya posing on the new doggie bed in the making

I have gotten a bunch of iglus and other dog houses, but usually my dogs prefer to sit in the open, this old door frame has been a favorite for a few years, so I brought it up next to the house and put some new blankets in there, Enya is rather happy with it.

we moved this shade structure away from the house and I covered it with plastic to waterproof it. I put new straw bales on the North and South side of it to provide some protection from the wind, then I put a bunch of fresh soft straw inside, so far the dogs love it

2010-10-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Tortoise, a house chicken and apple thieves,

Look at our visitor the Desert Tortoise, for easier writing I will call it a turtle, even when officially this is a tortoise. So this turtle caused quite a stir one Saturday morning. I had noticed the night before that Enya spent a lot of time near the fence in the back of the property but because it was getting dark, I couldn't really see what was going on. Since she has been chasing a squirrel that keeps running around in the dog run I assumed she had killed the squirrel and is hiding it under the bushes. So in the morning I locked up all the dogs and went out to investigate the area and much to my surprise I found this turtle stuck under the fence with a huge hole dug on the inside where the dogs were trying to get at the turtle. I was sure it was dead as I didn't see anything moving and it was stuck under the fence. So I went outside and walked around on the outside of the fence to where the turtle was. I pulled it out and much to my surprise it was unharmed.

So here it was, still covered with some dirt and with some greens to eat, which it did munch on and then pooped.

these creatures have strange looking feed, kinda like elephants.

they can actually move quite fast once they get going. What strange creatures they are. They lay eggs like a bird or an alligator. Also interesting to me is that the same kind of animal also lives in water. Not a lot of animals who come in a land and a water variety. Mammals normally live on land, only the whales and dolphins really live in the water and never come on land (I think), and few reptiles live in water as well.

I took the turtle to the North of us to the Tortoise Conservation area to release it. Here is starts moving around in its new home, I would have loved to keep it, but I really didn't have the time and resources to create a tortoise habitat to accomodate this critter.

marching off into the sunset, I hope it found a new cave somewhere to sleep.

Sam posing with Whitney. I have hand raised this little hen since she was 3 weeks old. She is now almost 5 months old. For some reason at 3 weeks she could not eat on her own anymore, she was completely congested with thick mucous in her mouth, I tube fed her and medicated her thinking she was just sick, but it cleared up pretty quick once I gave her fluids, but she still couldn't eat on her own to stay alive. So I tube fed her 3 to 4 times a day for several months, she would eat a bit of cooked noodles and some water melon, but just not enough to keep her alive. She lived inside all summer, walked around with me outside occasionally. I hoped that once it gets cooler and I could put her outside more she would learn from the other chickens to eat other foods. So for the last 3 weeks I have been putting her outside for part of the day in a separate pen to keep her safe from the other chickens, I fed them close to her pen so she could see them eat. Over the last 2 weeks she has been eating more on her own as she watched the other chickens and now for the last few days I have not tube fed her anymore and she is able to eat on her own. the last 2 days she has even started to eat regular chicken food. I have been letting her mingle with the other chickens with supervision as they do not like her, which is normal for chickens. It's not easy for a single hen to get integrated, she has no group that she belongs to as her "sisters" are not very nice to her at all. While this has been slow going, she has made steady progress and seeing her eat normal chicken food and once yesterday I even saw her eat from the bowl all he others are eating from, I am hoping that she will be able to live with the flock eventually. The last 2 days they haven't been chasing her so much anymore, so they are getting used to her. I still have her sleeping inside. Next weekend I will be on call again, so that will slow things down again, but hopefully by the weekend after next I can start leaving her outside at night to sleep with the flock. Right now she thinks she needs to come in the house at night and I made the mistake of letting her follow me back to the house when it gets dark instead of putting her into a carrier. So last night she ran up to the back door all by herself screaming for me to let her in the house when it was getting dark. I don't know if this breed, Welsummers, goes broody, if she does, I am thinking about putting a few eggs under her to hatch out so she will have a little family of her own to hang out with, since in my experience chickens do not form friendships with chickens outside of the group they have been raised with. I am even noticing that if I only have one of a breed in a group that it never really belongs, the ones I have 2 of, tend to hang out with each other, interesting how chickens of the same breed within a group seem to hang out with the one of the same breed.

Sam and Whitney. Sam is so sweet with her, she really enjoys her little chicken friend

Leyid sitting with Ayla, my guess is she was the one who actually stole the apple, then somehow Ayla got a hold of it and Leydi is hoping that Ayla will give it up.

Ayla eating an apple. Next year I have to fence off the apple trees even better as the dogs still managed to steal a lot of them. They sit there and eat them, but they really can't digest them, so later I always find piles of thrown up apple pieces all over the yard. They chickens love it.

This little bunny was sitting under my plum tree and didn't seem to be concerned about me at all. They are very small actually and fit through the openings of the chain link fence.

Prince is not so sure about the chicken walking up from behind.

While Prince is lying behind the crate, Whitney goes to check out the crate, she often goes inside to groom herself

Prince and Whitney,

There comes Whitney, she has no fear of the dogs, today when Prince drank from the water bucket she walked right up to him to see what he was doing. Prince was a bit put off at first and looked at the nosey chicken, but she wasn't going to back off, so he kept on drinking with her gawking at what was happening, it was really funny to watch how she was so curious about it.

2010-08-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

More pictures of the dogs,

Teddy, still my handsome boy, I love that lighter color of the eyes

Teddy is the only one of he youngsters who really loves it when I toss him a toy for him to retrieve, he comes back with it too, though he doesn't bring it to me, just comes close enough for me to give him a treat and then I toss the toy again. I usually do it 4 to 5 times and then stop while he is still having fun.

he has 3 or 4 toys that I can toss pretty far, he loves it when those kong throw toys bounce all over the place.

this one is a favorite

Enya, she likes being outside and I often find her outside sitting in a shady and grassy area even when it is hot outside and everybody else hangs out inside. The flies don't seem to bother her.

My "Zwetschgen" (German plum), are almost ripe, the birds have been pecking for the last few weeks. I have been eating some here and there but they are not ripe enough yet to really taste good.

Teddy running, he has actually grown out nicely and is a lot faster and agile than I expected him to be, as a pup he was rather clumsy and couldn't keep up. Today I saw him racing from one end to the other and it looked so effortless and he was so fast and I was thinking he could cover a lot more ground without much effort.

Two curly tails, Teddy to the right and Enya on the left.

Cici in front of one of the new dog houses we got recently, this one I got for free on Freecycle. the previous owners were moving and didn't have room to take it with them. I hope the dogs will use it, when it gets colder I will put some blankets inside, or maybe I use straw or hay, not sure yet, I am also not sure how this will hold up to rain especially if it the wind blows the rain against the sides. This "log cabin" is actually rather flimsy built, it'snot near as sturdy as it looks. If the dogs like it but it isn't rain proof I might have to make some improvements to it.

Nanuk and the girls, everybody else has relaxed, Nanuk is the only one still looking at whatever got them upset somewhere in the distance

Nanuk is still looking to the far corner to make sure whatever got his attention stays away

The girls, Cici on he left, Leydi in the middle and Ayla to the right

the following pictures are all of Cici, she still gets along with everybody and annoys her momma by always getting right in her face then she rolls on her back and paws at Leydi until Leydi decides she had enough and either turns away or leaves

This is Leydi sprinting towards the fence

Ayla turned 5 years old on Wednesday. She hasn't changed much, she is always the star with visitors. She is very good in letting somebody know what she wants. I had a new lady this week to help me clean and she said when I left the room for a while Ayla kept going to the counter where the hot dogs were and sat pretty and looked at the hot dogs. She said it was very clear what Ayla wanted. Ayla does well in the heat and is a good guardian for the chickens and goats.

Nanuk is a bit over 9 years old and this picture was taken about a week or so ago before he blew his coat. We had a bit of a cooler wind today and I brushed him out, he looks half the size now.

Ayla all grown up

Ayla is not very big, just about 85 lbs, but she is fast and agile and pretty laid back

2010-08-12T14:21:00.000-07:00

Summer on the Farm,

Here is Barbie, she is my young Delaware hen, same as Pearl below, Barbie is huge and being only 6 months old her feathers are just brilliant white

This was Barbie in June, same hen as above, note how small and pale the comb was

my two younger Buff Orpington hens

another group of hens resting in the shade, July was a very hot months with temps over 110 degrees for several weeks and at night it often didn't go below 85, the last few nights have been in the 50s and this morning I put on a jacket because it was a bit chilly, of course it warmed up and in the afternoon it was blazing hot again and I had to turn on he misters for the chickens

hens taking a break under a tree

this is what the plum tree looked like before I took down all the plums, these are Santa Rosa plums but they were very small, this was the first year this tree has produced any fruit worth talking about, so I am not sure if the size is due to the tree being so young or if there were too many plums and not enough nutrients and water for them.

the apples, one tree I have harvested a couple weeks ago, I waited a bit too long and the apples were rather sweet, the chickens really liked them

Pearl my 3 1/2 year old Delaware hen, she is the top hen around here, she has been going very strong ever since her illness last year, and she continues to give me about 2 eggs a week, sometimes 3, her comb and wattles have grown rather large, she is pretty heat tolerant.

One of my Buckeye pullets, she laid her first little brown shiny egg today

I got lots of plums this year, most of them went into the freezer, I was glad I only have one tree, I picked a bucket full on several days until the tree was empty and only a little left for the birds

Here comes Ayla, she is 5 years old this month

She is moving towards Nanuk here and I caught a nice sequence of male and female interaction

so here is Nanuk, he is 9 years old now, he greets Ayla who likes him a lot

they both make happy faces, tails are relaxed

Nanuk thinks he can get a bit frisky

but Ayla didn't think so, note Nanuk's corner of the mouth and the ears, very submissive body language, and Nanuk has the habit to act playful if a female gets a bit "bitchy", that works every time

look at his mouth and their tails, both are on friendly terms, he is still trying to win her over

still trying, now Ayla gets her little look of "don't you dare"

here he is getting the cold shoulder treatment, he hasn't given up yet

Cici on the left and her momma Leydi on the right

Prince at 2 1/2 years old, he was 119 lbs and just under 33 inches tall

Prince recently got his hips certified with OFA and got an excellent rating, he also had his thyroidfunction checked which is normal and a local orthopedic vet reviewed his elbows, wrists and knees and found everything okay, so yay, I am very happy to know that all his joints are in good working order and that the strange movements I am seeing from the accident and surgery he had as a pup have not affected his joints.

Hackles up, keeping an eye on the happenings in the neighborhood

here he was peeing while keeping an eye on whatever it was that had his attention,

and off he goes again

Prince looking at the situation standing in the cool grass and shade of the tree, this was a 110 degree day, so he wasn't too thrilled having to deal with some neighborhood issue

these pictures were taken in June and I don't remember what had Prince so upset that day

Prince at 2 1/2 years old

here comes Sam

This must be the first nice picture of Samantha standing with her head up

the flighty little Silver Spangled Hamburg pullet. She is so small compared to the others, but such a pretty little thing, I knew this was a small breed, but I didn't realize they are as small as they are

I have the gates to the goat pen propped open so the chickens can squeeze through, but not the goats. This allows the chickens to go everywhere. This year has been a lot better with the flies, the fly predators didn't work for us, my guess is because of too many neighbors with livestock and also I had a lot of the fly traps up which have a fly attractant in them. So this year, no fly traps, I have put a metered sprayer in my barn and some insecticide strips in the smaller shelters so if flies go in there they should get killed. Additionally I keep the goat area swept once or twice a week and what I do is I have 3 little heaps of dropped hay and manure and the goats mostly go to those areas to pee and oftentimes poop there too. The dry ground doesn't attract the flies too much and the chickens keep those manure piles turned over and checked for fly maggots. And it has not rained for a long time, my guess is that if it would start raining the flies would multiply quickly. So I am hoping it won't rain.

2010-05-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

Almost 2 1/2 years old,

Sam is a sweet and quiet girl. She loves the goats and chickens and her playfulness as a puppy with them has really turned into her being very sweet with them. We just got some new chicks and she always goes up to their crate and looks at them in a way like she knows they are babies and she just wants to say hi.

Here she saw a lizzard and would have liked to investigate

out for a walk, Prince is the tallest of the pack, but he is a lighter built than Teddy, has a light built as well. Here we are out for a walk a couple miles from where we live.

Prince, he is starting to fill out now, his body is getting a bit wider now, it was about time to leave the emaciated greyhound look behind. He still eats more than any of the others.

Prince with a big smile on his face, he loves to go for walks,

Tails! I do prefer the curly tail look in Anatolians. I hadn't paid much attention to the tails in the past until I had this litter and noticed all the little curly tails, their mother doesn't have such a tight curl and my Ayla doesn't really curl hers.

coming out from behind the bushes

Cici is very happy here because we are ready to go for a walk, she likes going for walks too, well, they all do, except Ayla and Leydi who don't care for car rides.

Cici

Enya

Enya is a very happy dog

Enya making a funny face and doing a bow because she wants a treat

Teddy with his big dog look

Teddy is just too handsome

another shot of Enya looking happy,

Teddy

Enya has a big chest, she and Cici have the same markings

he isn't just handsome, he is also photogenic. He is such an obedient dog, it is amazing to me how he turned out. He is so funny, if he sees me pointing the camera at him, he won't move, he has totally figured this out that he needs to hold still and then he gets a treat when I took a picture

The smaller Cici on the left and big sister Enya to the right, unfortunately they can't be together because Enya is not very tolerant of other females, note their identical white markings. Enya has mellowed out a bit and isn't much interested anymore to yell at her sisters through the fence, as long as there is a fence she actually acts quite nice.

Cici

Cici and Enya again

2010-05-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

Critter stories,

When my chickens have the run of the property and I come outside they usually all come running in the hope for treats. Doesn't matter how much good stuff to eat they already have, they are always hoping for something more and better.

two of my Black Jersey Giants, this is the largest breed of chickens and these girls are huge. I still haven't figured out a good way to pick these big girls up, as for one they are not very cooperative and two they are so big I can't get a good hold of them. One of them is a broody maniac who has already gone broody 3 times in the last 6 months.

This is my biggest Buff Orpington, she is a year old, the other one I got at the same time is about half her size.

One of the Barred Rocks cooling down in the wading pool. As it is heating up now, I am setting up several of those in the chicken area. The next 4 months will be very hot and I try to prevent losing any of my chickens to the heat. I have put some cooling pads into the nest boxes that will hopefully prevent them from overheating while they are laying their eggs

all 4 of my Plymoth Barred Rock hens, they look a bit disheveled because the rooster I had did some damage and also the hens get into it with each other sometimes, they should look great after their first molt this coming winter.

size comparison, the two California White pullets in the background are 10 wks old. What's funny is that each year our resident Coach Whip Snake causes quite a stir with the new chicks who haven't seen the snake yet. Just like last year, I came out yesterday and I heard the telltale noise from the pullets that something is not quite right, sure enough, all 5 were standing in front of the snake and being rather unsettle about it. The snake took it in stride and moved on once the chickens left her alone. This is the same snake I have been seeing around here for the last 3 years, it seems to spend the nights under the barn and then comes out and hunts during the day.

this is Chica, my smallish Buff Orpington, she knows I always give her special treats or a extra bowl of treats because for some reason she cannot pick small items that are scattered, she always misses what she is trying to eat, so if there is a bowl of something it's not a problem as even when she misses what she tries to get, if there is enough of it she will get something. She always follows me around in the hope for some extra treats

this is a little Mourning Dove sitting on two eggs that should hatch pretty soon. the only reason I am aware of the nest is that I noticed it when the leaves fell off the tree last fall, my guess is she is returning to the same nest. This tree is in the goat pen, so the little chicks will be pretty safe when they leave the nest.

nice hidden spot

she rarely gets off the nest even when I go and look at her

Moqui has been doing pretty good lately, her little belly is quite round these days

here she is munching on some nice hay, I am also giving the goats fresh branches as I am trimming some of the trees

Maya likes to dig a little ditch to lay in

resting in the shade

we cleaned out the garage and I wanted to get rid of the old desk, I figured the desk would actually make a nice platform for the goats, the seem to like it and I often find Moqui or Maya sitting on top of it our under it, we bought this desk used about 15 years ago, it's pretty sturdy, lets see how long it lasts outdoors

Millie is fat, she checks out the new little platform I put into their pen this weekend

I have reduced how much food I put out for Misty, Milo and Millie as they are all overweight, I hope I can get them to trim down soon

3 salt blocks, they last forever, I got the blue one from the lady who sold me my first goats, doesn't look like it will be used up any time soon

2010-03-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

Happenings from 2 weeks ago,

I took a lot of pictures a couple weeks ago but haven't had time to post them, so here they are,

Cici always finds some special places to sit, I got a weight on Cici a few weeks ago, she was 2 years old in December, her weight is 98 lbs now, I was really surprised as she is kind of smallish, she must have heavy bones and she is all muscle

here is the crate with the blanket all spread out.

here is the same blanket in the morning after Cici slept in there, I guess she wanted a pillow for her head, she did a great job with it. By the way, some of the dogs sleep in crates, but I don't tell them to sleep there and I don't close the doors to the crates, they just like a secure place

Nanuk hanging out in the kitchen with me, he will be 9 years old soon, I noticed he slowed down a bit, so for the last 2 months I have given him fish oil capsules, Vit E, MSM and glucosamine/chondroitin regularly and fairly high doses. He now initiates playing with Enya and recently he is even agreeable to play with Teddy. Nanuk weighs around 110 lbs, Teddy now weighs 125 lbs and is a little over 2 years old. Enya weight 116 lbs a few weeks ago. She is a big girl.

This was a rare moment, Sam, Leydi and Prince were all sitting on the blanket together, just before I took the picture Prince was actually sitting in the same pose as his mother and sister. He weighed 119 lbs this week.

Another one of Cici's favorite places to sit.

Ayla and Prince, Ayla's ears are in "happy" position. Prince wasn't so sure about this sudden friendliness of Ayla, she usually bullies him around.

Everybody is howling when the firetruck drives around with the sirens on.

I am almost done re-painting all the animal houses. I was really lucky this time with my choice of color, this color is absolutely perfect and when we get around to paint our house and the garage this will be the color to use. So maybe one day all our building will be the same color

Another one of the dog houses. Nanuk likes to sit in this one when it rains, he prefers the dog house over sitting in the house.

and there is Cici again, why sit on the dog bed if she can sit on the cubes she seems to think. I have even found her sitting on one of those chairs one time.

About 2 weeks ago I woke up to clouds that looked like it would snow, well, not long after I let the chickens out it started snowing

And it just kept snowing, here is Prince with a few snow flakes on his head

And it continued to snow, the dogs thought this was really starting to be fun

Here are Teddy and Enya with snow flakes on their fur

And the snow just kept coming until everything was covered with a thick layer of heavy snow. The temperature never went below the freezing point, so I knew the snow wouldn't last too long

Ayla and Cici had great fun romping in the snow

Nanuk felt right at home, he grew up in Vermont and when he sees snow he acts like a little puppy

that day I spoke to somebody who has lived here for over 20 years, he said he had never seen so much snow here. , one can see in this picture that Nanuk's paws are well covered with snow.

Lot's of excitement for Nanuk

Ayla and Cici

The sky was really wintery and everything was covered with snow, in the forground one can see that the areas with the rocks the snow started melting pretty quickly because it wasn't really cold enough for the snow.

2010-01-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

Kobi the mouse killer,

Kobi killed another mouse, this time I actually remembered to take pictures, please note the mouse is already dead in all 3 pics. The mouse was in the closet and Kobi grabbed it as it tried to escape, the mouse never made one peep, it must be instant death the way he grabbs them. He then ran off with it to his perch on the chair. He doesn't eat them, he just picks them up a few more times and then loses interest. I always feel bad for the mice when he or the chickens kill one, I think mice and rats are very cute and I used to keep pet mice and rats. However these aren't pets, they are pests that invade our space and create a lot of extra work for me cleaning up after them and having to store everything in mouseproof containers and out of reach.

2010-01-25T19:40:00.000-08:00

Mid January in Southern Nevada,

Prince proudly sits in the middle of all the remnants of a stuffed toy

Leydi looking out from the dog house. All the dogs love this dog house, they stay in it even when it rains all day, so this is apparently a design they like

Kobi doing the bow

Kobi

excavations around the dog house, I moved the dog house as the ground under it was just about to collapse

Teddy getting in front of Nanuk to do his submissive thing, he does that many times a day, I guess that's what's keeping the peace between these two intact males

Teddy doing his famous buttswing right into Nanuk's face, good thing that Nanuk is so patient

Teddy still pestering Nanuk for attention

Teddy literally kissing up to Nanuk

Nanuk also likes to dig, he is 8 1/2 now

Enya in the crater behind Teddy

Enya coming out of the crater

Enya and Teddy

Prince checking out the cave entrance, Ayla behind him

starting to go underground

Prince on his way down into the cave, Ayla looking on

almost gone, only the tail is still visible

Prince is underground, not even the tail is showing anymore, Ayla is still looking

backing out of the cave

here he is re-emerging

here he is

it's so nice to look at the snow and not having to drive in it

this is how tall those pine trees have grown in just 4 years, the fence is 6 feet tall and right behind the trees

Another awsome view of our mountains

Sammie, the pretty Ballerina

When Sammie comes running towards me it's always in a very bouncy and puppyish style

Sammie

Prince taking a drink after all the running he did

Sammie

Prince turns out to be such a good looking dog

Isn't he handsome?

here comes "momma-dog" Leydi,

Prince trotting

Prince looking serious

Prince

Sammie, I still call her the Ballerina, she is so elegant in her movement, such a pretty girl

Sammie and Prince, this was taken in the morning after a rain, the dogs kept running from one end to the property to the other, as something was going on, on both sides, so they were racing back and forth, always amazes me how much stamina these dogs have

Prince racing through the mud

Sammie on the left, Leydi in the middle and Prince to the right, one can easily see on this picture how much bigger than his mother he is, love those curly tails

Momma Leydi in the middle, Prince to the right, Cici to the left

Nanuk and Enya out for a walk, Enya at 2 years old now weighs exactly the same as my male Great Pyrenees, 115 lbs, she is a bit taller than he is

Enya taking a peak over the hill

to the right is the Northeast corner of our fence, I love the view of the mountains

on the right is Cici, to her left her momma Leydi

The sun is setting behind us and her last rays cast long shadows

one of the doggie caves, a very steep slope going down, this is the one Prince went into on the earlier pictures

After sunset

After the sunset the white mountain has a background of steel gray sky

2010-01-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

Farm happenings and puppies are 2 years old,

Maya and Moqui enjoying the warm winter sun

Sam and Millie checking out what's in the bucket.

Sam is such a little doll, I still call her the ballerina because she has such a dancy step to her. She is fast and very agile. When she plays with Prince she often just runs in circles around him like a little puppy. She is such a sweet dog, very affectionate and mild mannered.

Samantha, she was really an experiment as she was so crazy about the chickens as a puppy. She still is, but she has been very sweet and appropriate with them. When I take her with me to see the chickens she is all wiggly and greets them like long-lost friends. She still likes to startle them when she is behind the fence, but when she is close-up with them she never does that.

Samantha

Teddy

Group picture: Teddy, Cici, Leydi and Nanuk

Teddy and Nanuk, Teddy continues to pay his respects to Nanuk all the time. He still gets in his face though and blocks Nanuk with his butt. I really need to get a video camera to film these two

Teddy, he is still my handsome boy and such a sweet personality

Leydi, Teddy and Nanuk

The dogs love to hang out on that little hill, Leydi is all sprawled out, Teddy and Cici looking my way

Cici taking it all in

Cici

Cici, the little "submissive" manipulator

Cici is starting to have a grown up look. She and her siblings are now 2 years old.

In the background the snow covered mountains. New Years Eve was a full moon and it was beautiful to go outside at night and to see the whole valley and the mountains in the moonlight. It is amazing how bright the moonlight is, something that one cannot appreciate living in the city where it is never really dark. Occasionally if the weather is just right I take Nanuk for a walk in the nearby desert on a moonlit night.

Cici

When I took pictures of Cici, Prince walked right in front of her, put himself into a nice pose and gave me this look "hey, why don't you take a picture of ME", too funny

Cici and Prince

I am expanding the chicken area inside the barn and this time I am going to use a ramp for the chickens to get up on their perches as I have a couple that have some limping problem after injuries. that should make it easier for them to get up and down. Here is Pearl checking out the ramp, which I have sitting outside right now to get them used to it. She is always looking for something to eat, so when I am around, she is never far. I am so pleased with her. She had been sick a few months ago and she was sick for quite some time, I had little hope she would make it, but here she is, the picture of health, she lays an egg almost every day now. When before she got sick she hadn't laid any eggs for over a year.

eating some of the sunflower seeds

then she figured there has to be an easier way to get to the sunflower seeds and goes to the low end of the ramp

one leg up

second leg up

here she is, quite pleased with herself, she is quite a character

Leydi, she turned 6 in October and she is doing really well, besides her back problem. She still lies down slowly, but has no problems getting up and running around. She really enjoys playing with her offspring. She invites them to play and after she is done playing with one group, she wants to go to the other side of the property where the other group is and then she plays with them. Last night she refused to come inside despite the temps going below twenty. I checked on her several times during the night each time I asked her if she wants to come in, but no, she wanted to stay outside.

Enya pulls out a sheet of ice of the stock tank, Teddy is licking a piece of ice

Every morning the water buckets have ice in them. I continue to experiment with all sorts of water buckets for the dogs and other critters, this one I got at the hardware store and it said on the bucket that it was food grade quality. I got two of them, so far they have not had any algea grow in them, they are easy to clean as due to their height I can just tip them over easily to empty them. They kept the water pretty cool in the summer and now that it's freezing at night, I just take a hammer in the morning, smash the ice on top then hit the sides of the bucket and then pour our a couple gallons and replace them with hot water, pretty easy to do.

A few clicker training sessions in the chicken yard and Prince got the idea of what's expected of him, I am very pleased with his progress as a chicken guardian

Prince and the chickens

Prince relaxing under the tree in the chicken yard

Prince

Teddy and Moqui coming out of the Iglu

Teddy and Millie

I left the wheel barrow in the pen and the goats knocked it over. Then all of a sudden I noticed that Moqui had claimed it as a new elevated resting spot. I have finished sweeping out all the critter pens, now most of the trees have new mulch. I sprayed the goat pen with an enzyme odor remover and it seems to make a difference, I didn't spray the whole pen, so I will spray some more maybe this weekend to cover all areas.

Enya using calming signals, she turns her head away when Maya does her bully thing

More calming signals as Maya is following Enya around

Group picture

Enya uses a lot of playbows with the goats who aren't quite sure what to make of it. Their little shed could use another paint job. Why do goats have to pull off pieces of the boards to make their shed look crummy?

Enya has a lot of respect for Maya who used to butt her, but they have come to an understanding that neither is a threat to the other, Maya loves to push Enya's buttons and Enya enjoys all the action

Maya gives Enya her belligerent look, note her hackles are up . Note the hole in the ground between the dog and the goat? The goats dug that one, they love to sit in it.

"what are we going to do next"?

Enya remembers the butting, she is quick to jump out of the way if it seems like Maya will butt her, which she doesn't do anymore since I used a spray bottle to let Maya know that I did not appreciate her butting my puppies

friends

they go round and round with this

these two are doing this every time they meet

Enya checks out the goat food

2009-10-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

Spider on the wall,

I think this is a Tarantula, not sure if the males are smaller than the females, this one is about 2 inches in diameter, so it's pretty small, has lived near my backdoor steps for a long time, but this was the first time that I saw it up on the wall hunting for bugs where the light is. I have no idea how long those things live, when we moved here 4 years ago I found one the same size near my bedroom patio door, I evacuated it from the property, maybe it came back? I have never seen any bigger ones on my property but have seen some out in the desert that were twice as big as this one. And just for the record, I do not like spiders, but I realize they are beneficial insects and I know they aren't hiding and waiting to pounce on me and even if they bite me it won't kill me. So I tolerate them and try to not get closer than I have to.

2009-09-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

"Puppies 21 months old"

Teddy, haven't weighed him for a long time, he is about 31 1/2 inches tall, maybe a bit more, and my guess is that he is about 125 lbs right now, very lean still.

Nanuk, still going strong at over 8 years old, still leading his pack of youngsters,

Ayla turned 4 last month, at just over 80 lbs she is the smallest of the guardians

Ayla and Teddy

Teddy was enjoying some attention from me, when all of a sudden the rest of the gang started running, in this picture he just got up and going, I actually had hoped that the picture still showed him sitting, but it didn't, Nanuk is already ahead running full speed. All the commotion was about a raven flying too low and too close to the fenceline.

Teddy is a agile, but fairly heavy boned built. He is plenty big for my taste at this point, but he still has plenty of growing to do.

Cici is very lean, but very muscular, she is extremely agile, sure footed and fast, she is also very focused on her guardian duties. She is also very smart and for the longest time she thought she could outsmart me when it comes to cooperating with what I ask of her. However she found out that I was smarter, and that every time she thought she got away with something, she found herself not where she really wanted to be. So now, she is using her smartness to keep a really close eye on what I do and if I ask anything of her, she will smartly do it to secure her reward before somebody else gets a chance at it. My husband gets a bit tired of me saying "she is something else", but it's the truth. She is my little bean.

Cici spotted one of the neighbor's bunnies out in the street.

Teddy

Teddy, he has the most beautiful plush coat of all the pups.

Teddy and Cici

Teddy and Cici in the foreground and Ayla on the far end of our little hill, keeping an eye on the neighborhood.

Teddy, ribs are just barely visible, his plush coat makes him look great.

Ayla

Prince, with muddy paws

Prince playing with his momma Leydi, note both of them have their right paws raised

Leydi on the ground loving to be the center of the action

The following pictures were taking this morning when these 3 had a wild play session, Prince to the right, Leydi to the left of him and Sammie

Leydi chasing Prince, the ground is a powdery sand.

Leydi on the left, and Sammie

Prince leading the chase, followed by Leydi and Sammie

Prince veering off to the right, Leydi goes the other way around the dog house, they love to play chase games around the dog house

Prince with Sammie chasing him

Leydi playing peek-a-boo, ready to pounce if nobody notices

Leydi to the left, Prince to the right hidden by the dust clouds

Leydi was just about to lie down when her children came racing by

Prince getting a bit tired

This trio is a good working team

Sammie looking thoughtful

Sammie after running through the mud

Prince, it's been exactly a year since he has been back with me, how the time flies, he is such a lovely boy

Prince has loved this spot every since he was a little pup, I remember the day before he left for his new home as a puppy, he wandered out in the dark to this spot and sat there all by himself in the dark, don't know what it is about this spot, but he thinks it's the best spot to be.

2009-09-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

Praying Mantis Buffet on the back door,

a Praying Mantis, lately we have had many of them show up at night around the lights we leave on at night, one night I counted 7 of these insects around one door, and 25 !!!!! spiders sitting around that same area, all of them waiting for something tasty to catch and eat, we have a Praying Mantis and Spider buffet on our back door.

this is a Praying Mantis sleeping upside down, this was actually the picture when she started looking up at me, the picture below shows her sleeping with the head sideways turned

I have never seen a brown colored Praying Mantis, but different shapes of green, so I am not sure if this one changed color based on the wall she was sitting on, the others sitting there at the same time were green. Funny how this big insect is looking at me

side view

another close up

Different egg sizes, on the top is a very large 2.5 inch egg, on the bottom a very small pullet egg, the two eggs in the middle are normal sized eggs

2009-09-19T17:33:00.000-07:00

Vulture Sighting,

On a recent morning I heard a ruckus outside. Sammie was in defense mode.

hackles were up as she was at the property line, I didn't see any stray dogs or such, and when I followed what she was looking at I saw this:

a bird with wings spread out sitting on the poles in the neighbors property, Sammie was barking at the bird. At first I thought it was the hawk that sometimes shows up in the neighborhood, but this bird didn't look quite as big. So I thought it might be a raven, but Sammie's and Leydi's behavior was not the same as when a raven hangs out too close. Sammie was really upset about this bird.

So I went back to the house to get my binoculars to figure out what kind of a bird we are dealing with here. It was a vulture. In all the years I have been here in Southern Nevada, I have never seen a vulture, I had people nearby one time mention vultures in their yard and I thought they meant the ravens. But this was clearly a vulture, no feathers on the head, bright red head and a huge beak.

Vulture sitting with wings spread. Sammie barking at it. I would have never noticed this if it hadn't been for my alert dogs, they just don't miss anything.

The vulture.

the vulture surveying the area, if this had been a hawk, I wouldn't have left to go to work without leaving a dog or two in the chicken yard, since it is still too hot outside during the day for the dogs, I wouldn't have been able to go to work until a hawk had moved on. Vultures to my knowledge will not kill a chicken, but instead look for something that is already dead. We have had a lot of coyote activities lately in the area, so my guess is that a coyote left some smelly leftovers in the vicinity and the vulture was going to clean up. I haven't seen it since then, it's been a few days since this happened.

2009-08-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

Cockerels have joined us,

One of my Black Jersey Giants, they are around 4 months old now, don't lay any eggs yet, but they are already bigger than the mature hens, so they will be quite large when they grow up. So far they have nice dispositions, a bit flighty, but otherwise they are rather calm and quiet birds, they spend a large time of their day just hanging out in a safe place.

Enya loves to hang out with the chickens, today when I let the chickens out to forage outside their chicken yard, Enya found herself an interesting spot, she stayed close to the fence in the back of the property, this is in my opinion the place where a predator such as a stray dog or coyote would most likely try to enter the property as we are backed by desert and nobody lives directly behind us or next to us. From her spot she could see the rest of her side of the property. She has a way to move amongst the chickens that does not cause much of a disturbance at all. When she sees a chicken gets worried, she waits and yields to them until she can move on without disturbing anybody.

this is her happy face, I am hoping that this fall she and Nanuk and Teddy can live with the chickens full-time, that will allow the chickens to have more freedom and rid the property of bugs and weeds.

another picture of Enya

Enya watching over her flock, she is 20 months old this week, she is the best chicken guardian of the pups, even when the others are great too, but Enya has been a natural and has always looked so happy to be with them.

This is the youngest of our new cockerels, he will be another Goldie, he is a Golden Seabright, he is a bantam breed, which means he will be very small, fully grown he should be just a little over a pound. He started crowing yesterday, so cute.

Goldie standing

I haven't decided on a name for this one yet, he is a Silver Seabright, so same breed as Goldie, just a different color. Seabrights are the only breed of chicken (as far as I know), where the roosters have the same kind of feathers as the hens, so they are called "hen-feathered".

That's another picture of him, the light colored legs are so pretty, and they have a very distinct comb.

And here is Sir Oliver, at least I think that's what I will call him. He is the largest of the boys at this point, he is a Mille Fleur, he is just starting to grow feathers on his feet and growing his beard, so it will be a little while until he has his mature look. He definetely crows a lot and he likes to flirt with the girls. He is also a bantam, my guess is he will be under 2 lbs when he grows up.

the silver boy

Here are all three in one picture

2009-07-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Meet a German Landrace,

These pictures were taken in the last few days by my parents near Nuremburg Germany. The dogs in the pictures are working Old German Shepherd dogs, apparently two different types of them, but part of the same landrace of shepherd's dogs. These dogs serve as dual purpose dogs, they move the sheep like other herding dogs, but they also guard them. There aren't a lot of predators in that part of Germany, only foxes and some loose dogs. The sheep in the area are a light color, with the occasional chocolate color mixed into a flock. From what my parents told me, the two dogs above are working a very large flock of sheep, when I was a kid the shepherd in that area usually had around 150 sheep at a time but my parents said the flock is much larger now. The car in the picture is what the shepherd uses to follow the flock, they used to be on foot and had a very small wooden trailer to return to for the night to sleep in.

To see more pictures of this landrace here is a German website:

http://www.altdeutschehuetehunde.de/ scroll down to the tab that says

"Hutehundschlage" which shows all the different varieties of this working type of dog.

I think when looking at the different types, one can see a resemblence to today's Belgium Shepherd Dogs which also come in 4 different varieties.

This one looks the same as one of the dogs the shepherd in this area had when I was a child, the other ones the had were the black ones with the longer and straighter coat called "Sueddeutscher Scharzer" on the above website. Back then when I asked the shepherd about the breed, he said Altdeutscher Schaeferhund, which translates into Old German Shepherd Dog, he said despite the different looks, they were the same kind of dogs.

2009-07-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Pullet Egg,

here is the first egg of the spring chickens, it was one of my two Buff Orpingtons, I saw her in the nest box yesterday, and yippeh, she laid an egg today, this is sooner than I hoped, as they are just 4 months old, I got them in the end of February

2009-06-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

A welcome Predator,

when I came home for lunch today and went to check on the chickens I found the 4 little black chicks all standing in a half circle making funny puckering noises. As I looked at them wondering what this was all about I suddenly noticed the snake in the middle of it all, trying to swallow a dead mouse. Wow, it's 112 degrees, I ran back into the house as fast as I could to get the camera. I got the chickens out of the pen where the snake was and closed the gate so the chickens couldn't go back in.

now the snake decided there were too many spectators and wanted to go to a quieter place so with the mouse halfway stuck in the snake's throat she took off, only to be unable to get through the gate with the mouse in her mouth, so I quickly opened the gate again, the snake went right through the gate, hurried past me and went into the next open door which was the barn, argh, that's not what I had it mind, but there she was. So closed the door to the barn and hoped for the best. The snake and the mouse where gone when I came home. This is the same snake I posted pictures of last year, I have seen her several times in the same general area, I guess she likes her hunting grounds here. As far as I know this is a Coachwhip snake that is known to hunt during the day. Shouldn't be a danger to my chickens, as she could barely get that mouse down. The rest of the chickens weren't interested in the snake at all, so have probably grown accustumed to her foraging around and since she probably doesn't care for normal chicken food, they seem to be tolerant of her.

2009-06-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Of Sleeping Beauties and other happenings,

Enya is posing for the sleeping beauty contest. People often think these dogs are lethargic and lazy because they tend to lay around dozing all day long. However if anything unusual happens in the neighborhood, they are up in a flash and making sure everything is okay.

Happy guardian in a hole

One of my Barred Rock pullets, they are almost 4 months old now. I saw one checking out a nest box today, I am hoping for eggs in another month. These pullets have grown fast, they are as big as my other hens already, so I am pretty sure they will be bigger than some of the others when they mature. All 4 of them are "talkers" always chirping and cackling about something.

And here are my 4 Black Jersey Giants, they have quite a unique look to them, their legs are almost black now, but the nails are white still

I have increased the size of the goat pen, it's almost 3 times as big now as it was and there are 3 shade trees for them to hang out under. I put some heavy wire protection around the trees to make sure the goats won't kill them.

Since the new goat pen addition used to be part of the chicken area, I have propped the gate open with a little piece of wood so the chickens can go in and out, this is working really well and the goats have stopped sticking their heads through as they seem to realize it really doesn't make any sense.

Another Barred Rock pullet

Prince, Sammie and Leydi. Leydi enjoys her children, she runs and plays with them, all but Enya are very respectful towards her, Enya wants to run the show and has been quite successful at keeping everybody in line.

Another group picture with our scenic mountains in the background

view of the baby area, the adults can walk all the way around it, this has worked quite well to keep the attacks to a minimum once the older chicks join the rest of the flock, this also works well anytime a chicken needs to be isolated from the rest, they can go right back with the rest of the flock once they are ready to be out again

Cici

Ayla has really done a lot of digging lately, here is a tunnel she has excavated, to the right the dark area is a rather large area that serves as an underground cave

There she is underground

And here she is laying down in the underground doghouse

Grrrr, nobody is allowed in the cave

Here she is proudly guarding her creation

The trees are really starting to provide a lot of shade, and this is only the beginning of the growing season

All my bushes are in bloom, when the wind blows from the South, the whole property is engulfed in their scent

Enya checking out what's behind the bushes, there are a lot of little birds nesting in our trees and bushes, unfortunately the dogs do catch one here and there, some of them I have been able to save, I wonder how many aren't so lucky, one time I came home from work and they left me a dead bird in my office.

Enya listening to the buzzing noise of all the bees. Now if I could find some more things to grow that bloom a lot, I could actually think about having a bee hive and be able to harvest my own honey, I wonder where all these bees are coming from, at the same time I am worried to attract some killer bees

The trees in the original chicken coop are big enough now to provide shade

we do have several areas where Timothy grass is growing now, I let some of the grasses and grains go to seed, and I am hoping that next year there will be even more different types of grasses and grains growing than this year. The goats really love the fresh food.

we have a some oats growing around some of the trees

Sammie watching the goats and chickens

Sammie running towards me full speed

Sammie

Samantha running to the fence, hackles are up, she is all business

My apple tree is struggling, the dogs are trying really hard to get to the apples, I put fencing around it, but they still get to it sometimes. My husband just learned how to pound in a T-post, so we will be looking into putting up some more fencing ourselves, which will include fencing off a orchard/vegetable garden to protect it from the critters, especially the dogs.

I am also having a few plums on the Santa Rosa plum tree

Plums on one of my plum trees, in Germany we call these "Zwetschgen" and they make the best plums for a pie. One of these days when I get enough of the plums from this tree I can make a "Zwetschgenkuchen" like my mother and my grandmother used to make. This type of plum is not normally sold in American supermarkets, and without them the pie wouldn't taste the same.

Enya, the pups are now 18 months old, hard to believe how fast the time has gone by

Enya

Milo and Millie

Misty and Milo helping themselves to some fresh Mulberry leaves.

Kobi and Teddy looking for things to lift their legs on

Kobi telling Teddy that he is still the "big dog", that little dog has a serious attitude. The odd looking thing in the middle of the picture is Kobi the terrier, when he wants attention he throws himself on his back and wiggles around like crazy. Buffy, my 2 year old Buff Orpington, she had injured her left leg a few months ago, initially she couldn't put any weight on that leg, but after a few days she started limping around and now she walks okay, I can tell she doesn't scratch the ground as vigorously as she used to and she has developed a really funny flight/bunny hop when she wants to get somewhere fast. My guess is that the rooster who is no longer here, kicked her off the top perch and that's how she injured that leg. Since she is still having problems even months later, my guess is that she had torn a ligament or something like that. She gets up on the roosts at night, but she waits for me in the morning to give her a lift to the ground. Smart hen.

the 4 youngest chicks strutting around

most of the time when I go to check on the chickens a lot of them come running as fast as they can in the hope that I bring some treats. What's really funny and also a bit strange is that they take off running in my direction, but they run head down, so they can't really see where they are going, so they usually end up almost running into me, my guess is that they see my shoes and know they are there, but since I usually keep walking as they are all running towards me, they come across my shoes sooner than they expected and they always stop in their tracks like they are really surprised .

Ayla working on another cave, that particular day I was taking pictures of the dogs when I heard a strange sraping sound that I couldn't quite figure out what it was, thinking that one of the goats has gotten herself into trouble, I started heading towards the goat pen. This is when I came about a cloud of dusk and I noticed that the strange noise came from the area where the dust was, Ayla was completely underground and digging at it. In this picture only the white tip of her tail is visible in the hole.

she goes into the cave and digs at the walls, then she backs out and kicks out all the loose dirt.

back in to dig some more

I recently noticed that I have a little tree coming up that I didn't have to plant, it's an offspring from my Purple Robe Locust Tree, yes, the one with the pretty fuchsia colored flowers. Very cool I think, especially since the other one that I had bought didn't make it.

Enya checking out the water.

Kobi chewing on a 12 inch bully stick

one evening I went outside with my camera and found the dogs fascinated with something Enya had, I could not see what it was and on the pictures it looks like maybe a caterpillar or other bug

they were all fascinated with whatever it was

2009-05-18T21:16:00.000-07:00

We are making progress with the farm,

My magnificent Great Pyrenees Nanuk, 8 years old now

My youngest chickens, about 5 week old now, almost fully feathered. I still bring them in the garage at night to make sure they don't get chilled and stay safe.

Mr. Handsome, Teddy is such a handsome boy, here he sits in the damp soil near the misters

Enya and Leydi under the misters, they have dug out an approximately 5 inch deep area that they are both sitting in on this picture, it provides a nice back support for them and because it is like a shallow pool, it fills with water when I water the trees at night and stays nice and moist during the day for extra cooling

Just a picture of the chicken yard that shows how nice and shady it is with the trees now

the fence is 6 feet, so that gives an idea how big the trees and bushes are getting. It's so nice to look outside and see trees or sit under them

This is a Tamarisk, also known as Salt Cedar, I had a few pop up on their own, it's illegal to plant them, and once they grow to about a foot high it's almost impossible to get rid of them unless one tries to dig them out. I have left this one alone because it grew where one of my other trees had died and is going to replace that tree.

some of the grass that grows around the trees

Picture of a few of some orchard grass plants, they seed stalks are over 3 feet tall

Buffy is my 2 year old Buff Orpington, she suffered a leg injury a few months ago, I believe that the rooster pushed her off the perch and that's how she got injured. She is getting around well, even has started again to go on and off the perches, she just can't run as fast as she used to, but there is no more noticable limp when she walks

Smokey the pullet, she is a real character, always underfoot and chattering away when I am around. It's really interesting that one out of 6 chicks that all had the same attention has turned out to be so much more sociable than the rest of them.

Another one of my Barred Rock pullets

Aren't they pretty? Just a couple more months or so and these girls should be laying some brown eggs

Another picture of Enya in the chicken yard.

I try to water the trees in the chicken yard during the hottest part of the day as it will provide plenty of wading pools for the chickens under the trees

My Texas Umbrella trees always have clusters of light lavender colored flowers in the spring, the smell is very intense and lasts for several weeks. Just when they are done flowering, my Texas Privot shrubs go into bloom and the air is once again filled with a flowery smell. Can't work all the time, have to stop and smell the flowers sometimes

Mister on the left, I use misters for the dogs and the chickens to keep them cool, it's really amazing what a little water can do, it is perfectly comfortable even in 110 degree heat to sit near the mister under a trea. I have tried it for the goats when I first got them, they didn't like it, so I took it down.

Fly traps, they work very well to catch hundreds, if not thousands of flies. I am also using some fly bait for fly control, which has been a challenge every year. This week I propped the gate to the goat pen open so the chickens can go in and have a feast on those nasty maggots that would otherwise turn into flies. Since I have 20 chickens roaming around right now, I am hoping this will help with the fly control that they have access to the goat pen.

The new stock tanks have been a hit with the dogs, of course the water never stays clean for very long as the dogs always hop in and out. I clean them out often, but usually the water looks murky already after a few hours.

I didn't get any kiddie pools this year, they are too difficult to keep clean and last year's pools started falling apart after about 3 months, so this year I started buying some stock tanks, this one holds 55 gallons, it's almost big enough for Kobi to swim in it.

another chicken enjoying a cool foot bath, that's Toby, my 2 year old Barred Leghorn.

chickens like to scratch around in some hay, so I use one of my old kiddie pools as a "hayscratch box", I just add some hay here and there and the chickens go in the pool to scratch around. I had to put a block in there to keep it from being blown away on high wind days.

Enya enjoys hanging out with the chickens, it feels good knowing somebody is watching over them to keep them safe. I use yoghurt containers to hold the chicken food and have it sitting inside another bowl to contain the spills as chickens are quite messy eaters. In the evenings when the chickens go to sleep I throw away the spillage and cover the yoghurt container either with a lid or just the bowl it sits in during the day, that way I am not leaving out a buffet for the mice and other critters that come and visit during the night. the container to the right is a little cooler I got for $ 1 at a recent yard sale, it was brand new and is now another water container for the chickens. This one works great as I can keep the top halfway closed during the day to shade the water, even when it was sitting out in the sun during the day when it is about 120 degrees in the sun the water was still cool in the afternoon. I cover it up at night so keep out the dirt.

Prince and Samantha make a good team, actually Prince usually has to do double duty as play partner, as I switch Sammie and Cici outside with him, Prince gets to play with both of his sisters in addition to Ayla or his mother joining in as well.

Prince is acting silly, he has really settled in nicely and is the sweet boy I imagined he would be when he was a little puppy

standing in cool water is a favority way to cool down for my hens, the only drawback is that they also like to drink that water and that chickens poop wherever they are, so I have to change that water several times a day to keep it clean

The chickens really keep their area totally weedfree, so I usually pick weeds elsewhere on the property and toss it over the fence to them, I have not needed to buy any more greens for them this summer as there are plenty of grasses and other weeds growing around the trees to supply the chickens with what they need. I think that's pretty cool.

Milo is munching on some fresh grasses

Here is Misty with a mouthful of fresh orchard grass. I am pretty excited that this year I have so much orchard grass and other grasses growing I can cut some for my goats almost every day. I didn't realize last year that the heavy grass that was growing was orchard grass, this year we have dozens of orchard grass clumps around the trees, the plant itself seems to be getting bigger every year, similar to pampas grass, just not quite that big. It seems like once it is established it is pretty hardy, for sure it cannot easily be removed. Some of the seed stalks on our orchard grass are already over 3 feet tall. I make sure that I leave some of the seed stalks in place so it can seed some more new plants. I have a lot of other grasses growing too, some looks like wild oats or something like that and most recently I noticed some Timothy grass, since there isn't much of it yet, I will just leave it alone so it can spread. It's hard to describe what it feels like when things start falling into place, and these grasses that have grown as a byproduct of my use of the goat manure mixed with straw and hay around the trees as mulch and fertilizer are definetely a step towards my goals. Now the water I use to water the trees also produces food for the goats as well as the chickens, and I have even seen some more wheat coming up in one corner of the property. I really need to buy some whole kernels of wheat and some sunflower seeds to spread around the trees to grow more of it.

2 of my one year old Ameraucana hens

One of my Ameraucana hens stealing some grass from my basket

I have 3 of these water bowls now, they are about 13 or 14 inches in diameter and as strange as it sounds, these bowls keep the water cool. We have had 105 degree temps here over the last week or so and I tested these bowls again, by noon the water still felt cool, now having been out in the sun since about 6.30 in the morning, if I leave the bowl alone and it gets a bit of shade for a couple hours in the afternoon, the water is still cool when I put my hand in it in the late afternoon. My guess is that the double wall is part of the trick to keep the water cool, as the outside wall shades the inside wall of the bowl. I have no other explanation for it. They are available from livestock supply companies and really don't even cost much.

Samantha and the chickens, she has been so good with them in the last few weeks, I was hoping she would grow out of her wanting to chase and play with them and it appears that she is getting to that age and all of a sudden she is very calm and appropriate around them.

One of my 3 month old Barred Rock pullets, this particular group of chicks is very personable and people oriented

2009-05-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Summer heat and staying cool,

We had a little visitor today,

Here I caught the little bunny resting in the shade. They have been pretty bold lately coming on our property, since we have a lot of green stuff growing plus I water usually during the day, so they come to the "oasis". They are so small they jump through the chain link fencing. Sadly the dogs caught and killed one a week ago. Since the body disappeared I am assuming one of them ate it, which means that whoever ate it will probably have tapeworms in a few weeks.

Here is one of my 3 week old Black Jersey Giant chicks, I have them outside during the day as it gets too hot in the garage. Our temperatures have been around 105 lately, so the little chicks won't be cold outside, I actually make sure that misters are on every day and I wet the ground to provide some cooling. Hopefully we will all make it through the summer ahead of us, 105 is really not so bad, it's when the temps go up to 115 to 118 when everybody is struggling.

These chicks look like mini ostriches, they are supposed to get pretty big and all black with a green sheen. I can't wait to see them grow up. These chicks are a lot less active than my other ones were. this is very interesting, I think this breed also comes as a White Jersey Giant, so if they really lay bigger eggs I might get some of the white ones in the future.

These are my two Buff Orpington pullets, they are a little over 2 months old. Over the last 2 weeks I have integrated these young pullets with my existing flock and so far this is going very well. I took a gradual approach as I did in the past. Now I have 20 hens (I am hoping they are all hens) running around, they are quite the crowd. These 2 month olds are like little puppies following me around and crowding around me if they are scared of something. They seem to think I am their mother.

just gotta love those chickens, what nosey little birds they are

one of my 2 month old Barred Rock pullets

The youngsters usually stick together, my oldest hens are two years old now and all but one sleep in the same house at night, however two of my one year olds have recently started to sleep in the same house as the 2 year olds, which of course has created a lot of fighting over the best spots on the perches. One of my 2 year old Delawares was kicked off her spot and she has not tried to go up again for the last 3 days, she doesn't seem to be hurt physically, but she sure isn't trying to go up on the perches anymore, she goes and sits in a corner, so I have been picking her up when it gets dark and put her on the lowest perch so she doesn't sit on the ground.

Teddy and Nanuk, sharing a shady spot.

these pictures were taken a little over a week ago, the chicks' legs weren't all black yet, now they have this beautiful charcoal color.

interesting markings they have

the little group of 4

nothing wrong with the chick, she is just trying to warm up under the heat lamp

doesn't she look like I caught her doing something emberassing ?

2009-04-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

Visitors and new chicks

The newest additions, I got 4 more little chicks, they are Black Jersey Giants, supposed to grow to over 10 lbs and laying large brown eggs. They are already 9 days old

Prince watches as Ziva dives into the hole

I think when Ziva came home this afternoon she had lots to talk about the holes she was digging, she really had a good time with it

Ayla watches that new little dog with interest

Prince and Wendy flirting

Prince and his newest little buddy Ziva

Little Ziva is a purebred German Shepherd Dog, she is a beautiful little dog with a structure like a real working dog and not like the showtype German Shepherds that don't look or move like a functional dog. Congrats to Cheri to this beautiful little girl.

Ziva became fast friends with Prince

I think Prince would love to have a puppy for himself to hang out with instead of his moody sisters who always give him a hard time

Wendy aka "Brillo Head" had the shade all to herself for a while

Prince was so patient and fascinated with little Ziva

Prince checking out where the little puppy is going with something in her mouth

My magnificent Cici

My Purple Robe Locust is in full bloom, and the bees are loving it

Prince and Leydi with my cousin Tini and her daughter Amelie who came to visit they will live in the US for another year before they go back to Germany, or maybe England where Tini's husband comes from.

Prince enjoying all the attention

Prince seems to say "okay now, I am ready, so pose already so we can get this over with"

Nanuk looks like he really does not want to be bothered, he has made himself a hole to sleep in

looks mighty comfortable

Enya with the chickens

I bought a few more of the Coolaroo dog beds, all my dogs love those and they can be used both indoors and outdoors, in the winter I just put a blanket over them, but in the summer the dogs love them because the air can circulate under them, and if I place it over the air conditioning then they really don't want to get up anymore

2009-04-04T21:43:00.000-07:00

Chicks moving outside for the day,

Enya guarding her chickens, she has always been trustworthy with the chickens and the goats, now, almost 16 months old, I leave her alone for periods of time in the chicken yard. Actually today I put out my new pullets for the first time in their new coop and didn't really think this through and left Enya out with the chickens. When I came back an hour later I realized what I had done, but all was fine. What I have noticed is that I am usually a bit too cautious and when I start "forgetting" to watch it's really because I can trust them. Overall Enya has a wonderful temperament, she is quite the social butterfly when she meets people, she is amazingly cooperative about things I ask of her, she seems to be happy whether I leave her out with the dogs or with the chickens or bring her in the house, just never complains, as she matures she has been less of a bully with the other dogs, though she will make her opinions known and won't take no for an answer.

some of my hens in a scenic shot, I have finally found a new home for my rooster Sophie, he is getting a second chance at freedom with chicken keeper near Death Valley who has a bunch of hens that seem to be rather fast and flighty, so maybe Sophie won't be able to catch them.

two of my Barred Rock pullets eating an apple

the two Buff Orpington pullets

this is Smokey, I was going to call her Harriet, but Smokey stuck, so that's what it is. She is very personable and will jump on my arm often, she talks a lot and gets very excited when I pay attention to her, chickens are just such fun animals to own

Just a cute shot of a Barred Rock chick

they are already going through their first molt and I find little feathers everywhere

I am a bit suspicious that the chick on the right might be a rooster. According to the color pattern on the feathers and feet it's a pullet, but it also has some signs of a rooster like the different tail feathers. I guess we will find out. I really like having a rooster, as long as he is gentle with the hens and doesn't attack me.

Another picture of the mystery chick, I think I will call it Rocky (it's a barred rock), which is of course a very name that nobody would ever think of, haha

tail comparison

this is Lucy, last fall she had a bump right in front of that right eye that looked like a boil, then it shrunk and dried up, in this picture it is barely visible, it's that little grey spot to the right of the eye

so yesterday I decided to take a look at that scab like thingy and scratched it with my fingernail, it felt like it was moving, so I prodded some more and sure enough the whole thing came right out, it left a little crater to the right of her eye, but the skin underneath was healthy. The thing that came out was about 2 mm in diameter and very hard, I tried to break it up but it was rather solid. Now this thing has been in that spot all winter, so this wasn't just a scab. this morning when I checked her the crater was barely visible anymore, so I am guessing it will just diappear. What a strange thing.

A few days ago I made breakfast for myself and just before I sat down to eat it I tought that it looked really pretty and that maybe I should just take a picture of it that shows what a hard working chicken farmer gets to eat for breakfast.

I am in the process of painting my barn, I don't know if chickens like purple, but it's a color I really like, so here we go. the Walls are a greenish beige, some leftover paint from where I work, nothing like using up leftover paint and keeping it out of the landfill.

my new nestboxes, the chickens really like those, not sure if it's because they are purple, or because they are a bit more roomy than the other ones. The nestboxes were made from a 25 year old handmade microwave shelf that I got for free on Pahrumpfreecycle. Looks pretty good, doesn't it. I love that pretty shaped back board, gives it a nice touch.

I built this little structure mostly from scrap wood I had laying around, we get a lot of wind here, and it gives the chickens a place to stay out of the wind or the rain, and it provides shade as well. The dogs squeeze into it too sometimes. I ordered 22 new trees this weekend from the Master Gardener's office, they will be small, but at only $ 3.50 each, this can't be beat and in a few years they will be a nice size and add to the beauty and usefulness of our property, it's really a ten year project to grow enough trees to make it possible to spend time outside for me, the dogs and the other critters in the heat of the summer and still be comfortable.

2009-02-22T07:29:00.000-08:00

Old dog and his young friends,

Zazou often sleeps with part of his tongue sticking out, that gives him a real funny look, for the last few months I have had to give him Valium because of anxiety issues. I actually made an appointment to have him put to sleep because his anxiety was so bad that I felt his quality of life was not adequate any more. My vet checked his heart and heard a very pronounced murmur, so we decided to try him on some Lasix to see if that would help his heart. I have really seen an improvement in his attitude since he is on the Lasix, I was able to decrease his Valium from one tablet every afternoon to 1/2 tablet, and the last two days I have tried without and he did well. So it looks like he has a heart problem and that may have contributed to the anxiety. We also tried him on a different medication for anxiety, Clomicalm, but after the first dose he got picky about food and after the second dose he stopped eating, lack of appetite is one of the major side effects of this type of drug, and it was really interesting to see how quickly he went form loving to eat to not wanting to eat at all. After 12 hours he started eating again and since I didn't give him another dose he was back to normal the next day. He is really amazing to me as he doesn't have much mobility anymore and has a very hard time getting up and getting around, but nothing seems to deter him from doing what he wants to do, he makes his rounds on both sides of the property, loves to go for rides, comes to the front when he hears my car and he never misses a meal, he is the only one of my dogs who will remind me that it's time for dinner if I am too slow and he will do his version of a happy dance when I pick up his bowl to feed him.

Cici sleeping in the crate, she loves to rest belly up,

Sammie on the go

Leydi chasing Prince,

Leydi and her son Prince

there goes Prince with a toy

Sammie, Prince and their momma Leydi

another group shot of the trio

who gets the toy?

Prince and Leydi

Sammie playing with her favorite brother

Another standoff, who get's the toy this time?

Prince has the toy and Sammie and Leydi want to take it from him

Leydi trying to get the toy

Sammie chasing Prince with the toy

Prince

Sammie loves to run

Leydi and Prince having a drink together

Little Moqui goat, she was very sick recently, we think it was Listeriosis, an infection of the brain, she went downhill so fast that day when she got sick that I did not think she would make it through the night. After a few days on antibiotics she started to get better and now she acts like nothing ever happened.

I am building these new structures to provide shade and to provide some shelter from the rain and wind, I tried to use the corrugated plastic on the sides, but apparently my decorator/landscape helpers did a little re-shaping. So I think I will stick to the wooden panels to make sides.

two structures are up, they are not completed yet, but they are already functional

Cici and Teddy playing

the dogs love this hill and behind Teddy and Nanuk is the cave they have dug deep down into the hill, the first time I went up to the hill here one of the dogs went down into the cave, and completely disappeared.

Nanuk is testing the new shelter, he has been sitting inside too sometimes

Prince

Prince and Leydi

Prince out for a walk in the desert near our house

Prince and Leydi - tails up

Prince loves this dog house, here he has both front paws resting on the side board, when we had the rainstorms recently he was in that dog house all day and all night, he only came out when it stopped raining in between or to eat, he refused to come into our house, he preferred the dog house.

Leydi and Prince hanging out together in the shade of a pine tree

Enya and Nanuk out for a walk

getting to the top of the sand dunes

Enya, she is such a stout girl, she is not fat by any means, her ribs are easily felt, she is just a very heavy built

these two were having a great time on our walk

this was actually the second picture, so the one below was supposed to be first, when Enya saw me she came running towards me

Ayla and Enya were both sitting on the hill, when they saw me Enya came to investigate

Cici still likes to curl up on top of the crate in my office

2009-02-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

After the rain,

We had quite a bit of rain this weekend, which means lots of snow in the mountains.

Samantha, I call her the ballerina because she has a very dancy and light step when she is happy

Samantha and Prince checking out all the puddles

The yard was a muddy mess after a heavy downpour, the dogs enjoyed it all as a whole new adventure, they were racing through the water and mud acting plain old silly

standing around in muddy water, what more can a dog that lives in the desert wish for?

some of my chickens like to hide their eggs, one of them, Bella, is the only one that lays an off white egg, whenever I don't get eggs from her I know she has found a new place to hide them

Tippi and Tobi, Tippi isn't done with her molting yet, while Tobi is already in full new plumage, she looks so pretty again now with the new feathers.

Another shot of Tippi and Tobi

Teddy after running and rolling around in the mud

Nanuk is playing with Enya, he is almost 8 years old, Enya is 14 months and just about his size now.

I have no idea why Nanuk was standing up like that here, and I never noticed it until I saw the picture

still playing

Enya grabbing Nanuk by the face

I love Nanuk's expression on this picture

Enya and Teddy, they were actually working on digging a hole there next to where I am building some new dog houses

Enya, my big girl

Enya

Cici doing a bow, she loves to do that, it's somewhat a default behavior for her, if all else fails, try a bow. Ayla sits pretty when she wants something, Cici does a bow.

I am really proud of myself as at this point all 5 of the puppies will do a bow on cue, my terrier and also Ayla will do a bow on cue, now if I could get them all together and do it at the same time.......

Cici, the wonder dog, she amazes me every day with the things she does, she is a fascinating little girl, she has actually pretty much stopped countersurfing and stealing things other than dog food, maybe one day it will be safe again to leave edible items on my desk without some dog snatching it up and eating it.

This was a really big hawk sitting in the tree next to our property. I made sure to leave a dog with the chickens before I left for work, this hawk is big enough to steal a chicken, I don't want him to take any of mine

Leydi and her two daughters, Cici is actually in the chicken yard and Leydi and Enya are with the goats, we have a neighbor with a new young Weimaraner and I am bit worried that this young dog will try to get over the fence to get to my critters as he isn't deterred by my dogs barking at him, he thinks it's funny and runs around like it is a game and my dogs really aren't amused by it. So we are all keeping a close eye on him.

Enya loves the goats, Maya who is the oldest one of my goats (not shown) loves to chase Enya around, her hackles will be up, mouth open she walks towards Enya with her head wiggling about, Enya runs from her, play bows, jumps away, it's really funny to watch. Maya doesn't do this with any of the other dogs, seems to be a mutual thing between these two.

Leydi sitting in the soft straw

2008-12-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

Portraits, at one year old,

I took a bunch of portrait pictures last weekend to update my website, so each puppy will have their page updated soon, here are their pictures, most of them have the snow covered Mt. Charleston peak in the background,

The first few pictures are of Samantha,

The next few pictures are of Enya,

The next few pictures are of Cici,

Here are pictures of Prince,

The last group of pictures are of Teddy,

2008-12-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Snow in the Desert,

The dogs were thrilled to wake up to a snow on Dec. 17.

Lots of running in the snow, here are Cici, Prince and Sammie, this is the first time in their life they are seeing snow.

Sammie,

Enya was running lap after lap, grinning and ears flying

Enya wrestles with Nanuk

Enya and Nanuk anjoying a romp in the snow, Nanuk grew up in Vermont, so he is usually very happy to see some snow when we go somewhere in the winter

Enya loves to eat, when Nanuk was eating the snow she was trying to figure out what it was he is eating, it was quite a puzzlement for her that he kept eating something and she couldn't figure out what it was.

Nanuk was happy to have a playmate to romp in the snow, here is has a big smile on his face

Teddy

Teddy running around in the snow

Ayla, Enya and Teddy playing

here they all race around

The chickens were not thrilled about the mess, this picture shows the snow piling up on the bird netting I have over their coop, I didn't even realize that it was the netting that had the snow on top of it, I thought it was the shade cloth.

Lucy is peaking out at the snow,

Cici in the foreground, Sammie in the back

another picture of Sammie looking quite thoughful

Prince, Cici and Sammie sticking their heads together

Sammie enjoying the snow, most of these pictures were taken at sunrise, so that's why everything looks rather dark, as soon as the sun came up the snow started to melt

Sammie

Cici inviting her brother Prince to play

and Prince being ready to pounce on her, my dogs all love to play games where one of them goes down like this, preferably behing a bush or other obstacle to ambush one of their playmates,

snow even on Shadow Mountain just North of our property

Another view of Cici

Prince

Snow on the mountains to the East

Another view of mountains to the East of us

2008-12-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

Happy first Birthday Puppies,

on Decemeber 14th my puppies turned one year old, all I can say is that it has been a lot of work, but even more fun and it is a great learning experience to work with 4 and now 5 puppies from the same litter. Recently all 3 of the girls and their momma came in heat within a week of each other turning the house into a jail with dogs being rotated every few hours to appropriate outdoor enclosures and being sequestered inside. Luckily nobody changed personalities during this time as I so often hear from other dog owners, Prince and Nanuk were whiney for a few days when their favorite girl was ready, but that was pretty much it.
Samantha and Enya continue not to like each other and make it a point to talk trash to each other several times a day. The boys are starting, to calm down around each other, and I need to get Prince and Teddy together again as they didn't really have a lot of time together before the girls came into heat, I will wait a bit longer for Nanuk and Prince to be introduced to give them some more time to work things out at the fence first, though they are doing much better.

this is Enya, the wrestling maniac, she will grab another dog by the skin around their neck, then she pushes until they roll over

once they are on the gound, she uses her weight to hold them down

Sammie trying to get out of the space of little Moqui goat who has threatened to butt Sammie

"gotta go" Sammie very appropriately minds her own business

Is Prince good looking or what? He looks a lot like his momma, but also like his daddy, something about his eyes and ears that he seems to have from his daddy. He is a sweet boy.

Sammie doing a bow

My beautiful little Cici girl

This is Cici giving Prince a lesson in what boys are supposed to do when girls are in heat. Not to worry though, Prince knows what to do, but of course he didn't have access to his sisters and momma when they were in heat and ready to breed

Prince

Cici is leading the chase, she is a fast little girl, and for Prince to keep up with her he has to hustle, but he is doing a pretty good job with that now, he no longer lags behind, he has built up quite some endurance and strength now and I am really happy to see that he keeps up with the rest of his siblings now

Prince and Cici playing

Enya and her momma, Enya is almost 30 inches tall now, her mother is around 28 inches,

She is a happy and content girl. She is also quite determined to keep everybody else in line. Nobody dares to challenge this girl.

Enya moves very different from the lighter boned Anatolians Ihave, she resembles more a mastiff in her movement. Note Ayla's white tail sticking out from below the ground in the background to the right of Leydi, there is a pretty deep hole there.

Enya, she is really huge for a female, she has very heavy bone, broad shoulders, a big chest and a neck that would make a bulldog proud.

Enya doing a bow

Teddy and Nanuk, it seems like my strategy to let a rather mellow young male puppy grow up with a very benevolent but no-nonsense mature male is working out. This picture was taken recently when all three of Teddy's sisters were in heat. These two males were still getting along just fine, I never saw a sign of aggression from the older male. I only separated these two for about a week when Teddy's mom was in standing heat, and this wasn't because I saw any aggression, but because I rather play it safe. I think Teddy would have been really heartbroken (okay that is me thinking), if Nanuk would have turned on him, so I rather kept them apart for those few days. They are now back together and all is well. Teddy adores Nanuk, who never really pays him much attention, but Teddy never stops kissing up to him and displaying some very exxaggerated submission

Enya

Enya loves to eat, so naturally she tried a few bites of the hay, but then decided that it's okay to just watch the goats eat the hay, and then Enya snacks on their droppings

Enya and Maya, Enya is rather cautious around the goats, she always yields when she sees a goat lower her head telling her "back off or else".

Recently it had rained quite a bit and when the dogs went outside in the morning Prince immediately ran to the largest puddle and walked around in it.

Prince

Enya loves to hang out with the chickens, I am really impressed with all the puppies when it comes to some common sense around the chickens. I have one hen that always tries to sneak past me when I come through the gate, and twice Sammie helped me to block the hen so I could get her back through the gate and on another occasion all 3 of the other puppies worked as a team to get the wayward chicken back where it belongs. It is really cool to watch that how they seem to know that the chicken needs to go back where it usually is and how they can help me to accomplish that.

This was the first time the brothers have been spending some time together and they really stuck together, I think it was probably because they wanted to keep an eye on each other, just like people who keep an eye on a visitor that they don't completely trust

Prince and Teddy having a chat, at least that's what it looks like, Prince is a little bit taller than Teddy

Prince and Teddy

Proud momma Leydi and her sons Teddy on the left and Prince to her right

2008-10-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Prince is back,

Prince having a good time playing with Ayla on his first day here. Prince is a littermate to my other puppies and he came back to me last Saturday. He is such a handsome boy, as far as I know he is the tallest of the boys, last week he weighed 115 lbs and I measured him at 32 inches, maybe a bit more.

Here he is standing next to his mommie Leydi, who is a lot smaller than him. She recognized him right away when he got out of the car and came over to the fence where she was.

Cici to the right, Prince walking towards her. His sisters and Ayla are delighted to have another "boyfriend". His sisters act more like he is a boyfriend than a brother, not sure if they have a clue. Ayla and Leydi act like they know he is one of the pups.

Prince sniffing Cici

It really took only a few minutes for a clean and well-groomed Prince to get all muddy and dusty like the rest of the dogs here. This picture shows him sitting in the muddy water around the tree.

3 red dogs and the "referee" in black and white.