Category: barclay

5 week old Chicks

On By stefrobrtsIn 2010chicks, barclay, farmLeave a comment

My chicks are around 5 weeks old now, and I guess they’d properly be called pullets (the girls) and cockerels (the boys).

They’re still cute, and they won’t hardly hold still for pictures!

They are getting more curious about me and the great outdoors. I have been sitting and hanging out with them recently, holding scratch for them and getting them to eat out of my hand, and with that they’ve been letting me touch them and finding out that’s ok too. I haven’t been able to spend as much time with them as I’d like, but I think being gentle and predictable has helped move me up the ‘trustworthy’ scale with them. The Buffs have been the most curious and outgoing – the cochins are a bit more reserved.

I hate to sell them but I don’t have room for them all, and that’s why I bought them – to make a little extra money. Unfortunately the ads on CL right now are full of people who bought chicks in March and are eager to get rid of them, and are selling them at bargan prices. I’ll hold on to these guys a little bit longer and sell them when they are ok to be outside full time. Hopefully to urban backyard chicken keepers who don’t have room to raise their own chicks, and just want layers ready-to-go.

Barclay is a lot of help!

The sheep invasion!

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, farm, jack2 Comments

My neighbor Kelley showed up with his trailer this morning
And released a whole flock of sheep into our field! These are his sheep he uses to produce lambs for the 4H kids. They had eaten down his field, so we figured why not take them for a ride around the corner and let them eat down our pasture for a bit. 
The dogs absolutely lost their minds when they saw them!
Jack was on full beagle alert – woo woo wooooooo
Barclay would like to get out there and chase them.
The sheep have bells on. The bells are to frighten away the coyotes. Kelley says it works for him. They make a pleasant jingling as they graze around the field.

Day out with Dog Scouts

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, pets2 Comments

I had a great day out with my friends from our Dog Scouts troop yesterday. Dog Scouts is a dog activities club, just like boy scouts – except your dog is the scout and you’re the parent. Right now it has been more of a dog training club, because the first step to get dogs from being Cadets to Scouts is for them to pass an obedience test. You have to film the dogs doing their test and send it back to Dog Scout headquarters and get approved. So far only one dog in our troop has passed! So we decided to get together yesterday and film our terribly obedient dogs and get them certified. We must have been ‘certifiable’ to think that would work!

We all met at a beautiful kennel up in the woods north of town. The facilities there are unbelievable, so nice, and with a beautiful view of Mt St Helens, our favorite active volcano! The place was also full of happy Great Pyrenees dogs, as that’s the kennel owner’s favorite, including one who lived on the property guarding the place year-round. She was a rescue who got away and chose to stay there just out of reach, and that’s how she’s happy so they let her stay. One of our members has two of them herself, big, lovable therapy dogs. Our fearless leader was there with her very obedient cattle dog and work-in-progress pit pup, my friend Sherry brought Sitka the eskie, and I was there with the Barker.

The obedience test is not all that complex. The dog has to sit, down, stay, heel, and leave it. Doesn’t sound hard, does it? Well, except for the cattle dog, who was already a pro, NONE of our dogs could manage those tasks! In fact they downright shamed us with their inability to ‘leave it’ and in fact had stolen ALL the dog cookies by the time we were done! Barclay got distracted from a stay when a bird landed on the water dish behind him (he wasn’t even supposed to be looking in that direction, but he doesn’t miss anything, unless it’s something I’m asking him to do). The pit did a nice stay but when she called him he went blasting on past her to go check out the Pyr kennels. The Pyr probably did the best, but they certainly weren’t fast or enthusiastic about it. Sitka stole as many cookies as he could stuff in his mouth at once 🙂 They were just all over the place, and we had to just laugh at our inability to train our dogs to do anything!

Afterwards we sat on the deck, enjoyed some cookies and lemonade, and relaxed with the dogs, told stories, and enjoyed the view. Great view, great company, bad dogs, what more could you want out of life?

Sorry for the horrible quality, I had to snap this with my phone, the only camera I had on hand.

Visited a Forest Preserve

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, outdoors3 Comments

In Brush Prairie, back behind the sheriff’s office, is the new dog park. Behind that is a stand of trees. To get to the trees you have to drive past some signs that say ‘no trespassing’ and look like they mean it. The trick is that if you are brave enough to push on past, those trees are actually part of a county park. There is just one parking space by the gate. It is the Lauretta Norene Forest Preserve.

We took Jack and Barclay for a little walk there Wednesday. We had been heading for the dog park, but when we got there we saw there were a couple pit bulls on the ‘small dog’ side of the park where we usually go (it’s normally empty), and I don’t let my dogs play with dogs I don’t know, so we opted for a walk instead.

The forest preserve has this deep, dark, forest feel to it. It’s very cozy.

Lots of great stuff to sniff!

Dave handled Jack and worked on teaching him not to pull, while I walked Barclay on his flexi leash.

When you come out the other side of the woods you see this sign.

It’s not clear which part of the park is the Lauretta Norene Forest Preserve and which part is the Groth Nature Preserve, but all together it adds up to a beautiful stand of forest surrounded by rolling fields.

Really lovely rolling fields, and room for the dogs to run (as much as they can on leash, of course). It was so generous of people to put this land aside. It’s just gorgeous.
It was a bit cloudy, but normally you have beautiful views of Mt Hood. Here you can see snow-covered Silver Star Mountain on the horizon.

Back into the woods to head back to the car.

Happy dogs!

Tired dog

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, mighty, pets1 Comment

 
Barclay had a big day and went to get his annual shots. I have worked with him since he was a baby on bite inhibition, and body handling, but how do you prepare a dog from something that only happens once a year, like getting a thermometer shoved up your bottom and getting poked with a needle? I was worried he might nip someone in spite of all my work. Poor pup! He cried and whined and they had to call in an extra person to hold him down, but when it was all done he still just gave her a lick on the nose – what a good boy! When we came home he was pooped!

I know getting shots always takes it out of them for a bit. He was sacked out. 

Mighty came along to cheer him up.

She gave him a few licks
These two have such a funny relationship. The cats have always encouraged Barclay to play rough with them, and they refuse to scratch him and put him in his place, even when he’s dragging them around the house wailing. But they aren’t scared of him, in fact they both will come and lick his face while he’s sleeping. So we try to protect the cats from him roughing them up too much, but obviously they are ok with it, because they could put a stop to it if they wanted to.

Another day of progress in the garden

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, gardenLeave a comment

Our van took a ‘personal day’ and refused to start yesterday, so it spent the day relaxing in the driveway. It’s back to work today though, ready to haul stuff around. That’s a good thing, because I’m going to need it to go pick up some peat moss and vermiculite for my soil mix I plan to put in the raised bed. Can’t exactly bring that stuff home in the car!

I got two of the beds covered in cardboard and chicken compost.

Same thing in the raised bed. The chicken compost is just the first layer, next comes grass clippings, as soon as I get some mowing done.

When I run out of chicken compost I have a big pile that was cleaned out of my friend’s llama stall, which has been composting since last year and it looks pretty well broken down now.

Barclay helped out in the garden and kept me company, and he enjoys chasing the water from the hose! Fun times! I closed the main gate and let him and Jack out into the front pasture to play while I moved cardboard from the van to the garden. I was in the garden working and suddenly here comes Barclay running at full speed, delighted to have found me! Then he stayed in the garden with me the rest of the afternoon, even while Jack was still out exploring the front pasture.

Sick days

On By stefrobrtsIn alki, barclay, pets1 Comment
Barclay, contemplating being sick
Alki is still having trouble with her coughing problems. She went to the vet yesterday and the vet x-rayed her and decided the coughing was caused by flabby old lady parts sagging into her airway. I don’t think I buy that though (though I certainly paid for it through the nose) because Alki has never coughed until the day after she came back from her hospitalization.
Then yesterday Barclay was kind of lethargic, and I thought he was still tired from playing so hard with the other eskimos on Sunday. But he did this weird backwards sneeze, kind of like a snorting fit, a few times, and by afternoon he seemed really miserable. By evening he was really pitiful, moping around, sleeping under my desk or by my feet, making gurgling congested noises, and freaking out everytime he had one of those snorty fits. Unfortunately this went on all night, with him miserable and snorty, and Alki coughing (despite the pills the vet gave her). I got no sleep at all, comforting poor miserable dogs!
This morning Barclay feels much better. He’s only done one little snort, and he’s up and around and wagging again. Alki had several bad coughing fits this morning, and was coughing up foamy stuff. I don’t know of that’s better than not coughing anything up at all. I gave her another pill and she’s resting now, and I have a call in to the vet. Hopefully this is just a bug that’s passing through and she’ll beat it.
Update: Talked to the vet this afternoon. By the time I talked to her Jack had started coughing, and she agrees it sounds like Alki picked up a bug and gave it to the other two. Nothing to do but wait it out. Barclay is much better. Alki quit coughing up foam. Jack is just heading into it, and looking kind of miserable. I’m just hoping for a better night’s sleep than last night.