I am baaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I am not sure who is still even paying attention to this blog, but after an extended, and cathartic, I might add, absence, I finally feel ready to come back and share my life.  I have re-centered myself, and am hoping I can keep this place not only fun, but perhaps a little educational- in the don't make my mistakes sort of way.

I feel like I should share why I had to take leave for a bit.  I felt sort of empty, and even more so, extremely unhappy with other bloggers who have taken the very meaning of a blog; a life diary on the web, and subverted it to the explicit purposes of funding their lives.   I found that extremely offensive and decided I did not want to be part of it- and that meant a break.

Well, now I am back and ready to move forward!

So, what has happened... Well, I had a very nice crop of lambs this year.  Almost all lambs have been sold, or retained for breeding.  The ram I have is just great, and produces excellent well muscled lambs, with quiet temperaments.  He is being sold this year as too many of my flock are related to him.  I also have one cross bred ram lamb for sale.  Other than that, I purchased three ewe lambs from the owner of the flock from whom I rented sheep for my sheepdog trial.  They still have tails, which is rather annoying, but they have good confirmation and I hope to eventually produce really nice lambs from them.  As I mentioned, I hosted a sheepdog trial at the property across the street from the farm.  It went very well, and was a monumental effort.  I do mean monumental.  BUT, it was so worth it.  My goal was to have a calm, relaxing trial on good sheep, and that is exactly what we had.
There was a lot of help by many, but still, it about wiped me out for days afterward.  Hopefully we can have it again next year!

On the dog front, not sure if I mentioned it, but I have a pup named Johnny, he is about 7 months, and is a smooth coat.  I named him after my friend John who passed away.  Did I mention that?  My very very good friend John passed away at the end of March; he was found in the sheep barn having suffered a heart attack.  It was very very difficult for me to process and I miss him every day.  His property is for sale.  So very sad.

The summer flew by, partially, I think because of the long winter we had.  The hay (most of it) is in the barn, and I still have a lot to do.  Lots of barn clean out.  I did get a load of crushed stone in the barn so that I can put stall mats on the floor, and I will put straw on top of that.  I should save a lot of money in straw, as now the floor should be raised above the wet zone (water seeping in),

This fall, I don't have many plans,  I would like to do some trials, but in all honesty, I am not sure I could afford it (to go away).  This is one reason I wanted to have my own trial...

Well, that is it for now.  I hope all has been well with you.  I have attached some pics of some of my favorite things.