Presenting: Dailley "Pachino"

"Kalwa Taure Shetlands and Earendel Shetlands, are pleased to introduce our new ram from the Dailley Flock.

Pachino is just over a year old. He has the classic shetland conformation and fleece quality so consistent with his heritage.

He will be a beautiful additional to our selective breeding program.

Heartfelt thanks to Carol Precious for all her advise in helping us select him".

When one door Closes - another opens.

A Sad - but HappyTale

I've been desperately looking for my picture box so that I could find a good picture of Penny - our dog.
Let me tell you about Penny:
We think she's about 16 - going on 17 ish. We adopted her from the local Humane Society 15 years ago. I was actually looking at another dog - a white collie cross - but when I got there it had already been adopted. As we were walking through and looking in all the pens - Penny was sitting quiety facing the corner like she had been a bad girl. I asked the attendant what was up with her.
"That's "Bonus" she said - she's due to be euthanized tomorrow. When I asked why - they said she had used up all her time. She was about 2 years old - had been brought in because she "kept having puppies". Well - you know dogs - "Bonus " looked at me with those big brown eyes - and I melted - not on my watch!
We dutifully filled out the applications, went through our interview and brought her home.
At the time - I had a 2 year old - and a 5 year old (Children that is). My parents freaked when they learned that I was bringing a Rottweiler/Lab dog home with the children - especially with all these children being attacked by dogs.

My daughter called her "Penny" - and she soon settled in. But Penny - wasn't about to have an easy time of it.
Being the responsible dog owners that we were - we took her in to be spayed.
The vet opened her up - and out popped "Kidney Worms" - some as long as 3'. I just happened to be working out of town that day - and was tracked down. Did we want to save her - of course.
3 hours later ($700 poorer) - they had cleaned out all the kidney worms. She was actually the first known dog to have survived this horrible affliction. In the process - the worms had already eaten through one kidney. She was weak - but alive. We'll spay her another day.
The worms were sent to the University of Guelph - Vetrinary hospital for the students to study.

4 months later, we dutifully brought her back to the vets to be spayed. While there - ahem, the vet decided to do her blood test for heartworm (do you see where this is going). Uh-oh.
Unfortunately - Penny had never been cared for - and she had heartworm. It was decided that she was not a good candidate for the standard arsenic treatment for heartworm - and now we had to get special government approval to bring in a new treatment from the States. In this treatment - they take 2 long needles - insert them down between the shoulder blades and into the heart and inject a medicine that kills the worms. She spent 2 days at the vets office - and then had to come home for 6 weeks (and be kept quiet). The heartworms die - form a blood clot and then are passed from the system. If she was to get too excited - the clots could kill her.
Keeping this bundle of love and energy quiet was a chore - but hurrah - we managed.

Smooth sailing from here. Penny loved us with all her heart. She played frisbee with the kids.
She guarded all the animals. If an animal was on the property that wasn't supposed to be there - we knew about it. She loved to walk in the woods. We did go through a spell where she kept slipping her halter/collar and taking off into the woods for the night - but she always was right there the next morning. She was a truly amazing dog. She never ever harmed a chicken or sheep - even when they came and shared her food in her dish. We even had her go after a raccoon that had killed a chicken once - scare it off - and then bring the dead chicken back up and place it in front of the garage till we got home. She was a truly remarkable dog. She was afraid of thunderstorms (until she went deaf).

This last year we noticed that she was starting to slow - her eyes were fogging over with cataracts, she walked slower - but she still went on walks with us. About 3 weeks ago - she decided she didn't want to eat anymore. I tried everything - she would nibble at the canned food. I called the vet - who came out and gave her a couple of shots of B12 - and some massage and herbs. She took blood and checked her all over. "She's old" - but not her time yet.
We soldiered on - special food - and lots of love. Lots and lots of love for a dear old friend.

On Tuesday morning, I opened the barn door to find her lying silently curled up in the straw by the door - right where we had left her the night before. She had quietly slipped away in the night. The way it should be. We were happy that she didn't have to endure another long cold winter here. We were happy that we could give her 15 years of love - and she gave us nothing but love back. That rottwieler/lab never once growled or spoke back to us. We never once had to raise a hand to her. She was possibly the best dog anyone could ever have.

We buried her up in the corner of the barnyard (My husband wanted to bury her in the woods).
But I knew that even after she was gone - she would want to be close to us. I can look out and see where she lies - and know that she was always there for me.
I have to go now (because I am crying so much it's hard to type). I'll find those pictures this weekend and put one up on the blog.

Good-bye my dear friend - we will meet again.

A Walk in the Woods

Autumn is here - I love autumn. I love to walk in the woods - and smell the fallen leaves.
There is so much to see.

I actually took these pictures last Sunday on my morning walk.
It was a glorious sunny day.


I took about 50 pictures - but I'll only show a few of my favourites.





This is one of my favourites:

I love the ferns sticking up through the leaves -
the contrast is so striking. And the stump in behind
with fungus growing on it - well - I just think it's
an interesting shot.






This is another shot of leaves.
Again - with the moss showing through.
I really like moss. And in this picture - you have the green moss - and the leaves all around - all the different types of leaves. It's just interesting
to look at.









This next shot - I took in the spring.
This is an area in our woods that floods most
years in the spring. I actually had this picture
done up into an 8x10. It almost looks like a lake
in the woods - but what I really love - is the reflection of the trees - and the sky in the water.


I showed this - so that you can see the contrast
in this next picture:


This is exactly the same area - taken last week.

The water has all dried up - and the area is covered with a thick carpet of leaves. You'd never know it was the same area.
What a difference. But still an interesting shot.
The long shadows of the trees - the open - but enclosed space. I find it to be a very serene
picture.




And lastly - my backyard - framed by the trees
as I come up from the woods.

I love nothing more than to see my lovely little flock of shetlands grazing in the back. The sheep haven't noticed my presence yet - or else they'd all be standing at the gate trying to get into the woods.




I have to take a walk out into the woods again tomorrow - I love to document the changes
each week as autumn progresses.

And - I want to see if there was any wind damage in the storm we had on the weekend.

As My Flock Ages

It's not really unexpected that this will happen.
And it never, ever gets any easier.

Earlier this week, we said good-bye to
Cherrington Elizabeth - born May 20, 1996.
She quietly passed away in her sleep. She had been slowly getting thinner, and this last few weeks - really didn't want to eat. We tried just about everything, but she just wasn't interested.

As a consolation - the day before she died - she went outside and spent a glorious afternoon in the autumn sunshine - she was still quite agile - although very arthritic. I was a bit surprised to
find her dead the next morning - as I was hoping she was going to rebound for us.

At right is a picture of her taken a few year ago (she was terrible for diving head first into the hay).

Bess (as she was fondly called) was one of my first
three original sheep that I got when I started into shetlands way back in 1996. Her sire was Skerryvore Corby, and her Dam was Cherrington Queen Mary.

She was one of those lovely Cherringtons - one of the earliest flocks of Shetlands in Ontario.
And true to the Cherrington Black sheep - even at 13 years old - she still didn't have a white hair on her body. Her fleece wasn't quite as soft as her mothers - but it was still quite soft and crimpy. We are certainly going to miss her in our flock.

At this time, my next oldest sheep are now Kalwa Taure Beatrice and my last Cherrington - Little Dog- who was born in 2000.

Although I've been raising shetlands now for 13 years - it never gets any easier when we have
to say good-bye to one of our beloved flock.

Hopefully my next post will be a bit more cheerful.

New Babes in the Barn

Technically - they are in quarantine in my studio.
However - in a few weeks, they will be moving out to the barn.

These babies are my latest Avian aquisitions.
For those not in the know - they are LIGHT
BRAHMAS.

And if you've never had the chance to get up close and personal with one - they are BIG birds.

This trio that I picked up today - were born in
May of 2009. They are huge! They make my standard size cochins look like bantams. The two hens weighed in around 5 pounds each, and the cockerel was around 9 pounds. Remember - they are only 5 months old - they don't fully mature until they are around 2 years old. Right now - the cockerel stands almost 18 -20" tall - the hens are probably around 16" tall.

When I move them from quarantine to regular quarters, I will get some pictures of them with some of the other birds to compare the size.

So - why the light brahmas? Well - I'm slowly building up a flock of the different birds that I'm interested in raising. While researching the different types of chickens - I kept coming back over and over to these birds as one of the types I'd like to see wandering my barnyard.

I spent quite a bit of time searching for light brahmas, but because they are such a large bird - not a lot of people want to raise them. A few months ago, I posted an ad on Kijiji, and was contacted by - David Stuart- who just happens to specialize in Standard Light Brahmas - and surprise - he only lives about 30 miles away.

What a treat it was to go to his farm today and learn about these wonderful birds. He was very patient and informative on how to choose a good quality show bird, what to look for in the feathers and colouring and structure.

Then, after much deliberation, I came away with these 3 show quality birds. I haven't named them yet - but that will come.

I also have some other new birds in the coop - I will have to get pictures and post them in the next few weeks.

Until then - I'll leave you with this picture that I took last weekend out in our woods.
It looks like fall is here. I'm sure that winter isn't far behind.

What's New?

I know it's been a while. I have been busier than usual - as a matter of fact - too busy.
Work has been crazy - and I have had had to work a lot of overtime to keep up.

I also have 5 pottery sales coming up in November - so in the evenings, I have spent a great deal of time at the wheel and in the studio. This hasn't left much time for anything else - other than sleeping.

The good news - we did have one of our silver laced cochin chicks survive. I moved the last two survivors up to the brooder box - and one of them died - but this little guy is a survivor.
I call him/her "Peepers" - just cause when you walk into the garage, he starts peeping at you.
(I think it's a rooster - don't ask why - I just think it is).
He's looking really scraggly right now as his feathers are coming in.

This picture was taken in his brooder box - which he really is getting too tall for - when we walk into the garage - he sticks his head over the top and looks out at us - like an ostrich peering at you over the fence.

The other bit of good news is that my friend Alina, has managed to hatch out several silver laced cochin chicks in her incubator in July - and, next week, I am going to get 6 chicks from her.

So Peepers won't be lonely too much longer.


We have some new arrivals in the coop as well.
I will have to get pictures soon. But for now -
at least this is a start.

That's all for now.

And Now for the Sad News

So - it's not all exciting and fun in the farm world.
In my last post, I was so excited about my new silver laced cochins. 7 beautiful little chicks hatched after waiting so long.

Sadly - this past week, we had and outbreak of CRD in our barn/coop - and 6 of my 7 chicks died.
Finally, on Thursday, I took the last two and moved them up to the brooder box, where, at this moment, the last chick appears to be recovering. I have been medicating, and it has a heat lamp - no one is allowed into the area for fear of contamination. Chucky is devastated to have lost her entire brood.

For those of you who don't know a lot about CRD (chronic respiratory disease) - let me fill you in.

It is an insidious "mycoplasma" bacterium that invades the air sacs of the lungs of chickens. In itself - it is not a really bad disease. It is much like the common cold is in humans. However - what it does, is weakens the bird - and secondary infection will often jump in - take over - and the weaker birds will die very quickly.

It is Chronic. Meaning - the birds that survive will be carriers - and will continue to infect your flock forever.

What can you do? Most vetrinarians recommend either destroying and burning your entire flock, then scouring the coop with disinfectant - wait a month - then you can start over with a new flock - which is reasonable if you have a meat or layer flock.
The other option is to live with it (as I am doing because I love my chickens). Try not to stress your birds - treat it when it rears it's ugly head - AND - quarantine any and all new birds arriving at your farm for not One, not TWO - but FOUR!!!!! weeks.

I got it on my farm when a friend gave me some lovely little birds last year - which looked healthy - and I stupidly didn't quarantine them long enough. I introduced it to my flock - and it didn't rear it's head for 2-3 months.

Why did I lose my chicks? Well -they have NO immunities at birth - and it typically takes 26 weeks for young birds to develop their immunities. I had brought in a new group of birds (which I am quarantining for a month) - and we had a little extreme heat wave here, which probably stressed my flock out and another outbreak occurred. This outbreak is currently running through my flock - and will take about 10 - 12 days to subside. Some birds are completely unaffected. Any new birds in my flock that have never had it before are currently ill. I have lost 2 of my cuckoo marans. Everyone that shows signs of illness goes into a "hospital" cage up in my studio and receives extra care.
I have been in contact with a vet and instructed to treat with "tetracycline" based medication.
It works. Most birds who show symptoms are clearing up within 2 days of treatment.
I am also giving the birds crushed garlic to help build their immunities - most of them love it.

So - this isn't meant to scare anyone. It is just a cautionary message to say:
Be Aware! Ask questions when buying birds (is this in your flock? have your birds been sick?)
And don't be afraid to walk away if you don't get the answers you should, because although it is a nuisance - it can also cause a lot of heartbreak. Up until last year - I had never had a single sick bird in my flock - it just takes one lapse in judgment to change everything.

So - now - Off my soapbox.
In the next week or so -I will post some pictures of some of the new birds we do have (that are in quarantine).