Puppy wounded

Its cold outside

It's really cold outside!!  Sarah got me this woven ski mask thinking I would not wear it.  Oh how wrong she was!  I wear it all the time, it has been consistently under 20 degrees F, it is definitely ski mask weather.  Annmarie had let the sheep out onto the back hillside but I was afraid one of them would have a baby while out on the back hill. So Zeke, mouse and I went out to chase them back into the barn lot.  There is a definite learning curve associated with working two dogs.  Even though I had mouse on a retractable leash he kept trying to get out and chase the sheep.  Zeke was a terror.  I had to resort to much swearing and yelling to get him to do what I wanted.  Half the time mouse thought I was yelling at him.  It took some practice to say "Zeke" before every epitaph but I caught on quickly!!

I noticed blood on the snow and thought one of the ewes was in labor.  It wasn't until I saw Mouse leaving bloody footprints that I realized it was him.  He was off the leash and running the sheep all over the ram pasture.  You could not tell his foot was injured by the way he moved.  Once we had the sheep all settled into the barn he started to limp.  So I took him inside, he had cut one of his pads on his back foot.  Once it was all dressed Zeke and I went back outside to feed the alpaca and cows.   

Barn during day, I was loading the feeders.  I could even sleep out here with a blanket. 

injured puppy

ready to go

I broke out the hooks to move the large bales after trying to push some bales off the top.  The bale I was using as leverage kept moving.  So I found the two hooks I got from the scrap yard, slammed them into the side of a low bale and hooked a chain up then ran a long chain out to the tractor so when I pulled the 800 lb bales would not crush my tractor.  It worked perfectly.  I then pushed the bale way out away from the machine shop.  The cows were happy. We spent 3 hours out in the bitter cold. 

The mule deer think it is cold and snowy also.  We have 30+ living on the back hillside.  We have started looking out for the elk now.  They can be very destructive on the young wheat plants.