SEPTEMBER 2024

Give me a home among the gumtrees With lots of plum trees, A sheep or two, and a kangaroo, A clothesline out the back, Verandah out the front And an old rocking chair. (John Williamson)

Well there are lots more gum trees than when I came here 23 years ago!! Canola crop belongs to Richards Farming who also grow Three Row Pickled Onions… you can’t quite see them here but they’re being irrigated quite frequently at present because of the unseasonal heat. And soon there’ll only be a “sheep or two” thanks to feral dogs. Oh, Yes! There a young grey roo down in the gully this week!

So to dogs! The bitches are starting to come on heat up north according to Emma. I’m still waiting for our only bitch by Gibson, Sun, to do the same. Hopefully Spring will fire her up. Not that we’re having one at present, Summer arrived last week of Winter! As happens with surprising regularity nothing stops working until you need to use it…urgently! So the laptop with the Breeders’ Assistant programme we use to plan matings has decided to cark it. I am at present waiting fro the Computer Ambulance to arrive!

We are still talking about which ones to mate… young ones are Samba(Mick x Wiggle), Vamp(Barney x Livvy), Connie(Wills x Fizz) and of course Sun(Gibson x Sunny). Older girls are Wiggle, McKenzie and Naka.

The boys available: Black Jack(Apex Ace of Spades x Mina), Blye(Landy x Bimber), Gin Cruiser(Wills x Gin Fizz), Eventine Ralph(Blackdog Thunder x Tracker Gillette) and of course old Wills. We’re spoiled for choice.

It was exciting to see Libby Trickett start nicely for Greg Kings, shepherding quietly and prepared to lie down and let the sheep graze. Not at all what I was expecting, she wouldn’t let the sheep move here, just blocked up hard. Greg’s enjoying his bitch Queenie, sister to Black Jack. It’s very good of him to help me out, it’s been tricky with Em out of action.

Libby’s two brothers Hackett and Perkins(below) have been sold. Van (on rhs.) the last pup from Clover’s litter to Barney went last weekend. Van’s a lovely big pup but didn’t start as well as I’d like for a future sire and will have a great life near Beaudesert with some cattle.

 

 

1    <Click on the ONE for Simpson(Gibson x Sandy). His first look at cattle.

 

I received some photos from Tara Croser today, she works for the Courier Mail in Brisbane and had been promising me some she took of Viv and Viva before they became Nette and Bronte! Both pups are doing very well in their new homes and amazing their owners with their smarts.

Another CM photographer Adam Head called in another day for a few photos, one of which was used in several states to illustrate a story about pets getting depressed!

Adam thought it was a good idea to get five pups to sit on a bale of hay?!

Sad to report the loss of Livvy to a rotten little snake that had been sneaking around the outside of the snake meshed run for a couple of weeks. Every time I saw the dogs looking I checked, but nothing. Probably lucky in a way as there were 4 youngsters in the run as well. If they’d found it earlier in the day I might have noticed at tea time that she wasn’t well, but as it was, she jumped into her kennel and ate her tea as usual.There are some little tunnels under the snake mesh and about 1 1/2″ wide.

Liv’s been a very good brood bitch. I’ve kept a very nice red/tan bitch by Coin from her last litter…Charge/Billy. Very similar in temperament to her mum.

Mina’s litter by Sid are a lively bunch and just starting to disperse, Cam was the first. They’re very confident, competitive pups and should be good workers; Mina’s taking over from Midnight, her dam, as our outstanding brood bitch.

Meanwhile the Coin x Sass pups are steaming ahead with huge appetites, always looking for more!

I’ve got horrible hay fever at present and can’t really see much with itchy eyes, so that’s it for August.. I love this video of Livvy and Arthur.

 

 

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