December, 2023

I guess we’re all thinking the same thing, where did the year go? It was motoring along, that’s for sure! Didn’t help that October was a waste of time being sick all month, but at least it’s rained and we have that to be thankful for.

The last litters are at that delightful age where you just have to stop and watch them, about six weeks. Eating like mad and going through a heap of feed, 6kg chicken mince plus 3L of kefir only does 3 feeds! Emma helped me tattoo them yesterday, I get much clearer ones with a good puppy holder. All the pups had a quick yelp and then came back straight away to play around our feet.

Barney x Mina pups, a lovely litter of look alikes!

The Gibson x Livvy litter is starting to move on and I’m delighted at the lovely temperament and their ability to cope with big changes. They haven’t been handled as much as usual but it hasn’t made any difference to their rather blasé attitude to life! I received some beautiful photos of the first two boys that flew north.

       

1 Click on the no. 1 for a super happy little boy!

The Gibson x Sandy litter is also doing very well, considering poor Sandy had the op. for her mastitis and is short of two milking teats. Lovely friendly pups too, the one little fawn girl is a real firecracker! We were going to give them beach names for Sandy, but the Desert connection with the parents’ names provided an educational trip into the Australian desert! Great Sandy, Tanami, Simpson, Sturt, Stony and Tirari! Strzelecki got a miss for the spelling…!

Midnight’s litter will be her last, Derek wanted to try her to Gibson but old Wills got in first! She didn’t milk very well, but they’re lively little fellas and super cute. This mating has produced some very good workers, two bitches have been retained in the stud. Three boys here for sale.

Naka has been looking after her seven Barney pups well. I gave her a herbal mix to help her produce more milk, but once they reached three weeks they started to really bloom with Marina’s magic herbs to give them a boost. Rose is helping me take the photo, below.

I love herbs, after all they were the only ‘cures’ for centuries and are still very valuable medicinally. McDowalls Herbs are very good, their decongestant brew helped me avoid going to hospital when I had pneumonia. Their Infecta Clear is a good one to have on hand for dogs, I gave it to Sandy to try and sort her out before the ABs finished and added it to kefir and kept it going for three weeks. Hopefully it will help the pups avoid any problems from the ABs. Their raw diet is also a big plus.

We have been sorting out the young bitches and have a couple for sale. At present I think we have enough coming on to replace the older girls in a year or so. Next year Fizz, Midnight, Sunny, Sandy, KD and Heli are out of the breeding group. We have a few very good young girls to replace them, Vamp, Sammi, Sun, Mystic and Dynamick look very promising but the three young ones still have to go through the hoops… strength on cattle, stamina, work type etc.

I had an excited call from a long time buyer a couple of weeks ago; he’d taken his 3yo Whip x True boy to herding class near Melbourne and was totally blown away! He wasn’t the only one, I had a call from the instructor next day.

The video is on my Karmala Kelpies Facebook page on Nov. 28. I’ve no idea how to post it here as it came off WhatsApp! Nik is taking Vanda’s litter brother next Sunday, he’s got a hard act to follow. He also has Sammi’s litter brother and I think he might be nice too. The pup in the vid below is a full sister.

Em gave Dynamick her first look at sheep this week and we were pretty happy.

Mystic had her second look. She was a bit stuck, we had all the sheep in the big run and it was too many for a pup so Midnight “helped”. Just keep an eye out near the start to see what the old tart deliberately did to the pup!! We were really happy with her, she has plenty of intent when needed. 

I had some nice photos from John Clothier recently. He and his daughter have three Karmala girls, this is the youngest born on Valentine’s day…K.Virginia Woolf/Ginny. 

 

It’s already Dec.6 so I’ll publish this and come back later to add some further bits and pieces. I hope you are all getting some good rain and avoiding storm damage. A very happy festive season to all, enjoy family catch-ups and don’t work too hard!

Happy Christmas to all and very good health and fortune in 2024!