05/17/2022 Spring Cleaning

This is my dog shelf. All the dogs I've lost in my adult life (with the exception of one) reside on this shelf. All with a photo or a trinket or two. Momentos of our time together, something that reminds me of them, or something gifted me at their passing. All with a piece of my heart. Several times a year that shelf, along with the rest of the bookcase, gets a thorough cleaning as opposed to just a quick dusting. Those are the times each box, each token, is picked up, handled, remembered. Those are the times the Sad likes to pay a visit. Just how strongly it does so depends on what song is playing on Spotify, what my mood is, and how many glasses of wine I've had. Yes, wine while cleaning is a thing. There is also occasional dancing while cleaning. It all depends on the previously mentioned

01/02/2022 Beginnings & Endings

Fiona loved to hang out with us, lounging in her favorite corner of the deck, or laying in a patch of sunshine beside the house. For some reason she also liked to lay directly behind the chairs, even after getting a good several inches skinned off her tail when it got caught under one. She was not even slightly amused when we introduced Rebel Kitten to the farm and despised him to the end. And though there were times she would lay within a few feet of him, it was never done without the steady, threatening of a low growl. I admit, once she moved into the house, I spoiled her. So much so that we couldn't go into the kitchen without Fiona showing up to see if there were scraps for her. She would follow the sun around the house, finding spots to lay in it against the chimney or,

12/22/2021 Zoomies

Finn loves to play even if no one else wants to, he's been that way since he was a puppy. He'll amuse himself with a stick, a pile of leaves, a chunk of ice, or zoomies through the tall grass. It's a behavior which never ceases to both baffle and annoy Dillon, especially when Finn does everything in his power to get Dillon to join in. There are times Dillon loosens up and romps a bit. Other times

12/31/2020 Out With a Bang

My dogs have an uncanny ability to see challenges in the strangest places, and they are more than happy to pick up the thrown gauntlet. For instance, if my vet says, "I'll be out of town this day this day this day." One of my dogs will invariably counter with, "Time to develop some mysterious ailment." When my vet says, "I'm retiring from doing surgeries." You guessed it. Challenge accepted.         Happy New Year   May the best day of your past be the worst day of your future.

04/23/2020 Lambs & More

The current Covid situation means I'm home full-time for lambing for the first time ever. That's one of a couple silver linings. There are also many depressing aspects to the stay-at-home quarantine. I try to keep from thinking too much about those. Dwelling on what we can't control isn't very good for the soul. Most days I can keep from succumbing. Cloudy, wet, cool days when I can be too much in my head

03/14/2020 A Dog’s Eye View

When I ran agility (which, for those wondering, was eons ago), one of the things we did while walking the course was to squat down to our dog's eye level and survey our intended path. It no doubt appeared strange to onlookers. Heck, it felt strange the first time I did it. It also made it instantly clear that what I was thinking and what my dog was going to be seeing were two vastly different things. That, in turn, usually altered how I originally planned to handle that particular sequence. Honestly, I haven't given this much thought since those long-ago agility days. What brought it to mind now were some images I shot last weekend when Jig and I had some work to do. It's tough getting pics of my dogs working when I'm by myself. My phone is getting old and the camera in it isn't what it used to be. So

03/08/2020 Shaking it off…

I realized it's been quite a few weeks since I last posted anything. I've been meaning to, I just haven't had the energy or the motivation. It's a late-winter-not-quite-spring thing. This time of year, with the promise of nice weather right around the corner yet not quite within reach, I tend to get impatient with not being able to venture out and do the things I most enjoy, which leads to being more irritable than normal, uninspired, and generally frustrated and restless. Besides which, not a whole lot happens this time of year and I don't have a lot to share. Jig appears to have similar issues as she's been moody lately. Actually, she's been a downright bitch, just ask Finn. Poor guy can't even look her way without her curling a lip. Seems Jig and I are both suffering from the winter blues. Thankfully, Saturday was gorgeous. A good

11/18/2019 Two-by-two

Last Friday the weather was finally conducive to getting the ewes out with the ram so the afternoon became all about getting them sorted and moved. Knowing there would be a few challengers in the group I fully intended to give Jig the nod. Dillon needs more experience learning how to handle belligerent stock and though I've been working on it with him, we're having a few problems. It's well known; Dillon and I have communication issues. Then, in the way it often happens, the wise words of a friend popped into my head. Why not work Jig and Dillon together? How better to learn than side-by-side with an experienced dog? The team, ready to go to work. Jig's ear set says she may looking forward to it a bit too much. Right off the bat, someone has to cause an issue. Dillon isn't in the picture, but he's right behind Jig in

03/10/2019

March was off to a rocky start not only with Cian's breakthrough seizures, but with lambing as well. The weather was absolutely frigid, the majority of ewes were first timers, we lost a couple lambs, and one mother earned herself a spot on the fall trailer ride. All-in-all, that's life on the farm. Things seem to have leveled off, however, and we're down to just one ewe left to lamb. Seems there always has to be one holdout. To give us all something to smile about, I give you Photo Sunday, and a level of cuteness only lambs can achieve. All images ©2019 K. L. Schwengel/Rustic Photography

04/23/2018 Spring Has Sprung! I Hope

Sunday was a gorgeous day - finally - and I had every intention of taking advantage of the beautiful afternoon by getting in some training. First, however, I had to feed the bottle lamb. Done with that, I decided a quick walk-about was in order to check the footing in the pens and arena. The day before they had been slick and soupy. On my walk-about I noticed the duck-proofing was off on part of the arena fence. I don't have ducks this year, so could have just removed it. That would have taken more time than I wanted to spend, so I opted for a quick repair with baling twine instead. Before taking care of that, however, I needed to bring over several wheel barrow's worth of wood chips to fill in a soft spot in the roundpen, which reminded me that Cian's outside run needed a bit of