Q&A Because I Am Sick. AGAIN. GODDAMIT.

First Cubby was sick, then I was sick (AND HOW), then the MiL was sick.  Then Cubby got sick again, then A. got sick, and now I AM SICK AGAIN.

IT MAKES ME ANGRY. AND FAR TOO PRONE TO CAPS LOCKING.

But at least this cold is nothing like the soul-sucking plague that got me last time.  Still.  I feel I only have it in me to answer a couple of random questions before I have to go back to blowing my nose and coughing.

It's a glamorous life I lead.

So!  Questions.

1) Did you have to train the dogs to not go after the chickens, or do they just seem to "get it" on their own?  Oh, they had to be trained.  By which I mean shouted at whenever they chased chickens.  And I'm pretty sure some of our earliest chickens became doggie hors d'oeuvres.  But collies are, thankfully, fairly trainable when it comes to which animals are prey and which are not.  At this point, the chickens walk right past the dogs' noses and even jump in to peck at their bones (like meat bones for treats, I mean) on occasion with no repercussions.  But it took a little while to get to that point.


2) Are you going to keep all the girls (lambs) as you have in the past?  Nope.  In fact, I don't think we're keeping any of this year's lambs.  We just don't have the pasture for them.  Fourteen full-time sheep is about as much as we can manage on our limited acreage.  So some of these lambs will be sent to a livestock auction at a fairly early age--so we don't have to worry so much about depleting our pastures this summer with too many big sheep--and we'll keep several to raise to slaughter weight for us and some people who buy them from us in the fall.  But none of them are permanent residents.  So don't get attached.


Okay.  I have to go find a tissue now.  (DAMMIT.)