He’s a pretty photogenic little guy. I have a ton of pictures of him! I’ve been working on a dog scrapbook, and I figure I’ll have quite a few pages of him! I called the kennel club, and they suggested waiting until he’s had all his puppy shots before he starts classes. So we’ll start the next set, in March. We’ll see how that goes, and may dog beginner’s level 1 and 2. I’d like to take him camping, and start bikejoring with him once he’s bigger.

I took a friend of mine out dogsledding the other day. We just took two dogs for her first experience, and it went really well. She enjoyed it, and the dogs did great, once we got going. They weren’t so sure about pulling an extra person, so I let her take the two of them and met them up the trail. We just packed it with snowshoes instead of the snowmachine, and I prefer that. Not as hard-packed, so it’s easier to use the drag brake!

I bought a gps on ebay, and I can’t wait to get it! I want to find our property line, so I can start putting up fencing for the cows. I don’t know how many I’ll get, it’ll depend on how much they are. I’d like to get at least two, preferably three or four. Then I’d sell one or two in the fall, and keep two over the winter. I’ll breed them, if they’re old enough. I’d like to get a small herd going. It’ll take awhile to build up, but you need to start somewhere, right?

Isn’t Mack a cutie? He’s going to look just like his daddy, Blacky. I love his ears! I took another close up of them:

Here’s little kitty. Her real name is Kitkat, but no one calls her that. My brother calls her evil, I call her little kitty or stupid kitty, and dad calls her “that cat”. She’s my sister’s cat, and a pain in the butt. I can’t complain too much, I got her little kitty as a birthday gift for her. Dumb move! Little kitty doesn’t take so well to dogs, so we’re slowly getting her used to Puppy. Here she is hiding before some clothes, watching his every move! Stealth kitty!

Here’s Mack checking something out. Abby (the ‘little’ black dog) was playing in her blankets, and Mack wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.

Abby’s gotten used to seeing pups in the house over the years, but doesn’t bother with them too much. Mack wanted to play, but Abby tried to keep her distance. Isn’t he a cutie though?

Mack went for his shots yesterday morning, and one of his brothers came for his shots as well. That one looks exactly like Sierra did as a pup! These guys are her grandkids. We’ll likely get Mack neutered once he’s older, since he’s related to all the girls in our yard. He’s related to actually almost all the dogs. We have both the mom’s parents and a brother, and three of the dad’s siblings. I’m hoping to start obedience classes with him in the new year. I can’t wait!

So what’s up with the rain? We were having gorgeous weather, snow and nice temps around -10*C to -20*C, when all of a sudden it warmed up! All our snow is melting, and it’s actually raining outside! What’s worse is when it cools down again, we’re going to be stuck with a lot of ice. Definitely doesn’t have the ‘Christmas spirit’ feeling to it. Raining in December. Pathetic, isn’t it.

Merry Christmas everyone, from our kennel to yours!

On the schooling front, I finished my application for university. I applied for nursing and kinesiology. I’m hoping for nursing, but wouldn’t mind kin. I guess we’ll see. I likely have�a better chance of getting into nursing anyway!

Today I’m planning on snowshoeing the trails and doing more packing, and hopefully we’ll get a few dogs out. We’ll see how it goes. They’re all anxious for another run! I want to work with Mufasa more in lead. She seems to be doing well so far.

We have a good amount of snow now. I’m hoping to get out snowshoeing a pack a trail, and then get the dogsled out. I having been feeling very well lately. This week I’ll get out for sure though.

The chickens and the rooster are doing good. They’re so funny! In the spring I’m going to try brooding some eggs, and see if we can raise some of our own. I’m planning on buying a couple dozen though.

Foxy is still with the pups. I think she’s starting to dry up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re still nursing at night. I didn’t want to take her away from them yet, since it’s pretty cool. I figure if I keep a pup, I’ll move her into the pen with Slate and Blacky, and tie her up and let the pup run loose. It’ll be good for him to socialize with his daddy and Slate. I want to take him to obedience lessons, and bring him to work sometimes. And he can keep me company when I house-sit at my boss’s for six weeks later this winter.

Dad said I could get some livestock in the spring. I’m going to get three or four cows, pheasants, turkeys, meat chickens, and more laying chickens. I’d like to build up our cow herd over the next few years, and then sometime get�a milk cow, once I have a set schedule. And a horse, too.

I love puppies! They are so much fun! The four black boys look a lot alike. So do the two grey girls.

The puppies are so cute! They’re starting to show different personalities now, and we can finally tell them all apart!

Plus, it’s snowing! We have so much snow now, it’s awesome. Almost a foot here, and we’re supposed to get more. Yah! Soon I’ll have to snowmachine out, and we might give the dogsled a try soon. I can’t wait!

In chicken news, we got a rooster. His name is Rocky, and he’s an Americauna. He’s a very pretty boy, and likes his new home. I’ll try and get a pic of him soon.

The puppies are doing good. They’re getting so big! They’re almost four weeks old now, and are eating three meals a day. I might start them on a fourth meal soon. Tomorrow I’ll likely deworm them for the first time, and give their yard a good cleaning. I’m still considering keeping one, and I’ve narrowed it down to two. But I can pretty much tell them all apart now. I still have trouble with two of the black boys.

Here they all are, coming out to eat.

I went to visit the people that have Rainy last night, and she was so excited to see me! I took her for a walk, because she was all hyper and wouldn’t stay still. After that, she calmed down and was settled when I left. She’s so cute! She loves being a house dog though.

The puppies are growing so fast! They’re all growling and playing in the dog house. None of them have ventured out on their own yet. They come about halfway out of the house, and then decide it’s too cold, or bright, or scary or something, and turn around. But we’ve taken them out to play with. They’ll be three weeks tomorrow, so we might start to try weaning them. I know Foxy would appreciate it! Poor girl, just gives me this look as she tries to make room for them all to nurse, like, ‘pity me!’ That’s when I look at Blacky and say, ‘you’re the one that did this to her!’ He doesn’t seem to care. I gave Foxy some milk and syrup the other day, and she grabbed the cup and started carrying it around. Here’s a pic:

Isn’t she cute? Four of the boys will look a lot like her. Same colour, anyway.

On the chicken front, we got eight eggs this morning. Not bad, eh� Usually after a year they only lay every couple of days, so twelve chickens laying eight eggs isn’t bad. Yesterday we got seven. We’ll likely get twelve laying chicks in the spring, plus two roosters. Seems to be a good number for the coop we built.

And you may wonder where all the chickens are. Well, they’re attacking my boots!

I’m not sure why, they had some weird fascination with them. All twelve of them were trying to get at my feet. But here’s a pic of them after I fed them.

Here is the lonely egg I found this morning. Jess already collected a few, and then got a couple more later on. Not bad for some old hens, eh?

I like the chickens. They’re entertaining, and easy to keep. And the dogs appreciate the eggs!

Speaking of dogs–puppy pix! This is all of them, or rather, at least part of each of them. Three are grey and four are black. Two of the grey pups are girls, and the rest are boys.

Here’s one of the boys. They’re so fat! They’re going to look just like their mommy–in colour, anyway.

The chickens have settled into their new home.� It’s been cold the last few days, but they seem to be handling it fine. Must be the nice house I built for them!

The puppies are so cute! I’ll get some more pix of them later this morning. They’re not coming out of their house yet, but they’re starting to play inside the house, and growl and stuff. They’re adorable!!!

Rainy is doing awesome in her new home. She’s mostly an indoor dog, and absolutely loves it! She spent the first few days getting used to it, but now she’s starting to show more of her character. Darren just loves her. When he came home from getting her, his mom said he ran in the house and started telling all the animals that they had a new dog, and was jumping on the couch and basically bouncing off the walls. He’s so cute! I’m glad they like her. His dad does some sledding every once in awhile, and she’ll likely get out with him a few times this winter.

We decided to name the pups after ‘Jag’ characters. The two girls are Kate and Meg, and the boys are Jag, Harm, Mac, Bud, and Austen.