More tomorrow, gotta run see how the lambs are doing. This photo was taken a few hours ago, when the black lamb in the back was about 10 seconds old... Both lambs were doing well when I left the farm about an hour ago, they were up in minutes and had nursed within 15 minutes of birth. Stay tuned! Read More
Willie works on his courage
It's been a busy weekend at Redstart Farm. The weather was cold, cold and windy, then rainy and windy, then just plain cold this morning at one below. But the snow melted enough so that it's not too deep to work Will on sheep, so Friday, Saturday and Sunday Will and I got to work together. We hadn't worked in quite awhile, the snow being far too deep for so long, and the month off appeared to have changed the relationship between Will and Redford, the ram. A few months ago the ram confronted Will and Will did exactly what he should have: when Redford walked straight up to Will and sniffed his face, Will lunged forward and air snapped, just enough to back Redford off and take charge. However, on Friday afternoon, things were different. This time Redford put his head down and charged Read More
Brain Dead over Holidays, Great Book
Jim, Will, Lassie and I are having a heavenly break over the holidays. Lots of time off, lots of movies, lots of snow shoeing and, for Jim, endless shoveling. For the first time ever I am contemplating getting a snow blower. Boooo.. another machine, another something that breaks down and won't respond to positive reinforcment. Yeah.... less back breaking work for Jim, and less time for me looking out the window worrying about him. I do some myself, but my back is pathetically problematic so I don't do much. (Car accidents, 15 foot falls off of hay wagons, fainting in the hot sun and breaking your tail bone turn out to be things that are bad for your back. Who knew?) I am reading a book sent by one of my sisters (Wendy Barker, a brilliant poet and creative writing professor, if I do Read More
You can teach an old dog new tricks, The Diane Rehm Show
Here's a question for you, based on a column I'm writing for The Bark magazine. The editors asked if I'd write a column about "training old dogs." (The column on training male versus female dogs will be in the next issue... stay tuned!). The question: how does your training vary (or does it?) once your dog becomes geriatric? I've started the column already: "Lassie doesn't sit anymore, at least, not when asked." I'm basing this introduction on the fact that about six months ago, my 15 year old Lassie looked at me blankly when I asked her to sit. She's going deaf, so I thought perhaps she didn't hear me. I gave her our usual visual signal. Nothing. Then I lured her down with a piece of food. She looked up at my eyes and stared at me. And rather than trying any longer, I thought: "Oh, I Read More
Alex and Me; Animal Intelligence and “Thinking” in Animals
I read Alex and Me over the weekend, and highly recommend it. The book is about author Irene Pepperberg's life, both as a scientist and as a parrot owner, with Alex, the African Grey Parrot. I've known of her research for years, and (full disclosure here), consider her a friend, so I can't pretend that I'm completely objective. But if you are interested in animal intelligence, animal communication and/or what parrots have to teach us about the minds of non-human animals, this book is for you. Irene, whose first real friend was a parakeet, left a promising career in chemistry to jump into the controversial field of "language" in non-human animals. No field better illustrates that, although the process of science is objective, scientists aren't. That is often a good thing: scientists are Read More