Bay Haven Farm Cleveland Bay Horses

Anatolian Shepherd Dogs  & Corriedale Sheep

Round Hill, Virginia

home of OldDominion Stud & Horse Tregoyd Journeyman 

The Farm Hand's Almanac Archive

The Farm Hand's Almanac was started in late September 2005.  The intent of the Almanac is to add the farm hand's perspective to the goings on at the farm.  Below is an archive of the Farm Hand's Almanac entries.  (the photo above is entitled "Farmers" (aka the Williams Brothers Farmers) courtesy of stuffucanuse.com)

November 17  - Puppies are four weeks old today.  The horses are pretty wooly, the youngsters particularly and with the recent rain and muck, they are quite muddy on top of it all.    Joe never seems to get super wooly with a long coat like the others.  He just seems to darken up and thicken up a little.  It's nearly time to wean Maximus.  He's ready.  He'll enjoy having his buds, Galahad and Bors to hang around with again.

November 15  - The weather-people are calling for 100% chance of rain showers today.  We have had some pretty constant drizzle over the last couple of days and even some pretty heavy downpour at times.  Its all good because we needed the rain.  After today the rain will subside and give way to sunshine again with the exception of snow showers possible for Tuesday.  Could be our first taste of snow for the winter.  The pups are all coming into their own.  Playing, wrestling, making lots of noise, even running...cute.  They will be four weeks old on Monday.  Today happens to be the 13th birthday of one of our geriatric (that goes without saying) dogs.  Buka is a female husky - elkhound mix...or so we think.  "Gun" deer hunting begins today.  It is only half past 7 in the morning and I have heard a good handful of gunshots already. 

November 12  - It has been a high wildlife casualties week so far.  A few days ago, we picked up a raccoon who had been terminated at the hands of Mosby, Stella and Leeloo.  (Kamille was in with her pups).  Just this morning I found a fox had met the same unfortunate fate during the night. Both bodies were found around the house compound rather than in the fields.  I wonder if either party was responsible for the "digging" I noticed around the chicken's house.  The chicken coop is right out front in the barnyard which is not far from the house.  Perhaps the coon and fox were looking for some dinner?  Rain is coming. There is a high chance of rain over the next few days. Update:  There are now only two pups remaining.  Our silvery white guy below was spoken for today.  He will be relocating to California. 

November 9 - Autumn is back.  It'll dip down into the thirties now at night and mid - fifties for daytime temps.  Pups are 3 weeks old as of tomorrow. Cute photos below are from today.  Administered some 7 month Rhino's yesterday to the first crew of Cybele, Buttercup and Bayberry who are all due to foal about the same time in the spring. After some careful consideration, and thinking on it since earlier this spring, we  are going to retire our elder TB mare Circle  and remove her from Joe's herd and have her take up residence with the "girls".  It took some time for her to become "in foal" this season and we are now wondering if she has not slipped the foal.  (which is something she did last year as well).  Her last foal was Gwynith who was born just over 2 years ago.  She will be 18 in March and her body is probably a good handful of years older than she is chronologically. (Due to a racing career and light lameness)  While we would love to have another Joe x Circle foal, we don't want it to be at a cost to Circle.  She will make a lovely, easy going slow and steady trail horse.  Her retirement career I suppose.  One I am sure she will be happy with.

November 7 -Yesterday "O" (Olwen) turned 20 months old.  Funny thing, her measurements are EXACTLY the same as Gwynith's were (with the exception for a slight variation in bone) when Gwynith was 20 months old.   O  weighs 988 lbs with  8 " bone and is now 15 hh.  She's a lovely young mare.  Switching things up today and posting some horse photos instead of puppy photos.  It was a beautiful November day of 75 degrees with a warm sun.

November 5 -Today is Guy Fawkes Day in the United Kingdom.  It is the day our Welsh friends traditionally unite their "Tup" (Ram) with the ewes for breeding.  And so this has become a tradition of ours as well.  It will put the onset of lambing starting toward the end of the first week of April.   We have introduced Wallace to the ewes and will see how he does.  (This is his "first time").  He seemed to take an interest right away so I am confident he will figure out how to get the job done.  We will let Wallace remain with the ladies for 40 days and then send Big Boy Grin in to do "clean up" as they call it.  "Clean up" is an American term.  I wonder if our English friends have a clever term for this duty?

November 3 -The white female pup was sold as of yesterday.  She will be called "Nala" and will relocate to California when she's old enough and ready for travel.  The are all growing, eating and sleeping a lot!  Kamille continues to be an excellent mother.  Pups are two weeks old today.  We will try to get some more new pics of each pup over the next day or so to post.

October 30 - Happy Halloween! Izzle's birthday was today. She turned 7 months old.  She had a weight gain and a height gain, with the same measurement of bone.  She stands 13.2 hh, 596 lbs and 7.25" bone. Everyone is looking very wooly and doing well.  Pups are doing great.  Little personalities beginning to show.  The white female is advancing the quickest (that's first born for you!).  She is sitting up (as pictured below.  I love the composition of this photo with the shadows and her sitting quietly as if she's taking a quiet moment on her own) and giving little barks and howls (sitting howl also pictured).  Most all are peeking through tiny slits (thinking about opening their eyes) and getting more confident on 4 wibbly legs.

October 30 -Some of the pups are beginning to crack their eyes open.  Many of them are also getting all four legs under them and taking a few steps before toppling over (much like watching an inebriated person walk and stumble).  They are graduating from the "puppy scootch" and are starting to act more like pups.  A howl and bark every now and again as well.  We will take more pictures in the next day or two and post them.  So far, at a week and half old, 6 of the pups have been sold. 

October 25 -The pups have about doubled in size.  They are growing so fast.  Hard to believe they are nearly a week old. Having trouble posting some pictures...technical difficulty but will sort it out.  This is why there are no photos of Fawn Boy #3 or #1 just yet. I have photos, just need to sort though whatever is not working right.  All are well.  Lots of rain today.  Its good we got our last round bales up and undercover before all the rain we got today. 

October 23 -The pups are growing like little weeds.  Amazing.  All continue to do well.  We have started taking some individual pup pics and placed them on the puppy page.  Rain due to come this weekend.  The Farm Hand and I are planning to retrieve the last 28 bales of hay tomorrow. 

October 21 -The final count is 9 healthy, vigorous pups.  Go to the puppy page for more details on the pups. The last couple of days held a few equine birthdays as well as puppy birthdays.  Fred turned 2 years old.  He is 959 lbs, stands 15.1 hh and has 8.375" bone.   Galahad turned 7 months old.  He did not grow significantly in weight increasing only 20 lbs to 545 lbs. However, our boy Galahad now towers at 14.hh.  He measured 13.1 last month.  Galahad has a bone measurement of 7.5625.   Another birthday recently was Maximus who turned 4 months old.  Maximus added 100 lbs to his body weight now weighing 515 lbs.  He also grew by leaps and bounds and is now 13.1 1/2 hh.  His cannon bone is 7.0".    Unfortunately with all my preoccupation with Kamille and the impending births I forgot to measure Bors on his 7 month mark.  So in another two weeks I'll be sure to make his 8 month measurements as see how he's progressed.

October 20 - Beginning at about 11pm last night Kamille started labor.  The Farm Hand and I stayed up until 3 am assisting Kamille with the delivery of her 6 new pups.  There is an even split with 3 boys and 3 girls.  All the pups are healthy and vigorous and doing well.  Kamille is quite tired but is a most excellent mother and is doing well herself.  It would appear we have 2 brindle females and one white female.  As far as the males go we have a fawn colored male, a white male, and a silvery gray colored male who we are told will light in color with a cream colored cast to it.  Photos of the newborns below.  We will update the photos regularly on the puppy page.  But wait, there's more!  About a half hour after finishing this puppy news I went to check on Kamille as I reported to a fella waiting on the litter what males there were to choose from.  When I went to go look at them as I spoke, there were two extra!!  Two wet pups!  7 hours after her last pup Kamille had two more.  Two more males. One brindle with symmetrical white feet (all fours) and one more fawn.  Amazing.  So we now have 5 boys and 3 girls!   Wow.  Will post some photos of the "complete" gang later.  And finally...it would appear that our grand total is 9 pups.  3 extras ended up showing up this morning.  3 boys.  Our grand total (which we hope is a final, now over 14 hours since whelping commenced ) is 9 lovely pups.  I will post some new photos of the pups soon.

October 19 - Still no puppies.  I went back through my calendar to count the days from when an observed connection was made.  From that point we are only at 59 days today.  I either mis-counted or padded the date with a few days to account for a conception that could have taken place the day or two prior.  So there is still time yet, and we are in the "safe zone".  Pup gestation is normally 59 - 63 days.  Any sooner would have been too early.  So we are right on top of our window.  She is giant though, with plenty of milk, which I hope is not an indication of how many pups she thinks she will need to feed.  Because if it is, there will be plenty more than the 5 count from the first litter.  5 was a nice manageable number.  I am thinking of when she stops cleaning up after them and it becomes my job.  And 5 was plenty little hineys to clean up after!!  Especially when they had run of the entire mud room because they kept climbing out of the whelping box! 

October 16 -Kamille's temperature has dropped to 99 degrees and remained there all day.  It would appear that whelping is imminent.  It is looking very much like fall outside and the temperatures are going to begin to reflect as such.  60's during the day and 30 & 40's at night.  I dropped our first round bales this week and have turned on the heating elements in the auto-waterers.  And so it begins. I have managed to retrieve and stack all but 28 bales of our second cutting, but will hope to collect and stack those this weekend.

October 13 -Where is October going so quickly?   I can't believe it is the middle of the month already.   As of today we have done the last of pasture rotation and have everyone appropriately settled in their winter pastures.  All the boys are together; Fred, Big B, Bors, Galahad, the daughters' pony, Chagal and Hans (a gelding who boards with us).    Maximus will join them around Turkey Day.   All the young girls are together; Gwynith, Olwen, Rhiannon, Isolde, and Catherine (TB boarder hopefully in foal to Joe.)   Then Joe and his ladies are in a field of their own.  The grass is not growing as rapidly as it was last week as the nights are pretty cool into the 40's.  The bucket is off the tractor and has been replaced with the bale spear.  I will spend the next week retrieving and stacking our second cutting which came to 49 round bales.  Working alone this task will take a little longer than two people as I will have to shuttle myself back and forth from truck and trailer to tractor.  The farrier returns for the second shift on Thursday and Fred celebrates his 2 yo birthday on Sunday.  I am absolutely certain we will have puppy news within the next day or two!  Perhaps the next photos posted will be little guinea-pig sized Anatolian Shepherd pups.

October 8 -Farrier was out to day to handle the first of three shifts.  It has been a few days since our latest musing, but in an effort to catch up, I will report that Olwen at her 19 month measurement was 945 lbs, 14.3 hh and has cannons measuring 8".  Grass is still growing for now and is as green as ever.  We have managed to muster 50 new round bales on our second cutting.  We are pleased with the quantity as we did not expect it to be so much.  We should be set well for what folks are saying is going to be a very wet winter.  (Which I suppose translates to "lots of snow").  Kamille, our Anatolian Shepherd female who is expecting a litter of any day now is handling it all very well and in spite of her very large and low hanging belly, she manages to leap the three feet up on the porch to come inside for her regular rests, equally as frequent meals and her final night-time tuck in to her cozy whelping box. 

October 3 - Ahhh - Friday.  We started our second cutting today.  It should be good.  The weather is cooperating.  Kamille is ready to explode!  Lots of sleeping and about 3-4 small meals a day which is about all her belly can hold as squished  as it must be by the pups!  We expect pups within the next 10 days.

October 2 - Big B is now home. I picked him up on Tuesday.  He is currently sharing a pasture with Bors and Galahad and seems pleased to be back.  Is (Isolde) turned 6 months old this week and the only change was an increase in weight.  She is heavier at 6 months than Galahad, but not as heavy as Bors.  Brought B out yesterday to saddle him up and work him a little in order  to get some video of him for inquiring minds.  Unfortunately we had had a lot of rain the night before and the footing was pretty bad.  Also, some of what we thought was going to be our best video was of the ground and a sweatshirt.  So we will make another attempt when the ground dries out.  I do have a few to post but need how to figure out how to shrink them down to a more manageable size first. Kamille is larger than large and could be within a week away from whelping.  Our expectation is more than the 5 pups she had last go-round.  Below photos, B at home. Update: The wind today has helped to dry out the ground.  Videos of B taken this afternoon are posted on his page.  The sizes of the files are posted.  It may take a minute or two to download.

Farm Hands Almanac Archive 2008 - 3rd Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2008 - 2nd Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2008 - 1st Quarter

Year End 2007 Sum Up Archive Entry

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2007 - 4th Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2007 - 3rd Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2007 - 2nd Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2007 - 1st Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2006 - 4th Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2006 - 3rd Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2006 - 2nd Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2006 - 1st Quarter

Farm Hand's Almanac Archive 2005