Tuesday Dose of Cute: Marta Beast

Living up to her name.

It's hard to believe it's already been over six months since the last time we spent several hours shearing our beloved guard dog Marta—until you look at her. It's time to get some more doggy downers from the vet and do it again before she gets more matted and the job gets even more difficult.

She actually wouldn't look too bad if she would just stay away from all those dirt pits, mud puddles, and manure piles she loves to roll around in, but where's the fun in that?

We used to haul her to the groomer 40 miles away (which was an adventure in itself) for a yearly spring spa day cut, but the last time it took them over five hours and cost a small fortune—and they didn't seem real excited about ever seeing her again—so we bought a set of professional clippers (which cost much less than the visit to the groomer), asked the vet for some drugs to knock her out (the growling makes Joe nervous), and started doing it ourselves.

More Marta photos and story below. . .

Wordless Wednesday Dose of Marta Beast Cute

More photos below. . .

Monday Dose of Cute: Hangin' with the Big Dogs

This is a low maintenance time of year with the sheep. Breeding season is over, lambing season won't start for another three months (which I know will go by in a flash, it always does), and there's still enough good food out in the pastures so that we don't have to do any supplemental feeding. We're behind trimming hooves, but we're always behind trimming hooves.

If the weather and the grass hold out, we may not have to start feeding any of our homegrown organic hay until winter, which would be really nice. In another few weeks we'll separate out the 15 bred ewes (including the two that I'm afraid aren't pregnant since they were seriously flirting it up with Da Big Guy the other day) and start giving them a daily ration of grain to make sure they're consuming enough calories to sustain the twins and triplets that are probably growing inside most of them. This past lambing season we ended up with 19 live lambs from 9 mamas, and not a single single.

For now, though, the entire flock is fat and happy and living together (minus our ram, Da Big Guy, and his buddy Teddy) with their guard dogs, Daisy and Marta, out in the securely fenced, big front field. This means peace of mind for us, and an easier job for the dogs, since they don't have to worry about any of their sheep wandering off in search of better snacks.

Twice a day I head out front to count and check on everyone and visit with the dogs (and maybe do a little sheep snuggling too). Lately the flock has been resting at the very far end of the field, but I don't mind the hike. With the lovely weather and beautiful autumn color we've been having, this is definitely one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. And it's always more fun when Bear and Bert come along with me.

18 more photos below. . .

Wordless Wednesday Big Dose of Farm Dog Cute

14 more photos below. . .

Monday Dose of Big Dog Cute

Happy Marta

Happier Marta

Wishing you a wonderful week.

More Marta? Here and here and here.

More farm dog photos? Here and here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where the joyful urge to fall over and roll around on the ground is reaching epidemic proportions.

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #28

Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a sporadic series where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the previous Friday Farm Fix posts here and here.

Tiny fawn hidden in the hayfield.

Whew, what a week. In five days we managed to accomplish three big tasks that had been looming over us: clipping poor matted Marta Beast, putting up the first batch of hay, and getting the sheep sheared. I just realized they all have to do with cutting.

Tuesday morning we were so wiped out that we both slept in until 10:30, and that was before the hardest work even started. Then the power was out all Tuesday afternoon (which also means no water pumped from the well), making us even more discombobulated.

Saturday we spent an unplanned four hours wallowing on the ground in the sheep/bunny barn with our new animal clippers and a (thankfully) drugged Marta, who is a 100+ pound mix of three thick-coated livestock guardian dog breeds: Great Pyrenees, Komondor, and Anatolian Shepherd. She's also a big mess. Marta could find a mud puddle in a desert, and unlike her Great Pyrenees partner, Daisy, she wasn't blessed with that amazing self-cleaning gene. She also hadn't been clipped in two years, so this was a real challenge.

The last time we had Marta professionally cut it took them five hours and cost a small fortune. The 80-mile round trip drive wasn't much fun either. So we decided to invest in a good electric clipper—which actually cost less than the last grooming session—and try tackling her ourselves.

I wasn't sure it (and we) would be up to the job, but this little Andis professional clipper outdid itself. If it can handle Marta, it can probably handle anything. She won't be winning any beauty contests (which is our fault, not the clipper's), but she looks much better than she did, and I'm sure she feels a lot better too. (Note for home dog groomers: blowing off the blade every several minutes with compressed air to clean and cool it and then oiling it made a huge difference. We're also going to buy a second blade that doesn't cut as close; parts of Marta are very pink!)

34 more photos and the rest of the weekly recap below (hover over each image with your cursor for a description). . .

Monday Dose of Marta Cute

Wishing you a bright-eyed and smile-filled week!

More Marta Beast? Here and here and here.

More farm dog photos? Here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the 20/20 foodie farm blog where five-year-old Marta is a 100+ pound mix of three livestock guardian dog breeds: Great Pyrenees (which is what her seven-year-old partner Daisy is), Komondor, and Anatolian Shepherd. She's also 100% goofball—and in desperate need of her spring spa day/shearing (or at least her bangs trimmed). She is an awesome guard dog and we love her to pieces.

Tuesday Dose of Cute: Hello, Spring. Hello, Creek!

Hello, spring. You're looking a little pale this year.

In the past five days we've had more snow than we had all winter. The biggest snowstorm of the year arrived late on the second day of spring, with big, soppy flakes that piled up to about five inches in no time. By the time I made it outside the next day with my camera (we're both down with the flu now) most of it had already melted, but it was so pretty while it lasted.

11 more photos and an update below (hover over each image for a description). . .

Wordless Wednesday Dose of Cute

More wordless cute? Here and here.
More Marta Beast? Here and here.

© FarmgirlFare.com

Wordless Wednesday Dose of Cute

More Marta Beast? Here and here.

More wordless cute? Here and here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, tougher than we look.

Tuesday Dose of Cute: Farmgirl Fare on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter

Don't let anything stand between you and your farm fix!

Farmgirl Fare on Facebook

Farmgirl Fare on Pinterest

New posts are (mostly) announced on Twitter

See you there!

Attention Farmgirl Fare Facebook fans: If you follow the Farmgirl Fare Facebook Fan Page and are no longer seeing my new post announcements, it's because Facebook recently made changes to get people to pay to promote their posts. It's easy fix: to continue seeing all my new posts on Facebook, go to the top of the Farmgirl Fare Facebook page and under "Liked" click "Add to Interest List." Please share that info. Thanks!

© FarmgirlFare.com, where this photo of Daisy and Marta, our awesome livestock guardian dogs, was taken outside the sheep barn back in March. Need a bigger dose of little lamb cute? You'll find lots more lambing season photos here.)

Sunday Dose of Cute: Hey!

What are you doing with our sheep?

Not to worry, Marta and Daisy, they're just being sheared. Photos from Sheep Shearing Saturday 2012—which everybody survived just fine—should be up in a day or two. In the meantime, better beware of the big dogs.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where sheep rustlers don't stand a chance—and can you believe how well Daisy cleaned herself up? There's nothing like a self-cleaning farm dog. And then there's Marta Beast, whose self-cleaning mechanism isn't quite 100% functional.

Sunday Dose of Cute: Farmgirl Fare on Facebook, Easier than Ever

Don't you like us?

Thanks so much for all your Facebook support! The Farmgirl Fare Facebook page has nearly 3,000 fans and is growing daily. I share links to each new Farmgirl Fare and In My Kitchen Garden post on our Facebook page, so it's a great way to keep up with everything that's happening on the farm.

And now it's easier than ever to find Farmgirl Fare on Facebook: just go to http://facebook.com/farmgirlfare.

See you there!

More Crazy Daisy? Here and here and here.

More Marta Beast? Here and here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where today is Marta's birthday! I can't believe our goofy, awesome livestock guard dog is already four years old. It seems like just a few months ago this big bad beast was an adorable fluffy white pup—and I don't think she's been that white since. Our Marta could find a mud puddle in a desert—which just makes us love her that much more.

Friday Dose of Cute: Marta Beast off Duty

Wishing you a playful and relaxing New Year's weekend!

More Marta Beast? Here and here.

More farm dogs? Here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, where good and clean don't always go together—and they never do if you're a big bad (adorable) Marta Beast.

Wordless Wednesday Dose of Cute

More wordless cute? Here.

More Marta Beast? Here and here.

More sheepsies? Here.

© FarmgirlFare.com

Monday Dose of Cute: The Monday Morning Blues, as Demonstrated by Marta

More photos below. . .

Sunday Dose of Cute: The Hokey Pokey for Dogs

You put your right paw in, you put your right paw out. . .

More beagle Bert? Here.

More Marta Beast? Here and here.

© FarmgirlFare.com, dancing and singing, prancing and swinging.