High Desert Cowboy- How far is it up north?

High Desert Cowboy

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Hello all,
After writing out my rather lengthy introduction I thought it'd be a good idea to write a little about our little slice of heaven. The reason I call it the Old California Trail is that our property is found right along the old Southern Route of the California trail, also know as the Mormon Trail. We moved here in 2015 after i received a job offer to manage a commercial sow farm. Not exactly what I planned on doing with my degree but I had a job offer as a ranch manager in Idaho fall through and the other job offers I'd received were too far away from my step-sons dad. So we moved down here and managed to find a home with room for my horses. Of course while it did have room for my horses and even a decent little tack shed it was not fenced in any way and having spent most of my limited money (recently graduated college student with 2 kids, one recently born) on the home I was unable to put up any real fencing beyond the Hotwire I'd brought with me. But we make do and as time materials and funds have become available I have attempted to provide better fencing options.
We started with my two horses, Jack and Bro. Brother Larsen (Brolo) is an 11 year old paint/Arab
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Jack is a 10 year old paint I picked up while working for an outfit in southwest Colorado
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Shortly after moving here I finally got my farm dog I always wanted, Kya. She's half Aussie 1/4 heeler and 1/4 border collie. I just wanted a pal for when I was riding or moving cows, but she taught me a good stock dog is more than that. I feed a group of corriente cattle during the summer and they had gotten loose. One started running for the road and before I could even try doing anything this little dark streak blew by, got into that cows face and brought it back to me. So I got interested in training stock dogs. I love Kya so much I bred her to a friends working border collie (a cow herding workaholic) and got Dixie back in march.
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High Desert Cowboy

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And of course I can't forget the ducks. Seeing as sheep/cow proof fencing (also sheep and cows) were out of the price range I looked for another possible way to train my dogs to work stock at home. My studies pointed to the possibility of using ducks, and where I had some garden fencing and plywood laying around I felt that could be a great alternative. So we got 6 Indian Runner ducks back in May. Indian runners are a blast to watch move around because rather than waddle they stand straight up and run everywhere. My wife said they looked like they needed little top hats and monocles to go with their "posh" walking method. So we named the drake Chancey (pronounced ChAWNsee in a snooty voice) and his ladies got very ladylike names: Victoria, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, and Agatha.
Kya will work them a little but Dixie had literally no interest in them. I thought I'd bred a dud until a few weeks ago my neighbor came home with 15 sheep and suddenly I couldn't find Dixie. She'd run over to his place and had all 15 sheep grouped up and waiting! So she's forced my hand and I'll have to get sheep soon, but at least I can get eggs from my ducks. Indian Runners are supposed to be prolific egg layers
 

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CntryBoy777

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Sounds like ya have a full-blown "Adventure" just waitin' on ya there....:)....I love paints and it is just wonderful when ya happen upon a really good dog...or 2....:thumbsup.....I must say, tho, those runners sure have my attention. We have khaki campbells and rouens right now, but would like to add some runners come Spring. I've been thru your neck of the woods back when I was driving a truck for a living....lots of wide open spaces out that way. Sure glad ya joined up and will be looking forward in watching the developements.....:)
 

High Desert Cowboy

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Thanks everyone. I really like my runners and they should be old enough to lay eggs soon. I looked at khakis for a minute and now that my ducks will probably just be for eggs I'll probably end up getting a couple for some variety. And you're not kidding about wide open spaces!
This is from my front door
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And to the east
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CntryBoy777

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Yep, it is still Beautiful....no doubt, and I sure don't mean it as a slight, but it is that way for miles and miles and miles. I used to put in some jammin' tapes and enjoy the scenery. Are the peepers in your pic the same ones that were grown?....or do ya have some reinforcements coming up?.....also, are they the fawn/white runners?
 

High Desert Cowboy

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The ducklings in the picture grew up to be the ones in the picture with my dogs. 1 drake and 5 hens I've worked out a deal with a friend with an incubator to hopefully hatch some offspring from my ducks next year. And yes they are fawn and white runners. They were hatched on May 23
 

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