Mountain Shadows Ranch @moutainshadowsranch-blog - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Hi I am still laughing at your gelding party, I never heard it called that before as I am sure it is no party for the stallions smile At what age do you geld them Karen

I got them already gelded. The reference was to a pop culture song, not to performing the procedure. They had broken out and had a little party. I've never gelded a horse and probably never will.

killaguhrilla

I’m relaunching the kickstarter campaign so we can make sure my first book, “How To Be Raised By Your Alaskan Malamute, or, The Alaskan Malamute Owner’s Manual” gets published.

This is a self published book, with the cooperation of a local publisher in Hartsel, Colorado, called Bristly Pine.

Please, if you’re able to donate or not, reblog this and help spread the word. The book is nearly finished, and I’d really like to have it available by next summer at the latest.

New kennel FAQ

Mountain Shadows Malamutes frequently asked questions How much do your dogs cost? We here at Mountain Shadows pride ourselves in being one of the most affordable kennels in the United States. Our motto is, "Excellent Malamutes to excellent families." Our dogs are show quality, AKC registered, purebred Alaskan Malamutes, but because our focus is family, we keep our base price at $1000. That price may vary depending on the Sire and Dam of the litter, the size of the puppy, and, in some cases, coloration and coat. In addition, we offer military and veteran's discounts, return buyer discount, and discounts for families with disabled children. Why are there military, veteran, and disabled discounts? Simple: We are a disabled veteran owned business and we have two children with disabilities. We understand the military life, veterans with disabilities, families with disabled children, and how difficult finances can be under those circumstances. As our focus is to enrich families with wonderful pets, we feel strongly that not offering a discount would be a disservice to our own community. How do I purchase an Alaskan Malamute puppy from Mountain Shadows? Purchasing a Mountain Shadows Malamute puppy is an involved process. Our goal in the sale of a dog is to match the right animal with the right family forever. To do that, we require an extensive interview process. The first step is to contact us here on the Facebook page. We will invite you to come to visit the kennel, meet us and meet the dogs. Our criteria for Malamute owners is simple, we ask ourselves, "would I let this person watch my children?" In addition, prospective owners must pass the "sniff test." If our Malamutes like you, they'll tell us. If you're family to them, you're family to us! Then, we require a $250 deposit to reserve your puppy from your chosen litter. The puppy must be paid off in full by its sixth week. Puppies go home at eight weeks of age. Why do we have to wait until the puppy is eight weeks old? Colorado State law prohibits puppies or kittens from leaving their breeder until eight weeks of age. This is a wise law - puppies need proper socialization before they leave their family. Eight weeks is just about the right amount of time for a puppy to learn how to get along with other animals. The only exception is if we have to hand-raise the puppies. In that case, we keep them for an extra week with our pack, because they missed out on the initial socialization and learning with their mother. No puppy will leave Mountain Shadows Malamute Kennel before eight weeks of age. Can I see and pick my puppy? Yes and no. Primarily, Mountain Shadows pre-sells puppies. As part of our interview process, we like to learn about who you are and how your family works - that way, we can match a puppy's personality with your family dynamics. Until the puppy goes home, we spend the most time with them and get to know what kind of dogs they are very well. We have been dog owners for many years, and know our Malamutes very well. We have an excellent track record in matching dog to family. If you don't believe us, please contact any of the owners who participate on our Facebook page. They will be more than happy to relate their experience with Mountain Shadows to you. We do end up with puppies who were not pre-sold. A puppy in not an impulse buy, though, so we insist on interviewing prospective families before the decision is made to purchase their dog. I heard you give away free dogs? Yes. As a service to the disabled veterans and children with disabilities communities, we give one Malamute puppy per year to a family to train as a service dog for the disabled individual. Although we do not require that the dog be formally trained, we do recommend that the family find a service dog training program for their puppy. If you feel you or a family member may qualify to receive a free puppy, please contact us privately and we will discuss. Families receiving a donated puppy go through the same interview and contract process as families who purchase a puppy. Is there a contract with your puppies? Yes. Mountain Shadow Malamutes requires all prospective owners to sign a spay and neuter contract. In addition, the contract protects prospective owners by guaranteeing the puppy against genetic defects. We know we breed excellent, healthy animals. The contract guarantees you are protected and that you receive exactly that. Can I breed my Malamute? In short, no. Mountain Shadows Malamute Kennel does not sell breeding rights unless we are selling to another (established) breeder. Our contract requires that you spay or neuter your puppy within six months of age. This is not negotiable. How do I train my Malamute? We recommend positive, reward-based training for your Malamute puppy. Alaskan Malamutes are very smart dogs, and are also very closely related to wolves (in Alaska, when the tribe felt their Malamutes needed "freshening," they would make a bitch in heat available to the local wolf pack). As they can be very independent and free spirited, negative reenforcement such as shock collars, pinch collars, or choke chains can teach the dog belligerence instead of obedience. We strongly recommend new owners find a puppy training/obedience class and enroll their Malamute. The fact is, these classes do not train the puppy - they train you, the owners, how to work with your dog and teach it to get along in your family. We will demonstrate some basic tips we've learned in our experience with these dogs - but these are very basic and focused in helping you establish the puppy's place in its new human "pack." What does my puppy come with? When you purchase a Mountain Shadows Malamute puppy, you're not just getting a dog, you're getting a family. We send puppies home with their contract, AKC registration and pedigree, their first two sets of shots, a microchip, a bag of puppy food with "puppy crack" (probiotics) in it to help with the puppy's transition from our water to yours, a collar, and at least one puppy toy. We try to make sure that your puppy is at least fully puppy-pad trained, if not house trained, and that is is not a stranger to walking on a leash. You also receive the support of our kennel family. If you run into issues, behavior or otherwise, with your puppy, we remain available as a resource to help you solve them! We do have extensive knowledge of the breed, and we have the experiences of all of our owners as well. We will gladly consult with you, assist with remedial training in the case of behavior issues, and we will even kennel your puppy free of charge should the need arise. These puppies are like grandchildren to us. We love each and every one of them and we love to be a part of their lives as they grow and develop. Nothing makes us happier than to get pictures of our grandpuppies as they grow and become awesome members of their new families! We host family/puppy barbecues, have land available to camp on when you come visit, and much, much more! I love your puppies! Can I get two? Yes, but not at once and not from the same litter. Why? Malamutes, as pack animals, can become susceptible to "littermate syndrome." Instead of the puppy bonding to you and your family, two puppies can become dependent upon each other for leadership and guidance. This creates a situation wherein you cannot "control" your puppies' behavior. Therefore, while we certainly welcome repeat customers, unless the puppies are going into an established pack (such as a dog sled team), you have to wait a year in between. This helps us assure that you get a great family member instead of two boisterous, rowdy, non-behaving Malamutes. In addition, the older puppy can help teach the younger puppy important family skills like not to poop on the carpet! Remember, there are no bad dogs, just bad owners. We want you and your Malamute(s) to succeed together! Have questions we haven't answered here? Ask them! We'll gladly answer and add your questions to our frequently asked questions page.

Four girls, two boys, in a kennel record setting two hours and 44 minutes!

killaguhrilla

My bread baking in a dutch oven experiment went a wee bit awry this morning, so I’m fashioning a stone oven to improve the process!

First "improvement" to the homestead is this super snazzy shower platform with deluxe bench seating system©.

I'm sitting in a camp chair in our third night here, listening to a jet high above in the distance and watching the last of the twilight fade. In the face of disaster, I convinced my wife that we could find another way. The city girl didn't want to listen at first and fought me tooth and nail. One mention of solar power and she went ballistic. Now she can't wait to get panels up. It's not about living off the grid up here or even about sticking it to the man. There is no grid. There may be a man, but fuck 'em. We'll never interact with them. I'm fulfilling a lifelong dream. One I've had since I read My Side of the Mountain and watched Jeremiah Johnson and Grizzly Adams. I and my family are in a place where, instead of an unscrupulous land owner, we have to worry about a bull who thinks the road is his, or a hungry bear. People are now only a fringe concern. Nature is our new adversary, but adverse only in that we must prepare or she'll get the better of us. Mountain Shadows is in the process out being reborn. The outcome will be glorious.

Repaired and planted garden boxes.

The promise post about whelping Malamute puppies

"Whelping" is an appropriate title for the activity, because you end up saying, "whelp, she's gonna have 'em SOME time," often.

The rule is, once the bitch's temperature goes below 100° Fahrenheit, she'll have the puppies within 24 hours. What the books DON'T tell you is that she can false start. Her temperature will drop, with Malamutes, usually around 99°, then return to a healthy, normal 101°. She can string labor along for days this way until SHE'S ready to drop the pups.

Whelping conditions have to be just right. The room needs to be between 75° - 80°. The whelping box needs to be lined with newspapers or something similar, and we like to put a blanket the bitch has been sleeping on for a few nights in there - the pups end up laying on it and it smells like their mommy rather than fabric softener. We also keep a laundry basket with a heating pad in it and a towel on top. Turn the heating pad to medium high. You'll need the basket to put puppies in during the moments a new one is being born. Puppies tend to be under foot when mommy is giving birth to a sibling. Depending on the size of a litter, you may find yourself shuffling pups back and forth frequently.

Before whelping, at around day 52, we take the bitch in to be x-rayed so we can count the puppies' skeletons. This is not exact as puppies tend to be stacked one on top of another in the womb. Also, the puppies' skeletons are not calcified enough to show in an x-ray until around day 52 or later. We count puppies so that we know a minimum number to expect. This is helpful during whelping - if a puppy doesn't make it out, mommy will go septic and die. You need to know how many should be coming out.

Finally, she'll start to whelp. You can tell from several signs: first, her temperature drops, next, she'll start panting heavily. She'll pant, then stop during a contraction, then pant harder right after. Depending how full her belly is with puppies, you may be able to see the contractions. If there are a lot of puppies, though, her belly will be stretched tautly and you will not see the contractions until there are less puppies in there.

With Rose, we're usually bored, looking for something to talk about or thinking about whether or not we can get some breakfast in then "POP!", there's the first baby!

The pups are each in individual amniotic sacks. Rose licks herself constantly as the pup comes out, sweeping a bottom canine along as she does. When the sack comes out, most of the time, same hooks it with a tooth and breaks it, breaking the water and freeing the pup to breathe as quickly as possible. The amniotic fluid gushes out in a huge rush, mommy trying to lick it up as fast as she can. She begins roughly licking the puppy to encourage it to breathe. A birth isn't successful until the whelp is squalling. If mama doesn't get the pup breathing, that's where humans step in. We cut up old towels into rags, they work best. Rub the puppy vigorously between your hands until it squeals. If necessary, breathe into its nose, then rub, rub rub!

The placenta is still attached to the pup via the umbilical cord - yes, puppies DO have belly buttons. They just heal smoothly, unlike humans. Depending on the breed of dog, you either let the mommy eat the placenta or you don't. Malamutes do. You have to be careful as she does that she breaks the cord, or she could harm the puppy. It's helpful to have a pair of decent surgical scissors and some thread around, in case you have to cut the cord for the mommy and tie it off. Make sure you leave at least an inch of umbilicus - it will shrivel up, dry and fall off naturally.

There's no explaining the smell of a whelping room. If you're faint of stomach, dog breeding is not for you. Blood from the mother's tail gets everywhere, one of the first things the puppies do is poop and pregnant bitches are GASSY. Just be ready for the sensory onslaught. It's all worth it, though, when you get to kiss those little precious puppies.

#puppies #Alaskan Malamutes

It's not what you think, but it is a great idea!

#chickens

The promised video of the water recirculation system for the planters.

#gardening #square foot gardening #recycle #drought buster

Finished planters, almost finished recirc, planted sprouts

I finished the planters and charged the water delivery system to test it last night. It works. All I have left is to plumb together the recirculation pump. That will get a video so you can see it actually working.

The larger of the two planters with twine grid.

Smaller planter with grid.

I bought about 40 panes of glass - old sliding doors, windows, etc ... at an auction last fall for $2.50. Here, I'm using four sliding glass doors with hinges at the bottoms to create greenhouses over the planters since it still gets cool at night. Hopefully, this keeps my seedlings going.

If I need to, I can seal the ends with visquene and duct tape, but this should be more than adequate for this time of year here. It also protects the seedlings from the wind and birds, and they'll get shade in the late afternoon from the house.

Because the water will be washing through the soil and then recycling back up into the delivery manifold, I won't lose any nutrients from the soils - it will just keep recycling. I should be able to use these same boxes with the same soil for years without ever having to add fertilizer.

#square foot gardening #gardening #recycle #repurpose #reuse

Planter box #2 and the beginnings of the water circulation system

So, box two is built and in place. I used leftover window screen from last year for the bottom.

You can also see the drain in place. I then buried a Wal-Mart gardening bucket up the the rim in between the two planters. This is the catch basin for the watering system.

The basin is buried and the drains plumbed together, which is probably a little bit of over-engineering, but with the heat and dry around here, every way we can keep the water from evaporating is vital.

Next, I started on the drip watering system. PVC pipe is, again, my friend. I drilled tiny holes in the top of the drip frame so that, when the system is full of water, the pipe will seep it into the soil. Although I will have to add water at least once a week if not more, hopefully this system will keep the plants thoroughly hydrated while draining and re-using any excess.

Almost complete - the drip frame will be held level right above the dirt, once the planter is filled. I left the feed end unglued so that the frame could easily be removed for maintenance and harvesting.

#square foot gardening #gardening #recycle

Planter boxes for square foot gardening

I started putting together raised planters since I can't crawl around on the ground to garden because of my back. I have been told by many friends that the square foot gardening method produces more food than they can eat, which means we'll be some canning fools, and will have freshly canned veggies we made ourselves.

I watched a video on YouTube in which this guy built his planters with a water circulation system. With the drought we're suffering, this was an awesome idea, which I immediately redesigned to become a bit more efficient.

The boxes are lined with plastic sheeting and a hole drilled in one corner.

Next, a 2x4 ripped at an angle, so that the two halves, when placed in the box, create a ramp with a slight incline. That way the box can be tilted for the water to drain, but the dirt and plants will be level. By the way, this box is an old engine shipping crate. RECYCLE!!!!! I then lined the bottom with slats from recycled pallets (!), creating the actual base the dirt will go on.

Next, I placed the box so that the false bottom is level.

Finally, I installed the drain, the only real expense for this project, about $10 worth of PVC fittings and 1/2 inch pipe.

Tomorrow, the second box, also a recycled engine crate. The false bottom on that one will be a frame with leftover window screen. We'll see which method works best over the summer.

#square foot gardening recycle recycled

Shifting gears

I haven't posted here for a while mainly because there hasn't been a whole lot to post.

We've been in a period of redesigning things and rebuilding things using lessons learned from the Great Chicken Massacre of 2012.

I'm about 1/3 of the way through rebuilding the back yard fence so that the dogs can not clear it to get to and kill chickens. I'm changing from wire (hardware cloth - really?) to a cedar slat fence that will provide privacy in the back yard and keep the dogs from seeing the birds - out of sight, out of mind, you know?

In addition, instead of a pre-built building for a barn, I have designed a pole barn I will build myself. It will include a hay loft so that I can keep next winter's stores off of the ground and out of the relentless winds. I will also, ultimately, put solar panels on it, eventually building it to the point where the whole homestead is off the grid.

Plans for poultry this year include a return of the Blue Sumatras, Buff Orpingtons and Americaunas. In addition, we will raise Polish, quail and Bourbon Red Turkeys.

I'm planning on keeping a breeding pair of the turkeys, and breeding the chickens so that we can perpetuate our own flock.

These are just some of the things in the works here at the ranch. We're expecting puppies in about three weeks! The whelping room has been of primary concern recently, and is about 99% complete. We built the fenced in yard for mama and puppies Saturday and Alyeska is already enjoying a little more leg room.

#Update

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Mountain Shadows Ranch