Everybody's Got A Job Now

I snapped this last night without planning to, and it turned out to be the whole farm in one shot.

Up front, the two tractors: the May Olive Eggers — our dragon-egg hatchlings — and the seven-week kits, both putting on size and getting moved across fresh grass. Out on the mulch mound, the ducks have claimed their spot and are running it like they pay rent. Back along the fence, the mature layers are doing what mature layers do — quietly out-earning everybody.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it is Tucker.

Tucker's the new Great Pyrenees, in training to take over for Max — who's ten now and has earned the right to slow down. You don't just swap a guardian dog out. You raise the young one alongside the old one and let the job transfer the way it's supposed to, by example. Max walks the line; Tucker watches Max; one day Tucker walks the line and Max sleeps in. We're a ways from that. But he's learning.

What got me about the photo isn't any one animal. It's that every square of grass in it has something working it — hatchlings, kits, ducks, layers, dogs — all in their own areas, all meshing, nobody in a fight. "The farm is shaping up" suddenly feels like an understatement.

— While we're here —Replacing a livestock guardian dog is a years-long project, not a weekend one. A good Pyrenees isn't so much trained as grown — bonded to stock as a pup, corrected gently, and paired with an experienced dog who shows him the ropes. Skip the overlap and you get a young dog freelancing. Tucker gets Max for as long as Max wants to keep teaching.

— Nana