It’s been many months since our last “Husky Report”, and we now have many new families that are part of the Frosty Meadow Family.  In our last update, we were saying goodbye to the last of the late winter/early spring puppies.  Since that point, there were 4 additional litters.  Josie, Rose, Ice, and Aleu all had litters, and all the pups went to their new homes in July.  We welcome all of the new families!

Late Summer Lull

After the latest round of puppies left, we arrived at a break in the puppy action.  These slow times are a nice break, but the waiting list grows considerably during these times.  Our next round of puppies is expected sometime in November and/or December.  Lula, Iris, & Phoenix are on expected to have pups during this period.  These pups would all go to their new homes right around the first of the year.  Another possibility is Rose.  To this point, Rose has had one litter each year for the last 4 years.  They always arrive in the late spring.  This time around, we are considering shifting her schedule to fall/winter.  In the spring and summer of 2017, we will be adding quite a few new litters with our added pups from this year.  It would likely be wise to adjust the scheduling to spread these litters out a bit!

River, Xander, Willow

As mentioned above, we have additional litters that are on the horizon for 2017.  River and Willow should be in the summer.  Additionally, Xander will be an added male counterpart and ready to go at that point.

Ziva & Ellie

Later in 2017, Ziva and Ellie will be ready to go.  They won’t be ready until the last quarter of the year however.    As you can easily see, our number of litters is growing!  With this added growth, we hope to keep up with demand better, and make the wait for puppies less.  As mentioned on the front page of this website, almost all of our puppies are sold through our waiting list.  The average wait time is probably around 2-4 months.  A wait time for puppy buyers is really a good thing!  Siberian Husky Puppies are not for everyone, and this forces potential buyers to do their research, ask questions, and possibly re-evaluate.  It really helps greatly reduce impulse purchases.  Wait times can be reduced however, and we hope to do just that.

Luna

One more added to the mix was Luna.  She is the daughter of Miya and Denali, who came back to us about a month ago.  Since she is young, we decided to keep her to continue the 2nd generation.  She is roughly the same age as River, Willow, and Xander.  A while back, we mentioned that our son Zach is in FFA at our local high school.  Each student is tasked with what they call an SAE project.  Basically, it is a year-long, annual project for each student to start and grow a home based business.  Projects range from growing and selling flowers or produce to raising and selling farm animals such as hogs or goats to breeding animals.  Of course, Zach’s project is breeding huskies.  The hope is that he will be growing his project every year, and adding his own litters.  He started with Lula, and has now added Luna.  He does most of the work involved (overseen by us), and keeps records on everything.  He then keeps all of his earnings.  It will all go into his college fund.  His FFA advisor is guiding him/us to what he needs to do to win awards at the local, state, and even possibly a national level.  He hopes to earn an agriculture based scholarship based on this project.  Soon, we will be unveiling “Zach’s Huskies” website, which will piggyback off this site.  We thank everyone who purchases any of his puppies for your support!

Reunion

The 2016 Husky Reunion is right around the corner!  It is scheduled for Saturday September 24th at 2pm.  Invitations have all been emailed out.  If you have not received an emailed invitation, please contact us!  We look forward to see everyone!

Project update

Our project schedule got abruptly sidetracked since our last report!  With the growth of the farm, we are officially in the process of being approved and licensed by the State of Ohio, and we also received the first of hereafter annual inspections by AKC.  The fence project was delayed a little, but we figure to begin that soon.  Hopefully yet this fall, but if not then early next spring.  The biggest change to our plans are stall arrangements.  We passed the AKC inspection and did very well, but the inspector pointed out a couple areas that can be improved upon.  Most notably, the stalls in the barn will undergo a “facelift”.  More details on that to come in a future blog. 

 

On the lighter side of things:

King of the mountain

I’ve mentioned many times how interesting it can be to simply sit back and watch the pack and their activities and anecdotes.  The other day, I noticed them playing “King of the Mountain”!  Remember that game as a child?  Especially on the snow hills.  One person got to the top of a large hill like a pile of snow cleared from a parking lot, and would be called “King of the Mountain”.  The other players would then try to knock that person down from the hill and take over as “King”.  Well, the dogs were playing that using their igloo dog houses.  One would scramble to get up on top and would stand there and bark at the others who were surrounding it on the bottom.  The ones on the ground would try to jump and grab the “King” by the ankle and pull him/her down.  Eventually, the “king” would fall and another would climb up.  This continued for quite some time!  I even woke up to them barking one night and found the little turds playing the same game at 3am!

Floor licking

One oddity we noticed this summer was a few of the house dogs walking around licking the floor at random.  At first we thought this must have been from a scent they pick up on but after watching further we realize that it could simply be because the floor is cool to the touch.  We know that dogs regulate body temperature through their tongues, so we came to the realization that they could be cooling themselves on the hot summer says.  Just food for thought if anyone else has ever noticed this.

Harvest Moon

Speaking of hot summer days, the hottest days are finally again in the rear view mirror.  Fall is my favorite time of the year, and I am again looking forward to it.  This year’s harvest moon is tonight!  It is a  fairly early occurrence.  To me it marks the unofficial beginning of autumn.  It also means that soon the farm implements and the local grain elevator will be humming all through the day and night.  Ahhh, country living!  Gotta love it!