Winter's almost over. It's
April 1st tomorrow and the beginnings of thousands of geese
are migrating Northwards in the skies overhead our farm. Soon the sound of the Meadowlarks
will greet me as I walk our dogs early each morning. And so,
with this, a New Year comes to
life on our farm. Calving is almost done with 44 calves on the ground as of this evening. Lambing
starts on Friday and before too long the grass will green up and the Prairies will come alive
again for another year.
My winters are filled
with the daily chores of looking after our livestock and then the
endless task of editing the previous summer's footage. It was a good winter with just a few
weeks of really cold weather. One morning the thermometer outside our kitchen window showed minus
43 centigrade, the coldest I have ever seen the mercury. But it was a sunny day and as this photo
of the cows at the water trough that morning would tell, we all survived quite well.
Katherine, our 17-year-old daughter, has always had a keen
interest in using our dogs for
pulling. This winter she acquired a Norwegian dogsled and so every evening, after returning
from school, she would hitch up her 5 dogs and head across country. Because of the openness of
the land around us, she could travel across endless white countryside. This also really became
one of the highlights of my winter, watching her prepare her dogs and then scoot out of the
yard, only to return an hour or so later.
As I mentioned, I spend a great amount of time editing during the winter's months. To
the average person this final process, in producing a finished video program, probably seems
an easy and swift measure. Unfortunately, it is completely the opposite, with hours consumed
finding the exact 4 seconds of footage, from possibly 18 hours of footage, to fill a specific
part of the program. In the past month I have updated my Avid editing system and so another
learning curve is underway. I also have a project coming up which will require a substantial
amount of animation and so another program is waiting to be learnt for that. As April sets
in, I can report that the 2003 ISDS Supreme
Sheepdog Championship was completed in early winter,
followed by the 2003 USBCHA National Sheepdog Finals,
then a re-edit on our old program British
Sheep Fairs and Crafts. I also re-edited the old 1988 and 1989 International Sheepdog Championships.
There were a few other smaller projects as well. It doesn't sound too much really!!
I have a few projects in mind for this year but my major focus has to be on marketing my
existing videos. We have been fortunate to find Martyn Fewtrell, in Northern Ireland, a
web
site designer and marketer. Martyn has enlightened us to the ways of the web, but the time
has now come for me to take the initiative and work to develop this site further. And that's
the immediate focus for us now. Links to other sites have to be found and resource pages have
to be written. This will increase the visibility of the site to other search engines and hopefully
increase the interest in our video programs.
Have a great summer, and as they say up here, "keep your stick on the ice"!
It's
April 1st tomorrow and the beginnings of thousands of geese
are migrating Northwards in the skies overhead our farm. Soon the sound of the Meadowlarks
will greet me as I walk our dogs early each morning. And so,
with this, a New Year comes to
life on our farm. Calving is almost done with 44 calves on the ground as of this evening. Lambing
starts on Friday and before too long the grass will green up and the Prairies will come alive
again for another year.
My winters are filled
with the daily chores of looking after our livestock and then the
endless task of editing the previous summer's footage. It was a good winter with just a few
weeks of really cold weather. One morning the thermometer outside our kitchen window showed minus
43 centigrade, the coldest I have ever seen the mercury. But it was a sunny day and as this photo
of the cows at the water trough that morning would tell, we all survived quite well.
Katherine, our 17-year-old daughter, has always had a keen
interest in using our dogs for
pulling. This winter she acquired a Norwegian dogsled and so every evening, after returning
from school, she would hitch up her 5 dogs and head across country. Because of the openness of
the land around us, she could travel across endless white countryside. This also really became
one of the highlights of my winter, watching her prepare her dogs and then scoot out of the
yard, only to return an hour or so later.