Making Progress

Strider continues to make progress on his rehabilitation. In the past week I have noticed him really trying hard not to disrupt the sheep with his movement. This is exactly what I was hoping he would learn. Another thing that is interesting is that the sheep really seem to know when he maybe isn't thinking properly. Sometimes he can walk right through them and another time he can't even get with in 20 ft of them. Just the other day he saw the fox running through his field and he jumped up and bolted right past the sheep to chase the fox and the sheep hardly lifted their heads. As it stands right now they really aren't buddy's I think the sheep tolerate him in their vicinity but only because he is the necessary evil. Yesterday it was bitterly cold and I watched Strider try to figure out how to get into the shelter without upsetting the sheep. he desperately wanted into the shelter out of the wind. So he would walk up to it and go around the back and then go around the other side and peek in. Then finally after 30 minutes he lowered his head and slowly walked in and lied down.  

Took this picture Christmas day

And this one today



This is currently my full time job. Watching  the guardian dog out the front windows. To bad it pays really badly because I am getting pretty good at it. When we are not home he is tied up to his fancy dog house.

Merry Christmas

Stand off

Strider doesn't really care for the foxes. There are two of them and they taunt him regularly. 

I however really like them unlike Jerry who would rather use them for target practice.

And this is what Joe did while I was taking the picture of Strider.

Clearly not ready to be left alone in the house.

Remnants

Of a very good time had by all

Leftovers from this weeks girls hangout.
Jerry was kind enough to hunt down my favorite wine as a Christmas present. I think Lisa and I polished two bottles off before supper was cooked and kept on trucking from there. By the time Jenny arrived the next day we moved a little slower toward the wine but the mudslides went down nicely.

Good times!!

Winter chores

As far as I'm concerned farming in the winter is way more work than the summer. I feel like I coast all summer gain weight only to suffer from muscle cramps and heart palpitations in the winter. I am way to out of shape for all this feeding and bedding shit. It might have something to do with the ten layers of clothing I am wearing.

Everyone loves a fresh new bed.

Kyle multi tasking as always.

Note to self:
 Install blue tooth in the tractor for safe driving our fences and gates with thank us later.

WLD (World's Laziest Dorper)
"Who you lookin at"

Strider on his time out chain. He has been a bad boy lately. He now only gets to be loose with his sheep when he can be supervised. He is none to happy about this change by the fun police. I'll tell you training a guardian dog is thee hardest thing I have had to do. Strider has a good heart just lacks direction at times.

Evidence of some badness. This poor girl is the object of Strider's "affection". 

Bad dog!!!

Happy holidays

K.O.'d

It's hard work being a chihuahua

Joe makin friends

Joe went on his first road trip with me on Friday. Met all sorts of new people, dogs and cats.

He was really more interested in humping the cat than playing with it. 

He met this guy who tried really hard to make friends. I should add that this gentleman is in the witness protection program so we could not reveal his true identity.

It truly is exhausting socializing and being the center of attention.

Little dog 3rd Generation

So far I have shared my life with two little dogs. For the readers new to my life I will recap.

1st generation

I got Guess when I was in high school and shortly after my parents divorced and the children were left to their own devices. Which led to Justice but that is a whole other blog. I bought Guess from a friend of my sisters as an 8 week old puppy. Not sure of what breed he was but I liked to think he was a miniature border collie. He went everywhere with me. Even sometimes to class he rode around in my backpack. I took this picture of Guess after Kyle and his friends gave him an unauthorized hair cut. He was sitting in my bitchin rust colored Mazda truck.

2nd Generation

Lost Fox last year to old age. Poor Fox she was the product of me impulse buying a Jack Russel in hopes of improving the breed. What a stupid pet owner I was. Not only did I have a Border collie puppy at the time but Justice was also two years old and I thought another dog added to the mix was a good idea. Fox was a terrier through and through. Always digging out of her run and running away. We never gave her the exercise or attention she deserved. The last five years of her life were much better. I had much more dog knowledge and she got much more attention. Funny how I didn't think we would miss her but the more time went on the more I missed a "Little Dog" in the house.

Enter the 3rd Generation

Enter Joe. I have been thinking about a chihuahua for about a year now much to the dismay of my friends. Found Joe on line and thought what a cute looking dog. I am as you know a sucker for good looks. Only had him for three days now but he is doing super and loves his mom. Not so much Kyle which is fine by me.

As you can see from the picture below clearly I need to invest in some dog beds.

Skid if you are reading this please know we are still BFF's and always will be no matter what.

Moving day

We officially got possession of the new house on Thursday. 

As you can see it was a day not fit for man or beast. The temperature was in the mid -20C with another -10 degree wind chill. However anything was better than living in a holiday trailer with a negative R value for insulation. I must say the satilite insulation guy who came to hook up our cable had a bad attitude about the weather too. Wrong day to mess with me Bell princess. Needless to say we came to an agreement. By the end of the day we had TV and our beds were on the floor college style living until the weather smartens up.

Back to reality

I am home from my over week long arena trial extravaganza. Ended with a bang. Both Isla and Meg qualified for the finals. I was very happy with Meg this being her first set of arena trials she handled them like a pro. I on the other hand did not and could have done much better handling my dog in the finals. Oh well until next year.
When i got home it was time to put the ram out. This will be my first time lambing out my ewes. In the past I have just sold and bought new sheep.
Isla was up for the task of sorting and moving sheep.

Our ranger is broken right now so my ATV of choice is my Jeep

All ending with one very happy ram.

Call off the search

Mojo has been found and it resides in Edmonton. Fifty dogs ran today and both mine finished in the top ten. Very happy with Meg this is only her third arena trial all in one week. This one was very load but she worked her hardest the listen to me. Now off with the girls to Dairy Queen for a chocolate dipped strawberry blizzard.

Has anyone seen my Mojo

Couple of things I learned about Mayerthorpe. There is nowhere to eat after 8:00PM, the hotels are sketchy at best and I can not run dogs well there.
Saturday was the start of the Alberta Arena finals in Mayerthorpe. The first day went well for me Isla was in the top ten and Meg wasn't to far behind her. After a night of Pizza pop supper from the Esso station and a some alcoholic beverages with Clint and Anita the next day didn't go so well. Sometime in the night my mojo was sucked from my body. Odd because I never woke up during the sucking out process. Sunday I could not pen the sheep to save my life. When others had the sheep just run into the pen I struggled over and over again. Isla had a smoking run going and then nothing. I am hoping things go better the next couple of days. We are in Edmonton at the farm Fair International which run in conjunction with the Canadian Finals rodeo. Also means lots of cute cowboys.Yummy! Wendy couldn't sleep last night in anticipation of seeing cute cowboys and their butts.
The only pictures I took at the trial were for Lisa and Sue Main. This by far is the fanciest outhouse I have seen. Everybody was going on and on about it.

Starts out looking like a normal out house. We were all dreading going in it.

Then when you finally can't wait any longer you go in and WOW!

Just me and the girls

At least I am having a good time the girls look like they might kill each other.

Me and the girls are gone for a week long road trip running at three arena trials in a row. I am camped out at Penny's house in Beaumount for the week. Yesterday we traveled east 2.5 hours to Lloydminster. The arena was small and the course was complicated with no retries allowed I felt like I was in the middle of a Nintendo Brain Age game. My head literally hurt after the first run. I was so busy trying to think of the course I had a hard time getting my dogs to run good. Isla was "on the muscle" and was not listening. Five dogs went to the finals and she missed it by a couple. This was little Meg's first ever arena trial and she had fun. So much she missed some flanks and forgot her new comebye whistle. So I changed to voice instead. Very proud of our Lisa and Hope for winning the whole sha bang and a Calcutta to rival Vegas.
Today was a me and dogs day. Penny took this picture of the girls and me at the park this morning.   While in Edmonton there are some must do's. I know hard to believe Calgary doesn't have everything. Went to G & E Pharmacy for some shopping. This store is a cornucopia (big word for Jerry) of all things especially dog stuff. Then it was off the West Edmonton Mall and the Victoria Secret store.
Apparently tonight Penny is taking me for the best Indian food in Alberta. To a girl born in Saskatchewan and raised on a ranch in Alberta I wouldn't know good from bad Indian food if I had a gun to my head.
Tomorrow off to work dogs at Corey Perry's and then to the big smoke of Mayerthorpe for a two day arena trial.
Stay tuned for more hyjinx I am sure.

Intervention by a friend

Some of my friends have taken to giving me a blogging intervention. Lisa has started the hinting and sarcastic remarks. I am sure Jenny has some sort of torture device waiting for my this weekend. And Vickie Close is now sending me material I couldn't possible pass up. In June at Scott's clinic Vickie was there taking pictures. I ordered a couple of prints from her. They have not arrived yet but in the meantime she sent me these.

Thanks Vic your the best.

It was all his idea

Ok, I had planned on posting a picture of kyle that I took while furniture shopping this weekend. But it seems to have been deleted by accident. He made it through the front door of the first place and then got board and started talking on his phone. After the first place he suggested we go to the city and look at furniture. I said "really honey after one place they all start to look the same" So off we went after the third place Kyle's eyes were glazed over and he almost walked into the traffic.
Good news readers I am going for acupuncture and Chinese medicine on Thursday to get over my blogging funk.
This weekend Also entails a trip to a haunted mansion with Jenny.

4 weeks and counting

Official move in to the new house date is November 15th at the very latest

It's going to be a long month.

Today calls for comfort food and Sangria to take my mind off of the horrible weather. I made roast chicken for lunch had some chocolate covered pretzels for a snack and for supper we ordered in Chinese food. If this weather keeps up I am going to gain a lot of weight. Below is my fabulous sangria recipe

Sangria

3oz Red wine

1/2oz Scotch

1/2 oz Triple Sec

3oz Pineapple juice

3 oz orange juice

splash of Lime

splash of Ginger Ale

Enjoy!!!!!!!!

the badness continues

Again I have failed to blog and take pictures of the goings on here. This weekend was the Alberta Stock dog field finals and I was involved in organizing the trial. Because of my lack luster enthusiasm lately I failed to take pictures or do any face booking or picture taking. So I refer you too Wendy's blog
The trial was full of good weather and good friends.
Congrats to the winners

I know, I know

You know when your mother comments on your lack of blogging that things have gone terribly side ways. I seem to be stuck in some sort of vortex lately. A vicious circle of drinking too much coffee and complaining about my house not being done or the amount of rain we have been getting. My friend Bev calls this a "funk" I am stuck in it. Don't want to do anything just want to be a slug. The whole family has packed up for the weekend and traveled up to Lacombe to visit my mom, move some cows and bring the sheep home to go to market this week. Our house is slowly getting finished in the meantime I think our trailer gets smaller by the day.
Next weekend the the Alberta Stock dog year end finals. Should be fun as long as the weather holds. I have only entered Isla. I have decided to sell Rob. I like him as a dog to have around but him and I working wise just doesn't work. Not going to be an easy do to sell and I am particular as to where or who I would sell me dogs too. I hate it when dogs get passed around from home to home. In the meantime he is happy to chase Isla around the yard and move sheep around the farm.
Not much else new. Craig is coming along in his training. Bracken is living with Scott and Jenny. Scott will train her this winter and I have asked him to trial her a little in the spring if she turns out nice. Her personality has change quite a bit since she went to their house.

Boys behaving badly

Some boys (who shall remain nameless) just can't help themselves. I am sure his wife would be so proud of him.

USBCHA National finals webcast

Most of you already know that this year for the first time ever the National finals will be broadcast live via the Internet. Starting with Saturday,September 25th's semi finals followed by Sunday's double lift. For those of you interested I have added a link on the right side of my blog. As much as I would love to be there I am stuck at home in my trailer and enjoying the rain. I will be there in spirit cheering my friends on. Lisa and I may watch together via telephone and getting all the juicy details from Jenny via text messages.

The thing that haunts me most

We currently live in about 350 square feet and are often tripping over one another. One would think you would do what you could to make each other happier. Nah!! not my frat house boys. I am continually being stalked by the same thing. It haunts my dreams and shows up in the craziest places. Any ideas what this could be? I bet you have some but you are probably wrong.

Dental floss. How hard is it to put your dental floss in the garbage can. I find it everywhere. He claims he puts it in the garbage but I still continue to find it on the floor.

Milestone

This week marks a big milestone in our family. Justice entered grade 12 the beginning of the end of school.  Some parents take pictures of their kids on the first day of kindergarten not me I prefer to remember the first day of his last year.

last hurrah

Grab a coffee or something stronger this is setting up to be a long post. Just home form the last big trip of our dog trailing season here in western Canada since I am not going to any of the big trials down south this fall. This was the last time till next year I will see some of my trailing friends. In October we have the Alberta field finals but then mostly nothing.
Started this trip out at the EID Classic in Brooks expertly run by JoAnn and Ian Zoerb. I didn't take any pictures do to the disastrous way my dogs were running and the copious amounts of Sangria I was consuming. The field at EID is challenging and scenic. The bad thing about terrain is it makes wide running dogs run wider therefore Isla had no chance. The first day she had a not bad run and even got the shed (she hates to shed) but timed out just as I got to the pen mostly because of her 5 minute long outrun. The second day she got lost on her out run and almost ran right back to me. So I call her off. Rob had a major brain meltdown on this trip and hardly listened to me at all. I retired at the drive away gates both days due to him circling the sheep wildly numerous times. Jerry did an awesome handlers dinner for us. Unfortunately he has now ruined us for handlers dinners to come in the future. Double lift winner was George Stambulic and Kate.
Packed up Sunday and headed the Chris Jobe's place to works some dogs and send Lisa's husband to town to get much needed supplies (Sangria ingredients)
That afternoon we headed east to Jamie VanRayhn's trial in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. This field was totally flat. Still no pictures same excuses. Rob continues to fail me this time just attacking sheep down the fetch line. Just to mix it up a little for a change. Sheep were tough and not sure the hearing was so good. A lot of dogs just wouldn't cover their side and ended up off course all the way to the exhaust. Isla fell into that category the fist day. The sheep got slightly better the second day. Isla did slightly better and got a score something in the 60's I think she timed out at the pen. By this time I could make my Sangria blind folded. And I was starting to divvy up my stuff for my pending suicide if my dogs didn't start running better.
After Jamie's were we off to Maple Creek for the Western Canadian Championships. When we arrived at the trial field the temperature was 36 Celsius and blowing fine dust everywhere. That fine dust would turn out to be our undoing on Sunday. First thing we notice was the absents of level camping spaces. Things were about to get very cozy. We ran a different course each day. Sort of on the flat the first day and up the hill the second day. First day Rob was an ass so I pulled him for the second day. Isla ran pretty good but no single or pen. She scored 68 the first day. Second day I finally pulled out my camera.

Lisa and Hope at the post

Setting up the single

George reliving his youth

Day two Isla had a fabulous run scoring an 84. She even did her single without a blink of an eye. I was very happy with her it has been a long time since she has giving me a good run. Our two runs combined was good enough to get us into the Double Lift final on Sunday. Our very first double lift. Scary for me because I had not practiced a look back in a year. I use it at home all the time. She also hates shedding. Fortunately I had packed a nice shirt in case this exact thing happened. But we woke up to this....................

So my double lift out fit consisted of borrowed rain pants ( thanks Chris) and a faded brown Carhart Jacket. Really did nothing for my figure

funny doesn't look miserable

Scott would have been proud I totally had a plan. Notice the four collared sheep at the front. Isla was right with me but alas my inexperience got the best of us and I never finished the shed. I was very happy just to get in and have my dog work with me. In the end we scored 93 out of 170 and finished seventh out of ten in the double lift. 

Sunday also consisted of each handler getting pulled out of the camping spots with a tractor. 

We waited till Monday to get pulled out

See ya next year sheep