Winter solstice

New year new puppy

Like a lemming I will post a picture of my new puppy as well.

Introducing Gus

Looks like his ears are already coming up.

Gus is due to arrive in the middle of my new years eve party.

What better reason to have a party.

end of an era

Way back when I was in middle school my best friends at the time was Michelle. Her parents had a cow hide rug for under their pool table. I thought the rug was the coolest thing around. I was the only one other than her parents that liked the rug. Over the years that rug saw many party's, sleep overs, wrestlemania's (please don't judge) and scary movies. A couple years after high school Michelle told me her parents were finally going to throw out that old ugly cow hide rug. My heart stopped now was my chance to get my hands on it. I asked her mom if i could have it. Of course she said yes. I was over joyed.
Over the years this rug has traveled with us from house to house. It has raised many puppies and one now 18 year old. Still over time I was the only one that loved this rug. Now the time has come to say goodbye to the rug.  The cow hide is missing hair in more spots than not and most of the stitching is breaking down from old age. The stamp on the back of the rug says 1965. Imagine the things this rug has seen and heard.

After writing this I can't bring my self to just toss this in the dumpster. For now I am going to put it in the endless sea can. (which is a story for another time) in case I get nostalgic someday.

Product review time

How excited was I to be in Canadian Tire and see they had Graty's for sale. I was so happy I bought a couple. One for us and some for gifts. What is the Graty you ask.

Surprise to me the Graty was only $4.00. Score!!

I live in a frat house of cheese lovers so this would be a perfect addition to our kitchen. We have had the graty for a couple of days and what a piece of shit. It has some huge design flaws and the cheese does not come out like it does in the commercial. It comes out all globbed up in a ball.

I am sorry Vince

I am going to give your product two thumbs down.

In an effort to improve the Graty last night I was taking it apart to redesign it and accidentally broke it. Now I see why it is only $4.00. 

Wind Carnage

This is the price we pay for not having any snow the end on November and 15 degrees. (celcius to my american friends). This is our version of the Santa Anna winds. We call them Chinook winds.

I heard rumors of 130 kms/hr. I would believe it. We couldn't even walk outside.

Let's start with the tree carnage. We just moved all these trees in a month ago.

The burn pile now

The roof took a little beating

So did the internet dish

We are still waiting for them to come and fix it.
Tragic for the frat boyz no xbox live

The shelters took the worst of it.
All the shelters were staked down
This shelter was on the other side of the fence on the left. The fence is six feet tall. It didn't even touch the fence.

All the shelters were built on heavy metal skids

Some of our ewe lambs
really wondering what all the fuss is about.
I guess they will figure it out in January or February.

A bump in the road that turned into a giant crater

In June I called it a bump in the road but now that has turned into and giant hole that has proven hard to cross. We are still sitting on the other side trying to figure out how to cross. If I was a chicken I would have figured it out by now. I can just hear it "how did the chicken cross the crater?" Answer would be something cleaver that I can't think of right now. But I digress

Craig has what is called a non union fracture. Which is short for very expensive and takes up lots of your time. After seven months of an external fixator last week in needed to come off before it fell out. The solution now is a bone graft and plate and screws. 

This is what we started with in June

What it looked like in August

November
As you can see we tried to stress the bone by taking screws out over time
the force some bone growth

this is what we have today

Another eight weeks wait to see if this solution will work. In the meantime Craig goes to Physiotherapy once a week. He gets laser treatment, ultrasound and electromagnetic treatment. Last week he also got some acupuncture. 

He loves going mostly because it is all about him.

This was before surgery on Tuesday

And after 

Joe is an attention hog and must be in every picture.

Craig has taken this all in stride and is just happy to be living in the house full time. 

If I had known how long this road was, I am not sure I would do anything different. Time will tell what the out come will be. I am very fortunate to be able to afford this whole ordeal. I really don't want to think about if this doesn't work out.  I picture a lot of liquor and some sort of ledge that my friends will have to pull me off.

Bring on the snow

Were ready to play with our new toy.

Kyle picked up the snow blower today.

I am a little concerned about all the wires that need to be connected. 

But Kyle seems confident. 

Notice the messy shop that goes along with the hoarding problem the dog has. 

Hoarders

On today's episode

"Guardian dogs who hoard"

Some of this stuff I don't even know where it came from.

He has piles in every field

That pile behind Bear on the other side of the fence would be my husbands hoarding problem. Which we will cover in a different episode.

Good Morning

Bear doing his thing

Veterinary train wreck

Somewhere in this house or on our property there is a broken mirror or a ladder that I keep walking under and don't even know it. As you all know Craig broke his leg in June and it is still an on going battle to get him fixed up. I don't think there has been a week go by this year that I haven't been to the vet or a physiotherapist. To top it off my dogs are now looking for ways to hurt them selves. A couple weeks ago Lisa and I loaded up the dogs and headed off the British Columbia for Holly's trial. When we left Meg had thrown up in her dog run but I thought nothing of it dogs do that sometimes. We Meg proceeded to get sick the whole way to Holly's. When we arrived I asked Wendy to look at Meg. She gave her expert opinion of WTF. I think x-rays are in order for the morning. Off I went to Holly's vet in Armstrong. And this is what we saw.

Kind of blurry because I took the picture with my cell phone but you get the idea.

Meg eat 3.5 pounds of rocks from her dog run.

Very unlike something she would do.

She was one sick puppy on the drive home. Didn't move an inch.

A week later we were back to the vet when she developed an abscess and it had to be drained. She was put on heavier antibiotics the help fight infection.

She is still on lock down but feeling much better.

As promised

Bad cell phone photos

Most days Joe didn't get up until around 10 AM

This was my view everywhere we went. Following Scott and Jenny. 

Amanda at Solider Hollow doing her movie interview after her run.

I love the VIP room at Solider Hollow

The famous Meeker statue.

Couple of Meeker locals. If the set out crew wore these outfits then maybe Meg would have seen her sheep up the field.

good times in the princess castle. Joe was the center of attention. I here Alison and him are BFF's now.

Alastair holding court as a webcast commentator. I am told he was very good at it.

Ten minutes from home after three weeks on the road.

What The Bacon!!!

Someone has learned a new trick

Hey where did my bacon go

JOE

Thank god your cute.

An ugly dog would never get away with this.

Some September pictures

My co-pilot was less than chatty. He didn't really do a good job of keeping me company.

He quickly settled in to the dog trailing scene

As always Solider Hollow was amazing

I didn't take many pictures of Meeker. Mostly because my mood was teetering on the edge of insanity.

But I did take this picture as we were leaving.

Meeker really is the little trial that could. the middle of nowhere small town that supports the trial.

Next blog is bad cell phone photos.

September a month in review

So it has been a while. I have been home for a week now and finally getting back some sort of normalcy back in my life. I had big plans of blogging while on the road for three weeks. But alas the great states of Utah and Colorado don't really believe in modern communication. At one point I saw a sign that said pony express crossing. I thought that was a historical sight. No No it is still in service. I never thought of a place without cell or internet service was possible.
Before I go through my pictures and tails of dog trialing. I would just like to talk about some things I learned on this trip. Some I already knew but had forgotten.

- When it says seasonal vegetables on a menu it usually means they have come from a can.
- paybacks a bitch and comes back three fold.
- by day three of no cell phone the shakes will settle down. And the people with free Wifi see you coming and know you by name.
- Apparently in Lima, Montana they don't get many news up dates and still think Secretariat is still alive.
- The is not a gas station between here and Colorado that I have not backed the princess castle out of.
- Words I thought I would never say "I am going to ride my bike up the hill to the lodge" Mostly the words are bike and hill.
- There is nothing like barking dogs as an alarm clock everyday for three weeks. Makes me want to by stock in Tritronics.
-  Someone needs to invent a new fuel made from sage brush. There is just to dam much of it. Makes it hard for a girl the ride her bike.
- A recipe for a good time Princess castle, Sangria, lots of friends, wrangler jeans and a tube of Sexy Mother Pucker. Sounds a little crazy I know and it was.
- A girl can drink too much Sangria. But boys can't get enough of it.

No matter how far I travel I make the best of friends and met up with old ones. Thank goodness for no cell service otherwise I would be texting them all the way home.
"do you miss me yet"
"where are you now"

Every time it gets harder to say good bye.

Canadian finals

I am about to head out for Utah just some last minute things to do. My second run in Cranbrook was mediocre still no pen. Meg was not listening to me which lead to me yelling at her and her taking offense.  In the end we ended up one point shy of making the double lift finals. So instead of running a dog I was asked to set out for some runs. Now that everybody knows my prowess on a horse I am the next go to person behind Chris and Wendy Schmaltz. The good part is Chris and Wendy supply me with a nice broke horse.
The view from the top is spectacular. Mountains and hills surrounding you. If I lived there I would defiantly have a horse to go riding in the hills for hours.
I took very little pictures from the weekend. The first half my camera battery was dead and then I was too lazy.
In the end Scott Glen and Don prevailed as Canadian Champions with Dennis Gellings and Jan in the reserve spot.
One thing I did accomplish this weekend was two perfect sheds. I guess you can"t have it all. Didn't hit a panel or pen but now I can shed. Always some sort of Unicorn standing beside me.
Now I am off to Solider Hollow for moral support and shopping.

Canadian finals Day 1

Just a quick post to make Jenny happy. I asked her to take some pictures of Meg today since I have very little pictures of her and I . We are in Cranbrook at the Canadian Border Collie Championships. The sheep were tough and a challenge for the day. I was happy with Meg's amount of try for me today. Although I will expect more tomorrow. We scored a 74 just out of the top ten for the day with no pen. Thanks to Jenny for taking some pics of me and Meg. Tune into her trial blog for nightly updates.

Yea!! a shed