WELCOME

Thanks for visiting my blog. It's rather flattering to have someone read your minds meanderings. I hope it's entertaining and sometimes educational.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Dog Work

    I worked Dare and Dually on ducks today.  I am concentrating on the outrun lift and fetch for course A ducks AKC.  The outrun is generally ok and the lift is good on Dually, Dare needs work but the fetch on both is bad.  Dare pushed too hard and we end up weaving all over the field.  Dually pushed too h ard and he ends up running thru them.

     So I worked a bit on Dare first .  Trying to back him off and make him think on the lift and then on the fetch, not overflanking. I am using my stick from the cone and if he flanks too much left or right I can correct him by lifting it if I am quick enough.

     Dually had to work the corner with the ducks because as I send him in, he cuts in front of them as if he can't  see them.  When I reflank, he won't turn his head towards the fence to let them out.  I tried to show him, but not sure I got through to him.

      I got my farm sign today.  It's beautiful except I think the dog is a little funky.  It might just be me.

Friday, July 27, 2012

lesson dogs

This morning I had 3 cattle dogs for lessons.  My job is to get them to get away from their handler and work the stock. I love this kind of challenge because the results are so often dramatic when they realize they are going to be allowed to work. There might be a little yahoo and some open mouths and maybe even some biting but if it will free them up , then it will be allowed. I am doing it with littlel jobs. We are going from pen to pen and they must bring all the  stock or go back and  get it until it's all there.  And then sometimes I will even let the owner let the dog run in after them and bring them out again.  It's all fun for the dog.

Dare, however is freaked out by my giving lessons. I put him in the crate in the house and the crate door was bent and he had drooled all over the crate. He can hear me in the house and it unnerves him. I don't know why, but he is scared badly.  I am going to put a crate in the kitchen which is farther  from the window and put a radio on loud.    I dont' know what else to do. I can sometimes keep him with me which is better but  sometimes I have to go in and work a dog and I can't tie him because he will try to hang himself.  Poor thing.

I ate a lot of my homemade ice cream which was more like ice milk but it was darn tasty.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Trailer fixing

Biopsy went fine. I gave the Dr a  hard time about Why I had to have a biopsy but the answer was resonable. It's because they need to know for sure that is where the tumor is if they have to do surgery. I turns out that it is between 2 major blood vessels and they really dont' want to operate.  Hmmm I will probably need to talk to them more about this.

Ed is fixing the trailer so I can go pick up my lambs at Shelley's.   He got a new used tire today but we decided that we need 2 more.  And then the floor  needs replacing and he fixed the wiring today. He also needs to put a top set of doors on the back so that nothing can jump out.  More work ..

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Trip to Maine

Great trip to Maine.  Good clinic and we blew Dually's mind on pressure in with the cows and poor Ben got cornered by same cow.  Now Ben doesn't want  to be anywhere near the cows. I don't blame him. Dually would have gotten up and bitten the crap out of him but in the wrong places.

Dually won ADV cows on SAt and 2 on ADV ducks which gave daddy Royal his HOF status.  Day 2 the cows won  and so did the ducks. LOL.  But we had fun anyway. Dare placed in ADV ducks can't remember what though.  The weather for the clinic was a bit hot but the trial weather was just about perfect for  July. The trial was full and it went very well.  Lots of Q's and lots of thank you's too. ah well.

On the way home on MOnday I was glad I made it relatively safely as I as very tired. I pulled the trailer into the back pasture and cut the corner to much and caught the canopy and pulled it off the trailer. It could have been worse.

Tomorrow is my needle biopsy although I am still unsure why they have to do this if they know where the cancer is.  No radiation therapy because they can't get the thyrogen and they said they didnt' want to wait 6 wks for me to go hypothyroid (off my meds) before they do surgery so it looks like surgery will be soon. I'll find out tomorrow. Once they tell me that I want it  immediately not in 2 wks or even in 1 wk. Schedule it tomorrow , I have a life to live you know.

Friday, July 13, 2012

First Day of the Clinic

hot hot hot too damn hot.  tomorrow will be worse?  starting at 6am , at least Jan and I are.  Dogs and handlers held up well though.  Nobody had a breakdown and I think everybody was happy.

Lunch was chicken ceasar and Kathy made a wonderful orange Birthday  cake for Nat.  Mmmmm wish I had some.  I am being so good it's pathetic.

I did have some mago lime sorbet (homemade) It was ok . Apparently it was better later in a frozen margarita.  Will keep fooling with the recipe. Maybe I will do a watermelon granita --sounds delish.

New exercise was put an L shaped panel against the corner of the fence and about 14 inches or less of clearance and drive or fetch the sheep thru.  I did't do it. I didn't work a dog today but will tomorrow. A bunch of people who have never worked cows worked them.  Cool. I like the cows.  It's 8"41 and I am just barely keeping my head up.  The heat really saps you.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Day before the clinic

    I don't know why I schedule myself to do so much the day before a clinic.  I am  all done and just realized I don't have any romaine to make salad with tomorrow and since that is the main meal, I am going to have to go out and get some in the morning. yay.

I had my obed class this am and both boys did terrrible at heeling but were good on the stand for exam and then I worked fronts with Dare and he bit me taking the cookie and that was the end of that. Dually did very well going after the dumbell while Dare pretends he can't see it.

So  then I got home and gave Ed some stuff to do and started working on the quiche.  I got them started and had to run out and pick up Jan at the airport.  Easy ride home and I gave her a drink and started cooking the lobsters I had bought on my way home from obed at Old Colony Farms fish market. They looked good but they had a very odd taste. They tasted earthy.  Not very good. Disappointing.

Then I made some mango lime sorbet. And it wasn't very good either.  Hope the qiches turn out ok.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Doctor called

Ok Yay. I'm not going to die anytime too soon.  The cancer is not in the chest and not even in the lymph nodes in the neck but there are still cancer cells growing in the thyroid bed.  Soooo they want to do a fine needle aspiration and the radioactive iodine treatment and surgery again.  Seems like a lot of stuff to me.  We need to talk about this a little more .

But in the meantime, I have decided to change my diet. I am going to cut out processed sugar, flour and processed meats. They all feed cancer cells especially the sugar.  It will be hard but I feel committed that this is the right thing to do to prolong my life.

Whewww

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Kayak trip

   We left at 11 am yesterday to go fun kayaking and stopped on the way at a really nice farmstand in the Amherst area for lunch.  I had a yummy cupcake for dessert and good soup and excellent sushi.  It had lots of avocado on the outside. I just love avocado.   Then we went to the river and we were basically on time but they had a lot of people there that go out all at once so we had to all sit thru a rather long safety meeting  and then get fitted for life preservers and helmets. It was pretty shallow so not sure what the danger was.  
They put us on a bus and drove us about 10 miles. The whole way I was holding an ice water to my eye because I had put suntan lotion on my face and promptly rubbed it into my eye. boy did that sting. Finally we got there and we walked down a steep bank to get in our individual soft kayaks. They pushed us out and off we went. They were fairly comfortable and really easy to maneuver.  There was a little whitewater  but it was really pretty shallow.  We were often getting hung up on rocks and most of the time it was easy to get off them but once Carol had to get out of the boat and loosen hers up.  The whole trip took about 2 1/2 hrs and by the end we were looking for a place to get out. We were all pretty tired.

We stopped at a roadside stand for dinner and had some great sandwiches on nice fresh bread and then  left. Home at about 9:30.  Long day but fun.  I would do it again if the water was a bit higher.

Tonight (the sisters and the token Brother in law) and I went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant  in the next town.  Great margaritas and food was really good and plentiful too. I think everybody enjoyed it. It was an early B'day celebration for me so I got to choose the restaurant. I like it and I will go again.

Carol has 2 more days here and then she goes home to Va and we all go back to our regular lives. I'm glad she's here , it's fun to see her and we don't get to see her often enough.  Gotta love your sisters.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Independence Day work

   I brought the cows up to the control pen for  a lesson I had later this am and while they were there , I decided to work them in the take pen which is 16by 16.  I am trying  to get both dogs to bite the heels and since I am alone most of time, I need a place that I can effectively hold the cows and egg the dog on and hold them in the pressure. It kinda worked. I think Dually hit a heel. Dare got a good kick in the jaw because he wants to bite higher than the hock preferably on the cows side. Not a good plan.

Anyway they both got a little work and then I gave my lesson which went much better than the first time on cows for this nice BC.   The dog was starting to understand how to work cows. very quick little dog.  liked her

lesson over time to try the damn lawn mower again. So I took the batter off the charger and immediately put in on the mower and nothing.  Ok I have decided it is not going to charge.  I've tried to charge it about 5 times and just wasn't taking the charge.  I headed over to Advance Auto parts and picked up a new batter(no 'Walmart battery this time).  I got it home, hooked it up and bamm starts first time.  So everything got mowed including the duck arena. I wanted to see how it looked mowed. It looks very nice.  The clinic is next week and I don't think the grass will grow back quick enough to look messy.   I also weedwacked a bit until that got tiring.  The weedwacker was feeding the string this time so that was nice.   Now what?

Happy 4th of July

  My sister and I watched the fireworks from her canoe in the middle of the lake last night. They were fantastic. Best I have ever seen. I think I enjoyed them because we were further away than normal and the booms were not bone rattling.