OMg

I dropped the camper off at Camping World at 9am and I putzed around all day trying to keep busy. I spent 4 hrs this afternoon wandering Camping world until 5 when I finally asked about the trailer and they told me they had not worked on it but would work on it first thing in the am. I was pissed. They certainly could have told me that earlier and I would have gone back to the campground and relaxed in comfort. So I said bring it out so I can take it back to my campground for the night. It took them 30 min to find it and when they finally brought it out, the brand new electric jack had been bent and was unusable. Soooooo I am spending the night at Camping World. The dogs are not happy and the parking lot is lit up like a carnival. And I am right on the main drag. But .... it did give me time and incentive to figure out why my tv antenna would not work. got that straightened out and I think I actually understand it.

Tomorrow, they hopefully will fix the trailer and I am going out to dinner with Kathy and Roger.

I just did some trick training with the dogs. THey love that meat roll from Jeffers. I taught Dually to pick up the dinner bowl and I worked on Edge picking it up and starting to stack them. noisy but cute.

Back to Dothan Al.

I left this morning around 9:30am The drive was only 244 miles, but I followed the Iphone and some times I don't think she has any clue how to get anywhere. Seems like I should have been able to drive a couple miles from the campground and get on a highway that would lead me to rt I85. Instead I took a highway with a lot of stop lights for about 20miles to I85. Oh well, not in any hurry. I did get to go through Atlanta when traffic was "light". Thank goodness because heavy traffic would really freak me out. 16 lanes and they are narrow lanes. White knuckled it and had to remember to keep breathing. It is damn scary towing a 31 ft trailer in traffic.

The rest of the trip was uneventful except when I got to Ross Clark Circle in Dothan and I stopped late at a light and I was halfway into the intersection. I waited until the oncoming traffic passed and went thru the redlight to the left. No cops thank goodness.

Back to the same campground and the same site I have had 2 other times. The owner helped me hook up the dish and she figured out some of why I could not get the outside cable hookup to work. I have cable in the living room tv but not the bedroom. Tomorrow I am dropping at Camping World and maybe they can explain it to me.

The boys and I played fetch for a while and now I am waiting for Dually to eat his new food. He is not eating it. AGhhhh

Christmas is over

I spent Tues thru Today with my sister,nephew and brother in law Mike. Last night we went to the cottage at Lake Gaston again and I left from there at 7am this morning. . We had a nice day on Christmas, opened somme gifts and ate a lot. Matter of fact,all we have been doing is eating. Time for a change of eating habits. I did bring some fresh kale and a rutabaga and some sweet potatoes right from a NC farm with me. I picked up a roast beef sandwich at the local grocery as long as some kale salad when I got home(to the trailer).

I looked at the map and it looks like I have to go straight thru Atlanta tomorrow to get back to Dothan. Yay can't wait.It looks like 240 miles which won't be bad if I can get thru Atlanta at a good time. Not sure what a good time is, but I am going to try to leave here around 9ish. That might be too early but oh well.

I finally seem to have found a dog food that Dually will eat. It's called INSINCT and it's freeze dried raw food. It's a bit pricey but at least he seems to like it a little. I bought the one with the highest calorie count so hopefully he will put some weight on. I bought Edge a lite food and he hates it. Oh well too bad for him. He's a bit fat.

Yesterday Carol and I checked out some recliners at a furniture store and I think I found what will work in here. I might wait until I get to Fla to check the used stuff. There is bound to be some great buys. All the old people die down there and nobody wants their furniture. giggle.

N Carolina yesterday and Virginia today

I left My camper at 7 am yesterday and drove pretty good till about 3 to my sisters new cottage on Lake Gaston in N Carolina. It's a beautiful clear reservoir and it's huge too. They just built a new cottage on a nice piece of land there. It'a 2 bedroom with a loft and they did 2 full baths. It's very very nice. The dogs loved running around the other camps which are empty this time of year.

Carol and I played rummy last night and I beat her soundly on every hand. fun for me. We went to bed fairly early and got up and took the dogs out for a good walk and I got some history on some of the other "cottagea" and pieces of land.

Then we left around 1 to go to their home in Va which was about 2 more hours north. I am now 11 hrs from home. . I will stay here a few days and then back to Ga and on to Al. Not sure how long I will be here though.. Christmas and then ?

Ball Ground Trial Day 3 Whewww

Oh boy am I glad this trial is over and there are no more for the forseeable future. Dually's performance went downhill definitely. I need to get back to training and not trialing. His 2 duck runs today on course A were good until Panel 2 and he got them stuck behind the panels and WOULD NOT LET THEM OUT. I tried every way I knew how to get them out of there. I flanked him around the other way, I flanked him wide on an away but he needed to hug the fence and he came off at the top about 2 ft and would not go back in. I finally crossed the line and made him take the away. I had the same damn ducks the next time and the same thing happened all over again. I took longer to cross the line but eventually I had to cross to get him to release them. I wanted to kill him of course. He did the same thing sort of on 1 sheep run and 1 cattle run. He did let them go but it was a struggle and it was on Panel 1 not 2. So 1 won 1 sheep run with 119 for HIT , 2nd run was 2nd with 109. First cattle run was 4th with 103 and a 3rd with 109 . so a total of 5pts /today. TOTAL WAS 18 pts this weekend. so I guess it was worth it.

Home today by 1:30 and I checked around for a place to park the trailer while I go to see my sister but I can't find one so I will leave it here and pay by the day again till I get back. So I guess I will leave first thing in the am . It's 446 miles to the camp and then onn Tues we will go to Norfolk and I will stay for a while and come back I guess over the weekend or so.

Ball Ground Day 2 Trial

Not sure if he was better or worse today. He did get a 118 and HIT on sheep. He got 106 and HIT on cattle . The course changed to B course so everything was easier. My 2nd sheep run was a Q with a 91. We had trouble at panel 2. He was kind of wild on ducks. We got a 111 which was just a Q and a 106 which was 3rd. His 2nd cattle run was a 112 and 2nd place.. WE had a cow that did not want to play and after panel 1 and 2 kept running back to the repen. I got 2 in the center and tried to get him back to the center so I could bring them all back together but we could not keep him there long enough to get the other 2 out of the center pen. I still got a 9 on the repen. I can't figure scoring out for repens. So 5 scores over 100 and 2 HIT's so 7 pts today. And it didn't rain!!!

Let's see what tomorrow bring since it is here already.

I called my sister and made plans to meet her at her new cabin in NC on MOnday. I am not sure I will make it on Monday. I may have to move the trailer to a storage area first. I hope not because when I come back, I am sure I am going to want to spend a night here before I move on back to Dothan.

I haven't gone the same way twice to Ball Ground with the phone gps directing me. Let's see what way I go today.

Ball Ground Ga Day 1 Trial

The day was cold but got a little better. It was 32 when I started to drive to the trial site. It took about 45 min to get there and that was on all back roads. The trial site was up a steep driveway and I was happy I was not pulling the trailer. It was at Michael and Ally Bryants and they live at the top of a hill and the view was phenomenal. The arena was a bit hilly but it didn't bother Dually or me. Maybe if it rains tomorrow it will be slippery, but it was fine today and the duck arena was hilly but I didn't even notice while I was trialing. The scores were low today. We did course E and you have to get all the panels to get good scores. The sheep were good but Dually was a little wired. We did win the class with 94 which was also HIT aussie . The cows were tough and some were downright mean. Dually won the first trial with 97 which was also HIT aussie. My 2nd cattle run was bad. We had a cow that chased Dually a couple of times and no matter how hard he bit it, it still came after him. He lost a little confidence so I helped him out and crossed the line and we pushed those cows a little. Hopefully that will be good for us tomorrow.

My 2nd sheep run was not that good. WE got an 87

My duck runs were both 1st place I got 101 and 110 both HIT aussie so when they gave out awards I thought I had only perhaps gotten 1pt on ducks but each duck score was worth 1.5 and 1pt for HIT so 5pts there and 1 pt each for HIT cattle and sheep so 7 pts today. NOt bad for a not so good day.

New Campground

I was going to a campground called Twin Lakes but My phone couldn't seem to direct me correctly so it u turned me in a long term campground and I asked them if I could stay for a few nights and they said yes. $20 night cheap. But on my way here, I took a detour thru a very busy shopping center. Gosh this 30 ft trailer can go just about anywhere.LOL

I worked Dually this am on going my way into the pen and taking sheep out and then I kept the gate open and made him go in and complete the flank and keep them in there. He did it both ways. I tried her ducks but they were not being cooperative and I didn't feel like dealing with them. I sent Edgie for the sheep in the field but the horse was out there and I think that threw him. I did not want to keep sending him because I was unsure of the horse and if he would chase the dog. He was chasing the sheep so wasnt'going to take a chance with Edge.

So tonight I have 2 heaters and I am going to be warm warm warm. I was warm last night because I put the heater facing into the bedroom. the rest of the trailer was chilly but I was toasty in my lovely comfortable bed.

oK I will stop whining about you all posting comments

I hung around the campground yesterday and waited for Camping World to call. They did and said the part had not come in but would hopefully come in today. I got confused and thought yesterday was Wed and decided to leave and go to Ga so I am here a day earlier than I need to be.
Cheryl offered me her spare bedroom last night which was nice because it was dark and it was going to be a chore setting up the camper because the site was not very level. So I slept in the house and the dogs slept in the car which of course caused me to worry all night if they were warm enough. They lived. I woke up for the upteenth time at 9 and got dressed and let them out. They seemed fine. It was not that cold but it's really damp and I can't get warm.

I did a load of laundry and then stripped the bed and put the clean dishes away and loaded the dishwasher. Then I leveled the trailer and set it up and went off to Walmart. I picked up a 2nd heater but I can't use it here because I trip the breaker. I can suffer through another night till I get to the campground. I would have gone today but it's farther than I thought. It's 48 miles from here and I wanted to work the dogs before the trial this weekend so I am staying another night.

I worked them this afternoon.Cheryl has some really nice sheep. Not stupid heads. I worked Edge first. ON flanks and then just get around and bring them. He has some trouble if they are against a fence. He sorta goes in the middle and brings me the closest ones. I will fix that but it might take a little while because he is doing it because of the pressure of the fence. So I worked a little on pressure. But before I did that, I sent him into a take pen from a distance to see if he could take them out. He could not. He could hold them really good though. LOL. Just like Dare but Edge will be sooooo much easier to teach to let go. I then put the sheep in a 12 by 12 and I stayed outside and I taught him he could go between the fence and the sheep. AFter I while I think he though it was quite fun.

I put Edge away and took Dually out to work on his standing Stay. It is pretty good now while I am close to him but seems to have little meaning if I am facing him or directly behind from a distance. Oh so useful though and I am loving the results. Also had an opportunity to hold them in the corner and he got stuck and I was able to toss my stick at him and unstick him. The more places I can do that , the less sticky he is going to be.

So Georgia is cold damp and overcast today. Tried to add to my turtleneck supply but Walmart didn't have any. Can't wait to get to Fla and get warm.

Posting

Nobody is reading my blog so why I am writing it?

I packed up and left Rogers today and moved back to the campground in Dothan. It's only 12.50 night. I went to CAmping World and got my receiver updated for the dish but I still can't get it to work tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I am getting the heater and the vent fan fixed at CAmping world and then maybe get a lesson with Roger and on to Ga on THurs am.

Day one Post ADV and ducks

Dually was the first run today on goats in Post Adv. Apparently you are supposed to do a figure 8 around the panels and I forgot. I lost 5 pts for the 2nd panel. I thought I should have lost a lot more, but it left me with 112 and HIT sheep. For my cattle run I remembered how to run it , but I had a little trouble getting those darn cows thru Panel 2. They kept trying to break back over Dually but he kept his cool mostly and we got it done. That was a 116 and HIT cattle. My duck run was poetry in motion. We got 123 and HIT ducks. He did a beautiful job on ducks. I guess all that "training" for the last month is finally showing some results. Lets see what tomorrow brings.

My parts for the trailer should be in on MMonday which mmeans they won't fix it till Tues. I found out tonight that there is a airport surplus store near here where they take all lost luggage etc and sell it. Might have to check that out. It sounds veryyy interesting.

Still don't have the receiver for the dish fixed, Might be a Monday thing too. Need to get some laudry done soon though.

Camping World Day

I had 8:30 am appt and I was there on time. They kept my trailer till 4. There is an igniter and a fan motor that have to be ordered to fix the heat and the vent fan. I am not getting any sense of urgency there. In the meantime I went to Lowes to see if I could find a tv mount for the new little tv that I bought for the bedroom on Tues when I got here. I didn't find one. I went to Jeffers Pet Supply and bought some pro bios and some clickers and some treat stuff. Then I went back to Camping World to pick up the trailer. We discussed the water heater and they have told me that I have to have a certain amount of water pressure for it to work. That makes sense. I brought it to Rogers last night and hooked everything up .. The shower was hot for 2 minutes and then cold. lovely. This am I took the water filter off the line but that didn't make any difference. I am going to fill the holding tank up and see if the pump can give it enough pressure for a shower. Yikes this is turning out to be an ordeal. It was fine at the campground in Texas for a month and great at one campground on the way here. I also went to a store to have my dish antenna checked out and it works but I could not get service last night. I have to go back and have them recalibrate my receiver because it has been unused for so long. Gotta get laundry done today too and work the ducks and the cattle per Rogers' request. Oh and the other thing, is my little space heater is not doing the job anymore so I need to buy a new one even though I have 3 at home. dummy

Made it to Fla today

I only drove 300 miles today but it seemed to take forever. I finally stopped at a campground about 5 miles off the interstate. It is called Vortex Springs and there are no other campers here. It is a natural spring and dive camp. I haven't looked at the spring yet but I will tomorrow. It is supposed to be "gin" clear. That's pretty clear. They are not dog friendly and actually don't accept pets but I guess because they have no other campers, my money is better than none. With 430 acres you would think I could let the dogs run but they said no and to pick up poop and take it with me. Hmmm This is in Ponce de Leon Fla. Nippy here tonight. There is one restaurant in town and it's pretty much a dump. I had overcooked tough pork chops and lots and lots of mashed potatoes with gravy which I did not like much. Ah well better than cooking when I am this tired. Finally figured out why no tv last night. It is called a cable off/on switch and you need it off to watch tv so I have tv tonight. There is no cable at this place and I didn't even bother to ask about wifi. Might stay here 2 nights and might move on to be closer to Dothan.

Leaving Texas

I was sorry to leave Texas today. WE had a great time working the dogs at Joe Sheerhans' all month and his and Mary's hospitality was endless. They certainly made me feel welcome. Edgie got better and learned lots. Dually not so much.

I slept lousy last night, but I got on the road by 9. My goal was a campground in La about 400 miles. I made it, but I struggled to stay away most of the day. About 3 I started to call people to keep me awake and it worked. I did drive right by the campground and turned off into a tight driveway to turn around. It was a bit of a struggle but we all know how determined (stubborn) I can be. Anyway I am here and it's 7:15 and I am going to take a shower and go to sleep. Tomorrow could be a long day or short day depending on if I find some touristy thing to do around here.

Dinner out

Mary took us out to dinner last night at a nice quaint restaurant in Flatonia. They had a wine tasting of 6 wines to go along with the dinner. 3 whites and 3 reds. We all hated the reds. Sorry Joan. I had salmon in a balsamic reduction sauce. It was very vinegary. garlic mashed potatoes and green beans Dessert was an apple tart with ice cream. we had a good time.

I worked the dogs yesterday on corners. Sending Dually in on a straight up walk and then requiring a flank to go around them and scoop them out of the corner. He hates that. He wants to hold, but I am sticking to one command and making him do it. He has gotten better but we have not yet solved the problem and I am sure it is going to crop up again at the next trial, but maybe if I get to Rogers place a day early I can set him up and get a correction in the arena. Edgie did the same exercise and he did it very nicely. Edgie is starting to understand that when I give him a flank he needs to keep going and not turn in on balance every time or at least keep going if I give him a 2nd flank.

Today I am going to get some groceries and get the trailer ready to leave tomorrow. I think Sunday will be a good day to travel through Houston and on towards Baton Rouge for the night. I have an appt on WEd with CAmping World in Dothan to hopefully get the heat fixed and the stove vent working. So today on my list is empty the black water tank and rinse it out, pack everything away in the trailer,shake out the dog beds in the truck, check the air in the trailer tires. I wont' hook up till tomorrow because the trailer has to stay level while the bumpout is out. Yesterday it was truly tshirt weather and I even had the AC on last night. This morning it is cold and I have a sweatshirt on again.

Back to training

So after the weekends fiasco with sticking in the corners with Dually, I set up some panels and worked cows around the panels. I sort of worked a figure 8 and tried to get extra inside flanks in. He got better. Today I am going to work the actual corners in the arena with sheep. Of course its kind of rainy out , but also warmer, should be 60's today.
I worked Edge on the cows on the same panels. He seems to make the cows move a lot faster than Dually does. Not sure why, I will have to watch him more closely to see if I just need to slow him down. Those cows were hustling around those panels. funny. He seems to really understand flanks. go figure. took no time at all to teach him them.

I also worked on Dually's standing stop by using a line between his legs and just walking up. He won't lie down with a rope between his legs and of course that is my goal..

I called Dothan's Camping World today and made an appt for the warranty work which they said they could do. It's been hard finding a CAmpig World that would help me. They did say that the Keystone company is hard to deal with on warranty work and might take a while to get approved. Hope they can fix the exhaust fan quickly. So I guess I will be leaving here on Sunday or Monday. It's a 2 day drive and maybe I can do some sightseeing somewhere?

Today I finally get a haircut. Tomorrow the car goes in for an air sensor and oil change

Twin Creek Farm ASCA Trial

I didn't take the trailer to Kansas. It was about 760 miles from here in Texas and I decided not to try and fight the possible cold and wind. I left on Thanksgiving morning. I was going to stop at Cracker Barrel for Turkey but they were too busy so I stopped at Waffle house and had some loaded home fries instead. I drove about 8hrs the first day and stopped at a Motel 6 in S Haven Kansas right off rt 35. The owner and I got to talking about Thanksgiving dinner and I told her what I had and she offered me some of their family's dinner. She came over with a huge plate of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,gravy and a piece of pie. It was delicious and the dogs enjoyed a great deal of it too. I didn't tell her that.
Friday we got a leisurely start because I only had about 200 miles to go. Kansas is quite desolate at this time of the year. I found the "town" and the motel and the only apparent restaurant and had lunch. Then I drove out to find the trial site and met Jerry and Sharon Rowe and they graciously invited me to stay for dinner. Lovely people and a lovely trial site. There is a big indoor arena that we worked sheep in and a large outdoor that we worked cattle in. James Bergert brought the ducks and they were very nice ducks and the sheep were really nice and the cattle really had to be worked. I tied with a 79 for 1st place on Sat and could not get around the course on SUnday because Dually was not moving or doing "anything" I asked him to. sticky sticky.

I had ok runs on the sheep and the ducks . I won only 1 class all weekend and it was ducks on Sunday with a 120 HIT and I think it gave me HIT aussie. The ducks ran in the center pen when I downed Dually and opened the gate. No work involved at all. Funny how sometimes that works. I wanted desperately to get him on his feet and make him looke like he was doing it, but I knew if I got him up he would push them around the pen. Oh well, just take what you get and shut up Diane. I left about 2 yesterday and drove as far as the same Motel 6 and got up early and left at 6. I was back at the trailer at 4. Happy to be "home". Time to start thinking about the next trial.

Found out that I also wond HIT aussie and HIgh ADVAnced aussie for sat and sun. Not sure how that was calculated.