At the Nationals site

It was a short drive to College Station today and the check engine light was on the whole way. Great. But I left the key on in the ignition after I parked and so when I went to start the car, it was dead. I asked some guy to jump me and after he did the check engine light went out. SCORE!! I am parked between Joe and Mary and Chuck and Karen. Nobody asked me to dinner so I ate leftovers and went to Walmart to pick up some fruit and veggies for the rest of the week although, there is not much room in the fridge. Might have to eat what's in there. We have grass just across the street for the dogs so that is pretty easy. I venue seems nice although the arenas are all covered and they looked dark, but the light weren't on. The cows are small beef and from what I understand, they have just been weaned and might not have any leaders. They have only been worked in large mobs by BC's so some may not know what a dog is at all. MIght be fast and furious. The sheep are supposed to be light light light. The ducks are the same as what Joe has and they were hard. Tomorrow is a day of pretrial stock and I didn't enter it. I guess I will watch and practice videoing with my camera so I can hopefully get some on my you tube channel.

Worked dogs today

I am still trying to catch up on sleep. I got up around 7:30 and walked over to Joe's for breakfast. they had cooked bacon and eggs for everybody. Apparently I was late because everybody else had eaten and were doing other things. I sorted sheep with Dually and worked in the arena with him. HIs out in the big arena was much better than his out in the duck arena. I worked him 3 times on ducks today and he was horrible the first 2 times. Better the 3rd time after I had taken a nap. I worked Edge from the open handlers line on the sheep. He did fairly well. The sheep were very cooperative. . Then we all sat down and had drinks and snacks till Joe finished cooking us all dinner on the grille around 8. Barbecued chicken and lots of boiled shrimp and salad and lovely desserts. They are going above and beyond. Jan and Carol and Jamie and Donna are all leaving here tomorrow I guess. Roger and Kathy got here around 2 and Chuck is only going to the fairgrounds because he has a sick friend he had to visit in the hospital. Hot water heater worked again tonight.

Day 5 285 miles

Last nights campground was an absolute dump and if I could have gotten my money back I wouIld have asked for it. The bathroom was disgusting not just the shower and there was not a lick of tp. I decided to go to a truck stop instead this am. This campground was on a railway line and they kept coming all night and blowing their whistles because it was also an intersection. Not a lot of sleep. Can't wait to get into bed tonight. I made it to Flatonia Texas by about 1p and we just as I pulled into their road my check engine oil light came on. Pretty darn low. burning oil now? I see a new vehicle in my future. what fun. I am parked in Joe's pasture but I have elec and water and I can let the dogs out the door whenever I want to. heaven. I can't use the AC so hopefully I won't need it. The hot water heater worked tonight probably because I have and appt with Camping World on Fri. I was able to work Dually on the same ducks that they will have at the Nationals. We could not not not get them penned. I worked them twice today. I could have worked cattle and sheep but I am going to save them for tomorrow when I am more rested. Dinner tonight at a local restaurant and it was good. I had spare ribs and I have some leftover. Jan and Carol showed up with all their dogs and their friends Donna and Jamie. They talked about the damage to their trailer form avoiding the deer on the way here. It sounds scary. So glad it didn't happen to me because I am sure I would not have tried to swerve and would have just hit the thing.

Day 4 386 miles to Lousiana. I have no idea where I am

I am at a campground off of rt 10. Small campground, no frills really no frills. Barely anyplace to walk the dogs. I was too tired to go on. It was windy and hard to drive today. Lots of rt 10 is concrete and the bouncing is horrible. I spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get the camper fixed. I did not stop at the Camping World I had intended because they told me they could not help me.. They could have but I didn't explain it right so now I am going to try a Camping World in Texas. Hopefully on the day I am going to the fairgrounds so I dont' have to make an extra trip. I unhooked the trailer tonight and went to dinner at a suggested seafood place. I had the suggested gumbo. I would probably not have it again. But I bought some ice cream on the way home and a pecan praline which was to die for good. Tomorrow I will make it to Joe's and the dogs will get to run and work hopefully.

Day 3 all the way to Meridian MS 487 miles

I got an early start this morning. I was on the road by 7:20 but that was not all that smart because it was still dark and I worried a lot about deer. I didn't see any and I didn't hit any, but.... I was not going to drive this far but getting an early start made it easy. My plan was to stop at the Camping World tomorrow that is 200 miles from here. I called them and they were less than helpful. I am at a small campground that is not that nice but the owner was just as nice as could be. When I got off the exit I turned right because you could not go left and then I pulled over because there were no signs. A cop pulled up next to me and I told him I was looking for a campground and he said follow me so we u-turned and he brought me right to the campground. What a nice guy!! There is a small pond here and she said I could swim the dogs so I did. Then I had to wash them off because the water was pretty muddy. It turns out that the hose on the outside shower is too damn short. It was 86 when I got here so I turned on the AC and yay it works, but for how long? Everything that is broken now worked for a while and then not.

Day 2

Today I went 430 miles or so. from Carlisle Pa to Baileyton, Tn. Driving was good on 81 but the hills thru the mountains are killers. I got 7.9 miles to the gal. Yikes. I stopped every 2 hrs to either stop at a rest stop or at a gas station. Gas stations were easier to get in and out of down here because the truck stops are bigger. I finished one book on tape and started another. I'm at a nice campground and as soon as I took the dogs out Edge rolled in something disgusting. I let them go for a run before I used my outdoor shower and washed him. Worked great. Edge is also lame on the right front. I think it's his toe. Thank goodness it's not Dually. We found a little pond and they immeditely went swimming. That would not have been my choice but oh well. I used the oven to cook some potatoes and put a piece of fish in the frying pan and without the exhaust fan working, the smoke alarm went off and I could not get it to shut off. I had to open all the windows and wait for the smoke to dissipate. The oven worked fine though. Not that hard to light the pilot either although you can't see what you are doing . I did try calling a Camping World on the way down but they didn't have a full crew and could not help me. I am hoping to make it to another on Monday. It means I will not make it to Texas on Tues as planned. 400 more miles tomorrow and then Monday am 200 to the Camping World but I should still get there early because there is the time difference.

ASCA FINALS AND NATIONALS HERE WE COME READY OR NOT!!

Yesterday when I was supposed to leave it was a washout. Rain and wind and I just did not want to drive in it so I packed some more and cleaned some more and then Hadley picked me up and we went to the movies. We saw "The JUdge " AND IT was very good. Very Very good.. Go see it.. When I got up this morning, it was still raining and windy but by the time I left at 8:15, it just sprinkling and the wind had died down mostly. I found out right quick that my gas mileage was not even as good as with the other trialer. I am getting about 8.5 to the gal. which means I have to stop more often at gas stations which is what I was afraid of before I bought this monster trailer. The first station which was a Pilot,you would think would have enough room for a car and a trailer but it was tight. I had to back up part way in order to pull away from the pump and not take it out with me. The 2nd station was better but not in a good location to get on and off the highway. HOpefully things will get better from here. It was windy most of the day and I white knuckled a lot of the drive. There was a lot of construction and it's always hard getting out of New England because of the traffic. My first campground taught me something else. Make a reservation dummy because the snowbirds are flying down to Fla too. I had to drive another 50 miles so my total today was 384. And I got to the campground by 4:30 so I got set up in the daylight and I was able to walk the dogs in the light too. Funny thing, I met a couple with an aussie and it turns out they are from Lunenburg going to Texas although not to the Nationals. The dog came from Sandy Landry. Small world. I heated up some leftover soup for dinner and it turns out the fan over the stove doesn't work either. Add that to the list. And because the water inlet is in the rear of the trailer instead of the side I had to use my extension hose which is brand new and it had a hole in it. Thank you Ocean State job lot. I will have to buy another one soon. My little electric heater is on although, it seems a lot warmer down here and that is the idea. LOL Add this to the list. The On demand hot water heater stopped working in the middle of my shower . aghhhh

Dually training

I worked Dually on 2 sheep that didn't want to stay together. We worked on pushing them up to the far end of the arena and him taking my commands. He was good , he was really good . He had to push and hold and he did a good job. WE went in both directions and he had some trouble on the Away side but that is his bad side. The best thing he did which kind of amazed me, was when I was sorting, he did not come in and bust them up. Everytime I gave him a flank , I told him out too and he gave me beautiful sqare flanks. Who'd thunk that actually practicing something would actually be helpful? I am still coughing my brains out and my stomach is starting to hurt from coughing. Just the muscles. I had my lesson cancel today so I went to BJ's and got some matting to put in the trailer and cut it and put some in the bedroom. I have to wait to put it in the main part of the trailer when I can open it out, but it's not level so I can't open it. I also stopped in Home Depot and picked up a 3/4 inch socket that will allow me to do the scissor jacks on the trailer with my little drill. It will be quicker than doing it by hand. Also made a sign for the back of the trailer that says ASCA STOCDOG FINALS . Many people who pass me will be able to see it .

I have a cold

I almost never get sick but I have a crappy cold so I don't feel like doing much. Yesterday it rained most of the day and sometimes it came down hard so I watched tv most of the day. I did take Dually out between raindrops and we worked the sheep a little and then later that night I took out the magpies and we worked them but they were way to coopertive. They ran right in the center pen and that is what we need to work on finesse and so were unable to do that. I tried the Y chute too and that was not good. My timing on that is non existent. So while I was watching Tv and sitting around anyway, I got my taxes signed and sent out and paid a bunch of bills and then I put some DVD's of the Bakersfield 2009 Finals cattle in the DVD player and watched a number of runs. The dogs were not very impressive and the more trouble they made with the cows, the more the cows went after the dogs. Not looking forward to that , although Dually generally doesn't cowboy it up. Hopefully he will have enough push to get them moving and keep them moving. The cows were so handler sensitive that you had to stand 1/2 arena away to not affect them. It was hard at the center pen. Most of the runs were taking the full 10 minutes which makes it a long DVD to watch. If it started out well I kept watching it but if it started badly, I kept watching it too because it was like a train wreck and I couldn't stop myself.

Headstone markers

When Mikey died a few years ago, I went out and begged some scrap granite pieces from a local granite supplier. I bought a little dremel engraver and that is where I got stuck. I tried to find a diamond tip point and I did but I could not get it to fit in the dremel correctly. So with the death of Dare and Peaches, I started to rethink the markers. They have lovely graves with flowers planted and now they need markers. I ordered the correct point from Amazon and I got it last week but I could not find a screwdriver small enough to tighten the set screw until today. I played with the first piece of granite until I figured out how to write with the engraver. I was pressing too hard. Once I got it straight, I was able to whip off an engraved stone for Peaches. Dare's will take a little longer because I have more to say about him. s

HMM DAY 3

We started out yesterday with a decent cattle run. Had a little trouble with the cross drive but recovered and then got 2 threw the Y and had to finesse the 3rd. Ended up in 2nd place to Donna and Gel who got 123. But that gave us HIT aussie cattle pts. My duck run was just ok and we got a 99. I thought it was better than that but what do I know. My sheep run was killer till the cross drive but they were pushing back on him really hard so he blew in and scattered them and had to get them back and push them up there for panel 2. He did it and we went straight to the Y and got them threw. I got 3rd or 4th place. bah. Ended up with HIT Aussie for the day. We were on the road by 4:30 and home before dark. I went out to check the sheep and somehow I had locked them in a dry lot for the weekend so they had no food or water for almost 3 day.. Hmmm still can't remember why I would have put them back there and closed the gate. Anyway the ram lamb had his head stuck in the fence so I unstuck him and then I had to get the ewe that was outside the fence back in. She must have gone underneath somewhere. Only 1 was outside though. Sorry sheepies. I'm sure they spent the whole night grazing. t t

HMM DAY 2

Rain. surprise surprise Although it has been much worse in past years. It only rained this morning and it did come down fairly lightly , but it was cold too so it was kinda miserable and I was glad to have my trailer so close to the arenas. Today was course D and I really like Course D. It is more of a challenge and I like that the stock seems to be quieter and in more control when I am doing it. The cows actually one cow gave us a hard time today and as I was calling time the judge was too. When the cow started to go after Dually I thought that was enough. It was bad for all the dogs. My sheep run was pretty good until the pen when I had them lined up perfectly "again" and Dually busted in and we had sheep going every which way. He would not take his out but he did take his " back up" so that was good. We qualified with the lowest Q you can get an 88. His 2nd run today was ducks and we had a fast set of INdian Runners. Really nice take pen 10 pts. nice 1st panel 9 pts. 2nd panel the full 20 pts even though we only got 4 ducks thru, cross drive 7pts,obstacle 4 8pts and the free standing pen 20 pts so we ended up with 118 which was 1st place HIT ducks and HIT aussie. I just felt it was messy so I was very very surprised. I hope I get a better group of cows tomorrow.

HMM

Well I have a problem with the trailer, The heat does not work. It worked for the first few hours on Thurs night then I spent a cold night and borrowed a little electric heater. I had Pete look at it and he could not figure it out so yet another thing to stop at Camper World for on my way south. I did call the service dept and they could not help me much over the phone either. Dually had a good cattle run yesterday but when we went to pen them, I could not get him to out and we lost them a couple of times around the pen and ended up with 2nd place to a BC. His sheep run was the same damn thing. Good till the pen and then I went at him and outed him but he would not stay out far enough for me to get them in the pen so I closed it and we repenned. I think we got a 90 . HIs duck run, was sloppy . He seemed to be wired. We got them caught in the corner in front of panel 1 and had trouble getting them out quickly. We didn't keep them on a straight line on the crossdrive . Panel 2 was ok and the center pen was direct because the ducks wanted to go into it. call ducks yesterday. runners and khackis today. NO placements on ducks or sheep. The trial is full 3 judges and 150 runs a day. Today will be course D. The Q rate yesterday was not that great on Course B so today will be interesting.

The new Trailer

I've been so busy talking about burying dogs :-( that I haven't had time to update you on the new major purchase. I bought a 31 ft 2015 travel trailer in NH. I had them install an on demand water heater so I can take a hot shower longer than 5 minutes which is a huge deal for me. I get cold easily and warm up slowly and going to bed cold is not an option. I also had them give me a new mattress because the one included was pretty bad. I made them add on a battery operated electric tongue jack so I dont' have to manually jack this thing up. I like it. And new extended mirrors for the car and a new cam sway bar. Of course when they went to install the cams, they told me they would not go on the hitch that I had so I had to spend another 565 and get a new hitch. better safe than sorry. It pulled fine down from NH on Monday but when I got to Worcester on 290 I looked back to see water gushing out of the trailer from the bottom of course. The traffic was heavy so I kept driving. It stopped eventually but I got home in the dark and could not look at it till the next day which of course caused me to lose sleep that night worrying about what the heck was wrong. Turns out they had left the valves for the black and grey water tanks open and the main cap popped off so everything just emptied into the street. It was just clean water because the trailer is brand new. Whew. people driving behind me must have been freaked out though. I had lessons and a dr's appt yesterday and i had to get the registration transferred which I was worried about because the RMV can be such assholes. Anyway that turned out to be out to be no problem.So I could not stock the trailer and get it ready for a trip today so I am stocking today to get on the road to go to HMM which is only an hr away. I unwrapped the new bed and spread it out to fluff up and I started to stock the bathroom only to find there is no toilet paper holder and no towel bars. seems odd that they wouldn't have put those in. As I go thru the trailer I wonder what other surprises I will find. As I stock it I realize everything is really high for me so I need to get a step stool or something to be able to get into cupboards. the cupboards are not the best design. Hard to figure out where they expect you to put stuff. I will need some extra shelving material. All of the shelves could use another shelf in them. Some are high enough to fill will 2 litre bottles on top of each other which of course you can't because there is no shelf. I did get more into the outside storage area than I expected so that is good.

Peaches -the brightest star in the sky

Most of you probably know that Peaches and I went back to the vets on Fri am when I found her white and lethargic and the vet confirmed that she was bleeding internally. At her age there were no choices. We put her back in the car and I held her and she just went to sleep very peacefully and quickly. I took her home and buried her right next to Dare. And I went out and bought some more flowers for their grave. She was such a bright spirit and always so damn excited to see a new day or go out and play with her purple egg. She was an amazing little dog and I wish I had some of her enthusiasm for life. Peaches was the clean up crew here. If you dropped food or anything on the ground she would take care of it. If it wasn't food she would pick it up and hand it to me in exchange for a cookie. She cleaned all the dogs bowls every day and picked them up and brought them to the kitchen. When you lose a dog,you grieve, but she is the brightest star in the sky now and I can look up anytime and see her.

Peaches

Peaches and I went to the vet yesterday. She was up and happy and her normal self. Annie could not feel any large masses but we did bloodwork. Today Peaches is white and lethargic. I have not offered her food but feel sure she would not take it. I let her out and looked outside and she was just standing there and when I looked again she had sat down so I went out to get her and she is here in the living room lying on the floor just breathing. I am supposed to go get my new camper today and I would hate to leave her alone all day. Dying alone cannot be a good thing..

Working dogs

I have been working the dogs 1 or 2x day since the weekend. If I could just keep this up he dogs would be oh so good. Today I started Edge on inside flanks in the small pen and then I took him out to the duck arena and worked driving with inside flanks. Gosh he is quick. I also worked on flanks with no body language. That was a little harder for him. I worked Dually on his outs and a few backs again and then I worked a little on pace since he seems to have lost that. Tried to close up the trailer and could not get it closed. Do you think I could find a pry bar or a screwdriver anywhere? NOt on your life. I wanted to take the license plate off and no screwdriver. Might have to use a dime. I need it to go get the new trailer tomorrow. I'm leaving at 9 to get there early. My appt is at noon but the earlier i get there and get out , the less traffic I will run into. Tonight I am going to dinner at an old friends. Should be fun, I haven't seen them in a while.