Florida

I packed up this morning and left the campground around 8:30.  Drove the camper over to Cheryls and drove in the locked gate which locked behind me.  I had to drive the camper in where  the horse was because that is the only place big enough to turn it around. Of course while I was doing that the horse escaped into the yard but I made sure the gate was closed before I did this. I drove the camper thru and then got out and thankfully easily caught the horse which also thankfully had a halter on and put him back in his yard.  Backed the camper up and parked in and off I went. 

Atlanta was easy at 9am and I drove almost straight down to Fla.. I stopped for gas once  and I got here at 3 and we went to see "the" house at 4.  This is my kind of house and property.  I like it a lot and will probably put an offer in on it. 

My friend Gale and I met for dinner at the Ocean buffet and the sushi was wonderful.  I should have just had sushi it was that good.  Back to the motel which does not smell like smoke and tried to turn on the tv, but they are having issues and so no tv for me.

We are going back for a 2nd look at the house tomorrow am.

Back to Fla tomorrow

There is too much snow in my  yard and it's too cold to go back home.  Next week I will go home I promise. 

Today I went to the Tellus science museum from about 11-2 and then I came home and crashed first on the recliner and then after 2 hrs I got in bed for another hr.  tired tired tired.    Got up and did laundry, made a disgusting stir fry and went out and bought some dog food.   I have got to learn how to make a good stir fry.

Now I am going to pack because I am not taking the trailer and will be staying in a motel I hope.

1st cattle run today

Dually would not take his flanks going into the take pen so I should have realized what was going to happen. We got them up thru the panel1  and the crossdrive was nice and then he would not take an away flank but took a go bye and turned them around inside the panel 2 so I had to bring them back again  and then he started to pick a fight with one of them.  I got him off that one and they started to come towards the chute , I needed a go bye and he would not take it fast enough to turn them  and then after that he simply would not take it.  I tried to get them back to the chute in the mean time he is fighting with the same cow and I have cows all over the arena. . I finally gave up and repenned them swearing at the cows and at him.  I guess the cows were fine but my dog was an asshole.  NOt a happy camper here.

The 2nd cattle run was better.  I made him go in and take the go bye, but he was compliant on that run. Some times he does what I ask and sometimes he does not. There is not telling when.

Both  duck runs were ok, both runs over 100. sheep runs were nice  and over 100.  One was a HIT.  today was a better day, but I was not happy with our runs.  They did not "feel" right.

Now I have to decide what I am going to do .  go home, go to Fla, visit some friend here.

Disastrous first day of trial

I know I am not supposed to complain about the livestock , but the cattle were feedlot weanlings and they had not idea how to move off a dog or a handler.  I could not get them past the adv handlers line the first time in and the 2 nd time I got them farther but not very.  2 nq's.   Not many did much better. There were no scores over 100 and no one got them in the center pen.  I hope that they are better tomorrow but I have my doubts.

Sheep run 1 was not too bad, but I crossed in front of the center pen and then vocalized it so the judge heard me.  I gave up on the center pen anyway because Dually would not OUT. 
2nd sheep run  was much better. He was listening from the start and I got some big OUTS.  Too big as a matter of fact.  He was off contact.  We skimmed 1 and made 3 and the center and I got my only score over 100 for the day.   a 104 and no placement.

I qu'd on ducks but no scores over 100.  I had trouble at the center pen both times .  It's a work in progress.  I hope tomorrow is better.

I took myself out to a local place for dinner and it was pretty horrible.  time for bed

Farm Trial day

5 out of 6 q's.  Dually got his AFTDc and 1 leg AFTDm.  Edge finished his OFTDcm and got 1 leg AFTDs  He was  little aggressive on the cows.  Gosh gotta remember to be careful when I say HIT because he takes no  prisoners.

They were both very good today.  Not good enough to win but good.  One of them won the mixed class but I can't remember which dog.  Update to come.

Cartersville, Ga

  I made it thru Atlanta without getting killed.   gosh I hate that road.  But when they slowed up for traffic it was much easier on me.  I did not care that we were going slow. Anyway, campground had my spot all ready for me but I did not level the trailer correctly so I am going to have to think about changing it tomorrow. 

Good news is the black water tank drained out fine after the tp treatment so I will be more careful.  I am parked  next to an  aussie friend who also has a Vest dog.  She is fun to be around so a good weekend is in store.

We went over and worked the cattle which are not dog broke but are baby weanlings so they       move off if the dog jumps at them.  I'm a little worried about keeping them together in small groups but at least the farm trial is tomorrow and we have a little more leeway with handling them for a day.  We also worked the sheep since they were borrowed. They are going to be a little light but fun. Edgie did a really nice job and so did Dually.

Tired of driving. good night

On the road again

Yesterday I got up and packed up the rest of my stuff , said good bye to Lee and drove up to Williston to meet the real estate agent. She had 2 properties to show me.  Just land now.  I have decided to try and build.  One property in Ocala I liked very much, but I looked at the satellite picture of it and it might be a sinkhole. OOPs.  I left about 1 pm to go to Georgia. I had a campground reserved which was a good idea and I got there about 6pm.  I thought about going out to dinner and decided it was just too much work to unhook and drive more.  So we ate in. They have a small enclosed dog yard and some other areas to walk the dogs.  Edgie is horrible on a leash.  He thinks nothing of pulling me off my feet.  He make a great sled dog.  So I am in Perry GA on my way to Carterville Ga and I am mentally gearing up to drive thru Atlanta.  I hate the 16 lanes.  It's a madhouse and the roadways are narrow and it's not fun to be driving with a trailer.

Catching up

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  It's been over a week I see.  The last post was when the hot water heater was working.  It stopped working again on Fri and I could not take it back to Camping World until Yesterday. They fixed it for free and this time it was sorta my problem.  I had mud daubers build a nest in the air intake tube and that stopped the water heater from working. They kindly cleaned it out and told me to a screen over that and the furnace exhause.  I did  both tonight.  I went over and tore a screen off the abandoned house and  bought some duct tape and Voila it's done.  I need to do the Fridge exhaust though.  It looks more involved.

I am leaving Fla tomorrow am.  I have a trial in Ga and then maybe home on Monday.  So today I emptied the black water tank and tried to rinse it and it's clogged with toilet paper that should have been rv proof. I ran over to Camping World and bought something that is supposed to break it up after a few days.  Lovely problem.  Everything is all picked up and packed and I have very little to do tomorrow am.

I went out to dinner tonight and  apparently sat in somebody's lipstick because my pants are pink and so is my car seat.   It came off the car seat ok but hope it comes off my jeans. 

So Gale has been here all week and we have gone to La Nouba, the Gypsy Vanner farm, and we did a zip line in Ocala.  In between we looked at farms with a realtor and we went out to eat a lot.  We found a great place for ice cream.  It's the Russel Stover outlet.  Bad bad place to be.   Candy candy everywhere.  I took Gale to the Great Oaks horse facility today for a short tour and we did a little in the Villages shops. Then she drove off to stay a couple of days at Daytona.

I have decided not to buy an already built house , but to buy land and build my own , the way I want it.  I have a list of Mls numbers to look up and I can't seem to get them to come up so I can't see what they look like. I would possibly go look at some land tomorrow am if I could pull some up. 

Well tonight , the coyotes came out to serenade me good bye and can hear what sounds like a Whipporwhil outside my window.  I am going to miss sleeping with the windows and doors open and seeing the moss hanging from the tree outside my bedroom.  I will miss  the green grass and the warm temperature that came this month. Really don't want to leave.

Hot WATer!

I hooked up the trailer yesterday morning and brought it over to Camping World and left it all day for them to see if they could fix the hot water heater.  They did but it was not covered by warranty, but who cares?  I have hot water again.  It's the little things in life that make me  happy.

So while the camper was being fixed I drove off to Morriston for an appt with a real estate agent.   She drove me around some properties for sale on her golf cart, but I didn't care for the ones that I could afford. They were narrow 10acre plots with no trees.  I want some old growth big trees on my property.. There was a lot with some great trees but it was almost double the price.

The we drove to a property that we knew was more than I wanted to pay, but I wanted to see it anyway and it was really nice..   10 acres with quite a few trees and a small cute house with an attached covered pool.  I didn't think I wanted a pool but  it would be great for the dogs.  Barn was not very big and not in very good shape.  That was a little bit north of Ocala and so we drove thru Ocala which is a nice town.  I thought the property would be too expensive for me but maybe not.

I have found a nice place to take the dogs biking at night that is virtually deserted.  So we went biking last night and I picked up a a movie "The Homesman".  I think it was good, but I am not quite sure.

I think I am going to work both dogs on sheep this am. Dually hasn't worked in a couple of weeks so it should be interesting.

Surprise!!

I found a good place to run the dogs tonight.  It's sort of a shopping center but mostly offices and so by 7pm everybody is gone and the place is easy to ride the bike with no interferences.  Beautiful night to ride too. cool and breeezy

So after I ran the pups I went over to Brownwood which is a division of TheVillages.  I was going for an ice cream cone which I got for an exhorbitant price.  But before I got there as I was driving , something fairly solid fell on my head. My first thought was a bat, but my hand went up there to brush  it off immediately and it felt a little cool and kind of slimy.   I turned a  light on and there was a lizard on the passenger seat.  I did not freak, but really do I every freak?  When I stopped the car he was still there so I picked him up with a tissue and relocated him.  Moral of the story is don't leave your car windows open. 

Edge

So Edge got to go to the vets yesterday too.  He was not lame but he was moving like a bulldog in front and that can't be normal.  The vet didn't think so either. So she did her magic which is a combo of chiro and muscle manipulation.  She started on his front end but soon moved to his rear.  She said he was overcompensating in front because his rear was all off.  Hopefully he is fixed now.  However , I have had to add him to the biking routine with Dually.  It's actually working out pretty good.  I have one dog on one side and one on the other and sometimes they actually stay there.  At least it's more balanced and I have less of a chance of them pulling me over.. Dually is pretty good at not pulling but Edge still needs some work. So twice a day I load them in the car and take them someplace that hopefully has few cars and his easy to bike on.  I have been going behind the shopping malls because not many cars go back there. I had to move out of the gym parking lot because it was just toobusy.

I have an appt for the water heater on Monday but in the meantime, not having hot water is getting old. The gym closed at 5 tonight so no shower for me today.  I can do it in the am I guess.

Today was just a warm breezy lovely day.  shorts and bathing suit top all day .  The breeze has died down tonight.  I just went out to put the sheep away and worked Edge for a few minutes..  I have to figure out where to go with him from here.

Talked to a real estate agent today and she sent a bunch of farm listings in central Fla.  Some of them are too much for me in terms of upkeep, but some might be doable.

I made the appt for the Zip line next week. Can't wait. should be fun.

Must be a nasty spirited ghost

I got up this morning and turned the heat on which worked fine and then I turned the hot water on but all I got was cold water. So I turned the heat off and tried again . Still no hot water. I turned the stove on to see if the heater had sucked all the propane to that motor and I needed to bring it back up to the front to the water heater. Still no hot water.  So I washed with cold water.  I'll bet it works later today and how am I going to figure that out?

On my way to the vets this morning hopefully for an xray and an explanation on Dually's continuing lameness.

Ok 2.5 hrs at the vets. She was very very thorough. She did not feel his problem was his front foot but the fact that is ribs were all out of place and his front leg would not release from his chest and his chest was all closed in. And his spine needed adjustments. She had to inject him with lidocaine to get the muscle in his chest to release after she worked on it for 45min.   I have to ice him and walk him and trot him only and he is on rymadyl for 12 days... no more playing and running with Edgie.  Sorry pups.  I'm going to take Edge in for her to look at too because his front end looks odd to me.

I got back to the trailer and checked all the fuses which were fine and then the hot water came on. geez

Dually

Ok he felt really good the day after his massage work and then the next day I let him run and he has been severely lame since then on his right front. It's very obvious now where it hurts.  I am not letting him do anything and he is being good about it so far, but that wont' last.   I have an appt with a vet on Monday and I will hopefully get an xray and  a plan. 

If I am not going to be able to work him for a while then the trial he is entered in at the end of the month  is not closed yet and I should be able to get some money back on it. I will still trial Edge but he is only entered in the farm trials.

This cold has been kicking my ass, but I feel normal today.  Congested but not sick if you know what I mean.   

I worked Edge a little bit..  He is widening out on his flanks very nicely.  I am trying to get him to rate better on the fetch.  I think I need to do more walk abouts which are BORING  and a lot of work for me and I am so lazy.

I made spaghetti squash and apple sausage for dinner and it was very good.   very very good.

I will probably go out to a movie tonight. If I go to the late movie , the theater will be fairly empty and that is how I like it. I'm awake enough to go to the late one.

Dually feels better?

I took Dually to a Massage therapist today and she worked on him for over an hr. She found that he was very tight and sore on the inside of his front left leg.  The muscles at the top like in his armpit.  She also found an old injury on a metatarsal that was swollen  and sore too.   I got him home and he immediately went in the trailer and just laid down. He didn't even come out when Edge and I went to put the sheep away and the door was open.  I also had a hard time getting him to eat dinner even though he didn't eat breakfast.

I woke up with a cold today. lucky me.

Lee showed up at 7 am and we  worked on the enclosure around the well so I dont' have to climb thru a bunch of barbed wire to turn it off and on.  We put up a wooden fence and a wooden gate.   very hapy with that. But it was so hot and it took us 2 hrs and I was wiped when we were done.  Course part of that is this cold.

good news today. Gail has decided to fly down and vist with me in a few weeks before I leave for home.  We are going to do some fun stuff.    can't wait.

will post when month is up and I have more data