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.