Late Update

Sorry ... I know ... I haven't updated this thing. First off, whoever got me hooked on FarmTown ... come here so I can smack you.

I have tons to update. There's some movement in the way of getting approval for the home loan. It's approved. I'm trying to work a few things out so I can get the house I'm looking at. It might not happen. I'm ok with that. I will keep looking.

Got some good pix from the 4th. Will edit them and update the blog after the trial this weekend.

Athena this weekend. Running Echo in pro-novice. Jaenne, Mark and I are going to bring my little trailer out and camp out. Highland games and all ... should be fun.

Found some work for Zip. Have a novice handler that is looking to get into herding, but doesn't want to add another dog to the pack, so she is going to borrow Zip for lessons. He will live with me, and will go to Janie's with us for lessons with his new handler. I am sure he will love that.

Anyway, I'm beat and need to get to bed. Colleen, I hope you're having a good time at the WMA and hope you have a safe trip home. I look forward to the pix.

Jodi

Surgical Removal

I'm sick of being sick. Caught a cold some time at the end of last week and am having a hell of a time shaking it. I really want to get back into working out, but my chest lights up as if on fire if I so much as sneeze. Sux.

Looked at another house tonight. I love it! It needs some work, but for $100K for almost two acres, you can't beat it. I think I will look a little more seriously at this one. I love the location. No neighbors! Right across the street from a wildlife preserve and a huge lake.

Worked Echo a bit tonight. We needed to move the sheep from one arena, though the pens and alleyways and stuff into the round pen for an instinct test. This is not a hard transition, however, it requires patience on the part of the dog, and you're putting the dog in very very tight spaces and asking it not to lose its head. This is something Zip and I have done a bazillion times and he does with his eyes closed and without ever riling up the sheep. Doing it with Echo, however, is a little more ... "fun" ...

Tonight, though, she was a pro. My voice never became more than a whisper. And next time I go down this alleyway, I am bringing a giant pair of shears! There's so much overgrowth there now, you almost don't know there's a walkway. Anyway, pushed the sheep down it, and we never crammed them up against the gate. Called Echo to me so I could open the gate without getting run over. This required her to plaster herself along the fence and most past the sheep. Did that very quietly. She held them off the gate while I opened it, and then I sent her blindly into the very narrow alleyway and she handled it perfectly. No popcorn. No slicing, no dicing, no lamb chops. Five sheep came calmly through the gate with a nice calm dog following behind. Trusting her more and more and really enjoying using her for stuff like this.

Had dinner with Janie and Kirk and made some plans for the weekend. Need to firm up what to BBQ and stuff.

Came home pretty late. Was just reading Facebook. What an odd place that is. There is some interesting stuff ... some funny stuff ... some pretty stupid stuff ... so you get quite a variety. What I have been noticing lately ... as far as sheepdog people ... there are open handlers whose success speaks for itself ... and then there are the wannabes who sit on the fence. They don't particularly have an opinion of their own, but instead agree with everyone. And they will comment just to put their name up there with the big hats (most of whom are several states away and she's never even met).

"Lipstick? Yes, I like lipstick. But only if you like it. If you don't like it, then I don't like it either. Red lipstick. Yes, red is good. Oh you don't like red? Me either. Pink is my favorite. You like pink? Yeah, me too. That's good."

Right down to their choice of where to get a puppy (not once stopping to consider that perhaps the dog is not the problem in the equation).

Some of these handlers better not stop too fast, because they'd have this fence-sitting wannabe so far up their ass, they would have to have her surgically removed.

Looking forward to a fun 4th of July weekend! And I can't help it, but I am getting excited about submitting an application for a home loan. I have my doubts about being able to swing it, but I can dream, can't I? If nothing else, I'm having a blast looking at the houses for sale.

Off to lala land, hoping that when I wake up, I feel better than ... what I have been lately.

(Hey Katy, I was going to write, "feel better than scattered ass" ... but decided to UD that term and this is what it says scattered ass is.)

Jodi

Horticulture & Costmetology

I'm sitting here listening to the t.v. and every station has the "SHOCKING" news about Michael Jackson's death. I think the only thing shocking about it is that they figured it out in the first place! Seriously ... what looked so different about him on Friday that looked more "dead" about him than say ... the last 10 years?

My neighbor has been out mowing his pasture for the last 3 hours now. Why? I don't have a clue. Apparently he doesn't like the look of the haircut the sheep are giving it.

My fingers are sore from picking cherries. I hope Janie wants like 20 pies. I have two giant bowls of cherries I am bringing to her. The cherry tree has two giant branches that literally just broke off from the main part of the tree. Besides the tree being old, and the wind blowing pretty good, I am sure the sheer weight of all the cherries helped. I don't understand why the squirrels and crows aren't all over that tree this year. I've never seen anything like this. I made a cherry cobbler the other night that was yummy. If I had a family, I might even buy a cherry pitter and make more stuff, but ... I just can't see myself eating that much cherry stuff. Besides ... I am on a diet!

No ... I am NOT posting the photo for all to see. It graces my desktop. I see it more often than I care to. And I may just take Darci's advice and put it on my fridge!

I did more dishes tonight than I thought I owned.

Kirk is fixing my trailer for me. Woo hoo! Earlier this year, the doorknob broke, so I went and bought a new one. It was a regular door knob, so it was relatively inexpensive as trailer parts go. When he replace it, though, there was a gap in the area where the door meets the trailer. Apparently he shimmed it up and reports that it worked well. Also ... the water pump in this trailer has never worked so long as I've owned it. I've been stumped. Well, Kirk looked at it, looked up the part number and gave me the item numbers to the stuff I need to buy, so I will go pick that stuff up tomorrow and bring it to him. I am SO glad everything in the trailer will work for the upcoming trials. Yahooie!

Also ... great news! My friend Mark said to pencil him in for the Athena trial! While he doesn't have a dog to compete with, he and I met at a fair, and the fairs and rodeos and stuff have kinda become our "thing." So add a Scottish fair to our list! That would be a hoot! Note to self: Bring air mattress for the back of the truck.

If I had the money, I'd probably enter Zip also, as arena trials are his forte. But I haven't been working him, and I need to stay on top of the finances right now. I'm about 2 weeks away from applying for a home loan. (I don't have much hope of getting it, but I am going to try ... what do I have to lose?)

So on my calendar today came up a little note about Sunday. Sunday is the approximate due date of a very closely "linebred" litter that, if born, you won't hear anything about for several months because the owner is quite a jokester and likes to pull stuff out of her hat like magic! The last time Shrub was bred to Hairspray, they had an amazing litter of ... one! I know people thought that the owner might have quietly culled the rest of the litter, I know it's because she's such a great breeder, she has these amazing powers that when she only wants one puppy, only one puppy appears. And this time around, she only wants one puppy again. I wonder if she will name it something really cool like Bush after its mom ... or maybe even Lice after its dad! The weird thing was, someone tried to convince me that Hairspray's pedigree appeared to be very similar to Shrub's ... so much so that it almost appeared that Hairspray was Shrub's father ... but I told them that's not possible. The registry must have made a registration mistake and I am sure that's all been worked out by now. So I wish my friend wasn't such a prankster and would post pictures of Weed/Grecian when she/he is born rather than waiting several months and then backdating the story of the pup's arrival! I know she only wants one pup, but I would love a litter of like 10! Could you imagine all the names we could come up with?

I just got done BBQ'ing dinner for ... myself! I don't think I've ever BBQ'd for one before! I grilled up the steak I got on sale the other day, and being that I am on a diet, I didn't make the 15 pounds of butter-soaked garlic bred I usually make to go with it, ate only 1/2 the baked potato with 16 teaspoons of butter. Instead of sour cream, I used low fat cottage cheese! Yum! Had a corn on the cob laying around, so threw that on there too, along with some asparagus in a tin foil packet with butter, salt & pepper. It was all very yummy.

I am sure I'll be wearing these jeans for a while longer.

Need to get my ass up early tomorrow and get out to the Leaf. We have a bit of yard work to do out there. It'll only be 87 degrees tomorrow, so we picked a good day. For the next week, it will be closer to 100. I hope I can make it through the next few weeks without breaking down and sticking that stupid swamp cooler in my window. The house stays pretty cool, so I should be okay.

Enjoy the weekend!
Jodi

I've decided ...

I am going to bust my fat ass and be down a pants size by Lacamas. That gives me about six weeks.

Oh that photo is horrible.

All Kinds of Stuff

I was looking through some photos for a friend of mine tonight when I ran across some very scary photos -- of myself.

So ... after I got home from the gym tonight! ... I went out and worked Echo on the stuff Dianne was teaching me yesterday. It's so nice to make some progress. Before this, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to fix Echo's lack of flanks (or very tight flanks) on the fetch. Now we are getting there. And the whistle is getting easier and easier to remember to put in my mouth because I hate the sound of my voice ... I can't imagine how Echo feels.

My calendar is getting pretty darned busy over the next couple of months. It looks like this:

July 4th weekend: Colleen is coming down and we're all going to get together and probably find some place to watch the fireworks, perhaps hit the drive-in movie theatre in Parma, etc.

July 11th & 12th - The Calendonia Games Trial in Athena, Oregon. Running Echo in pro-novice. My goal is a somewhat straight, controlled fetch -- straight through the fetch panels. If I get it, I'll be over the moon.

July 22 - Skar's puppies due.

July 24 - Canyon County Fair demo. A little fun trial where we will run a few dogs in probably some type of barrel pattern. Good practice.

July 25 & 26 - The Dizzy Duck Trial. This is the ranch course duck trial - not sanctioned - small cash payout depending on entries.

August 8 - Couch novice-novice trial (?)

August 13-16 - Lacamas SDT in Camas, WA. Running Echo in pro-novice.

August 29 & 30 - Western Idaho Fair trial. Running Echo in pro-novice.

September 22-27 - National Finals in Klammath Falls, OR. I am hoping to make it down to watch some. Would be perfect timing to pick up my Skar pup on the way home.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I would like to get approved for a home loan and buy a house -- or at the very least, rent a different one. Need to move out of this one and leave all the memories behind.

I am getting my trailer back on the road ... with a little help from my friends. :-) Janie's husband, Kirk, is fixing the doorknob that broke. I went out and bought a new one and he's making it work. He's also going to take a look at the water pump and hopefully get that going as well. I would love to have everything working for the trials. I just got it registered for this year (finally) so it's good to go wherever I feel like pulling it. What's nice about it is there's not much to it, so there's not much that can go wrong with it (knock on wood). I would like to buy a porta-potty and portable shower for it, though. That way, we don't have to worry about anything. (No, I don't have a mouse in my pocket. When I say "we" ... just talking about me and whoever happens to be staying in it with me at the time.) I will also stop at Cabela's and pick up an EZ-Up to replace my old one. I think they are on sale right now.

Well, that's all for now. I can hear a bee flying around my room. That's never good.

Happy tails,
Jodi

Thick skull

Loaded Echo Monster up, along with a 12-pack of Coronas and headed out to Janie's for a lesson with Dianne. At the trial, I couldn't get Echo to take her comebye flank on the fetch, so that was the object of the lesson.

I know Dianne has tried to teach this whole concept to me before and I wasn't getting it.

I think I got it.

Inside flanks are just the opposite of the outside flanks used on the fetch. It's easier to square up the insides, which will correct the outside. So ... with that in mind ... all on whistle ... drive drive drive, stop her, pick a side, call her towards me, when she turns -- flank her. If she cuts in, call her to me again to pull her head out and then flank her. Don't let her go all the way around. Flow back and forth in that arc. It will also loosen up her eye and she starts to flow more freely.

The very last thing she did before I called her off for the evening ... was a nice square comebye flank off the fetch.

Need to practice this a lot more.

I know I am not explaining this right, but these are basically my notes so I can look at it when I go out to work her tomorrow.

My head's about to hit my desk.

Thanks, Dianne, for your endless patience.

Good night.

Trial stuff

I posted the results and photos on the Stockdog Blog.

Fun trial! The hospitality was great, the weather was good and everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. The sheep were a bit tough, and it made for a really good challenge for the dogs, and gave both handler and dog some great experience.

First run, Echo had a nice outrun, took her down at the top (I think ... or at least slowed up enough for a proper lift), and then came the broken come bye flank. The sheep were drifting to my right, and I couldn't get Echo to take her come bye flank. But ... I kept trying to whistle it, corrected her, whistled it, corrected her, and while she finally took it when she got a lot closer to me, it still caused our entire fetch to be offline. Nice tight clockwise turn around the post, the driveaway was a little squirrely at first, straightened it out and then needed a big, wide come bye inside flank to turn the sheep to the right into the crossdrive. She took it! Nice and wide. I blew a down and she took that too! Woo hoo! So now we can just go merrily on our way into a crossdrive where she generally holds a line pretty good on her own. WRONG! She stressed out, and went and peed off near the fence, and lost her sheep. UGH! What did I do wrong? I'm sure 14,000 things. I was apparently not releasing the pressure ... probably with my body first and foremost, but I am also sure my whistles probably sound like constant yelling at her. So after she got done peeing, I sent her up to try to gather the sheep so we could exhaust them. I didn't want her quitting on her terms. The draw proved too strong as we were very near setout at that point, so I called her off. It's ok. I was very happy with it. We made tons of progress. Nothing went slicey dicey. She took the down at the top. The fetch, while offline, was not scary. She was working well off the whistles for the most part. And I kept the whistle in my mouth almost the whole time.

Second run, she had a very nice (very wide) outrun, although I think I overcompensated and pulled her up short so that we didn't have the come bye problem again. This time the sheep drifted off to my left. While we missed the center panel (again!), we got the fetch back online. Decent turn around the post, drive away was a little squirrely again, and I don't remember if we made the panel, as I was concerned about her taking my come bye whistle again on the draw. It was a little late and the sheep started to escape, and we went way off line, but she brought them back (right through the center panel! LOL), and we went to and got the pen. Overall probably pretty ugly to watch, but again, I whistled her most of the way through it, and I was very happy with the result.

Can't wait to do it again!

Maybe next time, I'll bring my camera to the post with me. Ha ha ha ha

Jodi