Today's blog will be sort of in the same theme as that Seinfeld episode that went backwards from finish to start when they went to India for Suzanne Mishki's wedding.
Look at what the Farm Fairy left here this morning !
Yippee ! I can't wait to get cutting the pastures. Even with 45+ hungry mouths, it is not enough to keep up with the pastures . How can you possibly train your dogs when you can hardly make them out in the grass ???
I had my good friend Maggie staying with me the past two days while she ran her newish dog Midge in P/N at Sheepy Hollow Farm in Hop Bottom , PA. It was nice to catch up each evening and I got a chance to see
her pup Strike ( Rush and Flint's sister ) work a little.
For those who know me, they are well aware I have horrible luck with Campers. It is not as though I am careless or wreck less but seems misfortune likes to knock at my Camper door !
This past weekend was No exception. When I pulled into the dog trial Friday most of the good spots had been snatched up. I pulled (backed into ) a spot and had done the best I could to chock up the front of the camper. Due to the slope of the ground, the camper needed to be raised high in the front to get it off the truck, let alone make it even close to level front to back. As I raised it up off the truck the wood shifted . It was not stable enough to handle the weight in the wettish soft ground making the wood sink in uneven to the ground, leaning the Camper forward on the wood chocks.
So several good 'ol trial pals helped to jack it up and rearrange the wood better . Not a real big deal but still not an ideal start to the weekend ! Could have been better, sure could have been worse.
It was HOT , HOT , HOT. Day one I ended with a retire for Spirit. She had a rank draw of sheep and she really was not listening or could not hear . This trial field, though small in standard is notorious for dead spots and tricky sheep. What ever the excuse, with 80 something dogs going to the post I did not want to waste time on a run that was getting to the point of Spirit gripping. When she gave me a flank on her drive by blowing across and close to a grip I thanked the judge and walked . Not her day.
Dream had a okay run, but both she and Spirit gave me not one flank on the fetch. Not one! Her drive was in hand and I mis judged the second drive gate and missed them just high. Clean pen and ran short on time in the shedding ring I think, or we had a five point shed. I can't quite remember.
Day two was better. Spirit was second up to the post and ran well, had a good fetch going and just as we neared the fetch gate the sheep leaned just a bit to the left, I flanked the dog just a tad and they veered sharp to the right and cleanly went around them and back on line as Spirit covered them . Again the flat field was a curse and I turned short in front of the drive panel as my depth perception is just horrible on flat ground and again missed the second panel high. Being up second and the drive reversed I had no chance to study the drive line. I need to see several runs across to get my bearings in even the best of circumstance. Nice pen and time was called just as I called Spirit in on her shed. She had a nice clean shed and it was a shame it would not count.So, while we missed all the panels we had good lines for the most part and Spirit worked well. Just could not see where I was and cost us both drive panels and got bested on the fetch gate by Wiley sheep..
Dream had a super run going day two and I can't count how many times I shot myself in the foot on the drive. Nice Fetch, good turn clean first drive leg out At the first panel as we got close, the sheep leaned hard to the right and I flanked Dream over and covered it. I made the panel but I did not see I had gone just past the plane and made more of a mess and lopped off my points even though we made that panel. Nice drive across and then the dreaded dead spot, Dream flanked and brought them on line to the pen though not by my asking. It looked to me we were too far away from the second drive gate when she had flanked to bring them to me.and I worried of a cut course. I then struggled to flank her to push the sheep back to the panel and again the points slipped away. I was later told I was within a few feet of that darn panel. So I pretty much wiped away most of our drive points in my blindness. Clean pen and ten point shed finished the run. Another strange thing I did repeatedly was to send the dog the wrong way from behind the pen to the shedding ring ! I just could not seem to do it right but for my last run with Dream. I even was so bad that on Spirits run after her pen I flanked her the correct way only to second guess myself and stop her and send the wrong way. I don't know why I had such a mental block with that this past trial! Stupid , careless and costly in points!
Oh well Dream did run very well in spite of me!
After my runs I packed up and got ready to head home only to find that my slide out on the Camper would not slide in ! I fiddled with the switch and it was dead. I fiddled some more and it kicked in and managed to pull it half way in.
COME ON !!!!
Fiddled some more and it went in (or so I thought )
I said my good bye's and headed for home with Maggie following me.
As I pulled out of the farm and made my right turn onto the road , the slide came out the side of my camper much to my annoyance. I limped down the road to find a spot I could pull off and assess the situation. Again I fiddled with the switch and was able to get it to work long enough to pull it back inside.Thankfully I had some help from fellow trialist and a loaner or two tension bars to " lock " the slide in place so I could get home.
So the next day I called the RV repair shop to see about getting it to them to fix...yeah they are just SOOOOO busy that they could not even let me drop the camper off yesterday for them to look at over the next week or so < sigh >
I returned the tension bars back at Hop Bottom and ordered two from my local hardware store. I hope I can get this fixed in the next few weeks!
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