Things have been happening some good , some not so much at all.
First our cat Splotchity lost her battle with Cancer on July 4 .
I was wanting to write a tribute for her, but my Printer is still down due to our Siamese cat chewing through the cable that connects it to the computer. I have some nice photographs of Splotchity that I wanted to scan for her tribute . But this " bad seed "
has caused me to put off her tribute until I get another connection cable.
I went to a sheepdog trial over fourth of July weekend.
I ran Spirit and Dream again. It has been hard to leave Bracken home , but I really need to put some trial mileage on them. Both dogs ran well, not well enough to place but well. Spirit had a nice go the first day but her sheep were being difficult and the set out could not hold them until spirit was able lift. They broke hard down the hill before she was even close to rounding the top for her lift. By the time she got hold of them we had lost all but three fetch points. While the sheep leaving not due to the dog gave me a 20/ 10 this did not help for the fetch. Loosing 17 points killed our chances of placing. In the end when in the shedding ring I was so irritated with the lead ewe and all her antics that I was driven to choosing her to shed off. While she managed to run out of the ring several times in the end with less than 30 seconds of time left I called Spirit in and she held that b**** ewe off the two lambs in good cutting horse fashion. She looked like her mom Deigh in how well she executed that shed. Even though my score was mediocre I was happy with the run. Dream had a great start to her run 20/10 18 and then as the sheep turned the post for the drive I had a contact lens Mal function! Not only distracting as hell but I could only see with one eye. Good bye to what ever limited depth perception I manage to have with the two eyes! Missed both drive gates and no shed.
Day two I had again a super run going with Spirit and when penning the sheep, just as they looked to be heading straight in the mouth of the pen the ewe wheeled around , split off the lambs and bolted for the exhaust. I was SO not ready for that ! It was hard work but Spirit did finally manage to break the ewe and we got the set of sheep back to the mouth of the pen, one lamb was walking in as time was called.
Dream had a very nice run Sunday but I could not set the sheep up in the ring for a shed. I either could get them to stop momentarily or they would be bolting this way or that. I hindsight I was trying for the " perfect " shed and I should have just made an attempt at a fly through shed as I saw some were getting calls and points for such work. I don't know what our score ended up but again I was happy with the work of both dogs. When I was walking off the field after my Sunday go with Spirit, the judge made a point of saying to me that he really liked my dog . I guess that should count for something .
Paul had started tackling the sheep barn that weekend and we finished it together when I got home. It is now spiffy and clean.
We also went to see the Moody Blues at Bethel Woods this past Saturday. It was awesome.
Bethel Woods is where Woodstock took place back in the 60's. It is just about 45 minutes drive for us. I can't tell you enough how beautiful the landscapes and architecture of the facility is. Really, really nice. The Moody Blues were great. Clean strong voices, crisp clean playing. What a great evening!
Paul put the support columns in for when we start this years hay. Last year we noticed part of the barn was sagging a bit from the weight of the hay so this should alleviate that worry.
I have gotten a lot more mowing done and waiting for the rains to green the pastures up some.
then we will start to tackle the hay, next dry spell.
Bracken had an accident last Friday night. There was a metal T post that did not have the "foot" part all the way in the ground that connected two cattle panels we put up to keep the sheep from getting into the hayfield. While the dogs and I were going through the panels she somehow managed to impale her self on the metal triangle foot. When she yelped I thought she had hit her shoulder and when I looked I did not see anything. She had actually hit it further back on her ribcage. I did not find this until the following morning when I noticed her side looked wet. I located a large triangle shaped gash . I clipped the hair away from it and have been cleaning it several times a day.I have some wound cleanser left over from when Deigh had her tumour removed. It should have been stitched and I would have, had I found it sooner. There is one plus to a smooth coated dog. All Bracken's hair had hidden this from me. It looks pretty ugly, though she seems okay otherwise.
well, that's about it for now.
I'll put my tribute up as soon as I get the scanner working again.
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