well I ain't "raining men" but...HALLELUJAH none the less

Okay so my reference to this song dates me as well as admitting grooving to the tune during the "bar" days of my youth. 
Yeah I've always been kind of a rock and roll girl but will admit to liking many of the dance disco tunes of my time.
Okay there , I've said it!

Anyway it was been raining at a steady pace since this morning , already two inches of rain in the rain gage. It has been MANY weeks since I have seen this in the main sheep field...torrents of water running down the hill.

The sheep don't seem to care and to be honest I did not let them out to graze today. That hill is steep and I was wet from the morning chores. The lure of my morning coffee was just too strong for me to override and slog down and back up that hill.

So not much going on today . Dogs are bored  with housebound activity.

At some point if the rain gets a bit less torrential I'll get them out on a good walk and then to the kennels in the garage.I really need to run a vacuum through the house and it's just easier without the Borders inside while trying to negotiate the machine around them.

I got all five worked yesterday and did some flank training on the youngsters. Dream and Spirit I worked on shedding. Bracken I used to gather sheep that were set in different locations on the property when done with the other dogs works. She had to gather  the training sheep in the hay field, bring them into a smaller field, turn back and gather the sheep I did not use that were out of sight in another field , join them all up.Them drive all of them to the electronet in the back pastures.
I used the far side hayfield yesterday  for the youngsters to lessen some of the pressures .

I feel they are still struggling with the flank command without a little help from me on drive out and across.

Even with saying this I was able to get some clean perfect flanks on a drive away as well as across .
Better, surely better.

I also wanted to test a bigger outrun on each and was happy to see them running out with good cast both ways. As I walked up to the sheep while they were running out I was thrilled to see them hit the sweet spot and thoughtfully engage the sheep to start them to me. 
Fetching sheep to me they are much more solid on flanks. I can stand still and am able to get them left or right  fairly easy. So I know they have a concept of what I am asking.

I like both young dogs. They are so similar yet so different in their work.
I want to push forward but there is a little voice that keeps tickling the back of my mind that says
 "steady girl. Take yer time. "
So far I have been good and listened, yet when you see and read about dogs the same age running at Nursery level it fools with your head some. I keep reminding myself the handlers that have dogs at that level with a 16 month pup,  have trained WAY more dogs than me.
I still am learning to train a dog correctly and in doing so I need to go slower and be more thoughtful in my training program since it is not second nature for me.
There has also been great lag time between young dogs and so this also impedes my progress a bit.
I have nothing fresh in my mind of the last ones I have trained.
Did they do this? Were they hard to teach that? 

I am the tortoise in envy of the hare...
I just hope my fairytale ends the same as the classic Aesop fable

" Rainy days and Mondays "....

Well you most likely know how that song goes. Can't say I'm sharing the rest of the sentence.
We REALLY need the rain here and am glad it is damp and misty today. We are expecting some good rain over night and am looking forward to be able to listen to it hitting the metal on the barn roof while the weather is still mild enough to have the windows open.


This past week was the USBCHA National Sheepdog Finals.  It was blistering hot down there  ( here too )and felt so sorry for all suffering in mid day draws. It was up in the mid and high 90'S for the preliminary and semi final running of Open as well as high 80's early in the week for the young Nursery dogs.
I got not much done as fellow sheepdogger Heather Nadelman was faithfully  "tweeting" the runs as they were unfolding.
For the Semi and Double Lift Finals we had a web pod running. What a treat, as this year due to some unforeseen financial setbacks I was unable to make it to the Finals.


Patrick Shannahan with Riggs is this years National Champion. Well deserved and beautiful run .
My hat goes off to Wendy Schmaltz and Gin for an edge of your seat finish, penning the sheep and completing their run with seconds to spare! Grabbing the fourth position in the final seventeen left in the double lift.
Gin was also crowned Overall Stock Dog for placing in both the Cattledog and Sheepdog Finals this year.
Tommy Wilson and Sly were as spectacular as ever. Gaining Res. Champion.
Lori Cunningham and her not yet three year old dog Matt finishing at a  respectable tenth place .

My friend and neighbor Nola Keill , meanwhile was down in Georgia at the National Paso Fino Finals  kicking serious butt. Her spectacular paint stallion "Calif " won "high point specialty horse" honors and  both will be turning and burning off to Kentucky to showcase the Paso Fino breed at the World Equestrian Games next week!

(Meanwhile back at the ranch...)
I have been working the two youngsters on taking sheep out and back to the far pastures for grazing. This is more just letting them work the flock than me asking for specifics. All that is asked is they gather the sheep calmly, take a stop correctly when asked and to stay behind the sheep to bring them to grazing.
It is not true driving as the sheep want to go where we are taking them and they really are just following rather than pushing them.
Still it is an easy stress free way for them to understand the POINT of taking  ( driving ) sheep away from me.

Flint  (just say the word)

Rush

Both are doing a fine job and are becoming useful partners in daily chores.
We are still working on becoming more reliable on correct flanks for off balance and inside but these little works that don't require much tweaking or exactness break up the lessons and give a break to all in some of the stresses that go along with learning, and teaching for that matter!

natures bounty

Summer is winding down quickly . The weather has a hint of what is to come but still all and all it has been lovely. After last summer I never ever thought I would look forward to some good rainy days. We are in draught conditions up here. Wayne county is not as severe as our surrounding neighbor counties but it has been really dry and lacking rain this summer.

Last week we had a weather system blow just North of us. It closely missed us.

It came so close, that I was able to get a few photographs as it roared by. We had just a sprinkle and a little breeze from it, but of the places it crossed over had 1 1/2 inch hail and 60 + mph winds.

It sure looked like a tornado brewing to me as it slipped North of our farm.

our garden is winding down but was a pretty good producer this year.

I planted all Heirloom varieties of Tomatoes this year and had a bumper crop of them.

There are still a quite a few left on the vines, though the plants are

looking tired and weary .

our corn is ready and ripe, though not as good as we hoped. I think it was too cool to start and then too hot.

the pumpkins are coming along and I have a few nice sized ones in the patch.

cucumbers are done but we had a bumper crop of them too.

The wild blackberries and raspberries were out of this world this summer. So good to eat off the brambles and the yield was incredible.

So what does one do with all of Natures Bounty before the snow starts flying?

What ever one (eh hem ) CAN .

We had a visit from Ron, the guy who taps our Maple trees for syrup.

 He dropped off several bottles of syrup, maple candy , teas and assorted other goodies as well as a check for the use of our trees.

Now how cool is that?

Got a barn full of hay , though less than last year. I'm sure this year is more the average take off the hayfield than last years glut.

Got the hair ram in with some girls and in a few weeks I'll expose some of the Wool sheep to the Rams. I think I'll use both this year. A little of this, a little of that.

I hope to have a trial here sometime next fall so need to build up the flock for it.

Been training the dogs and all are doing well.

My two young ones are coming along. I have been raising the bar a bit with them. Asking them to be more accountable to the correct flanks without my making it terrible easy or obvious what direction to go as well as off balance and inside flanks. Always a tough time for most young dogs as it takes quite a bit of mental stress for them to work it out. I can't say they are rocket scientist's but I like how they are handling the pressure and working through it. Each gets better and more reliable to take the correct flank each training session. I will rest the little brains with just plain chore type work or easy simple sessions every few works. I find for me it keeps them fresh and helps at keep building on  a good relationship.

It is hard on me and the dogs when working through the learning of new things and the ultimate confusion that comes with it.

Paul and I finally got a section of Electronet up in the back pastures. It kills me that the sheep would walk through knee deep lush pasture to escape through the failing fence line, sneaking into the hay field. So now they are unable to get out. Confined by four sections of fence to eat knee deep lush grass...awe the poor beasts.

This will be a great training tool for the two youngsters, though. Gathering the flock out of the home pasture and pushing them to the back section. Same to bring them in at night. May help them to relate the flanks I ask for with the work that will be needed.

I'll let you know how it works out....

In loving memory of Kilt

Today marks the Birthday of my first Border Collie "Kilt" .

He was born on 9/12/93 on a farm in PA. Well to be honest he was whelped in upstate NY and when the litter was old enough to go to their new homes they were brought to the PA farm.  I had always wanted a Border Collie. From when and what age , I can't remember exactly. I had lost my previous dog just a few months prior to Cancer. Ironically Kilts parents had bred the day my dog Raven had passed away. I always wonder about things falling together in such ways.

He was always busy and getting into things, always thinking.
I had a crate set up in our kitchen. He had a nice dog bed in it, but he had chewed away a corner and so I had taken it out and put it up on top of the crate until he was a little older and more trustworthy. Our Siamese cats enjoyed the dog bed where it had been located. Nice and comfy with a lovely view of the side yard. I happened into the kitchen and found the three cats in their usual spot, but to my surprise Kilt had climbed up on the chair and then joined them on the dog bed! I was so happy I had a camera on top of the refrigerator and quickly took the shot.

Kilt was I think the smartest dog I have ever known. Housebroken at about 10 or 12 weeks old. Learned his basic commands faster than I could give them.

He knew all of his toys by name and there were well over a dozen for him to pick.We used to hide them about the house and then ask for them by name. He always found them and brought the correct item we requested.

At the time I got him I was interested in competing in Obedience. I felt that living where I did at the time , herding sheep was not really an option.

Kilt did very well in Obedience but when he was a pup of about seven months old , I took him back up to PA and went to a clinic. Kilt was "keen" to say the least. I was hooked on the complicated dance of human, dog and sheep. I wanted the challenge . I started taking herding lessons when Kilt was a little over a year old. He had already had several Obedience Titles and to be honest we were both bored with it.

The next thing I knew I had sheep at home and started off on my journey into the sheepdog world.

I never looked back, nor have a regret to my choice. I have Kilt to thank for every thing that has changed due to that first sheepdog. Sheepdog trials, sheep, a move to a 54 acre farm in PA, each dog that has come after him is all BECAUSE of him. I can't ever thank that dog enough for the changes he has brought to our lives.

I was at one time very involved with horses, showing them. I still was riding and training when I first got Kilt but the shift was permanent. Where I once looked at and open pasture and would think "wow, would I love to open a horse up on that"...was now  "Oh man, What a huge outrun you could do out there, what a great place to work a dog".

While Kilt and I never amounted to much on the trial field , he was a good dog. Just not the stuff for sheepdog trials. As time went and I came to realise/accept this he still taught me so much about dogs, handling and training.
Never, ever to be coined and "easy" dog he was a dog that was ahead of my time.

Had he come to me now I know things would have been better for both of us.

As he aged and I had other dogs to work and train he became my husband Paul's farm dog. He helped Paul with the chores when I was off training or at a trial.

He was keen to work right to the end. I still remember several weeks before he left us , I was starting one of my young dogs out in a bigger area. Somehow, while we were out there I saw out of the corner of my eye a black and white blur squeeze through the gate and join the pup in the balance exercise. The two of them out there keeping sheep to me, the sheep not too thrilled about two dogs on them.

I yelled to my husband to call Kilt.

 He yelled back "Just tell him to lie down!"

I responded "That dog never took one stop his whole life, what makes you think he's gonna start now!"

Good old Kilt. We mourn your passing to this day but celebrate the life and love you gave us.

That'll do , That'll do

we shall never forget

The World Trade Center as it was before the fateful day of 9 / 11

I took these photographs while taking the famous Circle Line boat cruise around Manhattan.

At the time we lived about 50 miles from Manhattan.I never really was a fan of the "city" life. Paul worked there and he really loved it. So we went in for the day and did all the touristy things one does when visiting a city.
I always was intrigued by the "Twin Towers". The simple yet powerful architectural statement they gave. Their huge size as they rose above all the other buildings surrounding them.  While I think the Chrysler building and Empire State building might be more beautiful , there just was something about these two buildings that captured my interest.


The day of the attacks I will have permanently seared into memory.
Too young for John or Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Kent State to have had any sort of personal impact .

The day was spectacular. A calm , bright day. The sky was cobalt blue and not one cloud dotted the horizon. The air was a perfect mid 70's, the wind almost non existent.

As I sat that morning with a cup of coffee and the TV on catching the morning news, the first plane hit. In the beginning as they reported on it they really had no idea what had happened. A bomb? It was then confirmed a plane had struck one of the towers.

I called my husband to ask him if he was okay. He worked a few blocks away and said that he had felt his building shake but was unaware of what had happened.
I had told him a plane had hit one of the towers and while speaking to him I watched in horror as the second plane approached and plowed into the second building.
NO ACCIDENT!

My husband then said he needed to go down there, as he is in law enforcement .

Sometime later he called me and told me of the horrific scene that was unfolding.
As we spoke , I heard him scream into the phone  "Holy S*** ! " and I saw on TV the tower collapsing.
His phone went dead and I could not contact him .

Hours went by and I sat mesmerized in front of the TV, not knowing if my husband was alive, hurt or worse.

I finally heard from him later that night. When he finally made it home, his suit he was wearing that was a dark gray was covered in a light gray dust, his car that was black was now covered in this light gray dust.

For many months he as well as his Brother who is a firefighter worked at what was now being called "Ground Zero " helping to recover victims.

Though we lived 50 miles away, you could see the smoke and it had a smell  that had and electrical sort of scent. As the weeks past and the twisted pile continued to smolder,  when the wind blew west you could always catch the scent on the wind.

One of the things that stands strong in my memory of that day and the days to follow was the silence.
At that time we lived in a populated area. You soon get used to the noise that goes with it.
There were no planes flying overhead , no trains traveling in the distance, no road noise to speak of....just silence other than the birds and wind.

 I can still remember driving over the George Washington Bridge as I headed out of town and looked to my left to see the smoke rising from where the towers that I so admired once stood.

As the years past and I had occasion to drive out of town, I always looked to my left as I crossed the bridges. Subconsciously seeking the towers. I always said a prayer  for the lives lost as I looked across to my left, the landscape of Manhattan forever changed from what I had always known.

Today I have my American Flag hanging to pay tribute to the victims of that day.
No, I know I will never forget.