perseverance

"Things are not always what they may seem, the first appearance deceives many"....

PERSEVERANCE: steady persistent course of action, a purpose, a state. Especially in spite of difficulties,obstacles or discouragement.

continuance in a state of grace to the end, leading to eternal salvation.

A limit on what you will do, puts a limit on what you can do.

V.I.P.

In July we had a V.I.P. (very impressive pedigree) dog stay here for about two weeks.

Amanda Milliken's Monty was on his way south to Barbara Ray so she could run him at the western trials as well as this years Nationals.
What a dilemma to have too many good dogs to run !
So, Monty stayed here till arraignment could be made to get him down to Barbara.

Monty is a full (but younger brother ) to Amanda's Roz and half brother to her Clive, though Clive and Monty's dam's are litter mates.
Monty is a son of Amanda's accomplished bitch Ethel and ## Star.

I have two young dogs off Clive who I have been very happy with .
I had planned on a repeat but with Monty heading this way I went with him.  It really is amazing how much he and my young Flint look alike.



Uncle Monty and Flint




all in the family
















Both Bracken (though several generations back) and Monty go back to Amanda's "heart" dog Hazel.
When you look at these dogs you can see a strong family resemblance.

Fast forward two months time.



female




male















Although  a disappointingly small litter, none the less precious.

Ten Years Gone

" changes fill my time, baby, that's alright with me.
In the midst I think of you, and how it used to be. " Led Zeppelin

Ten years ago today a horrific act fell to American soil.

The skyline of Manhattan NY would forever be altered.
Lives would be lost and others changed for ever.
 On this day ten years ago 19 terrorist of the militant group al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger jets and used them as missiles of destruction.
Two planes hit Manhattans World Trade Centers Twin Towers. Another hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Shankville, Pa due to the heroic efforts of passengers on that plane to take control from the terrorist.
 While we all have our own personal memories and stories of that day. For our family the Twin Towers were where it hit home for us.
My husband was in Manhattan when the planes hit. He was there and witnessed first hand what unfolded in the hours after. He as well as his brother were there to assist in the recovery of what was now known as
" Ground Zero".

" Kind of makes me feel sometimes, didn't have to grow.
But as the eagle leaves the nest, it's got so far to go."

On this day ten years ago 2977 people were lost. Innocent people.

Today, take a moment of your day to sit quietly and remember those who lost their lives, the hero's of flight 93, the countless people who spent months sifting through the debris to rescue survivors or  recover remains of victims, The SAR dogs and handlers, EMS, Firefighters , law enforcement personnel, countless volunteers . The never ending pain for the people who said goodbye to their loved ones only to never see them again.

" we are all eagles of one nest, the nest is in our soul."

22 years ago today

It really is hard to believe 22 years have passed since we said "I do". 
I guess there is some truth to the saying "time flies when your having fun!"

I do have breaking news! As of 5:30 last night we finished with getting our hay in !!! Yesterday we managed to get 562 bales off the last of the field. With the help of three boys, Cody,Joe , his brother Nick and some help from Rob's wife a powerhouse turbo charged Porche (I mean, if she was a car) Nola.
We put up about six wagons of hay in just a little over three hours.

Remember that empty loft I showed you a while back ?



please note the light bulb at top right of loft.



no room left in main loft , so started stacking in the side loft.

so , lets see...what else have I been up to you may be asking yourself ?
Well, the posts are set for the new pasture/horse turn out/young dog training field.

Still need to set the H braces and gates as well as the woven wire fence .

I've also been brush cutting.
Since we moved here I had a pasture roughly three acres on the east side of our property that was going wild. Blackberry and my Nemesis, Multi Floral Rose were getting a foothold in it. I had been a little leary of it because it was somewhat of a steep rolling field. I have a healthy respect for machinery and it's limitations. Rolling a tractor is just not that high on my list.
Yet it was really starting to irritate me to see land I could be using , but hell it was so overgrown I could not even get TO it .
So I said screw it, lets just try and see how far I can get. Now I will admit , I had a few "pucker" moments while I was reclaiming what is ours but in the end a huge satisfaction to have grabbed this land back from my prickly thorn encrusted Nemesis.



brush cut path to reclaimed pasture

Also finally got around to setting up the sheep handling equipment I bought last year!

We will have some tweaking and modifications to what we have set up right now, but as I mentioned to Paul at least we know how it goes together the next time!

  

Other than that, same old.

Had my friend Lori come up a few weeks ago to borrow some puppy sheep for her next hopeful, Anna. Same way bred as her Matt who she is doing so well with.

My friend Maggie was up Tuesday to visit and work her young dog Strike (litter mate to Rush and Flint) on out flock. I video taped her work sessions for her . Strike looked great.

So now, I need to get back to a little training of my own. Have been doing work but not managing to train. I am seeing that I have been letting some little things go, because I just want to get 'er done. Older dogs can be forgiving of this but I see a little slack in the younger ones. Got lot's of spaces and stock to mess about so will get back to sharpening up a little sloppy handling ! It is after all my fault , not the dogs.

Finally I'll leave you with a sunset from the other night. While having this farm causes me not to be able to get away often, there are so many times I think to myself  "now why would you want to ever leave" ?

hey (hay) there.....

Those of you who follow this blog may be wondering whats been going on here at the farm ?
Well, we have been struggling with getting hay off and put up for winter.

We started out haying on 7/20 just as a heat wave was cresting in our area. Great for drying hay , not so much for those of us putting it up in the barn! It was up in the hundreds outside

Inside the barn offered little relief if any. Just as hot, no wind to at least wick off the sweat .

The first day we managed  280 bales in

Day two we got  an additional 534 bales put up.

Then the weather just would not cooperate and was threatening to, or delivering rain so we were not able to cut and bale again until the 26th.
At least the weather broke (well sort of, it was in the 90's now instead of  100's) and more hay was cut

At the start of this cut we were to have at least three days of sunshine. Then Mother Natured thought she would have some fun and give me an Atomic Wedgie  . 

We managed to get 120 bales put up off the smaller field but the other section of the large field was still just two damp. Rob baled a turn or two and brought it home to be fed straight up to Nola's horses.

Day three was looking to rain in the afternoon and in an act of despair Rob handed me the reins over to his tractor and I worked at getting the hay rolled over and dry while he was at his day job. 

I took 'ol Betty Ford (that is the name of the tractor) around twice that day and got the hay good and dry.

We would have pulled it off too, had we not had an equipment break during baling. All that effort only to have the tongue break between the baler and the hay wagon!

We got 80 bales put up that were in the wagon and Rob raced home to weld the piece back together. Then the rain came. For about 30 minutes it just poured . Why I could almost hear Mother Nature cackling with laughter over the thunder. The witch.

We lost a good three ton of hay that was left out there.

Rob came back with the newly welded part and a rainbow arching over the hay  field as we were hooking things back up.

Ha Ha Mother Nature, your so funny. NOT!

Rob cut more hay on 7/30  and we sold it straight off the field to Nola, managed about 385 bales that cut.

We were going to cut today but again the weather did not pan out, nor does it look good till early next week.

So we have this stacked in the barn, just around 1000 bales

and guessing there is around 500 or  more out there waiting.

In addition to haying we are working on a fencing project. Paul has all the corner posts sunk and part of one fence line the posts are set.

I have not done any training per say with the dogs , but have been pairing up one young dog with one of the older dogs to bring sheep out to E net and again to bring them back to overnight pasture. So other than a little guidance from me they have been just working and figuring things out on their own.It has been a nice break for me too. I also find it interesting to look at the different pairings of dogs and how the work together to get the job done.

water world

Do you remember months ago I had wondered what Mother Nature might have planned for our summer? Well, seems she still have a bug up her rear end.

The weather has been all over the charts. Crazy down draft winds, heat , humidity, unusually cool.

Rain...did I mention the rain?

Not just showers but man when it rain's it pours. 5 inches in a few hours type rains. Washing roads out, digging deep crevasses out of  roadside runoff ditches...flooding low lands.

We had a storm this past Friday that dumped about four inches of rain in just a few hours .



sheep pasture



sheep pasture

This also has been problematic for getting hay up. Our hay is still not cut and has yet to be. So sad really as it was looking so good and now is past and gone to seed. There is new growth coming up but the yield will be less than if it was cut back in early June.

I also am itching to have this big field back for training! Seems when I need it the most I can't get on it.

I managed to get to some trials this year. Thrilled to say I got one of my young dogs qualified for Nursery at our National Finals. It had been a goal of mine to achieve this . Both are running pretty well and the other pup ran fine but was just edged out of qualifying. If three were to get a leg he was fourth . If it were four , he was fifth. The crop of Nursery dogs here in my area is pretty nice so it was not easy to get a dog in. I am thrilled that these two, just turned two at end of May are able to run as well as they are.

Dream even managed a few placements in Open with a good healthy numbers in the 70 and 80 dogs entered to run against.

I found running at trials four weekends in a row a bit taxing. I also found my timing got better and I was reading the sheep and adjusting the dogs better. Not perfect by a long shot. Interesting at end of day to talk about runs and gathering different perspective on how one handled things. I thinking one way (wrong choice!) and having a friend explain to me how I should have went about it another way. Of course I wished I had figured it out at the time of the run but that is how it goes!

So I'll be home for a while now. Hopefully putting hay up, working on finishing a fencing project and enjoying my little slice of heaven.



catch a wave

" Catch a wave and you'll be sittin' on top of the world " - Beach Boys

Since I grew up on the shore and swimming was a important part of summer activities as a child, I liken body surfing (no, never tried surfing with a board as I am much to spastic to know I could never stand erect on a surfboard long enough to even entertain riding a wave) ocean waves to competing in sheepdog trials.

As a child there was nothing grander than hitting that sand at a full run , feeling its warmth squishing though your toes as you gazed at the waves you soon would be swimming in. The ever quest to catch that "perfect" wave that picked you up and carried you all the way to the shoreline and gently slipped away from under you , leaving you full of exhilaration. Up you got and back out looking for the next best wave.
Over and over again you would see a wave and start swimming as hard as you could to the shoreline.
Hoped you timed it just right to catch that wave .
Many many times your timing was just slightly off, or the wave was not a good one to give it a go.
It either grabbed you and hurled you forward as you struggled to keep with it and stay on top,  If you stayed with it , you were thrown down on the shore and you quickly got up to your feet so it did not drag you back out and allow the next wave to crash on top of you and beat you up.
Or a wave that started out brilliant only to peter out half way and leave you bobbing or the worse case, it ferociously crashed on top of you, grinding you down to the ocean floor. There you would be rolled , spun, scraped , dragged across the bottom thinking you may drown. You were spit out on the shore, a bit disoriented. Maybe even a little embarrassed as the people standing at the shore line were certain to see you washed up .

After a moment of regrouping, heading out a little deeper into the water to discreetly remove the ten pounds of sand that were now located in the crotch of your bathing suit , you headed back out to deeper waters...because you knew in your heart of hearts that there would be another great wave to catch.

Even if you were there all day and there was not one good wave, you left feeling it was worth it and the next time the waves just may be better. Sometimes the waves may have been very rough and you were a fool to have gone out there swimming, leaving you just a bit tentative about getting out there again.

But again you did go. Once you got over the initial shock of the water and were again looking for that perfect wave, you had all but forgotten about a bad go out there.

When you catch that wave (or have a good run at a sheepdog trial) there in no better feeling. When things don't go as you had wished and the wave eludes you  or beats the crap out of you, you still need to keep heading out into deep water. For me at least quitting is not an option.
That is the only place you can take a chance on the "perfect" wave.
Standing on the shore with the water gently lapping your calves will only cheat you of the pure enjoyment of trying to master something that is not ever completely in your control.
Good waves , perfect timing and a little luck is where it's at.

When you hit the wave just right it will stay with you a lifetime , you will forever be on the quest for the next perfect wave .