Tuesday, May 27, 2008

What a difference a month makes

Our front yard late last month...


Our front yard today...



Buster approves












Thursday, May 22, 2008

Travis saves the day!

Tell and I went out to sheep and moved their nets around this afternoon. We spent a couple of hours out there in the rain, moving the nets, cutting down little trees in the way, shifting the sheep around. By the end of it we were both soaked. So, off he went to his cozy dog house, and off I went to my cozy human house. I was all set for a cup of tea, and a little internet surfing.
Odd thing was, there was no internet. We've got wireless high speed so I blamed the dish, the weather, the router, the provider.
I phoned Travis who suggested that I do "something else" for a change. I had just spent the afternoon doing "something else"! Probably the first stages of withdrawal were showing...
So, when he got home he checked things out and then called MCSnet when he couldn't get things working. Among other things they suggested that there might be a problem with the line going into the house. I took a peak outside...

SABOTAGE!!

The line was definitely at fault and I have pretty good idea whodunit.

Nope. not guilty at all.

MCSNet said they'd be out maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday. Apparently the look on my face was too much for Travis. He said he'd see what he could do.

My Hero!

You're reading this, so you know he managed to patch things up. Handsome AND handy!


Monday, May 12, 2008

My other new set of wheels

From what I understand, the most common way to exercise sheepdogs is to run them with quads. Very effective I'm sure. We don't have a quad. Our neighbour who very kindly lets us use his trails is not too keen on quads either.
So, I have come up with an alternative means of conditioning the dogs.

Meet the Alpha Dawg.

It runs with a 3 dog power engine.

We leave paw prints instead of a carbon footprint.


And it sure beats walking the dogs!






Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Field trip

Some would probably say that I've gone about things a bit backwards. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. I got a border collie and sheep so that I could trial. This weekend I went to watch my very first field trial to see what it was all about...
Tell and I headed to the deep south (compared to Athabasca, Okotoks IS the deep south!) and spent a couple of days at Louanne Twa's. Louanne gave me some much appreciated help with Tell and I had a great time hanging out with her and her dogs. For his part, Tell seemed thrilled to death to be hanging out with Border Collies for a change - I guess they all speak with the same accent or something.

A meeting of minds.

This is Louanne and her Lowline cattle. Notice that they aren't much bigger than her sheep. Very cool - as is Louanne's striking pose for this picture!

On to the main event. I went to my first trial...and...I loved it. Phew! Imagine if I had decided it wasn't for me. Try explaining THAT to Travis...

Louanne and Isla bringing the sheep around the post.

So, now that I've been to my first trial I see that I don't have to be quite as hard on myself as I have been - even the experienced guys get their flanks mixed up occasionally, and that I have a LONG way to go - the double lift and international shed are CRAZY HARD. Something to shoot for.

Amanda Milliken and Clive at the pen.


Louanne's pup Risk learning how a sheepdog should behave.