Wonowon

Indian name for "whole lot of trees"?

Nope, sort of english for a "town"at mile 101.

Such imagination, but it is easy to remember where you live...

The truck dog.

Mile zero

The Dawson Creek trial is over.congratulations to lee lumb for her double lift win today. As usual at this trial we had great sheep, great views, a great supper,and great fun.hope and kate both ran well, with hope placing top half both days and kate bringing home a second and third place cheque.
Tomorrow we're off to pink mountain for more adventures and trials. Today I dragged travis and suzie to mile zero to have their tourist shot taken.

Chapter Three - Stampede

This year marked Hope's third and Kate's first Calgary Stampede. 

Day one Hope was a good boy and penned. 

Maybe the excitement got to her, or maybe she thought she'd go for a different kind of buckle (Bareback), because near the end of a really good run Kate decided to grip off in dramatic fashion, attaching herself to a ewe who had the nerve to look at her funny and then riding her for a full 8 seconds down the length of the arena.  The set out crew voted her Best....Grip...Ever. Atta girl Kate - go big or go home.


Both Hope and Kate ran in the morning so I had the pleasure of watching stress free that evening during the second go of the first round. The watching became even more stress free when Chris Jobe whispered in my ear "if you trust me you'll follow me" and I wound up here.

The Ewe Box - strike "hang out in a luxury box" off my bucket list.

Day Two Kate slept on it and penned and was in the money. Good girl - you can come back to Stampede. 


Hope had a set that just wouldn't pen, but his chute time was good enough...to make it into finals. When the guy serving at the lunch buffet asked me how my day was - the answer was "Fan Freakin Tastic!" - not the answer most servers are used to apparently, but he seemed to like my response. 


We spent the afternoon hunting cowboys at the rodeo.

The rodeo was the perfect blend of sun and mud and most of the bull riders stayed on for 8 seconds. They must have taken Kate's "hang on for dear life" clinic the day before.


That night Hope and I lead the pack out into the saddle dome

 and ran under the jumbo tron. 

As I mentioned a few days ago, I DID see the pot of gold and almost got to touch it.  Good times! Congratulations to Dale Montgomery the 2011 World Stock Dog Champion and to Dave Claypool the Reserve Champion. 

Thanks to Kristi Oikawa, Sarah Novak, Chris Jobe and Len the security guy for the great pictures!

Chapter Two - The field trial.

The Wild Rose Stock Dog Trial is a new trial hosted by Don Grant and Randy Dye. The trial runs on a nice big hill with a private camp ground behind for the handlers. 


Day one I decided to get as much bang for my buck by managing to get not one, but two reruns - one each with both Kate and Hope.

As luck would have it, in each case, hindsight being 20/20 and all, I'd have rather had the first set.  Having said that, Hope did give the crowd a good show holding on to his second set.  Too bad they don't give out points for heart. 

We were a little luckier day two.  We were running to a standard and Hope and I got called off at the pen after a good run. I was pleased with him. 


Kate also had a good run and finished the day in second, behind some guy named Scott Glen. I hear he's good. 

These pictures? All of Kate showing that she is more than a pretty face. All taken by Kristi Oikawa. I love them -  Thanks Kristi! 


A huge Thank You to Don, Randy, Jocelyn, and everyone else who made the Wild Rose trial a success this year. I really appreciate the amount of effort it took and am looking forward to next year's trial. 

This the blog that never ends...it just goes on and on my friends.

Chapter One - The Weather.

Funny how you can go from "nothing to report" to "so much to tell you about" in a heart beat. Maybe it wasn't a single heart beat but this past week has been full of heart pounding adventures.


Trial season is now into full swing. Last Wednesday I packed up the dogs and took them south to Olds Alberta for the Wildrose Stock Dog Trial. Louanne and I spent Wednesday night grazing sheep in style...

with cocktails.

No worries though, 

we let the dogs do the driving.

With promises  of great weather and good times, Travis decided to join me and drove down on Thursday. 

Thursday night the weather changed....good times.

What do you do when you're told to batten down the hatches and take cover?

If you're camping you stand outside and have family portraits taken,

take a few landscape shots 

and collect souvenirs.

As an added bonus (not mentioned on the Wildrose entry form) we were all able to celebrate Christmas in July together,

AND have fun on the midway rides.

See Travis? Exactly as promised. Great weather and good times! I can't understand why more spouses don't come to stock dog trials...

Home from our latest adventures.

The dogs and I got home last night from a very fun and eventful week of trialling. We're going to take today to rest up (and do laundry), and then I'll get right down to writing the "post game" blog. 


By the way,  that  pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? I saw it - and almost got to touch it. 

Christmas in July.

I've found the end of the rainbow

A little storm blew through tonight. A bit of noise... 

More rain...and not much of a light show.

until this...

sure enough, we found the end of the rainbow. 

I never did find the pot of gold, so I can only assume It's waiting for me (and Hope or Kate) at Calgary Stampede next week.