As Usual...

I'm away at a trial with the best of intentions...and I forgot the memory card 'sfor my camera in my laptop...which is back at Louannes.

So, for updates this weekend, check out Louanne's blog at Phantomridge.

Excitement at the OK Corral

If you'll remember, I had asked Ms. 508 to indulge me and have a calf the other night. She still hasn't but tonight Ms. Lowline decided to stand in for her. We found her with this.

This whole "having a calf thing" was fairly new to her so she needed a bit of assistance figuring things out.

So Kyle and Louanne stepped in to help them settle in together.



The calf went on a magic carpet ride to the maternity ward.


Spitz (sunflower seeds) seemed to be an important part of the process.

I got the lucky job of choosing the new calf's name. Everyone's name this year starts with B so... BOB's your Lowline!

And now for your entertainment

The other day I gave Craig a very expensive, highly specialized dog toy. His prize?

A broccoli stem

Which is a cunning opponent.

Craig

will

conquer.

Conquering produce is exhausting work

Dogapalooza

I believe that Hope feels like he's gone to Doggy Disney Land, or as Louanne loves to call it - Dogapalooza.

Let's do a quick run down of what he's been up to down at Louanne's.

This past weekend we sorted sheep for two days for a herding instinct test and an all breed fun trial. Two full days of practical work. Sorry, no pictures. As usual I didn't think of the camera till it was all over - but I can say that there was a great turn out, the weather was good, and fun was had by all.

Monday we went out to Randy's and spent the afternoon with him, Abe, and Penny working dogs in a nice big field near his place.

Penny and Duncan waiting while Randy sets sheep.

Of course he's gotten lots of training back at Louanne's place as well.

AND he's hung out with Isla - the center of his universe.

They've gone swimming together.

They've gone to check cows together. If Hope had his way they'd do EVERYTHING together.


I tried to explain to Ms. 508 that it would be great "blog material" if she actually had a calf while we were out checking, but unfortunately she seems to be running on her own schedule.

And the fun's not over. We'll spend a couple of more days here and then we'll all head to BC to the Paxton Valley trial.

More Mike

Remember this shot? I posted it about half an hour ago, so if you can't...two words...Ginko Biloba.


It seems that Mike's obsession with eye poking sticks started early.

Meet Mike

Mike is Bruce's sister. That's right, sister. With a confused name like that you just know that her mother dresses her funny too. Poor thing.

Incredibly, no eyes were lost.

Mike is a city dog.

They don't make sticks like this in the city. No Sirrree!

Mike loves her brother.

Given all the teeth in these blurry shots (neither Mike nor Bruce are real big on "hold still"), I'm not sure what she sees him...but at lets face it, at the end of the day, family sticks together.

It's tradition

Just when we start getting used to the idea that summer's on it's way...we get one last snow storm.

Exhibit A.



This picture, like all of my "snow storm" pictures, was taken from my deck. That's about as far outside as I want to go today. I thought about putting off blogging to see "how bad it could get", but really - this is bad enough. As of this moment there's about 6 inches of fresh white stuff on the barbecue and it's still snowing. Enough said about that.

My good friend Tammy is up with Mike, who happens to be Bruce's sister. We had grand plans of campfires, herding, agility, walks in the woods...now it's looking more like PJ's, movies, junk food and Wii.

Tammy leaves Thursday. The forecast for Thursday - sunny and warm.