Working singles up against a fence...

Last weekend (actually, now that I think about it, it really was the weekend before last. Time flies when you're having fun or just busy) the princesses, minus the princess palace made the trek to out to Lee Lumb's for a clinic with Alasdair and Patricia MacRae. 

The setting, as it always is at Lee's, was beautiful.

The clinic was REALLY good. I learned a lot about what to do, and what NOT to do with both Ben and Flint. 

This being Tricia's first trip to Canada we made sure she got the full experience including a full length and intimant tour of Canada Customs, great fall weather, and lots of sight seeing....or something like that. I hope we can convince them to come back soon...ever? 

I've included this picture of Ben...because he's running on green grass. Something we probably won't see again for about 7 or 8 months. 

Many thanks to Lee, Carly and Brian for being such great hosts and Kristi for her help in organizing the clinic.  You've set the bar high. Many thanks as well to the MacRaes for sharing their knowledge in such a clear and concise manner. There was MUCH talk under the tent about how "easy" the exercises were to grasp, and that was obvious by the improvement in the dogs and handlers.  

Now, out to the field to do some work!

This blog will be short

Much like Ben's National Final's run. After a fantastic season, lack of experience caught up with him. After a good session on the practice field the day before I was looking forward to running Ben. He left my feet the way I expected, but when he got to the top he was spooked by the set out crew (no fault of theirs, they were completely consistent through the week), lost his sheep back to set out and we retired. Such is life running young dogs. 

Having said that, we had a Fantastic time at the finals in Klamath Falls. Many thanks to the everyone who made these finals a success. We spent the week watching great teams run, visiting "Texas and California", closing down a party or two, and just plain visiting with old friends we don't to see often enough as well as meeting new friends we'd like to see more often. 

I didn't take any pictures, but Kristi Oikawa took a bunch of great ones. Her slide show really says it all. 

Looking forward to doing it all again next year. 

My bags are packed...I'm ready to go.

Not leaving on a jet plane. Instead Ben and I are headed south in style in the Princess Palace, on our way to Klamath Falls in Oregon for the USBCHA finals. 

Apparently there's just no such thing as packing light for these things. Does it ever rain in Klamath Falls? Who knows, but we've got rain gear. Don't worry Kristi, the Best In Show chair didn't make the picture, but it did make its way into the truck - as did the zero gravity chair. A girl can't be too comfortable sitting out in the blazing sun (why am I bringing rain gear??) for a week watching dogs and sheep. 

Really looking forward to seeing all of our friends that we just don't get to see enough of, watching great dogs work, and running Ben in Nursery. 

Starting

Shit disturber

Baby's all grown up.

This morning I realized that Sam is two years old. 

It's hard to believe that he looked like this when we got him. 

I'll be the first to admit that raising a guardian dog has had its ups and downs, but now that we're two years in I can say that for the most part it's very much been worth it. We have yet to lose anything to predators and hearing Sam's bark at night is reassuring (I worried before I got him that it might be annoying - but other LGD owners were right - you get used to the barking and it does give you peace of mind). I like visiting with him when I go out to the sheep, and he's a good reason to go out to them. He's very bonded to his sheep and, knock on wood, has not gotten into any trouble at all for a bit now. He's also very entertaining and definitely a conversation piece. While he doesn't live in the house with us, he is very much a part of the family. 

Happy Birthday Sam. 

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones

Macklin, like many small towns in western Canada is famous for its "big thing". After all, when you're small you need to find something big to hang on to...

Macklin's "Big Thing"? 

Why, the world's largest Bunnock Bone of course!

What is Bunnock you ask? Why it is a game played with (horse lovers, avert your eyes NOW please) 52 horse ankle bones. Developed in the 1800's by some very bored members of the Russian military who found it difficult to pound rods into the tundra to play horse shoes,  it was introduced into Canada by Russian German immigrants. 

Nowadays, you can find reproduction bunnock sets made out of plastic, but personally if I'm going to throw bones, I want to throw the real ones (I love horses, but I'm a practical person too. I love the historical aspect of the real bones, and frankly they just "feel" better and sound WAY better when they hit each other). 

The town of Macklin hosts the World Bunnock Championship. They limit (and there is a waiting list) the entries to 320 teams. 

The game involves throwing bones at a your opposing team's line of bones.  As with most good throwing games, beer is generally involved (and if you go to the World Championship, add deep fried food of course)

Here Travis, a Macklin native, shows good form.

After a few years of whining "we never get to practice" as our main excuse for a. losing b. not entering the World Championship and c. LOSING, Travis's parents were kind enough to not only gift us with a set of bones, but a set of REAL bones. 

We knew we were getting them at Christmas, but given the waiting list for a real set of bones, we just got them now, which is perfect given that now is Bunnock  (and beer) season!

Of course we had to play. 

There was carnage.

Mostly mine...

Due to Travis's good arm. Don't worry honey - I'll practice (which is sweet talk for "I"m gunning for you").

Want to learn more about Bunnock? First prize at the World Championship is $10,000...now want to learn more?? Click HERE