Doing Stuff Again!
After a long drought of nothing going on, things are starting to ramp up again. March-July felt like an endless loop of Nana School and working dogs. Then we didn't have Nana School anymore and it was working dogs and that was about it.
My crew hiking the steep canyon, where Will said Biff almost fell to her death. :)
In June I did do a Robin Brown/Derek Fisher Clinic just up the road in Indian Valley. That was a lot of fun! The first day I worked Rooster and we worked on International Shedding. Derek said Rooster is phenomenal and basically, I suck. Ha! I already knew that. It's bad when your dog has clean flanks and I slice mine. So, there ya go. The second day was Schmeckit and she was having a pouty day. She has been a training puzzle. I think we're getting it figured out.
Sunrise from the front yard.
The end of July was the county fair. It was paired down a bit and extremely hot!! Maddy had a market goat, showed her dog and dairy goats. She ended up grand champion dairy goat showman and made round robin where all the large animal showman trade animals and have to show them. She had to show her dairy goat, a pig, steer, horse, lamb and meat goat. She did well and was reserve champion in the round robin her first time making it and competing! Little 70 pound William showed his 1300 pound steer and did well. He won his showmanship class and his weight class. He also showed his dog and some dairy goats too. He did well his first year in full blown 4-h. Girlfriends and I enjoyed watching livestream at home. That was sooooo nice!
Zach and his dogs came to visit. He got a new dog named Charlie.
Then at the beginning of August I said good bye to my best buddy Beep. I feel so blessed that I had 14.75 years with him, but as with them all, it wasn't enough. I miss him terribly and it was very hard. Then a week later my dad died. He had been healthy all of his life and was not on any medications until the last three months. It was a steady and quick decline and I'm so thankful that he died at home, he never had to do hospice and was able to walk. So, two of my best guys gone quickly!
One of our last trips down to the river.
Cousin Nub! He's 17 years old and the last of our second round of agility dogs.
Then helping my mom, going back to work to set up my classroom and kids in person! Whew! My mom plans to move this way, but the hard part is finding a place to buy. We thought we had something, made an offer, they countered and we thought we were on our way. Then, boom! They rescinded their counter offer and decided to take a third offer. Darn! I'm pretty sure my mom has her house in Oregon sold. It's a quick turn around, but it's in a remote place and she has few friends over there. It'll be better to have her close. Praying the right property come available either now or in the spring.
Rooster got to be a cowdog.
Schemeckerson not afraid of cows!
Last night I went to a herding fun match. It was fun to be out and about and feeling like there might be someplace to use all those skills we've been working on. We've been practicing a ton! Rooster was awesome as usual! We even got to try setting sheep! It was Schmeckit's first time out in public in a trial like setting. She found her sheep after a brief detour to see the set out people and dog. Sheesh! She got them down the field, started the drive, but our five sheep didn't want to stay together, so I walked and helped her. We penned them and called it good. Lot's of dogs lost their sheep and I'm so proud how my guys handled them.
Cooling off after his run.
Trips to Granite are planned to help my mom, more fun match trials and hopefully a real trial coming up. It's nice to have stuff to do again.
Swamp monster, Schemeckit.