The Early Bird ...

Well, after a fiasco of going up to the mountains today (I don't want to talk about it ... I have NO pictures from up there, so you can just guess...), I came home and took some pictures of the sheep instead. I set up the lambing pens and took my 7 pregnant ewes and put them in the penning area so they aren't lambing all over the fields. Any day now...















Ever see sheep teeth?









How about some tongue, baby?





Oh that was baaaad.




What? What'd I do?





Ok ... and I know the next shot isn't going to mean anything to anyone but me, but I think this is like a shot of a lifetime. How quick this happens, and I caught it ...







Can ewe please get out of the way so I can take pictures of Pepe?





Thank you.









THE END. (Or do I say "Happy tails"?)





Jodi

Catchin' Up

Ok ... it's been a while since I've blogged. I've got quite a few of these things going now, and it's hard to keep up with them all.

Here's kind of a long story, but I thought it was really ironic.

My mother passed away in December of 2005. In that year, I had traveled to Los Angeles via Southwest Airlines about five times. One time when I was checking my bags, one of the clerks had a really nice lanyard on, holding her ID badge. I asked her where she got it, and she said, "She made it," pointing to one of her co-workers. I talked to the co-worker very briefly, got her number, and never skipped a beat. I don't know what I did with that person's number, or if I ever talked to her again. Once mom got sick, life moved way too fast, I was on a lot of anti-depressants, and making sure I got to work without hitting a tree.

Several times since then, I've been to craft shows and such, looking for a nice lanyard, but never found ones that struck me like that one did. I even made one of my own with some of my mom's beads, but never really loved it.

The other day, I was messing around on Ebay and for the heck of it, looked up lanyards in Boise. I found a woman who had some very nice ones, had some very interesting beads, and very reasonable prices. So I emailed her and asked her if she had a store, or would meet me so I can see her work. Well, I met her last night. Her name is Deb. Really nice woman, and very talented. We talked a lot about stockdogging and how many different lanyards I see, and how few strike me like hers did. We continued talking, and she was telling me how she works for Southwest Airlines! We figured out this was the same woman from a few years ago. What a small world, eh?

Without further adieu, here is the first of many I am sure I will purchase from her.

From 100CANON

It is made very well, strung nice and snug, and she used a really good thread. I love it.

Anyway, I came home last night, grabbed a beer, and took Echo out for a bit and worked on her whistles. I am talking to her less and less, and really starting to pay attention to my whistles. My "down" whistle and my "come bye" whistle start very similarly and I notice just for a second she hesitates right there, so I have to switch something up. Other than that, it's coming together. I am way too loud on the whistle, and have to remember how quiet Helsley whistles to Blue. I'm sure my neighbors will appreciate it.

More later,
Jodi

Truth be told ...

I suck at stockdogging ...

But I have cute dogs.

See?

From 2.20.09 Red Top

Dances with ... Monsters

The Echo Monster. Wowie!

I am really trying to concentrate on being quiet. Keeping my voice down. Not adding any excitement to what's going on.

I came home, cracked a beer, grabbed Echo and went out to the pasture. We put all the sheep in the round pen, and this time, I didn't need to push her back off the stock. She stayed off by herself. I never raised my voice and kept it just above a whisper. She took every flank, and didn't look like she was going to explode. It took no more than a couple of minutes to gate sort the 4 lambs off all the pregnant ewes.

This time, when we exited the round pen, I let her cover so we didn't end up with sheep in the open lambing pens again (I leave the lambing pens open because it's where the shelter is ... and the sheep will go in there when the weather turns nasty). I walked to the right side of my trailer, and Echo brought the sheep to me, and would hold them against the pressure while I was walking out to the field. They really really wanted to break back to the round pen. I didn't say a word. I watched as Echo held all four of the little popcorns in check, and when one split off, she stayed off it, got ahead of it, and calmly turned it with a quiet, calm authority. The lamb didn't like this and stood and stared. And this is when I saw Monster's maturity shine. I said nothing. She is in a stand off with the one lamb looking at her, but she is in the perfect place to keep it from breaking back to the round pen. To her right about 20 yards away are the other three, who are also threatening to go back to the round pen. Echo took one quick step to her left and turned the rogue lamb toward the other 3, which immediately invited the other three to start to take off because for that one second, she was not holding them. All in an instant, the rogue lamb ended up back with the other three, Echo flanked at about a 280 degree angle and was then holding all four together, still quite a ways off them, and they were quite a ways off the round pen.

I stood there with my mouth open.

She brought them to me and into the field we went.

And from here, I was only verbally commanding her about 20% of the time. The rest of it was all whistles. The down still isn't happening ... she prefers to slow down quite a bit, but she never really stops ... and it's always a forward motion. If she would stop, I wouldn't care if she was on her feet, on her head, or smoking a cigarette. So I am finding myself anticipating her NOT stopping and almost training her to wait until I go: (whistle) HEY! (stronger whistle). So I have to figure out a better way to do that.

To see if she knew which way her flank whistles were ... I stood directly in front of her with my back to her. The sheep were situated about 80 yards straight ahead of me. I didn't move a muscle and just gave her an away whistle, and off she'd go ... to her right. Ok ... I thought that might have been a fluke. I set it up again ... this time standing a bit off to her left -- although with my back still to her ... and acted like I would send her away ... and I blew a come bye whistle. And there she went on her come bye outrun. She's starting to take the whistles on the drive, although I (emphasis on "I") am not as comfortable and find myself still preferring verbal commands. I will work on that.

So I hope I make a little progress at the trial this weekend. A 1/2 way decent fetch would be nice. I hope I can keep her backed off enough. We'll see. But the part I am looking even MORE forward to is hanging out at the Sheep Shack. And above that ... Kirk is lending me his long lens and tripod and hopefully I'll get some good shots this weekend. Woo hoo!

Happy tails,
Jodi

Red Top Spring Fling Running Order

The running order for this weekend has been posted.

Click -----> HERE.

Happy tails,
Jodi

A new language

I got home from work and it's still light out. Woo hoo! I had thrown a stew in the crock pot last night, so I didn't have to worry about cooking tonight. I cracked a Corona, grabbed Echo and headed out to the pasture to work on whistles.

I am down to 11 sheep. 4 of them are lambs that I can work. The rest of them are pregnant ewes. The lambs needed to be sorted off, so Echo and I put everyone in the round pen. I know some people would have waited for just the lambs to magically walk out of the round pen, I used it as a training session for Echo. She was a bit too tight and a bit to excited at first, but I calmly backed her off, and she quickly figured out what I needed and decided she had much more control from a distance. In no time, we had just the 4 lambs in the main area. The lambs quickly figured out what was going on and headed for the open lambing pens. Cool. This is something I haven't worked on much with Echo yet, and will need to know how to do for the Washington trial in March. To see where we're at, I sent Echo into the 3' by 8' lambing pen to see how she'd handle it. She went straight up the middle with her mouth open, out popped 4 sheep with a black dog hot on their ass. Effective, but ugly. Deciding to leave THAT training for another day, we drove the sheep off to the big pasture.

From this point, I decided that everything I communicated to her was going to be via whistle. Everything. If I had to add verbal commands, that was ok. But the first time a command was to be given, it would be a whistle. The main goal of the training session was to continue to work on the down whistle, but I expanded it on the short walk to the field. And am I glad I did. She took more whistle commands than not, and when she wasn't right, a simple correction did the trick. My whistles suck so I feel bad for her, but as Patrick always says, it's her job to figure out what those screeching noises are coming from her person. I guess it's better than my screeching voice.

So I have a bit of a ray of hope that we'll get our down at the top of the outrun at the trial this weekend, and hopefully be able to fetch the sheep at a little less than light speed.

Happy tails,
Jodi

2009 National Sheepdog Finals Blog

There's a blog designated for the 2009 National Sheepdog Finals.

HERE it is.

I'll link it on the right also.

Happy tails,
Jodi

Well, Wet My Whistle!

Yesterday, while I was putzing around in my house, I came upon my buffalo horn whistle (I put it down and forgot where), and in looking at it, I saw how dried out it was. So I used some regular vegetable oil and oiled it all up real good. It looked much better. And that was basically all I expected.

Ha.

I took Echo out to work so I could try to get her lie down and her lie down whistle sort of solid so I have 1/2 a shot at stopping her at the top of her outrun so she doesn't get all sucked in at the trial. (Nice of me to wait this long, isn't it?) Oh, and just in case the training session wasn't going to be difficult enough as it was, I brought the new camera. So off we go.

From 2.16.08

I send her on an outrun and blow the whistle at the top. We'll I'll be a monkey's uncle! That was the clearest sound I have ever gotten out of that whistle! Imagine that. Echo didn't take that "down" or the next 10. Or 20. And I'm sure my neighbors thought I had completely lost my mind when I came unglued. I collected myself and started again -- with much more success. Imagine that. It's still not solid by any stretch of the imagination but it's getting there.

I love this shot. I wish I had more black sheep with white tail tips.

From 2.16.08

Most of the pics I got were of her driving because they are easier to take. But I caught a couple others.

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

From 2.16.08

And the day wouldn't be complete without an airplane shot. These are getting really fun to take!

From 2.16.08

You should see that one in its original size on my computer screen! Wow!

Happy tails,
Jodi

Mondays Suck

Yesterday, after I worked out (new routine ... my "abs" hate me), I went and got some Panda Chinese food (hey, the trainer was eating it when I was at the gym!) and bought Colleen some lunch. She was over at her old house cleaning it and getting ready for the landlord inspection. After we ate, she put me to work, cleaning up the yard a bit. Then we took the "organic matter" out to the desert and just happened to bring the dogs with us. So we let them run for a bit. Back to the house, and we got the inside clean. We ended up back at my house around 8:00 p.m., where we ate Korean leftovers and Dairy Queen. So much for working out! Well, I probably burned enough calories just scrubbing Colleen's kitchen. Yeah yeah. That's the ticket.

So Colleen got up this morning, showered and left to go back to Northern Idaho.

It feels different this time because now she doesn't have anything she HAS to come back for. Well, maybe a work event or something, but not anything she's really "obligated" to do in the very near future. But she did say that she is going to try to work out the Gig Harbor trial, so it would be nice to see her there. Or she might make it back down for our AHBA trial.

If she doesn't make it down, I'm going to have to go up there and drag her down. That's all there is to it.

Happy tails,
Jodi

Love in the Air!

Yesterday there was a bit of sun every now and again, so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the flock. They seemed to be very glad to have the sun in their faces, and they were very relaxed.

Remember the smiley little lamb a few months ago?

From 2.14.09

And here's my young ewe lamb that looks to have some blackbelly barb mixed in.

From 2.14.09

One of my original girls ...

From 2.14.09

Colleen is in town, so she came by with Roy and Reena. Katy came over with her brother, Chris. And Jaenne came by and fed us all some awesome Korean food.

Here's Jaenne ...

From 2.14.09

Colleen and Roy (remember Roy ... he plays a part here in a minute ...) ...

From 2.14.09

Here's a couple pix of Ms. Reena -- the dog who I could never capture a photo of with my other camera ...

From 2.14.09

From 2.14.09

Oh, remember Roy? He was feeling ... romantic. Here is he trying to convince Katy she's the only woman for him.

From 2.14.09

Setting her up to whisper sweet nothings in her ear ...

From 2.14.09

The rest of this got a little too graphic, so I'll leave it to your imagination!

A good time was had by all (some had more fun than others), and Colleen will still be around today, so I am going to meet up with her later for a dog run into the foothills or something. Will try to get more pix.

Happy tails,
Jodi

A New Man ...

Yeah ... it's not what you think.

 

Well, the new camera came, and the weather's been all overcast, so I haven't been wanting to take a whole lot of photos -- because my previous camera doesn't take fabulous shots when it's overcast.  But last night when I got home, I figured I'd take it for a spin despite the cloudy sky.  My son doesn't often allow me to take any decent shots of him, so he let me take one last night, but I took a few, and probably pushed my luck.  When I uploaded them, I saw something I don't normally see in my little Smudge.  A man!  Holy cow!  Where did my Smudge go?

From 2.12.09

From 2.12.09

From 2.12.09

So, Colleen came into town last night.  She's here for the long weekend and to close up her old house.  We went for a couple of beers last night (Coronas ... aka "real" beer, Joe!) and sat around and bullshitted (bullshat?).  I loaned her my old camera so she can take some pictures of her new place for us to see.  I saw a few she put on her phone ... in fact she emailed them to me so I'll see if I can post them here at some point.

 

Looking forward to dinner Saturday night.  Jaenne, please let me know if you need me to do anything.  I didn't buy a new rice cooker yet, but I will try to do that tomorrow.  My friend Cheri is probably going to come so she can meet Colleen and they can discuss Northern Idaho.  Oh, Colleen, by the way ... the story I was telling you last night about the FC fire ... and you asked me how F&G got involved ... I confused two stories!  Wait till you hear ... ask me about the roadkill story.

 

The Zamora trial starts today.  Here's the running order:  http://www.norcalsheepdog.org/events/zamoraro.pdf.  Good luck and go Idaho! 

 

Happy tails,

Jodi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Totally Geeking Out

So I came home tonight, and the UPS driver hadn't gotten here yet. I knew where I was going tonight, so I hopped in the shower. When I got out of the shower, my son handed me the box the camera came in. He soon took the box back, put the camera together and started taking some shots with it. Just in case all you out there don't know ... my son knows everything, and I am dumb as a box of rocks (so he thinks).

So I told him I was going to go to the local camera club meeting because a friend of mine from work talked me into going. I won't tell you what my son called me, but it wasn't very nice. LMAO!

The meeting was very interesting. It was "print night" where people submitted prints, and they go through the prints one by one, judge them, comment on them, and then announce their score. I agreed with most of the assessments, although, there were a few I didn't quite "get." Some of that, I'm sure, was not understanding what a good photo is ... some of it was personal taste. All in all, it was very very interesting. Next Tuesday is the same thing, only with digital images. I made a mental note that it will be a while before I have anything worth submitting.

I got home and took a few photos with the new camera. I am now convinced it will be a LONG time before I will have anything worth submitting! This is a lot of camera, and it is going to be a blast playing with it! For instance, a few photos in my room ... I've never gotten a decent photo in the house. Once I figure this out, these photos can be crystal clear and completely bitchin. But for now, check this out. I don't know the technical terms, but the area in focus (focal range?) is so small, I need to figure out how to make it (I never thought I'd say this) flatter! LOL

From 2.10.09

From 2.10.09

From 2.10.09

So ... it will be fun once I figure this whole thing out! LOL

Happy tails,
Jodi

Progress

No, not with sheepdogging.  I wish.

 

Well, I've been working out a bit ... and have been really trying to get my arm back in shape since it has atrophied from the surgery.  Last night when I was working out, I noticed that my wrist was very sore.  I worked through it, but there's still one machine I cannot handle yet (picture a machine that mimicks the motion of you pounding your fist on a desk).  I tried it again last night to no avail.  So I was feeling rather discouraged. 

 

Well, today I noticed that I can put my palm up ... flat!  The true test will be to put some shampoo in my hand and see if I can get it to stay there.  I know this doesn't sound like a big deal to any of you, but this is my dominant arm and it's really been a sore spot (ha ha) with me.  So whatever I'm doing is helping. 

 

And despite going to the gym almost every day, I'm still a cow.  Well, I didn't put it on in a month, so it won't come off that quick, either. 

 

The Red Top trial is a week from Friday (although ... I'm only entered Saturday and Sunday).  I  haven't been working Echo much at all.  I really need to get a stop on her at the top and gain some control at the beginning of the fetch so doesn't get sucked in -- which sets up our whole run.  But even if I'm not at all successful with the trial, it will be a great opportunity to take pictures with my new camera!  It is supposed to arrive at my house today!  I can't wait!

 

More later,

Jodi

 

And look what I found!

The pictures were courtesy of Rrie's Photobucket account. Rrie, I hope you don't mind my putting them here. They were too cute!



Happy tails,

Jodi

Barclay

To see a video of Barclay ...

Click ---------------------->  HERE

And who is Barclay?  He is the red and white male from the first litter -- littermate to Rook, Skar, Deucey, Abrak, etc., and full brother to Mo, Scout, Misty, Rio, Foxy and Peeka.

Happy tails,
Jodi

Fun Day and Stuff

Well, the fun day was here at my house. There weren't nearly as many people as I thought there'd be, but that's ok. We had a great time, the weather was perfect, and the food couldn't have been better. Thank you, Jaenne!

I didn't take any photos! Isn't that a drag?

First off, someone left their sunglasses ... so if anyone knows whose these are, please let me know.

From Fun Day

I worked Echo a little bit. I really need to get her out into larger spaces, raise my expectations and lower my voice.

I have one ewe lamb that's not doing so hot. She seemed to be fading, her rear end seemed wobbly, and she's looking like a "rack of bones" ... so I shot her up with antibiotics and wormed her. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll be ok. She's the one that Colleen and I saw be born last year. We brought out the chairs, the flashlight, and of course, the drinks, and sat there and watched momma drop her. It was so cool. So I am really hoping she recovers.

Speaking of Colleen -- Colleen, we missed you today! It was really kinda sad. There was an empty spot on the short couch, and it was yours! At least you'll be able to sit in it next Saturday night. Jaenne talked about curry in addition to the bulgogi (sp?), so we'll be in hog heaven, I'm sure. Yum! I'll have to break out that bottle of whiskey you bought ... and be sure you don't go back to CDA without a good old fashioned Boise hangover!

Anyway, back to the fun day ...

After everyone left, I went outside to feed sheep and check on the ewe, when I noticed yet another gorgeous sunset in the making. I run in the house and grab my camera and come outside and see this over the bunny condos at my neighbors house.

From Fun Day

(I know ... nothing fabulous ... but I love it...)

And then out back, I take this shot:

From Fun Day

And this:

From Fun Day

Back over to my neighbors house and checking out the moon, I really tried to get a picture of the face on the moon. So I upload it, and lo and behold ... there's no face! Why is that?

From Fun Day

I'll have to try that again with my GOOD camera when I get it. Woo hoo!

Colleen, this one is for you. I love the photos that you took that were all trees all the way across, and it looked like a photo that would work perfectly for a background and it took up the entire photo. Here's my interpretation. Your thoughts?

From Fun Day

Anyway, thanks everyone for a wonderful day!

Happy tails,
Jodi