Cutting Apricot

So I started painting the entryway/dog room.  The color is Apricot something.  It's a really good paint ... it's "green" (not the color green, but environmentally safe green) and it's virtually odorless, which I really appreciated.  And it's a good consistency.  And the color is about as obnoxious as they come!  I've cut all of the hard parts, and put two coats on there, so now all I need to do is roll the rest of it, and do the white on the trim and cabinets.

So, I'll take more picks when I'm all done.

I also downloaded the photos from Sunday's trial.  There's a lot of them.  But I really liked the way the novice class went, which I will explain with photos some time this week.  I need to head to bed.

Goodnight all.

J

Sick of Sucking

We showed up, we went to the post, we had a nice outrun going, we came up short, got sucked in, and we stared at the sheep.  A lot.  We retired our run, and walked the long walk of shame ... uphill.

This ... is old.

But ... I was given ten minutes yesterday to whine and was compared to someone who is commonly known as just this short of psycho ... so I need to buck it up. 

And take up knitting instead.

I'll post photos and results and update the blogs when I get everything downloaded.  Have a busy week ahead of me.

J

Trial Pics

The Big Freeze was great!  We got there, and the fog had the trial pretty socked in.  I carpooled over with Jaenne.  They were originally going to run open first like usual, but because of the fog, they ran novice first.  Bummer for us because Jaenne and I had already made plans to show up a bit later than crack-of-dawn-thirty and it came back to bite us in the butt.  Oh well.  Caught a couple of those runs, watched all of nursery and then we ran in pro-novice.

Early morning, there wasn't much to take photos of ... so I decided the handler were looking quite photogenic.

Our hosts, Don and Jeannie Helsley standing with Karen Stanley.  Ok ... I'm going to stop naming people right now because I'm bound to screw that up.

A bunch of people.

This is Dianne running the first run of nursery.  The shadow in the background there is Lavon at setout.

And then back to not naming people/dogs.

The fog started to lift and it got very very pretty out.

Patrick running ... a dog.

My guess is that this is Mary ...  who had a very nice run!

This is a pup from Susan's litter ... Star x Cap.  Adorable puppy!  I think this is the boy the Helsley's kept.

And here's Ellie with Moss.  They both did great today!

Resetting the sheep.

Charlie and Bob.  (Charlie is the human.)  (Ok ... the biped ...)

I loved the ice glimmering on the tree.

And here is a real treat for me.  Jaenne took some photos of Echo's run with my camera.  Thank you so much, Jaenne!!

Ok ok ... I've probably taken a photo of everyone's ass in Idaho ... so here's mine.

Stop laughing.

I sent her on the outrun, and she'll normally spot the sheep and kick out herself.  So she was coming up pretty tight, and I was waiting for her to kick herself out ... and she didn't.  So when she got to the top, she came in real flat and lifted the sheep offline.  I sent her around and the fetch was a beautiful straight line ... perfectly offline the entire way.  But I didn't fight it.  Came around the post, and the drive to the first panel was ... squirrely to put it lightly.  Missed the panel, had a nice crossdrive, made the crossdrive panel and the pen.  The sheep were quite readily going into the pen, so that was nice.

Some scores.  I'll type them up later or something.

Damn!  Jaenne!  We didn't tie for first!  We took second!  Dianne still beat us!!  Both!  Together!  LOL

Jodi

"Screw Poor"

5:00 a.m. is way too early to get up on a day that I'm not working.  Why am I up?  Habit.  Sheer friggin' habit.  Sad, isn't it?

Well, I'm doing laundry, and dishes, and will take a shower, clean out my truck, check on my ewes, feed my livestock and whatever else needs doing before Jaenne gets here.  We're carpooling over to the trial this weekend, which is going to be at Helsley's house.  I laminated running orders, and took a photo of them this morning before I got any caffeine into my brain.  I tried taking photos of them on clean things ... like my table ... my endtable ... the bench ... but the glare was ridiculous.  So I put them on the dirty crates that are sitting in my living room, and voila!  The glare disappeared.  Here they are:

Ironically, the running orders will be a bit late to the trial.  Jaenne and I decided last night that we didn't need to be there first thing in the morning, and my brain told me that was a great idea, forgetting I did running orders.    I like doing these laminated running orders.  I usually keep a couple for myself, and really, I should start throwing them into the dogs' binders as a record of which trials we ran in.  These running orders keep for a very long time, not to mention, you don't have to worry about them getting wet while you're standing out in the rain/snow/whatever.

So the cabinets are done, the tile is finished (thank you, Tom!) and now I need to paint all of it.  I won't get around to doing that until some time next week.  I still need to figure out what accent color I'm going to use, etc. 

I was over the neighbor's house last night, and we were talking about the construction going on at my place.  Earlier in the week, I'd brought over one of the latches in the little packet with the screws and was talking to them about whether or not it'd work, etc.  I opened up the package and $%*&@#!!  It went all over the place!  When we gathered it back up, I was missing a screw.  In a conversation with them last night, Brooke told me I was "screw poor."  I said, "You're tellin' me!!"  

My big black ewe is going to lamb probably any day.  I'm glad I don't have 50 ewes to worry about lambing out this year.  It's a nice break having two, and one is already done.

I had a dream last night that I went into the backyard, and there were PILES AND PILES of eggs laying around and the chickens were laying them like every three seconds and I couldn't stop them.  I was looking around for cork to plug up their butts so I could get the backyard cleaned up and all of the eggs cleaned and into cartons.  What a weird dream.

I really need to get rid of the roosters.  They are as annoying as all getout.  Oddly enough, I don't hear them yet this morning.  Of course not.  I'm not working today.  And I'm already awake, so they probably went back to sleep.  Jerks.

Well, now it's 6:00.  Yes, it took me an hour to write this post.  I was fartin' around in between. I think I overcooked not one but both loaves of bread.  Nice!  Talented, aren't I?

Off to take tons of photos of some very talented dogs.  Enjoy your weekend and I'll post results and stuff as soon as I get them.

Jodi

We're Grouted!

These photos do this no justice. It's raining out and I have to stand outside to take the photos. I don't mind getting wet, but my camera might not like it.

I like this tile so much that I am thinking about taking the slate tile out of the laundry room, and continuing this tile in there.  At the very least, I am going to go buy more tile this weekend because it's on sale dirt cheap.

I couldn't see the sheep, but took a photo anyway.  Look who I caught.

When I pulled in the driveway from work, the sun was still up a bit.  I went out to feed, and somehow ended up with a cute little lamb in my arms all schnuggled up to my face.  It took everything I had not to just carry her cute little ass inside.

Jodi

A Room with a V-ewe

Glenda came by with Ruben today and worked sheep for a bit.  I believe Ruben is a Peg x Riggs pup.

When we went back in the house, Glenda and I started chattin', and we look over and see this ...

Too funny!

Took a couple of quick shots of the sky.  I should have really messed with the settings on these photos because this isn't quite what it looked like to the naked eye, but laziness got the best of me.

That's probably it for the day.  Hopefully I'll have some dog room updates through the week. 

Jodi

A New Addition!

Welcome to the world, little one!  Falling perfectly in line with my black and white theme, this adorable little ewe lamb was born this morning.  This ewe has been a great mom, taking good care of the little one.

Who's your daddy?  I suspect Pepe might have had something to do with it, eh?

She's so soft and cuddly, and she loves having the top of her head kissed.  Don't ask me how I know.

This ewe's temperament reminds me of that nice black belly barb looking cross ewe that I used to have. Sure would be nice to have that one back, but not sure I'd want it now.  My flock is healthy, and I want to keep it that way.  And this little girl will make a great addition.

On the construction front, things are coming along, although we ran into a little bit of a glitch.  No worries, though.  First off, the doors to the boxes are hung.

That wire is from the panels of an x-pen.  They came out really nice, and my bowls will hang perfectly from them.  As you can see, the tile is also laid, but not grouted yet.  There are two tiles right by the front door where the mortar is not drying, so Tom re-stuck them, and we're going to put a little heater in there and close everything off so it can dry.  He also is finishing up the tricky spot where the steps are.  The two tiles right at the stairs going down were cut flush with the end of the floor, but Tom wants a little bit of an overhang, so he took those two tiles up and re-did them.  When this is all dry and grouted, I'll take pictures from the other direction so you can see what I'm talking about.  It's going to look great!  I am even now considering taking that awful slate tile out of the laundry room and replacing it with this tile.  I love how this tile looks.

I can't wait till this is all done and painted.  It's going to be so nice compared to the eye sore it once was.

By the way, if anyone is wondering, Tom's name is Tom Curiel.  He has his own home improvement business and does custom cabinetry and concrete work, too.  His telephone number is 208-461-7733.  

Jodi