Life Goes On ...

The holidays are just about over!  Woo hoo!  We've got amateur night left, and we're done.

I'm in full-blown Dexter withdrawal ... so I turned to Sister Wives.  Didn't take me long to get through, but talk about something that makes no sense to me!  Yeee haaaa!  So now I have to find something else to obsess over.  How about my weight?  I should start working out.  Yeah.  I'll get right on that, right after I'm done eating the 4 trays of some of the best chocolate chip walnut cookies I made last night.

I think I'm getting sick.  I've had a sore throat all week, and now my face is running a little bit.  Just enough to be annoying.  I haven't been sick in years.

If the weather cooperates, and I can stave off this cold, I'm going to go out and work dogs on Sunday.  It's good because I haven't had Echo on a big field in months.  We have a trial coming up in a couple of weeks, and it would be nice if she brought me my sheep. 

This weekend, I am hoping to meet up with the guy who is doing my remodel so we can go get the materials to start the job with.  It will be nice having this all done and I'd have some cabinet space for my stuff.  I can't believe how little cabinet space this place has.

Oh, the garage ... it leaks ... big time.  I'm glad I had the forethought to put all of my important, old photos in my closet in the house.  The boxes out in the garage are all wet, or most of them anyway.  I imagine I will be throwing some stuff out.  So there's another expensive little project ... a new roof.  I wonder what the difference in cost would be between replacing the roof on that building ... or just having him make me a whole new building, complete with dog kennels.  I'll have to see.

Took Reese out to Couch's last weekend.  She did a nice job.  Looks like she's about ready to start training.  She took the pressure well and you could tell she was trying to figure it out.  By the end of it, she was falling in to balance quite nicely.  I will make it outside later today and see what condition my pasture is in, and maybe try her out there.

Well, my search for a nice working merle, once again, has proven to be nothing but an exercise in frustration.  Most of the pedigrees are loaded with a conglomeration of puppymills and pets ... or "sport" dogs, and most of them go back to "breeders" who have been banned from registering their dogs with the ABCA due to failure to cooperate with an investigation into their breeding practice.  In other words, the pedigrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on.  If you do find someone who claims they work their dogs and you ask for videos ... they don't have any to show you, or the clips they do show are of an "instinct test" with tail up, barking, growling, etc.  And no, they don't trial because they've got too much going on, or they don't believe in dog trialing, or they don't have any trials within 6,000 miles of their house, or whatever.  Or they talk about how the dogs are so good at bringing the horses in at night.  Or they tell you that the sire and dam don't really have any interest in working stock at all.    The only person I would get a dog from isn't selling her dogs, and does not have a litter planned.  I should have bought one from her when I had the chance.  So, I'm tossing around the idea again of maybe breeding Zip to Echo.  We'll see.  Would much rather a summer litter than a winter one.

I got up way too early this morning.  I might have to take a mid-morning nap.

Maybe not.

If I can get my ass in gear, maybe I'll put the little heater in the garage, crank the tunes, grab a couple of beers, and start organizing all of the crap in there, throw some crap out, and move keep-worthy stuff to dry ground.  If I start small, and clear a work space, and then start going through stuff a box at a time, I can make it through that stuff by the end of the weekend.  Ha.  I've been saying that for about a year now.  And what a good idea.  Let's wait until it's 17 degrees outside to get this done.  Yahooie.

Maybe I'll take some photos today.  The sky is nice and clear.  It's just going to be icy cold out.  I can deal with cold if the wind doesn't kick up.

Off to enjoy the day ... and ignore my sore throat.

J