As you can tell I’ve been horribly neglecting & ignoring my blog. Not really, just super busy. This summer was one of sheepdog training and not so much trialing. I did get to my goal of trialing Zeke in Pro-Novice. Now to get him solid on his whistles, or is that me solid at blowing whistles. Hmmm….Yet again my dogs have to put up with me learning and practicing something I will use on them. Truly, my border collies are saints. My whistling has been such a journey. Maybe this is why I played the piano as a kid. Wind instruments and I have notoriously not gotten along :). Poor Zeke, I swear I can see him look at me and go “hey crazy lady what the hell was that noise?!?!? And does the spit flying out of your whistle is that supposed to mean anything????” Tweed has yet to be tortured by my whistles but he will not be immune. Soon, very soon the “tiny man” will be experiencing a melodious song from my whistle! Ha! Poor dogs! I imagine Tweed might shoot me a look much like this but with squinty eyes!
Once summer got here our nice green pasture dried up and I had to start feeding hay earlier than anticipated . This has been my first year shepherding our flock. It’s been full of opportunities for learning, cursing, knowing when to ask for HELP!!!! and most importantly when to go to the doctor….. Did I mention I ended up with poison oak all over me? OH yes, that was fun, especially when you sit in it for half a day fixing fences and realize only AFTER you sat in poison oak. Wow! Good times I tell ya, itchin’ good times. Oh the things I get myself into. I will plug Calagel as a great soothing lotion/gel that works super on poison oak.
This summer also marks the last year that I manage the vendor trade show at Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival, otherwise known as OFFF. A show I love dearly, but managing the vendor trade show part is just not fitting into my life. I hand that task off to Barbara and wish her much success. I know she will do a superb job!More to come, I'm shearing sheep this weekend. That ought to yield a few good stories!!! But mainly just wanted ya’ll to know I’m still kickin’
