Wessel's Dirt Blowing Trial - ProNovice

This past weekend Scott and I ran in the Wessel's Dirt Blowing Trial in Dayton, WA. As expected, there was dirt and it was blowing. However, I'm told it was much "cleaner" than last year!


Dayton is approximately 230 miles east from my house - it took about 3.5 hours to get there, each way. So, with a 6:15 a.m. handler's meeting on Sunday morning, I trekked over the mountains the night before. I recently bought a 2-person tent; very manageable for one gal to set up herself and roomy enough for one gal and her sheepdog!

The sun was out at 4:30 in the morning; I forgot how obvious sunrise was to you when you are in a tent. I was up and about at 5:15 or so. I shotgunned my Starbucks Frappacino Mocha and got my dog fed too. I was scheduled to be run #7 on the "Hill Field." My judge would be Lavon C. - the same judge who thanked me off the field at Lacamas last year because I lost my sheep and dog behind a hill! For this trial, I wanted to show this judge that I had improved in the 10 months since I last run under him! In addition, later in the day, I was to run on the "Flat Field" under Derek F. I've taken lessons from Derek in the past so I was eager to show him how much my whistles have improved and just overall improvements in handling my dog.

The "Hill Field" was up the road a bit, so Diane and I drove over there and set up our chairs. The first few runs didn't go too well - it appeared these range ewes (even having been worked by Open dogs the two days prior) were still a bit, well, rangey! They weren't the people-loving woolies we usually encounter at our local sheepdog trial!

I ended up running 5th due to a couple of scratches. Diane P. took pics of my run on the "Hill Field" with my Panasonic camera... (click on the pictures below to make them bigger and clearer!)

Here are Scott and I heading to the post. The whole trial field is in view here

I'm telling Scott "Look" before I send him on his outrun. I have to hold on to him when I tell him to look for sheep though or else he'll jump out like a false start!

Here is Scott coming up on the sheep.

Here is Scott's lift. He lost ZERO points off this! I'm very happy with him.

Our fetch was not great; offline and missed panel. However, most of that was due to me overhandling my dog.

Our drive actually wasn't too bad, but there aren't any pics to prove it! Here we are trying to get the pen. This proved out to be a difficult task for me and my dog on this run as well as the run on the "Flat Field"

Well, shoot. We timed out at the pen after having more than enough time to actually get it. The sheep were just too squirrely for me to figure out. They broke off into pairs at one point! My inability to get a pen on this field or on the "Flat Field" proves I need more practice with sheep that don't like people!

Here is Scott driving the sheep to the exhaust pen.

We ended up with a score of 49 on the "Hill Field." Out of 90 points possible, that seems low. However, we were one of the higher scoring teams for this particular field.

About 3 hours later, I was up to run Scott on the "Flat Field." It was about 80 degrees at this time and the sheep were starting to get fed up with this whole sheepdog trial thing.

Earlier I said I wanted to impress the judge, Derek, with my whistles. Well, this trial was probably one of the worst examples of my whistling ever! Literally, one "away" whistle fizzled out as if it was a songbird being strangled to death. Not good.

We fumbled through the course and again, timed out at the pen. Scott wasn't as quick with responding to my commands this time and the whole thing seemed to be a bit out of control. I was probably underhandling him on this one! Overall, I got 33 points total (yes, out of 90).

However, I finished the course and was not DQ'd nor did I have to retire. In total, the combined trial score I got that day was an 82.

In the greater scheme of things, compared to the rest of the teams competing that day, Scott and I didn't do too bad! Overall, combined, we came in 7th! Geri Byrne won overall with her dog Danny. Click on the score sheet below to make it bigger...

All in all, it was a really great trial and great experience. I hope to be back next year, perhaps running one of Diane's dogs in ProNovice. Saturday night, I took this picture of a lovely Aussie who was competing in in the ProNovice classes too. Isn't he adorable!

Birds of a Feather

Over the weekend, Jerill and I completed the build of our chicken habitat. I had purchased a coop from the Snoqualmie Feed store last month and have been working in between dry-spells getting everything set up for seven chickens. I've been wanting chickens for about year now, and I finally got them for my birthday which happened May 31.

Here is the build...

Jerill did most of the work. He is a molecular biologist but I think he may have been a great structural engineer too!

This is inside the habitat, where the ramp goes up into the coop/nesting box

The nesting boxes inside the coop

I brought home four adult hens first, from Diane's farm. Diane is growing her flock with other varieties of fowl and she was ready to part with four of her lovely ladies. The other three hens came from my neighbor's house. He had gotten three chicks for free at the Issaquah Grange and didn't real need more chickens, so he was willing to part with them.

As we finalized the habitat, Diane's four girls waited patiently in their carrier.

Lucky has assumed the role of livestock guardian dog

And, they're in!

I intend to provide the hens with different fruits, veggies and berries. Here, they're feating on blueberries and lettuce!

I have named all four hens already. The four older ladies have old-lady type names, while the young things from next door have names taken from the TV show The Girls Next Door.

Myrtle - she is a Russian Orloff

Mergatroid - she is also a Russian Orloff

Fannie - she is a Sicilian Buttercup

Flo - she is also a Sicilian Buttercup

Holly - I'm not sure what breed she is, but likely is a Plymouth Rock

Here are Kendra and Bridgit - they are Rhode Island Reds

Flo and Myrtle are definitely the head chickens of the flock. Flo has put the three Girls Next Door in their places already, demonstrating what "pecking order" really means. The three young hens will probably start laying eggs in about a month - they're still pretty young. From the four older ladies, in 24 hours, they've given me 2 eggs already!

During the day, we intend to let the hens free-range in our 3000 square foot fenced-in garden. They should find plenty of bugs and slugs to feast on (I hope!). I'll use Scott at night, if needed, to wrangle them up and put them away.

Keep Right

I do a lot of commuting in my Honda Civic Hybrid - at least 300 miles a week. Most of those miles are during Seattle rush-hour traffic too. I mix my commute up a bit, just to keep it interesting, taking I-5, I-405, I-90, Hwy 202, Hwy 203, sometimes even putting a little Hwy 99 action in there. However, the case is the same on all roads I drive, especially during the morning commute - people are idiots when it comes to the concept of "keep right."

I'm not an agressive driver, but I like to drive assertively and I like to at least go the speed limit. Even when I had my 2004 red WRX (210hp, turbo), I was a safe, competent, and "efficient" commuter. The Hybrid, bless its little heart of 110hp, is a fuel efficient yet relatively nippy little ride as well.

My greatest gripe about commuting is people who drive in the left lane (the "fast" lane if you will) and do not get out of the way of drivers approaching behind them.

On Interstate 90, there are numerous signs from milepost 13 to my exit, milepost 34, that state the following message...

I feel these messages are pretty concise, readable, easy-to-understand. I am not sure why my fellow commuters have such a problem with these signs though.

Why do left-lane offenders believe these STATE LAWS do not apply to them?

Oh wait! I'm talking about the drivers who insist on driving 64mph in the 70mph zone because it's raining, and those who slow down in the left lane to 55mph in the 70 zone because, heaven forbid, we are going up a 3% incline?

I have to admit, drivers who insist on not keeping right except to pass have one redeeming quality; I am able to work on my descriptive language skills. I have come up with a variety of expletives that any sailor or trucker would be proud of.

At the end of they day, the keep-right violators end up forcing commuters like myself to find alternate routes to pass. Thus, all apologies for those in the middle lane or "slow lane" whom we "cut off" - we are only trying to get on our merry way and follow the law.