Dogs Dogs Dogs

Since my last post, I've managed to run in my first pseudo-herding trial, taken on a dog to sit for the next three weeks and managed to take the Hybrid into the shop.

Let's start with the Hybrid. On Thursday, Jerill drove the Hybrid to work and found that the driver's window, upon putting the window down, wouldn't go back up very easily. I myself ran into this little problem as well a couple weeks ago when I stopped to get the mail on the drive into home and discovered that the window was struggling to find its place in the window frame. It kept popping down and FINALLY it stayed up. So, I called the dealership on Friday morning and they had an opening so I took it in. The dealership is only about 1/2 mile from my work, so I took full advantage of their pick up and drop off shuttle service. It turns out that the window-sticking has happened enough with the Civic for Honda to issue a Service Bulletin about the problem. So, the service center already knew what needed to be replaced/repaired. The car was fixed up that same day and I left work on time and with a fixed window.

I picked Scott the Border Collie up on Thursday. HWY203 opened up that afternoon and so I trekked to Carnation and did the doggie pick up. Scott seemed very satisfied with his accomodations while he was with us over the weekend. He stayed in our doggie-room, that is downstairs in a heated semi-finished basement. He was such a good boy - no barking, no pottying in his room and he was just so happy with the constant supply of biscuits and treats. Keep in mind that Scott is a true working dog and has lived a barn-life his entire life, so he was very much used to being in his own space in the night.

The trial was, in all respects, a fun day for working our dogs. The judge was unable to make the event, so we weren't graded on performance at all. Here is a video of Scott and I herding - in this shot, we are running a ranch course and this particular exercise is called "turning the post"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTyeZGRKNWs

Here is a picture of the herding-nuts at this event. Everyone I met was very nice and their dogs were great too. I'm on the far right with Scott, who is schmoozing for treats...

On Friday night, Jerill drove to our friend Eric and Harumi's house in North Seattle. They are the proud owners of Annabelle, the Pembroke Corgi. Eric and Harumi asked us to take care of Annabelle for three weeks while they went to Japan to visit family. Annabelle isn't a large dog but she has a big attitude - she is a herding dog through and through and you know what they say about those female herding dogs! Mattie and Annabelle are getting along very well - much to my surprise as the last time they hung out together we had to keep them separated for fear of a bad scrap. Now, they are relaxed and staying out of each other's face. I guess once a dog hits 2.5 years old they really start to chill out - it's very nice. I mean, I love puppies but they are just so nuts. Age 3-8 is really the best time of a dog's life. So, here is a pic of the pack. Annabelle will be with us through early December.

I'll spare you the gripe I have right now with the Letter-to-the-editor expressed in the most recent edition of the Sno-Valley Star newspaper about the biology class that dissected sheep brains. It was a letter from a guy at PETA talking about the suffering of animals, yada yada yada. All I can say about PETA is they are a farce, they're full of crap, they kill animals and they are against everything true animal lovers are fighting for. Visit http://www.petakillsanimals.com/ for details.

C'est la vie

Fungus Among Us

The rains have stopped! It is still quite cloudy but as of 10:15 a.m. the rain finally stopped. Our mountain was touched with snow this morning as well - it's quite chilly outside. At the conclusion of the rain spell, I grabbed Mattie and my camera and went mushroom hunting in our yard. I found some great specimens (all poisonous I'm sure).

These little "button" type mushrooms are all over the yard.

This was a single, with a skinny stump. Pretty camel color.

Not the prettiest fungus out there, but neat. Note the light colored ring around the edges. It's already started to decompose it looks...
These guys were right under our swing set. Really a nice deep orange color, and they're medium sized mushrooms.

These ones looked like truffles (but they aren't). They're very rounded and very dark colored.

I found this white one already flipped over. It was the coolest one so far.

Fallen leaves from our maple tree.

The only animal I could find was this single typical garden variety slug on our doorstep, munching on some old flower.

I was going to leave for Carnation at lunchtime to pick up Scott the herding dog since our trial is this weekend. However, HWY 203 is shut down for awhile due to flooding. I'm confident I can get Scott tonight or tomorrow but I really wanted to just get him today as it would be easiest. The herding trial is on Saturday in Roy, WA. It's classified as a "fun" trial for members of the Washington Stockdog Handlers Association but I think it will be great practice for me prior to my "real" trial on the 29th. I think I'm ready. However, even with the most experienced dog out there (which Scott probably will be), a trial run can still be disasterous!

Remember, it's not the dog, it's the handler. That's my mantra.

Elk!

It's hunting season so the neighborhood elk herd has been "missing" for a couple weeks. However, this morning the cows showed themselves, in force. I counted 11 total (I've seen as many as 18 in our neighborhood). The bull was nowhere to be seen though.

Looking out my office window...

From my bedroom window

Close up of a cow, in the neighbor's yard

The elk are beautiful, but they're extremely destructive to native and non-native trees and plants. One of the cows was casually walking toward my garden outside the fence, with her eye on my apple trees! The elk have been known to jump our 6-foot fence before. So, I yelled "you get out of here Elk!" and I could tell she re-thought the situation and went the other direction. The "ladies" hung out about 15 minutes and then left after I told them they weren't welcome in MY yard. I'm sure they will be back tomorrow to raid my plants while I'm at work - that's what happened in August when I lost my dahlias, tomatoes, brussel sprouts, poppies, apples and cabbage. For some reason, they don't eat the weeds though.

I washed the hybrid today - it was pretty dirty. I need to wax it on the next nice day we have. I'll be driving it to Seattle tonight to have drinks and dinner with Jerill, Michael and Shawn since Michael will be leaving for Tennessee (his home) tomorrow.

Ciao!