WHY COLLIES AND CARDIS ARE "MEANT TO BE"

I was hauling stuff upstairs and happened to look out the stairway window today and saw this. I ran quickly downstairs to grab the camera and got a couple of halfway decent shots thru the window. That's why the quality is rough. But these pics of Harold and Rumor are the epitome of why Collies and Cardigans go so well together.

BELLA

I was taking pics today and there was Bella standing there just begging to have her pic taken. She's growing up and looking good right now. She's been doing that puppy thing, one day level, one day high in rear, then level. I just quit looking after a while. She did great at her first show weekend in Sioux Falls and came home with a RWB. Right now she's into growing up, bugging Jam, annoying Trace and perfecting her cardigan wiggle butt maneuver.

SPREADING RUMORS

Introducing "Rumor", Qwaynt's Something To Talk About. Nope, she is not named after the movie with Julia Roberts, she is named after a song by Bonnie Rait. Just a bit of trivia for you all! I have my brindle again-yippee! She is out of Jean's, Danni (Kennebec Qwaynts Miss Danielle) and Webster (Am/Fin Ch. Yardican Cardiridge Weli Welho). This makes her a 1/2 sister to Trace (Ch Qwaynt's Mystery Man) as they share the same mom. Now this should make my Cardigans complete, okay well I could get a red and complete the color palate, but maybe someday Trace and Rumor will produce a red.

With half-bro Trace and "Auntie Maddy" Dang it--this place has a fence!

SIGNS OF THE SEASON

Just a few pictures of the signs of the season. Let's call this one, pre-winter.

KENNELS READY FOR WINTER

These runs go into the garage runs, note new motion detector light

on the corner of the garage--Thanks Don!!

BARE WALNUT TREES IN THE SOUTH YARD

Most of the agility equipment is put away-you can see one

of the weave poles in the bottom right corner, those will be

the last to come in for the year.

BALES OF CORN HUSKS DOT THE LANDSCAPE

THE COWS PLANNING THEIR NEXT WINTER ESCAPE

Grandma Mary and Josh were over yesterday a.m. to rig up

this temporary solution. These are some smart cows, they

have managed to dismantle parts of the gate. Note that the

black cow with the backwards "7" on his head and the one

next to him are 2 that I made friends with this year--I hope they

aren't thinking that if they escape they get to some in the house...

MANURE SPREAD ON A HARVESTED FIELD

HARVESTED BEAN FIELDS

PLAYING THE WAITING GAME, AGAIN

Let's just say I am not always a patient person. I do try and have been told that there are times I do show more patience than I should. But there are times that I just am not and get antsy. Spice is supposed to be in season soon and I am antsy. Apparently the old saying, "a watched pot never boils" is true about dogs and heat cycles. A watched Collie never comes in season...sigh. I do feel sorry for Spice. It must be heck having your owner plop you on the grooming table each and every night and look at your backside. And of course, because I want it so badly I'm doing the same to Dora. Spice takes it in stride and couldn't care less. On the other hand Dora always looks offended. And I don't really expect Dora to come in, that's just wishful thinking at this point. But ohhhh...Spice puppies, I really want Spice puppies badly. Of course I did my usual "name the litter" thing and that has been a curse in the past. I was bored at work on day and came up with an entire list of names. It's the "R" litter. Why? Who knows, it just came to me. My first and favorite is Maiwae Rendezvous with a call name of Tryst. That kind of got the ball rolling, reverberate, revolution, resonance, you get the picture. So I have a list of 8 top names and call names to go with them to choose from. I have to confess, if she has a small litter of really, really nice puppies it's going to be hard not to keep them all to show. Of course that would mean more kennels and fencing. I was recruited to answer the phones one day last week and had time to map out additional kennel runs and fencing ideas, what a mistake that was! Now I know with a little work on layout and some free labor (any volunteers??) next spring I could eventually have 7 to 9 indoor/outdoor runs and an additional 8-10 outdoor only runs. Now if can talk the landlord into letting me have the small outbuilding....
And yes, I know, I don't need nor will I ever be able to have as many dogs as I could actually house. Unless Prince Charming arrives with a full size van, a full time job and has some type of wholesale dog food connection! LOL! (Oh and let's not forget he has to have a riding lawn mower too!)
Until next time...

A Long Week and Announcement

It's been one of those long weeks. I've been putting in extra hours on the math class. I will say it is easier than Algebra, but there is alot of work. I'm down to needing to take this weeks test and I'm done for this week. Work has been crazier than usual. This is a bad time of year for our patients on Medicare. Many of them have accumulated the maximum for prescription drug coverage and are now required to pay the full cost for their meds. So I have had a flood of patients looking for assistance. Not to mention we have had more than our usual amount of patients that have insurance but either have huge out of pocket costs for treatment or their insurance won't cover their treatment. The paperwork on my desk quadrupled this week, my phone was nearly constantly busy and Iwas about ready to put up CAUTION tape across my cubicle to keep the nursing staff out. The best part of my week was being able to get a patient with no Medicare prescription drug coverage a very expensive ($1400 for 10 pills) drug for free and turn it around from getting the problem on Monday to delivering the medicine to her door on Wed. It made my week!
The weekend is supposed to be lovely and I can't wait to spend time outside with the kids. I still need to clear out the one side of the garage and move some more stuff around upstairs. Rick is in the bean fields, he was out there most of the evening. It has finally dried up enough around here to get the farmers in the fields. So I expect continual combining this weekend since the farm is surrounded by fields of bean and corn. With harvest season comes the NO OFF LEASH rule. Same as during planting season. But I'm hoping that the weather holds for a few more weekends, because those harvested bean fields make great tracking areas. I've been wanting to work Trace more in tracking if only just for fun.
We have a new arrival coming soon to the gang at Maiwae. Going to try a bit different dog than we have now. Oh and I finalized plans for Spice's breeding to Trigger. Fingers crossed, I'm thinking gorgeous puppies--let's all think Smooooth versus the hairy ones. 2 of those are enough for now! :-)
Until next time...

Weekend

Had a good productive weekend. Since Sat was pretty blustery around the farm the dogs and I spent most of the day inside. They "helped" me take out the air conditioners, I got those pesky bugs that look like ladybugs but aren't all sucked up in the vaccum, the upstairs rooms have all the windows plasticed (probably not a real word), the airbeds are deflated and everything put away for winter dog workouts. Moved a few empty boxes to the upstairs closets as well as some items sitting in that front hallway. This week I need to go and buy some more window plastic and some of the heavy plastic stuff for to seal up the unfinished rooms upstairs. The farmhouse is awesome, but they only finished up 2 bedrooms and a 1/2 bath upstairs. The other 2 rooms are pretty much the same as the day the house was built, so I put heavy duty plastic up on those windows and the doors that lead into the other rooms. The heat vents have all been removed to those areas so no heat gets lost thru them. Which is good because LP bills will make you gag for the winter.

Today was wonderful, the sun was shining, the dogs and I spent most of the a.m. outside. I worked on the kennels, moved a couple of the dog houses inside around and Harold is getting moved to an outside run with Bella in the middle. I found more signs of her damn digging again and at least if she digs in the middle kennel all she gets is either Harold or Spice and not freedom. Trace will go back in with Spice until she comes in season,since that kennel is the bigger one. Put up more tarps for wind breaks. I think we'll be fine until next spring. Then I'm going to have to decide to either expand another set of indoor/outdoor runs out the back or on the other side of the garage for the additional dogs. Or I'll need to just set up outside runs with really good dog houses. I hate to put up more indoor/outdoor runs because the other sides of the garage fast NW. Oh well, all winter to think about that one!

Laundry, laundry, laundry and I put away all the dog show stuff for the year. I still have some things to do in the garage and get the crates re-arranged in the dog room and of course a few more windows to be done for the year.

I hate the fact that it's 8:00 and I'm about ready for bed. My body doesn't get the time change thing, it will be a long week. Although I do love that I'll be driving in to work in daylight, the driving home at night and then having it be dark when I get home will really stink. Oh yea, still need to work out a light system so I can see to scoop the kennels after work.

Started Finite Math this week and it went well. I actually understood it and didn't panic. Still wondering if my brain was high-jacked for the week and the real brain will kick in on week 2 and I'll be confused, but maybe I'll luck out this sudden understanding of math systems will remain with me for the next 7 weeks.

More later!