A beautiful day in December

Hard to believe it, but it reached 45F here today. The tiny bit of snow we had from yesterday is all gone. The dogs loved the temps. The chickens really enjoyed it as they were out scratching around and eating to their hearts content.

I enjoyed it as I was able to work with Sting on sheep. I used Corbie to bring the boys out so that I wouldn't tire Sting out before I even got to work with him. He did some nice driving in spite of the boys wanting to run. At one point they started over the hill, Sting split one off. I laid him down and after a couple of look backs, he turned and took his come by flank and brought the other four boys over the hill. I was very impressed by the fact that he took the look back and then the flank. I have never really trained that with him yet. I was happy with his work and had to quit when he got tired.

Hopefully this winter will continue like this and I'll be able to continue working with him over the winter.

Giving thanks on Thanksgiving day.

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward~

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Things I am thankful for:
My loving hubby.
Our small farm.
All of our mambos (the dogs).
The sun that is shining today.
The friendship of all of my dog friends.
My health.
A roof over our heads.
The 7 lb, home raised chicken we will be eating today.
Family and friends.
Our jobs.
Being able to work/train my dog on sheep and going to sheepdog trials.
Waking up in a dry, warm bed this morning.
My hubby who is cleaning up the kitchen after last night's supper.
And my hubby who keeps the house clean.
Getting to be able to travel for the sheepdog trials and see different parts of the upper Midwest.
Being able to have our own sheep.
Our chickens, love watching them each day.
Oh and the eggs that we get from our chickens.
I am very thankful to my neighbor for letting me work my dogs on his fields.

Fun Trial weekend

I went out to a fun trial at Portage, WI the weekend of 11/12 & 11/13 with Sting. I stayed with friends and had a wonderful weekend. As I was arriving at my friends I saw this beautiful moon rising. It was good to get out with sheepdog friends one last time before winter sets in.
I ran Sting in pro-novice. I wanted to see how he would do since I was able to work him on the neighbor's field. I am happy to report that he did very well.
Our first run on Saturday morning he had trouble spotting the sheep in the snow. Yes, I drove from fall in Minnesota to winter in Wisconsin. I went out and helped him to find the sheep as he was starting to cross over and wanted to go to where the sheep had been exhausted. Once I got him behind the sheep his fetch was nice and straight. We had a good turn at the post and then his driving went so well, we hit both drive panels. Then penned the sheep right away. I was very happy with him as I felt that the outrun issue was something easy enough to work with, but to have that nice of driving already!

Then on Sunday morning we had another run of pro-novice. It was a rough run, I had to redirect him multiple times, but did get him out behind his sheep. Fetch was nice and straight. I am loving how I am able to place Sting where I need him on his fetch. I had to unwind our turn at the post and we started the drive where the sheep took off for the other end of the field, but Sting did get them and bring them back down the field where we penned them. Before our run I was thinking of heading home so that I could get home at a decent hour. But after the run, I really wanted another try at it.

So, we stayed for our second run and boy am I glad that I did. I sent Sting to the left again and right about when I was going to blow the whistle he kicked out on his own and landed up behind his sheep. I did need to give him one come bye whistle to keep him from under-flanking. Then his fetch was straight and thru the panels, nice turn at the post, we hit the first drive panels. And then we lost the sheep a little high, but got them back on line and missed the second set of drive panels and then right into the pen. We scored a 76 out of 90. I was ecstatic with him.

On the run on Saturday and his second run on Sunday I really felt like we were connected and communicating so well. It felt good.

One other thing that I would like to mention is that we never practice pens at home, yet we got 3 perfect scores of 10 on our pens that weekend. It is so nice when you're working as a team with your dog and he takes your flank commands so freely.

Have I said recently how much I love my Sting boy?! I am really looking forward to trialing in 2012!!

Thoughts of Jim Chaffin's passing

Picture by Michelle Prescott-Guederian.

The local sheepdog community lost a good man in Jim Chaffin on Tuesday, November 8, 2011. We attended his memorial service this past weekend. It was a celebration of Jim's life. The picture above is of a print of Jim and Lola at one of their trials. Jim's crook is on one side and his whistle is on hanging on the other side. The epitome of a shepherd in his retirement years.

The Jim that we knew was patient with his dogs and very protective of the livestock. He always thought that the livestock should be treated fairly.

Here is Jim at their last trial. He was so happy having all of us trialers as his guests. Little did we know that this would be our last time to see Jim. I am so glad that he was so happy at this time. Steve and I are so happy that we stopped at the house on our way out to say good by to Jim one last time. We will miss you so much, Jim.

Jim and Lola both worked so hard to present one of the premier trials in our area. Their sheep have always been some of the best sheep in the area to trial on. Every group of sheep were even and you knew that your draw was equal to anyone else's.
In attending Jim's memorial we learned so much more about Jim's life. We didn't realize that he served in the air force. I never knew that he used to ride horses and that he was a bowler. We knew that he was a retired teacher, what we didn't know is that he was key in setting up a program for problem children in their school district. I also didn't know that they had so many foster children over the years........17 to be exact. So many things that made Jim, and Lola too, such good people.
I am so glad to have been able to call Jim a friend, so privileged to know Jim.
Jim may you RIP and we will all miss you.

Working the cornfield.........

The neighbor who owns all of the fields around us has graciously allowed me to go out and work my dogs in his fields. I am internally grateful. Here is Sting patiently waiting for Corbie and I to bring the sheep up to the field. I chose to have Corbie bring the sheep up so that I wouldn't tire Sting out too much.

Corbie took some convincing to bring the sheep up......you know, I had to twist her little leg to get her to do it. LOL Not really.

I then worked Corbie on some of her driving out in the corn field. You can see the bales of corn silage that I used for obstacles while they were there.

Corbie working on some cross driving.

Here I had her drive the sheep thru some of the bales as an obstacle. As you can see by looking beyond the sheep this is a nice, big field. The whole area I would estimate at somewhere between 50-60 acres. This is a dream field for me to be working in. I kick myself for not asking him sooner if I could work my dogs out there.

I then worked Sting on some outruns. I was able to set up some long outruns for him. Probably some of the longest outruns that he has ever done. Each time that I have gone out on this field I can see his confidence growing and growing.

I then worked Sting on some driving.

And some cross driving. The pictures are deceiving as he is much further away from me than it looks. I did use the zoom lens on the camera for these shots.

And some more driving. These pictures were taken on November 1st. I did have him out on this field again on Friday, November 4th and had him driving at a much greater distance from me. It is so much fun working him out on a big field.

What I am noticing is that he is learning so much from being out on this field as there are no draws for the sheep and there doesn't seem to be any pressures on the field. So, it is teaching Sting more about holding lines and just going with the sheep. We are both learning so much from working out on the "big" field.

I then had him do some more outruns. Each time I take him out and do outruns, I see him figuring out things more and more. When I had him out on the 4th I watched him kick way out when he didn't know where the sheep were at.

He still wants to over-flank on the top, but I figure that has come from him wanting to come up short earlier in the year and how we worked on keeping him going around. I am thinking that eventually things will work out so that he lands more at balance. I am so looking forward to getting out and working some more on this field before the snows come.

And then Corbie went out to bring the sheep back in.

Look Ma, herding on only two legs.

Fall Sunset........

We had a beautiful sunset this evening. After a beautiful fall day and some clouds coming through our day ended with this sunset.

And it got more intense as the sun continued going down.

And the sunset reflected off of the trees in our back yard.
A beautiful sunset to end a good day. We got a lot of things done today and I got some good work in with the dogs.

Fall Harvest

This is our fall harvest. These are the six "volunteer" pumpkins that grew in our barn yard. The gourds were also a volunteer in our barnyard.

These are the squash that we got this fall and my one and only orange pepper. In the front are just a few of the sweet banana peppers and tomatoes that we got from the garden throughout the year. We also had a lot of green beans that are already in our freezer. Oh and lots and lots of zucchini which has either already been eaten or is in the freezer.
We have both been enjoying all of the veggies from our garden along with our own home raised chicken in our freezer. Everything tastes so much better when we raise it ourselves.

Happy Fall!!

Happy Fall!!!
It's my favorite time of the year. I love the harvest time, the colors of the season and the weather and temperatures.

The roses at the cabin

Up at the cabin my brother and his wife have a row or hedge of roses. It helps to separate the yards, but it also helps to keep the kids from running across their yard.

While we were there, we did notice a few white roses.

But there were more of these pink roses. These looked like what my Mom used to call wild roses when I was growing up.

They were pretty much past their peak for blooming, but still lovely to see.

The birds in and around Island Lake

One of my most favorite birds of Northern Minnesota, the state bird, the Loon!! We don't get them down here in SE Minnesota at all and I sure do miss them. I love how they look, I love their song. Yet one more thing that I miss from up north.

And then as we were cruising around the lake my eagle eye brother(pun intended), Mike spotted this Bald Eagle. We went very slowly past him/her and got lots of pictures. I won't bore you with every picture that I took of this eagle.

But he just sat there and let us take pictures. He was probably thinking, tourists.

And then we saw this guy. He made lots of noise. We were thinking that he might be an immature Bald Eagle? All I know is that he was noisy, but still something cool to see.

The reason that I was thinking that he is an immature Bald Eagle and that he has the same very pronounced hook on his beak. There are some osprey that live on this lake too. I haven't gotten to see any of them close enough to take a picture yet.

Family Get Together on the Lake

We went up to my brother's cabin this past Saturday for a sibling get together. Their cabin in on Island Lake by the town of Sturgeon Lake. Isn't it beautiful.

Isn't the lake beautiful? It does make me miss being in Northern Minnesota where the lakes are so clear and beautiful. Not much for sheepdogging up there, but it is a beautiful area.

After lunch we went out on the lake on the pontoon boat. My oldest brother, Bill, was our pontoon pilot.

A few enjoying the pontoon ride. From L to R. My brother in law, Ted, husband to my sister Barb. My sister in law, Peggy, next to her husband my brother Mike.

Deep discussion.

My sister Barb enjoying the scenery.

My sister in law, Bill's wife, Sandy. Enjoying herself.

My brother, Mike and Peggy. They just celebrated their 37th anniversary this past week.

My sister, Barb and her hubby, Ted.

After we got back from the pontoon ride we competed in a mean tournament of bean bag. Here Steve is showing his form.

Here is brother Bill showing his bean bag form.

Sandy showing her form.

Mike showing his competitive side. Mike and Steve won our little tournament.

Ted was showing good form in spite of not being able to use his right arm.

Barb concentrated very hard trying to get her throw just right.

Mike cheering on his wife. He was saying "Go Mags, go!!"

And then Peggy would hit the hole!!

All in all it was a wonderful weekend with family. For Steve and I, it was a relaxing day that we really needed. The food was good, the pontoon ride was excellent. I will post pictures of some of the birds that we saw while going around the lake in another blog post. I know that I really miss the lakes, the pines tree and how nice it is in the north. We both really miss the lakes of the north country.