Petropolis Super Highway

Still no word on the house yet. I won't hear anything now until at least Monday.

This weekend is going to be spent packing boxes, and cleaning out rooms and getting them ready to have the walls scrubbed down and stuff. I am so glad I have the time to do this slowly. This is a ton of work.

I hadn't been on Sheepdog-L in a while. I just spent the last two hours reading good working discussions and debate ... something I haven't found in a long time on the BC Boreds. It's sad because the Boreds used to be a really cool place to go to learn about stockdogs. Now you can sit there and learn how many people are breeding dogs that shouldn't even own them, shoving treats in dog's mouths for all the wrong reasons, whose dog needs its anal glands squeezed, see the 100th thread on the LED sheepdog video from the UK, talk yet again about how good of a dog trainer Cesar Milan is or isn't, or debate with puppymills about who has the "right" to breed dogs. No matter the topic, no matter the person, no matter how many useless litters the person continues to breed, no matter how much advertising they do on the site for the pay-per-month blog, no matter how much very poor information some of the members repeatedly give out, as long as they are nice, they are allowed to continue posting till death do they part.

There are a few exceptions to this ... a few people who actually put out good information. They are easy to spot and they know who I mean.

But for the most part, the Boreds have turned into Petropolis Super Highway, where dogs live without pressure, and owners wonder why they get bit - where posts discussing working dogs or photos thereof are largely ignored, save for the 3 or 4 people on the Boreds that actually work dogs and stick around. The resident "big hat" is there to answer questions posed by an individual, but no one is allowed to join in the discussion. Post a message about how "all positive" training is for the birds, and watch the fur fly! Many good handlers have disappeared from the Boreds because they are tired of being told how "mean" they are or because you get trounced if you're not politically correct to all of the ridiculousness all of the time. I can certainly see how it gets old. It's really too bad because, like I said, the Boreds used to be a great place where people who actually worked dogs would come and hang out. Not so much anymore. And every time someone mentions that fact on the Boreds, there is a quick flurry of working dog activity, but is always followed up by the crickets that showed up here earlier in the week.

Makes me wonder why the stark contrast between Sheepdog-L and the Boreds. Hmmmm. I don't need to wonder too long, I suppose.

Well, the temperature seems to have dropped from 103 to 102, so I'd better get back to packing.

Happy tails,
Jodi

House photos

In hopes that I am still going to get this house, here are a few photos of it.

This is one of the backyard areas.



One of the several small fenced areas. This one has a little building in the back.


See?


Another one of the penned areas with a small structure.


Here's a better view of that one.


Another one of the backyard areas.


The back porch:


Part of one of the front pastures


This is where the other 1/3 of the property is. The mobile home on there is a giant mouse house that will be the first thing to go if I get this.


The living room:


If you look left, you have the breakfast nook.


If you look right, you have the french doors to the patio.


The kitchen:


The bathroom. (See Janie's head? She's standing in the "2nd bedroom" which is just a dog room...)


The issue with the bathroom. The subfloor is not good.


The master bedroom:


Here's what a wonderful photographer I am. This is the "2nd bedroom" ... it's a tiny little room and I couldn't back out enough to get a good shot of it.


I am still very hopeful that I will get this place. I am looking forward to cleaning it up, painting it, and making it my home. To me, it has tons of potential. Can't wait to see what the outside looks with a little mowing and some water.

Keep good thoughts.

Jodi

The Crickets are Deafening

I am supposed to hear whether or not my offer on the house was accepted by 1:00 p.m. today. I wish I could sleep till then.

Time is Getting Away

I finally sat down tonight, and it's already 11:00. Where does the time go???

I'm chomping at the bit waiting to hear word about whether or not my offer was accepted on the house. But ... I am busy packing all the same. I wanted to take my time in putting my dad's Budweiser steins away so they won't break in the move. I had no newspaper, though. So I hopped in the truck and headed down to the little convenience store to see about getting a Sunday paper or two. Can you believe it? The Idaho Statesman is $2.00 on Sundays!!!!! WTF??? Even if you buy them on Monday night!!! What a ripoff. But the guy in the store pitied me and sold them to me for the daily rate of $ .75 each. I bought 4 of them. Came home and carefully packed three boxes of those awesome Christmas steins. Now I need to take the rack off the wall, all the nails out of the walls from the plates I had hanging up, and get the walls clean some time this week. That will take care of the entire dining room.

Justin came by today and cleaned out all the crap in his room that he left here when he moved out. That room is um ... not the nicest looking room in the house. The carpet throughout needs to be replace, but the walls in his room are pretty bad. There are several holes in the walls around the house. I will need to pick up some stuff to fill them with so at least all the landlord will have to do is paint and replace the carpet. The carpet was old when we moved in. It's older now.

I finished packing the books in the hallway as well, so that's entirely done now too. So ... two empty bedrooms, an empty dining room, an empty hallway ... it's getting there. The living room will be easy. My bedroom will be a giant pain in the ass, as will both bathrooms and the kitchen. I'll just keep plugging away at it though. The dog room is going to get done Wednesday night. I hope.

I had someone write me tonight from the past (who I asked to lose my email address) ... to tell me she enjoys my blog ... but it didn't take her long to tell me I was judgmental, that I need to grow up, that I'm an unhappy person, and that I have a problem with a lot of people. But thankfully, she clarified for me that she is not a judgmental person. Whew! And so happy she follows right along with my adventures. What would I do without my fans?

Justin watched Jag for me while I was at the trial this weekend. Sunday night, Jag stayed at Justin's apartment, so I was here with Zip and Echo. While I love these two dogs, I felt so vulnerable and it took me a long time to fall asleep. Looking at Jag tonight, he's aging pretty quickly on me. The lumps are all over his body and his eyes have a certain sadness in them at times that just breaks my heart. I can't think about this yet.

Ok ... I've been really bad about posting photos. Nothing intentional ... just haven't found the time. Here's some from some Tuesday night lessons with Dianne from early in July, along with the photos from the "Stay-cation" at Janie's house for the 4th of July.

Jaenne's Mo in the front, and Tiffany's Aussie in the back.

(I know that a lot of people feel the merle BCs look like Aussies. Most of the time, to me, there's a world of difference.)

Rusty (H/R Howdy) on a drive away.




Scout:


Mo again:


Scout again:


Stay-cation photos. Here's the view from Kirk & Janie's.


My cute little trailer:


The hangout spot (irrigation canal right behind the tree):


My big baby dog, Jag.


Alright already! "GET IN!" (Ducking the bullet from Dianne)


The monster.


The Jag.


Damn, I just love this dog.






Ok ... this dog can stay too ... for now.


Our wonderful hosts, Janie and Kirk.


Mr. Charming.


Zip again.




Jag was really enjoying himself as well. I'm sure this felt good for his hips.


Isn't he adorable? All 85 lbs. of him? Even at 11 years old?




Janie is still teaching Kirk how to read.


Here's Jaenne's Kip and Echo.


Zip.


Jag.


A cool shot. No, I didn't do anything to it.


This one will be blown up and framed for safe keeping. The look on Jag's face is everything Jag is to me.


Zippy. Pretty svelte when he's wet, eh?


Mo


And Jag.


I am not done editing these yet ... I know I'm missing the photos of the fireworks and some other stuff I shot. Who knows when I will get to it, though.

I have some photos from this past weekend that I will try to get to this week amidst packing and stuff. I also haven't done the photos from the Saturday of the Big Willow trial. And I was going to send someone photos from the ASCA trial from months ago as well and still haven't gotten around to that. Ugh. I need to get caught up. Sorry.

Hopefully, there will be some pretty major changes happening in my life here pretty soon. I am dying to get out of this house and all of the memories it holds for me. I miss Justin terribly, as I haven't seen him in weeks, although I talk to him a couple of times a week. Without him here, though, this house looms over me and I've come to pretty much hate it. It's time to move on. A new start. A fresh outlook. A change of scenery.

We'll see.
Jodi

Athena Trial

People are asking how Athena went. I have pictures and stuff, but the energy to post it all is lacking. The short version ... I suck. Sent Echo on the way long 100 yard outrun on Saturday and she threatened to cross over, got her to stay on her side, but she still was very very tight (like right up the middle type) which pushed the sheep behind the setout trailer, and I wasn't about to send her back there to see how things turned out, so I called the run.

Sunday ... outrun was tight. Lift was fast. We, however, made the friggin' center panel for the first time in our lives. But that, unfortunately, was the only high point in the whole run. Turn around the post was sloppy at best. The driveaway was ok, although I was not in the picture much. Turn into the crossdrive, and there was no down to be had, so the crossdrive was the lovely "M" shaped "crossdrive." I am still not part of the equation, so I am not sure why I walked over to the pen with her, but I did. We went ring around the rosy a couple of times before I finally found my brain and called the run.

After receiving the wonderful "shoulda" advice from my fellow handlers afterwards, I made my way back to my trailer and headed out feeling like a real schmuck. But that's ok. Live and learn.

I will be pulling Echo from anything I have her signed up for right now and put trialing on hold until I figure out how to do this.

Photos later.

Jodi

Late Update

Sorry ... I know ... I haven't updated this thing. First off, whoever got me hooked on FarmTown ... come here so I can smack you.

I have tons to update. There's some movement in the way of getting approval for the home loan. It's approved. I'm trying to work a few things out so I can get the house I'm looking at. It might not happen. I'm ok with that. I will keep looking.

Got some good pix from the 4th. Will edit them and update the blog after the trial this weekend.

Athena this weekend. Running Echo in pro-novice. Jaenne, Mark and I are going to bring my little trailer out and camp out. Highland games and all ... should be fun.

Found some work for Zip. Have a novice handler that is looking to get into herding, but doesn't want to add another dog to the pack, so she is going to borrow Zip for lessons. He will live with me, and will go to Janie's with us for lessons with his new handler. I am sure he will love that.

Anyway, I'm beat and need to get to bed. Colleen, I hope you're having a good time at the WMA and hope you have a safe trip home. I look forward to the pix.

Jodi

Surgical Removal

I'm sick of being sick. Caught a cold some time at the end of last week and am having a hell of a time shaking it. I really want to get back into working out, but my chest lights up as if on fire if I so much as sneeze. Sux.

Looked at another house tonight. I love it! It needs some work, but for $100K for almost two acres, you can't beat it. I think I will look a little more seriously at this one. I love the location. No neighbors! Right across the street from a wildlife preserve and a huge lake.

Worked Echo a bit tonight. We needed to move the sheep from one arena, though the pens and alleyways and stuff into the round pen for an instinct test. This is not a hard transition, however, it requires patience on the part of the dog, and you're putting the dog in very very tight spaces and asking it not to lose its head. This is something Zip and I have done a bazillion times and he does with his eyes closed and without ever riling up the sheep. Doing it with Echo, however, is a little more ... "fun" ...

Tonight, though, she was a pro. My voice never became more than a whisper. And next time I go down this alleyway, I am bringing a giant pair of shears! There's so much overgrowth there now, you almost don't know there's a walkway. Anyway, pushed the sheep down it, and we never crammed them up against the gate. Called Echo to me so I could open the gate without getting run over. This required her to plaster herself along the fence and most past the sheep. Did that very quietly. She held them off the gate while I opened it, and then I sent her blindly into the very narrow alleyway and she handled it perfectly. No popcorn. No slicing, no dicing, no lamb chops. Five sheep came calmly through the gate with a nice calm dog following behind. Trusting her more and more and really enjoying using her for stuff like this.

Had dinner with Janie and Kirk and made some plans for the weekend. Need to firm up what to BBQ and stuff.

Came home pretty late. Was just reading Facebook. What an odd place that is. There is some interesting stuff ... some funny stuff ... some pretty stupid stuff ... so you get quite a variety. What I have been noticing lately ... as far as sheepdog people ... there are open handlers whose success speaks for itself ... and then there are the wannabes who sit on the fence. They don't particularly have an opinion of their own, but instead agree with everyone. And they will comment just to put their name up there with the big hats (most of whom are several states away and she's never even met).

"Lipstick? Yes, I like lipstick. But only if you like it. If you don't like it, then I don't like it either. Red lipstick. Yes, red is good. Oh you don't like red? Me either. Pink is my favorite. You like pink? Yeah, me too. That's good."

Right down to their choice of where to get a puppy (not once stopping to consider that perhaps the dog is not the problem in the equation).

Some of these handlers better not stop too fast, because they'd have this fence-sitting wannabe so far up their ass, they would have to have her surgically removed.

Looking forward to a fun 4th of July weekend! And I can't help it, but I am getting excited about submitting an application for a home loan. I have my doubts about being able to swing it, but I can dream, can't I? If nothing else, I'm having a blast looking at the houses for sale.

Off to lala land, hoping that when I wake up, I feel better than ... what I have been lately.

(Hey Katy, I was going to write, "feel better than scattered ass" ... but decided to UD that term and this is what it says scattered ass is.)

Jodi