Kinloch Farm Blog

January 6 , 2008: A Quiet Week
It's been a quiet week here in the hills although a busy 'indoor work' week. The sheep are all back at the hill, and the tups are resting. Our training sheep have free run of a huge area at the moment, although we seem to have lost one! She has obviously made her escape over a rock wall somewhere.

We had several inches of snow on Friday. The dogs loved it. Tui went mouse-hunting and did her very best to imitate a coyote searching for gophers. Roy spent most of his time lying stretched out in the snow and then burying his head as deep as he could. Jet took great gulps of snow, while Ace and Kenny ran around totally perplexed by it all. Bailey has seen enough snow in Canada and she preferred to lie stretched out in front of a roaring fire. Smart dog! The snow soon turned to rain and our white wonderland is now a lake.

Kinloch Tui playing mouse-hunt in the snow.

Angie went off at a nursery trial yesterday - two trials in one day, to make up for an earlier postponement. It was the first trial since the New Year so everyone greeted each other warmly. We have a very friendly league but nonetheless competitive. The day started with warm greetings and ended with all the competitors shaking hands and swapping jokes/friendly jibes at the end of the 'awards' ceremony.

It costs £1.50 (about $3.00 American) to enter a trial in our league! Excellent value for the entertainment. You can't even buy popcorn at the movies for that price - and there's much more joviality at a sheepdog trial. Within the competition there is a knock-out competition. Each competitor gets paired with another and the person scoring the higher points of the two goes on to the next round while the lower scoring person gets knocked out. This adds a little bit of extra rivalry to the event.

Angie and Roy managed second and seventh placings in the morning and afternoon trials, respectively. It must have been the Shamrock Crook John and Edith had given her for Christmas that did it. The crook didn't give them any joy at the pen, though, as both pens were good displays of 'how not to.' There is always plenty of advice dispensed from the good handlers to new handlers, so Angie came home with a bit more determination to improve hers and Roy's penning abilities. Angie also made it through to the next round of the knock-out competition and is up against Gilbert Marshall in the next round. Unfortunately, a scheduling clash means Gilbert will likely get a bye to the subsequent round as Angie is unable to attend the next nursery competition.

We're off down south next week to visit some friends and have a run on some Black Hebridean sheep. We'll write about that in our next blog.

Archives:

December 29, 2007: If the Queen can, so can we.

December 19, 2007: Shepherd's Crooks and Irish Shamrocks

December 12, 2007: Gathering in the Snow

December 4 , 2007: Rain, Rain and more Rain

November 20, 2007: A Day to Forget

November 13, 2007: Back out Gathering

November 6, 2007: Some Down Time at Last.

October 26, 2007: A Day Out at the Tup (Ram) Sale.

October 22, 2007: Pheasant Shooters.

October 15, 2007: Trials, Trials and more Trials.

October 2, 2007: Back to Work.

September 17, 2007: The International Sheepdog Trial, Ireland