October 28, 2008: Trial news and dolls. Yes, dolls!
We have had another wet week in Wales. The road has become a waterfall; the fields sodden. There hasn't been much training on the go as we don't want the sheep to develop pneumonia in the cold, wet conditions. If we train, it has to be in the morning and for short stints only. We had a nursery trial on Saturday and the rain stayed away for the most part. Thankfully!

Another good week for Ace as she managed to eek out her second win in both the puppy and nursery classes. The sheep were quite light but manageable around the course if the dogs were kind, but in the shedding ring, they were like glue. They were exceptionally difficult to separate and the minute you thought you had a gap, they would run behind you and join up again. Frustrating. Penning was similarly frustrating as one sheep would go one way, another in the opposite direction and the other two, well they were unpredictable. Ace managed to get the shed but the pen escaped her and Angie this week. Many people timed up in the shed, and if not, the pen caught the rest. Only two people penned all day long and both were done well. Iestyn Owen, a young handler, had the most beautiful pen of the day. Hard fought and well won. Ioan Jones, another young handler, just about got his sheep in the pen after a very entertaining (for the spectators) battle but the bell rang to signal time up. In the ensuing 10 seconds, Ioan muscled the sheep into the pen just to let the sheep know he was indeed the boss. Both boys put on a terrific performance. They are exciting young handlers and you'll see and hear more of them in the future. Remember, you read this here first!

Ace's brother, Kenny, has come to stay for the week while his owner is off on holiday. If Kenny thought he was coming to holiday camp, he was wrong (sort of). While he is being totally spoilt, he has also been out doing a little bit of training as well. Why? Well, Kenny's owner wants Angie to run Kenny in this week's nursery! That should be fun...and if not, certainly entertaining! Angie has been practising Kenny's whistles which are opposite to Ace's! Hopefully Angie will remember Ace's whistles this week (!) and then not confuse Kenny by giving him the wrong ones. Gosh, there is so much to learn about trialling...and then you have to remember to put it all together on the day. Sometimes it just doesn't happen (or perhaps we should say, occasionally it all comes together).

We lost one our chickens this week. Misadventure! That's what many a farmer says when they lose stock. Don't ask! We have been trying to catch one of our roosters to donate to a young lad who is mad keen on them. At the moment the rooster is performing death dying acts to avoid capture - and he is annoyingly successful at this. He even stays outside all night and manages to evade marauding foxes. Today he was seen covered in hail. The darned thing wouldn't dare go in the henhouse for fear we'd lock him in. He's also totally petrified of the other rooster. The boys don't play nicely in the henhouse!

On a totally different track...we were working away on the computer today when all of a sudden an on-line text message popped up on our screen. It was our friend Alec in Canada. Now Alec is an amazing person - one of the most talented Communications experts in Canada, and someone with more humility and humanity than most people will ever know in their lifetimes. He is a good friend; a true friend. Anyway, in the course of chatting, Alec mentioned that his wife Bonnie has a new hobby. Judge for yourself just how talented Bonnie is! Dolls might not be everyone's cup of tea but come on, you have to admit, these are full of character and charm. We often go to Alec and Bonnie for advice but we've got some advice for Bonnie, "give up your day job, girl!"

The pups are doing fine. They got their introduction to collars and leads this week. Some took to this quite easily while others did darned good renditions of monkeys on a string. They were not impressed with any form of restraint. Most of them recall quite quickly to a whistle so even if they get away, one does not have to chase after them. We've had to be careful when taking them out on walks because there is so much water gushing down the road that they could well be sucked into a drain. We tend to stick to the field above the house on days like this. The pups like this as there are sheep in this field! Yes, they love sheep.

Well that's it!