June 7, 2011: TGIR
Thank goodness it's raining! Since my little holiday away in Scotland, the weather has been perfect....perfect for exacting carnage upon the thistle population. This is brutal work, especially when it is hot. Without a quad bike, I have been walking my spray pack up the hill in all my protective clothing - in the heat. It's my own private Alcatraz! I have not been this stiff in a long time...and my knees are being crucified. As a 'rest' from spraying, I've been busy with my brush cutter as well. Not too long now before I burn the engine out on that. A wee trip to the machinery store the other day saw me oogling over a new brushcutter...but, holy cow, you should see the price of these things - £449!!!! I'd better nurse my existing one a little longer. (yes, I did oogle over quad bikes, ride on mowers and chainsaws too).

We finally got our two full meshed gates which have replaced half mesh gates in our puppy play area. The youngsters had discovered they can fit between the two top bars of the half mesh gates and make their bid for freedom. Ah-ha, now we have plugged that escape route. The little toads have now decided it is fun to get through the gates into the hay shed, and love to spend time jumping up and down on hay bales. Only problem is, they discovered they can jump on the top of the hay stack and then out the back side of the shed...to freedom. Yesterday two pups (Pepper and Spice) were seen disappearing up the track to the hill. Luckily they were seen! Back to jail they went...thankfully, they came quite readily. My new task is to puppy proof the gates to the hayshed.

Yesterday I took a bunch of dogs running...well, running might be an exaggeration as it was more a walk-run escapade than a full on run. Walk the hills...run the flat! We ventured into the forest and then came back down through the hayfields. On the way down, I saw all our ewes and lambs running full speed across the hill. I thought that a bit odd at the time, until I did a count of dogs. One missing! Kelvin's dog, Blade, was nowhere to be seen...and despite repeated calls, he was not coming back of his own volition. I hurried to get all the dogs away in their kennels and back up the hill I went. Still no response to my requests for him to come back. You can imagine how hot under the collar I was by the time I was back at the top of the hill. Shoot, I was already tired from my 'run' and a trip back up the hill so soon was not on the cards! It took a while to spot where he was, holding a handfull of sheep to a gate, and when he saw me, no way was he going to come to me. No, uh-uh, he was quite happy to have a wee roll in the grass and ignore me...until he could no longer ignore my lasso around his neck and the balling out he got. I doubt he will ignore a that'll do command from me for a long while to come. NOT IMPRESSED! Good to get a bit of extra exercise though. I could do with that....just not the circumstances!

Kelvin was on 'holiday' last week. Not much of a holiday when there are a million things to do around the farm...garden, juggling gates, fixing fences etc. He managed to fix a garden seat so now we can sit and look at the bamboo growing in the pond. Soon we will also have a wee seat to sit on in the training field. At the moment, our 'perch' is an old log which has done its time as a fence post at some point. It isn't the most comfortable of perches, but it does the job. The new seat won't be flash but it will be something.

My young dogs have been put through their paces this week. Kobe is coming on in leaps and bounds. He is starting to really get the idea of shedding and is quite tenacious about holding sheep away. I am really pleased with how he is coming along. He is a quiet wee fella on the surface but he seems to have a real determination about him that I'm starting to see. My boy is growing up! The older dogs have had the week off. Sioux is still injured and she looks like she will be out for a few more weeks yet. Darn! We'll be off trialling somewhere this weekend...any excuse to have a day off work!

Happy trialling!