Winds of War - Part 2

Well, after the completion of the Big One, we all moved south to go to Joni Swanke's for the Slash J trial. The morning of the trial, we saw the Big One as a far away memory.

The set out people were made of mostly of those who stayed at Joni's house. I stayed in the chalet (aka dog kennel). Sheep were set by horse, and mornings were early...very early.

It didn't take long for a program to work out, Tom had twisted his ankle helping Jim (Notso) Swift pull out his camper out of the field after have gotten stuck, so that ended Tom's job as cowboy. The likes of Amanda, Joni, Mindy, Terri and myself had to fill into his very large boots.


After we ran our dogs on the (once again) challenging field, we would go up on top to help.

Most of us would catch some shut eye anywhere we could get it.

There was one blistering hot day, and North Dakota looked like the beaches of Mexico. All that was missing was the Mexican Midgets.

Like all trials, we brought out the new dogs to get accustomed to the trial atmosphere. Louanne's Joe will possibly run nursery in 2013. The Chihuahua Stakes.

Gin made sure her youngsters toed the line. Ty tried his best not to.

One day he will learn.

After burning the tips of my ears, I went shopping for a hat. Who could think $1.00 could buy such a fashionable statement.

Fly, even though she has been retired, was determine to help each and every handler with their run.

Speaking about fashion, the illlustrious USBCHA President Herbert Holmes showed off his new spring line in the way of man purses.

The night before the double lift, we had a sing-a-long. Some sang along, some thought they sang along.

Our food court was always ready with food-Amanda's Ristorante!

Every day it was watching the dogs, visiting with friends from all corners of North America.

Even the dogs watched.

Our eyes judged every run. Barbara Ray the real judge could have slept, we could have done her job for her.

Even Creed judged the runs.

And the Zoerb dogs scribed.

Gin and I with 14 other teams got to play in the double lift. I made sure I wore my lucky hat.

Allison Holmes had a prettier lucky hat than me.

Denis Gellings had a real lucky hat - he was one of the few who successfully penned.

In the end, the Amazing Amanda walked away with the gold plate (okay, really it was nice pottery).

The sheep were not sad to see us go, but little did they know they had a date with Aled Owen the next few days. They probably counted dogs at night to fall asleep.

Stay tuned next time, when the next episode visits Moses, as the parting of the waters occur. Holy Moses.