Glorified Butcher

Today was full of blood and guts.  No, the Jack Russells have been behaving - there has been no murders done by them these days.  And the young border collies are behaving quite nicely - no ravaging of the sheep has been done.  The murder scene was seen at work today.  Not only do I get to chop the heads off of cows, but occasionally I get to take the eyeballs out of cows.  You see, some cows develop cancer around their eye, and in order for them to remain comfortable, I do delicate surgery to remove the bad tissue.  Okay, in reality, it is a glorified butcher job - only this butcher uses freezing instead of a freezer. 

Not only did I take one eye out, I took three eyes out-three cows owned by one rancher (Did I really have to do the math for you?   Surely nobody thought I took both eyes out of one cow, or that there are three eyed cows!).  The blind bovidae kept coming and coming -I wondered if there was no end in sight.  In the end, three cows did not have sight in one eye.  It looks as if they will have a pain free winter - the pain will be trying to herd these girls- especially since among the three of them, there isn't one right eye - just left ones.  You see?

Oh, and the guts to this story - sometimes you have to have the guts to remove the most foul smelling material from the uterus of a cow just before supper.

You didn't see that coming did you?

The Alberta Experience Continued.

After being dog tired, Lisa and I arose to the smell of gluten free Bacon (probably because the pigs did not eat bread) and eggs (delivered lovingly from Randy's hens - who likely were unionized, since they worked half time, laying an egg every other day).
Who would want to work making eggs if they lived in a mansion?

The mansion was in front of the servant's quarters.

 After breakfast, we walked the dogs quickly.

And training resumed.
Lisa put some moves on Flint.

 And then she brought out Gyp and showed her off.

 Nanny Bannany showed that she was keen.

Things were going good until when Randy gave me  some important information.  He informed me that Don had called, relaying the message that Floss (who was to have an important date with Ky) was only out with the other male dogs for a short time...he didn't thing anything happened while she was left alone with them.

Yup, hook, line and sinker. Randy got me good.  Look out, your day will come.

I was pleased with Kelly - in a mere 12 hours, she seemed to comprehend what "Lie down" meant.

Don Grant came out and showed off his young dogs - Ky (Kelly's and Flint's older brother), Gem and Cher (Sonny wasn't around). 
As I was in too much in awe on the amount of training he did on his young dogs, I forgot to take pictures of them.

I tied Kelly at the bottom of the stairs, and we went upstairs to watch other young dogs.  Abe Marshall came along and showed off his young bitch and young dog pup.  As he was working, Kelly started barking downstairs...but when I went down, she was not there.  Crap, did she sneak outside?  I went outside and called her name. I saw Ky tied up to Don's truck, but no Kelly in sight.  Really, losing your dog twice within 12 hours?  You've got to be kidding!

Then I smelled something ....very fishy.  I found Kelly locked in a stall - Don...watch out...your day will come as well.

Val's kitchen was open, and she fed us lunch.  Soon it was time to go - Lisa made her way back home to Athabasca, and I headed back to Saskatchewan-to a slower pace of life..

However, there was to be another small stop.

I stopped to visit Chris Jobe and Mildred Barry - and to bum a bed since it was getting late in the day.  Puppies were played with, and a few sheep were worked.

 Her young Ike was hiked up!

 Feeling cocky, I brought Nan and Kelly into the open field - look mom, no walls!

Then it was time to go home.  A stop was done to get a few groceries, and the weekend was over. 

It is always nice to have a working dog weekend, it jumpstarts myself to get out and work on the dogs.  I think this year will be filled with a few more of these "Gone To The Dogs" weekends. 

 

The First Week Of 2013

The first week of January is over with, and with it, the Christmas season is over - the roads are seen with trucks filled with Christmas trees, and the occasional ditch with a tree (obviously not thrown out by tree huggers, since they would be with the tree in the ditch-although it would be nice to seen them thrown out as well).  The Ukrainians have finished their Christmas today, donning their rubber boots for the season.  All we have to wait for now- is the Chinese New Year (that will be February 10th) and celebrate with the snake - and this could be with snakes if that is the type of crowd you hang around with.

My first week of 2013 turned to be slightly busy - taking inventory at work - I'd fall asleep at night counting pills not sheep-perhaps I should have taken a sleeping pill - but then I would have to recount those as well. On the weekend, a quick trip was made to Alberta - a whirlwind, 48 hour trip.   First of all, a couple of Jack Russell pups named Murano (or Murray) and Kaslo made the trip with me to find their new home- another crazy household was created.   Floss was dropped off at Don Grant's for a visit with Ky (Gin and Don's prodigal son), and I brought Kelly (Ky's younger sister) and Nan, to the famous Dye residence in Bowden.  I got there in time for supper, but a little excitement was to be had prior to any supper.  I let the two dogs out at Eagle Creek, and let them stretch their legs...Kelly, however, decided to stretch her legs a slight too much.  I had asked her to jump back into the truck, but she had different thoughts, and she scooted off towards the bush when she decided myself calling her name meant to run as fast as you can in the other direction.  I went into to announce my arrival - placing a bottle of rye on the Dye's counter and finally spitting out that I had just lost my dog.  Randy (who had originally had Kelly for the first 8 months of her life) got on his quad, with the hopes of sucking her out.  I sucked wind as I rode with Randy on the quad, hoping I wouldn't fall off.  I do believe Randy may have a slight loss of hearing for the screaming I was doing as he was driving.  Lisa Wright was also there, and she came out, and a track was found - and this was known to be true since Kelly was dragging a line from her collar - it was a new episode of Dogtracker - the guide and his apprentice was on their way to finding my hound.  After trudging in the bush,  it looked as if Kelly was making her way to the road, so Lisa and I planned to jump into her truck and meet Randy at the road - but lo and behold who does appear but Kelly - asking"Where are you guys going without me?".   She was quickly put away with a loving pat (no truly!) and supper was had...and a tranquilizer (aka Caesar).  After supper, we went out and did a little dog training - yes, even Kelly was removed out of purgatory.  She seemed to forget everything that bothered her and make the Barbados sheep wish they were back on their homeland.  Kelly's brother, Flinty McGinty (the famous radish eating dog) also showed his prowess in moving ovine.  The other young dogs, Nan (mine) and Gyp (Lisa's) were put on the sheep - and moments of brilliance were seen. For the newbie people training their new dogs, if someone says your dog is pretty, it actually  is code for - what a piece of crap!  We agreed our dogs were pretty ugly.

After the training night, we ended off with a night cap - well, okay, a few night caps. 

The Alberta Experience would continue in about 8 hours.  Please stay tuned.

Another Year Gone By The Wayside

2012, there it is, done...over with...finito.

The year seemed to have gone by in blistering speed - and along the way was blisters on the feet from all the running around we had done.

From travelling to dog trials held across North America - Bowman, Drayton Valley, Bowden, Olds, Calgary, Kingston, Meeker, Shaunovan, Klamath Falls, Edmonton, Regina- to hosting a trial in our backyard in McCord - some of the year literally went to the dogs.

 

 

 

 

 Other times of the year was spend with friends and family - whether that was to celebrate a marriage, birthday, anniversary, birth - and even a life.

 

Then there were the other times of the year - the yearly progress of babies in the spring,

 

 shearing sheep, moving out to pasture,

 

 and finally the trip to the market.

 

As we travel our way out of 2012, we hope that all our friends and family have great prosperity in 2013.

I just hope it doesn't take me until April to remember to put 2012, oops I mean 2013 on cheques.