Hiatus for a day

Since I have been battling the flu and it as of now, has won, this is all you are going to get for today. Tomorrow I will do the Titan whistle review.


Back to bed!! URGH!!

Featured Store - BorderCollics Anonymous

I love this store, " BorderCollics Anonymous." I plan to spend more money here. So far, I got two whistles from them. Excellent customer service and the best of all, fellow handlers. I asked Betsy to give me a brief bio and she sent this. Tomorrow I will do the review for the new Ttian whistle!! Support your fellow handler!!

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In our real life we own and operate a manufacturing company in New Hampshire: http://www.brailsford.com/ which pays the mortgage and keeps all the animals fed. It has a full machine shop where Rob makes his whistles, and is where I keep my inventory and do my BorderCollics shipping from.

Rob made his first whistle (the Big Blaster) in an attempt to replicate finger whistling, which he couldn't do. He used brass because it has the most pure sound and resonates further than any other metal. All fine wind instruments that don't use a reed, commonly have nickel or silver plated brass mouth pieces. His designs expanded as people at trials requested different sizes and shapes, and he began making whistles that were no longer available from their original designers. He frequently makes custom sizes and shapes out of brass, stainless steel and aluminum when people request them.

Rob is the trialing addict in the family, and living with a true Border Collie addict either drives you insane forces you to have a sense of humor and an outlet of your own. With so much of my free time is spent at dog trials or talking about dogs & livestock, it only made sense to relate those things to an outlet of my own. Thus, BorderCollics Anonymous. It gives me a chance to express some creativity of my own while still circulating in the same universe as my husband. I have an in-house adviser when it comes to new products, and I get a pretty good deal on the whistles.

Don't mess with Betsy or Rob!!

Rob makes his whistles and I run BorderCollics for the same reason - it's fun. When it's not fun, we won't do it anymore. We don't earn the bulk of our income from them so we don't need to compete with anyone else, and our only concern is that people are satisfied with what we sell them. If they're not, it's not fun anymore.

In the U.S., Rob's whistles are only sold through BorderCollics Anonymous, and a handful of trainers. In Europe they're sold through the ISDS Sheepdog Shop & Colliewobbles

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In case you are wondering, I am not paid to do this. I  did this because I love their products, love their customer service and they are just good  people!! Any products on my blogs are written because I feel like and not because I am paid to or asked.

Good Bye Frank

This is Frank as a little puppy. He was the cutest fuzz ball, ever!!

Airplane ears!

Tess teaching Frank how to drive.

Frank has gone to his new home in Georgia. He will be in charge os a sheep farm. We look forward to updates on him and he will be "King of the Hill"

Pups available soon

Puppies due in mid March

DeltaBluez Roo x Faye

Roo (Scott Glen's Pleat x DeltaBluez Tess)

Faye (L&M Nana x Jo Woodbury Imp Drift)

Roo and Faye are DNA Normal. CERF is Normal. Hips passed/good.

Roo is an Open winner on Cattle and Sheep. Roo ran in the USBCHA Catrledog Nursery Finals and in that same year, qualified for the USBCHA Sheepdog Nursery Finals. He also ran in the 2009 USBCHA Sheepdog Finals.

Faye ran in CBCA Nursery and placed well. Faye works cattle and sheep. Faye runs in PN trials and is very successful.

Nan is Faye's dam. Nan's sister is Tommy Wilson's Sly. Imp Drift is the 2003 Scottish Nursery Champion. Nan's sire is Imp Spot-owned by Michelle Howard and was 2002 Scottish reserve Nursery Champion. 

Roo's sire is Scott Glen's Pleat, a USBCHA National Finals Champion. His dam, Tess was one of the few dog to ger her ABCA papers on merit (ROM). These pups are loaded with proven dogs.

 Working or trial homes only. Contact me for details.

Hand Art

Sent to me by a friend. These are so awesome.

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Never Wash Your Hands?  It'll take him four hours to do one hand. He then photographs it for posterity. I cannot imagine how he does it, the eyes are so remarkably  lifelike. It took him 10 hours to do the two-handed Eagle picture.

Ice Dancing Critique

We were watching the Oylmpics and the "Ice Dancing" came on. I love ice skating but the ice dancing soon put me into a coma. After I woke up, I went into the kitchen for a snack and asked Tess to critique the rest of the show for me.

She bravely took my place on the couch.

But she soon fell into a coma also.

Are people really this dumb?

A friend sent this to me. These are quite funny. You can't make this stuff up! Make sure you read all the way to the end.

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NEW YORK - resident Kathy Evans brought humiliation to her friends and family when she set a new standard for stupidity with her appearance on the popular TV show, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.'

Evans, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, got stuck on the first question and proceeded to make what fans of the show are dubbing 'the absolute worst use of lifelines ever.' After being introduced to the show's host Meredith Vieira, Evans was posed with a typically easy initial $100 question.

The question was: 'Which of the following is the largest?'

A) A Peanut
B) An Elephant

C) The Moon

D) Hey, who you calling large?

Immediately Mrs. Evans was struck with an all consuming panic as she did not readily know the answer. 'Hmm, oh boy, that's a toughie,' said Evans, as Vieira did her level best to hide her disbelief.

'I mean, I'm sure I've heard of some of these things before, but I have no idea how large they would be.'

Evans made the decision to use the first of her three lifelines, the

50/50.

Answers A and D were removed, leaving her to decide which was bigger, an elephant or the moon. However, faced with an incredibly easy question, Evans still remained unsure.

'Oh! It removed the two I was leaning towards!' exclaimed Evans....

'Darn. I think I better phone a friend.' Mrs. Evans asked to be connected with her friend Betsy, who is an office assistant.

'Hi Betsy! How are you? This is Kathy! I'm on TV!' said Evans, wasting the first seven seconds of her call.

'Ok, I got an important question. Which of the following is the largest? B, an elephant, or C, the moon. 15 seconds hun.'

Betsy quickly replied that the answer was C, the moon.

Evans proceeded to argue with her friend for the remaining ten seconds. 'Betsy, are you sure?' said Evans. 'How sure are you? Duh, that can't be it.'

To everyone's astonishment, the moronic Evans declined to take her friend's advice. 'I just don't know if I can trust Betsy. She's not all that bright.

So I think I'd like to ask the audience,' said Evans.

Asked to vote on the correct answer, the audience returned 98% in favor of answer C, 'The Moon.' Having used up all her lifelines, Evans then made the dumbest choice of her life.

'Wow, seems like everybody is against what I'm thinking,' said the too-stupid-to-live Evans. 'But you know, sometimes you just got to go with your gut. So, let's see... I'm going to have to go with B, an elephant. Final answer.'

Evans sat before the dumbfounded audience, the only one waiting with bated breath - and was told that she was wrong, and that the answer was in fact, C, 'The Moon.'

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Some guy bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying: 'Free to good home. You want it, you take it.' For three days the fridge sat there without anyone looking twice. He eventually decided that people were too mistrustful of this deal. So he changed the sign to read: 'Fridge for sale $50.'

The next day someone stole it!

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I stopped at Mc Donald's and ordered some fries.

The girl behind the counter said "would you like some fries with that?"

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One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when someone shouted.... 'Look at that dead bird!'

Someone looked up at the sky and said...'where?'

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While looking at a house, my brother asked the estate agent which direction was north because

he didn't want the sun waking him up every morning.

She asked, 'Does the sun rise in the north?'

My brother explained that the sun rises in the east and has for sometime. She shook her head and said, 'Oh, I don't keep up with all that stuff......'

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My colleague and I were eating our lunch in our cafeteria, when we overheard an admin girl talking about the sunburn she got on her weekend drive to the beach.

She drove down in a convertible, but said she 'didn't think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving'.

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My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car which is designed to cut through a seat belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the car trunk.

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I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring attached to an earring by a chain.

My friend said, 'Ouch! The chain must rip out every time she turns her head!"

I had to explain that a person's nose and ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned....

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I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area and. went to the lost luggage office and reported the loss.

The woman there smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional and

said I was in good hands. 'Now,' she asked me,  'Has your plane arrived yet?'...

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While working at a pizza parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time then said 'Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6 pieces.

Sunday Funnies

Subtle but strong - Corian Whistle Review

I’ve been looking to change my whistles since the ones I have been using are too hard. I was using the brass baby blaster, which is too heavy for me. I also was using the plastic whistles, which made my tones sound hard, and as a result, my dog ran on the edge. I have used many whistles and still wasn’t quite happy with one. In addition, to top it off, my whistling since the heart surgery has been hard for me. That is because when the Doctors did the second Major Open heart surgery, they closed me up incorrectly and didn’t line me up so my sternum is off kilter and it affects my lungs. I can’t get the correct draw of air sometimes. Therefore, I had to relearn my whistles and I was struggling with it.

I went to a Patrick Shannahan lesson and he noted that my sounds from my plastic whistles were hard and made my dogs run on the edge. I tried to soften them but it was not working. We had a talk about how the sound of the whistles and the amounts of whistles can either make or break your run. Nan and Roo are hard, fast dogs so this just merely amped them up.

We worked on me controlling my whistles and I got better. Patrick suggested trying a Corian whistles since it might have a better tone for me. So, I went home and ordered a Corian whistle from BorderCollics Anonymous and it arrived in record time. For those of you that know about BorderCollics Anonymous, it a owned by Betsy Drummond, who is married to Rob, a Border Collie handler.

It arrived on Saturday so I didn’t have time to practice with it with the dogs before I went to the trial on Sunday. I did regal my husband in the house with it and soon he fled to his studio. I did play “Mary had a little lamb” for him once and was quite proud of my whistling skills until he said that he never heard “Mary had a little lamb” all in one note before. This time, I didn’t ask him for any critique of my whistling but I did see he didn’t flee as quickly as he had done before.

The Corian Maxi Whistle in triangular shape, which is different that I am used to. It is a light whistle and granite gray. I wasn’t too sure about the shape and whether that I would like it or not but soon that thought disappeared quickly.

The first dog that I ran was Nan. She is very reactive and does my commands at warp speed. I raised the whistle to my mouth and thought maybe I should have practiced a bit more but it was too late. I blew the down and tried not to make it hard. It came out strong but not hard. Nan stopped and I walked her on. She came on nice and easy and I began to use the whistle and soon realized that the sound was soft but strong.

It wasn’t hard and I was able to carry the sounds, going soft to make Nan ease up or louder to make a point. The run went well, aside from my handling mistakes and I could see that Nan was not edgy during her run. She was listening and trying hard to please and the whistle did not make her go edgy.

After my run, another Open handler came up to me and asked me about my whistle. I pointed it out to them and we talked about it. I was amazed that another handler could hear the difference in my whistling. I could see that Nan was relaxed and I wasn’t tense after my run.

The true test was my next run with Roo. He wants to please but will run through the bit. He ran to the top and the sheep broke before he could get there. Normally, my down whistle would sound panicked but this time, I made a point of not trying to be panic and make it mean sometime. The sound was true and he stopped. His flanks were clean and we eased the sheep through the course. He was a pleasure to run and not having the hard edge to my whistle made a huge difference.

I noted with the Corian that I could go loud but not panicked, and go soft and subtle. I was able to do quite a bit of variations and tones and saw the relaxation in my dog’s postures. What a huge difference and I highly recommend this whistle to anyone. The handler who commented on my new whistling also ordered a Corian.

My Dinner Guest

I hd a dinner guest the other day. I can't believe he didn't use any silverware.

Who taught him his manners?

Two Girls need homes (Cats)

Available: Two barn cats.

Can go together or separately. Located in Bellevue, WA. My vet is a great guy and will take unwanted cats, fixes them, gives them shots and places them in good homes. I got Cosmo from him and he is a great barn cat.

Now they have two cats that need homes. Do you need a barn cat? If so call them at 425-641-1160 (Cat and Dog Clinic of Bellevue) and tell them you saw my blog on the cats. Please pass the word around.

Maggie

She is about 6 years old and was formerly a barn cat until her owner passed away. She is spayed and up to date on all her vaccinations. She is a mellow cat, very sweet but will hunt and stalk prey aggressively

Calypso

She was brought in as a stray is about 6 years old, she is also spayed and up to date on all her vaccinations. She does best when allowed to go about as she pleases, she can be quite a sweetheart but is a bit fiesty with a big attitude. She would do very well as a barn cat

Can we be friends?

Gael has yet to meet Tina and Crystal.  They are not too sure about her yet. They have to check her out.

The first meeting.

Now, thinking about this.

Ok, we can be friends!

ProNovice and Ranch Runs Photos

Here are some photos from ProNovice and the Ranch runs. You will have to go to my prior blog to see the results and scores.

Janet and Scott.

Janet and Scott at the pen. You will have to go to her blog for details. She should have it up in a few days.

Janet and Tess. Tess came out of retirement to run for Janet. Janet was walking Tess and she saw me and ran up to me, expecting me to run her. But I was only taking pixs. Janet had to take her back and fuss over her.

Janet did the "dance" with Tess before her run and she decided she would run for Janet afterall.

Turning the post.

Almost had the pen. Placed 2nd and it was a fun run to watch. Janet got excited a few times and that got Tess excited too! The ole dog sure can run fast!!

Audrey is the scribe (left ) and Sue MacDonald (right) was the Judge.

 

Kathleen and Emma at the pen.

Audrey and Dan. See how straight the fetch is!!

 

Pam and Colin prior to their run.