Saturday, June 23, 2012

Whidbey Island Open and Nursery- Saturday

Well, it was a comedy of errors when Ron and I pulled in yesterday night. (Getty was happy that ron showed up to help and so he got to stay home) We set up and camp and he tried to start the generator when the cord broke. So we borrowed Bonnie's truck and dashed into town to rent a generator and leave mine over night to get fixed  The Ace Honda Dealer in Freeland went way out of their way to fix it first thing on Saturday morning. Chuck Kniest- Manager fixed it for us and we give them 5 STARS for their outstanding service. I highly recommend them and they did an excellent job. KUDOS to Chuck as he saved our weekend.

The second comedy was trying to find a level spot to park in under the tree. First spot was very tilted and we gave up and moved down farther and still were not level. We put a bunch of levelers under the wheels and called it good enough.

Open was first and I ran Nan. On her set, there was one brown ewe that bolted three times to the far side and then her three white buddies followed her. She wanted no part of the adventure and I was just thinking, Oh hell..." and then sent Nan. They squeezed the set tight until Nan got to the top and did a nice lift. Since she was a problem maker, I held Nan far off them so she could relax. It worked and even though she still was high headed and looking to run, she stayed with her buddies. We had a nice fetch, hit the panels, had a nice turn and the ewes started booking. I got Nan behind them slowly and then she slowed down and we had a nice first leg, hit the panels, had a nice turn, then swung wide then low then straighted out on the last half of the drive and hit the cross drive panels smartly. She had a nice turn to the pen and we had them in the mouth and the brown ewe kept trying to dash off. We had to work her to have her go in and she finally did. We took them out for the shed, and she was heading the ewes to go North then South. I got the tiniest of gaps and called Nan in and she darted in and held the ewes.  She landed 6th out of 57 dogs and I was very pleased with her run.

Normally on hair sheep, she is in their bubble and quite pushy so we have been working on feeling the edge and it paid off.

Maid was the next dog and then the skies opened up and dumped rain. It was horrible and I got totally soaked. Maid ran out nice and deep and stopped at the top when I asked her. She lifted nice and was a bit pushy so I tried to down her but she was not slowing down until I yelled her name, then she dropped. She was very pliable to me after that and hit the fetch panels and had a nice turn. Her first leg was tough as they wanted to run and I kept her on them so they could slow down at the drive panel and they did and she had a very nice turn there. She was very willing to work and we had a tiny bobble but straightened it when I noticed we were drifting up so I flanked her come bye but not far enough so they were high. She was high on the last part of her drive and missed the panels but I was trying got get her to push them back online but we missed that connection and had a pull through. She was trying hard on her part and we just were not clear with each other. She  had a nice line to the gate, tucked them in and we took them out for the shed. On the shed, she began to lean on the sheep so I got her to back out a bit and she came in for a sweet shed. She got 8th place, only 4 points behind Nan. Had I not screwed up on her flanks on the drive, she would have done much, much better but I was over the moon on her run.

People commented on soft she was for me and how well we jelled together. We really had a good time with each other and she is giving me her all and trying to please me. I was very happy with the two runs my Open dogs had given me today. They both knew they did well after their runs and we just gave each other the "team look" to each other and it was a good feeling.



Kathleen ran a great run with Josh. A bit of an echo from the hills caused a bobbled on her drive but the work this Kelpie did was wonderful. He handled the flight sheep with ease. Janet ran Jude, and had to help him on the outrun but he had no issues on the lift.  A bit offline on the fetch and the sheep ran here and there on the drive but she kept her cool and helped Jude and had a smart pen.


The weather was horrible and it dumped hard all day. I got chilled and had to lay down to warm up as I was not feeling well. Taking a nap was huge and I got my second wind to watch the Nursery classes.

Susan Crocker hosted the potluck dinner. She had two huge butterfly lamb roast with her daughter, Allison. The crust on the lamb was super so I had to track them down for their recipe.  Much thanks to Susan and Allison for  the lamb and hosting. It was very good and I will be trying this recipe when I get home.



1 comment:

Rama's Mama said...

That sounds like quite an exciting day! And to end it with lamb--YUM!