Heated Seats

The next truck or car I am getting will have heated seats!

More Sheep Camps

 

 

 

 

Old Sheep Camp Photos

I love old sheep camp photos. when I see them, I will post them here for your enjoyment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I flailed this week.....

Work and life got in the way of the blog. so this one is very late. January has been a crazy month. My Uncle Ben died so that was hard to deal with. We went to the funeral and I spoke. It was tough and he was an inspiration for us when we were growing up. We moved to Port Angeles, WA in 1968 and then my father went to the Vietnam war and was gone for a few years. So Uncle Ben stepped in and helped raised us. Aunt Judy and Uncle Ben were the other Asian folks in town, so the family adopted each other. We all grew up over the years and spent many hours at their house. They are family. The stories I could tell but won't. So that pretty much made January sad month.

 

Ran the girls at trial. Did good at one then my drives fell apart at the other one. I needed to fouls more and let it slip and paid the price. maid has been super biddable and not fighting me. In fact, she has been bending over backwards to please me. I really enjoy her and the last two trials, she beat Nan. She would have done better aside from she had a handler who was asleep at the wheel.

 

I got a new dog. her name is Nikki and I will post on her this weekend. I am not going to run  her until we feel like a team. She is super nice and really trying to partner up with me. More later.

 

We had a bit of cold spell here. It even got into the single digits which is unusual for us. Don't laugh at us, you folks from Canada who think nothing of single digit or negative digit weather.  The bright to the cold weather was that I found out how fast I could do the daily feeding with out my dawdling. Maid, Nan and Rainey would potty and want back in than exploring. I guess they are spoiled housedogs now.

 

The sheep are all bred (cross my fingers) and should lamb out in March. I reduced my flock due to high hay prices and will build it up again. Alfalfa was over $300 a ton. In December I found a local source for third cutting round bales and setup delivery for that. That was a good move and will do that next year. I had done it before and the round bales that I had gotten were horrible. full of weeds, stemmy and the sheep didn't like them. But this guy had nice, green fine grass hay in the round bales and the sheep love it.

 

So I will be better at blogging but my wheels fell of my wagon this week!

 

 

How to pick up chicks

Asian Sea Bass

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 4 (6-ounce) sea bass or striped bass fillets 
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 crushed garlic
• 1 TB brown sugar
• 1 stalk  green onion, finely chopped

Directions

1. Marinade fillets in ginger, soy sauce, garlic, green onion, pepper, brown sugar and 1 tsp olive oil for at 1-2 hours. 
2. Remove from marinade and pat dry. 
3. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
4. Sear fish for two minutes on each side. 
5. Add marinade and bring to boil. 
6. Transfer fish and sauce to an oven-safe dish.  
7. Cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. 

Old Sheep at water scenes

Like I said before, I love history and how it relates to sheep. Here are some old picture of sheep at water. By the way, history was one of my favorite classes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicken Cartoons

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Free Range Chicken

Kirchgessner Jan 4th Sheepdog Trial

Again I got up at O-dark-thirty to head out to a sheepdog trial...well, 6:00, then out the door at 6:30. Got there, had handler's meeting then fog delay for a couple of hours. It was bone chilling cold so I sat in my truck to stay warm. Maid was third and was pretty amped by the time we went out. You couldn't see the sheep, they were like faint shadows in the mist so it was a true test of Maid and her outrun. I sent her away and soon she was swallowed up in the fog. I saw movement in the mist and gave s short, low walkup so she could get her bearing. She brought the sheep nicely and at the last moment, they slipped to the side of the fetch panels. She was soft on them and being very willing. We slid a little more as the three undogged lambs bolted here and there. Nice turn and se settle them nice for the first leg, went straight to the panel and they bolted to the side and made a run for it. But Maid got then in hand and back online. The second half of the crossdrive you could not see the line and as a result the lambs were low and I missed the panels.   It wasn't pretty and we made our way into the shed. I had to single and they wanted no part of Maid. We settle them and she came in like a champion and held her lamb. we timed out at the pen as they were walking it. The drive killed us so we landed 6th out of 25 dogs. Needless to say, I was happy on well she tried as she had plenty of opportunities to be bad but held her cool and was soft.

Nan was the last dog to run. She was quite spooked as gunfire was going off and she is gun-phobic. She ran out nice and came hard on the sheep but settle down. I got her to slow down but she was being very reactive.  Pretty good fetch and nice turn. The first leg was nice and we made the panel and had the first half of the crossdrive looking nice then it went to hell in a handbasket. Gunfire went off and she promptly turned the sheep to me and almost brought them back but I got them headed to the second panels. She wanted to bring them back but I made her do it some what right so the last part of the drive was a real mess. we got killed for that, One missed attempt and she got the single and then marched the lambs into the pen. She was pretty spooky from the gunfire and her whites were showing white. She finally settled down and went to sleep in the truck.

The first leg of the drive proved to be the undoing of a lot of runs as the dogs would flip and bring the sheep back. If you made it past that then the second half of the crossdrive was blind and the lambs would slip up the hill back to you. There was a hill in the way of the handler and the line on the second half of the crossdrive. The single was very tough and not many got that. By the tenth run, the fog had lifted the sun smiled on us for the rest of the day.

By this time it was well past two so I turned on Bertha and she slowly chugged home. I was so tired that I didn't even stop at Del's farm store to get supplies. Instead we got home, did chores, then all passed out in the living room.
 

Here is the Open scores. I didn't stick around for the PN, ranch or Novice runs.

 

Sheep Camp

......some old pictures of sheep camps.....