Well, I am so behind in my updates that I don't know where to start so I will start with this weekend. My dear friend, Kathy came to visit for the weekend. Of course, she has two dogs and we just had to work them. So bright and early on Saturday, I gave lessons. It was hot so I took a lot of breaks. The sheep were being good so that helped. The students and their dogs are advanced enough so there is hardly any chance of me being knocked down. Then Kathy showed up after my lessons, and it was her that took a beating from the sheep and Teyla. Teyla was on the muscle and pushed the sheep into Kathy a few times but in the end she was behaved. Then we went to Gig Harbor so Kathy could get her hair done, then off to Sue and George to visit the folks from the ASCA trial. It was late when we left and we stopped at the new Fall City Bistro that just opened.
I ordered chicken curry and it was made to order. In fact, all of the meal are made to order and so it may take longer but they are superb. Kathy ordered wild salmon and it was spicy and just melted in your mouth. I love curry and my meal was one of the best curries that I had in a long time. The chicken just fell off the bone, was spicy and begged you to eat more. We passed on dessert as we were stuffed.
We got home in time for Kathy to work Teyla. we took the flock out of the round pen and she worked about 40 sheep. She is getting a sense of balance now. By the end, we were both exhausted! I had shopped at Wilco and gotten a few bags of feeds and neither one of us could lift. My chest/right shoulder still hurts and it pains me to lift and Kathy is still in recovery from her surgery. But I knew on Sunday that Richard would be at the farm. Finally later at night, we both crashed and we were beat!
Sunday morning rolled around too quickly. Kathy went off to the aquarium and I stayed home to do work around the farm. Diane and Richard showed up and he put the feed away for me. Then he got the water buckets and filled the water holders. That helped a lot as Jeff was out of town for the weekend. I swept the hay off the floor and cleaned the kennels. It was too hot, 90 degrees to do much of anything. So I did a bunch of tidy type of work that needed to be done as well as worm a couple of ewes. We worked the dogs in small, quick sessions and took long breaks. The dogs actually did well and the sessions were good. Teine opened up on her outruns and gave us good, wide flanks. By the end of her session, she was doing quite well. Meg was hitting balance and being spot on. it was nice to see her not hesitate at the top and have good balance.
By noon, it was unbearably hot, so I quit and went into the house to watch the Olympics. The dogs decided it was a good move and laid on the hardwood floor. I took a short nap and woke up in time to see the jumping in the Olympics. Some of those horses can jump over the moon! I, myself, can jump about 14 inches on a good day! Ha, ha!
My mom and Aunt Kimiko came over later and made us dinner. Jeff was home by this time and made BBQ chicken. Mom and Aunt Kimiko made shrimp, eggplant and lotus root tempura, Japanese cold sushi rice, pickled cucumber and kelp and homemade organic fruit salad. We ate until our stomachs protested. Of course, Tess got feed some during dinner, not much but she loves my mom and hangs next to her at dinner. The ritual over the years is she will hang next to my mom, who then feeds her some of her dinner. They love this little ritual and deepens their bond.
The usual after dinner ritual is to go to the barn and do the nightly feeding. My mom had her bread in their hands and soon was surrounded by the chickens. She loves the Japanese Silkies and Rhode Island Reds. She had a pet Rhode Island Red hen as a pet as a child so now, she have seven more here. It fun to see her be so excited when she is feeding the animals. They fed Stella, Glock and Kodi some tasty "Puppy Pepperoni Treats" and soon the LGD were following them all around. The cats got several cans of cat food and decided the mice would live another day as after their meal, the cats passed out on the hay. Soon, everyone was fed and we wandered up to the house for some cheesecake. Aunt Kimiko got me a cheesecake for my birthday and we all ate some while watching the Olympics. it was good way to end a nice, relaxing weekend. I really needed some down time and it felt good. I worked the dogs but it was low key and enjoyable. Not much to report but sometimes you just need to relax and enjoy life.
