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Pecan Valley DreamCatcher NAP, NJP, CGC

Mikey was awesome! He had a great standard run, with 100 points at 45.23 seconds (SCT 73 seconds) and first place for his Novice Standard title! Mikey's first Open Jumpers course was great too, although he knocked a bar. I was thrilled with his Open run; Mikey was sooo responsive and FAST! Our knocked bar was my fault; I have to remember that even though he can turn on a dime, I have to give him enough room to get that long body over those jumps on a sharp turn! I was a little nervous because when we were walking the course I could tell I was choosing back crosses and outs where a lot of people were choosing front crosses, but happily I chose right for our team and Mikey nailed everything I asked of him (wearing his trademark smile the whole way)! And after watching the FAST class, I hope I'm ready to run Mikey in FAST at the next trial.

Meg had a more difficult day; my dad pulled her after the first few obstacles in her Standard run because she decided to go dove hunting instead of playing agility. Her Jumpers run was better, with a little wild running in the first part of the course, but a brilliant last half to the finish; sadly, no Q in Jumpers, but. . . . a Q in FAST! Yay!

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi' and Mikey says ' Oh Boy! Agility trail, my FAVORITE'!

Thanks for the awesome pics mom!!

Dream Come True

At least temporarily! From Wednesday of this week through Wednesday of next week I am working at home in the afternoons! I've always fantasized about having a job that would allow me to work from home (and I had one years ago that allowed me to partially work from home; loved it). I'm taking a live web course for work and I was pretty sure there was no way in he!! that I could take it at work without constant interruptions; so I am doing the class from my home computer. And Loving It! Holly and Mikey are going to be sooooo spoiled (me too) by the time I finish this course!

Easter weekend pictures. Actually, first came car cleaning (as in how many pounds of dog hair can I vacuum from the inside, and how many pounds of pine pollen can I wash off the outside), but no pictures of that. Then came potting plants. I spent hours the weekend before digging up plants that had not been doing well for a long time and just generally cleaning up the front and back porches. I am determined this year to cut back on the plants I'm keeping, since I just don't have time to take care of them anymore. I forgot to get pictures of the back porch and of the hanging plants I've added to the back porch. The Ty plants in the front are going to be replaced with. . . something, and the black sweet potato vines will go in that pot whenever I decide what to put there. One pot of straggly looking plants that I didn't get rid of are my Bird of Paradise plants that I have raised from seed (although I did re-pot them); I'm not ready to give up on them yet.

And then came agility play in my parents back yard. Thanks Cardigrandma for the great pics!

I mean really! Have you ever seen someone so happy as Mikey!?!


Of course Holly got to play too!


And I caught the moon out early one morning.


It was a great, busy weekend; wish it could have lasted longer.

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Bad Blogger

I know, I'm a bad blogger and haven't been posting. . .

Easter weekend was loads of fun with car washing, gardening, and agility. I'll post pictures later today (at least I hope I'll get to it). We're entered in an agility trial this weekend, but only on Saturday, and wouldn't you know it's supposed to storm on Saturday (but not on Sunday)! I've got a nasty head cold, so I may not actually be disappointed if Saturday is stormy; I really doubt I could run and call out commands and actually breath all at the same time at this point.

Poor Mikey, I stayed home from agility class last night. When mom's sick, it sucks for the kids.

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi' and 'Mom's booooooring! (and sound like a frog).'

More fun agility across the pond has been added to the links list. . .

Plus, I've added a list of links to supplements I use plus a link to Honest Kitchen and Nature's Variety Raw Frozen diets; if there's one thing I can spend a ridiculous amount of time doing, it's researching on the internet about supplements and dog foods, and I'm hoping that some of you lovely readers will use the comments section to let everybody know about your favorites.

I've been feeding Honest Kitchen, plus fresh meats, eggs, fruits, vegetables, yogurt, etc for a little over a year and I have been very pleased with this food. I still think an ideal diet would be all fresh, but between a very limited amount of refrigerator/freezer space and very limited time and energy, it's just not going to happen. Plus, this is a very easy food to travel with.

Ha! Who am I kidding? I'm home sick today and I can't manage to fall asleep to take a nap and I was planning on playing around in Photoshop for a while, but I can't figure out how to export pictures from the new version of Adobe Reader, so I gave up on that and thought playing around with the blog would be a good distraction.

So, while I'm busy making links all over the place, here are some links to some Apiaries. What's that, you ask? HONEY! Yummmm! That's my latest kick, honey. Specifically, varietal honey, or honey primarily produced from a single blossom source, such as orange or buckwheat or blueberry blossoms (to name a few of my favorites). Most of the honey sold in super markets is clover honey, and please don't judge honey from super market honey. I'm also loving chunk honey, which is a jar of honey with a big chunk of honey comb in it. And, I'm trying bee pollen. Who knows if it has even half of the benefits that are claimed?

So, I've received one order from Draper's and I was very pleased with everything I received. I particularly love the Bee Bar Lotion found on this page. I've also checked out Hunter's Honey although I haven't ordered anything from them. Dutch Gold is available at a local super market and the alfalfa honey produced by them comes in a very close second to my favorite so far, blueberry. Oh, and I think I'm going to have to order some lavender honey from Lavender Bee Farm. Doesn't that sound yummy?

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Spring Fever

To use LOLcats speak, 'Spring Fever, I has it!' Yep, the days are warmer, the sun is out, and I'm getting spring fever. I spent several hours on Saturday pulling up plants that weren't doing well and getting pots cleaned up and ready for new plants. Holly and Mikey hung out on the back porch and 'helped'. Since I have a three day weekend next weekend, this weekend seemed like a good time to get everything ready for a trip to the nursery next weekend. I am definitely cutting back on plants this year; in the past I had dozens of exotic and care intensive ferns and I have lost them all over the past several years because I just don't have that much time anymore (can anyone say young dogs?). This year I'm cutting back even more, but I've still got to pot up a few new plants and have some green stuff around.

My dad and I went over to Leaps n' Bounds today for a very nice practice session, at which I got marks off for being a bad mommy. The first time I ran the course with Mikey, I was trying to set him up at the start line and he just wouldn't lay down, even when I physically tried to make him. Finally a couple of brain cells fired and I thought, hmmm, this behavior really isn't normal for Mikey and I thought to brush my hand through the grass. Argh!!! Bull nettles! Poor Mikey; I felt like such a sh!t. Yet another time that I learn the lesson of listening to my dogs!!!!!

Currently reading 'Daughter of the Blood' by Anne Bishop

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Here's one of my favorite pictures in the wild flowers from last spring. . .

Long Time No Blog

No, I haven't fallen of the face of the earth, nor have Holly nor Mikey. Really, since the holidays I just haven't been able to get my fecal matter coagulated (in other words, I haven't been able to get my sh!t together). I seem to spend a lot of time rushing around not getting much done. All I know is that I better get it together fast, because the next few weeks at work are going to be a whirlwind, and Mikey is entered in an agility trial the last weekend of the month, followed by a breed show the first weekend of April, and then another agility trial the weekend after that, and yeah, I didn't realized until the other day that means three weekends in a row of showing. Ooops!

Currently reading 'The Queen's Handmaiden' by Jennifer Ashely (of course! there's always time to read!)

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Trial Pics

I bowed out of the trial today. Not only am I just not up to going physically (yeah, RA sucks), I got way behind last week and never got caught up. For starteres, it really sounds like a good idea to have some clean underwear for the work week. . .

It would have been nice if the cold front due tonight/tomorrow morning had come through a couple of days early; temps were in the high 70's.

I wasn't as mentally prepared as I wish I had been; we had an off course in our standard run because when it was time to call Mikey for a turn, all I could get out was something like, 'D'oh'! And we had a 'refusal' in our jumpers course which was really an of course because the jump was suddenly just there, and I hadn't pushed Mikey out enough to take that jump. Other than those booboo's, we had very nice runs and Mikey had a blast (as if he ever doesn't!). Mikey finished his Jumpers title with two 100 scores (from the last trial) and a 95 (from this trial). The SCT was 48 seconds, Mikey's time was 26.95. Mikey also got his second Standard leg with a score of 95; the SCT was 75 seconds and Mikey's time was 46.8 seconds. Second place for both classes.

My dad's dog Meg has really good runs and got a Q and into the ribbons for both Standard and Jumpers, but she was a little full of herself and in both runs she started to do that over excited, wild dog running around. My dad was also entered in FAST, but my mom and I left for home because the schedule was running so late. My dad said she started the wild running around again in FAST and this time he called her to him, put her in a down, and 'escorted her out the ring and strait to her kennel'. The goofy running wild thing is not something he wants her to make a habit of.

Oh, and I also am entering Mikey in breed at a show the first weekend of April; honestly, I never would have believed he would finish an agility title before getting his Champion, after all, we had a huge head start in breed.

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi' and Mikey says 'Agility Trial! Oh boy! My FAVORITE!!'

They had really neat new title ribbons, heres a close-up.