Washington SDT

Very cool of Sue MacDonald to contact me to see if I wanted to come to one of their winter series trials.  They had a scratch and I entered the girls in open.  George and Sue's farm is about 1 hour and 45 minutes from our home in Sequim.  I hadn't worked the girls on sheep in some 6 weeks and I hadn't trialed Kilt in over 6 mos.  It showed.  LOL

I only had my little VW with me so I parked up by MacDonald's house so as not to get stuck in the mud.  They had these nice propane heaters under the handlers tent.  Lucky for me that I did have my whistle with me.  Diane Pagel loaned me her crook.

Yoko getting a feel for things.

Yoko came in a little shallow.  I wasn't sure how long she was going to spend at the top.  I later learned they set their Scotties on sweet feed.  Piggy was at the top grabbing a few bites before she brought them through the fetch panels.  Her drive away was horrendous…zig zagging all the way to the panels :0(

Her cross drive, a wee bit better.

Sheep coming around the cross drive panels.  If the dog went too wide they would come back through the panels.  It is a small field, but it has always been a bit tricky :0)  Yoko trailed here during her nursery year.

Setting up for the maltese cross.  We just missed one sheep through the last of the cross and had to reset it up to get all of the sheep through.  You couldn't go on to the shed if you didn't get ALL of the sheep through the last part of the maltese cross.

Yoko waiting at the exhaust.  She looks pleased with herself.  She was one of the few that got their shed.  That was enough points 79 to put her in a tie for 4th.  I think she ended up 5th.  Love the pink crook loaned to us :0)  Yoko's brother, Moses, would have won the open class hands down, but Jeanne didn't hear 'all' of the rules to the maltese class and got DQ'ed.  Shit happens, but his drive was  awesome.

This is BAD Kilt.  I should have retired her at the top when she didn't stop, but oh no, I guess I wanted my quarters worth.  Poor decision on my part.  She took the reins right out of my hands like she usually does.  She took a wrong flank at the cross drive and really that should have been the end to our run.  We lined the sheep up for the maltese cross and a horn honked.  I thought, "Wow, that was a fast 8 minutes."  I took the sheep to the exhaust with the judge getting out of his truck to say he did NOT honk his horn.  Didn't matter anyway.  Pretty much was all she wrote.  Love Kilt, but she has always been too independent and too much dog for me to trial.  I'm hoping her son will be a bit easier with me.

Our Sequim home is on a private drive.  Almost a 1/4 mile private drive.  I had trouble finding where to turn in to our house.  Wayne got some reflectors and put them up on both sides of our street sign.

Plus, he trimmed the trees back from the sign.  Much more viewable now :0)  Thanks dear.

I made this little African cribbage pottery piece years ago.  Wayne dislikes it.  I think he thinks it is bad juju or something like that.  Well, I think if I throw it away it will REALLY be bad juju.  So, I set it in a small garden space at the house in Sequim and put a few other trinkets around it.  It's kind of a superstition, if you catch my drift.  I'm afraid if I trash it, someone might rob the house while we are gone.  So I gave it a place in the garden to watch over our home in our absence.

This is a sheep farm right around the corner from us.  About a mile away.  They have Hampshires.  I hope to get to know them when I return in May :0)  Most of Sequim is cattle.  Honest, these are the only sheep I have seen thus far.  Glad they are close to our home.

Our last morning in Sequim.  I took this photo from the front porch.  It  is so peaceful there you can hear a pin drop.  I can't wait to return :0)