Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Great 3 Day Weekend

I have to say that this past Memorial Day weekend has been probably the best one that we have had in MANY years. Nope, we did not go anywhere and stayed home doing things. We hate to travel on this weekend as I got in a major car accident on Memorial Day many years ago.
Skarlet came in heat and it just happened that it was breeding time right over the weekend. I started the weekend by taking Skar over to Karen's on Friday and got a successful tie with Rock.
Murray, Connor and I got up on Saturday and started working on the ranch. He has been very busy building the Tahj Duckhall for our ducks. He had gotten it to a point where they could move in during the night, but were in a temporary area during the day. They now have in and out access during the day and are locked up at night. We are using 3 x-pens connected to the coop for their run area. We will permanently fence it in maybe this weekend.
I did tons of weeding this weekend. Boy was that tiring, but well worth it as the ranch is coming together and looking very nice. Of course the dogs got to do tons of running throughout the day as we were working outside. Connor is great at entertaining them in the field. He loves to stand on top of the A-frame (young dog height) and throw the ball with the Chuck-It for the dogs. I never have to worry about where Connor is because I just look for the swarm of dogs. I did catch Connor riding down the A-frame in a very small (just big enough for his butt) wagon. He is for sure all boy!
I went back to Karen's place on Saturday evening and had a beer as Skar and Rock did their thing. I then did a little training with Havoc and put Fusion on sheep for the first time. Oh yes, she has been on sheep before, but that was her letting herself into our sheep. I wanted to put her on more puppy sheep, so it was perfect at Karen's. Fusion was keen and her tail was down. She circled them some. singled some off did a very small fetch and then we quit after she circled again. Not to bad for an 8 month old squirt. We then went out and got a bite to eat and a drink.
Sunday was work all day. Ok the dogs played all day by running and swimming, but the humans worked. I was very tired by the time Sunday night rolled around, but feeling very accomplished.
Monday was spent doing stuff around the house. The problem with working outside all of the time and also having a 3 year old is the house will get neglected. Murray started the morning off by ripping out my office carpet (YUCK)!!!!! When we got the house it was 7/8 carpet. The house also had white, flat paint on all of the walls. We have been steadily taking carpet out and laying Pergo and tile along with painting the walls. If you live on a ranch with dogs and then tear your carpet out, you will never go back to carpet again. No matter how much you steam clean, you never get all of the dirt up and it settles below the pad. I am not talking about a little dirt, but tons of fine silt that the dogs track in. I feel so much cleaner without carpet in the house. I love knowing that once I clean the floors that they are completely clean.
As Murray was ripping the carpet out, I was preparing food, 7 layer salad and marinating chicken, for our BBQ that night. Karen brought Rock over again and he and Skar went on their date in the backyard. We drank and then ate some great food for dinner and then had awesome strawberries for dessert along with ice cream.
I went to bed last night knowing that we got tons of stuff done on the ranch and also having fun.
Tonight we are headed to Karen's because we have talked Murray into running Havoc in herding. I am entering the team at the Sheep Thrillz trial in July. I will run Mick in Pro-Novice there. Even thought he is capable of running in Open, his body is getting old and I think it would be asking too much of him at this age. So, Murray will have a lesson with Karen tonight. It is better for someone else to teach besides wife, especially in the beginning stages of his training. Havoc is trained and now needs to learn to work with Murray. Oh how fun this will be. I will for sure get pictures.
I will also take some pictures of the duck coop (Tahj Duckhall) today.