From Spring back to Winter

On Friday it was Spring.  We did a bit of pruning of the fruit trees, trying to stop before we overworked our crappy shoulders.  I was down to a t-shirt (I always get warmer than Larry when we are working).  I washed all those loads of laundry.  No, our washing machine is nothing special.  An ordinary top loader I bought second hand off Craigslist.

The dogs were chewing on some bones, well Luna and Jake at least.  I gave Calli the best bone.  She didn't care.  We had come back from our walk and she just wanted to go back into her dark hole in the basement.  I didn't want her to.  I wanted her to lay outside in the warm of the sun and chew on her bone.  She didn't want to.  She kept going to the basement door and barking to go in.  We were all outside, and I wanted her to stay out and get some vitamin D.  I have no idea if dogs absorb vitamin D like we do, but I wanted her out there anyway.  Larry suggested we put her in the x-pen.  Great idea!  She never really did chew on the bone, but she did relax and didn't bark about her situation.  After a while Luna realized that Calli had the best bone.  She circled the x-pen and nudged it with her nose a few times, but wouldn't really dare do any more than that  while we were there.

Lunchtime rolled around.  We are always happy to have the excuse to stop for lunch.  The dogs were still outside.  I glanced out of the window and saw this.

Luna had pushed the side of the x-pen in.  She was digging at the outside.  It's hard to see, but the bone is just on the other side of the wire in her shadow.  Then she laid down to see if her pointy nose would fit under.  Not yet.

I managed to sneak out of the back door without her noticing. .

Did I mention what a glorious day it was?:)  It truly was, the birds were chirping, it was warm, we thought Spring had arrived.  Nope.

 The next day, March 1st, came in like a lion.  It was cold, it was windy, my dog club was holding an agility trial in an unheated barn.  A little bit of snow was blowing in the wind.  Snow would flutter down through the venting strip at the ridge of the barn roof.  People were huddled under a patio heater.  The ring crew were huddled in their blankets.  Sunday morning was the worst.  The snow had started in earnest.  The roads were not the best.  People told of seeing cars in the ditch on the drive there.  There was a white strip of snow all the way down the middle of the ring that had blown thrown the vent strip on the roof overnight. Us dog people are a hardy bunch though, and eventually almost all the entries straggled in.  We started the trial late to allow some leeway on travelling times, and then we seemed to get farther behind as the day went on.  I had spent the first hour and a half as the parking attendant, as the parking area is small and we were trying to cram in as many cars as we could.  I figured on Sunday that a lot of people would cancel and I wouldn't really have to worry, but no, that parking lot filled up again.  It was a 12 hour day.

Oh the joys of using outdoor portapotties in the cold.  Umpteen layers seem to make you twice the size, with barely room to manoeuvre in there.  When you're done you pull the first bottom layer up, pull the first top layer down over it, pull the next bottom layer up over that, pull then next top layer down over that, and so on...., so every thing is all nicely tucked in so there are no cold drafts blowing round your back.  Three layers on the bottom, 5 layers on the top.

I was able to run my dogs at the trial.  Jake, well he was just amazing:)  Like someone said, you can bring him out of the closet, dust him off, throw him in the ring, and he just performs.  Neither dog had seen any agility equipment since early January, and hadn't had any serious work since last Fall.  Not that I take agility seriously any more, it's just something fun I do with my dogs occasionally.  We lose our practice barn to the BMXers over much of the winter.

 Jake went 5 for 5.  Five Qualifying runs, with a first, three seconds, and a third place.  Love my little red dog:)  He has now earned enough Q's to get his Silver award.  Two nice rosettes for that, which I borrowed for a photo, and were handed back.   I don't display them, and no point in just stuffing them in a drawer to become more junk.

Luna, well she is a riot to run.  She is kind of crazy, okay a lot crazy on Saturday.  Let's just say we had a lot of fun.  She was the only dog I ran on Sunday, and got 2 out of 3 Qualifying runs, and just one bar down to prevent the third.  A first place in one class for sure, and I think a first in the other.  I don't take any ribbons, and don't care too much about the placements, it is really the 'Q' (as we agility people call the Qualifying runs) that counts.  It is the 'Q's accumulated that allow you to move up in divisions, or receive titles.

Luna was good, was quite social, and only had a couple of small snarks with dogs that 'stared' at her.  An awesome weekend spent with my dogs.

We got a got about 3 inches of snow on Sunday, and then we got freezing rain, just barely freezing.  Thankfully not a lot, about a 1/4 inch coating on everything.  The roads were good for driving home.  The power went off last night, just as Amazing Race was starting:(  A few branches off a large fir tree near the front of the house broke off with almighty cracks.  The power is on this morning.  Unfortunately this snow melt will not be as kind as last week's, with it's sunshine, mild temperatures and NO rain.  It is wet, slushy and raining out there this morning, with rain forecast all week.  The birds are singing though, so Spring surely must be on it's way.

Signs of Spring

Pretty flowers

Hairy cats hightailing it out of there.

Wet (and miserable) Wednesday

What an ugly day it turned out to be.  It was raining when I got up this morning, and 15 hours later it is still raining. This afternoon when we put on our rain gear and slogged around the block with the dogs, we realized the culvert under our driveway was plugged and water was running over the driveway.  Larry and David had been weedeating the ditch and I guess all the long loose grass had plugged the culvert.  I had a go with that stick you can see, but the water was too deep. 

 When we got back, Larry rounded up some weapons, and managed to push the grass plug enough that the water broke through.

It was really roaring at the other side

He hauled a lot of the grass cuttings out.

And then the ditch was back to normal.  Well except for a lot of topsoil washing out of our neighbour's field.

I'm just glad that we aren't dealing with the floods in the southern states or in Manitoba.

And we're all sick of this miserable cold wet Spring we are having.

Tinkerbell

Calli has now been downgraded from Cow bell Calli to Tinkerbell. 

Or maybe that's an upgrade.  

Remember how we tried that too big, for Calli at least, cowbell hanging off her collar so we could hear her when she took her own route on our bush walk in the morning.  It was very loud, and heavy, and poor Calli was so put out by it that she didn't venture off the trail at all.  That might be a good thing, but we also want her to have some fun out there.

My sister in Ontario said that she had a bell that might do the trick and she included it when she sent some photos to my mother.  Somehow she managed to reuse some stamps that weren't cancelled, so it didn't cost her a thing to mail it.  I was talking to my mother on the phone and she said the bell was there.  I asked her what it was like and she said it was something like what her cat Nelson wore, and then she rang it for me over the phone.  It really sounded feeble and I figured it was too small to be of any use.

Anyway, it eventually was brought home here and we tried it out.

And....

It was a pleasant surprise, and seems perfect for the job. Loud enough that I can hear it out in the bush, and not too loud to be really annoying.  Larry can't hear it very well.  He has a hole in one ear drum and old folks hearing in the other ear.  That's my opinion, as I suffer through the volume that he has the TV turned up to.

Here's a few pictures from our morning walk.

I eat raw, but I'm not sure about eating this thing

Lots of things are springing to life now.  The salmonberries are blooming

The bleeding hearts as well

The clumps of trilliums are lovely

And the stinging nettles not so lovely.

As it was just me out there with the dogs, it was a slow walk as I was trying to take photos.  Luna and Jake don't usually stop and play, but they sure had a long session this time, actually two sessions.  

Here's a rather long video of the walk.  (I like to watch video of our dogs, and dogs playing is even better:)) Just be thankful I didn't put in all that I had filmed.  

If your volume is up enough you can hear the bell.

It also gives you a bit of an idea how Calli walks.

It also has reminded me that she needs another good furminator session.

Here's the latest on Phin from this link

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thatll-Do-Border-Collie-Rescue/66850807194

That'll Do Border Collie Rescue No news yet. He remains in the immediate area, but is too sly to be caught and runs whenever he spots someone. Al from Petsearchers is indeed who we hired, and there are both cameras and traps out, but Phin continues to elude everyone :(