Well, they're due in the next couple of weeks. 

I have to get geared up after the onslaught of boarding dogs for the past several weeks.  Most of the boarding dogs will be gone by January 4th just in time for Sleet to have her pups by Clue the following weekend.  At her ultrasound about a month ago we saw 5 pups.  Sleet is due between January 7-10 and the puppy cam will be live for all of the fun. 

After Sleet whelps I will get a few days to get Sleet and her pups settled in and then Tempie will be whelping her pups by Kuro around January 14-16.  I sure hope she does it before January 16 as I have to go to my stepfather's memorial service at noon on the 16th.  Dan passed away on November 19 from a very rare form of cancer.

I'm off to deliver dogs back to their owners.  It just started raining here.

I got back from the National Sheepdog Finals for Nursery dogs a couple of days ago and it took a couple of days to recover. 

Kate and I had fun watching ALL of the runs.  We got there for the first run at 8am and didn't leave until the last dog ran.  The trial site was beautiful and it was nice to see Amy Yoho and her 3 CPBC's Scandal, Rumor and Chip and Nancy Liptak with Fly.  Both Amy and Nancy were busy volunteering so we didn't get to spend much time but the quick visit and seeing the dogs was nice.  Andy and Cindy Hartman with Roux and Fly also came up for the day on Saturday so it was fun to hang out with them and the dogs and visit.  After the trial on Saturday night Andy & Cindy introduced Kate, Amy and I to the fun of Geocaching.  We found a cache just outside the entrance to Belle Grove where the trial was held and looked for another down the road but couldn't find it as it was getting dark. 

There was a large white tent for spectators to sit under and chairs were provided so that was very nice.  The only bummer for everyone was the weather.  It was into the 90's every day which made it tough on the dogs and humans.  The sheep were challenging dogs and trying to escape to the exhaust at every opportunity.  We saw some great runs and learned a lot. 

Kate went home on Monday night and I stayed in Fairfax, VA and went into Washington DC for some sightseeing on Tuesday.  I took the city bus to the Metro on Tuesday morning around 9:30am and didn't make it back to the hotel until midnight.  I spent all day at the Newseum which was great and I decided to make the most of the trip by finishing up with a Trolley car "Moonlit Monuments" tour.  The weather was perfect, air temperature ideal and there was a full moon.  The monuments are incredibly beautiful at night.

Kate and are getting ready for a trip to Middleton Virginia to watch the USBCHA Nursery Dog Finals. I have a trial at the ranch next weekend so I couldn't stay to watch the open dogs but we're looking forward to the trip and hope we get to see some great dogs. 

I do know that we will get so see some CPBC's and their owners.  Amy Yoho with Scandal, Rumor and Chip will be helping with hospitality and Andy and Cindy are talking about driving up and spending the weekend.  They will bring Fly and Roux.  I'm guessing there will a couple of other local CPBC's and their owners there watching. 

I'm hoping to get some really nice herding photos on green grass :-)  That is a novel concept here in CA where it's dirt and desert for herding around here.  I've rented a Canon 300 2.8 is lens and it should be delivered to the UPS store in Virginia for me to pick up and use this weekend.  It's a very expensive piece of glass and should be a fun learning experience on using big, heavy lens.  It weighs 6.6 lbs which is about 3x as heavy as my regular telephoto lens.

The highlight of my trip (after the herding trial and visiting with the CPBC's and owners) will be going into Washington DC to the Newseum.  Russ and I visited the Newseum when we were there last March and only got to spend 2 hours in there before they closed.  I am planning on spending the entire day.  The museum is all about news events and coverage and was far and away the best museum we went to on our last trip.  I'm excited about going again :-) http://www.newseum.com/

While I'm in Virginia I'm hoping that Cherry will be bred back to The Flash.  I have been hoping to get it done before I leave but it looks like that is not going to happen.  We go tomorrow for her 6th progesterone blood test (@ $68 each) and that will hopefully tell the vet when she's ready for Artificial Insemination.  Frank and Flash are on standby :-) 

I'm getting some sheep sold this weekend while I'm out of town.  A local herding trainer is coming by to pick up 6 big woolies.  They are looking for dog broke sheep and with 70 head I can spare them.

When I return there is a USDAA Agility Trial at the ranch along with 5 days of herding lessons that Robin will be teaching.  Then Russ and I leave for a week in Yellowstone (we're both first timers).  We're staying in a B&B ( http://www.gardinerguesthouse.com/ ) that looks really cute.  While there we will be on a photo safari led by a Brent Paul a photographer ( http://www.amwestphoto.com ) that frequents the park and he will hopefully know where to find Wildlife and other great things to take photos of. 

Then I'm home for a week and I head to Louisville KY to the Cynosport/USDAA Nationals.  I am excited to be going and will be taking photos for the USDAA as well as taking photos for sale on my web site.  I will be doing all of the podium shots so if you're on the podium please smile pretty, look at me and don't wear a hat!

Whew.  That's what I get for not updating for 6 months.

Stoni's temp dropped to 98.3 this morning and she's been doing a little digging and is restless.  Her pups should arrive today or tonight sometime.  She's live on the puppy cam at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/contact-point-border-collie-puppy-cam-2 . 

Stoni, Cherry and I traveled to Ohio to visit Frank Yang's Eyespy The Flash.  Flash did his best and Cherry had 5 puppies on April Fools Day and it looks like Stoni's will arrive today.  Ten days is a nice gap between litters.  In theory it should have given me time to recover but that definitely didn't happen.  I've been sick with the nasty cold that everyone seems to have gotten and it's been around a full week. 

Last night I was hoping to get to sleep early but found Bean in his run at 8pm with a nice gash on his foot.  He'd been to the herding trial yesterday and Friday and done well but no Q's.  Robin put him in the dog run and fed him and when she left he was fine and when I arrived to say hi and check on him he held up his bloody paw for me to see. 

My local vet just lives a couple of miles from me and I go a hold of him and he was nice enough to let me bring Bean to his house and put 4 stitches in the wound.  So my nice restful evening went poof! I ended up making it to bed at 1am and then woke up several times through the night to check on Stoni, Bean and also Wink and Fame who were spayed last Wednesday.

 My trip to Ohio and Pennsylvania is winding down and I hope to be allowed to fly out of Dayton tomorrow at 6pm.  I've been watching the weather and it looks like it will be over 20 degrees which is the cut off for accepting the dogs.  

I'm back in Marion Ohio after going to Erie PA for the weekend because Flash was trialing at the Olean AKC Agility trial.  The trial was held at Denise Thomas' Countryside Agility.  Countryside is located in a small shopping mall that seems to be mostly vacant.  There is room for one ring and crating and it worked out really well.  It is heated and air conditioned and they hold training classes there as well as agility trials.  

I managed to avoid the snow by leaving Ohio and heading to PA.  The storm missed Erie so I never saw it snowing.  There was plenty of snow on the ground but I'm thrilled that I didn't have to test my driving abilities in bad weather conditions.  When I returned to the hotel I stayed in last week they had 6" of snow on Friday and Saturday.  I'm glad I missed that!

I will leave the Comfort Inn in Marion OH tomorrow morning and head to Franks for one last breeding with Stoni and then head to Dayton to go home! :-)  I'm looking forward to getting out of the snow.  I don't know how people live in it.  This Comfort Inn was a great place to stay with the dogs.  Very convenient and nice people running it.  I will definitely give them a good review on Trip Advisor.  The Red Roof Inn in Erie PA was good too.  I check Trip Advisor before every trip and have had very good luck with choices made based on recommendations there.

I sure hope both Cherry and Stoni will have puppies.  It's been quite an effort and expense to get them bred.  I really like Flash and know that their pups will be worth all the trouble :-)

I arrived in Ohio last monday night  - February 1st, 2010 - Cherry and Stoni made the trip with me and will get to have some special time with Frank Yang's The Flash. 

The flight went well and I was very lucky that when Russ dropped me off at LAX we pulled up to the baggage people in front of American Airlines First/Business class check in area.  I asked the Skycap if he could help me with the 2 big crates and suitcase and he said he would go inside and check to see if they would allow me to check in at the First/Business class check in.  He came back and said they'd check me in.  Which was awesome.  I didn't have to wait in line and got through checking in the dogs fairly quickly with some questioning about the weather and health certificates delaying a little bit but not bad.  The worst news was that AA now counts my 2 dogs ($150 each dog, each way) as 2 bags and my suitcase was the 3rd bag and they charged me an additional $100 for my suitcase.  So for my suitcase and 2 dog crates the fee is $400 each way :-(  I think that I totally got screwed on the $100 for my suitcase.  Oh, and my suitcase was over weight.  62# instead of 50#.  They wanted another $50 overweight charge.  I got some bags of dog food out of my suitcase and threw them in with Cherry.  She's not a big eater so I knew she wouldn't bother them. After I went around with the AA employee about the additional cost I gave up.  My great skycap then escorted me and the dogs to TSA where I took each dog out of the crate so they could check it.  I then got to go to the front of the security line - woo hoo.  I love business class :-)  Would have been really nice if I'd have been in a business class seat :-)

The dogs and I arrived in Dayton OH around 7pm after leaving LAX at 8am and I had more great service from Enterprise Car Rental.  They have a shuttle van where you go off site to get your car but I asked if they could possibly bring it up because I had the dogs and they were happy to do that for me :-)

I got to Frank & Ann's about 10pm and we got one breeding with Cherry.  Yesterday we got another breeding with Cherry and she's now coming out of season.  I didn't even try today.  I'm hoping I got here in time for Cherry to get pregnant.  Stoni met Flash today and while he was really interested in getting to know her better Stoni was lukewarm so we decided to try tomorrow. 

The weather people say to expect 3-6" of snow Friday & Saturday.  I'm a little nervous about driving in the snow.  Friday morning I'm heading to the Erie PA area to an AKC Agility Trial because Flash is showing this weekend. So I'll spend the weekend in Erie come back to Ohio Sunday night and home on Monday night.

Looks like July is going to be a busy month here at the ranch.  Both Nel and Gabby are expecting pups and are due on the same day no less. I've had several people volunteer to come and help (thanks Laura and Barbara) and I will be taking them up on their offer.  

Nel has had some morning sickness and she's definitely getting bigger every day.  Gabby feels just fine and is a bigger dog with less pups so I'm not noticing a dramatic change with her.  

July 4 is next weekend and the town of Fillmore is gearing up.  When I first moved here I was amazed at the fireworks sales and how insanely crowded the town was with people coming to town to buy fireworks.  The booths are being set up and I'm sure it's going to be crazy in town for the next week.  Thankfully we live about 3 miles outside of town and don't have much firework activity nearby.

I will be breeding Cherry (Fleet x Mike) to Flash using Fresh Chilled Semen (AI).  Will keep my fingers crossed that the timing is right.  Those should be some VERY nice pups.



 

I can't believe it's June already.  Time is flying by - next thing I know it will be Christmas - yuck.

May was a good month.  

I flew to Tampa, Florida to breed Nel to Zing.  That was a fun and very relaxing trip.  Zing and Gabrielle and her mom Charlotte were all great.  I am very happy that I decided to fly out for natural breedings.  I'll be even more happy in 30 days if the ultrasound shows puppies :-)  

Nel was awesome.  For a farm dog that lived in Wales then the Netherlands for a few months then came here and lived in San Diego with Robin then in Fillmore with me she certainly has the most stable temperament and friendly personality anyone could ask for.  She was perfect in the hotel and never barked at a single person or noise.  She was easy to breed, let me sleep in and was a perfect angel.  

I got to see Zing on Sunday & Monday at an agility trial and he looks great.  Gabrielle has done a fantastic job with him.  I took some photos and they can be seen here:

http://cpagility.smugmug.com/gallery/8328796_xFYXQ#545755916_zpkot 

and here:
 
http://cpagility.smugmug.com/gallery/8318105_2FtrZ#544909446_xTGi4

I'm having a great time taking photos.  It's a great hobby.