Happy Spring!

Spring has sprung! We got a good amount of rain yesterday afternoon into the evening. It is so nice to see puddles and green grass growing. Last year's drought was hard on everyone. I hope it doesn't happen again any time soon. This year, as soon as we can get it, Wally and I will put up as many bales of hay as we can fit into his barn. Handling square bales is much easier than those huge 800 pound things.

I sent in another entry for a USBCHA trial held the end of May in Lawndale, NC. This is a nice trial, especially nice because it's only 25 miles from me. If gas keeps going up like it has been, I'll have to cut down on long trips. My car gets about 33 miles to the gallon, which is good, but having to spend $35 to fill the tank is getting pricey. I can only imagine what people who drive diesel vehicles or SUVs are paying. USBCHA trials are still filling, at least the Open classes are, but I don't know if that will continue if gas keeps going up. I don't know how they can afford it.

I cancelled my April sheep lesson in Sanford. I need to come up with the entry fees for the next ASCA trial and then the clinic and private lesson fee for the end of June so I need to conserve funds. I think after the clinic in June I'm going to take a couple of months off from traveling and trialing. I am a home-body. I don't like being away from home. While I have enjoyed the past few trials I've done, it is exhausting for me. I don't think I'll ever develop a tolerance for long road trips. I don't like sitting still for that long.

In addition, if all goes well, I'll have a new puppy around the middle to end of June. A local woman asked to use Gel as stud. I am not actively studding him out, he isn't that good, but the bitch that the woman wanted to breed him to is impeccably bred so I agreed. Her father is a USBCHA National Champion. Her mother was a hard working farm dog owned by a hard-core handler, one who only accepts the very best of working dogs, everything else is "petted out." The bitch has produced at least four dogs who made it to the National finals. Both dogs are dead now so the lines are no longer available. The bitch Gel bred is eight and this will be her last litter. I had a puppy off her before Midge got pregnant that I sold because I knew I couldn't handle a four month old puppy and a litter of new puppies. I wish I hadn't sold her, but now I have the opportunity to get the lines again, assuming the bitch took. The woman who owns the bitch really should have gone out to an Open (USBCHA Open trial) dog, but she wanted to use Gel so that was fine with me.

I am hoping to get from the cross something similar that I have in Fern, a bit more toughness and resiliency, intensity and tenacity, tempered with Gel's biddability and temperament. The bitch has a very nice temperament. I've only seen her on stock once and she is a strong, driven dog. She had a good amount of style too. The bitch is white-factored so I expect the puppies will have a bit more white on them than Midge's litter did. The great thing is, the puppies won't be vaccinated in the customary manner. In her last litter, one puppy suffered a severe vaccine reaction which scared the woman enough such that she won't vaccinate another dog or puppy, except for what is required by law of course. The puppy (now a year old) still hasn't recovered completely. They will be weaned on kibble, but if I take the puppy at seven to nine weeks old, I can get him on raw right away.

We'll see what comes of it.