TMT - Just In Time

For the next few weeks (months) Tell Me Thursday will be hosted by Jaenne' over at Rockin' Ewe Stockdogs. Go take a look and join in!

This weeks questions:

1. Where were you born? Did you grow up there?
North Carolina, baby! I actually live now just a mere mile from where I grew up. Both of my grandmothers live within about a mile of my childhood home, and my mother is still there. It was a good place to grow up. I fed my brother rabbit turds. Good times.

2. How did you come to end up living where you are now?

I went to school for a while in South Carolina - Southern Wesleyan University. When I realized I needed a break I moved back up here. I took about 9 months to get on my feet, and once I was able I moved into this little rental house with my dog, Ginger. About 3 years later I bought my house... and now I'm stuck until the housing market gets better. Sigh.

The other part of the story is that I love my family. I not only love them, but I like them a lot too. It makes me happy to be near them, even when I don't see them that often.

3. What is the most unusual trick you have taught your dog? Or the most unusual animal you have taught tricks?

Um... well... I taught Nicky to play dead. Except his version of playing dead involves thrashing around on his back. Oh, and it doesn't really have a command yet. So I just stand there and eventually he remembers what I want, and does it. Ok, so maybe this doesn't count. - certainly it's not unusual.

I once taught a horse to stick his tongue out. Ok, I didn't really so much teach him that... he liked to have his tongue scratched so it didn't take much effort to get him to start doing it when I asked him to.

4. What is the most unusual food you enjoy?

Unusual... hm. My new found love for sushi grosses my family out. But all things considered I'm pretty plain jane when it comes to food.

5. I know this has been asked before, but I'm always looking for a great book to read so what was the last book you read? Did you like it? Would you recommend it?

I'm pretty much a bandwagon sort of reader. I'm not terribly adventurous and I prefer to read either books by my favorite authors, or books that seem to be popular. I finished The Hunger Games books in about 3 days a couple of weeks ago. I can't WAIT to see the movie. Right now I'm reading A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. It took me several chapters to get into it, and honestly I had some trouble following in the beginning. However, I've been watching the TV episodes on Amazon.com, and once I got a bigger picture from them I really got interested in the book. It is certainly worth a read. I would definitely recommend The Hunger Games.

Up Top

A couple of weeks ago we set sheep with Julie P up at Robin's trial at Shoofly Farm. I started documenting as we went but got distracted along the way. But I thought I'd share up to where I forgot to take pics anymore.

We loaded up early. We rolled out around 6:30... though we were up before 5am.



As per usual, I had my priorities in order. See above for portajohn, and below for coffee. Priorites. I has them.



Once we got there we put the girlz into the sorting system.



Then I would lay Nick down over to the side...



And push the sheep out myself.



That being said... both sheep and dog tend to take advantage when you have a camera in your face. That was the first set of the day, and that sheep that turned back on me would turn out to be a troublemaker All. Weekend. Long. For the most part, though, the sheep settled as the morning went on and I thought worked pretty nicely.

I didn't get any pictures of how we worked the sorting system. I would leave a gap in the crush gate just big enough for my dog to get through. The dog - Nick or Linc, or in Julie's case one of her dogs, would go into the big crush pen and lie down over to the side while I'd move sheep up through the system. Once I got to the back pen (which would then be empty) I would have the dog just quietly hold their side while I loaded the last sorting pen from the back. It was a very quiet and (I'd say 98%) hands free system.

Then we'd go drink more coffee.

We did a little pen work and did quite a bit of setting out. Here Nick and I stand waiting for our next packet for the novice classes:



It was a nice weekend. Linc really surprised me with his maturity and some finesse I hadn't realized he possessed. Excepting one minor incident (a ewe lamb wound up feet in the air - still not sure exactly how that happened) he was a quiet but firm presence in there and I liked it. Nick was his usual good self.

I always love the view from the top.

Looking for TMT?

If you're looking for Tell Me Thursday, please click HERE. Jaenne' has kindly agreed to host for a while so that I may take a wee break. Enjoy!

I do plan to play when I have time. Today, though, is not that day unfortunately.

A Hiatus from TMT

Hi folks! I've concluded that with everything going on in my personal life I'm going to take a hiatus from hosting TMT. I may pick it back up again in a few months, but for now I need a break.

That being said, if someone else would like to take over hosting for a while just let me know. I can hook you up with how to do the link widget, and if you want a button I can help you navigate that as well.

So many things are going on in my personal life at the moment that I cannot seem to think straight, and time is so spare right now. Most of these things are Very. Good. Things. It just seems that I'm losing track of my days, and don't always have time to sit down and play hostess in the way that I'd like to.

Anyway, please leave me a comment or send me an email if you'd be interested in hosting while I take a LOA. In fact, if two or three would like to band together to host that works too. I'm open. Or we can pause until I get my act together again.

Either way I've really enjoyed getting to know everyone a little better!

Tell Me Thursday 2012 - #9

For a slight change of pace, this Thursday is a "Tell Me Thursday - Random Edition" sort of post. This is your permission to break out whatever random stuff you want to tell this week.

Also known as... I've been so crazy busy this week I almost forgot again.

So rather than Q&A this week I'd like to know whatever random tidbits you might have on your mind today.

Here are mine:

- The alarm clock woke me up this morning
- I haven't been asleep when the clock went off in so long I can't remember
- I didn't even wake up at all last night
- Yet again, that hasn't happened in a very long time
- I finally got the van all vacuumed out, and the crates are all in place
- 'Cuz I'll be up at Robin's trial this weekend working up top with Julie P
- and we need crates loaded to get there
- 'Cuz driving dogs places in a Camry is for the birds
- I'm really looking forward to it though
- 'Cuz working up top is my favorite thing to do - even moreso than running a dog
- If you're coming to the trial please come up and say hi!
- If you're not... you should. It's a fun trial.
- Nick managed to yank most of his tail hairs out the week before last
- He looks ridiculous
- I learned that when you put bitter stuff on tails sometimes it gets on your hands and somehow it ends up in your mouth. It is almost impossible to get that stuff off (or out of your mouth).
- it really is nasty... unless you're Nick, who happens to be certain it is a condiment
- If you're at the trial this weekend don't be hating on my dog's tail
- Even though he deserves it

SO. Random rattle away!

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Mountainous Mattresses and a Little Grease

It must be time for another Friday Confessional with Mamarazzi! If you have anything to confess, just click on the photo above to get started.

I Confess...

When I got Bessie (aka the CrazyMobile) back I was so excited I ran over to her and hugged her hood. And the side door. And the driver's door. And the hood again.

I got grease on my uh... well... pieces parts.

I didn't care. I was just happy to have her back.

I Confess...

I really didn't think she'd make it through, but my brother is excellent in triage. Actually, he's just plain flat out amazing when it comes to mechanical things. I remember this one time, when we were kids, that he actually took apart my white noise machine, fixed it, and put it back together again. He was like... nine years old.

I Confess...

The two of us together used to make Stumpwater Stew. We fed it to the neighbor's kids.

There was this tree with a sunk-in stump (it had been two headed, and one head was cut off, leaving a sunken stump). When rainwater would collect in there we'd... well... add stuff to it and feed it to the other kids.

I Confess...

I still giggle when I think about some of the things my brother and I did together growing up. I love him a lot, whether he fixes my cars or not.

I'm glad he does. Fix my cars, that is.

I Confess...

I also got a new mattress this week. Last night in fact! This is my first EVER new mattress. It has been long overdue as my back has been hurting so bad I've not slept through the night in months.

Mom and I strapped it (and the box springs) to the top of the CrazyMobile and drove it home looking a little bit like "National Lampoon's Sam's Club Vacation".

I Confess...

This thing is a Mountain. I'm going to name it (clearly I like to name things - I even named a Food Baby this week. If you don't know what a food baby is, according to my sister it's when you eat so much you have a little food baby in your belly). I digress. I'll be taking name suggestions for the mattress.

I need a step-stool to get up on it.

I Confess...

I had to give Ginger a ramp to get up there. She kept trying to jump up on it, and kept falling off. Over and over. She wouldn't stop trying, so I had to help her out. She won't use the ramp as a ramp, but at least she's using it as a launching pad. I suppose that works. At almost fourteen (She'll be fourteen either March or April 23rd - I can never remember which) I don't argue with her much. Not that anyone ever argues with Ginger.

Finally, I confess that I kept waking up all night last night to be excited about how comfy I was and how good I was sleeping on my new mattress.

What can I say? This morning I woke up without back pain. That mattress is the bomb.com.

Whew. I feel better now.

Tell Me Thursday 2012 - #8

I don't know what happened last week. I was cruising right along and then suddenly it was Friday and I realized I'd gone AWOL! Very Twilight Zone-ey. I'll confess that it almost happened again today. Somehow my days are all running together. Anyway, I'm trying to get it back on the straight and narrow for today. Maybe not too narrow, though.

By the way... the CrazyMobile lives!!! My brother got her all fixed up and I have her back now. Whew. Looks like the Crazies are back in business. With all of the work he did to her I'm hoping I'll get another 150K miles out of her. Ok, maybe not. We'll see!

This week's questions (and please forgive because I'm sort of making this up as I go along):

1. What blogging tip would you give other dog-bloggers?
2. If you were going to be stranded on a deserted island and could take five things with you (aside from the clothes on your back), what would they be?
3. How much pain are you willing to endure in the name of physical appearance? Do you have painful things done to enhance beauty?
4. Speed limits... how fast do you drive? Do you drive Miss Daisy? Do you do the Indy 500 to work?
5. What trial (that you go to) is your favorite, and why?

Again with the coming back to answer as I have time.

1. What blogging tip would you give other dog-bloggers?

I'm going to break out two. The first would be to enable your email in your profile. Yes, you'll get some occasional spam. But you'll also get emails from people wanting you to do things like the Mr. Chewy review. Then you can pick and choose. In addition to that you'll also get emails back from other bloggers when you comment on their blogs (some will, some won't). I like to do that - email folks back when they comment.

The second would be... ditch word verification. Ugh. Hate.

Yeah, I know it inivtes more spam. Set up your blog to filter after a week. It works.

2. If you were going to be stranded on a deserted island and could take five things with you (aside from the clothes on your back), what would they be?

I've been reading The Hunger Games, and that got me to thinking if I was dropped into a place with no escape what things would I want. Here is my list:

- a knife
- matches
- something to hold water in
- bow and arrows
- Papa John's

What? It's my game, and I can have a Papa John's on my island if I want.

No?

Ok, last item... an herbology book. You know... poisonous plants and edible plants sort of thing. Once I learn what I need I can then use it for toilet paper.

3. How much pain are you willing to endure in the name of physical appearance? Do you have painful things done to enhance beauty?

Not very much. I get the brow waxed and that's so excruciating I can hardly stand it. Like Julie I've gone a little native lately... living alone in the winter means lots of extra insulation. I used to sell Mary Kay... and was hard pressed to wear it every day. Good products... bad me. Now my method is... lip gloss it and go.

4. Speed limits... how fast do you drive? Do you drive Miss Daisy? Do you do the Indy 500 to work?

The people in the slow lane pass me. No, not really, but I usually won't go more than 4 over. Except sometimes on the way to work I get all road-ragey and find myself in the middle of the speeder pack. Then I start to feel guilty... about the time I get off the highway, so no big.

5. What trial (that you go to) is your favorite, and why?

Whew. That's pretty hard to say. I'd say probably my favorite trial is any trial at Shoofly Farm... because my favorite thing to do is to work up at the top. I'd rather work than run a dog any day.

For trials that I run dogs at, probably so far my favorite is (like Julie's) Donald McCaig's Highland Occasional SDT. It's so beautiful there.

I sure do hate that Seclusival ended before I started trialing. But it was my first ever trial to attend, and seemed so magical to me then.

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