The weather is really beautiful. It is still pretty warm and nice for swimming.
Yesterday our neighbors had a birthday party for their grandchild. The first thing the dogs noticed was that there were balloons tied to their mailbox, down by the road. That caused some investigation and a few barks from Journey, who was not familiar with balloons. Then came all the children. Quest would have given anything to join them. I think he would even have braved the barking little Dachshunds. He lay by the fence, up on the agility field and watched the children play and squeal and laugh. Pirate and Journey had their own party going and they were running and playing with Jolly balls.
The leaves have begun to drop. We have still not had any rain, so the lawn is golden. If it were not for the trees the Northwest would not be very green right now. I have picked and frozen numerous quarts of blackberries. The blueberries are finished, but we are still enjoying blackberries and marionberries. Next year we may have raspberries if I get my new plants put in the ground in time. We still have plums on the trees and apples. Every night the deer come and clean up all the fallen apples. My neighbor said there were seven deer in our yard last night. I do not let the dogs out on the acreage after dark. I don't want them to frighten or chase the deer. I don't want them confronting any of the other things they bark at from the deck, at night. I heard a report of a Mountain Lion recently and I know there are coyotes, raccoons, opossums and (hopefully not), but maybe porcupines.
The dogs have access to their own dog yard at all times by going through the doggy door to the pool house and then out to their own fenced yard. They can also use the doggy door in the front and access the dog yard by going out on the deck and down stairs to their yard. During the daylight hours they can go where ever they want in the house and on the property, including the woods.
We have been so busy with dog shows, Dogapawlooza and harvesting fruit, I have not done much inside. There will be plenty of time for those things then when winter is here. Of course I say that every year and when winter is here I promise myself I will spend more time outside when summer is here. My values have changed though. What used to be fun stuff to do when I was not working, now comes first. I decided that if I were suddenly not able to do the things I wanted to do, I would not be mourning the inability to clean my house - what I would miss would be playing with the pack and enjoying my friends. So now I take care of the important things first. And if I were to have an epitaph it would read something like: "she did the things she loved and loved living her life". If someone chooses to add a note, it would be fine with me if they noted that I was not very good at organizing or keeping the house presentable for company. I could live with that .... or not.
I decided to take my book outside and read for a while. Because if I don't do that I should be vacuuming the pool, or the carpet, or washing windows, or painting window sills, or clearing kitchen counters.
Now the dogs say it is time for a swim, so I will have to finish this entry later.
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I am currently in love with these photographs that seem to merit some sort of title, maybe something like "white dogs under plum trees with red jolly balls". Well maybe not that title, but I do like the pictures. I have posted all of these because I could not decide which one I liked the best.
Journey in front. Pirate sitting under plum tree.
Journey and I went to a UKC show in St. Helens, Oregon on Saturday, September 15, 2012. Journey got a Best of Breed and a Herding Group 4. We left early so we could stop by the Dogapawlooza. Our instructor had requested students to do some agility demonstrations. Journey ran the lure course. He really likes lure coursing. He usually manages to catch the lure at some point and when he finds out it is a plastic bag, he looks at me with a quizzical expression. He still enjoys the chase though. He spends so much time running hills at our place, the flatland where the lure coursing is held must be very easy for him. Next we went to the herding barn and Journey got to herd the goats. He took to it immediately and it did not take long for him to learn how to keep the goats out of the corners. He has his Herding Instinct Certificate that he received last year, but they gave him another one anyway.
We watched the rally demonstrations, then headed up into the hills, to our home. When one dog goes somewhere with me, the others always welcome him home as though he had been gone forever. There are kisses all around; whimpers of excitement; some racing around the house and then ... what else, a celebratory diving and swimming session.
We skipped the show on Sunday and instead, we all went back to Dogapawlooza for the second day. This day it was Pirate and Quest's turn to do some lure coursing and herding. Pirate did not really seem to be into herding this time. He did a good enough job of moving the goats, but his heart was not in it. Anyone could see he was far more interested in the dogs and all the excitement of the flyball contests. Next it was Quest's turn to do some herding - but that is another story. He deserves his own post for that and it will follow this entry.
After a lot of walking, visiting with the agility demo people and dogs, we watched the rally demos and then helped load the agility equipment. What a wonderful weekend! We were all tired (mostly me) and happy (all four of us). We stopped at Dairy Queen and the dogs split a dish of vanilla soft serve.
