Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Fall


This is still my favorite time of year, sparkling blue sky, cool mornings, brilliant color all around....

BB seems to like it too.

This is Luverboy diving for a stuffed toy on the drive. It just seemed to me that this was like a little parfait of greens and greys with a Puli at the bottom of the glass....

drive to Denver


Last Friday I drove to Denver. The scrub oak has already turned and the leaves are starting to turn on the Aspens; but above tree line it was snow.

A good 4 inches or more of snow.

rain


The seasons are changing what started as rain ended as snow on the mountain.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Meeker 3 - heartbreak

Five days of sheepdog trails at Meeker- they're all top dogs.


This uploaded backwards- so if you want to start from the beginning go 2 posts down to "Meeker"


Ian and Peg got all the non-collared sheep out of the ring with about 10 minutes still on the clock- that's really fantastic.


Now the only thing left to do is get the 5 sheep with the orange collars into the pen.


...and heartbreak one of the little lambchops gets away and rejoins the herd. Which means Ian and Peg have to start the shed again and bring the whole group into the ring and shed down to the final 5 once more.

The really tragic part is that this happened to Ian and Peg *three* times in the last 10 minutes. They got the final 5 shee up to the pen and then one little mutton breaks off and rejoins the flock. Once was bad luck, twice was really bad luck, three times- heartbreak.

Meeker 2 the shed


Let that one go...

This is an amazing time for Ian- he and Peg have almost shed all the sheep without collars...



There go the last two! Now only the collared sheep are in the ring


Ian waves his crook to move the non- collared sheep farther away...


While Peg holds the 5 collared sheep in the ring.

Meeker

The Meeker sheepdog trails the biggest cash purse in the sheepdog world. This is Ian Zoerb and his dog Peg (they finished 4rth) in the double lift finals on Sunday


Bring 'em in Peg

Right into the shedding ring... with a good amount of time left on the clock (Peg did one of the nicest "look back"s I've ever seen. This is a double lift so there are two groups of sheep to bring into the ring- She brings one group in and then waits for the "look back" command and brings in the second group and then herds all of the sheep into the shedding ring.


Almost half the 30 minutes left for the "shed"


Hold 'em Peg. Ian works one side of the sheep and Peg works the other. Only the sheep with the orange collars are to be penned all the rest have to be "shed" or moved out of the shedding ring.



Oops- not those- that one has a collar on- that one stays..