Happy Spring!

It sure looks like Spring outside today! We had rain again last night and it's colder than it's been the last few days, but everything looks crisp and fresh, the grass is greening up, forsythias are blooming, and the redbuds are starting to bloom as well.

Before i continue, let's have a moment of silence in honor of the farm's fallen friend - the signature redbud that screamed "SPRING!!" for so many years but finally bit the dust last summer, a victim of age and insects...
It really is starting to feel like spring. The ewes are huge as lambing approaches. The dogs are getting some good training in as trials are just around the corner.

I have a fun weekend ahead. I'm not going to end up getting to that dog trial as planned since we needed to reschedule the lesson day from last weekend due to the rain. Tomorrow i'm going to run the dogs over to Denise's to train. They're all working pretty well at home. Peggy and I have been trading some longer outruns at the farm all week (as long as we can anyway, diagonally laid out it's probably 300 yards or so, with a partially blind fetch that has changing pressures). Zac and Jet are working and listening nicely. Bill had a little setback early in the week trying to figure out sheep that were splitting up on him - he was pushing in too hard. He seems to have sorted that out somewhat though, so i'll be trying to do longer outruns with him too. Traveling tomorrow really is for him, as i need to keep gently challenging him with his training. It's easy to forget he's just a 20 month old pup. He's probably not really ready for the Nursery trial next friday. My plan is to be very quick to leave the post and help him have a good experience. He'll be running against dogs with a full year of experience and maturity on him so i don't plan on his being competitive just yet. Anyway, tomorrow should be fun and i may even take the chance to see what baby Meg thinks of sheep.

Sunday is group lesson day in Julie's in Liberty, always fun. It looks like a nice group of dogs and the weather is supposed to be good. Then next week a few days more of training, then off to the dog trial, and lambing starts almost immediately after (if not during!). Lambing ends and then we're off to KY for the May trials. Spring just got here but it's going to roar along quickly!