Still here!

I thought maybe i should do a little catchup post since it's been ages. All is well here.

We haven't been trialing this winter at all. The last trial the dogs ran in was Rural Hill in Huntersville, NC in November. It wasn't my favorite trial of the year. The field is very nice, the sheep were pretty good, set out was good, nice crowd, but the trial has some problems that really need to be addressed. I won't go into detail here on the blog but if you really need to know, send me a message.  I hope the problems can be addressed in the future but i have to say it's not the first time i've come home with the same concerns. We did attend another trial this winter - the Edgeworth Winter trial. But the dogs didn't run as i spent the weekend in the judges seat. It was a lot of fun and a good weekend. I enjoy judging and learn some new things every time i do it. The only downside is not getting to run my own dogs!

I've had a couple of fundays at the farm this winter, just nice, social days with some nice folks getting out to work dogs. Lots of good food and good fun. That was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving and also to ring in the New Year.

In some exciting news, I bred Zeke to a nice bitch during the Rural Hill trial and there are three 3 week old pups coming along. I haven't decided yet if i'll be taking one, partly because it's 3 boys and i wanted a female, but also because in more exciting news, I bred Bill about 3 weeks ago. I've been waiting on just the right situation to come along to breed him, and this was it. I've leased Rhyme, Joe's dam. I'm very excited about this cross as the Zac x Rhyme pups are turning out to be talented, solid dogs. The cross brings together Bill's smoothness with the cool power of Rhyme's maternal line (my old Ben is her grandsire). Time will tell but i can hardly wait to see those pups!

So that's about it from here. The dogs have been taking it easy this winter, and Zeke and Joe are coming along in their training. I'm making plans for this year's trials and impatiently waiting on pups.