I had an early day yesterday, leaving home at four am to catch a seven o'clock flight out of Ottawa and on to Regina.  There I accidentally got upgraded to a fancy Toyota forerunner.  What  a great little car.  The drive south from Regina was emotive and fat.  Lots of rain blessing the prairie–everything green luxuriant  with one vista outdoing another for many fabulous miles.  I always experience a heartfelt home coming when I travel there.  No one deserves so much beauty.  The border guards took my fresh apricots.  I know they came from the United States.  They took them anyway.

My drive from Regina was about seven glorious hours, down a road I have never taken.  I got to Bowman (timing is everything ) at supper time.  Bev missed me terribly.  All my western friends were looking like veterans of the two weeks of trials they had just undergone.  Me!!  I was fresh as a flower.  Just freed from weeks of home slavery.

Joni's place and everywhere else on the prairie has enjoyed some much rain that I have never seen it so bounteous and triumphant.  If I never come back, this is how I will recall it.

The field was very big and dish shaped.  One always suspects that a dogger acquires property with  running a perfect outrun in mind.  Joni must have seen this such a triumph in her new place, because just such a picturesque field presents itself.  The very accomplished and experienced Lyle Boyer was the judge.  The sheep were yearling range ewes.  We ran on three.

I had a wonderful time setting out.  It was demanding with sheep bolting back to the set out pen with very little provocation. The weather was perfectly cool with a couple of dry rains

Roz had  a rough go around the course, making it all right but not getting into the ring in time to shed.  The running was plenty difficult with many sheep besting the canines at the top and running back.  Or runs just petering out, with dogs running out of ideas about how to get them going.  I don't know what the ratio of scores to zeros was but it wasn't good.
 

Bev has been storing up her Nell bitch, holding her back in Ranch for some mad reason and she looked happening today.  Chris Jobe was the first penner of the day and she ran thirty somethingth.  There were a couple of additional pens, but not so many.  Dennis Edwards and good old Clive (very satisfying because in doing so we got a ten dollar bet for both me and Don Whittington from Stormy Winters.  Yay!!).  Clive had a poor redirected outrun  but he was good enough around the course to win.