BevLive: Living the Good Life

Lovely day–maybe it was worth the drive, after all.

Met my hostess in town and followed her out to her ranch. Hundreds and hundreds of acres of outruns. Lovely!

Hemp did a great job sorting off five of the big western ewes and bringing them across the road to the nearest field. It's always tricky moving someone else's sheep around. You hate to put something through a fence (or in this case down the road and through someone else's fence).

I did short outruns and a little driving with Huck. He really enjoys the way the western ewes move off, and I think looks his best in the west. (See photo above.)

Mirk of course is my biggest concern: these are going to be tough events for such a young dog, not helped by our short acquaintance. Did a little driving, but since much of the field was under water and it was quite hot I concentrated on shedding. I tend to spend a lot of time practicing shedding, as it involves the sheep looking at the dog and is the phase of work that really requires instantaneous  handler/dog communication to work. Mirk wasn't coming in as fast as I would have liked, so I put him up and worked Bill a bit while Mirk rested. 

After Bill finished I tried Mirk again; he looked quite a bit better, but still not as good as I have seen him.

Spent the rest of the day getting the camper set up , reading and just generally goofing off, as it was too hot to do much else. Good recuperating day.

In the afternoon it cooled off, and everyone got some more work. Mirk was shedding better but still seemed a bit diffident about it, wonder what that's about?

In the evening Amanda and her traveling companion Marie Cashenarrived with treasure troves of culinary delights from Amanda's shopping in Denver. I have a great camper, but I have never really gotten over my many years of roughing it at trials. I always view camping as a sort of wilderness experience. Not so Amanda. Grilled salmon, tomatoes from her garden, baked potatoes and key lime pie. Canadian hospitality at its best.

Just walked the dogs for the last time. The big Colorado sky is full of the Milkyway, not a sight we see often in Connecticut with all our lights and pollution. No traffic at all this far out from town. Lovely!