March 19, 2008: Time flies when you're having fun.
It seems as if the last two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. It's hard to think back to what all we have done.

Sometime in the last two weeks we were out gathering in 1,200 ewes that needed to be scanned. It was a good opportunity to introduce Ace to gathering on a grand scale. Off she went with Angie and Roy in search of sheep. Ace has a real nose for sheep! While Roy was sent off down the hill, over the burn, and up the hill on the other side to get the sheep, Ace stood watching Roy do his work. Once the sheep were across the burn, Ace joined in and, without too many mishaps, she and Roy drove the sheep to the right field. We say 'not too many mishaps' because there were one or two! Well, you have to expect that from an 11-month-old. Ace's enthusiasm got the better of her on occasion and she'd pop up in front of the sheep trying to bring them back to Angie. Despite these wee indiscretions, Ace worked well with the flock. At one point she even saved some ewes from escaping. The ewes will have to work a heck of a lot harder to get away from Ace!

Tina has been out a few times gathering with Kelvin. She is really coming along in leaps and bounds, and is proving quite competent at getting the job done. What a little dynamo she is.

We were off trialling over the weekend at Bobby Dalziel's place. His spring series of trials are well-attended and draw the likes of Julie Hill, Bobby Henderson, Raymond MacPherson, Norman MacDonald, German World Trial team member Tina Czylwik-Gerlach, and next week, Serge van der Zweep will be competing. It is TOUGH competition! But what better way to learn than from watching some of the very best handlers in the world duke it out for top spot - and more importantly perhaps, qualifying points to get into national trials. While the competition is fierce, there is a tremendous amount of camaraderie among the handlers. It is terrific watching the top people compete, but it is just as satisfying to see Sandy, Bob, Donald, Charlie, Keith, Brenda, and others all doing well too. Sandy and Bob have had some tremendous runs and are always dangerous. Donald and Charlie have each had great runs with their dogs, Donald even jumping for joy with his dog's run. Both narrowly missed being placed over the weekend. Kelvin managed a third place on the big hill with Blade. Blade likes the big, open spaces better than small trial fields. He is starting to rack up some points and he is certainly leading the 'family' competition - for now!

Bobby's sheep are great sheep to run on - fair for the most part, and always well set-out. Bobby sets out sheep almost all day long, stopping only long enough to run his own dogs. We also got to set out sheep - which is a task we like to do. One of the nice things about Bobby is that he takes the time to show you how to set sheep properly, and if things go wrong, which they can, he helps fix it from the sidelines. He is good to his volunteers, that's for sure, and as a result, it is a pleasure volunteering to help.

Work has been busy - that's our 'non-sheep, non-dog' pay cheque kind of work. Kelvin has been glued to his desk grading papers for his university students in Canada and the US, while Angie started a new job, and in the evenings has been glued to her computer looking after the World Trial website. Working on the World Trial is a heck of a lot of fun, and made that much more enjoyable when one gets to work with top-class people. An added bonus is that we get almost daily updates from exhuberant Welshmen about the latest Welsh rugby team wins. And win they have - the Grand Slam! That's the holy grail to any Welsh rugby fan.