February 25, 2009: Burning the Midnight Oil
What a week it's been. Where should we start? Well, we won't go on ad nauseum about this but 'the' book finally arrived back from the printer. How thrilling it is to actually see the book 'in the flesh' so to speak. As soon as we got it, we raced downstairs to present Mike with his copy for his birthday. OK, we were two days late with his birthday gift but somehow he didn't seem to mind. Mike stuck his nose into the book all night long and barely registered Kelvin's sneaky attempts to take a photo of him relaxing in his favourite chair, feet up, oggling over the photos in the book. He is in love with Aidan Gallagher's Bill and James McGee's Becca - both having trained over at Mike's son's (Alun) place during the World Trial. That was the start of 5 days solid of getting almost all of the reserved books out. We have been up early and to bed late! Kelvin looked after all the couriers for the large orders, and Angie took care of all the reserved copies. We are 90% there! We are getting some nice feedback on the book. The ISDS sent a wee note saying:

"The books have arrived here today, and I must say you have the admiration of the whole office. A GORGEOUS book."

We even hit the front page of the ISDS website! Check it out here! Yes, the book is also available from the ISDS. Donna Brinkworth in Canada (a professional communications person and sheepdog enthusiast) has written a review of the book for the next issue of the International Sheepdog News but you'll have to wait to get the magazine to read it. Us too!

One of the cool things about spending many hours down at our local shop which doubles as a post office is meeting almost everyone in the neighbourhood, including Oscar the cat. Oscar lives near the post office but spends almost all his days reclining on the counter of the shop warming the newspapers for customers. When he is not on the counter, he curls up in the rubbish bin of the post office and doesn't seem to mind being stuck with sticky labels. He is quite the character.

This shop takes you back in time. While the post office takes debit and credit cards, the shop part is cash only. If you happen to have no cash on you, you take your items and come back later or the next day to pay the bill. Does that happen anywhere else these days? It is all done on an honour system and yes, there are still honourable people around. The local shopkeeper come postmistress keeps all of this in her head - and she's GOOD! The other day I spent almost 3 and a half hours in the post office - yes the system is very inefficient here - and it was living history. You could have written a book just about the characters that came in that day! Everyone was curious what was in the packages being sent and were thrilled to be able to leaf through the book. No-one is in a hurry at this store. No pushing and shoving to get to the front of the line. Everyone waits their turn and then stops for a quick chat. The only thing missing was a wee coffee shop where people can sit and rest awhile. But then again, some people might never leave!

On Saturday Kelvin went off to the indoor trial being held about an hour north of here. This was an invitation only event for 12 Welsh handlers. Although indoor trials are quite common in other countries, it isn't the done thing here. Some tips from these other countries might have come in handy! The venue for the trial was quite small - about the size of a basketball court. Yikes. The floor was slippery...so slippery that some dogs had a kniption and could not continue. They were sliding all over the place and at times had trouble staying on their paws. Despite these wee glitches, the trial was interesting to watch and certainly was well-attended by the general public - and not just the hard core triallists. The event garnered quite a lot of media interest which is good for the sport.

Here at the farm, the ewes are not far away from lambing. More ewes came home from winter grazing this week so all the sheds are full now. The week has been full of heartache for Nora and Mike with their West Highland Terrier, Charlie, becoming ill and within days dying. He has now been laid to rest in the garden.

Kelvin and Bailey have been out trapping moles. Moles are rampant at the moment and doing serious damage to the fields. With a total of one mole trap and one over-eager border collie/aussie shepherd, they have not caught a single mole yet. Mike and Nora did sneak down to the trap the other day and placed a chocolate bar in the trap and then hid themselves away to see Kelvin's reaction. Kelvin thought he had a mole and Bailey was wild with excitement...but when he discovered the chocolate bar, all he could do was burst out laughing. Bailey was not amused.

Speaking of moles, we were up at Nigel Watkins place the other day and his partner, Janet is on the mole warpath as well. Traps in hands, she has been much more successful than Kelvin. Perhaps she needs to give Kelvin some tips. While she was showing Kelvin the spoils of her labour, Nigel was trying to teach me a thing or two about shedding. He is a good teacher...pity about his pupil! After a couple of goes and a bit of tutelage, Meg and I finally pulled off two sheds...and it felt good! Poor Meg. She could do with a better handler (oh, how many people say that?).

Oh, how could I forget to mention this? I bought a new dog this week! Bobby Dalziel has sold me his very good young dog Jamie. I am still pinching myself! He is going to be my new stud dog and yes, he will be available for stud services (CEA normal and Hips excellent). Jamie won his first open trial at 11 months of age and basically hasn't stopped winning. He'll be 4 this April. What a thrill to have a dog of this calibre. He might just be as good as Meg :-) ha ha ha! I think people call him a Saddleback border collie - and other people call him anything from ugly to gorgeous - but I didn't buy him for his looks but for his ability and the types of pups he is throwing! Plenty in the pups. THANK YOU Bobby! I am so excited!

Jamie in 2008 on the hill in Ettrick, Scotland

Kelvin has been grading university papers and now and then snatching time to work on his kids book. I have started planning book #2 but no, it is not a border collie book. Something entirely different.

Well, that's our week in a nutshell.