The end of August

Today is the last day of August and it has been a pretty quiet month. We did not have any competitions and I was home every weekend. I had great plans to get way more done around the house then I did but then that is my life! But I did have a great month with time spent with friends and family, new and old. And I had lots of time to think about what is important and enjoy the life I have!

I love flowers! And this year my flowers and garden of just exploded!! I like lots of color and variety and I definitely have that this year.

The hanging baskets

in front of the two bedroom windows

are huge

and all my pots are over flowing.

And my vegetables have never looked this good

and

we are enjoying all of them.

The dogs were not as excited as I was about the quiet month. They did participate in an agility demo, a fun match, and several practices so it was not like they laid around the whole month. But anytime I thought about sitting down Echo was in my face asking to do something! Echo did have a wonderful herding lesson this month now it is time for me to step up and become the handler Echo deserves and I WILL. Kant and I had a wonderful herding opportunity this past weekend; stock handling at an AKC Collie only herding event at Brigand’s Hide-out in Battle Ground Washington. I was so proud of Kant she worked ducks beautifully which totally de-motivates her but is the price to pay to get to work sheep and work sheep she did. Some of the A course runs did not go as the handlers had planned and Kant had to exhaust the sheep. And Kant got to exhaust B course sheep and she had great outruns and got out around the sheep; these sheep would run if you did not cover them and it was a BIG field for them to run in. Kant and I had a great day and I took home a very tired dog! After the trial was over I asked if a set of PT sheep could be put on the PT course for Echo. This was Echo’s first time to ever herd sheep away from Rocking Dog Ranch. She was wonderful and I was very excited she worked so well with all the new distractions! She had beautiful stands and kept a good working distance off the sheep. She is ready for PT this October. Now I need to get serious about teaching her flanks so she is ready for Started A.

September is looking to be a very busy month for us with a day at the Oregon State Fair, a trip to Reno Nevada for agility, agility in Vancouver Washington, and a week long trip to Klamath Falls Oregon for the Border Collie Sheepdog Nationals. Sounds like a great month to me!!

An Awesome Lunch

A few years ago my friend, Doreen, invited me to an unusual lunch; she had an extra ticket so I asked my mom to come. This lunch was at the Thyme Garden, 12 miles south of Philomath Oregon. The Thyme Garden only serves lunch Tuesday through Thursday, mid-April to mid-August. They also have other special events and host a wedding almost every weekend. http://www.thymegarden.com/ As we were driving and driving and driving to get there from Salem my mom asked if there were restaurants in Salem where we could have lunch and why we had to go over an hour to the middle of no where just to eat lunch. I had never been there but hoped it was worth it because if it was not then I had that hour drive back to Salem to hear about it. It was so worth it and we had an amazing time!! We have talked about going back each year since and just never got around do doing it until this year.

My Aunt was going to be here from Arizona so I finally just made reservations inviting my Mom, Aunt Judy, and Doreen. Doreen invited a friend so she did not have to drive alone from Bandon and at the last minute Doreen’s daughter Briana joined us on her way moving back to Missoula Montana. The lunch adventure starts at 11am with a tour of the property

that started at a butterfly garden where they are trying to get the Monarch Butterfly to visit and get reestablished, a new mushroom garden

that they hope to get mushrooms from next spring

if the wildlife does not get to it first,

a forest where they are working very hard

to preserve

streams

and ponds for fish to live,

and

the

beautiful

herb

garden.

After the tour lunch was served. Today’s Herbal Luncheon Menu started with Herb Flower Salad

with Creamy Dill, Cilantro-Culantro, or Curry Tarragon Dressing,

served with Thyme Wheat Rolls, Rosemary Tomato Baguettes, & Fiesta Cornbread.
Sundried Tomato Pesto Cream Cheese, Salmon Pate,

and Coriander Honey Butter were the choices for spreads.
This was followed by Chicken Florentine – Chicken Breast stuffed with Spinach, Four Cheeses, and Basil with a Fines Herbs Cream Sauce. Served with Savory Quinoa and a Fresh From the Garden Veggie Medley. For dessert – Deep Dark Chocolate Cake with Peppermint Laced Fudge Sauce and a Dollop of Cream. Herbal Refreshments of Jamaica with Lemon Verbena Infusion and Lavender Lemonade were also served. Sorry I was too busy eating and enjoying my lunch to take any more pictures of the beautifully prepared meal.

After lunch there was plenty of time to do some shopping and

take another look around the property! Lunch at the Thyme Garden is well worth the trip and time!!

After lunch we made a stop at a fun Quilt Shop in Philomath where Aunt Judy got a new project and Mom was able to find some more material for a project to soon be started. And I even got a piece of sheep material for a couple more kitchen towels!

Today was a perfect day with the weather and time spent with family and friends!!

The Greatest Agility Demo Ever

3 years ago WAG was invited to do an agility demo at Camp Attitude east of Sweet Home. I love organizing agility demos so I said I would organize this one. After looking at were the location was in Foster Oregon I could not justify hauling the WAG equipment trailer over an hour each way for a mid-week demo so I decided to ask everyone that was able to attend to bring some agility equipment. It was absolutely amazing how much people could bring and still have room for their dogs. I had no trouble building a fun and maybe a little long course; I felt if the people were able to haul the equipment I must use it. The group at Camp Attitude blew me away and touched my heart!! Camp Attitude is a camp for disabled children and each child must come with a caretaker and then they are each assigned a camp “buddy” most of the children came with families so there are a ton of people there. They really enjoy watching us run agility and they loved meeting the dogs. They also invite us to stay for dinner and the food has always been great.

That first year after we were done with our demo and were meeting the kids and a little boy came flying towards Kant and I in his wheelchair and I was trying to figure out how I was going to get us out of his path because I did not see how he could possibly stop before hitting us. But he did come to a complete stop inches from us and as quickly as he was coming towards us in his wheelchair his words were coming out of his mouth and he was saying how much he loved Kant and how fast she was and that he really wanted a dog but his mom said he was too much work to also have a dog and I thought to myself that it was not the fact he was in a wheelchair that caused him to be so much work for his mom this was a very active, outgoing, and happy little boy that did not let his disability slow him down a bit. I will never forget that little boy and how he made me feel. I just loved watching all the interaction between the kids and the dogs!

We were lucky enough to be invited back the next year and it was just as amazing and wonderful. The Waggers that attended the first demo talked so much about it that we had twice as many people attend the next year. At the end of the demo I noticed a mother crying and I felt bad she was upset I went to talk to her to make sure that everything was okay and she told me her son is unable to focus on anything for more then 5 minutes and they have taken him to all kinds of places and tried all kinds of things to get him to focus on something for more then 5 minutes and for the first time ever he sat and watched each and every dog run and stayed focused for the whole demo which was about an hour; they were tears of joy both hers and mine!

I have been looking forward all year to coming back to Camp Attitude and this year when I got the call Louie, the camp director, told me that the camp has gotten so popular that they were having two camps, one in July and one in August!

Two opportunities to spend time with the most amazing kids!!

Waggers once again did not let me down and they showed up ready to help and entertain the crowd twice!! We were starting to recognize kids and they remembered us. This year they invited us to go down to the river with them after the demo before dinner. That was great fun for the dogs and kids and even the handlers enjoyed it.

WAG definitely has some water dogs

and then there is the small group that likes the water but not to swim which included both of my blue shelties and

a very cute black and white border collie, Bling! There are a bunch of kids that are in wheelchairs and the last 30 feet or so to the river is not wheelchair accessible so the kids must be carried down a section that I had a difficult time getting down by myself.

The river was packed full of people playing! They had all kinds of floatation devices for the kids and one was a 6 foot wide floating island. Echo, who had no interest in swimming, quickly figured out she could get in to the river on one of those floating islands and thought they were the greatest things ever.

Echo tried to jump from one floating island to another when they were moving and she fell in to the river, a camp buddy quickly scooped her up and put her back on the island and she shook off the water right on the kids that were laying on the island and the kids laughed so hard and wanted her to do it again. I took home two very tired shelties that night and I am sure all the other dogs that were there slept great.

The August camp was twice as big as the July one and the weather was just a slight bit cooler. We also had more Waggers available to come in August with more equipment.

I am just amazed at how hard Waggers work whether it is a demo or a trial; you show up and there is an empty field or arena and

before you know it it is full of agility equipment and at the end the equipment is gone just as quickly. This group was no different! I have started to really enjoy designing courses and the challenge of having limited equipment is a fun one. I felt I designed some nice courses but you never know until they are on the ground.

Everyone

seemed

to

enjoy

them

and

gave

me

very

nice

compliments!

But I could not have done the demos without all the Waggers that made the trip out to Camp Attitude!!

After the August demo

the campers did not come down to the river,

the staff was too tired, but they set a huge slip and slide for them.

It is amazing how much fun the kids young and old could have with a big piece of plastic, some water, and a whole lot of shampoo!! We still took the dogs and snuck down to the river

after a group picture.

We had some crazy retrieving dogs,

some dogs and handlers that just wanted to swim, and

of course the group that wanted to play in the water but not swim. Debbie was collecting rocks and

found a very odd shaped one.

Another afternoon spent with the most amazing people and having the greatest time with my dogs, which slept very well that night!

I am already looking forward to next year!! If you want more information on Camp Attitude you can visit their website: http://campattitude.com/Camp_Attitude/Welcome.html

Thank you Tammy for all the great pictures to capture the fun we had!!