Midtown Ranch

Snow is all gone from t/he front yard, still two large patches in the back.  We had two dumps of snow – yesterdays dump did not stick. It came down pretty heavy, though.

I got sick right after getting the bike, so didn’t ride until Wednesday.  I’ve ridden my bike instead of driving for the last three days. It’s fun – bike certainly turns heads. The snow yesterday was perturbing. I was grateful it melted and was sunny when it was time to ride home.

Dogs and chickens are gleeful to see spring. The chickens in particular always seem happy. They’ve been in close quarters all winter, nothing green (besides the veggies we give them) for months, no bugs to chase, and very unsatisfactory mud/snow/chips when they want a good dust bath.  They’ve been running the yard all week. Lots of dust baths, bug chasing, scratching happy chicken action.

Sun is coming up around 6 AM, and it is still light enough to read outside at 10 PM. Our crocus are blooming, the daffodils and tulips are in bud. Scott’s tomato and radish plants are growing ferociously fast.

Except for the mud and smell of 6 months of chicken run, this is my favorite time of year.

I received my test results for my Certified Professional Dog Trainer exam today.

I passed!

I bought a second hand bike at the bike swap today. Our friend’s told us about the swap, and helped us confirm it was a good bike – the tires still have their mold marks, and the chain looks shiny and new. The bike hasn’t seen much action.

It’s called ‘The Betty’ and is made by Electra Bikes.It has 3 gears, coaster brakes, and a really spankin’ paint job.This is a stock photo – mine does not have the streamers. I’ll add baskets to the rear, and a bell.I’m going to ride it to work, and maybe around the neighborhood a little bit.

Kate picked up another 2 points on Sunday. She took Winners Bitch again, then took ‘Best of Winners’ picking up another point from the boys. Such a good girl!

She showed beautifully this weekend. We are very proud of our hard working girl.

If I count her points right, she is 3 points and one major away from earning her ‘Champion’ title. Major means there must be enough Cardigan’s in the ring with her to be worth 3 points if she wins. That’s a little tough up here so it’s quite possible she’ll continue earning points 1 and 2 at a time and not ‘finish’ because none of them will be a ‘major’ win. We’ll see what happens this summer.

Kate took Winners Bitch at today’s show. Then she took Best Opposite in the Best of Breed segment. She showed the best ever for me today. I did her grooming without help – other than a “how’s that look” to Kat.

We had a lot of fun (she barked once in the ring but not a the judge ).

Bing got kind of left out so after we took Scott lunch (White Spot) we trucked over to De La Vega park. No one else was there, the sun was bright and the trail firm. Bing and Kate ran themselves silly for 45 minutes. Home, dog bath, and marrow bones to gnaw. Pretty damn good day. 

We just finished watching “Dog Lover’s Symphony”. File it under more things we didn’t need to see. I was moved to write a Yahoo movie review, but didn’t post it cuz yahoo wanted to use my full name.

My husband and I were resigned to the bad acting. We can only hope that a good therapist can help us forget the ending.

What the ending really needed was zombies.

On Tudor Road today, after leaving Great Northern Guns. Guy wearing sweat pants, bent over tying his shoe on the side of the road. His sweat pants had a rip. A really big rip. There were pink hairy parts everywhere, man.

The girls threw a party last night. It must have gotten pretty rowdy. When I checked on them this morning, their heat lamp was off. I stepped into the hen house to investigate, and found that the bulb had been smacked so hard that it was loose from the screw in part. Wow.

I tried to get the bulb out of the fixture but couldn’t manage it. The bulb and fixture were cold, so the metal was really tight. I gave up (after a brief extinction burst) and left if in the garage. The air was relatively warm and I thought it would likely be above freezing today. The girls do fine without a heat lamp under those conditions.

Graduated a puppy class tonight, plus had a student for drop in class. Mel and I worked with the student on going out and turning left (haw), skateboarding, reading, and a couple other things. Reading – dog learns to sit to the written word instead of a verbal or hand signal. Works by conditioning a new cue – show the sign, give the previously learned cue, reinforce the behavior. The new cue predicts the previously learned cue, predicts the opportunity to earn reinforcement by offering a behavior. Fun stuff.

I called Scott between classes and asked him to tackle the stuck light bulb for me. When I got home he’d cleverly unstuck the broken bulb, installed a new heat bulb (I’ll take credit for having a spare available), and was just getting ready to put the lamp back up. We left Kate and Bing inside (they were NOT happy about that). We worked on it together. The hen house is 6×6, and maybe 5’6″ tall in the center – not real comfortable for Scott. But he’s tough and climbed in ahead of me. 

We got the light reinstalled (the chickens seemed happy), gathered the eggs, and admonished them to leave off with their wild ways.

 I took my Certified Professional Dog Trainer exam today.

No sweat. about an hour and quarter to reply to the questions, another 45 minutes to review, then some waiting around for printing and things like that.

No surprises, and only 10 or 15 that I’m not confident I got right.

Glad I prepared, though.

It could be as late as mid-May before I receive the results in the mail. After the testing period closes, the organization fold/bends/mutilates everyones results, throw out any statistically weird question/answer sets, and other things like that.

I’m hoping it won’t take that long, though.