Well, I finally have some down time. It's not coming around much lately. Been working a lot, and then working the dogs, and well, lots of other things.

John and I took ride up to the Cooperstown trial and I scribed for a couple of hours before I headed out to go look at ram lambs about 25 mins northwest of the trial. Why oh why are sheep farms so spread out! I really don't like being away from home for so long. Thankfully, my sister let the dogs out mid-day for me, or I could not have gone.

I thought I might be interested in a North Country Cheviot ram, but when I saw the father of the ram lambs for sale I almost passed out- well, maybe not passed out, but let me tell you.... his head was as tall as my chest, he was as wide as a table and he was just absolutely GIANT. No WAY I want something like that, ever. So, we looked at the Border Cheviot ram lambs, and John and I each bought one. They made the trip home easily, and we left them both at John's for the evening.

This morning, I got up early (again!) and went to the farm as I had a couple of lessons coming. Two different dogs, the bitch is sired by Kevin Evan's Mirk, and an Irish bitch, and the male dog was bred in Michigan. The bitch had been on sheep once, and we weren't sure how it would go, but she immediately hooked on and we got some inklings of her. She's super keen, likes to go away more and when one split off, she really worked hard to find it (it ran into the brush). I like her a lot- she's going to be good. The male was good too- he had never been on sheep before, and after a minute or two of ignoring them, there he was, locked on- he started circling right away, but kept kicking out when I tried to stop him, so I will have to have running shoes on to work him too :)

During the lesson, John arrived with the ram lamb and I put him in the pen I had ready. That's him, above in the picture- he's registered, and I hope he and the girls will hit it off.

Now, I am just going to chill for the rest of the day, I am needing some serious down time.