I should have been planting out lettuces...

but it was too beautiful a day. So instead, for the first time in months, we played with pups. Just for a very little while...

JJ:






Elvis:


Tom:








Sulking:


A little vid:

Binnaburra Utility Trial, 3rd-5th July 2009

Not a full report, because my telepathic powers weren't at full strength. BabyJ and I spent the weekend at home, making sure the horses didn't get loose and chase the sheep, the dogs didn't get colic and something about the bitches in season- either keeping them locked up or letting them loose... I can't remember.

My delegated reporter obviously had too much fun to make any actual notes, so all I have to work with are some incomplete results, and that "it was very, very cold", "not a very big entry, so a very relaxed trial", and "light sheep".

"Very, very cold"- R and Yarralonga Bella


He did take some photos though, bless him.

R and Boylee Fred


And thanks to Mad Mick for his photographic assistance, too!

M. Mick


The truck:


Fred backing in the truck:

Novice Utility
1st Andrew Gorton Boylee Ella (collie) 112 + ?
2nd Grant Cooke Pendalup Candy (collie) 110 + ?
3rd Rod Forsyth Binnaburra Milo (kelpie) 116 + ?
4th Ken Atherton Badgingarra Tony (kelpie) 107 + ?

Binnaburra Milo:

Novice Yard
1st Andrew Gorton Boylee Ella (collie) 59 + ?
2nd Hayden Harries Mac's Magic (collie) 58 + ?
=3rd Rod Forsyth Binnaburra Milo (kelpie) 55 + ?
=3rd Nigel Armstrong Yarralonga Jessica (kelpie) 55 + ?

Mac's Magic:

Open Utility
1st Gordon Curtis Binnaburra Tuff (kelpie) 120 + 119 = 239
2nd Rod Forsyth Binnaburra Milo (kelpie) 125 + 113 = 238
3rd Ken Atherton Ramulam Gus (collie) 111 + 125 = 236
4th Richard McGuire Boylee Fred (collie) 117 + 102 = 219
5th Grant Cooke Grassvalley Tod (collie) 119 + 95 = 214
6th Nigel Armstrong Yarralonga Delta (kelpie) 95 + 96 = 191
7th Andrew Gorton Boylee Ella (collie) 91 + 99 = 190
8th Gordon Curtis Binnaburra Sam (kelpie) 116 + 72 = 188
9th Karen Buller Badgingarra Barney (kelpie) 103 + 83 = 186
10th Grant Cooke Grassvalley Brook (collie) 94 + 90 = 184
11th Grant Cooke Pendalup Candy (collie) 95 + 89 = 184
12th Ken Atherton Badgingarra Tony (kelpie) 103 + ? - could have ranked higher, I don't know

Binnaburra Tuff:






Grassvalley Tod:

Open Yard
1st Nigel Armstrong Yarralonga Blue (kelpie) 55 + 59 = 114
2nd Nigel Armstrong Yarralonga Darkie (kelpie) 55 + 58 = 113
3rd Nigel Armstrong Yarralonga Delta (kelpie) 59 + 53 = 112
4th Karen Buller Badgingarra Barney (kelpie) 59 + 52 = 111
5th Rod Forsyth Binnaburra Milo (kelpie) 58 + 52 = 110
=6th Nigel Armstrong Yarralonga Maggot (kelpie) 54 + 54 = 108
=6th Ken Atherton Ramulam Gus (collie) 59 + 49 = 108
8th Richard McGuire Boylee Fred (collie) 58 + 49 = 107
9th Gordon Curtis Binnaburra Tuff (kelpie) 55 + 47 = 102
10th Gordon Curtis Binnaburra Sam (kelpie) 51 + 47 = 98
11th Marianne Rogers Christies Cocoacina (collie) 51 + 46 = 97
12th Grant Cooke Grassvalley Tod (collie) 58 + Rtd = 58
13th Hayden Harries Mac's Magic (collie) 55 + LS = 55

Grassvalley Tod:


Pendalup Candy:





Particular congratulations to Andrew with Bell (Boylee Ella), for finally breaking their Novice spell, and Karen Buller with Barney for winning the Patron's Trophy.

Yarralong Delta:

Lambing

Hills and gullies and roadside paddocks brimful of new life, large eyes, spindly legs, kicks and frolicks and flickering tails as thousands of knobbly heads bunt their mothers' sides.

Sometimes, pale little shells where lambs should be, deflated and flat on the cold green grass. Perhaps a ewe standing guard, head high in futile defiance against some unseen force that has sucked the shape and life from her child. Time and hunger and an audience of black crows wait patiently for her capitulation.

And then there are the ones in-between, stumbling beside their mothers, flailing their tails at her flank but without the strength to raise their heads and feed. Backs arched, feet increasingly unsteady, their only joy in their mothers' nuzzling and a patch of warm sunshine when they can no longer stand, they move steadily away from here.

Oh dear.
I should know better than to leave the house today. Lambing and Jodi Picoult and pregnancy hormones are not a good mix.