Agility, Spiders, n other stuff

You'd never guess from this photo but Ginny is really good at dog agility. She started intermediate level last night and had a bang-a-rang time. She got the hang of the a-frame, tire, table, weave poles, and jumps right away. Her favorite thing though...now that she understands what to do...is tunnels. She'd rather do tunnels than anything else. If there are several jumps before the tunnel so much the better. What she doesn't like is the sea saw (teeter totter). She wasn't alone in her aversion to the thing. All of the other dogs in her class refused to stay on it as well. The trainers recommended that we lay a ladder down on the grass and practice with her walking across it. Get her used to where her feet go. We'll try. I don't blame the dogs. I always hated the sea saw as a kid. The other kid would always jump off when I was up in the air and I'd crash. Ouch!! The dogs don't seem to mind the motion as much as the banging. Natural to jump off in the middle.

It looks like the sale of Mother's house is going to close on April 30. That gives me a little over a week to finish my jobs there. Only three week end days with Danny to help move stuff into the storage room with his truck since we're going to Lakeland for Stephen and Casey's baby shower next Sat.. The pressure is on. I was so proud of myself yesterday. I actually tackled the walk in storage closet out in the 'bonus room' between the kitchen and carport. Had been putting it off for fear of encountering my arch enemy. For those who don't know...arachnids. Ya know, those eight legged horrors. Spiders.

Lions and tigers n bears are fine. At snakes and roaches I shrug. But, I'll jump up on the highest chair if a spider is down on the rug. That rhymes, I know. I know spiders eat bugs. I like bugs better. I know spiders are a vital part of nature. I don't care. I hate spiders. I saw Charlotte's Web. I don't care double. Spiders are not cute. If one talked to me, I'd still smash the nasty thing. The itsy bitsy spider was crawling all about. I saw him coming and gave a little shout. Down came my shoe and smashed him on the floor. Now, the itsy bitsy spider won't scare me anymore. So there.

Anyway, there weren't any you know whats in the closet. Just dust, Christmas decorations, a dog crate, my father's wheel chair, and a giant electric wok. That gave me the courage to face the last area to be cleaned out: the dreaded storage area off the carport. I've never been in there. Not in all the decades my parents lived in their house. I opened the door and peeked in. Looks like a lot of stuff to be gone over. Sigh. Please, just no dang spiders.

This week end we're planning to get the crazillions of Free Geek computers we've been storing at Mom's out of the bonus room, clear out the books (9 boxes) I'm giving to the library, move the rest of the stuff inside the house we're keeping to storage, and maybe with a little luck get crackin' on the carport stuff. Working every week end since New Year's except art festival week end on getting the house ready to sell and then clearing the house has been miserable. I'm so glad we're nearly done. I'll be glad as well to close the deal, settle the Estate, complete the organizing of Mom's things and get back to living my own life. To spend time with Baby Alex, finish the edits on my next book, continue the updates on my own house that I had to suspend last December, have time for Yoga and work outs, and cycling again!! I won't even mind jury duty...much.

Tonight, we're off to friend Karen's for pizza and to watch Danny fix her computers. Chili got her sutures out this afternoon but not her hat off yet. She tried to start a rumble with a Flat Coat Retriever in the vet's waiting room. She is a Hell dog. (Australian Cattle Dog=trouble) Anybody who has a cow that needs chased, let me know. She needs the outlet.

Ta. TGIF.

Ginny passes a test and I find more treasures

Ginny has graduated from agility level one. She had her tests tonight and got her official Dog On It Club certificate. She did great: even did the tunnels correctly and held the sit and down /stays for the correct times. Danny was happy. He didn't fall down this week, either. Level two begins next week, barring horrible weather.

When all the dogs were on the field and about a third of the way through the tests, a Border Collie/Husky mix on lead and owner unknown to all the other dogs entered through the gate. The Border Collie began lunging and barking and showing an aggressive posture. Every dog on the field, without exception, stopped their exercises cold to hurl swear barks at the newcomer. "Wait a cotton pickin minute," they seemed to say, "you're not a member of our agility pack, and we certainly didn't invite you in." The dogs were used to ignoring each other for the past six weeks during training. All bets were off with a 'rude' newcomer.

Since dogs are worked on lead during level one, there were no individual nose to nose confrontations. Had the dogs been off lead though, about twenty five dogs would have instantly surrounded the stranger at the gate. He then would have realized he'd better mind his manners. And he would have. Leashes keep dogs from being able to show and read proper canine body language. As it was, the new dog continued to bother everybody for awhile until the other dogs got bored with him, interested in their liver and chicken bait rewards, and ignored him. The interesting thing to me was that the owner seemed to be oblivious of the chaos she caused bringing him into the middle of a training class. She never corrected him. Dunno who she was. Nobody ever said. For all I know she was a 'ringer' sent by the trainers to distract everybody. If so, it worked. At least briefly.

I'm still clearing out and packing up Mother's house. I had an unhappy find today. At the top of a closet, I found an old suitcase that was crumbling. Inside, it was full of old photographs, newspapers, letters, and journals. All water damaged and unreadable. Flaking into moldy piles. I was able to tell (barely) that several of the letters, bound in string were from Arizona territory in the 1870s. A crumbling journal belonged to James H Miller. Either his Civil War journal or the original from Ft Defiance. At the bottom of the suitcase were some Indian made items. Looked like the bags medicine men wore. Beadwork. Once beautiful. Now ruined. I couldn't save any of it. It was beyond repair. I will always wonder whose face once looked out of the ruined Dagerrotype photograph. I'll never know now. I was able to save a dagger also in the suitcase, lying next to the Indian bags. The sheath is bedragged, but the knife is still shinning steel and very sharp. Engraved on it are these words: "Never draw me without reason nor sheath me without honour."

I must presume the knife belonged to James Miller or his son, William. So, it was either my great great or my great grandfather's. Anywhere from 150 to 100 years old probably. In any case it belonged to a man of honour. James, who fought to preserve his country in The Civil War and attempted to better the lives of his Navajo friends in the West or William who volunteered in middle age to serve in the trenches in France as a doctor during World War One.

I have only one more closet to clear out in the 'bonus' room and then must tackle the storage room off the carport. More interesting finds perhaps. Or not. I just hope there aren't spiders! Then, at last, I'll be done. Move the rest of the furniture to storage and find homes for the giveaway stuff. Three more weeks to the deadline. I'm taking some time off tomorrow for lunch with a friend and an hour's shopping.

That's all for now. Ta.

A bit of this a byte of that.

Hey Bloggers. Here's some pictures of a Catahoula practicing agility moves. It's not Ginny of course but the best I can do right now since I keep forgetting to take pictures in class. Our Ginny is really enjoying agility training. She did everything practically perfect tonight...until she got bored and saturated with commands the last five minutes of class. She was supposed to do a jump then run through two tunnels. She executed the jump perfectly and ran through the first tunnel. Then she apparently decided it would be fun to jump sideways back and forth over the final tunnel three or four times. Whee, Circus trick!! Funny. Everyone laughed. So, she did it again that way. Next week is her test. If she 'passes' she goes on to the next level.

I chased the rat family out of my grill. One of them, Papa or Mama was a real Ratzilla. We're talking big, here. The rascally rodents chewed a hole in my pool screening behind the grill as an escape hatch...and escaped. Dunno where they went. Don't care either...as long as they don't get into the house.

I'm as busy as a squirrel during acorn season. Why, you ask? Well, this week has been pack up week number one at Mom's house. Its been a big job since I've been doing it on my own. I might be almost halfway there. Maybe. Everything must go by the third week in April. (Arrgh! Help! Why can't I be Samantha and wiggle my nose or Jeanie and snap my fingers?) Danny and I are going to spend this week end moving stuff into the storage room we rented last week end. Probably moving stuff next week end too.

Laura's birthday is coming up April third. Then, his brother Mark and family are coming to visit for a week and I want to take a day or two off for theme parking with Little Ben (4) and Lexi (2) and parents. The week end after that is Stephen (Danny's stepson) and Casey's baby shower in Lakeland. Then, house closing and Amy's college graduation week end with another visit from Cousin Margie to look forewards to. Busy time around here, folks. If I fall away from my blogging for a day or two now and then you'll know why.

Below is a cute picture of Little Ben, our soon to be house guest. Doncha love that Scots-Irish red hair? I can't wait to take him and equally red haired sister to Seuss Landing and Camp Jurassic at Universal.

Live long and prosper.