ColliesHorsesArtLove

Cool iPhone Photos

T & I were sitting in the living room this morning and he told me to look up at the wine cabinet (that doesn't have wine in) and see the sun coming thru the window behind us. It was making the shadows on the face of the cabinet. T said the dog was chasing the horse. (It's the Viszla sculpture I bought him at Eukanuba 4 yrs ago chasing my "Painted Pony" statue.) I kinda really like this phone because the resolution is very good and the photo app I downloaded is funna funna!!!! The timing also was perfect to catch this image.

And this one I took of Donna & Lily last week. Love the treatment. (Lily is laying her head on Donna's neck.)

And here is Muffin Head eating an entire chicken leg quarter for breakfast this am. Love this treatment also. And that she's eating this much now. She's buff.

I gotta say this phone is addicting.

Our First Official iPhone GPS Ride

I tried my GPS on my iPhone today and have to admit it was pretty cool. I was hoping Donna could go with me today but apparently she had to help her husband with burn piles. She was crying. I was crying. A long ride w/o her but I'll get over it. I hope she does too because she sounded pretty traumatized.

We did 21.82 miles and our duration was 4:26:42. How cool is that? My goal was to go fairly fast and get back before the wolves came out.....or the bears, or cats or something like that. In the big picture of endurance, I don't think we go very fast. Our average speed was 12:13 min/mile and someone (I think mainly my horsey) used some 2687 kcal (Calories). I did get off and run several times and I don't know exactly what the total distance was, but I was pretty purky today. I might be sore tomorrow. And calories? Who knows? It's how the jeans fit. 

We live in a beautiful place. I cannot complain.

No Hands Bridge on the way home. Lookie how FLUFFY poor Ali'i is. Or, how lucky he is when it's really cold out. For training it's harder to have to cool down with his fluffy burro coat. He's such a good boy. On the way back we had a couple of riders pass us with a loose horse (kill two birds with one stone by taking another horse to condition). I had recognized both the riders, one having ridden Tevis this year but got pulled at the Lower Quarry and the other rider just looked familiar. I was on the ground running with Chubby and they came along so I decided to ride with them a bit. It was getting late in the day and I really wanted to bump up my time to get back before it was too dark and the next mile or so probably helped....until Chubbby thought it would be fun to throw in a couple of good bucks in all the excitement. Since we were on a very cliffy part of the trail I decided to let my friends go and jumped off of Ali'i. No harm done. He was well-behaved and we got back before it was pitch black. 

So  f r i c k i n '  f a m o u s ! ! !  ! 

We rode the last 4 1/2 miles at a nice but reasonable pace. I was wondering what Ali' was thinking in his cute fluffy brain.....remembering finishing Tevis a little over 2 months ago. That last 2 miles I couldn't see shit and he took me home in style. Fast, fun and happy to be home. It's a fun trail and might be one of my favorites here. There is so much history and I am but a flea in the big picture but it makes a big impact in my simple life. With a good horse to share it with. My horsey love of my life. Ali'i Ma.

The end of our conditioning ride. The famous water trough at the end of the Tevis trail.

Ready to go home boy??? Love you!!!!!!!

For The Record I LOVE Donna And I Am Her Little Golden Retriever

Just in case you were wondering who Siri was.......you guys......Donna is perfect. She never does anything to piss me off. Really. Siri is an app. Since I now have an iPhone I can use the cool lingo. App. App. Application. I am going to ask Siri if I should....um ride with Donna again???? Or, really, what the weather is like in Auburn, Ca. That she will answer!!! She's a picky bitch.

Part Of The Day Goes Into Apps.......

Why dust when you can play with your apps? Or worse yet, do the art yourself when your phone can do it. I might like this too much!

Where Does The Day Go?????

So, it's only 7:10 pm, but I'm ready to curl up with some punkies in the beddie. Like with Cuteness in the photo above and all the other collies. I got up at 5:45 am to be ready to leave by 7:30 to meet Sue to track Sage Brush. Poor baby had a LONG day because not only did she get drooly in the van (I had her in the upper crate which Sue promptly reprimanded me for) she puked up lots of drool. Then she felt better, watched her smart brother track, she tracked, then we watched Sue's friend Sue track her Border Collie (VST Tracking or Variable Surface Tracking). That was AMAZING to see because the dog was pretty phenomenal. (But so were the puppies ~ for their levels of training.) After that, the plan was to go to the Apple Store and purchase an iPhone. But, I met T for lunch THEN braved the parking lot at the mall. I hate the mall. And, I hate shopping. Except at the Apple Store. That is bliss. If there could be just one big mall called the Apple Mall I'd never complain about malls. Or shopping.

On the way home I stopped to get my diesel van smogged. Little darling was let out at the mall, but apparently she only pee'd part way. The photo above is of her right before she pee'd on the floor in the office. In front of 4 burly men. But they thought she was "so pretty AND SOFT", that they didn't seem to be offended. I felt bad for poor Sage. No wonder she was barking so much! She is socializing very well in a lot of different situations. That I am happy about. Peeing in the Smog Check office, not so much. 

Anyway, it just seems like there is no time to do anything else like laundry, dusting (like I do that anyway) or riding another horse today. So many things to do ~ so little time. 

I'm Getting Stronger........

Last night Sage slept outside til 3:30 am. I don't know about her, but I was a wreck.

I kept waking up to see if she would be at the door scratching to come in but she was happily sleeping on a dog bed somewhere, probably with fluffy Cardiff.

Our routine is I get ready for bed. She scratches at the door. I miss her. I open the door and put her on the bed.

She plays with me and all of her toys. She squeaks them over and over and over and over until she smooshes the squeakers and they don't work anymore. I chuckle. Ha ha ha. He he he.

I tell her how smart and beautiful she is. I kiss her and pet her incessantly. Tirzah tells her how annoying she is.

T peaks in and tells me how spoiled Sage is. I tell him she needs to go outside to sleep so she doesn't look like a pet collie. He tells me she's too little. He comes to bed later and can't find anywhere to sleep because Tirzah and Sage & all the toys have the whole middle of the bed. He says ha ha ha, he he he.

Sage finally falls asleep and makes cute grunty puppy noises while laying on her back with her little toesies stretched in the air as if she's in the Bahamas on the beach. Smashed against me and all her toys how can I put her out in the cold??? 

Sage & Thrill ~ More Puppy Tracking

Sue came here this am and we tracked on the adjoining property. Even with me not having to get up and drive it was still hard to get everything done. Remember I like my coffee. But I was glad to see Sue had a bit of brain fade when we started out to track her puppy. She forgot to bring his harness (in her car). I forgot the camera & Sage's breakfast (for the last track) which was still at the house. She only had to walk back 12 feet. I had to drive back up the road. Dorkuses.

Here we are waiting for Sue to be done with Sage's track. This am she had the LONG tracks (20/40/80 paces) with the wind in her face. (Day 4.) See Sue in this picture. See Sage howl.

See Sue somewhere up there by the trees. It's a long way away. Omg.

See Sage track. See Diana hold on for dear life. I actually was mainly holding on for dear life because I still had the 6' leash. Not easy to use for me, so Sue gave me her 50' tracking line for the next tracks. So much easier. Doesn't Sage look like a tracking dog? Doesn't she look like she should win the National too???????

Puppy brain.

Here is Handsome. He's a pro. And loves to track!!! 

It's so much fun to see them hunker down into the harness. Thrill had easy tracks today. Back to Day 1, I think. It's motivational ~ just like training horses ~ or learning French. Fok. I remember when I used to do that. Bonjour.

Puppy Brain 2. Is that your first mommy taking photos of you???? Are you the cutest??? Are you going to win the National too?????

Here we are on the second LONG track. Sage had a break so I could go back to the house to get her breakfast. Because she had the super long tracks, it was good to give her a rest in the car with some water.

Jackpot!!! Yeah Sage Brush!!!

Another jackpot of food ~ and the final track. Sage got to eat her breakfast! Yum!!!

Both puppies are so fun to watch as they progress in their training. It's nice to have the property here, though the cows will be back soon so not sure what we'll do then. Maybe track around them? That will be fun to watch!!! In the meantime I am taking advantage of them wintering somewhere else!!

Sage ~ Tracking Day 2

Ok, so the problem is I love to sleep. ESPECIALLY when I am dreaming really vivid dreams. My dream this am was that I was going to take my friend Linda A from Seattle for a ride on one of my horses. I could take her two ways from my house. One way was beautiful ~ gorgeous gorgeous. The other way was even more beautiful and specatacular. Both were in the High Sierras on the Eastern side and the one I was choosing was the ride up to Thousand Island Lake in the Minerets. Oh my God.....in my dream is was sooooo AMAZING. We had waited a while and I was worried that it was getting too dark then remembered it was a full moon. No biggie. I woke up because T had given me a kiss goodbye then I went back into the dream to relive it several times over. I woke up again at 8:30 to hear Tirzah sounding like she was going to upchuck on the bed. If there is anything to get me out of a sound sleep is the hear dog upchucking on the bed!

Needless to say I needed coffee before I was going to do ANYTHING. Waking up was hard enough.

So I stood and looked out the kitchen window at the property next door. Really.....all I have to do it go over there with Muffin Head. 9 steps from my house. It seemed soooo hard....I had to have my coffee first.

I asked Sue how I was going to lay a track and have Sage there. She's so smart. Sue.

Glad Sage still fits in this crate. At least for 5 minutes.

We laid 3 tracks. 5, 10 and 20 paces. Or something like that. Because she was having a little trouble assimilating the whole process yesterday Sue had me leave food drops every step. Today Sage was wonderful. The little lightblub was flicking on and off. Mostly on so I was excited about that. This is the part that makes tracking sooo much fun and addictive.

While I was out there a nice car drove up to the front of the house. Oh how I HATE that!! I am out there in practically my pajamas and my hair is way f----ed up. Luckily they were missionaries and I told them I really was fine with my GoDDDDD!!!!!!!! I want a gate.

Here is Sage in her tracking harness since Dianne wanted to see it. Not a great photo but one nevertheless.

She also got a new leash and collar & tag. Lavender. She loves it. Me too!

In blogging I finally got a hold of Sue and I actually should have repeated the 3 tracks 2 more times. Oh dear. Maybe this afternoon? We are going riding so we will probably redo the tracks in the am. I'll get up early. Really.

Sage & Thrill ~ 12 Weeks Old ~ The Time Is Flying!!!

Sage & I met Sue & Thrill for tracking this am. Not too early, I suppose.....not at zero-dark-thirty like I thought we would, so that was good. Way back in the olden days I'd get up at 4:30 am, and be tracking before 5:30, then on to Art Center for my 8:30 am classes. YUK. 9 am is much more doable. But life is easier in some ways now. I don't know what possessed me NOT to have my camera when it was Thrill's turn to track. Sue laid the track and I held Handsome. And then she left. Like a whole city block's worth!! Omg. I could hardly see the woman and this is ONLY Thrill's 5th day. And it's not like Sue's a dumb shit and is making him do horribly long tracks. She's an expert. And he did it! He is soooo smart and now Sage is going to be as smart as him! I promise I will get photos from our next training session. This is very important to blog. Smart, pretty tracking puppies.

Sage on the other hand had her very first day of tracking and it was a lot for her little puppy brain. We gave her a break, then ran another few tracks (baby tracks with lots of food) and finally she wanted to do the zoomies instead. Puppy dashing thru the field with her harness on and leash following. But Sue assured me she is doing exactly what Thrill did. And I'm not worried. Maybe only if I will want to get up early to train her. That is her only obstacle. Me and my sleep.

 

Anyway here are a bunch of pictures of Sage and a couple of Thrill. Today was her day for a photo shoot. Thrill's photos weren't the best and it might be that Sue is really good at tracking training and I am really good at posing training!! Hahaha!!! But have no fear ~ both puppies will be perfect at both soon. It's just what we both know and expect.

This photo really reminds me of Tirzah. Here let me put that photo up (again, as I put it up when Soleil was about 5 months old.)

Now Tirzah looks like she has little eyes here and she doesn't. Must have been the sun. Tirzah is 4 1/2 months old. Maybe they just pose alike.

Look at that silly tail....like she's ready to do something bad.....

Both these puppies LOVE to tug. I can hardly walk thru my dog yard without having Sage attached to my leg. It's a good thing. I guess. Except it's just hard to get anything done out there. Personally I think it's Julie's fault. She sent Cardiff to me that way, then reminded me to train these puppies to be maniacal tuggers.

Here is Thrill. The differences in profiles are getting more obvious. His head continues to look exactly as I think it will. He is such a confident puppy. I might have heard more than 2 times and less than 389 times how much Sue loves him.

I also think since Thrill thought tracking 9,000,000 feet should satisfy us, he was less cooperative. This was about the end of his being cute for us. I'm sure Sue will fill us in later with good photos.

We were then off to PetSmart to get Sage her baby tracking harness (dark, dark pink) and our meat from one of our suppliers. Another amazing puppy day.

Linda's Birthday At Lake Tahoe

Linda wanted to go to Lake Tahoe for her birthday last week so Gayle and I went up with her and had a really nice drive and excellent lunch in South Lake Tahoe. Driving the whole way for me brings up so many great memories, including my honeymoon with Pierre and years of watching the vet checks and start of Tevis in Truckee. Can't go wrong with that at all.

Here we are after indulging in yummy food ~ me ~ massive amounts of garlic on my fries and no dessert for any of us. We had full intentions of getting some down the road but it never happened. No problem. Ooh ooh! Lookie at Linda's sweatshirt. Who did THAT logo????

This is North Lake Tahoe ~ this to me is the prettiest place on earth ~ so close to where we live!! Happy Birthday Linda!!! Funna Funna!!!