We went for a nice early walk this morning in the hope of giving the doglets a good run while avoiding other people. It is a strange world at the moment, people are generally being well behaved in the village about social distancing (2m away unless you are from the same household) We have decided we are quite socially distant anyway as we rarely stop and talk to people and are quite happy in our own space!
Matt has banned me from doing any baking for a few days 😂 so I have been busy in the garden trying to clear our only flower bed. The veg bed needs sorting as well but it is being done gradually as we are planting stuff. We have a tree (possibly Ash but I'm no tree expert!) overhanging our garden and there were a lot of little seedlings sprouting in our flower bed! From the pics it doesn't look like I've done much but it too a while!
I had my sheltie helpers of course ❤ the moment I stopped for a cuppa Bru made himself comfy on my lap! He has been trying to talk through the fence to the geese next door. We found out they are called Rosemary and Heather!
I promise I am wearing black trousers in this pic...the sunlight has made them look a weird colour!
Big news today is that the chancellor is going to announce what is happening for us self employed people. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will get a fair deal as me and many of my friends are currently earning nothing and it sucks!
Congratulations if you are bored enough to be reading this! The sun is still shining here and I even did some gardening in my t-shirt! We started today with a long pavement walk as the fields behind us were mobbed with people. Our plan is to get up super early tomorrow morning and see if we can get out before all the numpties with rude dogs! While I was gardening I couldn't believe the numbers of people on the narrow footpath at the back of our garden, it was busier than it has ever been!!
The dogs have taken to their new routine (or lack of routine!) very well. I realised yesterday that with all the time in the garden they hadn't actually slept as much as usual and were shattered. So sad as it sounds after we all had lunch in the garden I left them upstairs with Matt to snooze! I also don't want them to be too dependent on one of us.
Apart from planting Kale and plant seeds I did some weeding and baked some oat cookies with coconut oil instead of butter. They smell good but haven't tried one yet! Today I did some cavaletti with the doglets and was very pleased to find my garden fence was the perfect support and spacer for my poles 😁
I also did some straight line grids with the three younger dogs and some hoops with Toad, here is a little video. Brooke needs to revisit this as I think her spacing needs to be much tighter than Brus on the progressive bounce grid!
So I thought seeing as I was at home for the next three weeks at least I would keep a diary so one day I can look back and remember what a crazy and scary time this was. Also Hi Mum and Amy as you are the only people that generally read my ramblings!! It certainly makes me even more grateful for what I have when I see people struggling with this awful virus. At the present, the Coronavirus is so widely spread that PM Boris Johnson has effectively put us into Lockdown with people being told to work from home and not travel unless essential. Therefore as of today I am unemployed like many of my friends. I'm hoping that the government realise that us self employed and those on zero hours contracts will need help as well.
So to start with I was a bit naughty this morning and whizzed off to my field to pick up a couple of jumps so I could do some stuff in the garden with the dogs at some stage. The roads seemed really busy considering its supposed to be essential travel only. I sat this morning with a cuppa and wrote a list...I have always had a routine, love to be busy and struggle without a schedule. I haven't had three weeks off work for decades so thought the list would focus me a bit! The sun was out today so it was nice to get into the garden and do some jobs in the sun, I'm so relieved that we now have a garden!! We have a lot of flowers coming out that I don't remember planting 😂
I did some weeding and Matt came out at lunchtime and we put our little greenhouse up. We figured that if we are able to grow as much veg as last year it will save us shopping as much.
I also wrote down some recipes for some baking that I want to do, this afternoon I made Dairy free brownies which smell amazing (currently in oven!)
We got a lovely card from the vets today which was so moving. This possibly needs a tissue warning but I wanted to put it on here ❤
Our hearts are sore and the tears keep flowing as we said goodbye to our little Bracken last week 💔💔 She had grown increasingly frail and had started to go off her food last week. I am so pleased that she got to see her beloved Nanna one last time as my Mum came down last weekend. It was a heartbreaking decision to make but as a very wise person once said to me 'better a day too early than a minute too late' Our Facebook post...
Mountland Made in Heaven - Bracken 24/3/2005 - 19/3/2020 🧡🧡🧡
We knew it had been coming for a while but this week it became obvious that the time was here for us to say our last goodbye to our beautiful Bracken. Words cannot do her justice or what she has given us, but we owe her so much. She introduced us to so many people, to agility and gave absolutely everything 100%. She may have been tiny but she will leave an enormous hole in our lives. She had so many health challenges but she always kept fighting. We would like to say a huge heartfelt thank you to Sally for all your help with Bracken and giving us those extra few years together after being diagnosed with kidney failure three years ago.
We have experienced every emotion possible from the obvious sadness and grief but we have an overwhelming level of pride in the life we had together, what she gave us, we gave to her and the memories we made together. 🧡🧡
Our little Diddle would have been 15 today, it would have been lovely to have celebrated it with her but that would have been for selfish reasons. The most important thing is that we were both there at the end and the vets were brilliant and very compassionate. I haven't updated my blog for a long time as this winter has been depressing and work has been patchy at best so to be honest I haven't been in the right frame of mind to write anything. Spark was out of action after two operations, Brodie retired from agility competitions, Bru and Brooke hardly got any training and it rained for what seemed like months. BUT...we have a lot to be thankful for and this is me giving myself a kick up the butt to blog again. I'm so grateful for my amazing Matthew, family and friends and of course the doglets! x
This will be a big catch up post as I'm so behind with my blog! We went to the UKA Grand Finals at the end of October, Bru was in the Beginners Steeplechase event and Toad and Bean were in pairs. I don't have a video of the pairs event but Toad was amazing and went clear and Bean had a brain fart with the excitement and got 10f! 😂 Bru was amazing in his semi final run and won it by a couple of seconds! Unfortunately he had a pole and fastest time in the final but ended up 3rd and on the podium!
We had also gone to Kelluki recently to give the shelties a run inside before the finals, they were brilliant! Bru got all of his weaves, Bean won a couple of classes and Toad won the G7 agility at one of his last ever shows 💙
My Mum came down to visit us recently and it was fantastic to see her! It was amazing the difference in Bracken with her Nana staying as she even managed a couple of hour long walks at a gentle pace including an outing to Wrest Park.
The ginger shelties went on a sheltie rally training day which was great fun! We were very rusty having not done any rally training for the best part of a year but we got lots of helpful hints and tips.
Spark had her second operation (exactly 8 weeks after her spay) to remove her anal glands. It wasn't a decision we took lightly as it isn't a nice operation but pleased to say she has come back from it well and back to trying to get fit for agility! She had some very fetching vests and collars to wear to stop her chewing at her stitches!
And some random pics of the doglets!
A rare pic of all five curled up! 😍
Eventually Spark was allowed off lead...and immediately found fox poo!
The weather has been so bad and rainy that my field has been very soggy. I have found a local field to rent while mine has a rest and the doglets approve! (Well the shelties do!)
We had the Sheltie Show at the weekend and the doglets had a great time meeting up with their friends!
Jenni ran Bean in the agility and jumping and her dog walk was amazing! She came 5th in jumping despite a refusal (totally Bean being wild!) but she redeemed herself by coming 4th in pairs with Rommy which is amazing as he has had surgery and chemo for a rare skin cancer...he was brilliant!! Bru and Squidge the ginger cousins won the pairs so all round superstar shelties!! 💓
And I just had to laugh at this pic of Brax and her minions!!
What a crazy weekend! On friday afternoon we went to the British Agility Championships (BAC) which are only up the road from us and we ran Bru and Brooke in the Grand National which is basically a 1-7 steeplechase with an aframe for all the dogs entered at over the weekend. I admit I was worried about whether Brooke would stay with me given that Matt and Bru had been drawn to run two dogs after us and their Grandma Lian was in the same class as well! I shouldn't have worried as Brooke was excellent, she ran so well and I was thrilled that she listened. Sadly though I missed Bru's run but I could tell he was clear from the crowd watching and he ended up finishing in 4th (out of 70 plus dogs!) behind three of the top smalls in Britain!! He was knocked off the podium by his big brother Sirius 😂
Brookes run
Brus run
On Saturday I went to Discover Dogs to cheer on Jenni and Braxway boy Squidge in the medium ABC semifinal for Crufts and Matt went back to the BAC to run Brooke and Bru. Squidge did sooo well coping with the atmosphere at DD, it was so loud that you couldn't hold a conversation with someone next to you! 😮 He didn't qualify but ran really well given the crazy environment and i have no doubt they will be back next year!
Matt did well at BAC, he missed walking Brus jumping so they got E'd for three refusals and had weave issues again in the agility but apparently his contacts were lovely which was one of the reasons for entering him! He has only been doing contacts in the ring for the last month so lovely to see he was confident! Brooke excelled herself totally. She got E'd in the jumping but Matt admits it was his fault!! Her agility was fantastic and she came 5th, she is so happy doing her stopped dog walk again 💚 she just went wrong as it was a tough weave entry.
Day 2 of BAC and I wasn't running, we had an agreement that if Matt and Brooke had done ok then I would let him keep running. I also felt very ill and couldn't have run anyway! Brooke did a lovely agility run again doing a cracking 2 second dog walk but was a bit cheeky about a tunnel and also had a pole so 10f in total...what a cool course though! She was wild in her jumping and decided that there was one pull thru too many 😂
Bru had fun in his runs, his agility had lovely contacts again but he was E'd on three refusals! He only got 10f in his jumping but did most of the course so well and almost got his weaves!
After the weekend we were absolutely shattered but definitely worth it to have such good courses to run on for the dogs. Such a shame that Spark can't cope with the photographers in the ring after what happened there last year as the courses would have been right up her street! I did get her happily playing in the venue so that felt like a little win 💜
So my poor old Skoda was due its MOT soon and wasn't going to pass so we decided that after ten years mostly faithful service and 173,000 miles that we take the plunge and become white van drivers! It is really nice to drive and in the long term will be much better for the dogs. At the moment the crates are all tied in with bungees but eventually we will crate it out properly.
Matt has also started a new job in the last month so everything has been a bit hectic recently! Brax has been a bit disgusted by the change in weather as it has started to get a bit chilly now. The leaves are changing in the garden and we have been picking the last bits of our veg. We have had so many tomatoes, runner beans, spinach and lettuce plus I just picked a good crop of green chillies!
The doglets have been enjoying the last of the sunny days and pottering around the field as they are stuck with me more since Matt started his new job. Here are a few of the recent doglet pics and one of the lizard I found under my tunnel!
Miss Sparkle is recovering well from her spay and just starting to do a bit more off lead which she is very excited about!
We went to Southam and WBSDS shows recently and the dogs were brilliant! Bru did his first proper agility runs at Southam and he won this one with faults in his weaves!
The trophies were really lovely so I was thrilled that Brodie won his jumping class and got a cool trophy too! 💙
The weekend after we went to WBSDS. Bru failed to get weaves again so more work needed there over winter! Brooke did an awesome agility run with her new retrained stopped dog walk and still came 2nd! Brodie won a jumping class and their son Squidge won his agility so a proper family photo was needed! How gorgeous are they?! 😍 Squidge has qualified for Discover Dogs next weekend so I can't wait to go and cheer them on in the ABC event!
Here are Toad and Brookes runs! Chances are that this is Toads last KC run outdoors ever as he is coming to the end of his career so what a way to go out with a bang! He is still so enthusiastic and happy doing his agility at 12.5 years old and I feel honoured to still be running with him x
