we went to Utah!

So back in October, we went to Utah for a flyball tournament.  This was our first time in Utah at all, and the first time Chris has gone on a road trip with me to go to a tourney, so it was pretty awesome all the way around.  We traveled as part of a group that comprised people from four clubs in the Pacific Northwest, complete with shirts made for the occasion, and we had a great time.

Racing went really well, as we ran a modified A team lineup of Ezri (BC) / Danger (BS) / Sprite (BS) / Bogey (BW), which ran in the low 16's all weekend but sadly did not quite break 16 like we had hoped.  We did get some excellent times that we can use for seed times for UFLI Nationals next year if we want, so that goal was achieved.  We also won Division 1 on both days, despite being the slowest seeded club and racing against the world record holders Touch N Go, and that was pretty exciting!  Our friend Randy was there to judge the tournament, including the new record set by TNG's A team of 14.413, which was pretty amazing to see.

We took the opportunity to take some photos while we were there, of course!  Chris in his kilt and me in my racing skort, along with all three dogs.  The weather was incredible, we were there for the last warm weekend of the year and enjoyed 80F temperatures through our entire stay!

The parking lot behind the barn offered some good scenery, which I took advantage of to get some neat shots of the merles early on Saturday morning.  I loved the red rocks and the bluffs in southern Utah, they were beautiful - I hope to go back and spend time at Zion sometime in the future.

Here's Ezri all blinged out and ready to race - Swarovski crystals on her head, pink wraps on her front feet, and pink and glitter spray in her tail.  She was fantastic!  Martok was very intrigued by the process of putting crystals on Ezri's head, and when I was done with her he presented himself at my feet for the same treatment, so he got one little clear crystal on his forehead - and he was so proud!  He spent the next ten minutes prancing around like a peacock, clearly quite pleased with himself.

Jadzia is retired, of course, but a club there had two dogs get hurt on Saturday and so I offered to let her run with them on Sunday so they wouldn't have to pull.  She had a lot of fun, even as she has clearly embraced retirement and given up on any semblance of a boxturn.  I love my cranky old lady dog!

While we were in Utah, Martok hit his eight-month birthday, and Chris took him out to a different side of the parking lot to take photos for the occasion.  I love this one, he looks so grown up already!

We had a full caravan of five RV's on our trip home, as can be seen in this great shot I took while we were going through the Oregon mountain passes east of Pendleton.  Five trailer rigs made stops a little unwieldy, but we made it work and it was a lot of fun to travel with so many friends!

Sunrise early on the morning we left was glorious.  We were able to outrun the first fall storm that moved in that day, so yay for that!

And of course, it's just one week until Christmas, so here's a night shot of our Christmas tree.  It's so beautiful!  This year we used five strings of lights, two wrapping up the inside of the tree and three around the mid/outer branches, and it's very sparkly because of this.  I hope to spend some time this weekend taking dog/tree shots, so hopefully those will be up soon!

ten years of flyball

This weekend, specifically September 22, will mark the ten year point since I became involved in the sport of flyball.  On that day in 2003, my friend Christy and I went to the Gig Harbor "Harbor Hounds Walk the Town" event to check out this dog sport called flyball that I'd heard of, as the Jet City Jumpers flyball club was putting on a demo.  We did the walk back and forth, watched the flyball demos and talked to the club members, and even taught Jadzia the basics of the game - run over the jumps, pick up a ball, and run back over the jumps.  Christy took this photo of her, the very first one of her playing the game that would define her life.

We joined JCJ after this demo, and began Jadzia's flyball training in earnest.  After about six months of training, most to get Jadzia over her fear of the loud noise the box made, we debuted her as a 14" height dog at Cloverdale at the Kings tournament in March 2004.  She earned her FD in her first heat, her FDX in her first race, her FDCh by the end of the first day, and her FDCh-S at the end of her first weekend - over a thousand points in her debut weekend, an impressive feat.  Jadzia was the first member of JCJ to earn FMCh through FGDCh-40k, and earned up to FGDCh-60k and her Iron Dog award before retiring in May of 2013.

A few weeks after joining JCJ, one of the members helped me find a litter of border collie puppies with a male available, and in December we brought home little Curzon at just eight weeks of age.  Curzon taught himself to play flyball at the age of five months after watching Jadzia's debut, and he debuted himself in October 2004 just two days after his first birthday.  Despite time off for boxturn retraining and his rib resection surgery, Curzon raced nearly his whole life, running his last races in March 2013 before we lost him in May.  Curzon was the first dog on JCJ to break 4.0 seconds, and he earned his FGDCh-40k and had he lived a few more months, he would've earned his FGDCh-50k and his Iron Dog award.  He went with me to NAFA Can-Am Nationals twice, once in 2010 and once in 2012, and ran beautifully both times.

In March of 2008, we took Phoebe from her previous owner who was no longer able to care for her.  Phoebe was our "little tank" of a height dog, setting 7" jumps in NAFA and running savage through her thirteenth year of age until she retired in February 2013.  She was the first dog on JCJ to earn her FGDCh-50k and 60k titles, was the Region 7 MVP for 2011, and retired ranked in the top 30 of Jack Russell Terriers.  She's now living with a retired couple in eastern Oregon and enjoying her well-deserved retirement.

Later that summer, my long-awaited red merle girl Ezri was born in Chicago, and came home in September of that year.  She debuted just three days after her first birthday at a tournament in California, and soon became one of the fastest dogs in the club.  Ezri is a joy to run, takes her job very seriously, and has been on a team that broke 16 seconds in UFLI competition with her own time of 3.83 in that race.  She will be earning her FGDCh-40k next weekend, and my goal for her is to get to HOBBES before she retires (100,000 points).  I've taken her to the NAFA CanAm Nationals twice along with Curzon, and she's raced in Arizona, California, Indiana, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia so far, and we'll be adding Utah to that list in October.  Next year we plan to go to UFLI Nationals in St Louis, Missouri.  I'm looking forward to many years of racing my beloved redhead.

Last but not least is little Martok, Ezri's nephew and our also long-awaited baby boy puppy who was born on February 27 and came home just eleven days before we lost Curzon.  He's very intense, drivey, and focused, and is doing great in his flyball training.  I expect that he'll be debuting in March, the first tournament after his birthday, and we're looking forward to seeing what he can do as he grows up.

Of course, the dogs don't tell the whole story of our time in flyball, because there is so much more.  We've made many good friends over the past ten years, and have been part of two wonderful flyball clubs in that time as well.  We've traveled cross-country with teammates, gone on vacation with them, had parties and dog playdates and pool visits with them, and generally had a great time.  Our lives would be very different today if I hadn't looked into the sport of flyball ten years ago, and I'm ever so glad that I did.

big boys go to the big pool

Yesterday I got together with Martok's brother and his owner Gallia to take the dogs to the "big boy" swimming pool that we've gone to for several years.  This was the first time for the boys to swim in a pool without one of us in there with them, but after a short acclimatization period they were pretty excited to jump and swim until we made them leave.  Thanks to Gallia there were quite a few photos taken throughout the day...

Ezri always leaps enthusiastically into the water to go for her ball - she usually gets pretty good distance and is very reliable at bringing her ball back to me.

Jadzia has an adorable little "hop-splash" jump into the pool, she doesn't launch herself very far but it's very cute and she's always happy and wagging her tail.

And then we have the new baby - just LOOK at those legs with full extension, toes wrapped around the edge of the deck, leaping into the pool with intensity.  We're definitely going to have to get that boy into dock dogs!

So handsome, even when he's soaking wet and looks rather ridiculous.  I like the ear turned in response to whatever we were saying to him when the photo was taken.  He even looks relatively even in growth in this picture, which is amazing given that it seems one end or the other is always up higher in the past few weeks!

After swimming time was over, we let the boys run around in the backyard for a while to dry off and get more exercise time in.  I especially like the sideways swerve that Martok is displaying here as he focuses on a frisbee toy that was just thrown.

Such a handsome boy - love the little tongue-flick that was caught in this frame!

And then there's the bitey-face.  Oh, the bitey-face.  Now with adult teeth!

And puppy yoga.  Because why not?

Swimming at the pool was definitely a success for this little boy, and we will happily be going back again in the future!

puppy uncorked

Last weekend Chris' parents visited us for the weekend, which was a nice change for them as it's currently right around 100F and humid in their home in New Jersey, whereas we had beautiful 80F and sunny weather all weekend.  We did quite a few activities while they were here, including a boat tour of Lake Washington, some excellent dinners out, and of course two activities that included the dogs.  On Saturday afternoon we went to Kirkland Uncorked, a wine tasting, food, boat, and art festival right on the waterfront in downtown Kirkland, and we took Martok with us.  He did really well, especially given that he's only four months old, and won all kinds of fans with his good behavior and adorable puppy antics and looks.

Waiting on the bench to go to the first wine tasting tent at the beginning of our afternoon.  It was still cloudy at this point!

Here he is not sure why I put a glass of something sweet smelling (it was blackberry mead) next to him and then wouldn't let him drink it!

The sun was fully out at this point, and he was a little hot and tired by now as we went out to the dock to look at the boats.  This was a whole new experience for him, as the floating docks move around and creak and squeak, so there was a lot of hopping back and forth for dried chicken shreds to get used to it.  He didn't want to jump onto the two boats we put him on, but he was more than happy to jump OFF of them and back onto the dock!

I sat out with him while Chris and his parents got some ice cream for us, and he even put his head down on my foot and snoozed a little bit.  Even though we were only out for about three hours, it was a lot of work and stimulation for the little guy!

On Sunday we went out to the Ballard Locks for a walk in the afternoon, and this time we took Jadzia with us as she doesn't practice flyball anymore like the other two had done earlier in the morning.  She did very well with the crowds and the people, including nice greetings to children who wanted to say hi to her.

Watching a HUGE yacht go through the small lock from the lake to the sound, it filled up the whole thing all by itself!  Jadzia was not terribly impressed, however.

She much preferred the twenty minutes we spent sitting on the grass in the shade while the others went inside the visitors center to learn more about the locks.  The last time Chris and I were here, Curzon was a puppy, so it's been at least nine years since we were here...ah, memories.

And the other big thing this week is that I got a hammock for the back deck.  It's a simple thing, just a fabric sling with a stand, but it's comfortable and it's a hammock, so I'm pretty happy with it.  This is my view if I'm in it when the dogs are outside, however...

Ezri is not much for relaxing, you see.

summer vacation at the beach!

Last week was the summer shutdown for my place of work, and so we took off for the Oregon beach as we have done for several years now.  This year we went almost to California and spent the week in Gold Beach, OR at the Turtle Rock RV Resort which is on Hunter Creek.  It was a nice place, with an easy walk under the 101 out to the beach, and the "creek" is more like a small river that's more than wide and deep (and calm!) enough for swimming, even when it was windy and the waves in the ocean were crazy.  Lots of pictures were taken as you might imagine...here is a selection in no particular order.

I always have to have a posed photo, and the large rockpile between the creek and the beach worked out nicely for that purpose this year.

Our friends who have Martok's littermate Sirius came to join us for our last day/night, and the little boys had a great time wrestling and playing biteyface for hours.  I particularly like this lucky shot I got of them chewing on each others faces!

On July 4 we went for a long (5.5 mile) hike up Humbug Mountain, as it was so windy that going to the beach was not fun for anyone.  Martok did really well, although he was definitely tired by the time we were done!  I managed to get this shot of all three of them while we were on our way back down - I didn't move them into this pose or anything, just caught their attention and took a few frames quickly.

While we were on the hike up the mountain, we passed by a small stream which Jadzia promptly used as a cooling bath for her hot self.

Jadzia swimming in the creek by the beach.

Martok running about to fetch his ball right on the edge of the waves.  He didn't have any problem with them, and almost swam a bit during the first day or two, but after the wind picked up on our third day and the waves got bigger he wasn't too interested.  That's fine, he's still rather little after all!

Cold, wet, and freshly bathed puppies are awfully pathetic unless you turn them into a burrito with a towel and snuggle them.  The girls weren't pleased at being left out, though, as you can see in the background of the photo.

We took a great jetboat trip up the Rogue River one day, where we saw all kinds of birds (cormorants, vultures, bald eagles, and more!) and had a lot of fun swirling in the rapids.  I took one of my spindles with me to spin while waiting to reboard after a bathroom break.

Very windy...you can see Ezri's coat blowing in the wind!  Martok's short little puppy coat is pretty much unaffected, though.

As always, Ezri loved swimming in the ocean and had a great time even when she had to fight the waves.  Such a strong and smart girl!

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Of course, there was a small thread of sadness throughout the week as we took our first vacation without Curzon.  Going to the beach was one of his very favorite things, and he would stick his head out the window as soon as he smelled the salt air and would start dancing around in the backseat until we were there and he could race into the ocean.  I couldn't quite bear to leave him behind, so we took the small cherry box that holds his cremains along with his collar and brought them with us, where they rested in the niche in the wall for the duration of our trip.  I considered taking them out to the beach to take a photo, but ultimately decided against doing so as I don't really want photos of that, I'd rather remember him as he was on the beach himself last year - full of life and cheer after healing from that surgery.  One of my favorite photos of him from the beach last year is below to round off this entry on a happy note.

Such a happy boy to be playing in the cold ocean!  The temperature and waves never bothered him, he was more than willing to fling himself into the ocean after a ball or the suggestion of one...at the slightest provocation (or excuse), really!

bits and pieces, crafts and puppies

Today's post is a lot of photos, because I've done a lot of stuff recently and it's always more fun to post and write about photos than it is to just put together large blocks of text.  Plus, I've done that way too much at work recently and I'm sick of it!  So here we go, in themed order...

Dogs!

My irises in the front yard are incredible this year - there are TWENTY flower stalks up, all with multiple buds/blooms on them, and they are just phenomenal.  They're the only thing in my yard that really is amazing, and I am enjoying the heck out of them right now.  Jadzia wasn't quite so sure, however, but she gamely hopped into the flower bed for me to take a photo.  I think this is the year I need to split the irises, so that will be a new adventure later this summer or sometime into the fall.

Martok hasn't learned how to play fetch in the rotation with the girls, so I've been taking some walks with him to get both of us some exercise.  I have also been taking Ezri with me, much to her dismay, as Martok is preferring to walk thisclose to her, as the photo shows.  Ezri is also not a fan of being walked on leash, so she's been pulling a lot, so we got her a harness last weekend to help minimize the effects of her pulls on her own body.  We'll see if that helps!

Craft Projects!

Back in April, I finally got around to getting an ink pad and nice paper to do pawprints of the dogs, and after I was done I used one set of them to put together this frame.  The prints came out really well (and the dogs were surprisingly good about it), although it amuses me that their feet-fur shows up so much in the prints!  The frame is an inexpensive floating-glass frame, so I can easily add one of Martok later, remove them to put together into a bigger frame, or just make a whole new one in the future.  I really like having it up on the wall, it's across from the door to my office so I see it every day.

And of course, I've picked up more spindles, as they're just a big an addiction as fabric for quilting.  These two are Bosworth spindles, both special order.  The smaller dark one has a whorl made from live oak (and a shaft made from bocote) that was harvested in the 1700s and then kept in ponds for use in repairing the US Navy ships at the time.  These ponds were eventually forgotten about and reclaimed by the forest, until they were recently found and the wood reclaimed and used by various craftsmen.  The larger red one has a whorl made from flame box elder and a shaft made from cocobolo, and is stunningly beautiful.  I've coveted something made out of flame box elder for a while, and I am thrilled with this particular spindle.  Both spindles are great to use and have small Phat Fiber sample projects on them right now.

Just this past weekend I cleaned up my sewing room and pulled out the materials to work on Aidan's quilt again.  I have just one panel done so far, though all the pieces are cut out already, and I designed another panel this weekend and it's ready to piece together.  This quilt will be the sibling to Averie's quilt, done very similarly, and hopefully completed in time for his birthday in September.

I finished knitting two pieces in February and March and they're shown here after a wash and during blocking.  The cowl is made from a single skein of fancy variegated yarn I bought from a store going out of business, and I love how the colors pooled to form large blocks in a slanted pattern.  The scarf is made from a skein of Manos merino singles, knitted up on size 9 needles in a simple garter/stockinette pattern I came up with on the fly.  It goes well with our new flyball club colors, and I have a second (nearly identical) one almost done to give to one of my friends on the team.

My first sock has made it to the "turn the heel" phase, and there it languishes.  I'll need to pick up stitches as I continue on, and my pattern isn't very detailed about that so I need to pick up a book or tutorial to figure out how best to make that work.  It's pretty cool, though, and I love the needles I'm using (Signature DPNs), so I plan to pull this one out and figure it out soon.

Still spinning as well, and I set aside my interminable fine spinning of the brilliant red Targhee wool I bought at OFFF last year to ply these two batts together.  The yarn came out very well, one batt is dark purples and one was cream with purple and blue, and I think the overall effect is very nice.  These batts taught me that I'm not so much fond of spinning chunky things, especially uncontrolled chunky things like mohair locks, although I do think the plied yarn came out well.  I still need to wash it, however, as I plied it back when we were still deep into the rainy season.

The last craft for this post is one I did not do myself, but one which I will benefit greatly from - my friend Kristie made me a set of "Unpaper Towels" using the best cheesy Star Trek fabric you've ever seen.  The towels are made from terry backed with quilting fabric, serged into squares, and set with snaps so you can roll them up onto a paper towel roll, then use them instead of paper towels.  I have used them for a few days and I like them a lot!

Miscellaneous!

Between the nicer weather appearing through the last few weeks and my attempts to increase my step count, I've been taking walks along the waterfront at work during my lunch break.  Most days I also take a spindle with me and spin as I walk, garnering several odd looks but no comments as of yet.  Such beautiful views are just a small part of why I love to live here.

 

And then there was this - I had the bottom couple of inches of my hair dyed a rich vibrant purple.  I LOVE the effect, it's fantastic, and sadly it has already faded away to a pale lavendar after just four weeks.  I'm having it redone this weekend, and will see if there's anything else the stylist can do to help it last longer - I'm already not washing the ends and rinsing them in the shower with as cool water as I can stand.  If not, I will probably keep it up until I am ready to cut my hair again, then just trim it all off and go on with my regular golden blonde.

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Today marks sixteen days since we said goodbye to Curzon.  Last Friday we picked up his ashes (or cremains, as they are called in the industry) from the vet, which was a very difficult thing for me to do.  I held him in my lap the whole way home, making Chris drive us, and wished so hard that I was hugging Curzon for real instead.  I know that won't happen, but the thought of that keeps hitting me anew every so often and it's like a punch to the gut every time it does.  For now the nice cherry box that his remains are in sits on top of one of the dressers in our bedroom, along with the blanket I made him when he recovered from his surgery and his collar.  Perhaps it is strange to admit, but I do talk to him even as I hate that he's in that box, and I have hugged the box more than once.  It helps, a very tiny bit, and that's all I can do now.

I've also been thinking more and more about the time we had between when we brought Martok home and when Curzon passed, that too-short span of just eleven days.  Curzon was so amazing with the puppy for the first few days, and we had such a good time with our photo session on that Saturday.  He had a great time at practice on Sunday, even as we realized he'd lost the sight in his right eye.  Monday was very difficult, but with more pain meds he seemed back to his old self and we had a good time all week.  Saturday was a beautiful day, and the rest I've already talked about.  I don't like to append too many human emotions or decisions to animals, but I also do think they are wiser and more perceptive than most people believe.  I'm coming to the conclusion that Curzon had been in pain for a while, and when we brought Martok home that was the signal he was waiting for to release himself from that pain.  Curzon had that wonderful Saturday where he played, saw lots of people he loved, and had steak for dinner, and I think that was his way of saying goodbye to us all.

It was too soon for me and Chris, and maybe it was even too soon for Curzon.  But I could never countenance his bright spirit suffering without hope of respite, and I would not want to hold him here in pain - that's why we had the vet come on that sad day.  I can only hope that his spirit will visit me upon occasion, and continue to inspire me in the future.