A little rusty.

 The little dog in the video is Estelle. She is a 7ish year old chihuahua mix. She has been with me since she was six months old. We did go through some obedience courses but I think it's obvious we are rusty. However, we ran through those exercises without practice so I am happy she remembered as much as she did. We never made it into the ring because Estelle has issues. This is the first time I have seen us work on video and it is a real eye opener.
 Progress on the blog has been slow but now that we are past the issue of the video loading properly I think we are ready to get going in earnest.

Grrr.

Having trouble with the video running properly. Be back soon.

Begin at the beginning.

This isn't coming together as quickly as I thought it would. You have to ask yourself a lot of questions and do a fair amount of decision making to put together a solid training plan. I have been putting notes to paper and will try to use this space to get them organized. The video camera is charging too.

Starting over

Dusting off the old blog to focus on some dog training. Quite excited really. Joined Susan Garrett's Puppy Peaks class online.

January 1, 2011

I started to write a big philosophical post about goals, and blah, blah, blah. Forget that crap. I have been all work and worry for far too long. This year I will learn to smile again.

A better way to work from home?

Looking for wool in all the wrong places.

 I had a very busy spring and summer this year, so I missed all the wool festivals I had planned to attend. I have a pretty good stash so I thought it was probably for the best. But then I learned that Falmouth, Ky. has one in Oct. I was told it wasn't much. But as it turned out I was going to be making a trip into Kentucky that same weekend. It was meant to be. And The Gardener, being something of an enabler, didn't mind making the small detour. So off we went.
 Things looked promising as we came into town. There was a shuttle. Shuttles imply crowds. We aren't the shuttle kind, so we drove ourselves. Things got a little congested as we neared the entrance. Cars were backed up in both directions, there was a policeman controlling traffic at the entrance, we could see lots of tents from the road, and the parking lot looked pretty crowded. All good signs, I was sure.




I think there were three flaggers for every car.


Just inside the gate were craft booths. And plenty of 'em. We saw John Deere gear, aprons, yard art and signs, holiday decorations, and food items; honey, sorghum, and stone ground corn.



Birdhouses



Bears



John Deere stuff



 I was a bit puzzled that there weren't any wool vendors, in any shape or form. But, when we came to the petting zoo I took heart. At least these animals weren't stuffed. There were a couple of bunnies, some goats and alpacas, but no sheep.



Would like to be petted, please.

 

Then on to more craft booths.



Musical Instrument Lamps





You can make windchimes out of anything.



We saw some things that would certainly qualify as art too.



Pottery





Sculpture



By this time we had nearly forgotten why we came. And we were hungry. We had trouble deciding between the rocky mountain oysters and the kettle corn. Well, not really. :)  But I regret that decision a little. Maybe next year.
 We found more interesting things after our snack. Lika a woman making chicken and dumplings in cast iron pot over a campfire, wooden rocking horses, jewelry, hand carved flutes, animal pelts, and more ornaments.



A jackalope with an eyepatch.



Just as we rounded the last corner before the exit. We saw it. The wool tent.



One tent.

I have to say, I was disappointed. The vendor areas inside were small, making it difficult to get more than a person or two in at a time. There were a lot of people in there too. One booth I did get into had some very smelly handspun that felt nice, but the woman in the booth wasn't the owner and didn't know anything about the fiber. I found some reasonably priced hand dyed sock yarns in some nice colors but it looked and felt a little coarse to me. There was an icelandic sheep breeder selling pottery, not icelandic fiber goods.
 My take from the Falmouth Woolfest consisted of a bottle of sorghum syrup, windmills and flutes for the kids at Christmas, and a mug with a sheep joke for my mother.
 Would I go back? Probably. But not for the wool.