Tripping out

Alberta Kennel Club Dog Show looms. Dogs are not all ready, but they could surprise me and do a great job in spite of a lack of training. They have come through before. I really have not spent enough time with Swayze taking him to various venues and he will most likely be pretty overwhelmed by everything around him. Token and Mesa will be fine, as will Bess. I have four dogs entered in standard and rally obedience, with three of them in the same class, back to back. I am hoping that I can find someone to move their position so that I have a spacer in between to give me a bit of warm-up time.



Shar is even crazier than I am. She entered Rally and Agility and put Ryder and Mesa in Brace obedience. What a nut, eh?



I am paranoid about the trailer. I have both batteries charged and a solar backup. Thank goodness for generators. We had a lightening strike and the GFI breaker kicked out and I lost

food from the fridge, of course. Darn. We have had three - five interruptions of electricity per day for the last few days. The problem started back in April. Once or twice week. Then more. And now, it borders the ridiculous. I have kept the times and dates of the power outages. I phoned Fortis yesterday and spoke with a very nice lady who, I am certain, thought she was talking to a walking time bomb. Turns out that I need to phone Fortis every time the power goes out, and they will record the info for me. No, they won't take the info I already have. I have to start all over!!! Oh, and because the technician said they are still monitoring the problem, I thought I should ask what that entailed. It means that whenever the power goes out and is reported, they can go out and search for the weak link. As long as the power remains out, they have a chance of finding the cause of the problem. In our case, the power doesn't stay off. It goes off and then comes right back on. Just long enough to cause everything digital to need resetting. We have already purchased two new Star Choice receivers because of this and I am frustrated to the max about this. If the power has to stay off in order to track the problem, these guys will be tracking for the rest of their lives!! We are doomed, darnit! Doomed!!!

Wind, solar, and geothermal power is starting to look very economical at this point. These 'bumps' in energy could be very costly appliance-wise if they keep up.



We never had this problem in the early years of living here. When the power went off, it stayed off, and it had a good reason for being off, like a horrible snowstorm, or the like. Thank goodness, our end of the electric circuit is not the cause of the problem, although that might have been simpler.



Enough crabbing.

I need to top off the water tank and take some fresh water for the dogs and us to drink. I hate tank water, even for coffee. It's great to wash in, but that's about it. I have my set-up list....... the same one Mike made for Louanne. It involves a lot of really good advice.



Oh, myGod! Can you believe it? I spilled coffee on the Imac computer keyboard and ruined it. Now I need to make a trip to London Drugs to buy a new one. Jeez, already.



One wonderful thing about this week was that Skyline Trailers got my truck cap on and so now the dogs have a safe place to ride. I cannot believe that I, however, have shrunk so much over the past few years. I can't even reach the back window hatch to close it unless I stand on the trailer hitch. I bought the cutest gadget to help me with that. It's a retractable awning pull. Works really well. Now I need to look on the internet and buy a ramp that fits a truck bumper so the dogs, even the oldest ones, can enter and exit without jumping. If anyone knows someone who has such a thing and is prepared to part with it, please let me know.

Mary Ellen and her office crew had the best entertainment last week as I tried to convince Swayze that if he put his front feet on the tailgate, I would lift up his back end and hoost him into the truckbed. Oh, sure. I'd get his feet on the tailgate and as soon as I would reach for his back end, he's drop flat on the ground. It got worse. Pretty soon, he'd drop to the ground and roll over. Then, he wouldn't put his feet on the tailgate. So I'd put his feet on the tailgate and die with laughter as he slowly sank out of view with his head underneath the tailgate and his front feet held securely onto the gate by me. Oh, jeez. Finally, I jumped into the truck bed and gave a
tug on the leash and ordered the dog to 'get in here, already.... you..................." In he jumped!
Out came Mary Ellen, her sides almost splitting with laughter.

We are taking a holiday this year. We are going to Prince George to visit friends, Heather and Bob Alderson, and spend time in their part of the woods. A trip to Barkerville is in the plans.
Sounds appropriate for someone who is travelling with two dogs, no? They are even going fishing with us to Stewart Lake. I can just see Token on the 'barge'. She loves water but has never been on a boat. She hasn't even ridden on the back of an airmattress, like Rose did for years. Must remedy that! Tom will help drive.

We are going to visit a training centre and book some time for some practice for Token away from home. Should be fun. Tom can visit with the owner's shelties while we work. Then, it's off to Castlegar where Darryl and Sharlet will do a switcharoo with Shar showing up on Friday with three dogs for me to show, and Darryl going on home to help Deb with the kennel.


Well, must run. Choices to make here. Color my hair or race to Lethbridge for a keyboard(providing there is gas available at our stations as there was none yesterday when I had to travel to Calgary to pick Deb up from the airport. Good thing Fort Macleod had some.


Take care. Safe trip to all of you going on holidays or travelling to the Alberta Kennel Club Show.

Check out our set-up at the Terry Trailer with the green yard gate and cute sign. Shar and I booked two spaces so our dogs could have a yard and we could have our van and tow vehicles stay on site for dogs to sleep in. Yay!!!! No dogs in the bed. No dog hair in the food. How strange will that be?



Talk soon,



Judi