Strike training..day 7

Today we got back to work in the field.

But first..Diane and I went to Del's in Monroe

for some 10% sale they were having. We filled up

the bed of my truck with livestock feed, horse feed

dog food and other stuff. My little truck was full to the brim

after we left. Got to DeltaBluez and unloaded all of the feed

into barrels and rested. Diane went to the house and I stayed

in the barn and set out to finish brushing out Em's tail.

So I went into the barn and got the halter and set

out to "wrangle" her in. I put it on her and gave my

"expertly" executed click-click sound and she would

not budge.... hmmmmm.....ok.....I'll try giving her a tug....

nope...that don't work.....OK I'll try bribery. I went into the barn

and grabbed a handful of alfalfa and grain, thinking to myself

this will do the trick. Gave her a handful of grain and a bit of

alfalfa...nope..... not going to budge. So I called Diane on the cell

and asked "What do I do???" she popped her head to the window

of the house and told me to put my hand about 8 inches down the

halter and use the end of the lead and give a gentle tap with it on

the south end. She reluctantly started to move and It was off

to the barn. Finished her tail and she was sure smiling at me!!!

Then it was off to the task at hand...Mig

I used Tess again for the sort and as usual she was awesome.

Mig on the other hand was a bit too pushy today....probably

pent up energy from not working her yesterday. After a while

she calmed down and started to do some good work.

After the second set of five we put them into the exhaust pen

and I gave her the "go get a drink" command.

She bounded across the field and leapt into the stream

like a Lab. She must have leapt a good 4 feet and landed

into the stream, drinking up half of it!!! Tess, Mig and I

just lied down for a while, soaked up some sun for a while.

It's a tough job..but someone has to do it!!

Lazy Days

Today was kind of a lazy day around here.

We took the day off of stock and just played.

I took the dogs with me to Starbuck's and got

the usual quad powerhouse coffee and it was off to

the park for some fun.

I like to take the dogs to the Snoqualmie River and play

fetch with them in the river. These two "knuckleheads"

just love the crap out of each other and playing in the river

just brings out pure joy in the both of them. I think it is also

good exercise for the both of them...I guess it's called low impact

exercise. The bonus for me is I don't have to bath them

(although Kelpies are kinda self cleaning) Buck, my Border Collie

mix is what I've heard from other handlers is a "sponge"

when it comes to.....what I call....farm debris..LOL LOL.

Since today was also the 7th. "anniversary" of the 9/11

tragedy, for some reason, I just felt compelled to stay close

to home today.

I watched a documentry today on the events of that day,

and something they said just rang in my head all day today,

"The events on that day brought out both sides of humanity,

the very worse, thankfully, the very best in us all."

After seeing photos of the firemen running up those stairs

to save people, and never making it out of the structure,

reminds me again of how lucky we are to have these men and women

in our lives

Strike Training day 3

Tess
photo by Diane Pagel

It's day 3 of the strike and so far I have spent

most of it at DeltaBluez.

Today I started the day out by brushing out Emma's mane.

She is such a good horse. Diane told me she use to be a show horse

and was used to folks fussing over her. Today, while I was brushing

her main, she rested her head on top of mine and then on my shoulder.

And while I was brushing out her back, I swear, she had a smile

on her face. My next task is going to be her tail and that is going to

take a little while.

After the horse, it was on to working Mig, my Kelpie

Today I used Tess to sort and act as a back up dog.

Tess and I put 25 or so head into the round pen and then we

took out 5 at a time after working them 10-15 minutes or so.
In the hot weather you don't want to work the stock
more than a few minutes, so every 10-15 minutes
you change them out.

Today, we worked on Mig's push. She likes to work too close

to the stock and this wont do if we a working very light sheep

as they will tend to run and scatter. I've been trying to stop

her from running out of her "lie-down" after I release her
from it. If the situation needs her to walk up to the stock
in a straight line, I use the command "Walk-Up".

We are also working on letting her learn to read the stock better.

I've been trying to not give her any flank commands and let

her figure them out by herself by what way the stock is moving.

One plus for the afternoon....Instead of tying Mig up after our

session and using Tess to put the stock into the exhaust pen,

I felt she was working pretty good and calm to let her put them away

and she did this great!!! (not driving them in...but fetching them in)

After our work, I let Buck and Mig run around in the appropriate

play areas on the farm and they were joined in by the others

while I was cleaning dog stalls and a host of other chores.

I'm not sure if I can appropriately put it into words or not

but working my dogs and being on the farm is sure

"mental floss" for me. I would rather be on a farm
than anywhere else.

Jeff and Mig (Kelpie)
Photo by Diane Pagel

It's been a long time

It's been a long time since I've posted and a WHOLE lot has changed since then.

Since the last time I posted, I was working at a wood shop in Redmond.
I applied at Boeing in Feb. of '07 and was hired in April '07

I'm a mechanic on the 777 and I currenly working on the aft bulk cargo door

I really love what I do and am very proud of that airplane.

As probably most of you have heard, the union I belong

to is on strike against Boeing.

So this has become my GOLDEN opportunity to get

some training in on Mig.

I worked her some on Friday and today we had

and AWESOME session!!

I use Scotty at first as a sorting/back up dog and he

worked great for me..he really respects me and listens

very well. I used him to put all of the stock into the round pen

and used him to "cut out" 5 at a time.

Mig was working like a dream dog (a little pushy at first)

but she quickly calmed down. She was covering like a dream too.

Boy she can cover well. If she pushed to stock in front of me, I just walk

away from the stock and she would go wide and bring them back to me.

I love it when I see her doing her "Kelpie crawl" stalking like a cheetah

We did three 5 sheep sessions with Scotty and then Tess decided

it was time for her to work too!! So away Scotty went and Tess

stepped up to the plate. In the next session..one ewe broke loose and

Mig looked at me to see If I wanted her to go get her. I said "lie down"

and Tess knew it was her time to work. Mig covered the four and Tess

very calmly brought the one ewe back to us...What a good girl!!

I was trying to let Mig figure out what way to move the stock and stop

relying on me so much for flanks... so I would hide behind the big stumps

and let Mig decide what way to bring the stock to me based on what position

they were in. She did this great!! She has reduced her "looking at me time"

and starting to show more confidence in herself.

Boy folks, I sure have on TIRED Kelpie at my feet now as I type this

to you, She worked hard and I'm very, very proud of her.

Jeff-Buck-Mig

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