Double trouble

The day dawned sunny and bright, albeit cold, but the bone-chilling wind decided to take the day off, so the conditions were fine for the double lift at the Lazy J trial.

I was the first to go from our group. The sheep were set far into the corners of the field, quite a distance away from where they were set during the previous Open runs. Dogs often look for sheep where they have found them before, so were likely to draw in. Craig ran reasonably well, but the couple of months off of fields was evident. We completed the international shed with seconds to spare so I was happy with that.

Linda had a great run going with Joe, but gripped in the shedding ring.

Mary Lou had a heart stopping run with Dyna. Good outwork, and with just over a minute to go finished the international shed getting the last two sheep away from the collared five. We were running on 14 sheep and shedding 9 off. The final two uncollared sheep were undecided about whether to join the discard pile or rejoin the collared ewes, which would be disaster. Mary Lou kept trying to chase off the two while the collared sheep started to break and Dyna had to repeatedly stop them, one collared yearling in particular that had been causing trouble the entire shed. The groups edged closer together, all near the pen. With time running out, Mary Lou decided to take a chance, and directed Dyna to take control of the collared sheep, and attempt the pen with the others nearby. Darting from side to side, the collared sheep attempted to escape a few more times, and with seconds remaining, Dyna hooked them into the pen, for an ending more exciting than any Super Bowl!

We packed up and put in a few miles headed south before it got dark. There was a hard freeze warning in effect, and naturally we ran out of propane in the middle of the night, so everything froze, including us! It is the same temperature at home as it is here. I'm starting to think the concept of the the south being warm in the winter is propaganda!

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