earthing

another great weekend had pretending to be farmer joe roundin' up sheep. out at binalong this weekend and it was rather chilly at first. miss possum and i have been promoted to the big ring which was a bit frightening. so far we have worked in the small ring where she can see me all the time and she doesnt have much room to move, and as i expected in the big ring she ran a bit wild and forgot that i was there. we had a new instructor brad, and he was very patient! (he may be laughing behind his hand in this picture, however!)



he had to help me out a couple of times but by the end of the weekend we had possum starting softly, which meant she worked softly, and we were able to put a stop on her most times. she learnt to stop in the front of the sheep and hold them there, and to work without barking all the time. not without some resistance tho!



overall tho she works really nicely, brad seemed to think she was a good dog and said that he could take her out to work tomorrow. the problem of course is me, despite living on a working sheep farm for three years, i still really dont know what to do. i asked them this weekend if there was a textbook i could read. everyone laughed but i was serious....give me the theory and i'll have it perfect in no time!! but thats ok, we've only been doing it for six months, cant expect to know it all right now.

the sheep had just been shorn, like in the last week or two, and the clip was all piled up on a truck ready to go. one of the biggest clips ive ever seen, my stepfathers clip was only about a third of theirs...im sure there was about 50 bales. i wanted to get some photos to put up here so we could all drool over the pure unadulterated product, but the batteries on the camera ran out!

speaking of wool, the jumper mark two is progressing really nicely, trent even agrees now that it looks like the picture. as for SnB, i have been thwarted, and continue to be! last thurs i was sick and this thurs coming when i am scheduled to do my own lunch time thing, i will be in the car on the way to queensland, trent is judging a flyball comp there. and then the sunday after, the 17th, i will be herding again. i was going to not go as my friend deb is coming to canberra that weekend but we had already booked to go and if we pull out they wont have the numbers and anyway im kind of obsessed now...

so it will be a while yet before i get to meet any of the other knitters i am meeting in the virtual knitting world...feels strange to be talking to people you dont know but thats the thing about the internet i guess.

meanwhile i am not so cut up about the missed job now. i will get some casual teaching next semester anyway and it just clears the decks in terms of getting the theis finished and who needs supervisors anyway?

hope to have pics of jumper up soon.

k