Itchy...

So I've been fighting the itch for a few weeks now, the last time I scratched this itch this happened...

No...not Neena, but do you happen to see the gorgeous collar she is wearing?

I love this collar, it is absolutely beautiful and was hand-made by Cowboy Cool Canine. Neena is actually down to 2 collars right now, she has this one and another leather collar that has definately seen better days. The first collar she ever had was from Lupine, the tickled pink design, it was very cute and functional, however Neena's pal Max ate it and I still need to have it replaced. Actually come to think of it Max also ate her Dale Earnhardt Jr collar...hmm...

What she needs is a collar I can put on her that can withstand abuse, whether its running through the bush, playing in water or wrestling with another dog...and it has to be Cute. My problem is that her CCC collar is so beautiful I am having a hard time finding another collar that I like as much. Any suggestions?

*Photo courtesy of Sarah Novak

Bumper to Bumper, Side by Side

It was back to BCR this weekend for another weekend of wild! I'd like to introduce you to the truck stocks...these guys are CRAZAY! I love watching them, they can go 4 wide through the corners and not touch each other (or the wall) which is a feat let me tell you! They are a dream to work with and are usually lined up to go racing before we have to ask, and they never complain when things don't go as planned. They come out each weekend to have fun, and although they are competitive, for the most part they don't let it get in the way of their camaraderie.

The Sportman Sprints were racing again this weekend, my good friend Sean Moskal had his newly painted sprint car out.

Sean, my husband Mike, and my dad raced street stocks together many many years ago. Additionally Sean and Mike work together at Southern Rewind, Southern Rewind is also one of Sean's sponsors.

So before I get blasted for playing favorites...I really do try to cheer for everyone equally. Every weekend I want to see good, clean, fun racing. I want every driver to go home safe, and preferably with their car in once piece...after all, I want to see you race again next week! I have learned there is more to racing that winning (although I'm sure the drivers will tell you differently lol!) and on many occasions I have seen drivers as excited to have raced hard and clean beside their friend as they would have been to take home the trophy.

That being said, Saturday night things came together for Sean and he lead the race for the first half of the main event. I was so excited for him, and although I really did want him to win I was really hoping that he had finally ironed out some of the kinks he seemed to keep running into. A caution come out and Sean fell to 3rd place which would have still been a respectable finish for him. However with about 3 laps to go Sean had to pass a lapped car, and I'm not sure what exactly happened but Sean's car ended up tumbling down the backstretch into corner 3.

Don't get me wrong, Sprint cars are fun and they are FAST! BUT they are a light car, with a short and narrow wheel base...and although the wing is meant to apply downforce and keep the car on the track it doesn't take much for them to go airborne. Watching a sprint wreck is awful...it doesn't matter who is in that car. I have never understood people who wait anxiously for 'the big one' from the stands, obviously they have never watched their loved one race. Fortunately Sean's safety equipment did its job and he walked away, however I don't think the average fan realizes how much money and time goes into preparing a car for racing and that each big wreck might be a racers last.

I'll leave you with the 'after' photo, OUCHIE!

Chicken Clicken

So last Wednesday Amanda sent me an e-mail asking if I'd like to learn how to clicker train a chicken. At first I thought she was totally pulling my leg, however she also provided a link to to an article that explained the basis of this type of operant training. After reading about Bob Bailey and the work he has done training over 140 different species I was hooked.

I haven't done a lot of clicker training with my own dog, I am not exactly the most graceful person (thanks Mom! Love you!) and the thought of holding a clicker, treats, a leash, a toy (or two or three) and remembering what to do with all that stuff at the right time is pretty overwhelming. Not that I don't think it works...just haven't done a lot of it.

On Saturday we were essentially given a crash course in chicken clicken...we started out with some dry runs where we just tried to get the clicking and rewarding movement smoothed out. It looks easier than it is! We then tried to get our chickens to associate the click with a reward (the grain) and once they were understanding that you could attempt to shape their behavior. The idea was that eventually they would offer a behavior (to peck a circle on the table) for the reward. If you are interested, here is a video that might explain this all a little better.

Do you see the death grip I have on this gal, she was desperate to escape and I had NO desire to try to catch her!

I was glad to be invited and spending time training chickens got me thinking about ways I can better train Neena. Like I said I haven't done much clicker training with Neena but tonight I dug out our clicker and starting re-familiarizing ourselves. My goal is to have Neena weaving 3 poles by the time the gals get back from Nationals and I'm hoping I can use what I learned to help.

(P.S. Thanks to Amanda for taking the photo's and sending me the links!)

Pixel's Party

It is Pixel's 1 year birthday today and Neena was invited to her party.

Isn't she a pretty girl! Love those baby blues!

Neena had a great time playing,

the collie boys thought she (and pretty much all the other gals) was something special lol!

We even had cake, peanut butter & carrot for the dogs, chocolate for the people...let me tell you everyone (I mean everyone!) wanted seconds.

I've decided you pretty much have to expect 1 of 3 reactions when you tell people you are taking your dog to a Doggie Birthday Party (or Halloween Party or Christmas Party or...well you get the picture).

1. Aww...that's so cute (as in that's a great idea can I come!)


2. Are you serious? (as in that's really cheesy and you either need to get a life or you have too much time on your hands)


3. Pity (as in its so sad you have to have parties for your dogs since you don't have kids)

I face all 3 of these reactions on a pretty regular basis. I spend a lot of time with my dog, not as much as a lot of people I've met since we adopted Neena, but certainly more than most of my family & friends do. I don't regret any of it...not the time, not the money, not the inappropriate reactions from people who see her as just a dog...one day I'll blog about how Neena saved me from self destructing. In the mean time I'm going to continue laughing at the antics of dogs when they play at these 'silly parties' and enjoy every moment I have to spend with her.

More Fun in Water

The family gathered for my uncle's 40th birthday party this weekend. It was baking and my cousins Madison & Kyra decided to cool off in the waterslide.

Bridge County Raceway

I am a long time volunteer at Bridge County Raceway and this weekend was very exciting as we welcomed the ASCS CanWest Sprint Car series to Lethbridge. We regularly feature the Sportsman Sprints at BCR, the main difference between these two tours is the engine. ASCS runs a 360 engine while the Sportman run a smaller version (at least that's how I understand it...sprint car engines are not my forte lol!). Due to the recession and other factors the ASCS car count has suffered a little this year and a few of our Sportman drivers helped round out the field.

At the end of the day #6m Sean Moran took the checkered flag, he is what you could call Racing Royalty in Alberta and I have watched him do very well at our track in the past.

#44 Kelly Miller is the only local driver who is currently racing ASCS...his dad Donny has a long history of sprint car racing...and he owes me a beer:).

The following teams are the local Sportman cars supported the ASCS this weekend.

#33 Stuart Selby

#77 Rick Tessemaker#21 Calvin Fitch

Do I look like a Golden to you?

Friday night Neena and I headed to Little Bow Provincial Park to meet a friend. The weather was great and Neena and I played fetch in the water.

Alas, before too long the tennis ball was riddled with border collie teeth holes and sank to the bottom of the lake...what to do!

Neena decided her first line of attack would be to give mom the 'cute face' until she picked it up and threw it for her.

Unfortunately for Neena her mom is pretty sure she will love swimming...once she realizes she knows how and with super human strength managed to refuse the 'cute face'.

Plan B was the patent border collie stare...works for sheepies...works for kitties...

BUT it doesn't work for stubborn tennis balls!

We quickly moved on to pawing the ball.

Finally she realized she was gonna have to go in after it.

At this point she started accusing me of secretly wanting a golden retriever...nevertheless she agreed to give it one more try.

Success!

Delivered with a little payback!

Getting Technical

I grew up on a cow-calf farm about and from a young age was helping with the cows, whether it was checking during calving, or pushing calves at branding. I'm not sure if it's something I always had, or something I learned, by my teens I'd developed a pretty good instinct for my herd. I remember specifically one year this cow of ours was calving and for some reason I just didn't feel right about it, later on that night my dad pulled dead twins from her. King Ralph was my first 4-H calf, and I'll admit I cried when I sold him, however life and death are part of farm life and most of us learn to accept that. By my early 20's I had realized that the chances of me settling into my own farm life were pretty slim and I started to think about different ways I could be involved in agriculture. I am now a technician for a Beef Scientist at Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development and I have to say for the most part I love my job.

We do quite a bit of work at local feedlots and I really enjoy being out in the community, its been a great way to make new contacts and learn a new side of the Alberta beef industry.

The majority of our work involves food safety, more specifically E. coli O157:H7, a bacteria which can lead to what is commonly known as hamburger disease. As few as 8-10 bacteria cells are enough to infect a human, and infection may lead to a wide range of symptoms, from diarrhea to kidney failure. However its important to remember that proper food safety precautions will protect you and your family from contracting this bacteria from your beef!

Cattle act as a reservoir for this bacteria, fortunately for them it does not make them sick like humans can get, however this makes it difficult to identify which cattle are hosts. To additionally complicate things there are MANY other strains of E. coli in their intestines (and yes, yours!) that are part of their normal digestive system. So how do we determine which animals are E. coli O157:H7 positive you ask? Well...like this...

As I already mentioned, this bacteria is part of the 'digestive system'...and as we all know what goes in, must come out! Additionally since fed cattle are often housed together, one infected animal can cause quite a bit of what we call 'environmental contamination'...so we also test their pen floors, their water...

AND their hides...

Betcha never thought people were actually paid to wipe cow's bums did ya!

Looks pretty easy but when you are trying to do this all in the time it take the feedlot to give a needle and check an ear tag...well lets just say its an art.

While feedlot research is important, it can sometimes be challenging to gather information without interfering with the business. Science demands that research be done in a controlled manner (ha ha!), so sometimes we do smaller scale projects on site. This is me pretending to be a steer infected with E. coli O157:H7, the idea was to get a better grasp on how one infected animal can cause its pen mates to become infected as well.

So that's what I do in a nutshell...its pretty great most of the time, but then I've never minded getting dirty or stinky! I am happy that I have found a way to be a hands on part of the industry and I hope in some small way the work I do makes this industry stronger and safer.

White Water Rafting

I was invited to go white water rafting with Michelle this past weekend. Her sister Monica is the booking agent for Mukwah Tours near Sundre Alberta, and helped organize the trip...which coincidentally she could not participate in as she is 7 months pregnant! We stayed at Monica's place, her husband's family has this great property near Sundre, they have their own personal lake and golf course...this is the view out their front door.

Saturday was busy with baseball tournaments and BBQ's, after supper we took Michelle's niece, Brooke, out to visit the horses.

We also visited with the cows and the billy goat who thinks he's a cow, his name is Rex.

Sunday was white water rafting, I was SO EXCITED! Its been on my list of things to do for quite a while now, I think they were only classifying the rapids at a 2-3 but it was a good way to get my feet wet;).

I convinced Michelle we should body surf through a rapid...I think she thought I was nuts but we were both really glad we did it in the end. My favorite person of the day was the inventor of wet suits.

I think this photo is hilarious.

It was a great weekend...I can't wait to try it again!

Meet Neena

This is Neena...she is a 2 year old Border Collie and she is pretty much the center of my world. Since we adopted her I have a whole bunch of new hobbies including power walking, running like a crazy lady around an agility course, chasing sheepies, taking doggie photo's, purchasing expensive leather collars, and my personal favorite...talking, and now blogging, about my dog.

*Sheep photo's courtesy of Sarah Novak