Armstong IPE and Pro-Rodeo

I know this is shocking to some that I have posted twice in the span of a week! Don't get too used to it!
It's Fair Weekend with the 112th Anniversary of the Interior Provincial Exibition and Pro Rodeo.So off we went into Armstong today to visit with the family.  Len's niece, her husband and their 2 very grown up teenage boys that were visiting from Barrhead. His brother and wife were there from southern BC as well as his sister and her husband from Kelowna, and Len's Mom of course.
We did the usual fair thing, looked at all the animal barns, ran into people we knew and had great visits and ATE....and ate and ate. What is it about fairs that make you think you should eat all the junkfood that you turned down all year? 
Tonight was the Rodeo and we had pre purchased tickets so we all sat together. There was some good roping, riding and bullridin'
So here are some pictures from the Rodeo taken with the iphone so quality varies.

2011 CBCA and Western Canadian Finals

Pictures and Video by Kristi Oikawa

The dog picture at 0:18 is my little Kip. She loves to work!

2011 Canadian Border Collie Association Finals and Western Canadian Finals

Congratulations to Scott Glen and Don, the 2011 CBCA and Western Canadian Champions and Dennis Gellings and Jan Reserve Champions. Scott Glen and Reba are the new CBCA and Western Nursery Champions and CBCA Reserve is Amanda Milliken and Dory, Western Reserve is Lee Lumb and Cass.
It was a great 4 days of trialling in a beautiful setting on the Pine Butte Ranch. I know people took lots of dog pictures so I opted to do some people shots.

The Concession with the great Crepe Wraps!

What a View to wake up to!

Louanne at the Post. Very warm that day.

Penny Ohanjanian who was a wonderful trial organizer. George Stambulic behind her looked after the sheep end of things.

Loved the girly porta potties!

Norm Close waiting his turn to run.

Various "under the tent" shots. Some serious looks on those faces .

The judge Faansie Basson from South Africa

Handlers and spectators

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Nana.

This is a picture of my Nana (Emma Margaret (Murphy) McWilliams) when she was 49, who passed away in 1960 when she was 50 years old from Breast Cancer. At that time she was too shy to discuss this and when she finally asked her neice who was a nurse about a lump she had, it was too late. I was only 5 when she passed away and my Mom was in her early twenties. I am so glad I still have my Mom who also had breast cancer and is a survivor.

Time Flies

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted. Time flies when you're having fun! I will try and do the Reader's Digest Condensed version for the past month.
Went to Lee's Coldstream ProNovice and Novice Trial, my first big outing with the new trailer. Learned lots of trailer-ing stuff and had a great time. Met some new handlers and was happy to see so many new faces starting out!
We watch the rain, and we watch the rain and try to cut grass in between. Len planted about 40 acres of new seeding and the rain did help it come up. We just need some heat! My garden looks about 2 weeks old and it's been in the ground for a month.
Then it was time to head out to the Wild Rose Classic at Olds and then the Calgary Stampede! Yeeha! Off I went solo but Lee was ahead of me with her trailer so we traveled "together". Nice to have company when we stopped to run the dogs and grab a bite to eat.
Here are a few pictures I took and the last 2 pictures were taken by Chris Jobe and Wendy Schmaltz ( my new "hat" sister). I HAVE to start taking the camera out of the trailer!

These are the clouds of the impending tornado that touched down not that far from us on the Thursday night when we arrived.

Then came the hail....

but the next day was very nice to trial in. Great field and great hosts, we'll be back.

Camping was a tad different for the Stampede. We are in a concrete fenced area in the Ogden Industrial Area. Glad we just sleep there :) Nice part is walking to the gate and catching the shuttle back and forth to the Stampede so no driving.

Here we are all cleaned up at the Handler's Meeting. If we had known how well Dale would do, we could have slipped something in his coffee. Just joking..big Congrats to Dale Montgomery who won, Dave Claypool for 2nd place and Jill Brodie who won the dog trailer! Gotta study those penning videos. What am I missing?

Holding Kip so she won't take off before the sheep are out. She looked much happier after she saw sheep :)

Then it was off to the Rodeo to watch some fun!

I promise I will take the camera out at Bassano!

Goin' in Style

So, the dogs and I will be trialing in style this year. We might even bring Len if I can pry him off the farm. Here are some pictures of our new RV. It's 24 feet and has a great floor plan and a slide where the couch is. The pictures don't do the size justice but we love it. Went to lunch one Saturday at Squire's Pub and when we came out, Len drove down the street to Rosman RV in Vernon. Len now thinks it was a really expensive lunch :) The RV people were great and I am pretty sure I have a handle on the whole trailer thing now...Click on the link below and check it out:

Trailer

Lyn

Lyn 1998-2011

Bye Lynnie, run free, chase lambs, stare at cats. We love you.