CPE Agility Trial Day 1

Yesterday was Saturday - the day of our first agility trial. We chose CPE to debut in and entered in Standard Level 1 (no teeter, no weaves). Overall Miss Sadie did great. We stayed connected, she listened to me and my cues, and most importantly, she had fun.

Sadie got herself a snazzy new collar/leash combo - she's officially an agility dog!

We are doing running contacts and as such, hitting our contacts seems to be an issue. In practice we use a hoop at the end of the dog walk and A Frame to keep her from jumping off too soon, but we need to figure out a way to wean her off the hoop while still maintaining contacts. For non agility people, she needs to get at least one foot in the yellow zone on the equipment such as teeter, dog walk, and A-Frame. We NQ'ed both runs because she didn't hit her contacts. At all. But that's okay! She enjoyed herself! And now we know what to work on.

Video of first run!

Hopefully I'll have photos to post later. Kinda hard to photograph your own dog while you are running her. There was a photographer there and I am definitely going to purchase some from her. In the mean time, here are some pics of friends' dogs who ran :)

This is Sagan - his owner, Leanna, also debuted with her special boy and they Qed!! GO THEM!!!

Teddy and her cute little man, Kwest. How cute is he?

And cute little Kleo. She is seriously cute. Seriously. Like, for realsies.

Don't tell Sadie, but Kleo is serious competition in the cute department.

I got to meet Heather and her two staffords. I am in love with her two, especially little Newton. He has the name I am going to name my own little boy Stafford - whenever the day comes I get one.

And now I am off to begin Day #2 of our first agility trial. Today Sadie and I are doing jumpers. Wish us luck!!

More pics from Day 1 can be found here: http://niroha.smugmug.com/DogPerformanceCompetitions/CPE-trial-Argus-May-2013/

Figs and Greens

This year is the first year I have started a bunch of fig cuttings to add to my fig hobby. I feel like this makes me an official fig nut - the good kind. Believe it or not there is a very strong fig community online. Most of them are kind and incredibly generous. Many gave me plants last year free of charge. This year I've received many more cuttings. Some were free, some I paid for. All are treasured.

I invested in some grow lights and set up one of the ikea shelving units we had lying around. So far I have had 100% success and haven't lost a single one - not even to fungus gnats which seem to be the bane of most fig hobbiests' exhistance. Once you get them rooted and growing, those nasty little pests suck the life out of those same precious roots you nurtured and grew. Knock on wood, I haven't had a single problem with gnats. 

The main thing I did was avoided the miracle grow seed starter mix. The reviews basically said "GNATS GNATS GNATS!!" so I ran away. I did some hunting and found positive feedback on Hoffman Seed Starter Mix and there were reviews talking about the lack of gnats. Seemed like a no-brainer to me. I also put nylon sock booties over the cups. The way the gnats work, is in theory the eggs are already in the soil. So the nylon booties prevent them from migrating out, where they then breed and make more baby gnats and lay the eggs in the soil, thus completing the cycle. So the nylon socks stop that cycle by trapping them and they die. I also put fine sand on top of the soil which prevents them from laying eggs should they escape my nylon sock of death. 

The nylon sock booties in action. The cups on top acting as lids help keep the humidity up, which baby figlets like. There are drain holes drilled into the bottom cups, and holes drilled into the top cups for ventilation.

The sand in action

Overall? NO GNATS! Knock on wood and hope that theme continues because they are real bastards.

So my latest in rooting techniques involves rooting trays and the little rooting cubes that they come with, similar to this one. I use a little rooting hormone and while they haven't been in there long enough to see roots, they seem happy. I also snuck in some misc veggie greens into the rooting cubes and 2 days later I had this!

Baby romanesco broccoli

And today, a mere three days later, I have this

So needless to say, my veggie starts are starting very nicely. Tomorrow I will go out and buy one more tray to isolate them away from the figs - only because they will need the grow light closer to them to avoid leggy, weak plants. In a month I hope to have them transplanted outside with plastic covers to keep them warm and safe from frost.

Another update - while at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show I picked up a greenhouse for 20% off! Pretty excited about this. It is 4' deep and 6' wide. If we ever move and I have more room, there is an extension kit available to make it bigger. Perfect for all these baby figlets and seed starts.

Fig Protection and a New Year

Today is January 1st, 2013. First day of the year, first post of the year. The skies are clear blue and gorgeous and that means the earth is frozen and frosty. Perfect day to get out there and do some yard clean up.

I have a bunch of yearling baby fig trees growing in air pots. These pots have holes in them to allow for root formation but I have a hunch it also makes them more susceptible to the cold. I could be wrong about that, but just in case I wanted to go out of my way to give them a little shelter.

I cleared out one of my raised beds and we attached some pvc pipes to make a hoop house. I snuggled all the pots in there (all 14 of them) and we covered them with garden cloth. That will protect them for a few degrees worth and keep the frost off them. I'll do this when it snows or does other yucky cold things. Probably overkill, but whatever. I don't want them to die.

A few other frosty pics - my thyme growing along my flagstone path. A bunch of it died and I'm not sure why. I think the dogs may have killed it by pottying near it. Anyway, this is the living side of the path.

Some ground cover I have called 'Brass Buttons'. I have it growing in a container. Evergreen and gorgeous. Spread and filled in nicely.

Christmas 2012

We didn't really get a vacation in the 2012 year. Normally we sneak down to Manzanita, OR at least once - sometimes twice - a year for a few days. It happened to work out that I had a chunk of days off in a row so we opted to do something a bit different. Instead of doing the traditional family Christmas dinners we headed down to Manzanita for some rest and relaxation. We will be meeting up with the family units for dinner and gift exchanges in the coming weeks.

It was nice. It was fairly rainy which was expected but the pups got out twice a day to romp in the sand and water and then warmed up by the fireplace while Rob and I relaxed, napped, etc. 

One of the awesome things we love about Manzanita is how dog friendly it is. It is a very sleepy little town so it isn't a place you go to party hardy - and that's perfect for us. Violet is dog reactive, so allowing her to romp around safely on the beach can sometimes be tricky. Off season, week days, and off-peak hours are what allow us to go out safely and have a great time. 

We have a 15' lead for Violet if there are dogs playing in the background. If there weren't any dogs nearby we would take off the lead and let her run her little heart out. Since the beach is so flat and wide we can see dogs coming from a safe distance. I always keep treats on me and it's a great place to practice attention, recalls, and emergency recalls. 

The motel we stay on is right on the water so it's pretty easy for us to peak out heads out and figure out if the coast is clear - if there are too many dogs out we just hunker back down and wait for a safer time to venture out.

Monday was our only day without constant rain. Gave some pretty pictures! But since it was nice out everyone else came out with their dogs so Sadie and I did a solo photo shoot.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine named Jana came down to Manzanita for the Christmas holiday too! She brought her Giant Schnauzer, Gus, and her two adorable Boston Terriers, Eddie and Kaia. Gus is a huge goober of a teenage boy. He has no idea how big he is and just wants to play. He's adorable.

The motel we stay in is pictured in the upper left corner. So close to the beach and Manzanita's main drag! So many cutesy little mom n pop shops. No big box stores here!

After playing outside in the sand and water, curling up against the fireplace is heaven. The girls utilized this fireplace often. Our future house will have a cozy fireplace.

Christmas evening we had pie with Janna - and we got to snuggle with her crazy puppies. This one is Kaia. She has one blue eye and is deaf. She responds to hand signals. Super smart, super cute.

Eddie. He is seriously cute. Completely ball crazy. He had us cracking up with his antics and tricks.

Gus thinks he's a lap dog. 

Wednesday, before checking out, we let the girls romp around one more time before packing up and heading home to Seattle. We got some seriously cute pics.

They love each other <3 div="div">

Jana gave the girls a santa squeak toy for Christmas. They decapitated him. Santa is dead. Sorry kids.

It was a great Christmas. We may do this again in future years. A new tradition has been born? Maybe.
A ton more pictures can be found here:
http://niroha.smugmug.com/Vacation/Manzanita-122012

More Land

We looked at more land today - lower price point than the first property we looked at (and blogged about here) so I was crossing my fingers it would appeal to us. It was nice, sloped but not too bad, 1.5 acres nicely squared so fencing it wouldn't be weird or difficult. But it was off a busy road so there was a bit of road noise and it was giving off a weird chemical smell. The real draw back for this property though was the particular path we'd need to take to get from there to work every day.

Pretty scenery - but not the property for us.

In the end after weighing pros and cons we opted to pass on it. I hope to do some homework on two properties we have at the top of the short list to figure some things out. No rush though. Still not planning on purchasing anything till next spring at the earliest.

Giving Thanks

Today is Thanksgiving - a day set aside to give thanks for the good things in our lives. We have friends, we have family, we both have jobs, we have a roof over our heads, and warm food in our bellies. And of course we have the girls. It's been a while since we've had a photo dump of them on this blog so without further ado.... crazy puppy time.

Sadie gets some air going after her ball. Mad skills.

Violet loves to get in on the action. She doesn't care about the ball so much. She cares about running with Sadie. That's the game for her.

So happy ♥

Love this picture. So full of joy.

And lastly, a little video. We got the girls a plastic egg toy and Sadie thinks it's the best thing since sliced bread. Violet was too busy eating grass like a little moo cow to be bothered playing with it.