What's Happening

A lot has been happening since I last blogged during spring break. This past weekend we had a meeting of the German Shepherd Dog Club of Houston meeting at our house. Everyone wanted to see the new place, so we decided to hold our monthly meeting there. Those that were able to attend brought snacks and drinks. We had ice tea, bottles of water and wine. Guess what got drank the most! :-) Seriously it was a great meeting we picked our judges for our December show and took care of a few other things that needed to be taken care of. Then it house, kennel and property touring time. Everyone liked the place so much that we are holding our yearly picnic here at the end of May. It was great fun having some of the club members out.


This is Troy, our vice president, and his wife Shelia. No they are really not asleep. :-)
Here is hubby Ken and club member John. Ken is not asleep either!

This is Peggy Douglas in the foreground and behind her is our club President, Lynn Goswick. Peggy is our oldest member, she will be 86 in December. She still works and she is also an AKC German Shepherd Judge. She has a judging assignment coming up in the next month I think. I have decided that I want to be her when I grow up. vbg

This is Vicki Lewis another club member.

A meeting of great minds!!! Unfortunately not all of our members were able to here, at least 3 were off at dogs shows, 4 were out of town, not at dog shows :-) and the rest had other plans. We do manage to all get together at our yearly picnic.

Monday, around 4 am as I was putting Magic outside to potty so I could get ready for work, I ran into the Mutant Moth from Hell (add scary music here). Nothing like being half asleep and opening up your door to this........

He, she or it was on the front porch column. It was hugggge! Still don't know what kind of moth it is but I will google moths and see what I can find. Always an adventure living in the country.

Last week, Ken was able to hire two guys to help him take down a very dead, ready to fall pine tree and build the new fence we needed down one side of our property. It really was sad to take the pine tree down because we had two gigantic prehistoric woodpeckers living in it. Okay, they really were not prehistoric, but they were huge. Thankfully they are still around just living in a newly dead not really to fall down pine tree. I hope to get a picture of them, they are really big!

This is the new fence looking down the property in both directions. With this fence up I can let some of my shepherds out to play and not have them go off the property visiting our neighboors.

This is Cleo the Queen. Her subjects are my 10 year old nephew, Robert John, his mother, my sister, Patricia and her husband Philip. They came to see our new place spring break. We had a great time and so did Cleo. Robert mined our driveway for crystal rocks and took home 2 or 3 quart size zip lock bags. I am really lucky that I don't have a 10 foot hole in the drive way! :-)

Tricia and I went to Old Town Spring on Friday and she got me this very cool wind chime.

She also gave me this very cool wine glass. There are many great wine glass designs to choose from. This one is called Leopard. Here is Queen Cleo and her beloved subject, Robert John.
This is my sister, Patricia enjoying a glass of wine on the front porch.
And finally here are the men fools......errr I mean men folk also sitting on the porch. That is Philip taking to my husband.
Ken and I have another exciting weekend coming up. Mom and Dad are coming in Good Friday and my brother and his wife and 5 year old son are coming up on Sunday and we are going to hide Easter eggs for my nephew to find. I will be sure to get some good photos of that. Hope everyone has a blessed Easter.

Happy Birthday Puppies!!!

Well, I guess they are really not puppies since they are now 2 years of age. Yes the Terrible Trio of Terror are now 2 years old. It is hard to believe that two years ago their momma(well it was all their momma) and I were caring for them. Trouble in Paradise v Riata aka Evil Evie now has 6 points 1 major towards her championship, her brothers, They call Me Mr. Trouble v Riata, aka Trouble, and Asking For Trouble v Riata, aka Angelus, are maturing slowly and will hit the show ring when the are ready. Males do take their time growing up, LOL. On a sad note their mother was my Witch Witch Witch of Riata Edan aka Moka, who I lost at 5 years of age the day after Christmas to cancer in her colon. This was her only litter and what a litter of 3 did she give me. I see her in everything they do. Great job Mokie(I miss you so much) and to you, her monsters, we are going to have great fun together!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!! The Irish Rule!!

New Solar Gate and This and That

Our new solar gate was being installed today and I got some photos. I tried uploading them and the photos came up as html. I will try and upload photos tomorrow. Something must be going on with this blogger website. The gate looks great and it is so nice to drive up and click on our remote and the gate opens. 20 seconds later it closes. No more having to get out in the pouring rain/bad storm to unlock the gate. They will finish installing the key pad tomorrow which will let our parents in when they type in the number we give them. With this gate being finished tomorrow, I can cross this item off of our do list. Just have to keep remembering, a little bit at a time.

On Thursday, my sister, her husband and son will we coming up for a 3 day visit. It will be the first time they see our place in person. They do follow the blog so they have seen the photos, but the photos do not do the place justice. Since they are coming from San Antonio and depending on when they leave, they should be here mid afternoon. And speaking of San Antonio, Ken said he had a great time with them last weekend. Our Kane was shown 3 days but ony managed to win ROM points for his dam one day. But that is a dog show, you seem to win when you don't expect it and lose when you should be winning. (VBG) Next up, Evil Evie (Trouble in Paradise v Riata) will be shown this weekend at the Farm and Ranch in Houston. She has 6 points, 1 major towards the 15 points she need to be a champion and hopefully will up her point total this weekend.

Well, I am off to bed, it has been a great spring break so far.

Today in San Antonio (3/12/10)

Since it wasn't a major in dogs today, we did not show our Kane, CH Take No Prisoners of Edan. I am not sure why I said yesterday that Kane would be shown today since we all ready knew that it was not a major in dogs. I guess I was not thinking straight (no comments from the peanut gallery). Tomorrow and Sunday look like solid majors in dogs so Kane will be shown. Keeping fingers crossed he will go Best of Opposite to Nutmeg (Best of Breed today again) for more major wins over the winner's dog. My husband Ken seems to be having a great time with my sister, brother in law and their 10 year old son Robert John. They ( Patricia,Philip and Robert John) are coming here (to our home in Willis) maybe the 17th or 18th which is Spring Break for both of us. Then Robert John and I will be going to a dog show (which just happens to be locally) to watch "Trouble in Paradise v Riata aka "Evil Evie" show. Of course you all know that the Evil one belongs to me, Ken and JD Baker and all ready has one major from the teen age class and 6 points total.
Keeping fingers crossed for Kane this Saturday and Sunday.

Ken and Kane

CH Take No Prisoners of Edan

Well, Ken and Kane went off to San Antonio yesterday for the 4 day dog show. If you read the previous blog you know that Ken was told that if he showed Kane in San Antonio, he no longer had a friend. Well today at the Kennel Club of Greater Victoria, CH Take No Prisoners of Edan went Best of Opposite Sex to CH Kridler's Nutmeg v Signature shown by Jimmy Moses. She is the Champion Bitch that took the Breed and Group 4 at Westminster this year. You can see her at:

http://www.westminsterkennelclub.org/2010/photos/group/DN18495003.html

We are very happy with Kane and how he showed. Would we have liked to go Best of Breed, you bet, we don't go to lose, but Kane has just started his career as a Special and those Best of Breeds will be coming soon. Kane did today what we hoped he would do win Best Opposite at a show where it is a major in dogs. This gives his dam, I Want It All of Edan ROM more ROM points. Muggles is the #1 ROM dam for 2009 and Kane just happens to be one of her 14 champions. You can see Muggles at:

http://www.edangsd.com/ivegotitallofedan.html

Unfortunately for Ken's former friend the chances of his bitch beating Nutmeg this weekend are slim to none. Kane was not the one he should have been worried about. Anyway here is hoping that Kane continues to show beautifully and win Best Opposite tomorrow too.

Life and Death Plus the End of a Friendship

A very serious title for a what will be a serious blog. I never want to go another weekend end like we just went through.

Friday evening around 6pm, Ken's cell phone rang and since he was out in the kennel, I answered it thinking it was his good friend and partner in crime. Instead it was Gina (the mother of his youngest daughter Amy). She told Ken that she heard Edd Jordan had killed himself Thursday night. Edd Jordan, was a very close friend of Ken when they were in school. They got married around the same time, had their children around the same time. Ken had joined the fire department at 19 and Edd went on to become a Conroe Police Officer. After being married 7 years Ken got a divorce and we were married a few months later. No, I did not steal Ken from his wife, she left him for another man and I met Ken while he was going through his divorce. Ken took me over to meet Edd and his wife and we saw them a few times before Edd also ended up divorced. As things happen in life sometimes you go in different directions. He and Edd did touch base off and on but something always seem to get in the way of getting together until we bought our dream place in Willis. Ken found out that we did not live all that far from Edd and his second wife and plans were made to have a cookout at our place as soon as the weather warmed a little. A sort of house warming and get together with some of the old gang from high school. Instead there is a visitation tonight and a funeral tomorrow. And what do you tell man who is crying on your shoulder one minute and so very, very angry at his friend the next. Edd must have seen no way out from whatever demons he was facing. I don't know what his family life was like, I don't know if he was being treated or if everyone just missed the signs and symptoms of severe depression or whatever he was going through. All I know is that something caused Edd so much despair that he could not see living past the next minute. And so on Thursday night with his wife out of the house, Edd pulled out his gun and killed himself. He leaves grieving family and friends blaming themselves and wondering why. What started out as happy new chapter in the life of my husband is closed before it even began.

If that wasn't enough for Ken to deal with, the man he considered his best friend, the man he hung out with and traveled to dog shows with ended his friendship with my husband over a dog show. A dog show for gods sake. Ken called his friend on Saturday because he wanted to tell him about Edd and just talk a little. A man sometimes needs another man to listen to him. Instead the jerk started chewing Ken out about having entered our Ch Take No Prisoners of Edan at a 4 day dog show in San Antonio next week. Something he had know about for weeks but never said anything. We don't have the money they have to campaign our boy, we are just looking for ROM points by going at least Best Opposite Sex where it is a major in dogs. These are rich people who think they are entitled to tell us where we can and cannot show our Champion because they don't want the competition for their heavily advertised Champion Bitch. It doesn't seem to matter that there are 3 other champions entered for Best of Breed besides Kane, it seems to matter that they don't want our dog there. It's a dog show and you are ending a friendship over a dog show! What happened to good sportsmanship, fun and friendly competition. I don't care how much you are spending buying your way to #1. Ken and I paid out over 100 dollars in entry fees and our handler for 4 days is 320.00 (which we have to pay if Kane was pulled for that stupid reason), there was no offer of reimbursement, just if you show your dog we are no longer friends. We have a really good male and he deserves the same chance as your bitch to become Best of Breed. Shame on you , Shame, Shame, Shame! Now Ken has lost twice this weekend but as far as I am concerned, you are no loss at all.