Experiences of a late-comer to the agility competition scene -- our training, trials, life-style changes/challenges, RV adventures, and observations on the sport, the people, and dogs involved in it. Begun July 17, 2010.
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Showing posts with label Kiln Agility Trial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kiln Agility Trial. Show all posts
Being a frequent gate keeper (my favorite job), I often wonder why so many people have ABSENT scrawled by their names. Why would they pay for a run then not show up? It's so . . . . . uneconomical!
Well now I know. I was paid up, the RV was all packed to leave out late Wednesday for Kiln (only 2 hours away), giving me plenty of time to set up and enjoy a bit of camping before Thursday's runs. Tuesday night, throwing in my last load of clothes, I decided to wash the house dress I was wearing, peeled it off me right then and threw it in the washer. An hour later my husband emptied the washer for me, and I heard a big "UH OH!" My iPhone was in the bottom of the basket! It had been in my dress pocket and went through both wash and rinse cycles. I had killed my phone! I was dumbstruck.
Wednesday morning I called AT&T first thing. If our 2 year contract was up for renewal I could get an identical 4S phone for .99 cents! Otherwise a new phone is $549!!!!! But they wouldn't talk to me about our contract because John's the only contact listed. I had to wait til he got off work at 4 and meet me over there. How dumb! Oh well, I could still leave Thursday morning. The first dog on the line wasn't til NOON Thursday. Plenty of time to get there by 10 and set up.
We met up at AT&T at 4 Wednesday afternoon, and found out our contract has a year to go, so no cheap phone. They suggested we take mine across the street to iRepair, who took it apart and confirmed that it was fried. Showed us the corrosion on the mother board. But, they had a used one identical to mine for $200, so I bought it. Of course it wouldn't have any of my contacts, apps or settings until I could sync it to my iTunes via my laptop, so we rushed home to do that so I could leave in time, or maybe just miss the first 2 runs. The damn thing would not sync, nor would it connect to my Bluetooth speaker, and my computer kept serving me popups asking me to update, upgrade, etc., then iTunes wanted me to upgrade, then my anti-virus program announced it was restarting my computer. One delay after another. I was beginning to get upset. What good is a smart phone without your list of contact phone numbers and if I can't stream audio books and podcasts for entertainment at night? I don't know anybody's phone numbers any more, except John's (how dumb is that), and I wasn't about to get on the road without my phone (can you believe we all used to drive around all the time, even cross country, without phones?????). I struggled for 3 hours trying to make it sync. The more I tried, the more tense I became until finally I was sobbing. That's when my back started to hurt!
We agreed to take the "stupid phone" back to iRepair Thursday morning. They erased the whole phone and uploaded the Apple programs like a brand new phone (which they should have done in the first place). This took a few hours, and my back began hurting so bad I couldn't get out of the car! Brought the "new" phone home, it synced perfectly and was set up just like my old phone. But I was in such pain, I thought I had kidney stones or lung cancer or something. No way could I drive, much less set up camp or run my dogs. I was contemplating going straight to the hospital. This debilitating pain lasted through Sunday.
After my phone got back to normal and a few days passed, my pain miraculously disappeared. It was simply tension! But the trial was over.
And that's one way to get an ABS scrawled by your name at the gate. :-)
Maxie: 6 runs, 3Q’s, two 2nd place, one 3rd place, no QQ’s, 44 MACH points, 5 videos Lucky Lucy: 6 runs, 3Q’s, 1QQ, MX TITLE, 7 MACH points, 5 videos
Kiln is generally a great place for RV’ers. But 9 days of rain made for slushy grass, water filled ditches and puddles to slosh through. My freshly washed Papillons were filty at the first pottie break, and my freshly vacuumed interior was tracked with red sandy mud within minutes. Fortunately I had old sheets to drape over the upholstered furniture and floors, except the dogs thought them great opportunities for digging. Worse, due to hard rain, we had left home at 4:30 p.m. instead of 1 p.m., which put us there to set up at dusk. While trying to maneuver into a high dry parking spot, I backed over a water spigot and broke the pipe. It began gushing, we got drenched finding the cut-off valve, the ditches flooded even more, and a whole line of RV’s went without water Thursday night thanks to me. They were not very happy, but the repair guys had it fixed by next morning. Since I carry my drinking water, plus half a tank of water for flushing and rinsing out my coffee cup, and towel bathe or take showers in the arena, I don’t really need water, but I found out some others rely totally on their city water connection, even to flush.
What I DO NEED is golashes! Everybody had some but me. My socks and tennies were soaked, so I made sure to dry my feet as soon as I got in. And I had plenty of shoes and socks for a dry pair every day.
While packing at home between raindrops, I had discovered a new leak over the bed had dampened the quilt, sheets and mattress cover, fortunately in time to put them all in the dryer. I had to protect the bed in case of further rain with a vinyl tablecloth. Good thing John promised me a new rubberized roof as my Christmas present (sweet), but I haven’t done that yet. Now I’m motivated. This makes 2 leaks now, at each dome roof window, caused by me driving under a low hanging tree branch and making huge scratches in the roof.
Due to the anticipated difficulty pottying the dogs in mud and rain, I decided to bring only Maxie, Lucky and Pepper. Willow screeched in torture as the rest of us departed! John reported she laid by the door for 3 days waiting for our return. But it was a lot easier managing just 3 dogs. Her travelling days may be numbered.
Ring conditions were horrible. Even under cover, the ring dirt was saturated, and the more we tromped on it, the more the water rose. Here’s how it looked by Day 3. I’m surprised no one slipped, but I know I ran slower each day, and neither Maxie nor Lucky liked having cold wet feet. You can hear squishing on the videos.
Despite all these and other problems, I felt totally calm. I attribute some of this to working on my mental game, as outlined in my previous post.
FRIDAY. (dogs ran small to tall, only one ring.)
Maxie was my first dog to run, but not til around 9 a.m. after the FAST class. So I got to stay up til 11 and watch some TV. My new air antennae was picking up 8 channels and all came in well despite the weather. I popped open a beer, watched a cooking show, and slept like a baby all night. I don't generally drink on trial weekends, but if this works again, I’ll replace my half sleeping pill with beer!
Maxie had a smoking good XS run, very fast, with a few bobbles but no saves required. Alas, he took a wrong course near the end. It happened so fast, I didn't see it coming. Just an imperceptible push, or not enough pull, on my part. Even with that WC, his time was 8 seconds faster than the 1st place dog. I could hardly keep up, but I felt great and never got lost or rattled. It was the most memorable run of the day despite the NQ. His XJ run was clean and solid, with a 2nd place and no bobbles, and while an analysis of his SCT and personal time showing he ran even faster, it didn’t feel as fast as that first run.
Lucky Lucy got what I thought was her 1st QQ ever, running faster and surer in both XS and XJ, walking the weaves, but at a faster walk. She didn’t get distracted. We felt connected. Her jumps at 24” were pretty, with ample clearance. (I found out later checking her records, this was actually her second QQ!) To celebrate, I joined the Red Stick gang at the nearby Delsey’s Seafood restaurant, and bought the table some appetizers. I made Q’s out of the onion rings to decorate. And brought some hush puppies home for Lucky. The food at Delsey's was somewhat pricy but huge portions and delicious. Lots of items on the menu, and the best onion rings I've ever tasted, served with a dipping sauce made of Ranch dressing, wasabi, and cayenne pepper. It kicked ass!
Karen, Christina’s mom, was thrilled to video my dogs on Friday if she could also video her daughter. What a sweet deal. Too bad she’s just there for 1 day. I hate scrambling for people to take my videos. I want a mom along who wants to record my every run! But I if I brought my mom to a trial, she would soon be bored to death “watching dog after dog do the exact same thing”. It takes a practiced eye to see the endless variety we see. No one but us knows the difficulties we face attempting the miracle of a clean run.
SATURDAY: (dogs ran Tall to Small, Lucky on the line at 8 a.m.)
Lucky earned her MX title! That’s 10 Q’s in Masters Standard (what used to be called Excellent B). She only had .87 seconds to spare in her XS run, but she made it! Her XJ began with a whimper but ended with a blast. After falling asleep in the weaves and NQ’ing, she noticed the tripple bar jump, which she loves, and decided to run the rest of the way. The half run that was good, was very, very good. That's a sequence I'll play over and over in my head.
Maxie scratched in Jumpers, missing the weaves, but Q’d in Standard. His times were good, not counting slow weaves.
SUNDAY: (dogs ran small to tall, Maxie on the line at 8)
Maxie Q’d in Standard, NQ’d in Jumpers, again popping out of the weaves, otherwise clean. His times were slower, I suspect due to muddier conditions. I know I was walking fast more than running.
Lucky NQ’d both runs, seemingly tired and not focused. Her first run XS she stopped on top of the A-frame, plcking up Ken's scent in the stands, went down and headed for the sidelines trying to get to him. Lucky has a serious thing for Ken. We always have to arrange for Ken to disappear during Lucky's runs, but we both thought up in the stands was far enough away. NOT. This is developing into such a problem, we may have to stop training together on weekends. Lucky literally quivers and whines looking in the direction of his RV whenever I let the dogs out.
Didn't get video of either of their last runs. Couldn't find anyone willing to take them. I have to quit letting that bother me, but I feel I'm missing valuable information I can use to improve.
There's going to be a fun run in 2 weeks at the same arena. I'm going. I can't wait to show some of these agility folks how fast and well Lucky runs when I'm carrying her toy, and I pray someone will take her video then.
I'm having trouble with my AVS Video Editing Software. I discovered that one of my USB ports gives an unreliable connection, resulting in problems with voiceovers, and it sometimes takes forever for these huge HD videos to load into the program. After futzing with it for several days and trying Windows Movie Maker again, I got AVS to produce something. It's still better than WMM.
Maxie's Composite Video, with commentary. I learned that as Maxie improves, I no longer need to push or pull him very hard to get him to veer. I have to become more subtle in my corrections. Without watching the videos, I probably would not have picked up on that. Also need to time my front crosses better. Lucky's Composite Video, with commentary. I managed to capture a segment in slo mo showing Lucky's beautiful 12' jumping stride, which no one seems to notice but me. I may have a long ways to go with her enthusiasm for trialing, but I know I've got great jumping skills to work with.
GOALS MET/GOALS SET:
My goal of another QQ for Maxie was not met, but we racked up two more Q's in Standard and 1 in Jumpers, leaving only 1 more to go in each class for his Master Bronze Agility Titles - MXB, MJB. (25 Q's in a class)
Lucky's 2nd QQ was a great achievement, plus her MX title. I don't know how long it will take us to get MXJ with 8 Q's to go, but I WILL GET HER THERE.
Work on my mental game.
Otherwise the weekend was full of too many oddities to mention, including a see saw whose end got stuck in the mud leading to many fly-offs, how few dogs qualified in class after class, and some turse comments. The courses were not that difficult, but some of those border collies were running wilder than usual. Was it the weather? The barometric pressure? The wet ground? Handlers unsure of their footing?
There was one magical moment worth sharing. My friend Sue Cohen handed me a thumb drive with info for a story we're working on, said she needed it back tomorrow. I promised to download it that very evening, and stuck it in the bottom of my wagon on my way into the ring. But when I got the wagon back to the RV it had vanished. I searched high and low to no avail, then retraced my path to the arena, searching the ground. About tearing my hair out, I told another RV'er about the jinx, and she suggested I look up St. Anthony prayer (patron saint of lost items) on my iPhone, say the prayer, and see what happens. Said her mother swears by it. So I went back to my RV, lit a candle, and did it. Here was my prayer:
St. Anthony, St Anthony, please come around. a thumb drive is lost and can’t be found. Dear St. Anthony, I pray Bring it back without delay.
Within 5 minutes, a voice said “look in the basket on the table”, where I found a thumb drive I had lost 3-4 months back. I have NO IDEA how that one got into the RV! Apparently, one has to be very specific in wording ones prayers to St Anthony. I repeated the prayer saying “Sue’s thumb drive”, then a little voice told me to look again in the duffle bag I’d already gone through 3 times. I did, and there it was, sealed in a ziplock bag!!!!! I will not be forgetting St. Anthony's Prayer!
A rare 4 day trial for us, I usually only do 2 or 3 days and hang around the last day to rest, pack, watch and visit. But I felt up to this one being as it’s only 2 hours from home, my motor home is cozy, parking is close to the arena, October weather is generally cool and pleasant, the Kiln arena less intimidating with only 1 ring going at a time, the hosting club is very friendly, and I wanted to give myself enough cushion to meet my 2012 goals. I figured I could sit out a few runs if I felt too tired or stressed out. I made it through all 16 runs but came home exhausted.
Left out at 1 p.m. on Wednesday with a stop in Slidell to visit my Dad’s gravesite and take pictures that can help Mom and me choose some permanent grave markers. The gravesite was still dirt from Dad’s recent burial, but there were fresh flowers. Found out Thursday when my Mother called me (8 times before I checked my phone) that my brother Londo is visiting New Orleans from Tampa and put them there. Also discovered he had reported a poor site condition to Mom by phone, which upset her, so she had just called Forrest Lawn and ordered the slabs herself, sight unseen. Having originally assigned that job to me, I had visited to assess the situation envisioned how to make the area special, and now my efforts were trashed. I could have let that bother me, but instead decided to set it out of my mind until the trial was over. I had a few other opportunities to practice my mental game over the weekend, too (more on that later).
From a balmy 75 degrees to start, the weather turned cold and windy late Friday evening, down in the 40’s. The rest of the weekend was spent inside the motor home unless I was bringing Maxie or Lucky into the ring to run. The door was hard to open in the strong wind. My windows and fence whistled constantly. But it was my first time using the heater, and it works great. The dust was awful, grit in the mouth, eyes, and nostrils, especially on Sunday. The open air arena was like a wind tunnel, bits of weed fluff flying everywhere, very distracting to the dogs. You'll see in the video below, Maxie left the weaves at one point to follow a little white tuft of something blowing across his path. Still poor at my mental game, I was horrified and did something I never do. I put him through the weaves again. At least he succeeded the second time but I skewed our course time averages. Which is better? Still not sure.
Lucky does not like posing for pictures!
Her 1st QQ ribbon (purple) is quite a prize.
Two white rosettes are her 4th place wins.
Jumpers with 4.45 seconds to spare, Standard
with 8 seconds under SCT. Yahoo!
LUCKY LUCY: I attribute Lucky’s QQ on Saturday (after 4 NQ’s on Thurs and Fri.) to cold weather and her never once being crated in the arena. She stayed “home” until her time to run. I didn’t bribe her with treats, tugging, ball throwing or anything. We ran into the ring, did our run, and then afterwards I ran out with her, tossing her pieces of fried chicken, which she loved, we visited a few folks, lots of praise and pats, then back to the motor home. Also, I was jumping her at 24” this weekend as an experiment, to see if it increased her enthusiasm, and also because she jumps higher than that even at 20”, and 24” gives her an extra few seconds of course time. Of course somebody complained about me jumping her so high. No matter. It gave her just the edge of time she needed for those 2 QQ’s. I was thrilled to hear people cheer for her when she Q’d in Jumpers – her first since obtaining her AXJ Title in Kiln a whole year ago. By comparison, she leaves this trial with 8 Q’s in Standard, so we could possibly get her MX Title in Lake Charles next month. Only 2 Q’s to go for that title -- but only 3 chances unless I go to Pensacola over Christmas.
Maxie posing at home with his QQ ribbon
and his 4 clean runs, all with placement
ribbons - Blue = 1st place, Red = 2nd place,
Yellow = 3rd place.
MAXIE: Maxie is running a bit slower. Don’t know why. Maybe the dust and wind, as he was shivering in my arms at times. Also, the videos show Max certainly isn't chasing me like the famous pair, Tigger and Robin. If anything, we are running along side-by- side and I am setting the pace. If I ran faster, would he? He popped out of the weaves 3 times. But he is crazy for his turn, and barks his head off in complaint when I head towards crate or RV. He likes being in the thick of things, hanging with me. And he Q'd 4 out of 8 runs, all with placement, and his 10th QQ.
MENTAL GAME: I had to put my big girl panties on once again on Saturday when, just as I was about to enter the Jumpers ring with Maxie, a very self-confident clubmate/former instructor comes up and grabs me by both shoulders, looks me in the eye, shakes her finger in my face and chews me out for not taking Lucky “immediately to her crate for a huge jackpot” after her first successful run. My mental game went all to hell and Maxie knew it. We had our worst run of the weekend-- 5 seconds over course time, missed weaves, 2 refusals. I have to work on recovering from such shocks in 30, no 10, no 5 seconds flat! Instead I entered the ring thinking that gal has some nerve chastizing me to encourage my dog while she discourages me! I should have told her “How dare you accost me just as I’m going into the ring!”, and been done with it. But I don’t think that fast, my mouth doesn’t open that quickly, and my confusion turns to resentment slowly. I surmise that comes from being brought up in a household where the children could never speak their mind for fear of father’s wrath. We learned to zip our lips. Sometimes this serves me well, other times not so much.
WILLOW: Of course she tagged along. She has become noticeably more self confident lately, jealous for her pet/cuddle time, even looking to be included on training sessions at home. She usually just tolerates Pepper's playfulness like a Mamma dog, but doesn't react or participate. Here’s a short string of video snippets of her engaging in a rare bit of play in our RV yard, which also shows the fierce wind we experienced in Kiln. All chairs and tables were laid down most of the weekend so as not to blow over.
PEPPER: Pepper is enthusiastic and shows no fear of anything. He became “observant and tentative”, though, when I brought him to sit in the aisle between rings with all the feet tromping by and dogs barking, but he wasn’t cowering. In the field, on a 16” retractable leash, he romped and froliced like a colt. He tries to pee on everything and pulls hard on his leash! He can get tangled up in that leash within 5 seconds of tearing around, and his constant rear crossing makes it hard to walk all 4 dogs at once. The leashes are constantly tangled. I had forgotten to appreciate how well the other dogs have learned to walk on leash together.
Portia and the 4 dogs hang out before breakfast.
VISITORS: Laura and Portia came Friday night for the Pumpkin Carving and stayed Saturday thru about 2 p.m. Good thing, because Laura was able to bring me several items from home. While it was fun, there were issues with food, phone cords, game boys, socks and such forth left out where the dogs could get them, not enough warm clothing, clashing schedules, a child needing tending, TV on after my bedtime, blocked passageways in my narrow motor home, who gets to sleep with which dogs, etc. Just the nature of having company, I find once again that I really need my privacy at trials. As they hadn’t packed clothes for cold weather and the arena was freezing, Portia didn’t see any agility runs anyway and Laura only saw one of mine. Of course it was one of Maxie’s worst! My sister-in-law and niece, Carolyn and Heather, showed up Sunday afternoon, just in time to see Maxie’s last run of the weekend, another NQ and no video to study to see what went wrong. It was too cold for them in the arena as well, so after a brief tour of my RV, they also left.
The lucky Q pumpkin.
The RV’ers:
There were 19 RV’s in the park, about 10 more than my first Kiln trial with my pop up camper 2 years ago. Our regional group of agility RV’ers is clearly growing! They did the Pumpkin Carving party on Friday night, which was fun and the Q pumpkin could be rubbed all weekend for good luck, but they called off the “Whine & Cheesy” party Saturday night. Just too cold, too windy, and everyone too tired. I had made a double batch of chili, again, and again it was not eaten. John and I will be eating chili for awhile!
OUR CLUB: There were at least 20 competitors from our Baton Rouge club at this trial. I know 'cause Thursday morning early I counted the envelopes containing our badge numbers!
VIDEOS: Several different people took my videos, all with different styles and ideas on how to do this. One cut my head off, another got me but lost Maxie, another never zoomed in so Maxie is an invisible speck half the time, another zoomed in so much we were both lost, some tried to film the time clock at the end and never found it (I recommend the videographer just announce the time). Most never documented the date, time or place. Maxie's last run is missing. I despair of getting consistently good videos. Such as they are, I uploaded a composite of Maxie's runs to YouTube, with commentary.
Maxie:
One thing Maxie's videos brought to light this time, you can't accurately calculate your dog's average YPS if you include the time it takes to put them through the weaves again. If I want to track whether my dog is really running faster or slower this year than last, this month than last, I either gotta keep moving forward, or I have to subtract the repeat time in my records. It does help me to see that Maxie's average time has decreased from around 3.5 YPS last year to around 3 YPS this year. Why is he slowing down?
Also, if 8 runs have roughly 20 obstacles each, that's 160 obstacles taken over the weekend. With Maxie's 6 faults, that's a 96% accuracy rate. It helps me to count our success this way, not just in Q's.
Lucky: 4 of 8 of Lucky's runs were clean, but all but the 2 Q's were at least 5 seconds over course time. Only 2 Q's, which thankfully happened on the same day, resulting in her first QQ in a year's worth of trying, and her first Q in XJ in a year. Rather than bore myself with reviewing her ongoing lackluster performances, I choose to just focus on her 2 wins.
What is clearest to me about them is
She has no trouble jumping 24"
Her wins were a result of her speeding up, rather than barely walking, thru the weaves. The future has to be all about those weaves.
She does not like being crated up all day. It makes her sad, bored, stressed -- some combination of those things. She ran fastest and clean when going straight from the RV to the ring.
It truly breaks my heart that dog fanciers can't see her as I do -- a magnificent athelete chasing squirrel, armidillo, possum, birds, with tail up, nose up, cutting corners on a dime, explosive speed, total focus, indomitable will, fearless. Yet totally domesticated, cuddly in bed, a soft mouth that never nips, loving eyes, total devotion and willingness to please, quick to learn, etc. Over and over people ask me her breed. I say "Yes she is a breed, she's a "Southern Black Mouth Cur". And I often hear, well, if she wasn't a breed, she should be, she is so beautiful (great face markings, build, coat . . . . etc.)
I used my new Logitech H530 headset/microphone (from Office Depot and highly recommended by a professional audio tech person), and am pleased with the results. No more cutting out, volume easier to adjust. I was also pleased with the price, recently reduced from $50 to $30!
RV and OTHER PROBLEMS:
Only problem I had is while the LED guage said my black water tank was only 1/3 full (and I emptied it recently, too), still, when flushing the toilet I see water and paper just under the valve. Something is wrong. Rather than use it any more, I decided to treat it as a port-a-pottie. I lined the bowl with a kitchen trash bag stretched over the toilet bowl, put the seat down over that, and in the morning I stuff the bag and contents into a gallon zip lock and throw it out. Same as I used to do with the port-a-pottie in the pop-up camper. It worked fine then, and works fine now. But still I want my flushable sewerage!
Wednesday I managed to step my left foot in a puddle of water but was too busy to change shoes or socks. By Thursday morning the sole of my foot was textured and tender, by Friday morning a crack had appeared between two toes and was hurting. One thing I had forgotten to bring was Athelete’s Foot spray, Neosporin or Vitamin E oil. Laura brought me those but of course it was too late. So my foot was sore all weekend and I should have changed socks 2-3 times per day to keep it from being sticky. But of course I didn’t bring so many socks, so I just took off my shoe when I could and aired it out. Which wasn’t often! With 4 dogs and company, one is always on one’s feet.
Got home to John's surprise -- he prepared a few garden rows for me. Unfortunately by Tuesday he had a pinched sciatic nerve, by Wednesday he could barely walk. We went to the chiropractor on Wednesday, then Thursday, and today. Ice pack every hour, anit-inflammatories, bedrest. We're catching up on recorded shows and Netflix documentaries and I'm slowly getting this blog post together, interspursed with nursing my foot, Halloween festivities, cleaning out the RV, laundry, and Portia's birthday party.
GOALS MET/GOALS SET:
First time to try it out, and the heater in the RV works great. Since it works on both electricity and LP gas, I can take it to any trial in winter, even if they don't have RV hookups. I actually only need electricity to run the AC.
Maxie needs only 11 more MACH points to reach my goal of 550 by year end. We should get that easily in Lake Charles. We met our goal of 10 QQ's by year-end. Hopefully 10 next year will get us to MACH in 2013, but I realize this is a stretch as it took us 15 months to achieve the first 10.
I just counted, and to obtain the new Bronze MXB and MJB titles, Maxie needs 4 more Jumpers Q's and 4 more Standard Q's for 25 of each. With only 1 more trial scheduled this year (unless I go to Pensacola), I doubt I can attain that this year. Early in 2013 is likely.
Lucky finally got a Q in Jumpers. Her last Jumpers Q was a year ago, in Kiln, to earn her MXJ. Nothing since then. A whole year, and always over course time. Only 2 more Standard Q's to go to get her MXJ title, though. We might reach that in Lake Charles.
Run faster! Lean forward. Learn to enjoy exercise. Treat agility as a game of chase. Do more shadow handling and racing around the yard with my dogs trying to catch me. Learn to time my forward momentum so I don't get caught where I can't move forward.
COMPLETELY outfit my RV with everything I need – a different set of toiletries, medicines, camp chairs, jackets, than I keep at home. My goal is to never find myself without something I may need, and not have to cart things back and forth from the house, or risk forgetting something and being without. One thing about a Class C as opposed to a trailer, once you’re set up you can’t easily unhook everything and drive to the store.
Next trial, Thanksgiving Weekend in Lake Charles. A 3 day'er, and the weather there is usually freezing, rainy and windy. I must find another parachute suit with a hood, a trapper hat to keep my ears warm, and otherwise get myself prepared. And another way to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends.
Diorama made by some Swamp Dog members,
an agility course with a Halloween theme.
It was widely admired and created a festive atmosphere.
All of our 2011 goals have now been met, excepting the 6th QQ for Maxie and 400 MACH points by November 1st. It's been a long row to hoe, with a much poorer Q'ing rate this year (about 33%) compared to last year's 66%. Some of that is running 2 dogs at different heights, and on different courses while bringing Lucky up through Novice. Obviously, the split focus didn't help my performance. With both Maxie and Lucky in Excellent this weekend, I had no trouble memorizing 2 courses per day, and didn't have any personal off courses. Maxie's MACH points after this weekend tally 305, but we would have 363 if AKC hadn't changed the rules in June, no longer giving double points for 1st place. Only 37 points off my goal (on the original system). Close, very close.
We would have had that 6th QQ this past Sunday had I not pushed Maxie off the second to last jump. But even if I hadn't, he ran out the gate and got eliminated. Now we must go to Lake Charles trial over Thanksgiving, or give up the goal.
Maxie runs like the wind.
Maxie's speed was incredible all weekend (always among the top 3 in time even when eliminated), and mine was improved some as well. The mini-running drills I've been putting myself through seem to be paying off, though the progress would be hard for anyone else to notice. Here's a thumbnail of a photo I'm purchasing, and a video of Maxie's MX TITLE RUN, where he was 1st place, 23 seconds under course time, and 9 seconds faster than the 2nd place dog. I was so afraid he'd take the tunnel instead of the dog walk and the A-frame instead of curving to the jump, I was calling him harder than usual. Next year I hope to replace my yelling with more confidence in our teamwork.
Lucky leading with the
wrong foot.
Lucky's speed was improved as well -- she NEVER ONCE exceeded course time! And on her title run, she was 9 seconds UNDER course time, and was listed as 'HIGH IN CLASS", whatever that is. Also, she never missed her weaves, though she walked them 4 out of 6 times.
Looking at the Michael Loftis professional photos, he caught a strange thing. It looks like Lucky sometimes steps thru the weaves with her outside foot leading in, which I've never noticed before, and which would certainly slow her down. I'll research that further real soon by studying her photos and re-watching her videos in slow-mo, and in any case will retrain the weaves this winter by opening the channel a bit. (See next post on Weave Pole Performance).
KT Tape on my calf.
The KT Sports Tape I wore on my calf worked miracles. I had no muscle problems whatever. I got home and took the tape off (it lasted 4 days with no problem), and today the calf has twinges again! I am totally baffled how this stuff works as there is no stretching when applying and it isn't medicated, but all the top athletes wear it over sprains and torn ligaments, so it must be doing something! I also sat on one of my new instant ice packs for about 30 minutes on Saturday to soothe my aching sciatic nerve. It stayed very cold for 30 minutes, and the sciatic never bothered me again.
It was a 3 day trial, with a match on Thursday. I brought my pop-up, so we were on-site for 4 days. 40's at night but we were cozy inside. I decided to run Lucky once in the match, the last dog on Thursday evening, around 6:45 p.m. A great decision, it turned out. It was quiet in the arena. We had the place almost to ourselves. We ran around helter-skelter with her tug toy in my hand, I threw it several times after she did fast weaves or contact equipment, and she ran her heart out and had an obvious blast. They let us play longer than 2 minutes. We both loved the spontaneity, not following course numbers. Then during the trial, before and after each run, I bribed her with steamed shrimp, which I discovered motivates her more than the usual hot dogs and string cheese. She is a shrimp fiend. I show her I'm putting one in my mouth just before we enter the ring. She thinks it's there during the run but of course I've swallowed it (no treats allowed in the ring). I have another one stored just outside the ring and immediately after the run I fetch her tug toy, tug a bit, then toss her the other shrimp which I've slipped into my mouth. The same for Maxie, minus the tugging. I think I've got them both fooled for now. They both ran faster than ever before.
This was a really good crate space, near everything.
It was breezy and chilly in the mornings,
so I covered my crates with the blue sheet
seen here.
Swamp Dog trials are always fun. They are run efficiently, the club members seem to really like each other and work well together, the atmosphere is festive, everyone is friendly, competitors are personally invited to help and thanked profusely, they call you by name and praise your dog, the food is plentiful and delicious, and the placement and titling rosettes are nice. They let me wait until all my runs were done for the day, then I helped with the novice and open classes and tearing down the rings after the last dog has run. My red wagon came in handy moving those heavy sandbags. I love my ringside crate space, close to everything.
Coolaroo bed, just Lucky's size
Swamp Dog's raffle had awesome items. To my surprise, I won 2 prizes-- a large Coolaroo raised dog bed stretched on metal legs selling on Amazon for $30, and a bleacher seat, both exactly the kind I've been wanting to get. I bought 14 tickets for $10, mostly just to support the club, so winning $50 worth of loot was a totally unexpected bonus. I rarely win anything in the raffles, and as my crate space was right next to the raffle table, I watched many people plunk down $20 and $40 -- a lot more than I did.
The bleacher seat has no brand name showing, but it's the identical one I bought at Wal-Mart last year for $18, then went back for another one for John and they were out. It's wide, light, has great cushioning and support, arm rests, clips firmly to the bleacher, lots of storage pockets both front and back, and stores really flat. It's the best one I've ever sat in.
Pumpkin Carving with Swamp Dog RV'ers. I did a witch flying
over a jump, held up by 2 ghosts.
The Swamp Dog RV'ers outdid themselves with a Halloween pumpkin carving party on Friday night, and a birthday cake and outdoor gumbo dinner for the judge on Saturday night.
Judge Scott Stock was very engaging, and regaled us with stories of football, his travels, and other trials. He said we had "the slowest dogs and the worst Q'ing rate he's ever seen, but we were more fun to be with." He said up north he can attend 35 trials a year without ever driving more than an hour from home. He said those Yankees take their agility seriously and get agitated quickly with anything they don't like. His courses were interesting, challenging but not impossible, he judged fairly and cheerfully, and he watched each and every dog intently. During the breaks he pumped disco music into the arena. Everyone was dancing around to Thriller and such. That was a first for us, but he says he's not the only judge who does this. During Sunday's Excellent briefing he told how last year at a Halloween trial he came "costumed" as AKC Judge Scott Chamberlain -- white pants and jacket, white shoes, blue tie! We had the impecably dressed Judge Chamberlain at a Kiln trial earlier this year so we knew what he was talking about! Everyone roared with laughter.
I'm still streamlining my camper set up and take down routines, eliminating, adding or changing items for efficiency and comfort. Every movement counts. I'm getting better at it. Still, it takes me two hours to set up, and I was by far the last one to leave even though I started packing up in the early morning and more between runs. Sharon Mc stayed in the park until I pulled out, which I really appreciated.
The excitement is hard to explain, since a run
lasts less than a minute
John took this i-photo of Lucky and me at a trial, rare
since I'm almost never in a photo.
After all that comradery, excitement and hard work, coming home was a let-down. Two hours behind the wheel and I was stiff as a board and really tired. There were no bands playing, no champagne, no dinner prepared, no cake to celebrate our titles. The house was dark, nobody came to greet me at the door, and the porch light wasn't even on. When my husband finally heard the dogs barking and roused from his TV chair, his first comment was about a new TV series he's watching. This totally burst my bubble and led to a less than stellar evening. After helping me unpack and set up the new doggie bed, John resumed his TV viewing while I disappeared into a hot bath with a stiff drink, gave Willow a shampoo and blow dry, ate my boiled crabs, and slunk off to sleep in the guest room. Amazingly, I slept like a baby, and had sweet dreams.
Now I've got to figure out how to photograph Maxie with all his ribbons thru MX and MXJ titles, and Lucky with her AX and AXJ's. I've got a box full of them for each dog, all in a jumble, which need sorting out and displaying somehow.
And I've got to decide whether to sign up for more trials this year, or just concentrate on training "back to basics" skills 'til January. If all that counts now are QQ's for Maxie to reach MACH status next year, and Lucky has to run faster to attain Masters titles next year, we'll have to improve our speed and accuracy considerably. On the other hand, with 15 more QQ's to acquire Maxie's MACH status by the end of 2012 (is that a realistic goal?????????), maybe I'd better get started as soon as possible. We only got 5 QQ's this year! But most of the misses were near misses (only one teensy weensy mistake), so we almost QQ'd several times.
Today I tallied all our runs to date on that Competition Records Sheet I designed earlier this year in Excel, and here's the summary:
Maxie: 82 runs in 17.5 months, 15 trials, 40 Q's, 35 placements (23 1st, 5 2nd, 4 3rd, 3 4th), MXJ Title, MX Title, 5 QQ, 305 MACH Points Lucky: 46 runs in 7.5 months, 8 trials, 22 Q's, 17 placements (9 1st, 6 2nd, 2 3rd), AX Title, AXJ Title, 1 MACH point Michele: 128 runs, 62 Q's (not quite 50%, but this is misleading because there were about 66% Q's in Novice, Open, and Excellent A for Maxie). Our Excellent B performance has been about 33%.
Our dog club is revising its Constitution and By-laws, in particular the membership requirements (I was on the Constitutional Revision Committee earlier this year). Tonight it's being put before the membership for discussion, so I've been reviewing the document. Not as fun as running dogs, but we must make progress, and updated governing documents are an important part of our 48 year old club's ability to grow and thrive.
It's hard to get your agility dog to do 180's out of the chute, even more so than the tunnel, due to its flexibility. If you call them left, for example, while they're still in there, they tend to veer towards your voice and risk getting tangled in the fabric, especially the little dogs. If you drive forward and try to scoop them up after they shoot out (pretty fast), they tend to run around you, or into you. I've been trying to figure out how to handle this maneuver elegantly and efficiently, and I'm asking other agility bloggers to offer suggestions.
As it happens, I can illustrate this problem with snippets from several videos I took during an Excellent Standard competition at the Kiln trial last month. The course was designed by Judge Scott Chamberlain. I've never encountered this layout before. While most dogs made it, much time was lost as they ran wide or even behind their handlers before committing to the next jump. First, here's the layout:
Now, here's video I managed to snip of just that segment of the course. (me and my papillon, Maxie, are first, then Lucky Lucy is 6th). There were other variations and some NQ's as dogs got sucked in by the dogwalk or the jump after 3, or skipped the chute to follow the handler to H1:
Many succeeded but all lost precious seconds with the wide turns. Does someone have a solution for this? I'm hoping to hear back.
Maxie: 6 runs, 1 Q, 1st place, 20 MACH Points Lucky Lucy: 6 runs, 1 Q, 2nd place, NEW TITLE AX
"If Only" moments are those we all tend to review and review and kick ourselves for. My weekend was full of them.
To start with, 12 runs and only 2 Q's. Have I ever done this bad? And almost every NQ was only one tiny mistake, or in Lucky's case, no mistakes just exceeding course time. If only I had made one small adjustment this way or that . . . . . on each run.
If only we had left home 45 minutes earlier or not taken the scenic route to Kiln, we wouldn't have had to pitch the camper in a downpour.
If only we hadn't pitched the camper towards one end of the mounded RV slot, we wouldn't have been in a ditch 3" deep in water.
If only the clip I was using to hold my hair back during Maxie's 2nd run on Friday hadn't started falling out at jump 14. In the split second it took me to decide whether to grab it or let it fall, I lost my concentration, handled jump 15 as if it were 16, and went to 17. Maxie ran fast and perfectly, but we missed a QQ. If only I had used a different barette. . . . If only I had worn my cap.. . . If only I had tied all my hair back in a twist the clip would have held . . . . if only I had let the damn thing fall without wondering whether the judge would make me stop to pick it up. I flubbed up. If only I had the endless energy these other competitors seem to have, I could have joined the RV'ers for their Friday night communal meal, but I was too exhausted. Saturday night I mustered enough energy, brought whatever I could scrape up (cantaloupe, herbal cheese), and enjoyed their terriki chicken on a stick, grilled shrimp, shishkabob, big salad and some champagne. It was very relaxing. Everyone was animated and friendly. The talk was all about lure coursing, hunting and herding dog training. I got on the RV email list to help plan future meals.
If only I had taken the time to kill the wasp nest I suspected was in the eves of my camper before leaving home, But I was in a hurry, feeling lucky . . . . . being stupid. I paid the price on Saturday afternoon while tying my tarp to a corner post. I got stung, within 3 hours my hand swole up so you couldn't see my knuckles or wrist bone, and the Benedryl I took that night and the next morning gave heart palpitations all day Sunday. Fortunately, my RV neighbor had some wasp spray and I used it to knock out the nest. But somehow 6 groggy wasps found their way inside, over the next few hours I found them crawling on the walls and sheets, had to squish each of them with a towel, inspect every inch of the camper carefully, and now I have to set it up when I get home and caulk those holes.
If only I had taken Maxie to do his business before his last run on Sunday instead of volunteering to work the novice class, he wouldn't have gone behind the tunnel and peed, and got us whistled off. Not a great way to end the weekend.
TRIAL NOTES:
The trial must have been advertised locally, because several observers showed up. I met a very interesting elderly gentleman in a scooter, who trains search and rescue dogs in Slidell. He was the first soldier in Vietnam with a rescue dog, and very active in changing the military policy of leaving war dogs behind. It's a cause I believe in, and offered to help him spiff up his website. We'll see where that takes us.
All weekend between runs one lady laid back in her recliner and played with her Apple iPad 3G. She's got perfect internet connection, can surf the web all she wants, handle her emails, read books, compose, upload docs, take photos and videos, stream movies, etc. Way out here in the boonies! It's just a huge iPhone, except it can't make phone calls. I am pee green with envy. If only I had $900 to burn! Not having an internet connection for 4 days sucks!
My air conditioner struggles to keep the camper cool past 85 degrees on these treeless, asphalt RV campgrounds. By Saturday afternoon the roof fabric over the beds was hot to the touch. I had been planning a possible fix for this problem, so I rigged up a silver reflective tarp over the big bed roof to see if that would make a difference. It really did. Problem resolved.
I learned that Mississippi Mavericks, the host club, is down to 2 or 3 members. Most everybody has quit! Seems there are conflicts among the leadership that need working out. Swamp Dog Agility, on the other hand, seems to be blossoming. Apparently they enjoy teamwork, and do all sorts of stuff together besides dog agility, such as tubing and kayaking.
One lady brought her Lure Coursing machine out each evening for anybody to try. I wrote all about the experience in my previous post, here.
Trial Site Summary (see links): The restrooms/shower area is complete, as is most of the construction we encountered last year, and I like that the sites are on grass, not limestone or asphalt. Made a huge difference in the heat factor. What is with these RV park designers that they cut down every single tree??? Have they no appreciation for shade or grass?
Willow (left) and Maxie (right) ringside,
resting up for the next round.
GOALS MET:
Lucky's AX title
Maxie's 8th Q in XS towards the 10 needed for his MX title.
GOALS SET:
One more XJ Q for Lucky, and her AXJ title.
Two more XS Q's for Maxie, and his MX title.
One more QQ for Maxie by November to reach the 6 he needs to qualify for AKC Nationals next year. Unfortunately, he won't have the 400 MACH points by then, with just 267 right now. If only AKC hadn't changed the rules mid year that no longer double 1st place MACH points, and 1.5 2nd place MACH points, we might well have made it. Still, I'll get as close to the goal as possible.
A few more QQ's for Maxie in 2011, leaving fewer QQ's to achieve in 2012 to reach MACH (CHampion status) next year.
In my previous post I showed Lucky highly motivated by Lure Coursing -- giving chase to a white plastic bag!
Here I compare that video to this one of Lucky 1st agility run this past weekend in Kiln, typical of most of her runs where she exceeds course time but otherwise runs clean, it is becoming glaringly obvious to me that motivation is a major missing ingredient of her performance.
To watch video, click arrow:
Maxie is a whole different story. He is usually very enthusiastic, most often exceeding course time by 5-20 seconds and often placing, unless I make a mistake. Here's Maxie, running the same course as Lucky's video above, with a Q and 1st place, and 20 MACH points (meaning he ran the course 20 seconds faster than allowable course time). His course time this run 54 seconds, compared to Lucky's 79 seconds.
To watch video, click arrow:
With those long legs, Lucky could outrun Maxie any time. It's all about M-O-T-I-V-A-T-I-O-N! Building Drive has to become my most serious focus for her agility training.
No doubt in my mind, Lucky is a natural athelete. She loves to run, fetch, tug, kill armadillos, chase goats, and now, run after lures. Whenever I have her tug toy in my hand in practice, she runs fast, weaves fast, races across the dogwalk, and stays focused. She's an enthusiastic jumper, too, when something she wants is on the other side.
So my challenge now is unlocking the secret to motivating her on the agility course like she's motivated at home. The scuttlebutt is that all this mental gymnastics is great for delaying the onset of alzheimers, which certainly motivates me to keep at it!
My writeup on the Kiln Trial will be my next post. Some things worth mentioning happened there. Then I'll post a video on Lucky's enthusuastic jumping exercises at home.
Hancock County Fairgrounds: Here's our wee little pop up camper (far left), amidst one wing of the big rigs in the RV park at Kiln, MS. I was the first to arrive on Thursday and chose the end slot so I wouldn't be sandwiched in. It was a good decision. We felt very much like we had the whole place to ourselves, though we had the longest distance to walk to the arena (far right).
CAMPING NOTES: $15/night. The ground is level. Kiln has no showers this year but there's a lot of construction going on and I heard they are building a bath house. There is a kitchen with a big freezer available, but it is locked up at night. Need to get your ice out of there shortly after the last run each day. The bathrooms are in the arena, far away from the campsites, so my portable pottie came in handy. Don't need outdoor carpet. Nice grassy area under awning is fine.
Weather: We ran the AC during the day (85 degrees) and the heater at night (55 degrees). Short sleeves were fine. Didn't sweat at all and it wasn't terribly dusty, so as to bathing, I did fine with just a warm wash cloth, no soap.
Arena: The dirt in the arena was fairly packed and wetted down at night, so minimal dust. There were 2 courses, one for Jumpers, another for Standard, with an aisle down the middle. Only one at a time was active. There is no AC but it was not hot. There was a nice breeze.
John, Willow and Michele
West side is behind us where lots of folks crated.
You can see Loralie's red tent on right.
Crate Areas: Lots of people crated on the west side under roof with open sides, near the concessions, but the afternoon sun beat down on that spot. Loralie even pitched her tent under there and spent 3 nights. I crated on the East side between the bleachers, nearest the RV park, and it was relatively quiet, no crowding, quite nice, morning sun was not hot. It was easy to get into the bleachers, but a longer walk to the secretary's table and bathrooms. Forgot to get a picture. Some people crated at the base of the bleachers but this took up so much space it left little room for people to pass. There is also crate space at the north side by the horse stalls.
John came with me Thursday and Friday, in his own car. We brought Maxie, Lucky and Willow and we all slept cozily in the camper - Maxie and Willow in our bed and Lucky in the other bed amidst our luggage. We left BR around 9 a.m., arrived Kiln 11 a.m., set up the camper, went into the arena and set up my crate spot and got ready for the 2 p.m. match. The crates being at the bottom of the trunk, everything else has to be offloaded to get to them, which works fine if we set up the camper first, but not if setting up your crates first. John watched the match on Thursday and most of the trial on Friday, took some of the videos, and left around 3 p.m. Friday. He took Willow home with him. The photo above was taken with my iPhone, just before he left. Since John's days off are Thursday and Friday, that makes it easy for him to join me in setting up, but difficult for him to stay Sat and Sun.
The RV Experience: Swamp Dog Agility Club, out of New Orleans, took good care of us RV'ers. Had a Pumpkin Carving on Friday night, with about 6 people, and a Whine and Cheese tasting on Saturday night, with about 15-20 people. Both were fun. Kay and I were the only people from our club there, although everyone was invited. Instead of doing Brags, everyone got to complain about their worst mistake in the trial. Mine was that I got too cocky. I only needed one Q in XS to get Maxie's AX title, so I only signed up for 2 runs. We NQ'd on both! We Q'd on both XJ runs, so got our first 2 legs in that class, with a 1st place and a 2nd place. We were signed up for Sunday XJ as well, but I got injured and had to forfeit that run.
Maxie over tripple, Kiln
Videos: I posted all of Maxie's videos, plus all the other 8" dogs Maxie will be competing with in X classes next year, plus something new, photos of the score sheets. I got to meet more of the handlers -- a talented, experienced bunch. The videos are here. It takes me 3 days to process, label and upload all the videos I take. The files are huge even though the quality is not very satisfactory. I'd like a better video camera someday but they are expensive. Are you listening, Santa Claus?
I usually use a tripod, get the best left/right fix on the course, and don't zoom unless the whole rest of the course is at a distance. I try to stay on both dog and handler from GO to when they leave the ring. It is interesting to watch how each team behaves right after their run -- either elated or bummed out. But when we got there we discovered John had taken the tripod out of my trunk to take to family reunion and had not replaced it. So we hand-held all the Friday videos. Fortunately, Sheryl wasn't leaving Baton Rouge until Friday afternoon. She was able to send Wayne to my house for the tripod and she brought it to me in time for Saturday's filming.
The Match: Lucky ran twice in her first match on Thursday afternoon. I can't remember how she did and we didn't take any pictures or videos as I had intended, but she seemed comfortable in the ring. I also ran Maxie two runs, but on the first one I forgot it was practice, so we ran the course then left the ring with another minute to spare.
I didn't think the match was well organized. Both rings were going simultaneously, and without a PA system nor even a megaphone, you could not hear when your turn came up, or even when the ring was available for a walk through. The courses were all nested -- novice, open, excellent. I just chose to run the Excellent courses, and since I didn't even have time to walk one course, Lucky and I just got out there and ran all over the place. For some stupid reason, I had signed Lucky up for 4 runs, Maxie for 2. Then I forgot and Lucky only ran 2 of her runs. 4 runs in one day was plenty for me. I don't know how Tracey and others run 6-10 times in a day.
I did appreciate that no treats were allowed in the ring. I remembered a few years back I attended a Kiln match with Maxie (before he began competing), and observed some handlers tossing food treats into the dirt at the contacts, and the next day competing dogs would stop and sniff those areas.
Lucky: She did fine with all the excitement and noise, but she isn't used to being crated during the day. She was good as gold, but when I let her run free in the RV field on Saturday night, she went so wild, charging too and fro, on one pass she grazed my left leg and the force knocked me down, twisting my left knee. I iced it twice Sat night, but was hobbling around on Sunday with my old knee brace on, trying desparately to pack up, missing most everybody's runs, and had to miss my XJ run as well. By this time John had gone home and I had to concentrate on packing up or risk getting left behind with no one to help me hitch my car up.
Charlie and Sheryl, Kiln, Novice Jumpers
Sheryl: Looks like the training Sheryl and I have been doing these past three months, plus her own classes and practice, have paid off well for her. She and Charlie earned their NAJ title, moved up to OJ, and Q'd at least twice, maybe 3 times, on Saturday and Sunday (I missed videoing one run on Sunday and still don't know how she did). She may have her NA title as well but even she isn't sure.She started limping midway thru her last run on Sunday and is still nursing a pinched siatic nerve in her butt. I had that happen to me 2 years ago, it happened so fast and hurt so bad, I fell to the ground, limped for weeks, and it never has exactly fully healed! It still aches but is not debilitating.
Plans and Goals: This week I've spent icing my knee and back and taking it easy, either watching a lot of Netflix TV series, or going thru paperwork, throwing away tons of crap I once thought was so important but now doesn't interest me, to make way for remodeling the art room in case my parents need to move in with me. The new fence, and daily practice, will have to wait. Wasn't in my plans, but there it is. I need my knee to be healed by November 26, 27, 28, for the next agility trial in Lake Charles, where I SINCERELY HOPE AND PRAY THAT WE EARN OUR EXCELLENT TITLES: XA and XAJ. We only need 1 Q in each, but I will not be cocky. I will enter us in EVERY run we can enter, that will be 3 in each class. I have learned my lesson, dear God, do you hear me???????? No more over-confidence.
Camper Issues:
We had a problem with the trailer's crank handle this trip. I had absentmindedly draped the chains over it when hooking the tongue up to the back of the car, so when we got to Kiln the crank handle was bent in so far it wouldn't clear the shaft. When John tried to straighten it, it broke off. We both had to bounce and bounce and strain hard to lift the trailer tongue off the ball and move it sideways enough to clear. Then there was no way to level the camper except with the feet. Before leaving, I was fortunate enough to find a strong man to help me hitch the trailer back up to the car. Back at home, John was unable to replace the wheel assembly because someone had welded it onto the tongue, but he was able to remove the handle itself. But he found out the company is out of business and there is no comparable replacement. I finally found a welder on O'Neal Lane who, for $5, welded the broken pieces back together. Whew! That was a bargain. We need to spray paint it and put it back on.
I am pondering how to build a portable privacy screen to place around the pottie chair so it can be used outside. I've been going thru all kinds of designs in my mind, from PVC and fabric, to just clamping a tarp to the existing awning and canvas support poles. I want something that goes up and down easy, doesn't take up much space, is lightweight, weatherproof, and wind won't knock it down. I would like it not to look totally "red neck", either.
Well now I know. I was paid up, the RV was all packed to leave out late Wednesday for Kiln (only 2 hours away), giving me plenty of time to set up and enjoy a bit of camping before Thursday's runs. Tuesday night, throwing in my last load of clothes, I decided to wash the house dress I was wearing, peeled it off me right then and threw it in the washer. An hour later my husband emptied the washer for me, and I heard a big "UH OH!" My iPhone was in the bottom of the basket! It had been in my dress pocket and went through both wash and rinse cycles. I had killed my phone! I was dumbstruck.
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