Winter Solstice/Yule

"The Winter Solstice, sometimes referred to as Yule, celebrates the rebirth of the sun to the earth, and the solstice itself is the longest (hence, darkest) night of the year. Throughout the world, from Scotland to Iran to the Americas, ancient and modern peoples have called forth the sun on the longest night of the year."

You may have noticed that the solstice falls near the Christian holiday of Christmas, and that the word Yule is usually associated with that same holiday. Upon closer inspection, you will find many remnants of the pagan holiday within the current Christian celebrations. For example, the Christmas tree that is erected in many homes is a nod to the original pagan celebration of creating a Yule tree. The sturdy, evergreen tree represents life surviving in the darkest time of the year. The Yule tree was decorated with natural ornaments such as berries, rosebuds, and cinnamon sticks. Candles adorned the tree, representing the light of the sun, soon to be reborn. In many traditions, a Yule log is burned throughout the solstice night to provide a light in the darkest night, symbolizing hope and a belief that the sun will return.

December is here with a bang!!

Wow, I am sitting here drinking hot chocolate after spending 20 minutes digging out the back door.  The dog run gate has a 5 foot snow embankement against it, I decided not to dig it out just yet!!  The dogs are out and in almost right away.  Though a few try and brave the blowing snow a tad longer.  Scandal came in and half of her body was reminicent of a snowman, the other half was dry as a bone.  I almost lost poor Pirate in the snow, he was burrowing his way to the back corner of the yard, his favorite "place".

We have most of our indoor Christmas decorations up, including the tree!!  Lochlan really enjoys sitting in his seat under the tree just admiring the lights.  Of course with the decorations and snow the kidlets are convinced the big fat man is coming "tonight"!  We have our activity advent calendar up so counting the days is a little easier, but not much LOL.

Yesterday my sister, her husband and their first child flew in for a visit!  I finally got to meet Keaton, he is so so so so handsome.  I hope our boys grow to be fast friends as well as cousins.  Missing from the picture is Devlin, who at the time was downstairs with Uncle Luke.

And of course with being the end of the year I hav started planning my show/trial calendar for next year.  I do know there few shows I wouldn't miss.  One being the 3rd CNASA Nationals in September, the Lakes & District Kennel Club show in May (Burns Lake watch out for the invasion!! lol) and Prince Albert (the judging panel is excellent).  Added this year is the NACA show in June, I am sure we will be going to the Calgary and area shows. Though if the trend of $28+ for each show continues I will have to pick and choose who shows which day. 

This year Trynity is going to be competing in Junior Novice.  She is so excited, practises her anatomy and patterns religously and seems to understand she has to work at winning those placements.  I know I am nervous but Tryn is so excited!  Keara has expressed interest in competing this year as well, she would be in PeeWee and is learning all she can from her big sister.  Devlin is looking forward to starting Karate and I think he would do quite well.  As I have said many times, even though I enjoy showing dogs it is not something I PUSH on my kids.  Yes they enjoy showing and if they ever decided not to want to play the game anymore I encourage them to do different things.

There will be some exciting news coming in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!!!

Preparations and anticipations

Spirit loves most everything about life.  Except maybe being bathed, who knows why.  Maybe she thinks she is going to go to a show, which she rates next to torture, or maybe she likes to stay a tomboy and roll in the mud.  So when bathing her today, between her moans and "the looks" I told her a little secret ......

If you want to be able to sleep loose in the house you have to be clean!!  You need to stay away from the garbage, even if those scraps smell divine!!  You need to stay in the "dog area" for awhile, yes that new "bed" is a little uncomfortable but it will be fine, you need to leave the paper in the "bed" and not shred it, just yet.  Yes you wil still have 4 small meals a day, yes you will be just fine.

I think I have her convinced that a bath was a nice thing to have.  Spirit on the other hand couldn't wait to find a place to roll, thank gawd it was in the leaves!!!

A Welcome Addition

On November 8, 2009 our family was blessed once more with the arrival of Lochlan Dale. He was born at 2:12 pm weighing in at 7 Lbs 6 oz and measuring 21" long.

Lochlan is currently being spoiled by his new big sisters and brother. They just adore him, I was a little worried that Keara would be resentful of not being the baby anymore but she has been so so so good.

When the contractions, which started the tuesday prior, started to get stronger and closer together I knew it was time. I made a phone call to my bff, Richelle, and arranged for the kids to go there until Grandpa could pick them up.

I can't wait to see what the future holds for this little man. With all the love and support we have I am sure he will be another awesome kid! Thank you to all of you who have sent their congrats.

And to top it all off, less than 48 hours before Lochlan was born, my sister and her husband welcomed their own baby! Keaton Gerry Magdy was born on November 6, 2009 at 2:32 pm PST weighing in at 7 lbs 5 oz and 20 1/2" long.

Happy 2nd Birthday Bliss!!!

Jayhawker's Smokin At Edana HIC/FDJ

WOW, I can't believe it has been 2 years since I got the phone call on my way to the Red Deer show that the puppies were born. 60 some days since I was out at my first field trials with Kiddy introducing her to Hank. Getting hooked on not only the breed (even more than I was) but also the field trial world.


Looking back on the past two years I am amazed at all we have accomplished together. Bliss was the first Brittany in Canada (that we can find after researching extensively) to recieve a Herding Instinct Certificate, and at just over 6 months old. She confidently lifted the sheep off the wall and drove them the length of the building.


A couple weeks before that we went to her first dog show where she took 4/4 reserve winners bitch and 3/4 Best of Breed puppy.

The first field trial she ran as an Open puppy she and I had no idea what we were doing, it was a nice walk together, lol. She had the misfortune to be braced with her half sister, Boo. But this year we have woken up the bird dog in her and I truly believe she excels in the field more than the show ring. Placing in 3/4 Canadian Field Trials and one awesome run down in the states, makes me super excited for next year!!

Though if Bliss isn't broke to wing and shot (and very solidly) we have plans on breeding her to an outstanding male!

I can't wait for many more years to come with my Blissy Blue!!!

Waiting .......

............. Waiting and still waiting. It seems like when you are eagerly anticipating an arrival the days get A LOT longer. And of course the list of "waitings" is getting longer.

1. The arrival of Halloween (not just the kids enjoy it!!)

2. The arrival of my sister's first baby (I am so so so excited)

3. The arrival of #4 to our family (I know I was a little surprised too)

4. The arrival of my first litter in over 2 years (no peeking until the joyous day!)

5. CHRISTMAS!!!!!! (and all the decorating that is involved, always a blast here)

I am sure we could add more but why torture ourselves LOL

In the meantime enjoy this picture (at top) of our first snowfall and Scandal's peeking through the back door. She loved the snow but decided that watching me through the door was better than making snowballs with Spirit.

Hiatus is over!!

Well Ihave taken a huge long hiatus and just worked with dogs, played with kids and enjoyed life. It has been crazy with the addition of new dogs, the move into a new wonderful house and the start of a new breed.

Bliss is a new road and passion but don't think I have forgot about my true love ..... the Aussie. In fact we have been very busy. Scandal has joined our family and I still get out and show the crew. Spirit is the spitting image of her mom and we can not wait until the 2010 CNASA Nationals to show off our crew in vaious events.

Stay tuned as I will try and post new blogs as we go along.