We had a great weekend at the farm hosting lessons with Dianne Deal. Dianne flew down from Idaho and gave individual lessons to a bunch of us, plus she handled a few pups for those of us with very young dogs.

It was cold and windy on Saturday but the attendees hung in there and participated. We worked in the front pasture, the field on the north where Gloria and I had set up a mini course of panels and pen, and in the newly set up round pen.

A lot of Border Collies, some Aussies and a McNab came with their handlers. Dianne is a patient, perceptive and kind instructor and helped me a lot with Dub, my best hope for starting with USBCHA trialing this year. She also gave advice on Nan, our young Buzz pup, and helped with Lasca and Bird.

Gloria was a great help throughout the weekend, putting fresh stock out and keeping things running smoothly. De'Lila came on Sunday and put lunch together so I could spend more time outside watching other dogs and handlers. Ann helped organize the event and Dianne stayed with Mary in Dayton. Everyone here just pitched in whenever something was needed. I'm grateful for all the help. I had a lot of fun talking with everyone and meeting new people.

There were new lambs Saturday and Sunday morning and then finally, this morning, the last lambs for this bunch of ewes were born, twin ram lambs. These were sired by the purebred Katahdin ram we got from Morgen and are a nice bunch of lambs, 21 in this batch.

We'll be getting the Scotties shorn mid-March and hope we can tell if they're pregnant or not then. They have so much wool they are almost round. We're hoping to buy some registered St. Croix females now that we have a registered ram, and start a small flock of registered St. Croix, to eventually replace the Dorper/Barb/Kathdin/St. Croix crosses we have now.

Sunday was a warmer day and great just to be outside. Spring will be coming along, with a few spells of snow and cold yet, but these mild days make us hopeful, especially with the meadowlarks back on the fencing, singing when the days are nice.