Bryna and I went up to Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm in Pennsylvania. We were meeting (as usual) Karen Norteman, and Duncan. But in addition, we also were meeting another bunch of beardies and their humans: Edie and Allie Circelli, Sherry Morrow and Kitt and Murphy and Toby (a rescue neardie), Nicole Idzi and Max, Barbara Stone and Carolyn Woodward (CW) and Colton. Kathy Domagall brought her border collie Tip to round out the group. Truth be told, Carolyn Woodward did not come along for the herding. Rather, she had heard that there might be a bit of cooking going on, and she thought she might like to join in, since she had a bit of interest in that area.
With such a large number, we had the whole place to ourselves, with no outside students to come in to use up Carolyn Holmgren's ((CH--the owner) time, nor any other competition for the pens, fields, and arenas. We started on Saturday afternoon, and went to Monday afternoon. Karen and Duncan, Bryna and I, used the A course pen, while everyone else worked in the HT pen. Unfortunately, that meant that Karen and I saw virtually nothing of the work anyone else did.
Karen got off to a good start with Duncan on Saturday, and it didn't appear to me that he had forgotten much at all, even though he hadn't worked for several months. I like his calm approach, and the fact that he never takes cheap shots at the sheep. On the other hand, Bryna and I got off to a bad start. She went into the pen with that gleam in her eye that said "I sat all day in the car, then in the crate in the room, and now I am READY!" I had terrible difficulty getting any control, and my voice began to escalate in pitch, volume, and shrillness. What I should have done was just stop and take her out. Instead we worked for 5 or 6 min (?) before I got that through my skull and then made that decision. (Bad handler -- bad! No, no!) On the other hand, Bryna had a lovely time, and got more revved up. Good time to go start to fix dinner, I thought -- after muttering for a few minutes. In retrospect, I should have taken her out, waited until she settled, and then tried again, taking her out immediately if she behaved like a fool again. Have you ever noticed how logical you can be after this kind of stuff is over?
Probably my decision was influenced by the fact that I wanted to go cook with CW. I had been told, initially (by Mary Lott, I think) that CW was a very good cook. A few weeks before our get-together, I discovered that this was a bit like saying that Tiger Woods is a very good golfer. First in her class at the Western Culinary Institute? More like High In Trial, from what I later observed.
(NOTE: Many of the following paragraphs contain hard core food descriptions and should be read only by consenting adults who have just eaten. You are warned!)
People brought things or chipped in money, but CW, Karen and I did most of the cooking. Over the course of the 2 dinners, the 10 of us had 9 different kinds of wine, some of it, stuff I brought from Virginia where we have a terrific selection in northern Virginia. (CW and I needed a bit of it as fuel beforehand as we cooked ....) The first night, for an appetizer, CW made this crabcake recipe (I brought the crab meat up from Chesapeake Bay) with wonderful herbs and spices (including Old Bay). They would have been wonderful alone, but she also made a chipotle remoulade that made it heaven. It was garnished with some of my first home-grown lettuce of the season. The presentation was terrific.
I made cioppino for the main course. This is a very hearty seafood stew. Karen Norteman brought down a live lobster, some gorgeous haddock fillets, clams, and shrimp. There were Italian tomatoes and many spices including cayenne and red pepper in it. I also served some great fresh rosemary bread and Italian bread from a local bakery. Nicole brought a salad. (Note: Nicole hates seafood, I discovered, so I felt very flattered that in the course of that meal she probably exceeded her entire consumption of seafood for all of 1998.) The final course was a chocolate cake.
I decided the next day that I wanted to work on training Bryna to be more calm around stock. It promised to be hot, so I went out before breakfast, or even coffee (ugh!), and we went to the A course pen, with Bryna on a flexi. On the way there (about 100 yd) any time Bryna got ahead of me, she had to come all the way back to me before we went on. No commands, just waiting. She got the picture.
When we got inside the pen (with 3 sheep already there), I just stood there. After several minutes Bryna lay down. I praised and we walked toward the sheep. If she got too far ahead, we stopped until she came back. The whole idea was "Stay with mom, and go to sheep. Leave mom, and no going to the sheep." We worked the sheep then, and the minute I thought she was blowing me off, we stopped and I went to the side, put her on lead, sat down (in the handy lawn chair I got out) and waited. When she was lying down for a full minute (I waited for it to happen, no command), we worked the sheep again. This took about 5-10 min. We did this about 3 times before breakfast.
After breakfast, Karen and I got out an awning tent, another lawn chair, some bowls, and water bottles, and put all that stuff in a convenient place inside the A pen. The idea was that whenever our dogs met the criteria we set up (and the sheep were rested) we could get up and go herd immediately.
After a lunch break (to eat leftover cioppino) we went out again. We discovered that the sheep liked the awning tent too, and we had to chase them away from it. We started doing what we had been before lunch with our calmer dogs who now understood the sheep weren't going away. Then, with Karen's help, I decided to try an experiment. I would take Bryna out, send her to the sheep, and walk the course saying nothing at all. (I think this is what Viv Billingham in One Woman and Her Dog called "Walkabouts.") I would just keep walking where I wanted to go. If she lost a sheep -- or the whole bunch of them for that matter -- I might adjust my pace or direction somewhat, but it would be up to her to keep them with me, and if she didn't, tough. I asked Karen to keep me honest and tell me if she thought that the results were unproductive or if I should stop.
The results were extremely interesting. When Bryna realized what was going on, she adjusted her pace markedly. She clearly likes to follow the sheep closer than I want her to. But by slowing down enormously she could get the distance she wanted without spooking these heavy sheep. It still kept the sheep closer to me than I liked, but not constantly out in front of me.
I did this several times, and on about the 4th time added a few very very soft commands, so soft that Karen couldn't hear them at all unless I was close to her. I confined the commands to setting her up to have the sheep go through the gates. That too seemed to have very satisfactory if not perfect results. One really interesting spot was after the runway, when I made the right turn to go through the center panels. I gave no commands at all, and every time the results were better than with commands. Sometimes they were just perfect. I believe Sharon Prassa reported a similar experience though I had never put the whole thing to such a severe test.
One pleasant interlude was when CW came out with 2 big glasses of ice water for us. We shared our ice with the dogs, invited CW to pull up another chair, and sat and chatted. That is, CW chatted with one or both -- whoever wasn't working a dog at that moment. Hot, lazy day herding!
When CH came out to watch I think she was astonished at what she saw. This sure was a different dog from the previous evening. I should note too that she was concerned about having the awing right in the pen and what the sheep would do to it if one of the dogs brought the sheep charging through. (The awning was close to the sheep's flight path for the departure gate.) But we pointed out that we wanted to be able to reward our dogs immediately without the hassle of going through the gates, and that there was always at least one dog under the awning anyhow. She was quite mollified.
Then I dashed back to be CW's sous-chef again. Our appetizer was marinaded scallops and shrimp, skewered and grilled, with stuffed snow peas each garnished with a single langostino. I got to supervise the grilling, and also grilled some portobello mushrooms. CW then sliced the mushrooms and lightly sauteed them with onions and herbs. All afternoon, CW had cut up some really terrific lamb we got from CH (so grass-fed, well-exercised, having led a full and stimulating social life), and marinated the chunks in 2 different marinades. One had white wine, lots of herbs, and other things I didn't see, and the other was red wine and pomegranate juice. That went onto skewers with lots of veggies. Meanwhile, I was preparing a salad of baby greens, sections of soome terrific grapefruits (sent up by my mother in Florida) and avocado, and grilled pine nuts. (No dressing -- tartness and oil is in the ingredients themselves.) An apple-cream cheese tart that Karen made completed the menu. It was particularly good since it was just exactly sweet enough and tart enough to go with what we had just eaten. All of this was so good that people were all but moaning at the table. I asked CW if she ever came down to the Virginia area if she might like to do a cameo appearance with my food group. I forgot to mention that some of the dogs had gourmet treats too, from Maine. And some of them got little chunks of leftover lamb. Not that there was much.
The next day was more of the same. Karen and I lamented to CH how disappointed we were that neither of us had gotten the premium lists and entry forms for her trial in July. I was especially disappointed, since the trial date (7/10-11) was Bryna's birthday, and that was part of the planned birthday celebration for her. At that point I had a thought -- did the trial already have a stockdog to do the chores of sending the sheep to the A pen for the PT and A course? No? So I volunteered us. Bryna and I had just moved the sheep ourselves in to it this very pen, and I thought this would be very good in helping her to stay calm and to work in tight quarters. We are not too bad at that, but we could sure improve. So that is what we will do.
The only disappointment of the weekend was that the setup meant that I saw virtually nothing of the other dogs. But I gather that some of them have already told you about their experiences. I gather that Max was so full of himself he slept not at all on the whole 5 hr drive home! (Bryna, on the other hand, did her best dog carcass imitation on the way home.)
In all, it was the best combination of good herding and good food I have ever had. If we can do it again, especially before Barbara and Carolyn go back to Oregon -- I'm game!
A delicious time was had by all....
Lynne & Bryna