We got a bunch of mail today. Both Spirit and Brodie got their Novice, Intermediate and Advanced Trick Dog titles. We still have to learn a few tricks to get their Excellent titles.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Honouring Sophie
Last summer we learned that Spirit’s Mom Sophie had been diagnosed with Histiocytic Sarcoma, a very aggressive and incurable form of cancer. She put up a brave fight against this horrible disease until she crossed over the rainbow bridge on October 16th just days short of her 8th birthday. Her family posted this picture of her on Facebook and shared with everyone how much a part of their lives Sophie was with her loving personality. She was also the foundation bitch of their kennel. It just touched my heart. When we got home from our vacation at the end of October, I immediately started working on a wall hanging to reproduce this picture. I recently gave this fabric mosaic to Coreen and Steve of Tailspin Bernese Mountain Dogs to honour their beautiful girl Sophie.
GCH Werlwind’s Playing With Fire
Sophie Oct 25/2011- Oct 16/2019
Filed under Mosaic Quilt, Quilting, Spirit, Uncategorized
Iron Paws Social
Our Edmonton Iron Paws group met for a social in our beautiful river valley this evening. Afterwards I took Spirit to McDonalds for an ice cream cone. I didn’t even get one stink in’ lick before she deep throated the entire cone. I didn’t even have a chance to pull away from the drive thru window before it was gone. She sure entertained the drive thru staff. She is one happy girl….no sharing with Mom 😉😂🐾🐶 I did manage to capture a few pictures of our Cani-cross.
Filed under Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
Fan Faire BOM Update
I have been busy working on a very special art quilt so I got behind on our Guild’s Fan Faire Quilt-a-long. I spent the weekend cutting and piecing and now I am all caught up and waiting for our new blocks in January
October blocks
November Blocks
December Blocks
We have our 2nd Grand Baby!!
On Thursday, August 8th we welcomed our second grand baby into the world. Meet Grant Alexander born at 2056hrs weighing 8lbs 9oz. Boy he sure looks like his Dad’s side of the family.
Very proud Grandpa
Filed under Family, Uncategorized
Happy Gotcha Day
Today we celebrate the day I flew to Victoria, two years ago, to pick up sweet 8 week old Brodie. I hate flying, especially by myself, but I made an exception for this boy. So glad I did. He is the love of my life. 
Filed under Uncategorized
100 By Summer Dog Walking Challenge
Yesterday was the first day of spring and the first day of the 100 by Summer Dog Walking Challenge. The idea is that between the 1st day of spring and the 1st day of summer you and your dog(s) walk 100 miles. This is the 4th annual challenge but the first one that we participating in. Day 1 finished and we logged 6.5km. There are still a few days left if you want to sign up.
Filed under 100 by Summer, Brodie, Fitness, Spirit, Uncategorized
2019 Iron Paws video
The official video from the 2019 Iron Paws race. There is a picture of Brodie and Spirit at 2:07, Spirit and I at 2:37 and my wipeout at 4:07.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Kick Sledding, Spirit, Uncategorized
Special Mail from SDDA
Look what arrived today. It is a plaque acknowledging the Elite title that we earned at the Sniff and Tell trial in Picture Butte last October.
Filed under Brodie, Nosework, SDDA, SDDA Title, Uncategorized
Iron Paws Week 5 Challenge
This week’s Howladays challenge is to show you and your dogs relaxing and enjoying a movie together. Unfortunately it is hard to fit all three of us on our love seat but we tried.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
Iron Paws Week 4
This week’s Howladays challenge is a little different. It says “Stage 4: Heroes week. Feel free to interpret this however suits your fancy, and don’t forget to share your vision.” I am not sure that hero is the right word but these dogs are my world. They mean everything to me. Before Brodie and Spirit I had never done any dog sports. Now our lives revolve around driving to various classes, practices and trials. They make sure that I get out and about every single day. They give so much but ask for so little in return. They may not be “heroes” in the traditional sense but they are my heroes.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
Iron Paws Week 2
This week’s Howliday fun challenge was to play One-eyed-Jack-is-wild virtual poker game. You have to answer 5 questions and your answers are decoded into poker cards. Let’s just say we aren’t going to win the game. You can tell by the dogs’ expressions that we have a really crappy poker hand.
Filed under Brodie, Iron Paws, Spirit, Uncategorized
5 Mile Classic
Another Running Room 5 Mile Classic is in the record books. Spirit did the race with us but she could not come into the hall after the race so she wasn’t included in the picture.
Filed under Races, Uncategorized
More Pet Therapy
Today, on behalf of the Pet Therapy Society of Northern Alberta, Tilly and I went to visit 311 operators at the City. There were many visitors who enjoyed petting and visiting with the dogs. These two lovely ladies volunteered to pose with Tilly.
Filed under Uncategorized
Another sniffing Saturday
We made another trip to Red Deer today to compete in a scent trial hosted by the Little Nose That Knows. Brodie had a great day in his advanced trial coming in 2nd in interiors and vehicles and finished first overall. He got lots of ribbons and swag. Thank you to Judges Ryan-Ann King-Smith and MaryAnn Warren and to Kristina Sveinson and Samantha Freschette for all their hard work organizing the trial.
Filed under Brodie, SDDA, Spirit, Sporting Detection, Uncategorized
Enough already
We’ve had an incredibly mild start to our winter….at least is was mild until the last week. It just keeps getting colder and colder with no end in sight. It is -39c with the windchill. Yikes….I hope it ends soon. We all have cabin fever and need to get out in the fresh air for some fun and exercise.
Filed under Uncategorized
Happy 3rd Birthday
Our big, baby girl is 3 today. Gosh time flies. What is even scarier is the fact that her life is potentially 1/3 over if you base it on the average life span of 8 years for a Berner. Of course our girl is going to live much longer than the average because she has a great example in longevity….her big brother, Wally the golden retriever, who is 16 years and 9 months old.
She got a giant salmon head for her birthday breakfast treat.
Filed under Uncategorized
365 Progress
So far so good. I’ve completed blocks up to Dec 20th. Still on track for completing this quilt top by the end of the year.
Filed under Uncategorized
Garden helper
Brodie wants to remind every to stop, relax and smell the flowers …. and then eat them!!! I just hope he doesn’t un-plant all my baskets that I just spent hours planting.
Filed under Uncategorized
Puppy class
We had fun at puppy socialization class today. Brodie got a bandage on his paw and he wore the cone of shame with a stethoscope. Nothing seemed to concern him. Good puppy!!!!
Filed under Uncategorized
Canada 150 Mosaic
On Friday morning I went to the Enjoy Centre to paint my tile for the Canada 150 Mosaic Mural for St. Albert, Alberta. Our group was tasked with painting a tile for the blue background. I decided to use this picture, from our recent trip to Jasper, as my inspiration.
It has been many years since I played around with watercolours but I’ve never used acrylics. There were some very talented artists there so it was a little intimidating to say the least. Here is my finished tile.
I went back this afternoon to see the finished mural. I was amazed to see how it all came together to make this beautiful 8′ x 12′ mural.
I searched and searched but I couldn’t find my tile. I thought to myself oh no….it was so bad that they couldn’t use it. But alas, I finally found my tile. It is 14 rows up and 7 rows in from the bottom right hand corner.
Filed under Uncategorized
Resolution Time Again
Before…..
After….
We just finished the annual Running Room Resolution 5km race. We’ve been doing it for about 5 years now. It is a family friendly, non-competitive event that helps us start our new year off with health and fitness in mind. Of course the pancakes and sausages at the end are always a big hit with the skinny guy.
Filed under Uncategorized
Workout Buddy
No matter what I am doing, Spirit thinks she should be part of it. I don’t know how she managed to sit her giant body on the narrow incline bench and polish my face.
Filed under Uncategorized
Foam Fest Mudder
“Before” clean but wet
“After”…not so clean
Today I was able to cross another item off my bucket list. We ran our first mudder in Red Deer this morning. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely do another one. It was a cool rainy day which helped to make the mud even thicker and more slippery. I didn’t lose a shoe and I came out injury free….now that’s a good day! We had mud and grit in cracks and crevices that we never knew we had. It was great to get home and have a long hot shower.
Filed under Races, Uncategorized
Big Boo Boo
Our big girl had shoulder surgery last week. The first night she just whimpered and moaned and I felt so helpless. It has been 6 days since her surgery and she is progressing well. It is becoming a full time job just trying to keep her quiet and still. She is ready to explode with pent up energy and frustration. One more week and then we can allow her to go for longer walks and gradually move up to a little bit of freedom and running around.
Linking up to Wordless Wednesday at Blogpaws
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Filed under Uncategorized
Hypothermic Half Marathon
This morning the skinny guy and I completed our 4th (me) and 2nd (Don) Hypothermic Half Marathon. This is the first year that the race hasn’t lived up to it’s name. It was a balmy zero at race start and 4 degrees celsius and sunny when we finished. I forgot my ice cleats at home so I struggled a bit with traction but otherwise it was great. It is hard to believe that the weather is this mild and beautiful for Edmonton in February.
Filed under Races, Uncategorized
Beautiful Morning Workout
Finished 18km (-2 degrees)
What a difference a week makes. Last Sunday’s workout was unbearably cold. Contrast that with this morning’s balmy -2. Even though we went 2km further (18km vs 16km) we sure look a lot fresher and less frosty at the end.
Finished 16KM (-31 degrees celsius)
This is what I looked like after spending a couple of hours outside with the temperature at -26 (-31 with the windchill).
Filed under Training, Uncategorized
WIP
I have managed to keep up with the 365 quilt challenge. I’ve got my first 21 blocks of the year done:
My Quilts of Valour WIP is on the longarm getting ditched while I decide how I want to quilt it.
And finally, I have all the blocks pieced on my baby quilt so I am in the process of sewing the blocks together. I haven’t decided if I am going to add any borders.
Linking up to:
Design Wall Monday @Patchwork Times
Fabric Tuesday @Quilt Story
WIP Wednesday @Freshly Pieced
WIP Wednesday @The Needle and Thread Network
Needle and Thread Thursday @My Quilt Infatuation
Filed under 365 Challenge, FAL, Finish-A-Long, Quilts of Valour, Uncategorized, WIP, Work-in-progress
2015 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here's an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 16,000 times in 2015. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
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2015 Blog in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 30 trips to carry that many people.
Filed under Uncategorized
