PBR in LV NV

The end of the competition year for Professional Bull Riders is the second weekend in November in Las Vegas, and I will BE THERE. Wahoo !! Never been to Vegas, not a gambler but bullriders and batwing chaps are reason enough to go!!

This amazing specimen to the right is Brazilian bull rider Guilherme Marchi, 2005 PBR averages champion, finished 2nd for the year the last two years and who is looking very strong to win it this year.

Found out when I was visiting my friends who were having the party last night that some other folks I know from here in White County are also going to be in Vegas that weekend for PBR. The more the merrier.

Way Cool Weekend or Going to the Dogs

to

Man where to start well first on Friday I drove up to KY and ran Vger and CJ . Vger was 1st in FCH earning a placement towards an LCM2 in case we ever get inspired to head there and CJ was 3rd of 6 to put him only 8 points from his ASFA FCH title. On Saturday I got word from my friend Shirri who was running him for me that he had been 1st of 5 to finish! Yay. His sister had finished her FCH the day before so that is 4 from that litter with the AKC FC and the ASFA FCH title .

Saturday I helped some friends work a race meet, no one with Borzoi showing up so no point in just taking my own dogs there and running against myself since I'm not trying to rank anything. However, the day wasn't wasted as I stopped at the fabulous VF Outlet mall in Calhoun GA on the way home and got some more Easy Spirit shoes AND a couple of awesome blazers and some jeans on sale. Later I got home and went to the Halloween party my vet and his wife had and spent several hours laughing and having fun.

Sunday in Nashville at the fairgrounds (also known as a raceway) I did the very rare trick of me showing a dog ie. Sailor that I coown with my friend Paula. Well he went WD for one point then BOW for a major with me tripping around the ring with him. Even better from a breeder's point of view my girl Tory was WB for her second major shown by my friend Suzanne who is her cobreeder. If that wasn't enough joy for one day I get a phone call from my friend Leonore in NM with Tory's brother Py and hear that he has gone BOB for a 5 point AKC lure coursing major to finish his AKC FC!!! WHOOP WHOOP goes I riding down the road. I am SO thrilled. He is such a good boy, truly the golden boy and not just in color. Above photo by Dan Gauss of Shot On Site is our Tory FC Avalon Victoria Cross SC, FCH in Jan of 2007. Tory has both conformation majors, is open field pointed and has all placements and 200 points towards her LCM. Yes I think she ROCKS.

Hope Springs Eternal

in everyone involved in breeding animals for a purpose whatever that purpose is. In my case it is a passion ( or maybe its an insanity) for breeding large well mannered, healthy sighthounds. Studying the pedigrees and the dogs themselves, often times working with friends who have similar goals ( that saves all of us from breeding a litter when we cobreed litters). The most current project just arrived yesterday ! The sire is group placing CH Avalon Prismatic Cobaka CGC, TDI , eyes CERF clear and cardiac OFA'd, DNA databanked owned by my dear friend Mary Lee Jenko in PA. Prism will be 6 years old in October this year and this is his first litter. Priz as he is affectionately called is this handsome white dog with spots you see in these two photographs. Mary Lee was one of those brilliant puppy buyers who wanted her first show dog to be old enough for her to tell about so she bought Prism when he was over 6 months old, gave him access to plenty of exercise, let him mature and trained him for the show ring with classes and also had a great handler friend who showed him for her due to her severe back problems at the time. Priz won WD at two big supported entries for his majors had BOB wins over specials at smaller shows from the classes too, it is a real joy to have been able to place a promising youngster with a truly motivated new owner. Prism is a big 33 inch hound with beautiful movement and type and a sweet loving temperament.

Dam of his first litter is a beautiful talented bright red bitch, DC Audruid Bremen's Techenetium of Ryhka MC,LCX, ORC owned by another good friend Diana Darling of Ryhka Borzoi in Maryland. Diana was good enough to do a cobreeding between herself, Mary Lee and me after she and I had carefully looked at pedigrees and what Techie's brother "Thor" had produced for me and in his outside breeding. Techie who is dedicated to the chase looked like a good choice as Priz really thinks that chasing plastic is probably a silly idea. Mary Lee called me yesterday from Diana's where she was there for the whelping of 3 male and 2 female pups all 14-18 ounces so big beasties. Two of the boys are the color of their mother black masked self reds (one of those boys will be staying at Ryhka) the other boy is a self deep mahogany brindle probably black masked but hard to say for certain about the mask at this stage of the game. One of the girls is also a self mahogany brindle (think Prism's spots color but all over) and the other girl is a spotted mahogany brindle marked a lot like her sire Priz. Needless to say I can't wait to see them. After Diana and Mary Lee pick their pups the other 3 babies will probably be coming to camp Quebeck to grow up a bit before I decide who is staying here. Techie's brother Thor has produced really well with the two girls from my line and an outside bitch, we hope to see the same happen with Techie and Priz.

Fall Creek Falls

Today was another spectacular fall day in Tennessee. My dad wanted to ride over to "the park" which in this neck of the woods is Fall Creek Falls State Park home of the highest waterfall east of the Mississippi river although as you can see with the drought this summer it isn't pushing a lot of water over the falls. Took several photos but the lighting just wasn't working today, wrong angles everywhere I was at, sun was just too high overhead so the readers are saved from most of these photos.

You've met my only offspring Mike here, and my mother now here's my Dad, Robert Moore, he is 66 years young and quite a beer fan if you could read this T shirt you would see it is a Benjamin Franklin quote that goes something like this. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. As my Dad says "I'm an eccentric old &@$!@^# " . I've given him a bit of a time over his "going blonde" and that was his answer to me. Of course considering the menagerie that I live with, I am quite certain the same could and has been said about me.

Speaking of me, its me in front of a danger sign at Cane Creek Cascades. The park has a number of waterfalls and cascades in it, with Fall Creek being the "famous" one but the others are lovely too. I think I have found something interesting to do on these newfound Fridays I am off. There are a number of hiking trails in the park to various falls that I've never seen but guess what I bet I see them now. I love to get out and walk in crisp weather, I don't mind the cold, you can dress for it and cold means no ticks and no snakes two creatures that I really detest.

Snake Oil Salesman

I'm trying real hard to watch this debate and be unbiased about the way the two candidates present themselves ( obviously I am biased as to their politics) but McCain just sounds like a snake oil salesman. He has not answered the first question with a straight answer. Obama truthfully isn't faring that much better in terms of straight answers but McCain sounds like a repeat of Palin just constantly repeating himself that "I am the one", "I know how to fix this." Hell he has been in the Senate voting with Bushie for the last 8 years if he knew how to fix this why didn't he clue in his best buddy and his buddy's evil sidekick Cheney? Was it a special secret he could only reveal if elected President? Yay! I want to vote for someone to hold the country hostage for at least 4 more years. It has worked so very well the last 8.

Laughing at myself

OK, I was laying on the couch watching Black Ops (movie rental) with Lance Henriksson a few moments ago and thought what the heck have I done banged up my knee there's this knot there (anyone who knows me knows I am like Blunderella and typically have bruises here and there from stumbling or hitting stuff working on fences or moving dog crates or the dogs themselves) . Sat up and started investigating it, gee it isn't sore and realized it was just a bony protuberance of the knee I had not seen in decades I guess . So I fell out laughing like a hyena, good thing I have no close neighbors or that no one was here, I might be committed.

So I popped up and thought hmmm maybe I should weigh myself, I typically weigh myself on Mondays but a day early. Last week I had lost 3 pounds to the week before and usually I stick for a couple of weeks but I popped on the lithium scale and low and behold I've lost 4 pounds since last Monday. So now my total loss since January 17 is 100 pounds on the nose, add to that the 24 pounds prior to surgery and it's considerable, well a small person. Combine this with my actually having to go out and buy smaller jeans again and this time they are size 14 talls that I haven't been able to get into since high school THREE DECADES ago and I am really going "wow what a good week I'm having". I can't believe how good I feel, I realize I have traded off one problem (morbid obesity) for another one (permanent malabsorption of everything) but right now the hips, back, knees and ankles are all telling me it was a trade up.

I wish gas would stay cheaper, I would be everywhere.

My mother and I

While at Mt. Dora on Saturday night walking around the park there, we got this nice fellow to take a photo of us. Light didn't work well for portraits (shooting into the sun sucks) but since I presented a photo of my elusive offspring earlier, now I'll post one of my elusive mother. We have not had a chance to spend a lot of time together due to the miles of separation but we do have a lot of fun when we do get together.

A few more photos

I took some more sunrise photos it is interesting how you can change them a bit for effect. This first photo I edited a bit on the "cool" side.

This next photo taken in the same time period I edited "warm".

Pretty dramatic difference and it made sunrise look like sunset in the second one. Well, to my eye anyway.
A bit of a funny here now look carefully you'll see this sign says No life guard on duty. If you look behind the sign you'll see that the mat of weeds growing on the water at this spot is incredible. I have to wonder who on earth would brave alligators, snapping turtles and snakes for crying out loud in such a grown over place but I suspect with this sign in place that it has been an issue at some point. Any Jeff Foxworthy fans will appreciate this but I think that if someone wants to swim there then they probably need another sign besides this one.

To the right is the sunrise at Lake Dorr the way it was actually presented to me that morning, pretty spectacular without any help ( or was it hindrance). Mornings like this walking the half mile down to the lake, enjoying time with the dog(s) I had with me I can almost forget about my own petty concerns.

Some promised photos of Florida

OK here's sunset at Mt. Dora on the water. They have this cute "lighthouse" there. A few more sunset photos one just as the sun dipped to the horizon and another

literally seconds later, I

love the change in depth of red. This was Friday night before the trials in Altoona Saturday and Sunday Sept 26 and 27. The campground we were at was Chisolm Trail campground, it says Altoona but there was a sign right before we got there that said Pitt so I'm not sure but it is on Hwy 19 and was maybe 2 miles from the Rocking Horse Ranch where the trial was held. Literally next door to the campground is access to Lake Dorr which is one of the waterways in the Ocala National Forest. Apparently black bears abound because there are signs everywhere warning of bear crossings and not to feed them etc. The lady who owned the campground warned us not to walk around the front of the travel trailer too quickly and to make plenty of noise because they did have bears in there on occasion. (Sure made me wonder about leaving my van open with crates of dogs in it for the weekend). Of course as has always been the case for me the more signs there are warning about bears the less likely I am to see one. I did however catch some pretty wonderful sunrise over Lake Dorr on Sunday morning pictures.