We're back in Ireland!

Yes, we are back in our Irish home: Jessie, Floyd, Jai and Suki are with me.
This time, I am trying to accomplish one big task: fencing the land behind our house. This piece of land comprises 6 small fields and our little hill is in it too. We are clearing the hill and the dry walls of all sorts of weeds and saplings, and the fence will go around the perimeter, so the sheep will be able to move around unless we block the gaps in the walls, and we hope they will not jump them (too much).

Our little hill was covered in shrubbery, wich we took down and made a bonfire of :)

 

 The rest of the rubbish that isn't burnable, we're burying.

How empty and big the hill looks now!

 

 The end result looks pretty good...

I can already imagine sheep wandering on it, eating their belly's full of lush grass :)

Our new Irish (holiday) home

So it's been a while since I updated this blog, very sorry for that! It's just we've been in Ireland so much the last year, and we have been very busy there. We have bought a holiday home with some land attached in county Mayo, and I have been working hard to get the house in good shape. Not only for our family, but also for visitors. And my next visit will be all out about fencing the land now, so we can put sheep on it. Yes, sheep!!

Here are some pictures from the garden around the house:

These are the fields behind the house:

In the meanwhile, the dogs and me explored the fields that belong with the house. They had a great time there, checking everything out and running and playing in this wonderful setting.We even have a stream at the boundaries, which is fun in summer for the dogs, but also will provide water for the sheep!

These are the fields at the other side of the road in front of the house:

I'm sure we're going to have a good time in our new Irish home :)

The Irish National 2014

This year I was so lucky to be in Ireland at the right time to see the best of the best compete in the Irish National Sheep Dog Trials at the An Grianan Estate, Burt in co. Donegal. I was also happy to see some old friends and meeting some new friends too. The weather was mostly dry, apart from some drizzling now and again. And even when the sun peeped through the clouds, the chilly wind made sure everyone kept their jackets on. I managed to take some pictures too, and was very impressed with Claire Somers-Cashen's run:

 Claire shedding...

... and penning...

and taking the single!

Jessie was very interested and mesmerized by all the runs too:

Trying to make the most of it, I had to have some fish and chips of course, and since there were lots of stalls with food and drinks that was no problem. In the ISDS tent I bought Jullie Hill's latest book, finally the revised version is available and I can recommend it to everyone interested in Sheep Dog Training.

We had a nice day and I'm sure we will be back!

We've been to Ireland!

Hello boys and girls!

It's been a while, hasn't it?
We've been busy with herding training and working on the dog palace a lot the last few months, and we've been to Ireland! About the dog palace we promise you a more detailed report later on, and also about Ireland, but we will give you a taste of our journey around the South-West coast of the beautiful Eire now...

After we crossed the Irish Sea, we arrived in Dublin by ferry, towing our little caravan behind us. With we I mean the 3 lucky ones: Jessie, Floyd and Suki, and then me too of course.

From there we went from co. Carlow and co. Wicklow down to co. Wexford and Waterford, and even briefly into co. Cork and co. Kilkenny. Every county had it's own charms, and was actually quite different from another. And because we had the caravan, we could travel around and stay or leave as we pleased.

co. Carlow

co. Wicklow

co. Wexford

co. Waterford

co. Cork

 

co. Kilkenny

At first sight you might think they all look alike, but I can assure you they don't!

In my following blogs I will show you more from each county, stay tuned!!