I still exist.
I noticed I haven't been posting much of late. I DO still exist!
My goal recently has been to try to something fun every weekend, where "something fun" is defined as not involving TV, books, the Internet, or routine shopping.
Some stuff I've done:
Saw dinosaurs! There's an exhibit of dinosaur sculptures at ISU's botanic gardens. The sculptures being displayed in an outdoor environment, as if the dinosaurs were still in the some sort of habitat, made for a very interesting effect.
Blue flags. I approve.
Very large moths, newly-hatched and awaiting release in the butterfly center. I approve.
I also went to Iowa Sheep and Wool. Maryland Sheep and Wool it's not. :-) But, it's only an hours' drive from Ames, and nice enough way to spend an afternoon. (Unless you take a class, there's not more than an afternoon's worth of stuff to do there.)
There was, however, a herding dog trial there. I kind of wish I knew more about the rules of the competition so I could better tell what was going on. One requirement was to take the little herd of 4 sheep and split it into 2 herds of 2 sheep, which is tricky because the sheep don't want to split. Apparently the technique is to have to dog drive the sheep to the handler, who then sort of works his body between the two pairs of sheep. Once he splits them, the dog drives them apart. There was one handler who kept splitting the sheep, but instead of seperating them the dog kept rounding them back up into a group again. Apparently the dog needed a little more work with the whole "split the sheep" concept.
There was a pair of women there with their kids. One of them had convinced her son that it would be fun to pretend that he was a sheepdog and his younger friend was a sheep. Every time the young friend started to wander off, his mom would tell him, "Your sheep is getting away! Go get your sheep!" Then the kid would run after her and bring her back. Clever parenting FTW.
One of the herders had brought his latest puppies, too. Insane cuteness.
Sheep shearing demonstration with an antique, hand-cranked trimmer.
Border collie!
Squee!
Man, those big fuzzy things are interesting. I feel there's something I need to be doing with them, but I'm not quite sure what...
My goal recently has been to try to something fun every weekend, where "something fun" is defined as not involving TV, books, the Internet, or routine shopping.
Some stuff I've done:
Saw dinosaurs! There's an exhibit of dinosaur sculptures at ISU's botanic gardens. The sculptures being displayed in an outdoor environment, as if the dinosaurs were still in the some sort of habitat, made for a very interesting effect.
Blue flags. I approve.
Very large moths, newly-hatched and awaiting release in the butterfly center. I approve.
I also went to Iowa Sheep and Wool. Maryland Sheep and Wool it's not. :-) But, it's only an hours' drive from Ames, and nice enough way to spend an afternoon. (Unless you take a class, there's not more than an afternoon's worth of stuff to do there.)
There was, however, a herding dog trial there. I kind of wish I knew more about the rules of the competition so I could better tell what was going on. One requirement was to take the little herd of 4 sheep and split it into 2 herds of 2 sheep, which is tricky because the sheep don't want to split. Apparently the technique is to have to dog drive the sheep to the handler, who then sort of works his body between the two pairs of sheep. Once he splits them, the dog drives them apart. There was one handler who kept splitting the sheep, but instead of seperating them the dog kept rounding them back up into a group again. Apparently the dog needed a little more work with the whole "split the sheep" concept.
There was a pair of women there with their kids. One of them had convinced her son that it would be fun to pretend that he was a sheepdog and his younger friend was a sheep. Every time the young friend started to wander off, his mom would tell him, "Your sheep is getting away! Go get your sheep!" Then the kid would run after her and bring her back. Clever parenting FTW.
One of the herders had brought his latest puppies, too. Insane cuteness.
Sheep shearing demonstration with an antique, hand-cranked trimmer.
Border collie!
Squee!
Man, those big fuzzy things are interesting. I feel there's something I need to be doing with them, but I'm not quite sure what...