Catching Up

Wow, it's been awhile since we wrote our last post, we've been busy and I just haven't had the time.

On 16 June, it was Beckett's 6th birthday where does the time go; it just seems like yesterday that I went to Oshawa to pick him up.  We had a low key birthday. Beckett and Keltic both got a special cookie treat and Beckett got three new discs; after all what else do you get a Frisbee-holic.

Beckett with his new disc toys

Beckett with his birthday cookie.

Since our last post we've done some agility trials including our first United Kingdom International (UKI) trial. I entered Beckett in two Speedstakes and the Masters Series event which is one round of Jumpers (with weaves) and one round of Agility (Standard to those who follow AAC).  Beckett got Q's in one of the Speedstakes and in the Jumpers run.  For the Masters series, they also do aggregates of the Agility and Jumpers rounds and the dogs that place first and second in their height class get a bye to the Masters series finals at the Canadian Open (the National event). Beckett placed third; it didn't really matter as we can't go to this year's Nationals anyway. Keltic, I just put in Speedstakes events since it was the only event that didn't have weaves. He did good but had three bars down in the first run and one bar in the second. I could hear him give a little grunt each time he jumped so that pushed me to finally make the decision to put him in a lower height class. We had another UKI trial right before our Canada Cup weekend (more on that later) and will have another later this month.

Keltic also had his first K9 Kup event on 28 June. K9 Kup is the agility house league in our area to get young dogs or dogs new to agility used to a trial environment. Keltic ran pretty well even in the pouring rain but none of his runs counted towards the team's placements as he now gets handicapped for having his Starter's title. He missed his dog walk contact in the Standard run which was otherwise clean. He did had a great opening in Gamblers getting the mini gamble and he also did get the main Gamble. The main Gamble was jump, jump, tunnel and I doubt I could have called him off the tunnel though so good thing it was that easy. We had a 40 second opening and 20 seconds to do the main Gamble, Keltic's time was just over 48 seconds. We were in an absolutely perfect position when the buzzer went and Keltic was done the Gamble in a flash.  We were clean in Jumpers only because the judge wasn't sure if he did the tire or not; he didn't. This was the first event he did back at the lower jump height so not sure why he didn't do the tire; it was probably harder to go between the tire and the standard than just doing the tire at 10". I'll have to lower my tire in the backyard and get him working on it again.

On the home front, I'm having a sun room built but so far the project hasn't progressed all that much. The contractors parked their trailer in my driveway on 8 June but since it was pouring rain, that's all that got done that day. The rest of the week was rainy and my contractor and his partner got sick so nothing got done the first week. The second week, the old deck came up and the technoposts for the foundation went in, but they revised where the technoposts were to be placed so we needed new drawings from the engineers before anything else could be done. Those new drawings took nearly a week. After we got the new drawings, the beams and joists went in and that's where we still are today as we are waiting for the city to approve the new drawings and we can't go any further until the foundation is inspected so the floor can't be insulated or closed in until that's done. This four to six week job will likely now take 8 to 10 weeks so it doesn't look like the sun room won't get much use this summer.

The beams on the technopost foundation

The joists are in.

The sun room will have tile floors and a tongue in groove pine vaulted ceiling with a fan and light. There will be three double (full screen) slider windows at the end away from the house, a double hung window near the sliding door, a fixed transom window above the slider window at the far end and two skylights in the roof to make sure we still get as much light in the dining room as possible. We will just be installing a storm door just beside where the double hung window will be so not quite mid way as I didn't want to break up what's to be the main seating space. Hopefully the city will approve the revised drawings soon as they've almost had them longer now than they had the first drawings which we submitted with the permit application.

It sure will be nice to have a space where I can wipe the dogs feet before they come into the house. It will also be a great space for brushing them too. And, of course, for it's real purpose sitting out in the evenings without getting eaten alive by mosquitos.