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Life at Robinsend

A blog by bradl in Personal Blogs

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About this blog

Cairns keep you busy

Entries in this blog

Local Varmints

Was taking a walk around our neighborhood lake one recent morning and noticed a trio of river otters having breakfast and sporting around.  In other sightings... A creek runs alongside the footpath and one morning I heard the *thwack* of a beaver slap. I watched the creek for a while and sure enough a beaver glided by on its back. It was gone by the time I fumbled out my phone so I never got a photo of it never mind a video.  Whenever I walk in the mornings I listen and look
bradl
  • bradl

Minnesota State Fair

Nothing Cairn-related, just a silly phone-photo I took during my first visit to the Minnesota state fair. For context one of the fair features is a live sculpting of a life-size butter head of Princess Kay of the Milky Way. Apparently each of the finalists also get their day in the refrigerated art room  We were there on opening day and the artist was just beginning. I could not resist making a small joke based on the timing of the photo.  
bradl
  • bradl

Amazon Rant

As someone who as been using Amazon for nearly 20 years it did not escape my notice that Amazon no longer limits itself to UPS and FedEx deliveries and now applies a broad spectrum of delivery modalities, from USPS to a dozen logistics providers to what appear to be privateers in personal vehicles. In the autumn of my life I find myself in the position of having to find some sort of work to keep me afloat and busy until such time as retirement is more than just a scrabble word. I enjoy driv
bradl
  • bradl

Random Pleasures

Not at all dog-related, I'm merely stealing an idea from the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast segment "What's making you happy this week." This week I ran across this little music video and it definitely moved me from curmudgeonly grouch mode into a much happier "hope for humanity" mode. If you don't already know them, that was Maisie and Lennon Stella, ages 12 and 15 (I think). I love seeing two siste
bradl
  • bradl

Winter Update

Happy New Year to one and all. I hope the new year finds everyone safe, relatively happy, and appropriately warm or cool depending on what's appropriate for your continent Here in Portland we had a crisp and bright and sunny New Years Day, perfect for boxing up the Christmas decorations, removing lights, and doing some pruning and winter yard work. Recent Forum Updates In the spirit of continuous tinkering (I just can't help it sometimes) I have added yet another database you are free to us
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In praise of local clubs

Today our local Cairn club had a small brunch at at local landmark — McMenamin's Kennedy School — to celebrate ten years as a club. Our club president has been culling through the club scrapbook and web site archives and with the help of her cousin put together a look back at our first ten years. I think we've been lucky in the Northwest to have a two excellent Cairn clubs and in watching those photos of Columbia club activities for the past ten years roll by I am reminded th
bradl
  • bradl

Dens, Dust, and Dahlias

The boys (Dundee and Granger) and I went down to Turner on Friday for the OTEEC earthdog weekend. The girls (Stella and Echo) came down with Peggy early Saturday morning. After arriving Friday and getting the RV set up, the dogs watered, the dens inspected and the tables set out for the secretary, the raffle, and the potluck, we had an hour or two to sit and enjoy the quiet afternoon before folks started rolling in. I took Dundee for a potty walk around the small orchard by the house a
bradl
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Run Toto Run

We were first introduced to JRT racing following an AWTA den trial in 1995 or 1996. We took Barley to both and she adored the racing. Later we again encountered flat racing in the evenings after earthdog tests, run in the dust and completely unfenced in the farm driveway or behind the truck barn. Our neighbors (Dachshund breeders) had a homebuilt lure machine and a beautifully made starting box. We started borrowing both for our Cairn picnics every year and eventually our neighbors said, "Hec
bradl
  • bradl

Stella's Q at WSOTC

Competition-style obedience with Stella has been an interesting — and marathon — experience. Stella is a third-generation Master Earthdog (May 2006, at age two) but it took until summer of 2008 to get a Rally Novice and October of 2009 to get her CD. Peggy did all the obedience work through CD, while I worked with Echo. After Stella's CD we switched dogs and Stella and I started down the long road to being able to even plausibly enter Open A. We hit a roadblock with the dumbbell thou
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