Whiskey Anyone?

Ben and I recently had the opportunity to attend the "Whiskey Experience" at the new local distillery- The Woodinville Whiskey Company located in Woodinville for an evening of Whiskey tasting and getting to meet David Pickerell who was the the master distiller for Maker's Mark Whiskey.

The 2 hour event included a great selection of appetizers and samples of their three different whiskey's and their vodka. David spoke about his background as a master distiller and how to select the best whiskey. Since Ben is more of a whiskey drinker than me, I gave him most of my samples but overall the few I did try were very good. It's nice to have something other than wineries in our backyard and soon in stores.

#6 Ranking

Saturday night we headed to the Northwest Field Trial Councils award banquet at the Lucky Eagle Casino to celebrate the achievements of the those that competed in field trails in 2011. They award the following awards based on the points that were attained through placements:

• All Age Dog of the Year
• Dog of the Year
• Puppy of the Year
• Derby Dog of the Year

Loki had run in 2011 in five open puppy field trials and placed in all five so we knew he had acquired points but unsure if what was needed to win since he would be competing against everyone from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California and Canada. For each group they recognize the "top 10" and to our surprise Lacey Mtn's B Campbell Little Jester, JH "Loki" was #6. Not too shabby for a first trial season. Here's looking to another great one in 2012.

Champion Odin

As mentioned in our earlier post Odin has officially become a AKC Show Champion and we finally received the picture from his win at the Sammamish Kennel Club Show on January 14th.

New Champion- Ch. Odin

     Sire: GCH Rockwell's Jake the Snake

Dam: TK's Rockwell's True Roxie

DOB: 03/13/08

OFA: Good for hips and elbows

If you'd like to learn more about our special boy (who is also available for stud) check out their Facebook page at Campbells Brittanys or their website at http://www.campbellsbrittanys.com/.

Training, Training and More Training...

It's official, gone are the weekends of sleeping in and being lazy as we're back to spending our weekends logging miles and hours in cars/trucks for the boys training activities as we start working on getting ready for this years field trail and hunt test season.

Our trainer for the boys is great and works amazingly well with the boys and the hubby but is located in Eagle Creek, Oregon, a mere 4 hour drive each way. Yes, all this for the boys and hubby's passion for tromping through a muddy field to work on the various skills that Odin will need to perfect for passing his Master Hunter tests and being successful in Open Gun Dog at Field Trails. Were also going through the process of getting Loki broken out so that he is steady to wing and shot and can hang with the big boys. Oh, yeah and getting him ready for the ABC Western Futurity event in April that he has been invited to.

As suspected, this weekend was no different and yesterday we made the trek to work with Chris and Odin and to drop little man aka Loki off for birdy bootcamp for the next 8 - 12 weeks (not thrilled about this one but he is in good hands and it will be worth it in the end).

Odin showed signs of improvement from last season and the areas he still needs to work on before the first round of tests in April. 

So while the schedule isn't even finalized for this seasons events it looks like it is going to be a very busy spring/summer with lots of miles in the car and fields.

More Snow...Please Stop

Snowpocalypse 2012 has hit Seattle, all 15+ inches and counting of it. We have been snowed in the last two days and it is not looking like were getting out anytime soon. This winter strom has brought us the following:

• 15+ inches of snow
• An ice storm
• power outage-- now going on 16 hours without power
• downed trees

Here's hoping this snow stops so that we can start the digging out.

Champion Status

Sixteen months ago we started a wild journey on a whim with Odin that has been filled with highs and lows and Saturday it came to a conclusion as he completed his AKC show championship by going Winners Dog and Best of Winners with his handler Kevin Chestnut for a 3 point major win at the Sammamish KC dog show in Puyullap.

There were 8 entries in the class dogs with 4 of them including in Odin and Loki in the Open Dog class so competition was very tough as they were all good looking dogs and we never know what the judge is looking for or how Odin would behave since he is not a fan of the show ring. Luckily for us he decided that he was going to behave and looked great.  After a couple of passes around the ring the judge selected him first in his class which meant step one was complete. Another pass around the ring with the other class winners and the judge moved Kevin and Odin into first position for the last pass around the ring and then awarded him with the Winners Dog purple ribbon.  After a triple check with the ring side attendant to ensure that the major had held we let out a huge sigh of relief that he had won and finished his championship. After a round of hugs and congrats it was back int he ring to go up against the champions and the female winner to try for Best of Breed or Best of Winners.

Twenty minutes later the blue and white Best of Winners ribbon was Odin's and he had completed his final regular show and would now get to retire from showing. I may bring him out once in a while for special events like the Washington or Oregon Specialty shows but for now it's back to the field.

Congrats to our special boy on becoming Ch. Odin!

First Snow

We got our first (and hopefully our only) snowfall of the winter here in the Seattle area this weekend. Our house seemed to be in the special snow zone delivering us with 8= inches of the fluffy white stuff in the past 24 hours.

A lot of friends described our snow as it's so pretty, it's wonderful! But, each of those phrases are typically said with a HUGE caveat: if you don't have anywhere to go or you don’t live here and don’t have to deal with our lack of snow preparedness.

Unfortunately, we had not stocked up at the grocery store and had to make the 15 minute trek to/from the store to get the basics. With 8 inches on the ground, the trek was not going to be easy or fun. Since we knew the Jetta would not be capable of getting back up the hill to the house we opted for the 4 wheel drive on the truck. Even with the truck the drive included sliding and tire spinning and my grabbing the door with eyes closed as Ben took it very slow.

After a break from our trek, we decided it would be fun to take Odin for a walk and to get out and explore the winter wonderland.