My schedule has been so fierce that I’ve not attended my garden properly. The radishes and lettuce and the broccoli too have gone to flower. The net effect is that all day long we have a stunning dance of butterflies in the garden. They seem to like these delicate little blossoms. Marsha suggested that I could say that my intention was to create a butterfly garden. And so, it’s not out of control at all.

We just finished over the weekend a TDAA judges clinic and trial. The clinics are excruciating exercises in which we go 14 or 16 hours a day in somewhat relentless fashion. I truly wasn’t as prepared as I might have been. I chose to spend a lot of time in the days leading up to the clinic in trial finishing up fence work, gates, mowing, moving trailers and generally straightening up the property. Stretching fence, bending wire, digging post holes, nailing boards, pounding metal posts… all this manual labor made me hurt all over. I hurt still. Oh, and I took a bit of time to help Marsha plant all her new day lilies. She’s got quite a spectacular display going on along the front of the porch.

Somehow I made a little time to load our riding mower up in the trailer and take it down to the John Deere dealer for repairs. (They still have it). The grass catcher thing is messed up. So that meant I had to take the wood hauler off the back of our big John Deere tractor and put on the PTO rear mower so I could go down to mow the lower agility field, and the exercise field… both of which are fully fenced now. Woo hoo!

The week before the judges’ clinic we held a 4H agility camp here at Country Dream. This was the second 4H camp we’ve hosted at our facility. While they aren’t great money-makers they can still be a boatload of work. And besides… it’s not all about money right? Anyhow… I thought I was exhausted then, having gone into the week at the end of a grinding camp schedule. Boy, I was just getting started.

At the same time, I’ve been working on a new set of Course Design Guidelines for the TDAA. There’s been a perception out in the world that the TDAA is somehow unsafe or unfair to the big dogs (we’re talking the big fast 12″ and 16″ dogs here!) And frankly, I have to agree. We have a lot of judges who train and handle Yorkies and Chahuahuas and that sort of thing… who don’t necessarily understand what constitutes a fair spacing between obstacles for a quick and motivated agility dog. I hope to change that. I find that I’m getting quite a bit of resistance from my judges, while not necessarily specific to the guidelines, certainly to some of my vision of the kindly but clear-thinking judge.

It occurred to me in a dream (where I get a lot of my problem solving done) that my vision of what this sport might be is nearly irrelevant. When I transferred the TDAA from my ownership to a member run organization I also pretty much surrendered any right that I had for my vision to be accepted by anyone. Now I’m pretty much limited by the same blinders worn by my contemporaries.

In the mean time I’ve been in communication with C-Wags about adopting the JFF banner for a new agility organization. Have you noticed that I don’t seem to have the spare time to get the organization started up properly? The interesting consequence if C-Wags allows me to shepherd their agility program, is that I again have a landscape in which my vision of the sport of agility can be unfettered.

At the end of the TDAA trial, after I’d hugged all the new TDAA judges and sent them on their way, I hurried back down to the cave of my office to finish up the 30 some odd courses that were due yesterday for the DOCNA trial I’m judging up in Stephentown, NY at the end of next month. Jim Mills, the president of DOCNA, is a stickler for perfect nesting; which is a matter of some genius when it comes to the conduct of an agility trial; but a matter of great skill and thoughtful artistry when it actually comes to the design. It made my head hurt.

As I finish up the courses I find that I’d created a calendar conflict about six weeks down the road. It was caused by a tumult of events that were out of my control and could have been avoided by other players… about six months ago. So it blind-sided me, caught me unawares, and has made me scramble to fix it without making people who I respect and admire feel disgusted with me. Okay, it wasn’t really my fault, but it falls on my shoulders to make the hard decisions. I didn’t sleep very well last night.

Meanwhile I’ve assumed the duties of course reviewer for the TDAA. Mostly this has been a mad scramble to fix courses that were submitted late in the first place (I fix that one, trust me). And I even overlooked one judges courses altogether… while taking care of the emergencies. And so I’ve made her rather mad at me. 

Oh, and I have several dozen courses to design for my judging assignments over the next couple of months. I’d better get on it. I don’t think I want to put my whole To Do list here. It would dishearten me.  

And so, there are butterflies in my garden. It’s an unkempt thing I suppose. But it’s nice for butterflies to have a place to stop for a sweet little meal. And they will please me with their delicate beauty and unhurried lives.  

Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston: dogwoodbud1@earthlink.net. And Checkout my new publication the Idea Book – Agility Training for a Small Universe available at www.dogagility.org/store.