Merlin's Magicians December/January Flyball & Agility Newsletter
December/January Newsletter 2010/2011
Ferryside
I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to starting training again in 2011, weather permitting it should be sometime in February. Serious stuff then folks, we hope to take three teams to Anglesey in April, Team – Starters – Multibreed. We shall see: - )
The post AGM meeting went well, the main points were, Ferryside want to return to morning training, afternoons have failed to bring any new members and, most present felt that afternoon training took out the whole day as they couldn’t do much in the mornings if they are going out in the afternoon. Ceredigion have also had poor attendance Saturdays and will go back to Friday evenings when the lighter nights come back. Ceredigion would like to have some Agility equipment at Beulah come Spring, Brenda voiced the opinion that this would bring more people who would, hopefully, also have a go at Flyball. I had already made the decision that carrying on Agility at Bryn Iwen is not really worth while, sorry as I am for the three (yes only three sometimes, regulars there, it doesn’t pay its way and, has on occasions had to be subsidised by Flyball money. Not good. So I will lend some equipment to Ceredigion and Debbie will ask Andrew if he can make some for them. We will be using mostly Liz’s equipment at Ferryside. Ceredigion expressed their appreciation to Andrew for the set of Flyball jumps he made. Georgina has done minutes which are here for everyone to read. The meal at the Bluebell following meeting was superb and much enjoyed. I have booked hall and meal for our next meeting 27th February 2011.
Congratulations to the five handlers and dogs who achieved the 200 points for ‘Flyball Dog’ status last season, Brenda with Trumps, Sarah with Sassy, Del with Sadie, Sheryl with Alfie and last but not least my own Annie.
The weather has been a bummer hasn’t it? My daughter in Australia did me a Tesco order pre Christmas, ordered a month in advance to be delivered Sunday 19th December. I had a text message from Tesco on the morning to say that due to weather they were unable to deliver and for me to re order when conditions improved!!!! I was not impressed as, living on a’ B’ road which was clear despite the snowy verges I could see no reason they could not deliver. The roads all the way to Tesco were clear. Good job I have the makings of a Christmas dinner in my freezer and enough alcohol to see me through, missed the mince pies though, didn’t get any as the order contained a dozen. I telephoned to complain and the call went through from the Carmarthen number to somewhere up north where they do have 12” of snow! I pointed out that it seemed Carmarthen Tesco were not checking routes before cancelling deliveries and was assured that my complaint would be forwarded. Much good did it do me : - ) My daughter has re ordered for 29th December and guess what? The weather is forecast as rain/sleet on the frozen ground ‘will make for hazardous conditions!!!’ Will they or won’t they? May be another order will be needed for third time lucky!!
Mike is spending Christmas caring for his daughter Sue who has had back surgery; he cooked for Sue, partner and two children. On the quiet I think he could have enjoyed the latter, I know he likes to cook having been recipient on occasions: - ) Best wishes to Sue we hope She will soon be up and about again.
Thistle has her new purple Forrest fleece, take a look at her picture, she looks really silly but she doesn’t care, loves it, especially to sleep in the cold bedroom at night. There is a link to Forrest fleece in our links now.
Couple of requests here folks. Please will you click on the Squidoo link on our home page, give us a thumbs up/rating, it helps our web site ratings. And, I know not a lot is going on but ‘watch this space’ visit and contribute/comment on our Facebook page. ‘Merlin’s Magicians Flyball Team’.
Got Tesco order: - ) And also managed to get out to the woods to walk the dogs, although roads etc were clear I soon discovered that the woodland path wasn’t. I did a fair impression of Charlie Chaplin doing dancing on ice, for some horrible moments I envisaged jumping the queue for surgery as my walking is painfully impaired and on ice?!!!!!!
Any pictures of yourselves and/or/with dogs over the holiday, with tinsel, snow, presents, whatever. Let me have them and we’ll put a new page in pictures. I couldn’t resist pinching the one of Billie from facebook for the homepage. Cheers Debbie!
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE, June.
Ceredigion
Nothing much to report from the Beulah peeps this month. No training so it has all been very quiet. We are thinking of having a mass dog walk (probably at Poppitt Sands) but need to try and fix a date when a) there are not likely to be lots of "non doggy" people taking their families out and b) when most of us are available.... check the calendar, we will put it on there!
PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES
1 ½ cups water
½ cup oil
2 eggs
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
½ cup cornmeal
½ cup oats
Blend wet ingredients together.
Whisk dry ingredients together and mix into wet mixture to form a ball of dough. Roll out and shape.
Put onto a non-stick cookie tray or lightly greased one.
Cook 20 minutes at 400 F.
Turn off oven and allow the biscuits to cool in oven until crisp and hard.
Store in airtight container.
Hope you all have a lovely 2011..... now if anyone could tell me where most of 2010 went while I was not looking .............................................
Georgina
Minutes from Merlin’s Magicians Meeting
Cynwyl Elfed Sunday 12th December 2010
Attendees: June, Brenda, Del, Sheryl, Mike, Sue, Sarah, Georgina. Late arrival Debbie and Megan.
Apologies: Christine, Elaine, Lisa, Jan
Sarah read through the minutes of the previous meeting, and points from them were discussed.
Beulah:
The change of day from Friday to Saturday has resulted in a drop in attendance due to other commitments, however it is hoped people will be able to come again once the evenings start to become lighter in the next season, when practise can be restored to Friday evening. There is no definite date as yet (reliant on weather, possibly in March) but for those who are subscribed to the Calendar please start to watch it when the days warm up as we will put notification on there.
Beulah would like to borrow the single hole box in the spring when more people attend, so that they can practise with 2 lanes running.
We would also like to borrow agility equipment in the spring/summer as this may draw more people who can then be lured in by watching flyball running alongside. It would also help with practise for Fly-Agility demonstrations. Debbie thinks Andrew may be able to make up some agility equipment for Beulah.
Posters (with and without tear off strips) have been put up to try and attract more people.
Ferryside:
Ferryside have adapted the Beulah Starters Pack for their own new members.
Afternoon sessions have not worked too well..... sometimes there are only a couple of people present. It was voted upon and agreed that when the new season begins practise will revert to mornings.
June has donated a shed to store the agility equipment. She will make enquiries with the insurance company re the fact equipment is now kept at several venues, plus is transported to competition.
General:
BFA Membership runs from 1st January so needs to be renewed for those taking part in competitions. The AGM is in Wythall on 10th April, June will be attending... if you want to go ask her about sharing a lift.
Merlin’s Magician membership year starts April 1st.
Everyone present confirmed they have received a copy of the club rules, and the rules are included in the Starter Packs.
Box Loaders are always in demand. Lydia is still available when possible, Sheryl is going to “persuade” Pete that he would like to learn, there is one possible at Ferryside. We need to put up posters for box loaders – appealing possibly to people who love dogs but cannot have one (and then hope they can come to competition with us). If Merlin’s Magicians have more than one team present at a competition we can help each other out with box loading, however if we are competing against each other we may need to “borrow” someone so the dogs do not become confused about who to run to.
There are no dates for demonstrations yet, however the Llanelli Dogs Day is at the end of May.
Please let June or Brenda know if you are interested in attending any of the competitions listed below – we need to apply to attend as soon as entries are opened so the more we know in advance the better!
April 23rd – Anglesey, Division, Starters and Multibreed
May 14th – Sutton Fields, Cheshire. Division and Starters
June 18th – Leverhulme, Wirral. Division and Starters
July 9th – Ryecroft, Cheshire. Division and Starters
August 12th – BFA Championships, Warwickshire. Division
September 10th – Sutton Fields, Cheshire. Division and Starters
The next meeting will be at the same venue on 27th February 2011 at 10.30.
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Happy New Year