Ginny’s Birthday!

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Robin

Ginny’s birthday was October 12. She just turned 11. I have only about a zillion photos of Ginny so it was time consuming to narrow this down.

December, 2014. Ginny was two months old.

Red Border Collie jumping for a ball that has splashed into the water.

Many of my photos focus on action with a ball. I wouldn’t say that Ginny is ball-obsessed to the exclusion of all else. On the other hand, she is somewhat ball-obsessed. I have lots of photos taken during our walks Across the Road of Ginny leaping for a ball I have thrown. One reason that there are so many is that I kept trying to get that perfect shot and Ginny was a willing subject over…and over…and over…

The heads and horns of Jacob sheep that are staring at a red Border Collie.

I am a sheep farmer and the real reason to have a Border Collie is to help with sheep. That is not necessarily a good time for photos because we are trying to accomplish a task. I don’t have as much work for a dog as the dog would like. We have a small place and pasture management and fencing that makes it easy to move sheep. In recent years my main use of Ginny is to help move rams to catch them or to move the ewes into the barn from the corral. When I need to get sheep out of the pasture it’s usually easy to call them in.

Four dogs running on the dirt road. Two dogs are black and two are red.

This is a photo from 2018 taken on a walk Across the Road. At that time 5 dogs lived here. Rusty, the first red Border Collie came from Terry Mendenhall, as did Ginny. That’s Maggie at the top of the photo. The two black dogs are Finn and Sawyer who moved to Boise when Chris and Meryl moved.

Three dogs looking in a pile of lumber for a rodent.

Rusty, Ginny, and Maggie pursuing some kind of critter, probably a ground squirrel that ran into the woodpile.

Five dogs waiting on the grass to be given a piece of cake off a platter.

This was a celebration of Finn’s and Sawyer’s birthday. All dogs had to wait for permission to have their treats.

Red and white border collie staring intently at the camera.

Ginny in 2019.

Two red and white Border Collies on a dirt road with a ditch on the right.

Ginny has always created her own entertainment by dropping the ball at the top of the ditch and letting it roll in. I tell her to “get it”, she retrieves the ball, and does it all over again farther up the road.

Tennis ball in a net made of the leash wrapped around a forked stick. Border collie in the background.

I try to pay attention when we get to the part of the canal that is cement. There are places where the water level drops a couple of feet and the water flows quickly, creating a whirlpool effect at that drop. Ginny can get in and out of the cement canal when the water is not so turbulent, but I don’t want her in this part. She seems to like the game of dropping the ball at those places and then expects me to get it out. The drop-off creates a turbulent whirlpool and the ball disappears and then resurfaces over and over, but doesn’t move downstream. I’m not getting in there and I’m not sending Ginny in. There have been several times when I was able to create a net with a forked stick and the leash, and eventually snag the ball by leaning over the wooden plank that is the walkway over the canal.

Border collie staring at a tennis ball on a pallet in front of alfalfa.

Here is another of Ginny’s habits. When the skirting table is in this part of the barn and I am working Ginny intentionally puts the ball in this spot and then moves behind the wall of the barn and that upright pipe and expects me to get the ball, often barking at me if I haven’t paid attention.

Red and white Border Collie in a pen with a dirt floor.

Lambtown was last weekend and Terry was there with her sheep and her older dog that she didn’t want to leave home. This is Jill, Ginny’s mom, who is now 14.

Red and white Border Collie on dirt road with hills behind.

I took this photos of Ginny last week. Looking pretty good for11!

Shadow Pictures

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Robin

Right now I’m sitting at my desk with one Border Collie (Rusty) at my feet under the desk and the other behind the chair. Ginny has never been gun shy or afraid of things in the sky but this thunderstorm has her rattled too. Rusty is terrified. So I left the loom where I was weaving and I’ll wait it out with them. We don’t often have thunderstorms here.

I had planned to write this blog post about our walk Across the Road in yesterday’s sunshine.

Guess who with something in her mouth?

Ginny watches the Ball and Rusty watches Ginny.

Ginny constantly drops the ball in the water but this year she gets herself. Last year I was fishing it out for her.

I don’t say much about Maggie because she usually wanders ahead and does her own thing out of range of the camera. I called her over to get a photo.

The late afternoon sun gives light to other subjects as well.

Ginny found a ball that we lost at some point in the tall grass. Now the grass is gone and she saw it in a dried tractor track. It’s a good thing because the ball on the right isn’t in very good shape at this point.

Across the Road Again

Posted on August 30, 2015 by Robin

No big story here. I’m just sharing photos from this evening’s walk with the dogs.

First Ginny had to find her toy. She knows which toy we take on walks (the one that floats). While I stayed near the gate she ran through the bushes, around the garage and found it at the barn.

The sheep are in the pasture closest to the road right now.

It’s dry and dusty now.

Maggie coming when I call.Egrets in the alfalfa field.

Ginny now expects me to help her out of the canal at the steep areas.

A field of green beans.

Dogs in Our Lives

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Robin

This post started as a way to show what Rusty looked like at the age Ginny is now. Ginny is 7 months.I got Rusty when he was 6 months old.

This post has evolved into photos of the other dogs that have been in my life. I am clearing off my old computer before I get rid of it and I found photos that had never been transferred. Then when I searched dogs on my computer I found old scanned photos too. So here you go.This is my mom sometime in the mid-70’s. Murka is the German Shepherd that was our family dog. Blue is on the couch–he was my mom’s dog that she found somehow. I have forgotten the story. Katya or “Kat” is on the table. She was my half-Keeshound (supposedly the other half was coyote) who was very loving but timid, especially of men…like Bonnie and Maggie, who both came to me later. I had Kat through my moves to Utah and Arizona, but she died before I came back to California. Then there was a no-dog period although mom had Blue. When the kids were young and we lived at the dairy we had Brandy and Flash, both rescues of one sort or another. Brandy was given away by someone who also gave us a huge bag of all the flea and anti-itch things that didn’t work on her and Flash was found in a parking lot by a veterinarian I used to work for. I got him as a puppy. Brandy died while we were still at the dairy, but not long after we moved to our current location in 1999 we got Benny, rescued in the Safeway parking lot. Doc, on the left, showed up as a lost dog and was later identified by his owners from just down the road. They took him back but I told them that if they ever wanted to give him away I’d take him. They moved and didn’t want him. He was a wonderful dog, but was killed by a big truck on the road when he chased Benny, who is the only dog we’ve had that would leave the barn to run to the road.I got Rusty after Flash died, but while we still had Benny. My son and DIL got Sam the next year.This is what Sam looks like now. He outweighs Rusty by at least 50 pounds. That’s his buddy, Kirin, who is even bigger now. Bonnie came later. She is the only dog that I have given away but she went to a life that is much better for her. That’s a long story that Rusty has told in his blog.Rusty’s role is as a herding dog. He helps me when I need it but doesn’t have nearly as much work as he’d like.Benny died a few years ago and I wanted to get a dog as a buddy for Rusty. That’s when I got Maggie through Dog Spot Rescue. Rusty told that story too. So now there is Rusty and Maggie……and Ginny.

Ginny is the only dog here that likes to play with toys. While I was working in the garden she dug that hole specifically to bury her toy. Rusty has the last laugh.

Ginny’s Favorite Things

Posted on May 3, 2015 by Robin

Rusty and Maggie don’t fetch. They don’t see the point. Ginny, on the other hand, has learned the fun of getting people to throw things for her. She is obsessed with this $10 toy. In fact she is so obsessed that I can see the focus that Rusty has for herding is the way Ginny acts with this toy. Hopefully when the time comes Ginny will be able to think about sheep with the same concentration. Right now it’s fun for her… …and it’s good for me to have a way to help her burn off energy with something as easy as standing in one place and throwing something. Ginny also loves to swim in the canal Across the Road. In a recent blog post I described how Ginny is always on leash now on our walks. Swimming in the canal is an exception. So far when I let her go into the water (which did not work well on leash) she hasn’t tried to run off and chase birds. But I don’t let her off for long–only while she wants to swim. I decided to combine the Toy and swimming. I started by throwing it right close to the edge in case I was the one that had to retrieve it.

It became obvious that I would not be the one going in the water so I threw it a little farther.

And farther. No problem. On one throw however it was much closer to the far bank and that’s where Ginny got out… …and then left the Toy. I told her to go back for it.

She brought it back by walking along the bank until she got to one of the above-water crossings.

I think she would make a dock-diving dog or whatever they call that sport where dogs (many border collies) jump to retrieve favorite toys in water. That would be fun if there was something close by. But we may have to stick with the canal.

Ginny Gets Smarter (or Maybe it’s Me)

Posted on April 28, 2015 by Robin

I used to take all three dogs for walks Across the Road. Rusty and Maggie get to run off leash once we’re on the dirt roads and away from the main road. At first I let Ginny go too because she stayed with them and I knew that she would come with them if I called. Then Ginny discovered Birds. That was the end of the predictable behavior. Well, there was a new predictable behavior; hear the killdeer, run back and forth across the field after them. The killdeer fly in short bursts, land, change direction. Ginny would follow. I would follow her and it was only luck that I would eventually catch her. It only took me three episodes of this to realize that Ginny couldn’t be off-leash anymore. I tried to take her on our walks using a long-line, but that didn’t work for me. No matter which leash I used (long or short) I wasn’t getting the behavior I wanted (walk nicely next to me) and she wasn’t getting the exercise I thought she needed.

This was all about two months ago. I complained to a friend about my lack of control of my puppy and the poor job I was doing of training her. Here is the light-bulb moment. She told me what I think I knew but wasn’t admitting–that I needed to work with Ginny separately and not when the other dogs were around. Duh!

I started to take separate dog walks. Maggie and Rusty still get to go off-leash Across the Road… Ginny …but Ginny walks on a leash. Ginny I found my sheepdog training flag that I had forgotten about. Carrying that has helped her get the idea of not pulling on the leash. Ginny She stills gets the chance to look for ground squirrels at times. Ginny For more exercise… …we go on a bike ride. These photos were all taken about a month ago but……this one was taken last week. Ginny wasn’t too sure about those balers.

Weaving Class Gone to the Dogs

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Robin

I taught a Learn to Weave class this weekend. There were three people who worked diligently all weekend and finished their samplers. I don’t make everyone use the same yarns. Willard used Jaggerspun Green Line, an organic Merino yarn.Ruth used Ashford Tekapo yarn. I didn’t get a photo of Marion’s piece until our group photo but she used Imperial Stock Ranch Erin yarn.I wish that I had a separate classroom that could remain set up for classes and Spinners Night Out but we just have to move everything aside to turn the shop into a classroom.

And this time we made room for dogs also.

This is Bear, who came for the weekend. I don’t usually invite dogs to functions here but made an exception for Bear and her owner. Bear is a Leonberger and this is what Wikipedia says in addition to describing a “generous double coat”: “When properly trained and socialized, the Leonberger is vigilant, loyal, and confident in all situations. Robust, adaptable, obedient, intelligent, playful, and kindly, the Leonberger is an appropriate family companion for modern living conditions”. Evidently that goes for weaving classes too although at times I think Bear was a bit bored with us.

“Mom, can’t we go yet?”

Can you tell from this photos how large bear is? It’s not just the camera perspective.

And then there is Rusty who gets to come in the shop when he hears gunshots and needs to feel safe.At the end of the day.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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