Kersins Kata

Kata finished her AKC Novice Standard Agility title under Judge Ann Rudd at the Ibizan Hound Club of the United States agility trial at the Canine Sport and Recreation building in Dexter, Michigan today. The Novice course was especially nice.

Although this photo makes her look small, probably because of the angle, at 16" Kata fits the home country's official breed standard and she jumps 16" at trials. We're waiting for some really nice photos from the trial from the photographer, Raymond Dutton.

She has a wonderful temperament (personality) and is in my opinion a superb example of Icelandics with shorter fur. Longer furred Icelandics seem to be more popular especially for conformation shows. I hope the shorter furred Icelandics can survive. They seem to be rather rare now.

Kata was born on January 11, 2002 and turned nine years old on 1/11/11. She started her training for agility at the age of eight and has earned six first place ribbons with scores of 100/100 and two second places.

Kersins Huld

Huld was a beautiful puppy; it's no wonder that I fell for her. She started it all for me. Huld was the first Icelandic Sheepdog in Michigan and was the first Icelandic Sheepdog to earn an AKC title - her American Kennel Club Companion Dog title (CD). She is still the alpha dog in this house. Over the years she has earned the following awards and titles: BFF, CGC, TDI, CD, RN, RA, RE. Kata followed her closely into Michigan and into my home and heart.

Click on the photos once or twice to enlarge them.

Grass Roots

Click on photo to enlarge it.

Luca and Nana went to Grass Roots today and adopted some Koi for Nana's pond. It was hard work so Luca took a bit of a time out and sat in the garden where he had seen several ponds. Some of them had huge adult Koi of many different colors. Luca really liked the reddish colored ones.

Luca also saw tadpoles in one of the ponds; some of them had small hind legs because they were beginning to turn into frogs. Frogs and tadpoles do not look anything like each other! Tadpoles live in the water and are scavengers feeding on plants and other sources of protein. Tadpoles breathe oxygen that is dissolved in water by using gills. They swim like fish and have a tail.

Adult frogs have four legs and can leave the water but must stay close to keep their skin moist. They do not have tails. You can often find them sitting on waterlily leaves during the day. They usually feed on insects and worms and can hop around the garden at night using their strong hind legs looking for their food. They stay close to the pond so they can jump back into the water in case predators try to catch and eat them. Frogs breathe using lungs and also their moist skin. Frogs hibernate or sleep through the winter at the bottom of ponds and get oxygen through their skins instead of using their lungs.

When spring arrives and the water warms up, the hibernating frogs wake up from their winter naps and lay their eggs in the water. A couple of weeks later the eggs hatch into very small tadpoles which grow all summer.

Luca also saw some hens and roosters and learned how to tell the roosters from the hens - the roosters crow. Roosters are the boys and hens are the girls. There was at least one Peacock with very long tail feathers also.

We walked in the greenhouse too but couldn't stay in there long because it was so hot and humid (wet) in there. It was like a tropical rain forest.

April18, 2011 in Michigan

Abeliophyllum distichum is a white flowered bush that resembles the yellow forsythia but flowers a little earlier and, unlike forsythia, has a wonderful fragrance. It's hard to see the white flowers because we had snow today.

Click on photos once or twice to enlarge them. The flowers have a very faint pinkish cast in their throats.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!! One year old today.

Grecian Windflowers

(Click on photo once or twice to enlarge it.)

I've been trying to decide if I want to buy or build a vacation home and if so, where. I'm leaning towards the thumb on Lake Huron but some have suggested I try places like the west coast on Lake Michigan. I have a very hard time deciding things now. I do love my home. I also love nature and living in the country on water a legacy of my childhood living near South Lyon.

I just realized that the square dance term "dosido" was from the French "Dos-à-dos" which means back to back - Duh!!

Yankee and Eileen

Click on photos to enlarge them.

Yankee and Eileen at a show today, Saturday, April 9, 2011 in Michigan where they had a good time made lots of new friends!

Loa & Annette

Vinlands Loa and Annette ranked first on the United Kennel Club's Novice All Star's list through March 13, 2011. Loa's parents are Korpur (Alaskastaðirs Korpur, BFF, CGC, RN, RA, RE, CD) and Kria (Thordunu Kría, BFF, CGC, RN, RA, RE, CD ).



















To view the United Kennel Club's results go to: -
http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPages/DEAllStarsObedience2011?OpenDocument&Click=

If this doesn't show up when you click on it, copy and paste it into your browser.

Kersins Trölli & Vinlands Brana and Bob & Nan

Click on photos once or twice to enlarge them!










Kersins Trölli (first four photos) has his NAP, NA, NAJ (Novice Agility Preferred [standard], Novice Agility [standard], and his Novice Agility Jumpers [aka JWW - Jumpers With Weaves]).




















































Vinlands Brana (last four photos) has her NAP, NAJP (Novice Agility Preferred [standard], Novice Agility Jumpers Preferred [aka JWW - Jumpers With Weaves Preferred]).













Both dogs have additional legs on their way to more titles! (It takes three qualifying scores or legs to earn a title.)

Nan and Bob have done extremely well training and titling two Icelandics!

Performance Icelandics are awesome! Once more performance people discover this breed for themselves, we will see more of our dogs in dog sports. Like most herding breeds, Icelandics excel in all sorts of dog activities like herding, tracking, search and rescue, agility, flyball, rally, obedience, etc.

Yankee, Eileen and BOB

Click on photo a couple of times to enlarge it enough to read.


Although this was from a few weeks ago, I didn't have a scanner to copy the article into my photos. It's a great article and Yankee did fantastic in conformation. Congratulations Eileen and Yankee!

Vinlands Loa

Click twice on this image in order to read the copy.


Loa lives in Minnesota with Annette and Fred Prieve. They earned four HIT (High in Trials) under Judges Marilyn S. Tomaszewski and Russell J. Hornfisher in one weekend with the following scores: - 199, 199.5, 199+ and 198.

Vinlands Loa and Annette ranked first on the United Kennel Club's Novice All Star's list through March 13, 2011: -
http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPages/DEAllStarsObedience2011?OpenDocument&Click=
Loa's parents are Korpur (Alaskastaðirs Korpur, BFF, CGC, RN, RA, RE, CD) and Kria (Thordunu Kría, BFF, CGC, RN, RA, RE, CD ).