Christmas Party 2017
“Twas the night before Christmas
At Sid and Janet’s house……
Well, not quite the night before, but let me tell you how it went…
First and foremost a huge round of applause for our gracious hosts! Christmas lights adorned the house and inside everything was aglow with the spirit of the season! Thank you again from all of us !
As at all Barnstormer festive functions, the food and drink table was full of delicious treats from salmon to meatballs to Sam’s infamous pumpkin pie! My favorite part!
While our team numbers at the moment are down a tad and the crowd was smaller, there were guests young (Remy), old (Sid and Douglas might be tied), returning to the game team mates (Lisa), alumni (Lynn) and our favorite flyball family (Rob, Sam and Nikki). Always nice to see a smiling familiar face that was Laura. It’s always nice to see everyone outside of a barking zone and have a chance to catch up. My favorite part!
Marg and Tony were very much missed this year, but as she always does she left the team with a little something… fabulous hand crafted book marks. I always look forward and appreciate her talents every year. My favorite part!
Secret Santa was a success as always , we even managed to be civil with no body contact but there were some evil stare downs when the stealing of gifts began! My favorite part!
As you can see, my favorite thing other than the love of my dogs is to be surrounded by people who love their dogs as much as I do and love the fun and comradely that comes with it. Flyball- It’s not all about the dogs although that’s what brings us together. It’s about enjoying good company, sharing all our favourite things .
To those who couldn’t make it, we missed you and hope to see you at the next one. Until then, see you at the barn racing our favorite things!
This write up for the party was supplied by our creative writing gal, Ally. Thanks, Ally.
But now it’s time for me to put in my two bits worth. If I had been there, I would have had to say a huge thanks to Sid and Janet…Sid for taking on the training of our dogs, and the both of them for keeping everything running while Tony and I are away. To our new members, I’m so glad you’ve joined us; to our “old” members, I’m so glad you’re still with us. To all of you, my wish is for you to have a wonderful Christmas season, and the very best for the New Year.
The table was loaded…
Sid and Janet made some wonderful dog ornaments
Looks like Remy was well looked after
Chatting….
eating…
more eating….
Kings Flying Into Fall
Abbotsford October 14 – 15, 2017
Thanks to our good friends, Portland Tail Blazers, three members of the Barn Stormer gang were able to take part in a mainland tournament again. Buffy, Max and Stormy ran with Milo, Sabia, Gryffin (PTB) and Lucy from Seattle in an Open division. Despite the fact that most of these dogs had never run together before, they made a good showing of second both days. Stormy had a new personal best of 5.316, and also achieved her FM title. Max and Buffy ran true and steady…no new titles but points toward the next ones.
Some of the crew relaxing
The points sheet from Sunday’s racing
Flyball by the Bay
Mill Bay July 29/30, 2017
An island tournament again – Barn Stormers made an appearance finally. We didn’t cover ourselves in glory, but we had some fun. Max ran for Nikki and Samantha, and even Rob for one race – he was his steady dependable self – what a good boy. Pixie came with Ally and Buffy on the Saturday but unfortunately she found the excitement level just too high and was unable to play by the rules. Buffy, however, was her reliable self – her own style but consistent. The rest of our team was made up of three Jack Russells – Rizzo and Roo with Tara (Flying Underdogs) and Pterra with Crystal (Apupalyptic) all from Oregon. Miss Stormy ran with Portland Tailblazers to make room for the rest of the club dogs – she achieved a personal best time of 5.6 sec on Saturday! Yay, Stormy.
Sunday’s line up had Dixie and Honey joining Max and the Jacks. Dixie also found the excitement too much – little does she know how hard she’s going to be working at practices from now on! Valiant little Honey decided she’d had enough and retired herself – still lots of get up and go, but not over jumps or hitting a box, she says!!
As always, good to see and visit with flyball friends and enjoy quiet time with our club after racing.
Photos are courtesy of Nikki and David E from Portland.
Part of Saturday’s lineup
And a bit of Sunday’s
Janet with Roo
Christmas Party, 2016
Well, it was kinda early, Nov. 5 to be exact, but a few of us managed to get together at Laura’s house for a bit of socializing and laughs. Thanks again to Laura for allowing us to use her house..it makes such a great party place. The food was awesome as always, and the company great. When we felt we’d done justice to the table, we settled into a comfortable spot for a few presentations. While we didn’t make it to a lot of tournaments this year, when we did, there were two events that had to be acknowledged … both Nikki and Lasha achieved perfect starts – well done, gals. It wasn’t a hard decision for the Team Spirit Award this year… Janet and Sid…. they’ve made a wonderful addition to the club. Earlier this year saw our second wedding in the club… Ally and Bruce,,,, and before the year would be out, our first baby… congratulations to Erika – welcome to Remy.
Secret Santa finished off the evening… quite low key… hardly any contact or stealing! Oh, well…
As 2016 winds to a close, my wish is for you all to have a wonderful holiday season, and here’s to a great New Year.
Flyball at the Fairground
Saanichton August 13-14, 2016
Again – our very own local tournament, cohosted by Barn Stormers and Total Anarchy. With some creative planning, we were able to put together two teams to enter in the Open Division; the Tailstormers, consisting of Max, Griz, Buffy, Pixie, Honey and Pixel who placed 4th on Saturday, and 1st on Sunday, and the Barn Blazers – Robbie, Navi, Bella, Dixie, Stormy and Ruff who placed 3rd on Saturday and 2nd on Sunday. Well done all of you! It would be remiss to not especially acknowledge our faithful box loader, Tony – two teams, dogs he didn’t know and special balls – he did it all. Our sincere thanks to Nancy, who came from Portland to run with us and to Julia, who loaned us Griz. You can be Barn Stormers any time you want! Two new titles were achieved on Saturday – Navi and Stormy both reached FDCh-G (3000 points)
On Saturday, Barn Stormers were responsible for running the tournament; a special big thank you has to go to Sid and Karen D who kept that table running smoothly. Our prizes of dog toys and tugs seemed to go over well – thank you, Janet, for all your work on those. Barn Stormers also organized and hosted the potluck Saturday night – corn on the cob and lots of everything else.
Sunday we were responsible for the raffle table – Lynn and Liz did a terrific job there. Erika and Samantha managed to have the right food for the judge, table workers and our team. Good job, ladies. Sid and Laura also were kept very busy on Sunday, helping TA with their running of the scoring table.
A lot of work from everyone made our share of the tournament successful…. thank you all!
The famous dog bones and firehose tugs
Our excellent raffle table … over 40 items
Samantha perfumed the air with the delicious smell of baking cinnamon buns
Great lunch designed by Erika, with Rob on the bbq for the burgers
Stuffing Party !
Samantha and Nikki hosted a stuffing party to stuff toys for the tournament. Laura, Ally, Lynn, Janet, the girls, and Marg stuffed and sewed away til there were 150 dog bone toys stuffed and squeakered! Since it was a party, there had to be food of course… mmmm good. Sid manned the bbq and deep fryer for us when he and Tony weren’t watching the football game on the big screen tv. Fun for all. To add to the mix, 5 dogs checking out what we were doing… everytime someone tested a squeaker, they really had to investigate.
Run Free March Madness
Cloverdale, BC March 12 – 13, 2016
What a weekend! Barn Stormers travelled to the mainland, dealing with ferry waits, rain and wind. Buffy, Navi, Stormy and Ruff met up with Jonas (our satellite member) to run in the largest tournament Region 7 has seen in a long time – 30 teams and it would have been 33 but for a suspected kennel cough outbreak which caused one club to withdraw.
First race jitters on Saturday made for some crazy moments but as we settled down, we held our own, finally finishing the day with a second place. Jonas earned his new title early in the day – FMX – good boy. Our valiant little height dog, Stormy, ran true until the second to last race of the day when she showed us she was tired. Not to be stimied, we upped the jump heights to 14 inches to the amazement of many, anchored the team with Ruffy, and ran well, taking all four heats. Such good dogs !!
On Sunday, our Captain Graham, strategized and had us jumping 14 inches for the first race to again take all 4 heats. The rest of the day went well too, until Stormy decided that the little border collie, Bailey, in the other lane was more attractive than the ball in our box. Ruffy was delighted to have her pulled because he got to run again. A major highlight of this day was when Navi and Lasha pulled off a perfect start… not easy to do! Well done. Despite our good beginning, our “oops” made us finish in second place again.
Our final race was over by 2:30 so it was a dash to the ferry to try to beat the storm that was threatening – rain and strong winds. Everyone made it for the 4:00 ferry but it was held in port for 30 minutes while they decided if it would go or not. Finally they boarded us, but as the ferry backed out, the wind blew us into the pilings – made the local news and scared a lot of people as we crashed and tipped. Crossing the strait was a roller coaster ride – not fun at all. The annoucements kept coming… telling everyone to remain seated which some of us were more than happy to do. Reaching Actyive Pass and calmer waters was a welcome relief.
Despite all this, it was a great weekend. Fun times with good teammates and friends on other teams. Happy dogs and people – yay, flyball ! Thanks for the pictures, Ally and Cathy K.
On the line
Ready, ready, ready….
Focus on the ball
In dock, before the crunch
Dogwood Christmas Classic
Cloverdale November 21 – 22, 2015
Something the mainland hasn’t seen for awhile – two Barn Stormer teams! A regular division, the Hurrycanines, was made up of Dancer, Jonas, Max, Navi, and Stormy and the other was an open division, the Spitfurs, with Ruffy, Buffy, Max, Ruben (from Oregon), Seeker, and on Sunday, Savannah (from Washington) to assist Seeker. CJ joined the Spits for warmup when we had time.
Some of us who were camped at the fairgrounds were treated to an unusual serenade on Friday night – coyotes! Apparently a group of them are hanging around the area; those with little dogs kept a close eye on them outside throughout the weekend.
Once the normal first race jitters and confusion got out of the way, the teams settled down to serious racing. The Hurrys saw some impressive times both days even managing to break out once to our delight. The Spitfurs ran a bit slower but for the most part ran cleanly.
It was good fun to run with our Oregon member, Chris and her collie, Ruben. She enjoyed herself and said she’d be happy to run with us anytime. We also borrowed Len and Savannah to help out on Sunday; both Seeker and Ruff were feeling their age (and Ruff his arthritis) and they needed a break.
A very welcome sight was Graham who was able to join us for awhile both days and ran Jonas for some of the races. Not sure who was happier to see him – Jonas or us.
Our faithful regular box loader, Tony, was sidelined; he spent most of his time “resting” his new knee by sitting in as box judge for us and many other teams. Thank you Tony. Laura, Kathi and Nikki took turns doing the box loading, managing to get those red, squishy, small or regular balls in the right holes with hardly a miss. Thank you ladies.
There was always a ball shagger ready to go – seemed like everyone took a turn at that if Lorraine or Chris weren’t already there. You never know just what you’re going to wind up doing. Marg was peaceably minding her own business in “camp” when she was recruited to run a start dog for a team who was suddenly missing a handler.
The new team colour for our shirts was a hit – we had lots of compliments on them. Barn Stormers were easy to spot out on the line; we made a good colour choice gang.
A 7:30 start to the racing on Sunday meant that even with us staying to help Dogwood break down and clean up, we were all able to easily catch the 5:00 ferry home. Some of us rewarded ourselves with the buffet and spent the trip sharing good laughs.
It was a fun weekend spent with good friends and happy dogs. It’s why we keep playing.
So happy to see Graham
One of the Hurrycanine combinations
Laura in one of her box loading stints
Our Oregon member… Ruben
Len and Savannah on Sunday
Flying thru the air with the greatest of ease
Christmas Party – 2015
Barn Stormers got together for what was probably the earliest Christmas party of the season… November 14th! No one seemed to mind though because as someone said, “It’s a party!” Have to give great big thanks to Laura for allowing us to have the party in her home… so much nicer than an impersonal hall! The call is out for who would like to host next year! Most everyone was able to make it, but we missed the ones who weren’t. It was nice to see some part time members who’ve run with us as well, and can’t forget “Judge” Randy from the mainland.
The appys and desserts loaded the table as usual …. it’s a wonder we are able to move afterwards. Nobody to blame but yourself if you come away hungry. There’d been a request for the infamous “Rum Chowdahs” … they did seem to go pretty fast.
Ally and Samantha got everyone into the living room and seated so we were able to do the little bit of formalities… some NAFA certificates to hand out, and Most Improved Dog for Navi and then on to Secret Santa…. once again a lot of laughter and fun, although not enough stealing for Samantha! The highlight of the gift exchange had to be Laura reading out the directions for the doggy fortune cookies…. imaginations working overtime aided by Linda’s comments.
Our little club keeps surviving due to the great group we have. Each and every one of you is appreciated.
All the best to everyone and see you in 2016.
Just some of the group
Chianna got a bit of loving
The dog tree… not really ornaments.. they work better hanging on a flat surface
Flying Into Fall
Sept 26 – 27, 2015 Ridgefield, WA
Two of the Barn Stormers were able to travel again for a terrific tournament south of the border. Ruffy and Stormy were invited to run with Dogwood Pacesetters as part of an open team… the Dogstormers. Cathy with Snap, Dee with Lucy, Taylor with Gooey and Zing, and Sam made up the Dogwood part of the team. Our faithful boxloader, Tony, coped with a very sensitive box and an assortment of different balls… squishy, little, chuckit and regular… he’s good!! Stormy, the princess, cooperated part of the time, but also had her diva moments which meant in the last race of Saturday, she was pulled so that the team could break the tie we were in and pull to a first place finish.
The first heat of the first race on Sunday allowed Stormy to get the 2 points she needed from Saturday to give her next title… FDCh-S… 1000 points! Good little girl. Despite some difficulties, the team managed to achieve third place by the end of the day.
Stumptown puts on a really great tournament… colour coordinated prizes even! Visiting with friends and meeting new people is, as always, a good part of the fun. Here’s hoping that next year, Barn Stormers will be able to put their own team together for a great weekend.
Ya gotta rest if you’re running flyball
Souvenir T shirts we bought… even had Barn Stormers on the back
A two ring tournament so we were kept hopping from one side to the next
Stormy’s button. A special touch done by the hosts for the dogs achieving new titles
