Someone new in the Bay

Barn Stormers welcomed another new baby on Wednesday night…. Miss Stormalong, aka Stormy.    Ruffy is the somewhat reluctant “big brother” but things are starting to improve!     She’s all teeth and bounce… keeping everyone busy!

Miss Stormalong

Future flyballer?

Inching closer all the time

Bling it On!

Gridley, California ……September 28-29, 2013

Barn Stormers ventured far afield for some U-FLI racing in September 2013 – all the way to Gridley, California, approximately 1300km away. We were warmly welcomed by Gold Coast Flyers, the tournament hosts. There was lovely warm weather for the weekend and we all enjoyed the change in surroundings – several of us had never seen an olive tree before… there were acres of them around.

California racing was a bit of a culture shock – racing started at 7:30am (yes, it WAS still dark when we signed in at 6:30am). Racing on Saturday ended after 8pm, awards close to 9pm… what a very, very long day. The Hurricanines were seeded in Division 1 on both days and, while a bit outclassed, we gave it our all and had a fun time in the ring. Especially when our adventurous team member Ally raided the dollar store and convinced us all to wear, into the ring, the beads, tiaras and feather masks she brought back. We actually won the “Most Bling” team contest, judged by the hosts of the tourney. Our reward… skinny stuffed dogs, woo hoo!  And for the sports enthusiasts, we walked over to watch part of a high school football game, complete with cheerleaders, on Friday night.

After our racing ended on Sunday, at around 5:30pm, we jumped in our vehicles to get some kilometres under our wheels, happy to be headed home. Little did we know that we were driving into some of the worst weather Oregon and Washington had seen in a long while. Rain, wind and flooding made travelling very….interesting.

Overall, it was a fun trip. Always great to meet other flyball enthusiasts.

Camping in the California sunshine

Friday night dinner

The camp inside... dogs resting outside

A very Canadian touch for the flag!

The blingiest team of the tournament... the crazy Canucks!

2013 BBQ in the Bay

August 24, 2013

The weather cooperated, even if it did threaten a couple of times, and the annual Barn Stormers summer BBQ went off without a hitch.   The usual craziness was amplified thanks to our resident Mad Hatter, Ally.   As usual, trying to stir the pot, she came up with the idea of having a theme this year… Hats !   Successive emails developed the criteria and rules… dog themed hats had an edge.   While not everyone was able to get creative, those that did developed some wild and whacky ideas.   At the end of the evening, after all the appies, burgers (thanks, Darren and Tony, for ‘chefting’) , salads and fruits were demolished as best we could (Barn Stormers really like to bring food!) the voting took place and Graham won for the most creative and most doggy oriented!    You can find him in the picture… he’s the one whose face is hidden by the “cone of shame” part of his hat.    We missed some of our members who were unable to come;  hopefully we’ll see them at the Christmas party which has already been booked!

Just some of the gang

Looks like serious discussion here!

The hat group !

The Hats !!!!

Flying at the Fair

July 27/28, 2013       Maple Ridge, BC

Another hot, hot weekend, but the Hurrycanines, Jonas, Buffy, Dancer and Ruffy, joined by their pals, Seeker and Chianna, did their best to ignore the heat.   The venue for this tournament is outside on grass  in the sun, so the wading pools, shade curtains and air conditioning were much appreciated by dogs and people alike.

Despite, or maybe because of, the craziness of elimination rounds at the end of the round robin races, the team placed second on Saturday and third on Sunday in the Open Division.
As always, the social aspect of tournaments is what helps to keep us going.   Visiting with good friends and team mates and sharing laughs after racing is done is as much fun as winning!   Right, Laura?

Thanks to Aaron for the pictures.

Setting up our camp in the parking lot

On the line and ready to go

Sometimes races are really, really close!

Wedding Bells

Another Barn Stormer first…. our congratulations go to Graham and Anne who found a lovely spot in Chilliwack,  on a wonderful June 14, 2013, for a beautiful ceremony.     The hoped for honeymoon south had to be postponed, but that didn’t spoil the celebration.

Dogwood No Frills Tournament

June 1 – 2, 2013 …… Cloverdale, BC

Dancer, Ruffy and Buffy joined the crew of Maximum Overdrive to make up two teams for the June Dogwood Pacesetter’s tournament. As well, Lily  teamed up again with her old teammates, the Dream Team and had a good time.   Quite a shock to us humans – it’s been a long while since we’ve had full teams of 6 dogs, each with its OWN handler! We’re used to having more dogs than handlers. It was a lot of fun. The babies, Lauren (1yr) and William (9mos), kept us all amused – mostly by the crazy stuff people will do to get a baby to smile.

Both teams had some green (first tournament) dogs, which made for some notable goof-ups. The Gear Jammers team is proud (not!) to announce that they won a heat, with zero flags, in a whopping 40.5 seconds. The seasoned second and third dogs did very well to ignore the green start dog chasing them up and down the lane, still doing their jobs by taking all the jumps and holding on to their balls. These things can happen with an excited new dog. The height dog running fourth, waited semi-patiently for Buck to be caught, before doing her run. Crazily enough, the other team had multiple flags and our team still won! Laughter was heard afterwards. Brad was given an imaginary 10.0 for his style in hurdling over Buck who suddenly stopped right in front of him during another heat. Very exciting racing over the weekend. 😀  The goof-ups are what make flyball so much fun, in my opinion.

Cathy and Tony with William

The social end of a tournament!

All the chairs and crates made it look pretty crowded.

MFAC No Frills Tournament

May 4 – 5, 2013            Abbotsford, BC

The Hurricanines made another trip to the mainland for a very hot tournament!  Joining them was our honorary Barn Stormer, Seeker, graciously loaned to us a height dog, by Laura and Aaron.   Our clean runs and consistent speeds allowed us to pull to a first place in Division One Open on Saturday and again on Sunday!

Jonas, Buffy and Seeker ran in every race which meant they earned lots of dog points;  Buffy passed the 5000 mark for a new title… congratulations, Flyball Master!!  An early last race of the day for us meant we could get away in time for the 5:00 ferry home…. tired dogs, tired handlers and box loader, but a very happy crew.   Good work everyone.

A small group, but a great group!

A New Arrival !

The first new baby for a long time for Barn Stormers!    Stacey and Darren are pleased to announce that Finnegan has joined the family – a little brother for Zeke!   Congratulations to you all!

5 weeks old

... and now he's 9 weeks

March Madness Tournament

March 9 – 10, 2013        Cloverdale

Barn Stormers showed their faces again, appearing in  Open Division Two  in the tournament hosted by Run Free.   Seeker, Jonas, Ruff and Dancer performed well – a runaway first on Saturday, and down to the last race of the day to place second on Sunday.   Clean runs are so important.

Congratulations to Anne on her impressive handler debut, teaming up with Seeker.  They quickly came to an understanding and had a great time together.   Amazing how different flyball seems in the racing ring – fast, fast, fast!

Kudos to Graham and Jonas as well;    they reached the 2500 point milestone – Flyball Dog Champion Gold.  Congratulations, Jonas!

Thank you to Laura and Aaron Hughes for lending us Seeker to keep the jump height reasonable.    We really appreciated that.     And also, thanks to Jeff of Jet City Jumpers for taking pictures for us;   we had no spare hands!

Anne and Seeker worked well together

The team on the line getting ready to run!

2012 Christmas Classic Tournament

Off to the mainland were Buffy, Jonas and Ruff who made the trip to join their friends from Pawcific Storm at Dogwood Pacesetters annual tournament on Dec. 1st and 2nd.    The weather was absolutely wild…. wind, rain, sun…. we had everything but snow.      A shortage of dogs and handlers made for some interesting times, but we were able to have two teams entered;    Saturday saw Griz, Ruff, Rig and Chianna race their little hearts out and pull off a first place finish in Div. Three.    The team of Buffy, Holly, Jonas, Max and Seeker had a tougher time  in Div. Four as their competition was just a bit faster than them, but they ran clean and came fourth.     A potluck supper on Saturday night had 16 people crammed into Randy and Cathy’s trailer… good food and lots of laughs.

On Sunday, our captains Laura and Julia, changed things around somewhat.     Griz, Ruff, Max, Chianna and Rudi made up an Open team and romped to another first place;     Buffy, Holly, Jonas, Seeker and for one race, Ruff, competed again in Div. Four but again, they were just not able to pull past the faster teams of this group, even though they ran as clean as they could.

Jonas, it needs to be mentioned, had a good time.    Graham was unable to come with us, but allowed Jonas to come by himself;     he got to stay in two different houses, two different motor homes, and  had two different handlers, Samantha for one race and Marg the rest of the time.

A tiring weekend, a fun weekend …. what more could we want!

a break between races

Jonas was a real cuddle pup!

Holly kept a close eye on the schedule