I wanted to make my passion of competing my dogs more of a reality. I would compete in some hunt tests but the cost of staying in a hotel, finding and paying for a dog sitter, especially for long national events, was getting too high. In order to pay for this lifestyle I had to supplement my Social Security with whelping litters for other people and breeding my own dogs which required hiring help. Soon I was working to pay for my help, my mortgage, supplies and everyday living instead of working to pay for my competitions and dog training plus it tied up my time. I had to make a change! At 74 years old I realized I have fewer years ahead of me than behind me. I’m not afraid of change but change can be overwhelming! I owned a 3,000 sqft house but since my husband, Scott, passed I was only living in about 800 sqft of it and thousands of square feet where taken up with storage. My first decision was to sell the house but before I put it on the market I had to make a dent in what was in storage. I live by the philosophy that if you have a plan or a goal that you should write it down to make it a reality otherwise its just a wish. This leads to lists, to do lists, lists that are lists within lists. I was overwhelmed, so I had to take the task of cleaning out 70 plus years of living and working one box, one drawer and one area at a time. Added note, I don’t think Scott ever threw anything out! It took me a month to empty and throw away one room and many trips to the dump. I hired some people to help bring what was trash to the dump and was too embarrassed to answer when asked “how come you have so many vacuum cleaners?”.
My plan was to find between 5 to 10 acres build a house and get a Travel Trailer to go to my competitions. I found 9.5 acres and put a contingency contract on it to buy when my house sold. I found a builder and started mentally building the house, outbuildings and kennel. In the middle of downsizing my present house I also downsized the amount of dogs I had to my Labrador Retriever competition dogs, my first dog, Star, who is now 10 yrs old, my husband’s Service Dog, Zeus, my Field trial dog, Legend, my all around champion , Clip (short for Eclipse) and my Boykin Spaniel Java. Also a new future Field Trial dog whom I co-own with my Trainer, a puppy named Jaxx.