The Cattle Drive forum is where the drivers get together to complain, uh rather, discuss their assignments and encourage each other. Thanks to the enthusiastic initiative of Johannes de Jong, you can keep track of your progress on the drive with the Assignment Log. If you're tough enough to get through the nitpicking, you'll see your name on the Graduation Log.

Gettin' them doggies...
This month the number of Cattle Drivers wrastlin' Java code has hovered around 20. The majority are still in the OOP and Servlet corrals, but this month we got a fresh batch of Drivers out there takin' on Java Basics, and they ain't easy either! Activity in the JDBC corral is picking up too...

Fresh riders on the Drive...
Got a bunch o' new Cattle Drivers signed up on the assignment log, all jumpy and chompin' at the bit to drive them doggies. Big welcome to our latest batch of fresh riders: Craig Lewis, Julia Koelsch, Juliane Gross, Peter Berquist and Rob Ross. Enjoy the ride and hold on tight, it can get bumpy! A belated welcome to our own David O'Meara, hang in there mate, them doggies can be tougher than a pack o' alligators!

And a shiny spur goes to...
Once again, we got a pack o' spurs to hand out to those hardy souls who made it through a section of the Cattle Drive. Elouise Kivineva picked up her first silver spur for finishing Java Basics. Way to go, Elouise, have fun ropin' the rest!

Three tenacious Drivers roped up enough clean code to drive those OOP doggies: Joel Cochran, Josué Cedeño and Ronald Schindler can be mighty proud of their second silver spurs. Nice ridin' guys!

A shiny golden spur for a Cattle Drive regular who just keeps on codin', Peter Gragert, who has been ridin' an' ropin' real steady. Way to ride 'em, Peter! Peter's real active on the Drive and has already tied up a JDBC assignment or two.

Just last month the dust was kicked up in the JDBC corral, and it looks to be stayin' pretty wild in there. Special congrats to Daniel Olson and Lance Finney, who've been in the saddle quite a while ropin' that JDBC code. Well they made it out o' there and now it's sarsaparilla time in the saloon! Don't be thinking about leaving town at sundown, y'all are welcome to hang out and give a hand to the dusty ones still on the trail - after the celebration of course!

Back from being out on the range...
Sometimes long lost Cattle Drivers untangle themselves from the sagebrush and actually make it back to the Drive. This month some familiar faces, with maybe an extra scratch or two, made it back to pitch in and code again. A hardy welcome back to Gerald Dettling, Rick Prevett and Ronald Schindler, who returned to wrastle some more assignments!

Saddle sore...
So close and yet so far, that's how it feels when you're just about to graduate from one of the Cattle Drive "schools." Greg Harris knows the feeling, he's working on the last of the Servlets. Hang in there Greg, you'll get to sit in a real chair soon!

Following the good example of Daniel and Lance, Jason Adam has been itchin' to get out of that JDBC corral. Keep yer spurs in tight, Jason, you can ride it out, fer sure!

Takin' a break to look after the critters...
Sure 'nough hate to have to say it: our bartender Jason Adam, who's been right busy at JavaRanch and on the Cattle Drive, is going to take a break to work on the homestead and plenty of other stuff keeping him busy outside JavaRanch. Thanks for all the hard work and dedication on the Drive, Jason. We'll be watching the horizon and listening for hoofbeats, hoping whole bunches that you'll be riding this way again real soon!

Takin' orders at the bar...
Matthew Phillips, a regular at the Cattle Drive, has picked up bartending duties to fill in the gap left by Jason. Appreciate the help Matt, those ranchhands can get rowdy sometimes!

Nitpicking is hard work too...
We know they're workin' reeeeeally hard, after all we've seen what those assignments look like once the nitpickers have combed through 'em. Hats off to Marilyn deQueiroz and Jason Adam for their dedication and patience with the pesky vermin that always manage to make their way into those assignments. Newbie nitpicker Pauline McNamara has started collecting nits too.

Tips for the Trail...
Working on an assignment with a bunch of methods in it? (Now which one ;-) could that be?) It's still all about readability: remember to declare a method before you call it from another one. Happy codin'!

Written by Pauline McNamara, Jason Adam and Marilyn deQueiroz