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 start collecting moose heads at the Cattle Drive Hall of Fame.

Gettin' them doggies...
On the Cattle Drive, about a dozen Ranchers kept busy pickin' on our poor nitpickers during the past few months. As usual, them darn two Say assignments have garnered a whole lot of attempts.

Fresh riders on the Drive...
Got a few new Cattle Drivers signed up on the assignment log, all jumpy and chompin' at the bit to drive them doggies. A big welcome to our latest new riders: David Malott, Richard Hawkes, Tom Purl, Jay Lyche, and John Lynn. The trail gets a might bit bumpy 'round these parts. Get ready...

Another moose on the wall for...
Yep, that's right, you make it through, you get yerself a nice little moose to hang on the wall. Well, OK, so it's a virtual moose on a virtual wall, but you can be right proud of 'em! Thanks to the efforts of Marilyn deQueiroz, you can now proudly admire your codin' accomplishments at the recently opened Cattle Drive Hall of Fame. Check it out, pardner, it's worth a wink.

Jay Lyche and Juliane Gross each bagged their first moose on the Java Basics Trail of the drive. Way to go Jay and Juliane! While Elouise Kivineva was busy a ramblin' down the Classes and Objects Trail and baggin' her second moose, long timer Michael Matola got 'round to baggin' his third moose on the Servlets Trail. A big cloud of dust was a followin' Barry Gaunt, Ken Cobbs, and David Mason as together they stormed through the assignments on the first two trails and are already half-finished with the Servlets Trail. That's one hard-working trio. We're all lookin' forward to hearing some darn good fish stories in the Saloon from Manju Jain, who recently hung a fourth moose on the wall. Good job Ranchers!

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, Pauline McNamara, and Jason Adam for their dedication and patience with the pesky vermin that always manage to make their way into those assignments.

Tips for the Trail...
Remember that ol' SaladShooter you bought yer mom for Mother's Day a few years ago? You know it's been just gathering dust and sittin' in her cupboard all this time. It sure seemed like it might come in handy some day though, didn't it? Face it, She Ain't Gonna Need It.

Content and format adapted from Ol' Timer Pauline McNamara's original column. -Dirk Schreckmann.