Pics of the Pooches

I took a few pics this morning before I left for work.. I love this one! Ellie is 4 months old now.
It is tuff leaving these cute little children behind every day..
We love this little girl... I hope she stays this size forever!
Chillin out in the "fasha's" chair!

Cooper was born!!

Of the above litter, 7 of those are boys & 2 girls.. We are not sure yet which one will end up being Cooper, but we've got plenty to choose from. Remi started having her first pup on Monday evening 9/27 and in about 4-5 weeks, we'll be able to have our pick. Whichever pup is the birdiest or shows the most promise towards the hunting instinct is the one for us.

This past weekend we wanted to drive down to Rainier OR to meet the trainer that Derek wants to send Cooper to for 3 months next Spring. The horse club was staying down in Grayland WA for our annual beach ride so we decided to leave Saturday morning, stop down with the club and spend the night with them and then head down to OR Sunday morning. The plan worked well.. we had a great potluck dinner Saturday evening around the fire and somehow managed to avoid any real serious rain.. until Saturday night when it just downpoured for hours... I was so thankful for having a camper, although I did briefly wonder how Tyler was doing out in his small tent.. turns out he didnt get wet at all.

When we first got to the beach, we could hear the surf, the wind was blowing pretty good. So we asked Scott & Barbara how far to the beach. Barbara says "Oh just over the little hill/burn over there" Scott shook his head and said "its a little further than that!" He informed us that we'd have to take the longer route because the direct route was blocked by a very large 2' deep puddle. So we walk down towards the little hill.. crest it.. well Shit! The beach is atleast a 1/2 mile away and thats via the direct route. So we start following the very soft sandy trail which is running parallel to where we really need to be.. after 10 minutes my lower back was on fire! That sand was not fun to walk in. Another 10 minutes later I stopped and told the guys "f it" I had no idea how much further we would be walking parallel and I could hardly stand the pain, it wasnt worth it. So as I stood there and the guys continue on, I could hear Derek up ahead whistle that he wanted me to continue on as the trail finally turned towards the beach. So I trekked on and after maybe an almost mile's worth of walking, we reached the beach! I found a log, sat for 10 minutes and immediately felt relief. I was glad I walked out there, although I did wish I was riding and not walking. After 10 minutes of sitting my back amazingly was 100% fine and I made it 3/4 of the way back before it started to even slightly pinch. It's hard to imagine it being on fire all the way out there and then no pain practically on the way back..

Derek and I laughed and decided that Barbara's idea of the ocean being just over the little burn is equivelant to Scott's idea of what a hill is!!! :) lol Next year we definately want to bring the horses down.

So the dog trainer, Butch, has a really nice place! His kennels are very professional looking and clean.. he was hosting a Hunt Test trial day on his property that day, which was great because we were able to see a few Boykins work and met with a few people, but it was not good because he didnt have time to focus on us as the point of going down was to get some questions answered. When we asked him what day he wanted us to come down, he picked the day. He did spend about 10 minutes off/on with us, so we basically got what we needed, although we probably got more than half of what we wanted to know answered by his wife when we were getting ready to leave! :) We met up with the co-founders of the Cascade club, which is the newest HRC (Hunt Retrieval Club) starting in Western WA. I had spoken with Anne on the phone a couple times, but had not had a chance to meet her yet, funny we found eachother down in OR! Neither of us knew the other would be there. It was a long day but well worth it for the information we received. One thing we learned that we were not at all aware before, is that our dog will be trained with a collar.. I have mixed feelings about it I guess. He is a GREAT trainer, he is the one that trained Earl (the daddy dog) I just didnt realize this is how many hunting dog trainers do it. So we are going to have to buy the collar.. good thing there is some side work coming in to cover these costs :)

Ellie and I start basic obedience in 2 weeks! As far as commands, I dont think she or I needs the class much, although I'm sure I will get some good ideas and help through the class. But she could use the socialization and forcing her to focus on me when things are "busy" around her. She is getting pretty good now at stopping what she is doing if we call her, she comes when we ask 90% of the time. I took one pic recently.. I have been so out of it on taking pics.. I need to try harder to document the things going on around us.

This pic was taken about a week ago, she is really starting to look the part of the Aussie. Not that she didnt before, but her face is really developing and moving away from the puppy form. She and Russell are hilarious together!! They play and chase all the time, I tried to get video but it was too dark to see. She makes us laugh daily and we are sure that Russell loves having the company and someone to play with. I'm wondering in 7 weeks how much he'll still love us when we bring him another puppy..

Since we put in the gate in our entry way and the dogs now go in/out through the doggy door when we are at work, Ellie has finally figured out that the front door is where she is to go when she needs to poddy! I am so excited, last night was the first time we have had the slider closed (which is almost always open so she has quick access to the outside for poddy business) and she walked to the front door, out the doggy door all on her own and came back in a few minutes later!! She's been accident free for probably a month and now that she's starting to figure out where she must always go for poddy, we can start keeping the doors closed and keeping the flesh eating mosquitos out. We've been waiting for this day for 2 months.. it definately pays to own smart dogs, I dont think I could handle a Marley type dog. :) and in 2 months, we start this process all over again.

So Derek sent me a text this morning, wants to know what I think about naming our Boykin "Leap of F8 Cooper" I love it! If I havent mentioned already, the plan for the future (I'm talking a couple years down the road) is to get a female Boykin with great hunting lines and breed a few litters. So he says he wants to name our female "Leap of F8 Autumn" because our kennel name will be "Leap of F8"! Oh so now we are kennel.. hmm news to me.. LOL But I do like the Leap of F8 name, so I guess it works for this imaginary kennel that someday could become reality.. according to Derek the number of dogs we now own qualifies us as a kennel! :)

The horses are still being ignored for the most part and are still on pasture for now. Edgar is still off on his shoulder, we are hoping he recovers so we can take him to the Winery Ride which we have now paid for already... I am hoping to get someone out today or tomorrow to take out the rest of that Walnut tree, we are putting in the top rails on our fencing tomorrow, things are slowly progressing. My goal is to have the horses home within the next 10 days, good luck with that! I realized this morning that I never made the time to finish painting the house this summer.. hmmm! Good thing its only color, cuz it probably wont get done this year now.. maybe there is still hope, but it is a small sliver.

I have been busy utilizing my awesome craft/sewing room! :) Every morning before work I have about 45 minutes before I have to leave and I used to watch TV during that time. Now more often than not, I am in the room working on a project. I started a new one, cant wait to finish it and be able to post pics. I cant quite say what it is since both projects are gifts but when I can, I will! I've been doing okay at keeping up on the kitchen and not letting it get out of control, and the laundry too.. trying to be a better "Betty Crocker" type person, sometimes I fail miserably!

Oh and on a final note, I am really pissed at myself.. I washed Dereks apron as it was a bit dirty/greasy after our prize ride weekend and then.... I dried it!!!! :( DAMMIT. The canvis type material shrunk and the top layer did not, so now there is all this loose material flapping around, its like it had a massive weight loss and there is just all this loose skin that just doenst look right hangin around! I put it back in the wash this morning, will see if the water will help stretch it back out... :(

Mission Impossible.. Accomplished!

Yep, I got the craft room finished, the apron completed (did a pretty good job on it too!), house cleaned, laundry mostly completed.. yep we were ready for our company and the busy weekend ahead.

Rick & Kristen came in late Thursday evening, they as well had a busy weekend planned so I didnt feel too badly that we could not focus all our attention on them. Friday, Shana came up and we went out to the tree farm to ride the flagged trail for our annual club prize ride. I rode Red and she had to ride HotRod.. we borrowed him for the day since Edgar is still lame on his shoulder. I knew it would be a slight challenge for Red, he hates to have brush around his legs and sure enough I had to get him in the bush many times on that ride to adjust flags.. considering we are the tallest ones, we tend to get needed often. :)

He was definately irritated at me for asking him to go outside his comfort level.. his lips were smackin a lot, but he had his ears forward and he seemed happy to be out. A few times I had to remind him what "WHOA" meant, he was a bit anxious but I'm sure it had more to do with brush on his legs than him being overly defiant. Towards the end of the ride, I asked him to sidepass to the right to get into some brush and he had a little tizzy, struck out his front leg with a clear message saying "Hell No Lady, I'm done!" :) So when I put more leg into him, instead of going away from the pressure, he went into it, sidepassing the wrong direction and then got his gangly legs hung up on themselves and the 6" embankment, yeah... we went down!

All the way down.. I screeched as I thought for sure I was coming off, plus it startled me pretty good. He's a big guy to go down and I'm a big girl to get back up! My riding buddies for the day were up ahead of me, so they all missed the fiasco. Red was on his side somewhat, I was just waiting and he started to attempt to get up, it wasnt pretty.. because he slipped a couple times on that darn 6" embankment that was underneath him, so it was sloppy and really bouncy back/forth but he made it up and my ass remained in the saddle. My gut has a pretty nice round horn bruise, but that is the extent of the battlewound. Shana came trotting back to see what the commossion was about, but she missed the entire show.

Minutes later I again asked Red to get into some brush to finish off our ride and he was a little less irritated and just did what I asked.. He worked hard that day and I was really happy he did so well, doing something he just hated!

Shana, Derek & I got up at about 5:30am Saturday to get ready and head off to the tree farm for the day. Shana & I worked registration until about 3pm, while Derek helped wherever he was needed and then later cooked up some really tastey burgers with his stylin apron on! The day/ride was a success and the rain held off, amazing!

Derek & Shana setting up signs

Shana & I at registration sportin the flashy organge vests with Kathy and Del in the front.

Derek and Earl cookin burgers and Dennis servin up cookies!

The day was not over for us though, we left the tree farm and headed straight to my brothers for some dinner and cards. When he invited us days earlier in the week, it sounded great.. and it was great, but we were exhausted.. mostly Derek. He actually went home after dinner while I stayed to play cards and hitched a ride home with my parents.

Sunday the boys had plans to play golf and us girls were going to go riding. Kristen hadnt been out in about 5 years so she was really excited about it. The weather seemed questionable but OK and just as she got in the shower, the showers outside came down! We held off for a while then decided to heck with it, we were riding rain or shine! Loaded up the boys (I rode Edgar, wanted to feel how bad his shoulder was and see if he was okay, which he is not yet) and she rode Red. It rained on us as we took the horses out of the horse trailer at Lords Hill and 5 minutes later, it quit and we had nice clear dry weather for the entire ride. The guys were not so lucky, although they didnt get rained on much, it had rained so much that the course was 5" of standing water so they cut it short at 9 holes. As we rode, we witnessed the falling of a random tree in the woods, I think Edgar was ready to run for the hills when it started to fall.. :)

Oh and I was pretty excited over the weekend because on Thursday I had an email that a trainer had a 'ready-to-buy' client that wanted to come see Oakley as soon as possible. So I arranged with Shannon for a Monday afternoon showing, I talked to the trainer on Saturday and all seemed very positive. I was excited, waited all day Monday for a call from either Shannon or the trainer.. nothing. That evening I sent a text to Shannon who then got back to me, she said the showing went great. Oakley was a perfect angel, he didnt do anything wrong and the 11yr girl that is the one looking for her first horse, loved him. It is now Wed and I have yet to hear from the buyer or the trainer, so not sure what went wrong or why they decided not to buy him. Maybe they are just mulling it over but I am dissappointed because it seemed so promising and perfect.. oh well.

Oh and the tree! Well.. the guy that we decided would take the tree, came out Friday afternoon when Derek was home from work. I was still out riding. So I get home at dusk and the guy is just getting ready to leave, he looks like someone that lives out in the woods, a little quiet and odd. After he pulls out of the driveway, Derek just shook his head and said "If your dad was here, he would have kicked this guy off the property". So the guy was supposed to take out the tree is small sections, he told me 2' pieces. Well he was taking it down in 8' sections which would be OK if he knew what he was doing. But the guy apparently did not and as Derek watched him from inside the house, he realized he had better get outside and supervise before the guy killed himself or wrecked our property. He wasnt listening to the ideas Derek had to make the cuts and he then put himself in a position that when he cut a big branch, he was right underneath it on his ladder, the branch swung around, swiped him off his ladder and his ass landed on our shed awning (busting the roof piece) and then the branch landed next to him, busting another section of the roof. Derek told him after that, "Hey why dont we de-limb what is already on the ground and get that taken care of before cutting any more down". So they did and then it was dark so the guy left his ladder and the 8' sections and went home. I called the guy the next day and told him he could have what he had cut down, but we were uncomfortable with how the tree was coming down, so he could not work on it anymore and we would get someone else out.

What a joke! I am thankful the guy didnt get hurt, I have someone else interested and he is a commercial tree faller, so they should be coming today or tomorrow to take a peak and tell us exactly how he intends to take out the rest of the tree safely so we can decide if we are okay with it. I thought I was be super sad when the tree came down because it hangs so nicely over the yard, but now that the bottom branches are all cut off.. it is amazing how much it opened up to seeing the pasture now and the light it lets into the yard and even a little into the house and I am no longer sad about taking it down. I'm not going to miss the tree as much as I thought I might!

We've got the divider wall up in our entryway so the dogs can now come into the house. So far so great, no poddy's on the wood floor. Ellie is really doing great at 'come'. Not sure what the turning point was, but all the sudden she just gets it. I have now moved on to "down".. not as in "off" but down as in lay down. She is doing well at that, my goal is to eventually get her to "sit" from the down position.. that one is tougher. I work a little on it, but once she lays down, she hasnt figured out that sit means to get back up. If we leave the front door open and the back door closed, she has finally figured out to march her behind up to the front door and go outside as we want to now discourage her going out the back slider and only to go to the front door.

Our Boykin pup Cooper should be born about any day now.. I'd say within the next week for sure, if not sooner. Apparently her belly pretty much drags on the floor.. we are still hopeful that there is atleast one boy inside. :)

The fenceline has not changed in 2 weeks, maybe next week we can get started back on that, but what I really need is a dump truck/trailer load of gravel... Fall has set in around here, foggy cold mornings and I am eager as ever to get the boys home.

Big pat on my back..

yes, I deserve it! I finally decided to conquer, tackle, getagrip, deal with........ the craft room!! That has been a splinter in my side for a very long time, well 2 years actually. We've been in the new house that long already and I had boxes of STUFF just everywhere. If you had been to my house and seen that room, you would have not even known the carpet color, yes it was that bad. I would temporarily move things from here to there when I needed to find something. I needed some motivation and I finally found it.

We are having company this weekend, our nephew and his wife, Rick & Kristen who will be sleeping in our spare bedroom but then cousin Shana is staying over Friday night as well to help with our upcoming horse club Prize Ride, so I wanted her to have an option of either airmattress in living room or in craft room And then next month we are hosting Taco Night South of the Border social with the horse club and I know some may want to see the house, so it was just time. :) Whew was that a chore! I was secretly happy that Derek had to work both Saturday & Sunday for his employer because I hate just sitting around the house when he is gone and find I am most motivated when I am alone actually.. when he is home I am much more content to just sit around.. hmmm, does that mean I'd be skinny if I was single?? :)

It took me all of Sunday (about 6 hours) and then I finished it up last night. It looks AMAZING! I mean it's not like super awesome, but there is nothing out of place... Everything is in a bin or on a shelf and my craft table is 100% cleared off, I can get into and close the closet doors! I even was so refreshed and excited about my new room, that this morning I did not stick with my usual morning ritual of getting ready then watching a recorded show for 45 minutes before leaving for work.. no I went in that craft room and started working on a project! Yes that time of year is here, projects are starting to come into my head for the holidays and Derek has me committed to a project. He decided this past weekend that he wants me to make him an apron for this coming Saturday.. see he is cooking at our prize ride and he wants his very own custom apron.. so I now have what 2 days to get an apron made, finish spotless cleaning the house (due to company coming Thursday) finish all the laundry, go to a mtg tonight.. doesnt sound like a lot but basically I have just a couple hours tonight and then all of Wed after work.. thats it! But I am Superwoman this week, so I will find a way to get it done.. Oh and I'm fairly certain I will also have to find time to cook dinner Wed as well since Derek spends a few hours every night working out in the shop on a sidejob that he has to get done.. :)

and since Derek had to work this past weekend, we didnt progress much further on the fencing.. well nothing you can see anyways. Saturday dad spent a few hours at the house with me drawing the line and marking all the posts where we will nail in the 2x4's and 2x6's.. so now we just need to get those top rails nailed in and we will be another step closer to bringing the boys home.. looks like we are still a couple weeks out on that since time keeps filling up with other shit to do! :) I do love the busy life though, I just wish I didnt have to work fulltime so I can get a lot more side projects accomplished.

Oh and I did buy new batteries for the camera, so lets hope they work so I can start taking some pics. :)

Funny story.. we have been planning to cut down the very beautiful Black Walnut Tree that hangs over our yard, the unspeakable! I try not to talk about it infront of my parents because I know they dont like/agree with the decision. Well on Sunday, we had them over for dinner (mmm, Derek cooked up another round of smoked ribs!).. anyways, the guy calls me that plans to take down the tree. We are giving him the wood if he does all the work. So I'm on the porch chatting with him and dad was out there so when I get off the phone, he says "Let me know when the guy is coming out" I said "Oh cool.. so you want to be here then?" he says "Yeah so I can hold him off with a shotgun!!!" LOLOLOL I got a good laugh on that one.. quick thinkin there pops.. it was hilarious. I do feel a tinge of guilt, but dad did say he would like to be there, probably just to watch the guy and ensure he doesnt destroy our shed or anything else. The guy is taking it in small pieces and most likely will come by when we are not home. I did notice yesterday that Marc has started coming out and cutting up the trees downed in the pasture.. which is great! It will look a lot different once all the fallen trees are taken out and we can get a true visual on our new pasture.

I am sitting here thinking about that darn apron and how I just want to get home, turn on my tunes in the craft room and sew that thing together!! :) So if I dont show up at the horse club meeting tonight, you'll know why.. lol

I do have another project I need to start on ASAP. A gift for a friend.. should take me about a week, I will start on that after this week is over. I will be riding on Friday (most likely in the pouring rain) to help for our prize ride and then working all day Saturday in registration while Derek cooks up some tastey burgers and then Sunday was planning to take Kristen riding while the guys go golfing.. so either we will be riding most likely in the rain or I'll be chillin in the house on Sunday.. thats up to Kristen. :) I have a christmas project already in my head for our gift exchange, need to find the pattern online for what I plan to make. I will try really hard not to overwhelm myself with projects this year, we actually are quite excited for the holiday season this year and already looking forward to getting a tree up! I know.. it's only flippin September but we didnt do a tree last year because I was just too bogged down. And when we cut down all those trees 10 days ago, well the smell was so refreshing of the downed trees, it reminded me of Christmas and I am excited.. and we will have another puppy so Derek is excited for his christmas gifts because he has a whole list of things he wants for his new dog! lol

Speaking of which.. Cooper should be born in about 2 weeks!! Well, please keep your fingers crossed that there is atleast one male pup born.. and the othe pup of ours Ellie, well she is doing pretty good too! She was put on a leash yesterday for the first time, yeah she didnt like it! She went for a car ride too, she was a bit stressed about the situation but she'll get used to it. Every once in a while she realizes she has a voice and uses it, very cute because it scares her about as much as it startles us! Still struggle with "come" but now that I have the leash, I can use that to my advantage to help teach her. She's a hair taller than Russell, but he defiantely outweighs her, I think he always will no matter how tall she gets. We've started integrating the doggy door into her life now, when she is outside and we are inside, I shut the door and force her to figure out how to come in the house through it.. a slow process that will take her a little time to get used to. Within a couple weeks, we'll put up the baby gate so they will have access to the entryway when we are gone.

Oh another funny story! Saturday morning when Derek got up at about 6am, the smoke detector out in the hallway by the kitchen was beeping about every 90 seconds, obviously letting us know the battery had died. I didnt think much of it, Derek let the dogs come in the bed and I went back to sleep. Well I got up about 7 to potty and Russel got out of bed and followed me into the bathroom and then followed me back into bed.. very odd! He NEVER gets out of bed on his own, he could usually care less about where I go.. nothing interupts his sleepy time! So I get up about an hour later and he seems to be stuck to my side like glue, just wouldnt leave me. I took the kids out to potty and back into the bedroom. He followed me into the bathroom again and as I turned the shower on, he was right there. I stepped in to the shower and he followed me in! WTHeck.. poor guy, it was starting to click that the beeping was really upsetting him.. He would not get out of the shower.. LOL it was rather sad but hilarious. He showered with me and followed me back to the bed when I was done, I had to now dry him off too. After I got dressed I immediately went in search of the ladder (the damn thing is on the highest peak of the vaulted ceiling) to turn the beeping off, pour guy was panting he was so stressed out. One of the children piddled under the ladder, I am not 100% convinced it was Ellie.. Russell was so upset I think it is possible it was him.

I did finally get the thing turned off and later that day we bought a new battery and bought some backups so we dont have to put him through that again. Derek wondered if maybe there is a dog vibe or something that comes through the detector that would purposely stir up a dogs senses so a dog might awaken quicker than the human.. good thought?

Moving Forward..

we started with our permanent fencing! That has been a long time coming.. tore out all the t-posts and field fencing (Thanks to Marc for taking all that off our hands!) We could have maybe sold a little of that for a few bucks, but oh well.. I just wanted it gone and he was happy to oblige.

This past weekend was Labor Day Weekend, I joked on FB that I didnt get the memo that you are supposed to rest over that weekend, not work harder than normal! Oh well... we had shit to get done. :) I always like to take Fridays off over holiday weekends so that I can get that extra day. Plus, we had originally hoped to be able to go camping, but that just was nowhere near a reality. I did manage to squeeze in a ride on Friday at Mann Rd with my friend Rachel and Wendy. I was not at all happy to feel that Edgar is "off" again! I'm fairly certain it is in his shoulder... He seemed to strain his shoulder/leg a few weeks back when Derek was riding him up the big hill at Lords Hill, then he seemed fine for the Ladies Ride, I didnt notice a limp and Shana didnt feel one.. but as I rode him 2 weeks after that he definately was limping.. GRRR! So he now has more time off to recover.. I am guessing he re-strained his shoulder out running in the pasture or maybe his leg got stuck in some muck or something.. there are some soft spots out in the pasture under all that new clearing that was done. I will be happy to get him back home so I can monitor him and ensure he is not out being a silly horse! :)

So that puts us back to the fencing.. Saturday we had set aside to get the fencelines cleared, get ready for Sunday & Monday when dad's fencemen would be there to set our wood posts. Marc came over to get the wire and he mentioned he had a chainsaw with him.. OH you dont say!! Well it clicked that we have quite a few trees that needed to come out before the fence or it would be too hard to drop them later.. So we spent the next 4.5 hours downing trees with the help of dad and the tractor! I didnt count, but I think we took out about 12 trees.. many of them were small leafy bundles of trees, so it's not like we took out 12 big Evergreens! But the entire pasture is riddled with branches and leaves and trunks.. Marc plans to come back in the future and cut it all up for wood. It was perfect getting them down though, a few leaned towards the neighbors quite badly and I always worried about the potential of having to utilize our homeowners insurance on someone else's home! Those particular neighbors never once came out to talk with us or see what was up, they just stood in the window (like we couldnt see them) and watched us.. very odd! Oh well, guess everyone cant love us! lol

We tried to watch a movie Saturday night, but we were so exhausted and the movie was super slow, we called it quits at about 9pm.. I do believe that is the earliest we've gone to bed in a VERY VERY long time.. I'm talking years! I also think the previous weekend hay-ordeal-lack-of-sleep had finally caught up to us.

Sunday morning the guys showed up bright and early at 8:30 am to start setting posts. We busted our asses all day.. all of us! My parents were there, dad on the tractor for most of the day.. mom and I never really stopped moving.. we didnt play the "oh we're just the weaker women" We filled in where necessary and the 6 of us finally stopped after the first half of posts were set. Quite a few neighbors stopped by to see what all the commossion was about.. we had chainsaw going all day Saturday, tractor all day Sunday, a big dumptruck was in the driveway that Derek had to paint for work, wood and flatbeds filled our driveway.. The company that provided the wood sent us some 10' posts instead of the 8' I ordered (no extra charge) so the privacy fence section looks like we are building a fortress! One of our horsey neighbors stopped by and said "Are you bringing a Stallion home?" LOL I think she was serious... It will all look normal once the posts are cut down to size.

On Saturday afternoon Derek had attempted to drive the dumptruck back to his work with me following, to get it out of the way instead of waiting for his co-worker to come on Tuesday to get it. As we left the driveway, I realized he was struggling with getting the truck into the higher gears and I could hear him grinding just a bit, then he'd come to an almost stop in the road to get it back into lower gears and start over.. we rounded that first corner on our road and as he again had to come to an almost stop, I was really glad to see him pull in a driveway, turn around and put the truck back in our own driveway! LOL Nice try... but we'll leave the dumptruck driving to the CDL pros...

Late afternoon on Sunday as we were finishing up, a little escavator showed up at the house and Derek/co-worker were able to finally pull up all that old concrete from our yard pile that I have been less than enthused about since it was placed there. The concrete was the old foundation strips from under the mobile and when they pulled the mobile out, needed somewhere to put the concrete and we didnt have a plan at the time for it so it went there.. Derek always wanted to create a raised flowerbed over the concrete, I was not a fan but we were kinda stuck with it.. so now that it's gone, we can tractor out the rest of the dirt and have a full yard again which eventually will turn into the garden area Derek plans to establish in the future. We joked this past weekend that projects always are classified as "eventually!"

Sunday evening we finally finished that slow movie.. The Soloist. Good movie but I was dissappointed.. didnt feel like it really went anywhere and just was hohum overall. The guys showed up Monday at 8:15 and we spent the rest of the day setting the other half of the posts.. that was A LOT of posts in 2 days! I paid them for 15 hours of work.. I think they were happy to be done, they worked really hard and I'm grateful to have gotten it all done. The rest of the fencing we can do on our own with my dad's assistance and guidance. Our concrete purchases were more than double what I had initially thought would be needed so that put a big dent in the pocketbook. BUT those posts are not going ANYWHERE!! lol

We were just exhausted Monday night, but so happy to have this phase of the fencing done! I'd ideally like to get the horses home in a week, but I dont see that happening just yet, we still have a lot to do plus we want to bring in another truck/trailer of gravel to expand the sacrifice area and plan to permanently fence that too, to match.

Ellie update: She is doing great! :) She can now jump onto the chairs (even though she sometimes whines like she cannot), she is sleeping great and finally goes in the crate w/o acting defiant about it.. lol She is still not up on the cuddling thing, but occassionally she'll slow down enough to snuggle up.. She is 15 weeks old today and now that she's had her full set of puppy shots, she'll start learning what a leash is and venturing out into the world. She 'sits' pretty darn well, she is learning 'wait' and 'stay', we still struggle some with 'come'. Might need obedience training classes to help me to teach her that. She comes running most times when we call her name, but other times she just looks at us and says "Yeah, I dont think so, I'm having too much fun on my own!" We call her our little "squeeky toy" because she squeeks a lot!

So whats up next? More fencing.. we need to nail in brackets to all the posts and then measure/cut every 2x6 for every opening between posts as they are not perfectly set at 8' lengths.. maybe get the boards up by the end of the weekend and wire to follow down the near road. We also have a couple guys interested in taking out our Black Walnut tree by the front yard.. we've listed it for free on CL to anyone that will take it down. It is a BEAUTIFUL tree!!! I really hate to take it down, even the neighbor is sad we are removing it, BUT it is more annoying than beautiful and I'm hoping someone can get out sooner than later to remove it.. Cant finish the sacrifice area until it is gone.. I will be sad when it is gone, but I will be happy knowing my flower beds are not being destroyed by leaves and I'm not out raking every day in the yard and in the corral.

Tootles for now.. I will try to remember to get some new batteries for the camera so I can start posting pictures. :)

Small World

One of Derek's co-workers had spent this past weekend over in Spokane at a wedding.. Apparently, he was right behind us when that first tire blew about 30 miles outside Spokane! He had no idea it was Derek.. As the tire pieces went flying and rolling on down I90, he said he was very impressed that the driver was able to get the truck/trailer off I90 so quickly without causing any accidents. :) Derek said.. "Well it wasnt my first Rodeo!!"