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!!"

Maybe it's easier to just move closer to the hay...

that is what we are starting to wonder!

So this past weekend was our annual Spokane trip for our yearly supply of hay. We drive to Spokane because even with cost of fuel, we pay less than 1/2 the cost of hay from Western WA.. which equates to more than $1000 savings every year!

We left Friday afternoon with Shannon's 1 ton dually truck and her 10 ton flatbed gooseneck trailer.. perfect combo for the 6-7 tons we had planned to buy... We stayed with Derek's nephew Rick and his wife Kristen.. Derek, Rick & Rob went golfing Saturday while I spent the day with Toni visiting and later that evening we all met up at the races. It was a busy couple of days with our late night dinner Friday and then late night again Saturday.. Rick complained that it felt like we were always on the go-go-go when we come to visit and there was no down time. We have a lot to try to fit in on our annual hay trip with dinners, golf, visiting friends & hay, so we decided that in the future we should definately plan a trip over w/o getting hay because that's the only time we typically drive over. It did not feel super busy and exhausting to us, we are used to being on the go constantly. It was funny to hear from the guys who are 10 years younger than us, that they couldnt handle not having the down time.. downtime, what the hell is that? :)

We started loading our hay at 7:30am on Sunday morning, decided the trailer looked great with 6 ton, so went ahead and put 1 more ton on. No squat in the truck and hardly any squat on the trailer, but the tires looked a bit low (one in particular was clearly very low with the load). So we filled them up at the farmer's place and headed to Greg's (my x-coworker) who lives in Spokane to visit him and his wife for a little while. Trailer pulled great, tires looked good.. All was well.. Had a nice visit with Greg/Yvonne and got back on the road at 10:30 to head West.

At 11:15 (about 40 miles from Spokane) we hear a big "BAM" with a jolt of the truck and knew right away a tire was gone! Shit! We pull over and the drivers side rear tire was gone, plus the rim was destroyed. After some panicking, we called Toni's son Darrel as he drives a tow truck, asked him if he had access to a spare tire/rim and we'd pay him to come out and help us. He had a tow call to make before coming to our rescue so it was 3pm by the time he showed up. 15 minutes later his tire was on the trailer, clearly low on air.. we paid him some cash and drove off to the nearest gas station for air. Got the air in the tire, grabbed a quick (not very good) bite to eat since we knew we wouldnt want to stop again for food and headed back out on the road.

As we approached the 1st rest stop on our way, we decided to stop and check the tire just to be sure all was okay. It was the Schrag Rest Area, about 20 miles East of Moses Lake, it was 4:15pm when we stopped the truck. We get out, walk to the tire and see that it clearly is about 1/2 empty on air and we can hear the air leaking out... We walked back to the truck and just sat inside with a blank look on our faces I'm sure as we both independantely contemplated our next move.. 4 minutes later the truck jolted a tiny bit and we realized the tire had just gone completely flat! Its a damn good thing we pulled off I90 or we'd have been stuck on the side of the road..

So we contemplated the options, made quite a few calls.. our emergency roadside service was happy to come help but the only help they could provide was to haul our trailer to a shop and wait til Monday to get the tire serviced. They dont carry tires/rims. So we quickly realized we would be sleeping at the reststop with no food and only a couple bucks in our pockets to each get 1 bottled drink out of the vending machine... I attempted to get pizza places to deliver to us, but we were too far out.. It was suggested that we unhook and drive to get a bite to eat, however we had no chalks to block the trailer tires, it was not a good idea to disconnect and prop that trailer back on the rear axle even more w/o that tire and it's a real bitch to disconnect anyways.. so we sat there and played "20 questions" trying to get time to slip on by faster. We slept OK, not great through that night.

At 7am, I was on the phone with Moses Lk Schwab. They did not carry the size tire we needed so they informed me that we'd have to buy 4 new tires, that no Schwabs carried that tire anymore! F*ck!! Thats pretty much what we were saying.. Derek went to the restroom at that time, said he was contemplating ripping the handdryers off the wall, he wanted to destroy something when he heard what we were about to pay to get back on the road... I told them OK, I guess we are stuck so come on out. I got smart and called around, talked to a guy at Tires West who said we should call Ritzeville Schwab because Moses Lk was a bit shady. I did just that and they carried our tire! AND they had some used tires/rims in the exact size we needed with 80% tread left.. I told him to bring 2.. we would put 1 on the trailer and take 1 as a spare. I was very happy and at 9:30am Monday morning, we were back on the road. I must mention that it had started raining 30 minutes prior to getting back on the road; however it only continued to rain another 5 minutes as we drove away from the clouds and into the sun.

As we approached Moses Lk we contemplated stopping to eat but decided we just wanted to stay on the road and get home asap; we'd wait til Ellensburg. 30 minutes after leaving the rest stop, cruising along at about 50-55 mph, BAM! Another blow out... GODDAMMIT! well that's not exactly what we said, but you can use your imaginations. :) The new tire we just put on blew out.... So it was now 10am, stuck again on I90.

We have now realized that although the trailer says it can handle the load, clearly the tires are rated for only 1/2 of what the trailer can handle.. We call Schwab from Moses Lk, as we are less than 15 miles away and waited for the them come out and put the spare on. In the meantime, we are still very hungry and now pretty thirsty and even with an empty stomach I still had a full bladder! Squatted next to the truck, right there on I90.. Nice! We decide the only 2 options available are 1) Drop a couple tons off the trailer at the nearest farmers house and just give it away to get rid of it or 2) Hope and cross all fingers, toes, limbs, any available body parts that our flatbed trailer is at our house and my parents can go pick it up and make the long drive to Moses Lk to get some of this hay off this trailer! See the day before Derek had told our neighbor he could borrow our flatbed on Monday, so we really needed a little lady luck and were anxiously awaiting the call from my parents saying the trailer either was or was not in our driveway! Thank You Jesus, Jim had not come for the trailer yet (he was unreachable via phone so we had no idea if he had it or not). So as we sat waiting for Schwab, my parents loaded up the trailer and started the 3 hour trek to save our asses!

Schwab finally arrived at 12:30, put the spare tire on and we drove a couple miles down to the nearest exit (Dodson Rd) and quickly got off I90, pulled into a large gravel parking area and sat waiting 2 more hours for mom and dad to show up.

We played a little more "20 questions" as we waited.. doing really good at keeping our cool with the entire situation. I was still completely stressed about the rest of the trip, hoping that removing part of the load would solve our problems, worried we'd blow another tire with NO spare left to put on! As we waited, Derek hit his head pretty hard on the gooseneck section, darn near knocking himself out..

2:30 WHEW there are my parents with some water! We had hussled them out the door so quickly that they didnt have time to think about grabbing a bite to eat for us, I dont blame them I was pretty much telling them what I needed them to do earlier and I felt bad, they had company over and there was no time to doddle. :) They heard that the pass was going to close Westbound at 7:30 for rock blasting so we were on a time crunch.

An hour later, we had 2.5 tons off the borrowed trailer and onto our smaller trailer and another 1/4 ton in the bed of our truck. 3:40pm back on the road for what hoped to be the last long haul to home! A quick stop in Ellensburg (yes we made it from Moses through Vantage Hill and to Ellensburg) for some fuel in dad's truck and a stop at Subway for some much needed fuel for ourselves! As we ate our 6" subs, it had been 25 hours since we had eaten prior.. Derek nor I could recall a time we had ever gone that long without eating and although I experienced some hunger growls, I wasnt really that hungry.. I think the stress of the situation had my stomach in knots so eating was low on my priority list.

As we approached Cle Elum the skies were lookin mighty ugly and as the downpour started, we just drove on, unwilling to stop. We hoped (once again) for a little lady luck in that the squal would last only a short ways.. and it did stop pouring as we crested Snoqualmie Pass, the skies parted to partially sunny and continued to stay dry until we pulled in the driveway at 8pm Monday evening! Amazingly that with the 2nd round of rain (about 45 minutes) the hay felt only a tiny bit damp. The small flatbed was parked in the shop and the big trailer parked in the barn isle to be unloaded most likely Wednesday... What a TRIP!

We worked really hard at maintaining a good attitude and finding the positive in our situation.. we did both get a day off (although only 1 of us got paid for that time off) and we got some nice time of relaxing and doing nothing (which is always nice to get away from TV and noise). And even with all the extra expenses of these damn tires, the hay is still cheaper than what we can buy over here in Western WA, whether its grass direct from a farmer or the bales in the feedstores.. Next year we plan to maybe rent a big Penske flatbed and let the tires be the problem of someone else and we'll plan to head back on a Saturday with our load and not Sundays.. we'll save socializing for another time! :)

We set out with all the right tools, we had a trailer heavy enough for the load, a truck big enough to pull said load, noone to blame.. shit happens and I'm so thankful to my parents for coming to our rescue!! What was supposed to be a 12 hour easy drive back, turned into a 36+ hour nightmare! It reopened the door to discussion on whether it might just be easier to move closer to the hay and have the hay delivered direct from field to our barn! hmmm... the possibility is there if the right job came up for Derek. Maybe it's time for a change..

Herbs are not just for the birds..

apparently they are good for horses too!


So this past weekend was the annual horse club Ladies Ride, this year up at Harry O, outside of Sedro Woolley. I do miss the old location of Silver Ridge Ranch (Easton, WA) because I like the camping much better there.. but Harry O is free and there are more trails. I brought along my cousin Shana but I told her the stipulation was that she had to sleep in a tent! :) I really enjoy having it to myself when Derek is not with me. It was the running joke of the weekend (thanks to Shana) that because I sleep in the buff (which is partially why Shana was banned) and because I said I wanted "me" time (which was the other reason I gave Shana for not being allowed to sleep in the camper) that she assumed "me" time was for personal/self fulfilling reasons, also referred to as "Piper Time!"


Which to set the record straight, is 100% NOT the reason she was banned from the camper.. lol I just wanted the peace and quiet of having alone time... :)


The weekend went really well, we arrived Thursday afternoon, got our tent and awning set up and opted not to ride that afternoon, it just got too late. We did get in a 4 hour ride on Friday, the weather was nice but not too terribly hot, rode to the lake which was fun. When we got back to camp, a short while later, Edgar laid down.. DAMMIT!! I knew right away he was colicky.. He never lays down around people... He kept looking at his belly, so I gave him a round of Banamine (the magic paste!) and 20 minutes later he was perfectly fine.. He was still eating, drinking, pooping, peeing.. I think he just gets a gas colic or some sort of nervous stomach or something. Maybe he internally is a little stressed out and it bothers him enough to cause him to get a belly ache. We rode again on Saturday for almost 3 hours and Edgar was great.. but around midnight as I was attempting to sleep, I heard him lay down so I got up and sat out with him for 30 minutes to watch him.. he kept looking at his belly so as he lay there, I walked over and gave him another round of Banamine and went to bed. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry and it allowed me the opportunity to sleep soundly vs fretting and watching him all night.


Sunday he again was good to go.. my plan was a 1 - 1.5hr MAX ride... we got back to camp 2.5hrs later! lol Which turned out just fine, I was in no rush to get home since I knew Derek was off golfing that day and would not be home til probably after 9pm. Shana and I slowly packed up and headed out early afternoon. We did get some rain Saturday night and sprinkled on for just a few minutes on Sunday, but overall a terrific weekend with some great riding.


While I was away, Derek spent Saturday morning golfing with Jen & John in Snohomish and then spent the afternoon at the Hunt Test out in Duvall/Carnation area. He met Elroy who owns Earl.. Earl is the pappy to our future puppy.. He met lots of very nice people that were more than happy to talk with him and answer questions about the world of hunting with dogs and hunt tests.. We initially thought about training Cooper on our own, but he was advised its not as simple as it seems so Derek is now gung-ho on sending our dog down to OR for 3 months of training.. I told him he has 7 months to save up the cash! I have a feeling this new adventure will be somewhat time consuming and I think I will be very thankful to have the horses home 24/7 next year so we wont forget they exist as we focus on the pooches. :)


Speaking of pooches.. Ellie is doing really well. She is getting big and fast, she FINALLY now "asks" (because she cant quite jump up on her own yet) to come up on the couch with me and sits by my side (well when she is tired anyways cuz if she has an ounce of energy in her, she wants nothing to do with sittin still for more than 3 seconds at a time!)


So back to the herbs.. I called my vet to find out what could be causing Edgar to Colic. He had a 4-day colic bout that started at that Winery Ride last year, then he started to colic again last month while camping and again this month.. my vet, Dana indicated he could have ulcers which when stressed might cause him to start to colic.. so she recommended Celery Seed & Aloe Vera Juice! There are ulcer medications but very expensive, so we'll try to the cheaper route first. There is also a supplement that might help but it too is pretty spendy at $100/month! I will try the seed and juice and start feeding them to him a week before all camping trips and then through the camping weekends.. see if we can get his internal system to function better... Another reason to have him home so we can feed him grain year round as well.

My camera either died or both sets of my batteries died.. :( I really hope it was the batteries or the battery charger that died.. not quite ready to buy a new camera yet! So I stole these couple pics off Shana's FB page.. this is how I wash my hair with no shower or bathroom, just a teakettle and some soap! :)


And then the lake we rode to, you have to walk through part of the lake to get back on the trail.

2 Hot 2 Function..

that was the case this past weekend.. mid-high 90's.. ugghhh

We didnt quite have the gumption to get our asses out of bed as early as we should have to beat the heat, knowing we had work to get accomplished outside. We managed between Sat & Sun mid mornings, to get all the t-posts pulled out of our pasture and seperate all the field fence wire.. why? so we can start the process of building our permanent fencing.. finally!

I am tired of having the horses away from home, we have decided that next year, the horses will stay home with us most of the year, which means we will be feeding hay year round. That is the tough part because I get free pasture, so why pay to feed what I can get for free? Well it just sucks owning my own place and not having the boys home with us. We may occassionally take them to my parents to eat down their grass now that the fencing and clearing is finished, but other than that.. we want 'em home! It will still be a few weeks before we get it all finished, taking down the old fence was really only about 1/5 of the work to be done. I'm just hoping for 70 degree days vs 95.. We just melt when it gets that hot and have zero motivation to do anything other than waste gas driving around in the air conditioned truck!

It should be interesting to see how Ellie reacts to having the horses around. It will be a while before she can go in the pasture with them.. I certainly dont want her to become a pancake! This morning I found a dookie in the back bedroom.. it had clearly been there a day or two.. lol Not funny really, my dog shit in the house and I didnt catch it, oh well what can ya do.

I have been out for a couple rides without Derek lately.. he's had other plans so I went out with Gerri (Red's owner) and then my friend Rachel (highschool re-connect friendship). They both rode Red, so I was able to ride Edgar... I joked with a friend (Shannon) that Edgar has become 'man'ified.. he's stiff as a board, is not soft and supple like a woman would have her horse. He turns and stops just fine, just in a more gruff manner now.. I'm sure Edgar prefers Derek's style of riding though, a little more laid back and less demanding. :)

I'm excited for the weekend, our annual horse club Ladies Ride. My cousin Shana is going with me, although I do feel a little bad that I am not allowing her to sleep in the camper with me! I told her I kinda wanted it to myself so she will have to tent it... lol I dont think she minds, I think she will enjoy having her own "space" as well, but she will be welcome to come in and we can play cards or chat etc.. I just love sleepin in the buff on hot camping nights and I'm not givin that up.. LOL Dont ever open my camper door in the morning without knocking, you might just stumble upon a full moon in the light of the morning sun!

back to puppy business..

Little miss Ellie is turning into super fun puppy now! In 2 weeks, she's had 1 accident in the house, she sleeps through the night pretty well and was moved up into the big girl crate (Russell is much happier about that) and she's picking up on commands amazingly quick! After only 5 times of "practice" asking for SIT, she now does it on command.. I am just blown away with how quickly she picks up on this stuff. She will be all excited and put her front paws up on me for attention and I can ask her to SIT and she will get off me and sit.. I cant wait to see what else I can teach her as time goes on. She's not so good on the "come" command but I think that is more out of being a little timid/shy than being disobedient.

She definately has the "outdoor dog" smell going... lol Whew that girl stinks when she gets wet and I just gave her a bath about a week ago! She's a little digger, the other day when it was rainy out early in the day, she must have gotten wet and then spent some time digging because when we got home, she was covered in dry mud! small clumps of mud all over her underside and legs.. She will definately be getting a weekly bath, I cant handle outdoor dog smell.. :)

I am really happy we got her, Russell is much happier (most of the time!) and she filled that void. I am not too worried about our 3rd dog and how we will handle it, I just know we will.

We have been educating ourselves about "Hunt Tests" which are tests for bird dogs done out in open fields and in ponds, to judge their ability to retrieve birds and listen to commands etc.. We found a couple clubs that run shows in the area, Monroe/Carnation is the hot spot of the state for these events.. how lucky is that! We will be joining atleast one of these clubs in the near future and attending as many tests and practice days as we can to get educated on what we need to do with our Cooper in the future.

There is a big Hunt Test coming up soon and Derek is going to go (I will not be able to make it :( bummer) and he is going to get to see other Boykins work. People come from out of state and we are really excited that Elroy (who owns Earl, the pappy to our future puppy) will be up here for the next event!!! We have been wanting to meet Elroy and his dog Earl in person... Derek can take pics in person, ask questions and get information about these Hunt Tests and meet the dog we are so proud and excited to own a puppy out of. Earl has accomplished a lot and we hope to be able to train our pup to accomplish great hunt test scores as well..

As far as the other animals in our life, the goats seem much happier now.. my parents have finished half of their fencing so they are turned out to the big pasture now and then my parents also went out and bought 2 sheep and 3 goats, threw them all together and they've established the pecking order and are happy to be a group. My boys were a bit chicken, rarely venturing out in the pasture very far but now that they are a full "herd" they all support eachother and have no problems leaving the barn.. I'm not sure I will want to break up the little herd and bring them back home, maybe we'll have to buy a couple new ones to put back at our place... hmmm

...the plan for next year (well actually as soon as we get our fencing done which we are starting this week) is to keep the horses home 24/7 instead of putting them out to pasture.. in keeping them home, it would mean feeding hay year round but we realize that having them away from home, we are not riding as often as we could be, the boys are now in "out of shape" status.. and with getting another dog and getting involved in training that dog next year (and potentially working/training Ellie as well for agility), if we dont keep the horses home, we may never squeeze in riding.. oh what have we created for ourselves? I dont want to be so busy we forget about the one activity that soothes my sole.. riding!

passing of a friend..

Derek received a call a week ago, an x-coworker of his that he worked at Heiser with, passed away unexpectedly. David Ridge was a friend... the guys carpooled to work every day and they maintained a relationship even after they had both left Heiser in the dust... His wife Emily used to make these DELICIOUS banana roll-up things, she'd make them fresh so when Derek dropped off David after work, she'd hand him the still hot out of the oven platefull and then Derek would drive over to my work (5 minutes from their house) and pick me up to head home. We'd munch those things down before we even got in the car!

We are not sure David's exact age, but we are guessing he was only about 26 or 27 and apparently he died of a Heart Attack :( He was playing basketball with his buddies when it happened. His memorial service will be at their home on Saturday, we will definately plan to go and pay our respects to his wife and the family. They had 5 children.. it was a tough weekend for Derek, he lost the last connection he felt to my uncle Dave when he lost little David. Uncle Dave mentored Derek at Heiser and Derek passed that down and mentored little David.. We are not sure if he had an unknown heart condition that caused his way-too-early passing, we just know it is hard to accept things like that happen to such young friends with so much life ahead of them left to live.. really touches home and makes you think about your own life and what you should be doing to take advantage of every day.

Family Reunion

Well we had a great weekend, the annual family reunion at Lk Wenatchee with Derek's family (his mom's side). We left Thursday and camped til Sunday. The original plan was to take the kids with us, but we realized that Ellie is just too young to expose her to the elements of being in such a dog-friendly environment.. plus she is not able to hold her potty yet so she would have to be with us 24/7 which puts a real damper on swimming! :) Maybe we need a doggy nanny! lol

So I'm sure Russell was not very happy with us as we had to leave the children outside the entire weekend and he hasnt been locked out of the house since.... well he never has been for 4 days straight! My parents came over twice a day to feed them and play with them, we could definately tell he was ready for us to be home though. It really is amazing since Ellie came home, he does not whine and cry, we have yet to hear him howl, he seems happier and not so lonely. Just this morning he really started to "play" with her, he was pinning her down and play biting her neck, just like he used to do with all his other girlfriends... She is getting bigger by the day it seems, she runs circles around him and she loves to steal his ball and hide it under herself.. she's one smart cookie! She has had a couple pee accidents in the house, so I'd say she is 75% trained to go outside.. sometimes she just needs a little reminder. I have been working on "sit" with her, she knows her name already, doesnt always "come" when called as she is not a brave puppy, she tends to steer clear of iffy situations.

Here's the kids after our return home, happy and content!

Later Sunday evening, Ellie was telling me she was hungry... she will lay down at her bowl when she thinks she needs to eat.

So back to camping! We had okay weather, Thursday was spent just getting set up and hanging out.. mid 80's. Derek had said that he would go swimming with me in the mornings, I think after last year I made it look/seem so refreshing that he wanted to do it this year.. Well Thursday night was not so warm of a night, it was not cold, but it was comfortable on the borderline of cool so when we awoke Friday and it was in the 60's he was second guessing his decision. But we headed on down to the water with looks of "Are you crazy!" from those around us. Well apparently we were crazy because that water was COLD! Much colder than last year's morning swim. It took Derek about 15 minutes to get to waste high, then another 15 minutes of standing there deciding if he was going to dunk. I did dunk, washed my hair, was freezing but felt refreshed. After 30 or so minutes, Derek finally decided to dunk and then immediately got the hell out! I was chilled for many hours that morning, I had to put a hoody on to warm up and finally around 1 or 2 it warmed up enough around camp to want to get back in the water. It was much warmer down at the water than in the trees, it probably reached low to mid 80's on Friday and we spent an hour or two in the water. Pam and I swam out to the "No Wake" bouey.. that was a long hard swim as the water was very choppy; It took us atleast 30 minutes to casually swim out there and literally only 5 to get back.

Thursday evening Derek & I had walked down to the lake around 8:20 and realized we had missed the sunset by about 10 minutes, so on Friday we decided we wanted to catch the sunset and let everyone know we'd be down at the lake at 8 for those that would like to join us. It was funny, because Derek's nephew Rick (who is about 12 years younger than us) was teasing Derek and saying "Oh is this what guys your age do, go down and watch sunsets?" :) He thought it was silly, but we all went anyways.. it was beautiful! We had a few pics taken (the only pics taken the entire weekend) and they are a bit dark. There was one taken that used the flash and it was aweful! You could see just how gross my hair was so I decided to burn that picture (okay well I sent it to the trash anyways).. lol But I think these are okay and good enough. The very top pic was the first pic taken as the sun was setting and then we got these shots below as it continued to set behind the mountains.

I did get a chance to tease Rick regarding the sunset issue because his wife ratted him out and said that recently he had "Thanked" her for cuddling with him.. so I told him "Oh I see.. Derek cant enjoy a good sunset, but you can enjoy a good cuddling session?" or something like that.. it was funny though!

There was some thunder Friday evening and maybe a couple minutes of sprinkling, but nothing serious at all and we awoke to clouds :( The boys were going golfing Saturday so there was no morning swim, us wives decided to cook them a nice breakfast of pancakes and eggs and bacon, yummy! I stuck around camp most of the day, I know it was warmer out in the sun but I was comfortable just relaxing and doing nothing! About an hour before the guys were due back, it started to thunder and once they got back, the lightening and rain started. It was pretty loud, pretty much right above our heads! but it also became quite muggy and with the bug spray and sunscreen on, I was feeling a bit sticky and decided it was a good time to take a bath in the lake. Derek and Crystal came down to the water with me, it seemed like the storm had passed by, it was still thundering out, but I hadnt seen any recent lightening and it felt like it had moved on. They both thought I was crazy, but I walked out in the water, it was raining but it felt great.. it was actually a very comfortable water temp. Dawn and Tammy were down at the beach pointing off to something, I assumed they were pointing at where maybe Kenny and Cody were swimming..

So I just casually stood in the water, slowly deciding if I wanted to swim for a bit or just get busy and wash my hair.. when all the sudden a VERY LARGE bolt of lightening struck right above everyone's head!! Apparently the storm had NOT moved on yet... I basically was like, OH SHIT! I dunked pretty fast at that point, Derek was on the shore telling me to hurry the hell up... so I washed the hair and body quickly and got the heck out.. Which was a total bummer because the water felt great and I could have swam out there in the rain for another hour.. When I got on the beach I realized what Dawn and Tammy were pointing at was a forest fire that had started not even 1/4 mile away from the beach by a lightening strike! It clearly had happened within about 45 minutes of us being down there, there was no visible "fire" in all the thick trees, but a lot of smoke so something was definately on fire over there.

It continued to rain for pretty much the entire evening on Saturday.. it would quit here/there but it sure made for a mess in the camper with pine needles stuck to our shoes as we walked in/out. Sunday we awoke to broken clouds, sunny skies.. We casually took down camp and headed out at noon.. no more swimming. Overall it was a great weekend of seeing everyone, Derek's ribs turned out super yummy! I'm already excited to go back next year, and VERY happy that his family has restarted this reunion after about a 20 year break.

I cant say there is much else going on with us lately.. with having the new pup in the house, we havent been getting a lot done, but we hope to start changing that soon. We have a day ride planned for Saturday, I forget what it feels like to ride its been so long! :) We are also having Dave Marzolf (realtor) come over and give us his opinion on the value of our place right now so we can make a decision about what direction to go with trying to get in a home loan modification. The bank is taking their sweet time and of course values are still dropping.. we now worry/think our home value is below our loan value, not good! Dave will give us a better idea on that so we will know how to proceed with the bank and if we will tell them to take this house and shove it or if we'll try to find a new route to approach the loan modification. It is very frustrating, we are just in a hole right now and need to dig out, with or without the banks help. Neither of us wants to loose our house, but we are tired of struggling. I know I know.. some of you are saying "well you can afford a new dog but not your house?" well, yeah actually! We have a little bit of money saved up for such things like a new dog or new fencing etc.. but when I have to start dipping into that "savings" to pay my normal bills/mortgage, thats when I know things are too tight....

the Light still shines!

Yes the light in the tunnel that I saw on Sunday has continued.. and today is Wednesday! Ellie successfully now goes outside every time she has to potty. Every now/then I see her sniff the floor and I say to her "Ellie Outside!" and typically she heads that direction. Zero accidents since Saturday and 100% success of going in/out the door. She is not going to the front door though, she uses the back door/slider onto the deck. I think because it is closer to the living room whereas the front door is around the corner and further away. She will eventually figure it all out and use the proper door, all I care is that she is using a door!! The down side to it all is the house if full of flies since we leave the doors wide open when we are there so she is not hindered at all in her potty attempts.. the small price to pay for a well trained dog! :)

After a looooong week of feeling like I could do nothing but sit and watch Ellie 24/7, we are now at the point of being able to roam about the house while she is in the house.. we can do laundry, do dishes etc w/o too much stress over where she's at.. and Russell is starting to play with her! He actually kinda ran with her a little, he's been horny and likes to air hump over the top of her since she's so darn small.. lol

more doggy business!

Got the message from Jim today (he is the breeder of our Boykin pup) and his female just came into heat!! Which means.... our little "Cooper" will be coming home just before Thanksgiving! They say it takes 6 months for a puppy to be fully potty trained, well Ellie will be exactly 6 months old when Cooper comes home, so lets hope the 6 month mark is true because I dont think I could handle trying to potty train 2 dogs at one time. :)

We are getting very excited about Cooper, I love having the puppy energy around, but whew the potty training is tiring.. She is fairly content staying outside on the front porch, but I feel bad for Russell having to be left outside all the time, so I try to allow her in the house as often as I can.. which basically means not much ability to do anything else while she is in the house. She pees every 30-45 minutes when she is awake/active and if you dont get her outside before she has to potty, she'll just drop a damn squat on the living room floor!

Saturday was a bad piddle-on-the-floor day.. she pood once Friday night and then peed 3 times on Saturday and it was NOT because I was not paying attention, she just goes from playing to peeing in a matter of a second! I was frustrated a little, I must admit. I needed a break from puppy, so was glad to get to leave the house for a few hours and head off to my cousin Shana's 40th Bday BBQ/Party.

I had spent most of Saturday working on more videos of Oakley. We went out Thursday evening and shot more video of him and then I spent probably 6 hours Saturday compressing things down and finished with uploading 4 new videos to youtube! So now there are 5 total and possibly will do one more trail video in the future if need be. There has been a lot of interest in him from our online ads and these videos.. some promising potential buyers.. Derek spent Saturday out dragging the pasture, exposing all the rocks and sticks we need to pick up over the next couple weeks before the grass takes over again.. All the cross fencing was pulled up so we are getting closer to putting in our permanent fencing.

Sunday evening I saw some light in the potty tunnel.. for the first time Ellie twice walked over to the screen door to the back porch, Derek jumped up both times and let her out and she immediately went out in the yard to potty! It was fantastic!! Yes my life has resorted to being overly joyous at the sight of dog piss/poop.. LOL What the hell has become of me...

I have to remind myself she is only 8weeks old.. 8 weeks old.. 8 weeks old.. and stop for a second and take a step back because potty training does not happen overnight and I was crazy for even thinking we were gonna have that perfect dog that NEVER went in the house!! :) Russell has yet to start "playing" with her, but he continues to allow her to now bite at his face, she will run under him, she steals his ball from him, she runs up sideways to him and pushes her body under his face, she's curling up next to him in the crate.... Soon, soon he will fully appreciate this gift we have given him! lol

In the meantime, the horses continue to enjoy their vacation! August will be a much better month for us to get back in the saddle.

Pics of the Ellie Bean

Taking a moment to chill out.. these moments only last but a few seconds when she's in "play" mode! Then she's off and running again, grabbing whatever her mouth can get ahold of.

Welcome to our house! This is what you see when you come up to the front porch these days, it's been transformed to a playpen basically. Not only is the crate on the porch (so she can get accustomed to going in/out of it on her own so she learns to love it!... well that's the plan anyways) but there is also a big igloo dog house next to the porch that they can go in as well.

Another pause in playtime..

She's so flippin cute, I can hardly stand it! :)

She thought the camera noises were "Cool Beans!" She kept lunging at me when I would zoom in/out or the flash would go off.. I know it's blurry, she was running straight at me from out of the crate.. lol

This is a rare moment in time that she was okay with sitting on your lap.. Even though she's a small little lap size dog, she's not necessarily a "lap" dog yet! Normally she wiggle worms her way off of ya and prefers to cuddle up at your feet... occassionally I can get her to snuggle on the couch cushion next to me, but she has yet to "love" the lap dog roll.... which is okay, I know she is going to be a happy loyal dog, and that is important.. it might be nice to have a dog that prefers to lay on the ground next to you than be a baby (Russell!) and beg to get in your lap with dirty camping paws anyways!

Ellie Video

Here's a video I took yesterday, a little blurry at times, but it shows only a small portion of her energy and crazy playtime behavior.. she is definately cookoo crazy funny!

adjusting..

things are going pretty good with miss Ellie! :) No more worried calls about where the dog is, the doggy door is taped shut, so she cant get in the house while we are away. Let me tell ya, she THINKS that she should be able to get in that house though, scratching at the door when she feels left behind. I dont know if Russell loves being an outdoor dog, I'm sure he misses his comfy recliner but he seems content with what he has.

Ellie is quite the character and proving to be as smart as Aussies are known for... I picked up some tiny soft treats yesterday and she was trying to get into the unsealed bag before I even had them out of the shopping bag.. she could smell them and was fanatic about getting into that bag!! something to worry about.... garbages beware. I worked on the command "come" yesterday for the first time and she was doing soooo great at that! If I say "come" and tap my leg, 85% of the time she comes running! Sometimes I reward with lots of praise, other times she gets the treat. I've started using the treats every time I ask her to go in the crate too.

Russell is really coming around with her.. He only growls on slight occassions now, he lets her run under his legs (yes she is still small enough to fit even under his short squatty legs!), lets her cuddle up next to him, she is starting to bite his nubby tail and his neck.. most of the time he acts like she doesnt exist and just ignores her, she attempts to play and he just keeps on walking.. but give it a few more days and I think he'll be chasing and running with her, not past her. :)

Putting him in the crate with her at night has made an amazing difference! In the evenings we let her play real hard for a couple hours to tucker her out... The crate is all open/wire type, so she can see from all directions. When she first goes in, she does whine a little even though Russell is with her, but as soon as she's in, I lay on the bed which is right next to the crate and put my fingers in the side, she will come over immediately, sniff/lick my fingers and lays down right away, curls up and goes to sleep. If I dont put my fingers in, she gets upset and will sit there whining.. so she definately is comforted by our touch and once she goes down, she's out for the evening! :) Monday night I got up once in the middle of the night to let her out to potty when she whined and then last night she didnt even stir.. she slept til 6am when I got up.

It's still tough to figure out how to get anything else done besides playing with her! :) She is a barrel of monkeys all in one little fur ball of a dog! She goes crazy and is so fun to watch run and scurry.. she loves to run full speed and squat her butt and lay down before she's even stopped moving practically... very typical Aussie behavior in her play. I bought her about 10 toys yesterday, they are scattered all over the yard and living room.. I want to be sure she has lots to chew on.

Tomorrow she is 8 weeks old, I think we'll have to give her another flea bath or drops if she is old enough and she might have some ear mite issues.. need to get up to see Andrea to have her take a look.. otherwise she's happy and healthy and we love her to pieces. She's a lot more energy than we initially had set out to get in our "next" dog, but that's okay.. I'm looking forward to working with her, training her and eventually maybe get into agility...

Just what we need, another hobby to take up the little spare time we gripe about not having! lol Plus when we get Cooper, we plan to train him and do field hunts/trials with him too... something will have to give at some point.. housework maybe? cooking? household projects? It's not that we need more time in the day, we just need more money to hire someone to do that crap we dont want to make time to do... LOL

on a side note, Shannon is starting to get some interest in Oakley, his online video has been viewed almost 250 times!!! Yeah... that is exciting! We are shooting more video tomorrow that I will have to piece together.. I might try to figure out more with this video, could be a decent side cash job I could do for horse owners.. I come out and video for them and put it all together... I suppose I could do it for other animals too, maybe I should take a video class at the college, I could really enjoy that as a side job!!!

Awaiting the call...

I've been at work, waiting for Derek to call because it is 3:55 and he normally gets home about this time.. So he calls and at first sounds like he has a really worried tone, so I almost start to panic.. he says "Did you leave Ellie outside when you left this morning?" YES, of course I did... My heart began to sink, tears were welling up already and he says.. well I just found her in the house!! LOL

We are not 100% yet how she figured it out but she did it.... that little Ellie squirt figured out how to get through the doggy door while we were away at work! 1 day alone and she is smart enough to figure something like out that, I thought it would we weeks before she was even big enough to go through it.. we are in trouble with this one!!! :)

Now Derek is on potty patrol.. just because she found her way in, does not mean she will have found her way out and who knows how long she was in the house for.. hmmm She was hiding under the saddle in the entryway, she probably heard Derek calling her when he was out in the yard. Funny Damn Dog!!

All About Ellie..

Yep, it's all about her right now!

The plan was to get up early Saturday morning and drive down to Damascus OR (just outside Portland) and pick up our little Ellie! but Friday Derek sent me a text saying, why dont we just leave after work? So we got home, loaded the camper and headed on down the road, just us and the Russ. We had contemplated staying at a campground, but we wouldnt get down in time to check in, then we thought about finding a Walmart to stay at but because we dont have a potty in our camper, figured it was best to stay at a rest stop, so we pulled over at Milepost 11 rest area in WA and slept there.. it was a mini adventure and it was actually kinda fun! We woke at 6am (not really intentionally), it was only 40 minutes to our destination and we couldnt show up til 9, so we stopped for a big breakfast and tried to relax the anticipation of getting our dog!

The lady we got our pup from, Denise, she has a lot of Aussie's and had a few other females available too.. one was a red female that was going to be smaller than Ellie. We contemplated for a few seconds, but both realized we had our hearts set on Ellie and that's who we wanted to take home with us. She's a little pudge ball with fur! :)

The ride home was great, she slept up on my chest/neck the entire way, we stopped often for potty breaks and had no car sickness issues with her. Because of her ball of fur and since she's been raised outside, we had to keep the cold air on her to keep her from panting, she is really cute when she pants though! lol

After we got home, we rested for a while then headed out to the Scherrer's for the horse club Ice Cream social and potluck dinner. It was delicious and fun. We had Ellie in her crate most of the time in the shade, she was content to just sleep. Poor girl was tuckered out, but I was happy to see her so comfortable in her crate.

Every time for the rest of that day, whenever she would start to fall asleep, I would make her walk into her crate so she learns that is her safe zone to be quiet and calm. Saturday night in her crate was a completely different story though! She slept just fine in her crate for an hour or so and then she would whine.. so I'd get up, take her out to potty and then put her back.. an hour later she would wake up and we'd do the same routine.. well after a couple hours, she figured out that if she whined, she would get taken out so then she just wanted to be held.. so i'd take her out, hold her til she fell asleep then put her back in the crate and again an hour later, she'd wake up.. on and on and on, til I just gave in and got up for the day much earlier than I wanted to. :)

Sunday we went to my parents for breakfast and she did good, again we used the crate for her to sleep in while we ate and she did great.. we'd then take her outside to play.. the first time my parents Aussie dog ran up to her, she screamed like she was under attack! Sarge didnt even touch her, he was just looking at her and she sat there and screamed bloody murder and didnt stop until I picked her up, she acted like he was eating her.. :) A little later we reintroduced him to her and she was just fine.. I think the initial shock of him running past her, just scared the shit out of her! lol

I spent the afternoon on Sunday doing some of that long-lost cleaning that I've procrastinated on.. not sure what burr climbed up my behind, but I got windows washed, dusting done, vaccuuming.. Ellie sat in her crate as I vaccuumed and was not phased one bit by the machine... She really started coming out of her shell yesterday, she was doing a lot more playing and running around.. She LOVES the grass! Ever since we put her on grass on our drive home from OR, she just loves the feel of it and rubs her head in it, rolls in it.. She has figured out how to go up/down the front steps, she's slowly starting to come in/out of the house on her own, she is doing great with potty (no accidents as we are very good about getting her outside). She is definately a much different dog right now when she is inside vs outside. Outside, she runs and spins circles, rolls in the grass, growls, chases Russell, explores.. In the house, she plays a little bit but is more reserved and tends to want to hang out by me. I am really glad she likes it outside considering that when we are gone, she is out there all day.

Last night we put Russell in the crate with her (a little snug for the 2 of them) but it worked well because she slept solid from 10pm - 5am! She had to potty real bad when I took her out at 5, we came in the house and I put her back in the crate.. Russell had jumped out as soon as I opened the door.. he was not really okay with being forced to sleep with her, I would say he tolerated it very well.. :) But she slept solid and when I put her back in at 5, she whined and cried, so of course I caved and put her in the bed, she fell asleep between us until it was time to get up for the day.

Russell doesnt yet love her, he likes her okay.. he growls at her a tiny bit if she gets too close for comfort, but he's slowly tolerating more and more from her.. she tries to bite him and runs up to him all the time and he's coming around.. she follows him all around in the yard. We have to keep reminding him to not get grumpy with her, I think in a couple days it will be a different story. Russell has never been a puppy fan but he's also a good boy and since we are now going to make him sleep with her, he'll just have to learn to love her!!

I think it's only a matter of a few days before Russell stops feeling butt hurt and starts realizing she is going to be his next best friend! :) It is tough though with her... trying to figure out how to cook, clean, get ready in the mornings, work around the place.. we are wanting to keep our eyes on her a lot for 1) she is so darn cute! and for 2) because we want to be sure she is not going potty in the house or chewing up things she is not supposed to! I think as the week progresses we will find a way to balance this out a bit, but for now, our day (aside from being at work) is consumed with how to work around our little Ellie bean!

wooohooo

I finally got back the letter I needed for Edgar! Yeah... The ranch that branded him sent me the letter indicating they release him and that to the best of their knowledge I am in legal possession of him.. so we can now get a brand inspection done on him which means we can then travel across state lines... legally!! YEAH! That was a big headache process but I'm glad to have it resolved.. The bummer part is that they didnt send me any information on Edgar, like I had hoped they would.. oh well.. we love him and that's all that matters.

If you ever buy a horse with a brand, just be aware of the potential issues it could cause you down the road, it is not easy tracking down where a horse came from that has ZERO papers or known history! :)