Saturday, July 28, 2012

back on the streets....


Thursday, we were back at NEADS for our monthly check in with Dave (yes, already!!!) It's always fun to go down and I look forward to it each time. Not only do we get the look over of the current pups, but we get the updates of the turned-in pups.. and there was news about Norton. First off, it's this a neat drawing of him... it was done by his handler in the prison... and I think it really "captures" the personality of my muppet dog. Sadly, the news of Norton was not exactly happy, he has been dropped from the training program... because his hips did not pass the medical exam. This is a sad report for sure. Training wise, and personality wise Norton "had it"... and then with is non shedding coat, he was a desirable dog for many clients of NEADS... However, he was not long on the adoption list. Dave, our head trainer, has decided to adopt him!!! So, not only will Norton be a great family pet, he will be accompanying Dave at his training classes, and other type demos. Maybe Norton won't be a service dog, but he certainly will continue to be a good ambassador for the service dogs and will be well loved by his new family. (and I got a chance to say hello to him and gave him a big hug!!!)  
And for the current puppies in training, it was hit the streets of the city once again. The day was overcast, but the city was still hot and full of the activity that it always is. Everyone is progressing well... we got our "usual" excellent progress report.
We popped into the train station... talked with Dave, shared some stories and the doggies practiced unders....
And the ever famous stair work. Believe me, by the time you have hiked up and down them a "million times" so you can work the dog.... you get a pretty good work out yourself. No one ever said that service puppy work was for the lazy!!!!!
This is Vickie... she has been raised by June who is in Mass. But Vickie needed to do a puppy swap, so she is "home" in Maine with us right now. I took a little time to work with her and here we are doing an under. Vickie did quite well, wearing the back pack instead of the vest, gives the dogs another type of work out.
We were also joined with Lorna who currently has Bogey's sister - Rayvan... she's a little cutie pie, and it was neat to get a picture of the siblings together. Both of them are a little small for "goldens", but Bogey seems huge next to his sister!!!! (and they both did quite well in the city!!!)
OK.. so I'll fess up to this part of the story. When we met in the morning, we had to decide if we travel in one vehicle or two. I opted for one, because it's just so much fun for all of us to be together. The others, weren't so sure, traveling together put four humans and four dogs in one car. But, I guess I convinced them, because we all piled into the jeep. I didn't think about the return trip though... because coming back we had another dog with us (Vickie) plus all our supplies (ie: bags of dog food) ..so we all squished big time... five dogs, four humans, 3 huge bags of food.... it was quite interesting and we headed home quickly. Guess it will be two vehicles from now on!!!! But over all, just another fun day in the world of service puppy training...
And paying a visit to the puppy house.... the future looks bright....

summer around the farm

Projects, projects, projects... they seem endless with this farm... and that isn't a complaint, it just seems we are always fussing and changing things around. Working on making it easier, better, faster. Our latest addition is this "portable garage" (aka tent building). We have a pretty good collection of horse drawn vehicles now, and I am having a hissy with them either outside or bearly under cover, so Ed found this little building (on sale no less) and we got it up to tuck our wagons, buggies, and various other items under. Now the sleighs will be protected in the summer and the wagons in winter.... I feel much better about that!!!
Abbie is having a great summer, and she is one busy girl. She spends every other weekend with her Daddy and his family, one day a week she does pre-school with Tee-Tee, and the rest of the days are playing around the farm and being at camp. She also has had a major break threw.... potty training. Took her about a week to get the idea and now she is all about it. She's growing up so fast......
She loves to putter around the barn, and is so happy when she can find ways to help out. Another one of her discoveries... how to start things.... see the gator in the back ground??? Well we now have to hide the key, because she has started it on more than one occasion!!! It was either hide the key or simply teach her how to drive it... think hiding the key is the better idea right now!!!!
The barn swallows have had two batches of babies.... and the other night, batch two had made their way out of the nest and were about ready to take off. We have quite a few of them now, but they must be dong a good job, because we hardly have any bugs in the barn. I am always happy to have them as our guests, they are welcomed back anytime...
Hard to think that the end of July is fast approaching... seems like it was just the 4th and here we are. August is full of fun and all sorts of plans already..... hate to say, but fall isn't that far away.....

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

lobster... again....

For us - lobster eating folk - this has been a good summer. Lobster prices are way down, and right now, it's a pretty cheap meal. And while I appreciate that (I do love lobster) I feel bad for the fishermen who are trying to make a living doing this. When lobster, per pound, is cheaper than a gallon of gas, there is no way these folks can be making a living at what they do, and a number of them have pulled their boats and aren't bothering to even try.
but, I will support them and eat what I can, maybe drive the demand back up........
Yes, Camille --- that is lunch. Our puppy raiser friends from New York are visiting the seacoast this week. So, we thought it would be great fun to get together and have a good ol fashion lobster bake....
The puppies were surprising happy to see each other and NOT on the streets of the city. It was fun to bring them all together in a non working event.....

Here's my lunch.... ooohhh , I can't wait.....
We had a wonderful afternoon.. talking about all sorts of things, enjoying great food and the ocean... and getting photos of this year's puppies.











Bogey still isn't sure that we eat these things... but I bet he would have tried if I let him.
Moxie says.. "this is a set up for sure, I'm not touching those things". We've had some pretty great weekends... thinking back, lakeside, cookouts, family and friends, sky diving, and lobsters by the sea...
ya, know.... we are blessed!!!!! 

from the sky or Merry Christmas...

Not too far from the farm, there is a sky diving school. (amazing what's in my own back yard). Anyways, for Christmas last year, I gave Nate a gift certificate for a jump, he said it was "on the list" of things to try... so, thought he would like to try it. Though I must admit, that jumping out of a perfectly good airplane... well, you know the line....


And I have to wonder just how many people are interested in doing something like that... apparently.. many!!!! because when we arrived to watch Nate do his jump, they had already taken up four loads of jumpers, and Nate was in jump number nine.. and I don't know how many more were after that.
The airport is really fun. They have a nice food stand there, lots of picnic tables, dogs are welcomed and if you like airplanes or parachutes, you could just go and spend the whole afternoon   watching. Nate and Mike (his good friend) had to first take a class on how the jump was done. Then they were assigned to an instructor who would do the jump with them. Can't imagine jumping from a plane over and over and over --- all in one day, .. day after day.. but it must be an interesting job to say the least....
Here are the buddies.... waiting to head out to the plane. Surprisingly, neither were that nervous (I think the families were more worried)
If you want, you can hire a photographer to go up as well, they will film your jump and take photos for you. Nate thought that was a good idea, and as the photographer was asking him "who's idea was it do a jump" he pointed to me and said "my Mother in law".... yup, all the usual jokes followed.....
As I said, it's a place for families and so I brought Bogey along thinking it might be good for him to watch the parachutes fall from the sky. As you can see the landing field is right in front of you, and when they come in, they swoop right over your head. It's cool... Bogey didn't mind it at all and just watched the whole morning.
And here comes Nate!!! They drop from 14,000 feet (about two miles).. do some free fall and then open the shoots..... they also give you a fairly long ride down to earth....

And back safe and sound on earth once again. Mike said it might do it again sometime, but Nate seems pretty happy at having done one. Sadie said she would like to try a jump next year... me.... I'll keep my feet on the ground, thank you very much...









Sadie and Abbie found this peace sculpture neat.....
and here is one of Nate' professional photos. Life is never boring if you just take a moment and look around...





Merry Christmas!!!!

workin' hard...

Last Saturday, it was such a pretty summer night, we decided to pack up Abbie, Sadie, and puppies, and get out there and do some "public access work". I have been wanting to check out OOB, for sometime, and it seemed like the perfect night to do. OOB was filled with summer activities, people, the boardwalk, food... there was much to do and see, for sure.





 Bogey and Moxie got to practice some "unders" while we got supper. We sat outside and watched the crowds go by.
Then we moved over to the amusement park. I knew Abbie would have a great time on the rides, and for the puppies, talk about a working environment.... they got to see it all.
They both did extremely well, and I have already decided that before the season is over, we'll go back there again.
Abbie had a super time on the rides. And one thing that we particularly liked was.. the tickets weren't that expensive, and there is a whole section of the park that is just for the little ones.
And all kinds of different rides to choose from. She likes a couple of them so well, that she took a few rides... one being this mermaid ride. It was very busy and a little crowded, and you had to "pay attention" but over all I would call it a family friendly place.
Bogey was a good as he could be. He seemed to enjoy watching Abbie as she took her rides. He walked along nicely and certainly enjoyed all the attention that he and Moxie drew in.
(love how Abbie picked the pink tea cup -- it matched her sweatshirt)
A bonus to the evening was when we came across a family, who (seeing the dogs) said they were waiting for a dog for their son. As it tuned out, they are waiting for a NEADS dog, so they were very excited when they found out both Bogey and Moxie were puppies in training... they had all kinds of questions about the "side of puppy raising" and we enjoyed hearing about "what it's like to be on the waiting list". The young man who is waiting for his dog certainly loved seeing the puppies, it was about all we could do to pull them away.

The summer is just speeding by... and it's hard to cram in all the fun that it offers... but one thing for sure.. we're "workin' hard" at it!!!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

helpin' out

Abbie is always ready to help out with chores around the farm, and yesterday couldn't wait to help me with 'scooping the pen" (as I call it). She put on her barn boots and was more than ready to "find them" for me... which, I appreciate.
But, it wasn't too long before she found sometime "even more fun" to do. And that was to make sure all the doggies had nice fresh water to drink after they got done playing.
She was really happy when she figured out that she could turn the spigot on... and the doggies were pretty excited as well... especially the retrievers, who as we know, love water.
But Abbie was sure that everyone got a nice good drink, and she kept telling the others "wait til your turn, we have to share"....
There was plenty for all, Ab was more than happy to fill the bowl over and over again.












Afterwards, she followed me around with the scoop (and was happy to point out "any" that I had missed). One thing about growing up with animals, she is certainly learning about responsibility and caring for others.... it's a good lesson.....

Thursday, July 19, 2012

WAY TOO HOT!!!

I really try not to be a complainer, and for the most part, I do think I am a "go with the flow" type of gal..but after this week of unbearable hot weather... I have been complaining. And will say it right out plain.. I HATE the hot weather.  When we get a day or two of it, that's one thing, but an entire week, it's really more than i can bear. Thank goodness we have the lakes, they are a real blessing right now.

Ed was away most of last week, NASCAR has come to New Hampshire and he works on one of the wreckers that you see on the track. I thought we were hot here on the farm, being on that race track... insane. Fortunately, the wreckers have AC, so most of the time he was keeping cool, but it was a hot week for him too.
On Sunday, the Maine puppy raisers were invited to the lakeside house of Gerry and Kathy.   Gerry is NEADS CEO and it was such a pleasure to be able to spend a wonderful afternoon with them, their beautiful camp, and our puppies. It took the dogs all of 10 seconds to find their way to the lake, even Camille, who typically isn't much of a water dog... but she was this afternoon.
Bogey's "retriever" side was out in true form... swimming like a champ and fetching everything that would float.
This sweet boy is Kathy and Gerry's 10 year old Chase. He would swim out to their float and hop right up on it. Watch for fish, and then jump in for another swim. Chase was a great host to the service puppies...
Bogey, Moxie and Monty spent  hours swimming, playing and fetching in the lake... they had a perfect afternoon together.
Camille kept careful watch over everyone... she liked the water, but all that wrestling just isn't her thing... she was happy to paddle about and then hang out on the "beach"
I had to pull Bogey out to rest. He would have swum all afternoon and never stop...
Like wise, Moxie..... 







Does this dog look a little familiar. She might, it's Clover --- Ginger's sister. Clover was "released" from the service dog program, it just wasn't her thing. But, she was adopted by Sherrie (who works at NEADS) and she is so happy being Sherrie's dog. Sherrie and Clover are doing all kinds of neat things, they recently passed the Canine Good Citizen test and are currently doing Rally Obedience. It' always so nice to see them.....



We thought it would be fun to get a photo of all the puppies together sitting beside the lake... I think we got a pretty good photo with all of them...


From left to right... Monty, Clover, Bogey, Camille, Chaser, Jasper and Moxie...












And then a picture of us and our hosts....it was a great way to spend a hot summer afternoon.

But, I am waiting for this weather to pass.....