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!!!