a week of work...

All this past week I have been covering the post while my boss is on vacation ("boss" - he's more my friend than boss!!!) any who... when the afternoons are quiet, I take Ginger in with me. She could come on the busy days as well, because she is so well behaved, but an afternoon is long enough. The folks that come in often look and ask about her, she gives me company -- and we get some training time in.


"OK Ginger, see that bin of mail behind you - it needs to be sorted and delivered"





"Mom -- I know I am practicing to be a service dog, but somehow I don't think this is on the list"












"really --- I should learn to READ first!!!!"















"This is boring!!! can we go home now"


I'm with Ginger on this one... working really cuts into my life!!!! (taking me days just to catch up on the blog)... but it gave my boss a nice break and I'll appreciate the paycheck.....




They look a little like creatures from another planet... but the barn swallows had TWO batches of babies this year!!!












Won't be too many more days and these little ones will be kicked out and on their own. We're beginning to get quite a little community of birdies in the barn... fine with me.... they eat bugs!!!!

a morning on the farm (and other things)

Many of my mornings begin like this... a nice dog walk. I have found some friends (Jeanine and Lee) who, like us, have a few dogs of their own and enjoy getting out there and walking. We meet a few times a week, and between the three of us, we can have any where from 6 to 10 dogs walking with us (they do foster care as well). The dogs love to go, of course, and over the summer have become pretty good friends themselves. The first part of the walk is along the street...






but the favorite part is in the woods. There are great places with amazing walking paths thru the woods and the dogs can't wait for that part of the walk.












Isn't this a good way to start your day????

And once in a while (though not nearly as often as I would like) I have a day on the farm where I don't have to "be" any where else. I was hoping that I would have lots of days like this, but so far, that hasn't happened yet.... so these days are treasured to be sure. After the doggie walk, we headed up to the barn for morning chores....

Abbie loves to help out in the barn.. her job.. find an egg that will become your breakfast. She is not one bit afraid of the chickens and she walks right into their stall and looks around for her egg. (don't you love the outfit of the day!!!)

Course, it's never a straight walk back to the house.. This particular morning, there were little frogs in the puddles made by last night's rain. Abbie was fascinated by them and the more she looked,the more she found.

Those, along with the grass hoppers in the lawn... took us "forever" to get back inside for breakfast... but you know, these are the gifts in life and breakfast (as long as you don't drop your egg) will always be there.

Getting a closer look.......

Camille is coming along well from her back injury.. it has been a long trek, as we were told it would be at the start. She will have some permanent damage, but unless you "know" her, it's hard to tell. We still go to see Dr. Deb once a month, that along with keeping her weight down, and keeping her strong with walking and swimming... will keep us on a good path. And despite her sometime pitiful looks, she really loves to go and see Dr. Deb.. and gets so excited when we pull into her farm.

"Mom --- do I really have to have all those pins put in me?"

"so it doesn't hurt??? well are you the one that's being a pin cushion right now???"

And this particular day ended on a banner note... because it was steak night and I didn't have to work.... and not only was it "just" steak night...

it was Chris's birthday as well.....

Happy birthday!!!!!!






to coin a phase... "life is good!!"

national service dog week...

In keeping with "National Service dog week" Rick and I (with puppies in tow) found ourselves out at the mall in Manchester for another "awareness event". This one was organized by Sandy (center) and her NEADS service dog, Cece. Even though it was a weekday (and the middle of the week) the rainy weather brought people out to the mall.








We had a pretty good number of folks stop by to ask about the dogs and learn a little more about "what service dogs are about". (which is exactly what this week was intended to do). Course, you know, Otis always has the spotlight!!!!










Cece is a well seasoned service dog.. you can tell she has done many events like this. Actually Sandi is very involved in legislator and has been working hard at changing some of the laws with regards to service dogs...so Cece has seen this sort of thing before.







The one annoying (yet constructive thing in an odd way) was we were "parked" next to a toy vendor. I still am not sure what this guy was trying to prove, but he would take all his wind up, (annoying) toys and place them right near the dogs. At first, they would have been very happy to grab them up and play with them, but once we said "no" they obeyed and just laid there watching these things hop and pop around them. Good training, but really quite rude as well.....

This lovely lady and her service dog (a Gordon setter) came by for a little visit. I have to say, what a handsome dog he was and they made a very nice team working together.

Otis - Ginger.... "it's all about the RED vest!!!"

One thing for sure, this "adventure" of service dog raising has taken me places that I would have never thought to venture out to. I have also had the great pleasure of meeting many wonderful people.. truth is, yes I am doing a "wonderful thing raising a puppy"... but what these puppies have brought to me.... makes every moment more than worth while!!!!

SD's by the sea

All this week, the service puppies are busier than usual... it's National Service dog awareness week, and they (we) have been asked to several events in celebration of it. One such evening was spent at the beach... puppy raiser Lynn, had put together an evening of service dogs in her home town. Now, the cool thing, Lynn lives right on the beach, so she invited us to her house for some supper and beach time before the night's activities. Ginger loves the beach.. so it was a grand night for her....







Otis can certainly put on the "baby charm"....













But, the truth is, he's growing quick and next to Ginger, he isn't so small anymore!!!!











Ed, Sadie and Abbie came along as well. Abbie had a great time on the beach with the dogs. And anytime someone made a comment about them, she was right in there to give her side of the story!!!









Inspecting the water's edge....













and pretty sure these two would be in that water if they could have (but we said no... didn't want them to be wet the whole rest of the evening)

There weren't as many people attending as we had hoped (several other activities were going on in town), but the folks that came were very interested and I think had a pretty nice time.











Lynn had asked if I would give a little speech about puppy raising. Since I have no fears about talking in front of people, and love talking about service dogs... I was more than happy to do so.

Suzan also took the floor and talked about the "rules and regulations" with regards to service dogs. (I really enjoyed listening to her, because I am still unclear about some service dog laws.)

We showed the videos that NEADS put together, had a question and answer time, and mingled with the "crowd". It was a fun night, and I look forward to doing it again next year (with another puppy)....

if you ask...

Ever since I lost my dear little Beeker, I have thought that sometime, I would like to have another silkie chicken. I have been looking in the local feed stores, but because they really aren't a good laying bird, silkies aren't there. You can order them, but it's a bit too late in the summer to do that now. However, living in a small town, word gets out fast, and it's pretty well known that I was looking for a silkie. Well... I didn't get one... I got FIVE!!!! A rooster, two hens (for sure) and two little ones (don't know "what" they are yet).





Roger (who is the overseer of the landfill) raises birds, and on one of our dump runs, he asks if it's true... do I want some silkies. I say - yes, one or two would be nice, but he has a small flock that must go together. Well.. let me think about that, and then I hear, "I have your birds here at the dump, come get them".... ya, OK Roger.... guess I have some birds.







Silkies come in all colors and feather type, other than the handsome black rooster, the others aren't as fluffy as Beeker was, but they are silkies. Beautiful blue ear patches, five toes and feathered legs... black skin and some fluff.. and friendly... you can pick up each one....







We're still picking out names for them.. and they aren't hard to tell apart due to their colorings. The two little hens are laying already, and the younger ones may lay before the summer is over (unless this one here is another rooster).... and who knows, we might even get some little ones ourselves... but either way, silkies are back on the farm, and I may have another Beeker!!!!

enjoying summer

Oh my, the summer is fading fast, and I don't think I have done even half of the things I dreamed about last winter. It seems as though every weekend we are doing as much as possible.. not that we aren't enjoying it, but there are just too many fun things still to see and do.

The next town down we went and saw this water skiing show. Boy, we're they good!!! I appreciate anyone who can stay up on skies, but the tricks that theses folks could do!!!!







I was pretty impressed when they pulled three people....











And then, they added more (it was a pirate theme just in case you couldn't tell). They did jumps and flips, carried more people on their shoulders....











and ended the show by pulling 10 people.












The next evening we had a big cookout at the farm with all my friends from the "service dog world". We thought that a cookout would be more fun that our usual "puppy training night".. not that we don't have fun there... but this was fun with good food!!!!

As usual, we had a nice big crowd. I wished our back deck had been done, but everyone seemed to have fun on the front lawn. It was my dream to have Tonka and Duke give some hay rides... sadly, they had other ideas.... oh well, maybe next year!!!!

We shared stories and talked dogs, and another evening went zipping by.....

A few stayed a little later, so we moved inside ahead of the bugs. Otis had the "job" of entertaining Abbie, who now has figured out how leashes work. Poor dogs, we have to hide the leashes, or they find themselves being towed all around the house by Abbie....

Nothing "better in the world" than tired kids and puppies!!!!!

really --it's been a year?????

Just for the record... we have been in the house for a year.....