must love dogs...

Abbie is getting to that stage where something will catch her attention and then she will begin to laugh. I just love that "baby laugh"... you can't help but join in. Right now, her two big "laugh factors" are Chester and Tazzy. I think she likes Tazzy because of her black and white spots... and Chester, simply because he is such a goofy thing right now.

this is pretty much what entertained us last night.........

it's time to fly... again....

It's that time of year again, when our dog club and the Maine Coast Runners host the annual Flyball dog tournament. I meant to ask how many years this has been hosted by our sister groups... it has to be more than 10 (If I remember correctly)......

I used to be on the team with Moxie, we started back in 1998 and is the first official flyball dog team in the state of Maine. After Moxie retired from racing, I didn't have another dog that liked it as well... Trevor ran a little, but you have to have that "certain kind of dog" to play. However, I still have a "love of the sport" and do what I can to support the team. Which now comes in the form of "transportation". It take a lot of "equipment" to run a tournament, and with one kind of trailer or another, we can move the "stuff".

So this morning, Ed, Abbie and I hooked onto the trailer and met up with Shirley and Steve and began to load things to take to the arena. Because there are so many teams coming this year, they have to set up and run two racing lanes. We haven't done this before, but I can say, it was (is) double the work for sure.

Cynthia was happy to Abbie sit, so I could help with the unload. Everyone was so happy to see Abbie there, and we talked about the day when she might want a racing dog and be a jr. handler... poor Abbie, we have her life planned away.....

getting the mats put down was the first order of business.... these gals are "official mat weights"...

Lots of planning, measuring and getting things just right are in order!!!!

and the raffle table has all sorts of goodies to temp the players. Sadly, I have a busy weekend myself, so I won't be attending the event as usual. But I know there will be some good racing.. so if you are in the area... go and take a peek....

good luck teams, I will be anxious to hear all about it.....

check this out...

soooo... one of the birthday gifts I got from Deb was a subscription to "Horse Illustrated".. and my first copy arrived yesterday. It's the May issue which is really neat, because it's all about the miniature horse!!!! And not only do we have a mini....

But guess who's photo is in the magazine!!! Yup, that is Miss Mocha there on page 50. This is the photo that Dusty Perin took, which also made it into a book about minis (I blogged about that some time ago)....

goodness, first Silver made it into a magazine.. then Mocha's photo made it in the book.. and "chicken" has her photo in a magazine and now Mocha again... hope these residents of Sweetgrass Farm don't get too swell headed!!!!

come on over and have a visit, autographs are done for free.......

good day of work...

"wait til you see what my folks got done today... they were like crazy people working at the house all day. I hear there is something going on about us moving in here.. and maybe that has something to do with it. That will be great, because you know, I love being here at the farm, and it's going to be so much fun to actually live here"

Camille was right, Ed and I went crazy in the house today... we are on "crunch" time and any possible moment is now spent here. This morning, the down stairs bath looked like this.....

and before we took a break for lunch... it looked like this. Mind you, it's just one coat, and I'll have to do another.. and no, the painting around the tub isn't done, because the chalking wasn't dry enough to paint... but the basic part of it is done... and I at least know exactly "what" the color is going to look like.

After lunch, we ran down and got the barn chores done. I was "afraid" that if I didn't do them, I might be too tired at the end of the day to do them.... but, here is the living room before we went to lunch.......

and just before supper time.... here's the color on the living room walls.... it took me "forever" to decide on this "green".....











The funny thing about "this" green is... I had bought the small sample cans of green.. tried them, and then went and got more. But once I decided on a color, Ed pointed out that twice I had bought the sample size of this green... so, to have picked it two different times.. I guess it's the color that I really wanted.








Ed spent the day on the electrical side of things. It's hard when he has this project going and then is taken away from it, because he has to remember "where" everything goes. Today he got the lights over the mantel working... and they look so very nice. I would love to see them when it's "dark"... but today, had to settle for what they look like in the "daytime"... and now, as far as I know... all the electrical is up and running on the first floor.... check another project off the list......

Easter Blessings....

We had a beautiful Easter this year. So much about Easter is already wonderful, our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life for our sins, that we might spend the rest of time in heaven with Him... the day to day blessings the Good Lord provides for us.. this wonderful country that we live in, where we have the freedom to serve our Lord... we are a blessed people. And then, to top it off this year, not only do we have our dear little Abbie.. but we also had the most amazing weather.. which in New England.. can be tricky... Easter can be warm and it can be freezing... we had warm this year!!!!

Before church, Abbie was given her little Easter basket. We tend to keep Easter as a celebration of the Lord (and leave the bunny out of it).. but we do give gifts in celebration....

The little eggs contained many "goodies".. but a special one had a new "passie"....

just checking to make sure we found all the things that might be inside....

then it was time for church. A new outfit.. and how lucky that could be shown off... (often times a winter coat needs to cover the new outfits!!!)

The bell choir sounded just beautiful. I felt sad that I wasn't a part of it.. but one has to make the practices. Still though it was great fun to be able to sit and listen.. when you "play" you don't get to do that....

And because I wasn't in the choir, Chester got to go to church as usual. He pretty much sleeps thru the whole service......

Beautiful lilies decorated the front of the church.

And a special cupcake was waiting for Abbie during the "coffee time".....

Then it was onto Rachel's for a family get together. She and Naomi had made up a special egg to celebrate Abbie's first Easter.

And a table with a great dinner waiting for us.

Time spent with Great Grandpa......

and cousin Naomi......

And a grand day spent with family ended in the arms of Uncle John and a cup of "milk"..

I hope that all my blogger friends had as Blessed Easter as we had... and that the Good Lord will be a part of your lives as He is in ours.....

surprise party....

If you have been a follower of the blog then you already know that Deb and I have birthdays within days of each other. Mine being 3/30 and Deb's being 4/1... we are also the same age, which means that it was Deb's big 5-0 as well. Our "poor" kids.. two surprise parties in one week, but they pulled it off and last Saturday (4/4) it was Deb's turn to be surprised.








A nice table of gifts from family and friends.. waiting Deb's arrival....

A moment to unwind and begin to enjoy the time together before Deb arrives....

And talk of "how was she getting there".. because that part had been left up to Dave....

Even Chester had to wonder what Dave would do to bring Deb to her party!!!!

Fortunately is was an absolutely perfect spring day, so Dave suggested that they hitch up Buddy and Alice and go for a little drive together.I took this picture thru the window... Deb had no idea that she was driving to her own party!!!!!

But as she rounded the corner, she figured it out pretty quickly.....

And it's pretty safe to say that she was as surprised at her party as I had been at mine....

they "got ya Deb"!!!!!

Course, all the "hitching up work" couldn't go to waste... so Dave gave some rides around the parking lot with Buddy before he headed back home with him.

The horses had to be taken back home, Rick offered to drive Alice back so Deb could stay at her party.

Abbie got right into the "swing of things".. she didn't quite get the idea of blowing into this little horn to make the sound, but she "knew" it had something to do with "going into the mouth"....

Sadie tried to show her what to do... but she's still pretty little to be doing something like that....

Deb had a grand time .. as did the rest of us... she got to see a lot of friends and some folks that she hadn't seen in a long while. It was a great afternoon and one that we won't forget for a long time.....

happy birthday, my dear friend.....

playin' in the mud

It's that time of year again, where we have to cut the boys out of the pasture so it can get some green. If we allowed them out on it, they would gobble up the grass before it even has a chance to start. The area near the barn is pretty mucky and I hate having them stuck in here, but it's only for a few weeks, and if the sun sticks around for a while, this will quickly dry out.








Give it just a bit of time, and this will green up well, and the boys will have grazing all summer long.











Ed has been wanting to get another corner post in for quite sometime. We had rigged the corner with a regular fiberglass post, and so far, it held up. But if the drafts get "horsing" around, it wouldn't stand up to them. So, we put on the boots, headed out to the mud and got a hole dug for the new post.







Abbie was with us, as Sadie was at work. I just buckled her into the "gator" and she buzzed around the pasture with us as we worked. She seemed pretty happy with all the activity.... we'll make her a "country baby" yet!!!!









We kept the boys in while we worked.. mainly so they wouldn't be under foot and "helpful".. once we let them out, Tonka went straight out to the fence and walked the line. I could almost here him saying "what's with this???"









Then he went back to where the new post was (and all that "new" mud) and took a nice little roll for himself. Silver decided that he would "smile" for the photo!!!!!












and then had a little roll for himself. Ah, shedding season... gotta love it.












Abbie seemed pretty happy "playin" around the farm .. she loves to be outside and just a part of anything that is going on!!!!










And here's our Chester.. home after surgery. He wanted to "fuss" with his boo-boo, so they had to send him home with this silly cone thing. He actually didn't mind it too much, and slept most of the rest of the day and evening. Give him a day or two and he'll be back to himself.


I said to Ed, the animals are going to want to keep far from me... poor Chester and his operation, the boys crowded into a small paddock.. I bet the others are just waiting to see what I'll do to them!!!!!!!!!!!!