Bev Rumsower - passed away 7/27/09

Meme sent out a post today from the Midwest Agile list that announced the passing of Bev Rumsower. It's rather hard to believe as she's been around since I started agility or obedience for that matter. She use to have a number of border collies, having an attachment to those red merles.

Her health has been declining as of late. She stopped running her dogs and turned them over to someone else to handle. She was the ICDOC trial secretary for two years of the December agility trials at Kirkwood.

At her memorial service, dogs are welcome. I sure hope they know what they are in for. What a wonderful idea.

Painting Projects

Home on vacation and guess what....I'm PAINTING!!!
It seems like there's always something to paint.

This week has been so nice that my projects are focused outside.
Yes, PROJECTS, I can't seem to stay focused on just ONE!!

My goal is to get the chicken coop and the chimney on the house
painted this week. Just to be clear, our chickens do NOT live
in the chicken coop, they live in the hog house.
I know it's confusing, but just trust me.
The hog house, not that's a whole other vacation project!!!

So, yesterday I got quite a bit of the chimney painted. As far as the
ladder would reach. Then it was up to the roof where I couldn't
recall how I'd managed to paint the front "South" side of the
chimney 7 years ago. I vaguely remembered it involved a rope.
So, I stuck with the other 3 sides of the chimney top yesterday,
saving the 'more challenging' side for today.

Well, I'm happy to report, it's DONE.
I'm obviously still alive to tell about it.



I have to go back upstairs and put the curtains back up in the window on the right.
Yes, I had to hang out that window to get the east side of the chimney.

You'll notice there's still a patch that needs painting. The ladder won't
quite reach. I'm going to try to talk Bill into moving it into
the planter and holding while I paint. He wouldn't last night,
but today he might be tired of my complaining about it.

So, how did I get to that 6' section facing south?
Well, you have to climb the roof and hold onto the chimney.
Yep, that's the only way!
Unless of course you have a taller ladder!

If someone would have thought ahead, they wouldn't have
painted the part you had to hang onto! UGH!!!


Oh well!! I'm DONE!!!
Well, with the first coat anyway!

Behind my 'arm' is the chicken coop.
It houses our recycle stuff, our grill and our excess
agility equipment. It's about 1/2 painted.
Luckily, most of this can be done WITHOUT a ladder!

Well, off to finish up painting!!

A weekend HOME!!!

It's seems strange to be spending a weekend at home. Oh the things we SHOULD do!
Getting Bill to agree is another story!! So we did some putzing this weekend, not accomplishing anything too challenging. I guess he's leaving that to ME while I'm on vacation this week.

It was quite cool for July, but nice enough today to get the pool out for the dogs and let them have some fun. It was also a time when I could get the camera out and do some shooting. I don't do it often enough and I'm trying to make an effort to do it more. Where does the time go?

First of course you have to fill the pool. This usually results in a game of spray the Border Collie. Portuguese Water Dogs do NOT play this game. In fact, most PWDs will NOT play in the baby pool A pond or lake, yes, baby pools are for ..... um ...babies or in our case Border Collies.

Seeker and Kruz play their own special pool game. Seeker likes to be 'in' the pool splashing, and Kruz likes to run around the pool snapping at the spray. I don't ask, and they don't tell.
It seems to work well for them, so we leave it be.

It's not long after a brief pool outing when Seeker realizes someone left the teeter up!!!
YIPPEE!!!!
He doesn't care who's watching, the teeter is up and I MUST PLAY!!

So, after few minutes of springing back and forth on the board and I announce.

GAME OVER!

So, we're going to head back to the pool and WHAT!!! A chicken has come into the yard!
This is "cat women", she's a smart hen and comes up to the house looking for left over cat food.
Apparently she's NOT so smart when it comes to using the dog's swimming pool.
Lucky for her, our dogs don't really care much about the chickens.

Fortunately, we have a Border Collie that will help RID us of our pesky chicken.
THANKS KRUZ!!!

Next comes a fun game of fetch!!
With one of the favorite toys, the green moon.

Does this look like a dog with a foot injury?
Mad is recovering after a nice little snake bit.
It's looking much better, but it's still suppose to be wrapped and soaked twice a day.
Apparently she's pulled her wrap off!

Who ME????

Seeker grabs the toy and races to the pool!!!
More Border Collie games and the toy ends up in the bottom of the pool.

Mad is appalled!! "What did you have to go and do that for?"
"BOYS!! UGH!! Border Collies!! Double UGH!!"

After awhile we put the dogs in the house and sit outside on the porch to have our lunch.

This hen is called "Nosy Rosy".
She is very food motivated and you can easily pick her up.
Well, if you're eating something that is. G
I picked her up while eating my brat and she literally took a bite of my food right from my mouth!! OMG!! I'm glad I wasn't biting down!

She's a very cute little bird, hungry, but cute!

Remember those turkeys I got on April 15th?
Well, they are GROWING!!!
I have two toms, this is the larger of the 2, which leaves of course 3 hens.
They are very interesting looking.
It really does make you think of dinosaur when you look at them.
Sometimes his head is all red, I'm not sure why?
This one is starting to fluff all his feathers out like he's tough stuff.
Lucky for him he won't make it to the Thanksgiving table 'this year'.

Now I'm off to have a Harry Potter Marathon Movie watch!!
We're going to see the last HP movie tomorrow night!
I only have the first 3 movies, but that should get me in the HP swing!
Plus I can get some MUCH needed crocheting completed on Jennifer's baby blanket!

Sling Shots!!

I always thought these looked like fun. Of course, as they say.....it's all fun and games until someone loses and eye! Check out this clip! It's obviously an OLD one! Hey Rilda, do you remember when Pepsi cans looked like that??

Orange Celebration!!!

Check it out at ...... http://smoothsailin.blogspot.com

Balloons Over Benton County

Nothing brings out the Benton County folks like
Hot Air Balloons landing on your road!!

Okay, we get a LOT of balloons going over,

Landing is another story!

Bill even 'let' me stop mowing on Sunday evening to head
over to the neighbors and have a chat.

We were soon joined by Julie, the "Benton County Reporter" and her little Bode.
He's taking 'charge', just in case we can't see what's going on!

They are down!
Right by the power lines.
YIKES!!!

Let the crowds begin!!
Someday I'd like to go up in one.
I think I like the bright yellow/orange and red one best!

The boys, Bode and Caleb are 3 and Casey is 2,
(he's the butt shot and doesn't care! G)
weren't all that interested once the balloons were down.
It's so funny how much a bunch of gravel is!
I just don't understand why people spend all that money on toys!!! G

Psycho's Hotel Room

Anything to save a buck!!

Yes, it's true!! We actually stayed in the PSYCHO's hotel this past weekend!!

We found a hotel room that would save us $24 a night up in Burnsville, MN.
So, of course....we took it!!

It was a bit concerning when you walked into the room and it smelled strongly of bleach.
Murder scene gone bad?

It soon became clear that they were blood stain splatters on the ceiling in the bathroom.
Okay, maybe not, but what the heck are these spots?
(Sorry about the focus...but you get the idea)

The rest of the room seemed okay. It was the bathroom that was frightening.
Check out the mold between the toilet and the tub! Totally a shower weekend!!

Can you say someone needs to clean out the vent!!
It would be one thing if it was out of reach.
This wasn't over 4' high!

Then there was the dog fighting!!!
Poor little Seeker....getting beaten up by Addie!!

We're back again in a couple weeks. I suppose we'll be staying here once more.
After all, they all look the same once the lights go out.

Cougar In YOUR garden????

I'm NOT talking Yellow LABS either!!! VBG

If you like the "wilderness" and have ever thought about buying or renting a place
'out in the wilds', this book is for you!!

This book is about the development of Boulder, CO (but would apply to any wilderness area).

Humans and Cougars 'sharing' habitat, and what happens when the kitties are no longer 'afraid' of man. First go the cats, then the dogs......then the ....well, you know.

It's really good. It talks about living 'with' each other.

I learned a LOT of interesting tidbits.

For example, food 'tastes' are learned. So, if the cougar cubs are 'raised' on Fido,
that's what they 'prefer'. Very interesting!

Yes, it's true that as the deer population grows and spreads we might see more and more Cougars in the Midwest. This book was published in 2004 and it lists sightings (or cats hit by cars) in Western Iowa in 2001, Kansas - 2001, St. Louis - 2000, MN - 2002.

I love one of the quotes in the book.....by Doug Peacock,
"It ain't wilderness....unless there's a critter out there that can kill and eat you."

I guess that makes our camping 'venues' pretty darn 'tame'.

Well, I guess I'll have a more difficult time now convincing Bill that Montana is the place to BE!

Let's Swim!!!

Since the Pigman a month ago, I have not run or biked. POOR SUZIE!!!

I have however continued my swimming. I'd love to go all 3 days, but two at least. It is a challenge with work and traffic, but I'm committed, so I make it happen.

Swimming it good for you! It's low impact and provides a great cardiovascular workout!

This morning at swim we had a FULL HOUSE! I'm not sure if it was because a lot of people had today off or if Friday is just one of the more popular days? All I know is Wilma got to use her whistle!!! Yes, I was jealous!

The whistle indicates that people need to swim within a lane vs. up and back. The pool only has 4 lanes, so if you have more than 8 people, the whistle is BLOWN!!!

Then we break up into lanes based on speed.

Today my 'lane partner' was Dan. OMG!!! HELP ME!!! Dan is a POWER swimmer!
He is FAST! I suppose this is a good match since it makes me swim faster too.
I do NOT like to be lapped!
The only thing that saves me from being lapped by Dan is on occasion he stops to check his heart rate! THANK GOD!! Me, I just keep swimming and figure if my heart stops I did too much! G

When we have our own 'up and back' lane, Dan regularly 'laps' me. I'm okay with that as I can usually justify it....he often has 'fins' on. I'm realistic however, I'm not under any false illusions that he's not faster than me.

It is good to swim next to a strong swimmer. It makes you work harder. I can tend to get in my 'zone' and not push myself. In that zone I could probably swim back and forth forever. Okay...probably not forever...but a good long time.

Today I went into the pool thinking I'd up my 30 laps to 40, which is one mile. If I'm going to do a 1/2 triathlon (on a team), the swim is 1.2 miles which means you need to be able to do a minimum of 60 laps in the pool with ease. The plans were changed however since it was so busy and with the pressure of swimming faster I lost count of my laps. I either did one more or one less than 30....I hate it when that happens! I need a personal lap counter!

Wilma sent this article out a few days ago. I thought it was good and worth sharing.
Look around in your area, check the high schools or colleges. I'm betting they have an open swim that you can work into your schedule!!

Click on the article below to make it LARGER.

You thought YOUR car was MESSY!!!

No, you will NOT be viewing pictures of MY van!!!


Don't be getting too attached, as I'm pretty sure it's TAKEN!!

We are staying at a Days Inn in the Burnsville, MN area over the weekend and we found
THIS in the morning when we were loading the van.

I'm not sure if it was Sal or Carrie that spotted it first, I only know I HAD to get a picture.
Okay, TWO!!
These are the only 2 I took as I was a bit paranoid the "owner" would come out and toss me and the camera into the backseat! Never to be seen again!!

Now, I must admit, it doesn't look too bad from the back. After all, that could just be 'stuff' piled on the back dash. Gosh, I've had vans, trucks, or SUVs for so long....what do you call that space by the rear window?? Is that even a rear window? Back window? HELP!!!!

What you need to realize is that 'stuff' is level with the back seat and it also includes the Passenger seat. No riding 'shot gun' in this BAD BOY!!!!


I'm was so 'impressed' with the amount of CRAP in the car that I don't even remember the make or model!! I'm usually pretty observant in regards to those things. Apparently I never plan on owning one and I was too distracted by the CRAP!!! I can tell you it had NY plates. G

Here's a look into the rear side driver door.

The black stuff....it was actually something decomposing!!
EEEEWWWWW!!!

It was a sunny day....beat that smelled PURDY!

Next time you think you're car's a pit.....

Remember this......

It will look SPOTLESS in NO TIME!!!!