7 PWD puppies!!

Okay, I'll admit, I guessed a LOT more! G
There were 8, but one was malformed, so 7.
That's a nice sized litter.

4 girls, 3 boys.
All Black (my favorite dog color!)
Well, except when it comes to Bichons.
I like them white! G

2 Curly Girls
2 Wavy Girls
1 Curly Boy
2 Wavy Boys

I'll post a picture or video if I can get
Linda to figure out how to export it for me.
Hopefully she'll just give it to Tim to do!
Or Chuck - CHUCK - Help me out here!!!

They really aren't much to look at right now.
Picture little black leeches and you've
pretty much GOT IT!

Okay, I have one of Nina
(black curly)
at a day or so old.
CUTE CUTE CUTE!
Okay, so she's a black blob.

Linda, get taking some pictures!

How Many Puppies?

Fit inside a Brown Portuguese Water Dog?

Care to take a guess?

More importantly, how many are
curly and black females?

Here's the most hysterical part.
if you look at the puppy on the bottom right,
it looks like Obama!

Let me show you.


Crazy huh!!

Maybe it's just me?? LOL

You should see what I find in clouds!

Junk Drawer Scavenger Hunt!

Do you remember doing those when you were a kid?

You'd have a list of items you needed to get and you
ran door to door asking 'strangers' for them.
It could be a paper clip, twist tie or a brown shoe string.
Yep, those were the days!!
I don't think they do fun things like that anymore.

So, I thought it might be fun to have a
Blog Related Scavenger hunt.

I asked people to send me a picture
of their 'Junk Drawer'.
You know, that favorite draw that
defines CHAOS!!

I was NOT surprised to hear some
people don't have a junk drawer.
I'm sorry...that's just NOT RIGHT!

My sister is one of them!
I was at her house one day,
it's way too organized!!
Finally, the 'order' just got to me.
"Show me your JUNK DRAWER!"
The next work began with a 'B'.
She just laughed.
Next time I stay I'm going to leave the
bed unmade. I might even have to
drop both pillows on the floor and
LEAVE THEM! G

So, below are the junk drawers.
Your job it to see how many similar items you
have in YOURS!!
(Those of you that submitted them,
you can't use your own drawer)

You can combine your number from
your Human Junk drawer and your
Canine Junk drawer.

So, for example if you only have a kong and
a battery, then you have a total of two items.
Not to mention, a very sad Junk Drawer!

Whomever has the most items wins a prize!!
SERIOUSLY!

Not to mention, you might actually
re-organize your junk drawer while
you're at it! That's MY PLAN!

Dog Reading Program - WON!!!

Thank you for all your VOTES!!

You DO make a DIFFERENCE!!!

http://blog.betterworldbooks.com

Postman's Creed

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these
couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds

But ICE DOES!!

In defense of the US Postal Service, it doesn't say Ice.
I guess I just assumed they'd ALWAYS DELIVER!

It's not like I was waiting for anything specific.
Maybe my newest issue of Backyard Poultry!
I love that magazine.

Speaking of birds....here's what the
door looked like going into 'their' place!

I'm sure the birds were happy to be in.

After 24 hrs in a box stall....
Saphira just wanted OUT!!


Sorry Pony, tomorrow afternoon!

Oh, BTW, USP delivered to our house today.
Hum....maybe our postal carrier needed a ride
with BROWN!!

Children's READ With a Dog Program

Please take a moment to scroll down and vote for Eileen Roston
and her Portuguese Water Dog,
Lucy (Kalista's I'm Gilded Two CD RN NA JWD)and their READ Team.

Lucy and Eileen are involved with the READ Dog program and work in several
Twin Cities area schools. If their team gets the most votes,
they will win a $20,000 grant to help provide books
and materials for the children they serve.

Here's the link.
http://www.betterworldbooks.com
Find the blue box on the page that says VOTE NOW.
Scroll down to find "Intermountain Therapy Animals Reading Education Assistance Dogs".
Select & then Submit.

Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

If you're looking for a quick, easy read.
A book that has multiple laugh out loud parts,
and I'm only a third of the way done.
Very little thought on your part required.

THIS IS IT!!

Enclosed Porch!!

OMG!!! They are FINALLY starting to get moving!

With the temperatures improving, I'm hopeful they are
going to actually finish this siding and enclosed porch project!
Might it actually be TRUE?
Do I dare to HOPE?

Yesterday they got the door and windows in.
The porch is now officially ENCLOSED!
I'm looking forward to having a nice sunny area to read!


Today I stayed home for the electrician to hook up
the recessed lighting so they can put the tin up.

The porch isn't terribly tall, so I thought recessed
might be the way to go for the lighting.

The ceiling will be white tin.
The interior walls will be red wainscoting from our
corn crib that was torn down 5 years ago.
Trim will be old barn boards and the flooring
will be vinyl, with an old wood floor look if I can find it.

The decor will be in JOHN WAYNE STYLE!
TOTALLY WESTERN!!!
Yep, My SPACE!
My old horse collar mirror with hames is ready to hang!
Bill will only pass through briefly!! LOL

Here's two of the 3 lights.
They will probably look better 'in'
the ceiling! G

Dear Diary.....

It’s been 7 weeks since I’ve been in the pool.
It’s NOT my fault!

The pool was undergoing some much needed repairs for the last several weeks.
What started off as a general cleaning and painting, turned in more extensive work.
The pool was back in service on Monday 1/11 and I made it Wednesday Morning - 1/14.

The pool is AWESOME!
The lines are nice and boldly colored.
The water is pristine!
Maybe ‘not so much’ after Wed nights first “Open Swim”. G

I must admit, getting back into the pool was GREAT!
I did wonder this morning at 5 am why the heck people would venture out into the freezing cold weather, just to turn around and get pert-a-near naked, and jump into cool water! Are they nuts!! PRETTY MUCH!

I did wonder how it would go since I hadn’t swum for so long.
I had flashbacks to a year ago when I couldn’t do one lap without grabbing the side!
I did not want to have to start all over!!!

When I got to the pool and opened my ‘swim bag’ I discovered my swim caps (Yes, I do where a sexy swim cap!) were totally molded together. After a few minutes of pulling and prying I managed to get it opened enough to put on my head. Note to Self: You really should take your sweatshirt off first as the latex of the cap stick to the cotton of the sweatshirt. I look in the mirror and my cap is now ½ on, actually, this is probably an improvement! I fix my cap and try to remember which goggles I use. The clear ones or the blue ones? Hum, the clear ones look more comfortable. So I work up a glob of spit and work that into them as I walk out to the pool. Oh stop!! Everyone does it! (Spits in their goggles that is)

I jump into the deep end as I can not stand the slow agony of sliding in and then walking slowly to the deeper depths. A sharp knife cuts the quickest and you might as well just get’her done! The water temp was actually pretty darn nice, not the normal cold shock from hell!

I start lap number one. Oh, this is so nice to be swimming again. Oh crap, my goggles are leaking! I swim the length back to the shallows with water washing over my eyes at breath. HOW ANNOYING! I stop in the shallows and tighten my goggles. Now that I think about it, I think these on the ones that tend to leaks. They won’t after I tighten them up a couple inches!

I start lap number two. Good golly these are TIGHT! I’m getting a head ache and they are still leaking!! Fine! I swim another length to get back to the shallow end of the pool and get out. Wilma asks if I’m done already!! She’s laughing. I tell her I need to get my ‘non-leaky’ goggles. She understands!

I get by nice blue ones and they are PERFECT!! Except for the ring they’ll leave around my eyes for four hours following the swim! Talk about bags under your eyes!

I proceed to swim 28 more laps at a decent pace. I sure wasn’t setting any records, but I finished and today, that’s all that mattered! I’ll get faster again and I realized I really did miss the swimming.

It was great to be back in the pool!

Happy 50th Birthday MICHELE!!!

Last night several of the "ORANGE People", 7 to be exact made the trek to Reinbeck, IA in order to wish Michele a "Happy Birthday". It was a surprise party and you know how 'those' go! The Birthday Person is NEVER surprised! Well, Michele was! It was great!

Her Husband, Randy, did a FANTASTIC job of planning and keeping it quite! His cooking was amazing!! Who would have thought?? He did a GREAT JOB!! The little 'TEA Room' he reserved for the party was adorable.

The Orange People were very excited about traveling to Reinbeck, IA, which is located in Grundy County. None of us had ever been there before, and we wanted to see for ourselves exactly where it was located. Why? Well, if there's a tornado anywhere in Iowa, you can bet that Grundy County is under a Warning. I think both Bill and Martha had their little Weather Spotter Location books out to 'mark the spot'. Yep, we've BEEN THERE!!

Meme, Martha, Bill and I arrived first! Gee, imagine that! We apparently thought we were at a dog event and needed to scope out the crating area! Mike and Cheryl, (Randy's bother and his wife), were very kind and made us feel welcome. Even though we were all dressed in orange. NEVER invite us to a WEDDING!

As other party's arrived, someone was heard to say. Were we suppose to wear 'orange'? It was hysterical. We do look a little crazy, but for the most part we're perfectly harmless. Please note, they did let 'us' got through the food line FIRST!!!

Michele was SURPRISED!! I'm not saying she was happy about it, but was a good sport. She did threaten me numerous times while I was using my "Flip" however. If you can read lips, you'll see it in the movie clip. If I go "missing", you know who the number one suspect is at the moment! Randy is at even greater risk as I hear her mutter, "I'm gonna kill you" a few times.

Michele H got Michele F a roll of orange duct tape for her birthday. MF was VERY excited! The family just couldn't understand. VBG She got a present from Packer, AKA Parker, another inside joke of the OP. Her poor family, the only ones not terribly frightened by us were Randy's folks. They are probably color blind and thought were were wearing tan!! LOL

As we head for a meal, Michele notices that her name is spelled incorrectly on the cake. NO PROBLEM!!! We simply removed an "L". PERFECT!! The frosting was really good!
YUMMY!!! By the time Michele was dishing up her food the "OP" natives were getting restless. Nearly VIOLATE! So I had to put the "FLIP" away to eat. It was great!

Toward the end of the gifts, the cute little girl in pink comes up to ask Michele H if she knows where her Grandpa is. Michele misses an opportunity to point at Jeff and say 'There he is!'.
Oh well!! G





It really was fun and we're honored to be included!

Happy Birthday MICHELE!!!!

CABIN FEVER!!!!

It is currently -15 degrees (actual temperature) and I just finished a wonderfully delicious bowl of peppermint ice cream. The only thing that kept me from the second bowl is the shivering. Our house thermostat is set at 64 and it seems like it's on more than it's off. I've switched to coffee!!

I know people are saying they have had enough. I'm so past that point!

I'm not even sure I'd be willing to try 'THIS' right now!!!

Oh, speaking of tongues' stuck on steel.
The grossest thing is happening to my roosters
and tom turkeys out in the building.
Their Waddle's "that floppy skin under necks' is
catching on the steel handle of the buckets or
the steel chicken wire. Thus, there's frozen
blood in spots. At first I couldn't figure out what
was happening, then I saw the blood down the front of
on of the Spitzen-Haben Roos. OUCH!!
It won't kill them, but it can't be pleasant either.
Rilda, I'll spare you the picture!

There's only so much inside "fun" you can have.
Seeker has played with Mad as much as possible.
Kruz has help Seeker at bay with the "Hairy Eye Ball".
Mad is in a lap and FINE WITH THAT!

Finally, yesterday afternoon, I'd had enough.
Bill was home and said the "outside" word that
turned heads faster than dog cookies hitting the floor.
FINE!! Let's go get the mail!!

So I grabbed the new flip, put on my coveralls
and headed out the door.
Three VERY HAPPY dogs followed!
Bill came along too, I'm not sure how happy he was?

After about 3 minutes, Kruz had frozen feet
and Bill carried him back into the house.
After 5 minutes the Flip record button would no
longer turn on or off. Luckily, it was frozen ON record!

We were surprised that Mad wasn't cold right off too.
Nope, she was having a blast!
She actually spent quite a bit of time trying
to show us where all the deer meat was!
I think she thought we were STUPID!
She was ready to go in when we were.

NOT SEEKER!
That darn Eskimo Dog! He wanted to stay outside!
NEVER BUY A DOG FROM CANADA!

Here's a little video I made up.




I just LOVE the Muppets!
This is from one of my ALL Time
favorite Movies!
Muppet Treasure Island!

You'll have to pardon the siding pile and dumpster.
They really are NOT our normal decor.
They started 11/2/09 and we hope
they are done by Spring!!

Hark...it's 7:36 am Saturday morning and
I think the County Maintainer just drove by.
That's the Plow Truck for you city dwellers.
THANK GOODNESS FOR OUR NEIGHBOR!

Light Display Next Year......

Hum, someone seems to think we need to do a light display on our house next year.

So, she sent me an example of how COOL it could be!!
You need to have sound when you watch this.

What Martha DOESN'T realize (but she should), is that we can have
this happen to our lights, without planning it!!

Lights are now on sale, I guess we should stock up!

JUST IN CASE!!!!

BEEF - It's What's for DINNER!!

I just wish it was MINE!!!

This is what I found thawing in the sink
when I got home from work.
It's 'old' beef we got for the dogs.
Last week they had Rib Eyes!

I think I'm having.....
Chili....AGAIN!

Moving SOUTH!!!

Face it, there ARE really GOOD things about winter.

I do love the feeling of my nostrils sticking together due to cold weather.
I even like the feeling of my eyeballs freezing on occasion.
I also like the fact that the Pony's stalls are easy to clean, since the poop is frozen!
It makes me appreciate Spring and Summer even more!

I don't like dealing with; are frozen water buckets, a frozen toilet: AKA: Moaning Myrtle, (that's Bill's job!), or thawing out the hose to fill the Pony Pond. AKA - the pony's water tank. I could also live without the frozen ice rink which was once our lane! It would be suitable for Hockey were it was only smooth and level.

So, on the way to O'Fallon, IL this last weekend, Bill and I discussed purchasing some land 'down south'. Just a little 'get away' from the coldest of winter months. Something within 4-5 hours, so we could go on the weekend.

We talked about wintering 'down south', maybe just January and February? We'd of course need to bring the ponies along, and my kitties, oh, won't they be THRILLED! Bill balked at the cats, but if he can bring 'HIS' dogs, then I can bring "MY CATS". We'll also need to bring the chickens, ducks and turkeys. This was starting to sound like a LOT of work! G

We thought something just south of St. Louis would be nice. Maybe just 5 -10 acres, with a small house, barn and pasture. As we entered St. Louis and found the temps in the teens....we both decided that it wasn't "FAR ENOUGH SOUTH"!!! G

Back to the drawing board I guess!