Dogs

Projects


A pear and a pomegranate still life.

There's been a lot of drama in my life recently, surrounding Angel (and her impending crossing of the bridge) and an issue a neighbor has with Oliver, to the point that I've become completely blocked.

So today I started mindlessly drawing pears again, and after a few hours I became unblocked and started working on The 60 Day Bird Journal Challenge again.  A few more hours in and I'm feeling much better now.

This evening I started refining the journal prompts and began constructing the journals I will be using during the challenge period.


A sneak peak of the papers to be used in the soon to be revealed journals.

Spring has Sprung!


Angel and Oliver hanging out in the outdoor dog run last summer.


Remember all of the hard work John did last Spring to build up my raised gardens in the front yard, here is a photo from last year?  Well we are going to move them to the north garden because mostly we get more sunlight in the back yard than we do in the front yard.  

Soooooo, today began the long process of clearing out the north garden, John removed the fence posts, and the chicken wire fencing while I cleaned up all of the trash that blew into our yard over this past winter.  I also organized all of the fence posts, etc., and otherwise acted as his runner for tools and such, while Angel and Oliver hung out in the outdoor kennel.  

Hopefully next weekend I'll have new photos to share as we embark on this new journey, but we are both in agreement that we love the raised beds and this is the direction we want to go, that and a quarter or half CSA share which we need to make a decision on in the next week or so.  I will say that I was excited to see that my raised beds are completely thawed out, a minor miracle considering this years winter and the fact that we still have ice in the back yard!

Oliver Files: Time Out for Oliver


Time out for Oliver, and of course Angel goes into his crate and won't come out so both got locked inside. He has a fascination with laundry, ie fetching it and then shredding it to pieces preferably while I'm on the phone. They both fell asleep in his crate.


Angel started nodding off at this point, she spent the last two years of Silky's life (our Weimeraner) sleeping in her crate with her so it's not surprising she's sleeping in his crate now.

Family Room Partial Redux

 
Oliver at home on the new, to him, rug in the freshly cleaned family room.

I didn't think to take a before photo and this is probably a good thing!  Needless to say we spent the past two days taking apart, deep cleaning, and then putting back together with a replacement rug no less, the family room.  No small feat on our part because the dogs wanted to be in the middle of everything the entire time.  But we got'er done and I have to say mostly due to John's particpation in the whole process!  Another words it wouldn't have ever have happened if he hadn't been home to help me. 


Notice the beautiful rug in the previous photo, it's replacing the neutral number that has been ruined by my shelties relentless need to pee on it!  The new, it's actually not new we've had it in storage for about seven years now, rug is scotch guarded and well will hide the pee stains much better... unfortunately my red oak floor was ruined from Angel's relentless need to pee in the same spot for the past nine years.


She's NOT happy about the new rug and will barely come into the family room.  Btw her peeing issue is due to having been spayed improperly... from what I've learned it was the breeder herself that spayed Angel and NO she had no vet training.


A very unhappy sheltie!


And lastly, hillbilly puppy training!  He's already set the trap off that was in a skillet on the stove.  He's learning!

Oliver, Oliver, Oliver - Day Five of Puppy Madness

Sooooooo I locked Angel in her crate, and Oliver is in the kitchen laying on the floor in front of her crate.  Looks like I might be able to get some stuff done today after all!

In other news (ION) Oliver has taking to pushing Angel down the stairs and such and this is not acceptable.  So in a plea for help I brought this up on FB late last night and got tons of suggestions the best of which was to tether him, on his six foot leash, to a very heavy boat anchor! 

So today I will be out and about shopping for a boat anchor!  The second best suggestion was to tether him to a very old very heavy sewing machine.  I will have to test this one because I'm not sure if my sewing machine is heavy enough or not, what it is is large enough, it's in a cabinet, to not make it through my office door.  It is mostly when he's in my office that he feels the need to herd Angel out the door and then push her down the stairs with his paw.

I still feel that this is a dominance issue, everyone else thinks I'm nutz!