November musings..

It wasn’t too long ago that the backyard was ablaze in color from our beautiful beech trees and oaks.  The winds came, followed by rain and more wind and now we are left with bare branches and flowerbeds full of leaves and tulip poplar seeds.  We spent several hours this weekend cleaning up the leaves that all seemed to fall at once.  I can’t remember a time when the poplar seeds all came down this early, nor when they were so deep on the deck that I had to broom at least once a day to keep the dogs from tracking them in.

The November weather is anything but typical, it’s been warm, far too warm for my taste.  Dealing with mosquitoes and ticks this time of the year is not something I’m too happy about.  I’m ready to be done with them, I’m ready for jeans, boots and sweaters, I’m ready for hot chocolate and a little time by our fire pit that we’ve barely gotten to use this year.  Speaking of which, where did the year go?  It seems to have just flown by and so much was left undone, again.  I guess as a gardener that is just part of the process, always looking forward to next year.  I’m praying for a very cold white winter that’s for sure, I really don’t want to be reminded of all that needs to be done next year.

Cooper and Tucker continue to be a source of amusement, to say the least and Tucker well he continues to grow and grow and grow.

He is a little different from other dogs I’ve had.  He’s considerably more hard-headed and he also gets into more mischief than any dog I’ve ever loved.  Granted our greyhound BB ate things he shouldn’t but that was from separation anxiety, Tucker does it out of I don’t know what!  He has eating a banana peel and all from the counter, though Randy doesn’t believe it.  He ate some butter and it’s wrapper as well, off the counter.  We had to get rid of all the flat dog toys as he tried to swallow them and his most recent escapade was to take a bottle of cough medicine off the sink and open a child proof cap and pour it all over the dog bed!  I pray that this is just a phase and he’s going to learn that these behaviors are frowned upon. 

Cooper continues to be the love of my life, <3 He is just ‘that’ dog the one that I always dreamed of having, the one that seems to understand me and who wants to be with me more often than not.  He is a constant comfort to me and my life is a better place because of him.  I love watching him play with Tucker, he is so truly happy to have someone to chase and wrestle with.  They spend so much time outside together playing, I can’t wait till the snow comes and they can chase each other through that.  If I could figure the paths that they take I’d just use those through the gardens and plant around, because anything under the foot of my ponies is doomed!

As we ready for the holidays we’ve decided to make some much needed changes, to let go of things that aren’t uplifting, that aren’t brining joy and happiness.  It’s time to focus our attention on the insides of our home and to clean and disown the things that just aren’t necessary to our happy life.  Sometimes letting go of stuff is challenging because we keep it out of guilt or obligation but if it doesn’t serve a purpose in your life that’s positive, why hold on to it?  Sentimental items can take up too much space and if nothing else I’ve learned that when you disown stuff, you open yourself up all the positives that couldn’t fit before!

In case we don’t check back before, may you have a blessed Thanksgiving if you celebrate it, if not may you have a blessed end to the month of November.

Finding fall finally???

Welcome to the bone dry and hot edition!  This has been one of those summers that for the most part I could have spent somewhere else, a place where it’s a nice 85 with low humidity and occasional rain to keep things happy and growing.  I don’t water plants, the trees we had planted yes, but plants, not so much because the entire point behind planting drought tolerant plants is that you aren’t supposed to need to water them!  I have established plants that are wilted and looking right awful, we are at day 18 without rain, hopefully we will get some relief from the heat and the lack of rain soon!  The leaves have already started to fall, not only that but we’ve already used the cyclone rake once and the pond net isn’t even up yet!  The trees are screaming fall but the temperatures continue to say summer.

Tucker and Cooper continue to be a very big source of amusement in our lives.  Tucker is growing like a weed and at 6 months was just shy of 70 pounds!

This is the day after puppy first grade, apparently all the learning just exhausts him!  He continues to want to be Cooper’s best buddy in the world and while he likes being close to Cooper, Cooper isn’t so sure about that.

As you see they have a very stress filled life here at Logs End.

Things have been pretty quiet this summer, which is great considering it has been too hot to really ‘do’ anything outside or go anywhere with the dogs.  Hopefully with cooler weather we will get some more time outside.  I know Randy is looking forward to making a leaf pile for the dogs, he may be able to do that sooner than he knows!

Till then Cooper is ready to go!

Two weeks in one..

Grab a drink, it’s going to be a long one..  Our internet has been down and out for most of the last three weeks.  No idea as to what exactly happened and really it didn’t bother me all that much.  However there is much to go over so let’s go!
Tucker is a love, a talker and a pain in the butt!

He is seriously lacking in manners and can’t get back into school soon enough!  He also has an eating problem, in that he eats everything and anything he can get in his mouth, rocks, sticks, leaves, cat poop, you name it.  I had to remove a 12” flat giraffe toy from that he had all but swallowed last week and he scarfed a raw duck neck, whole in one gulp!  He’s a maniac when it comes to food and he seems to always be hungry and by that I mean starving!  This week has seen a plethora of puppy teeth being lost, I suspect his eaten many of them!



Cooper is the best big brother ever, but I’d expect nothing less as he is the best dog ever!  He is so patient with Tucker and while he will tease him ruthlessly with toys, he also tolerates all the ankle biting, ear pulling and climbing that Tucker dishes out.  I love watching them play and hearing Tucker ‘talking’ to Cooper when he isn’t getting his way is priceless.
Yard work has been taking place, I know miracle right!  The weather decided to give us a break from rain and humid heat.  So last weekend we installed a new deck fan (it’s heavenly!) and we pressure washed and stained the decks.

Up next was my removing the ferns from around the fire pit Randy felt they were to big. (Yes the dog pool is down in the fire pit, it’s a perfect spot for it!)



We will try some lavender and see how it goes.


Randy put up one of the sides from an old trailer to block the view of the tractor parts stashed in the woods.


This area around the horse shoe pits has been cleaned up nicely.  It looks so different when it’s clean, doesn't everything!

That’s all for now, have a great week!

Cooper’s Big News, Tucker is getting big!

The BIG news this week, Cooper turned 2!!! 

I am happy to say that he is still a big puppy head and that turning 2 years old did not seem to phase him.  As you can see, he was quite excited about his birthday cake and tried to convince me to let him eat it all in one bite!  That did not happen.

The heat and humidity have been brutal for the last couple of weeks.  It’s kept us inside for the most part which is okay, since Tucker isn’t quite ready for full on running with Cooper yet; which is what happens when they both go out back together!

Tucker is growing so fast!

I swear some days I can hear him getting bigger.  He started puppy kindergarten a couple of weeks ago and did a puppy play date on Saturday.  Tucker is NOT like Cooper at all.  While he doesn’t mind other dogs and isn’t fearful of them, he’s not the maniac about playing that Cooper was..er is. He is apparently far more casual about the whole thing and can take it or leave it.  Randy has been taking him solo, our niece did go the two Sundays she was here; it was “cool” she said.  I enjoy my Sunday evenings of down time, Tucker and Cooper together are a full time job!  So that time with Cooper, even if he is frustrated that Tucker went for a ride without him, is nice.

These two play hard and they crash hard, and those ‘crashes’ are about the only free time I get to do my normal household stuff.  As long as Cooper remains in the same room with Tucker it’s all good, but let Cooper get up to see what I’m doing and Tucker says hey, don’t forget me!  Tucker is also very, very good about letting you know he needs to go out.  The only downside is that since they play so hard, they drink more water, which means more trips outside.  I counted the other day it was like 18 times before Randy got home.  I’m so proud of Tucker though, I’d rather take him out 180 times (well not really!) than clean up puppy piles inside.

Cooper is amazingly tolerant of Tucker’s insanity.  There are occasionally some ‘discussions’ over toys or bones because one of them always wants what the other one has.  Typically it’s Tucker giving Cooper a lot of lip because he wants what Cooper has.  If I can ever get a video of that, I’ll be sure to share!

Cause everybody needs a friend..

It’s been a week since we brought home our newest edition.  As first weeks go, it was a pretty good one.  Our biggest dilemma was what to name our new edition because we’d thought it was going to be a girl, turns out the one that picked us was a boy.

Meet Tucker.

 

This very serious looking little man is a blue Great Dane and as of today he’s all of 9 weeks old.

We weren’t too sure how Cooper was going to be with his new sibling, at first he was a maniac and so excited we couldn’t trust to leave Tucker on the floor.  After a day or so, maybe Cooper realized he was going to stay he started to calm down and after a few more they started to play nicely together.

They both enjoy chewing on the various antlers but of course there is one that they both always seem to want.

Tucker likes sleeping on Cooper.  Cooper is not so sure about that.

Watching them with their mouthy dog play is both entertaining and nerve-racking.  Cooper’s mouth is as big as Tuckers entire head.  Tucker also really loves grabbing Cooper’s lip!

The best thing so far though as been watching tug of war become part of their play time!  The very first time, Cooper pretty much tossed Tucker across the living room and it was a little surprising for all involved.  After that though, Cooper has been so gentle and basically just lets Tucker tug and tug to his hearts content. 

Watching these two as Tucker grows is going to be very entertaining!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2015!  I hope that your holidays were joyful and full of family and friends.  We had a very nice holiday season and a very quiet start to the New Year. 
Randy is gearing up for the guest bathroom renovation (finally!)  He had talked about doing it over the winter break he had but that didn’t happen.  We did however manage to get most everything ordered.  I know at the very least he’s looking forward to demo!  Me I’m looking forward to getting rid of the blue!!

I also know that after we complete this one, he will be ready to start on our master bathroom!
In other news… today brought us the first significant snowfall of the season.  It’s also the coldest air we’ve had all winter and I’m beyond happy! To me there is a peace of mind that comes with snow, and I know not everyone else feels or shares that sentiment. 
Zoe continues to plug along, she likes the cold weather a lot, it seems to make her frisky!  I watched as she played with Cooper when we first went outside, she hops and jumps at him and he gets so excited it gives him the zoomies.   It's nice to see them playing together even if it is just for a few minutes.  At 13 she's doing pretty good!


Cooper wasn’t overly sure about the snow when he first went out.  There was a lot of snuffing and snorting going on, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that he loved it and off he went!  He’s been out several times today running around like crazy.  He will surely sleep well tonight!
Bright blessing of happiness to you all for the New Year!

This, that and the other…

Where did the summer and fall go?  I’m now ready for the snow to blanket everything so that I can stop thinking about all of it for a while. We got a brief taste of winter this past week with a little snow falling and covering things.  For me snow brings instant peace of mine, no longer do I see all that needs to be done, just a lovely clean slate waiting for dreams to be planted.

Zoe celebrated her 13th birthday in November!  She is doing really good and while she can’t get around like she could in her youth, she still tries.

Cooper continues to grow but he is still very much a gawky puppy who only knows what his feet are doing fifty percent of the time.  He doesn’t understand why Zoe doesn’t want to play with him.



For now, we are just getting ready for Christmas and spending some time with family and friends.  Maybe into the new year, we will get going on some new projects, at least I hope so!!!

Quiet times..

Life has been quiet here as of late, we are waiting for the cooler fall weather. 
Cooper continues to grow and he is a constant source of joy and entertainment.  We would love to get another Great Dane and we may do that, but we are both thinking the next one won’t be as smart or well behaved as Cooper is.


We need to finish up the fire pit with some gravel, I can't wait to spend cool evenings cozy by the fire.  I’m ready for fall, I want to get back outside without being eaten by mosquitoes!

Birthday & BGE’s

On June 17th Cooper turned a year old!  We can’t believe he’s been here 10 months, it doesn’t seem like it at all!  For his birthday he got a steak and a pool!

Almost… but not grilling yet..

Randy worked most of the weekend on the BGE Island and it’s almost done.  He’s got to do a little caulking and assemble (reassemble) the eggs.  I’m hopeful for low and slow by this weeks end.  The slate in the nest box turned out really nice, but I’m still really glad it didn’t end up on the back splash!

Boxes, brackets and of course Cooper..

The weekend started with delivery of our new deck furniture in two big boxes.  Of course things couldn’t be smooth and easy and we are missing two complete sets of hardware for two chairs and the light fixture’s battery compartment is cracked so I’ll be making the call on Monday for the replacement parts.  We like the furniture a lot though it’s consider counter height, so it’s a little taller and instead of looking at the rails I can see over them.


Randy decided to work a little more on the glider since we had the replacement brackets.  He got it all assembled and it works but it sits very low without the bend in the bracket like the original.  So in addition to needing to unbend some bends in the metal, now he needs to bend the new brackets.  Still it’s a piece of my family history, dings and dents included!

Cooper continues to grow, though he seems to have no idea how big he is.  He is a continual source of joy with his playtime with Ally and his sleeping positions.

Dog Tired…

After the weekend this is pretty much how we all felt! 
We got a lot of little things done like putting the spider shade and new safari straps on the Jeep.

Cooper loves riding in the Jeep and I love taking him with me but I wanted him to be safely inside so now the Jeep looks cool and I know he’s safe!
Randy finished putting all the new grilles in the windows and installed almost all of our new window screens.

We still haven’t decided if we want to try and stain them to match the honey of the windows or let them age naturally…


Cooper reached a milestone too, his crate was taken down.  We’ve been leaving him out recently and he pretty much just sleeps on the bed while we are gone.  We will keep an eye on him (we have a Cooper Cam ) and if he starts getting into stuff we can always put the crate back up.  My problem with that is he’s just inches from being too big for it!
I know the day has passed but the sentiment is genuine when I say Thank You! to all the veterans that protect the freedoms that I hold so dear!