Dog Days of Summer?

With the end of July coming upon us, it only seems like a good time to update the puppy progress. The girls have grown and are considered by veterinarians to be adults, i.e. capable of breeding for health of mom and pups. However, we took care of this issue last winter, so no puppies here! By trainers standards, we are in the horrid adolescent years. Late in the Spring, we took the girls to a professional trainer because the dogs are only getting bigger and more powerful. Blossom was starting to pull Isabella across the drive, skinning up her knees. Isabella was becoming fearful of taking her dog out and this was not going to work. Also, we have Karl's reasoning for spending the money, "It is much cheaper to have the dogs trained, which we want anyway, than to fence in 5 acres of land for them to run in." Katie's Independence was starting to show up in pure "female dog" form which resulted in her not really wanting to listen to us.

So off to the trainers they went for 3 weeks! After this time, we got to take them home and return for private weekly lessons. Isabella found her commanding voice and Anton learned proper discipline techniques. I was still the Alpha Dog, except when the trainers are in the room and their Marine Like voice booms over mine. I failed to mention these trainers train all the county's police dogs, have agility competitions, and can teach your dog advanced behavior for hunting/retrieving skills.

Now we have advanced to group lessons where the girls must learn to listen and obey us with other dogs around. Blossom listens better than Katie because Blossom really wants to please me. Katie is working on her independence and dominance which was obvious when she was suppose to remain in a down stay as other dogs invaded her 6 foot bubble. Katie ignored most dogs, but two. One was a solid German Shepherd, very well behaved and graduated that day, the other was a skittish Jack Russel. According to Dog Whisperer thought, Katie was triggered by the strong dominance of the German Shepherd and the unstable scent of the Jack Russel. Stable dogs do not usually cause problems. So, Katie, our problem child has issues with others being ahead of her, she wants to be the center of attention. She does not want anyone upstaging her time! But she is still very lovable and quite the ham for the camera!

Cub Scout Box Car Races!

The Sunday following Camp, we had another Scouting event. The boys had their Box Car Races at the Church parking Lot. These are gravity powered, pre-made cars the kids just steer down the hill.

There was a lot of set up and rules to be read, but soon it was time to give the children their fun.

Karl used this event to try to bring one of Anton's friends into his pack. Little did we know, someone from another pack had "scouted" out a new pack for her son at the camp the week before. She came with her son and they are now part of Karl's Den also.

Isabella and Anton have multiple runs down the hill.

But the day was very hot. The pack had provided hot dogs, chips, cookies, lemonade and water to keep everyone fed and hydrated. I did not eat any of the food as it was all processed food, but that is for a later post. I enjoyed the time sitting with my friend Aileen as our children took turns going down the hill.

At least Isabella thought so as she chomps Oreos in her post race pose! I guess she deserves it, she did win most of her races.

Cub Scout Camp

In the middle of July, Karl and the kiddos abandoned me for Cub Scout Camp. Everyone would be up, dressed, fed, and out the door by 7:15 am and not return until 5:30 pm. This happened Monday through Thursday. On Thursday, Karl had to leave the Camp to attend an important funding review for his Rescue Submarine Project. It was so important he came home and dressed in his whites! This meant I had to drag myself from my project catch up time to pick up our little ones at the camp ground. Since Karl was going to be there for the majority of the week, Isabella was able to participate in a Sibling Den of girls ages 6 - 10. They had a lot of fun and came home exhausted each day.

On Friday, the parents were able to come to see silly songs and skits they had worked on during the week.

Isabella's den was in the beginning. They had a cute skit about throwing Pebbles in the Lake with the youngest girl being soaked at the end, she was Pebbles.

Karl's Den arrives late, all Webelos were late as they have a good 15-20 minute hike from "Webelo Land". Karl could be heard from a distance as he led the boys in cadences while they marched into the Camp Fire/Flag Pole area. Soon it was their turn. The boys did a crazy skit called "Ready, Set, Dance" and another called "The Gathering of Nuts".

Laura leaned over and ask me what was the skit suppose to be about it because she did not get the punch line. I shrugged my shoulders with the reply, "Beats me! I am not sure all of them have a point, but the boys think they are hysterical!" So what did I do with my free time, I painted the entry from the garage, caught up on the produce from Chester across my counters, and baked enough muffins and breads to last the next three months! Some people would not find this a lot of fun, but I love to bake and it feels good to know the freezer is stocked with good, from scratch offerings.

This picture is actually from the following week, as I was just learning how to use my new pressure cooker to can green beans! I did not have time to get to them all, so it spilled over into the next week. We all had a good week! The children got special time with Karl and lots of activities, Karl got to be on the other side of Scout Camp and receive Millions in extra funding for his International Rescue Sub from the Defense's miscellaneous funds, and I got to catch up on a few things and sit down to a good Jane movie. So, when is Scout Camp next year???

New Park, New Friends

The children and I have been exploring a new home school group where we live. I am not saying the other one was bad, we are just looking to see what is available in our area now that we have been here fore awhile. On this day, we met our new friends at a park we had never been to before. One of the moms clued me in to bring a clean change of clothes for my children as this park has a stream which runs through the play area.

Isabella and Josie are having an intense conversation for 6-7 years old girls.

I wonder what it was about?

I went in search of Anton who quickly joined up with the boys on an exploring adventure totally concocted in their imagination.

This park presented a perfect back drop for their search of magical creatures they must fight against to protect their home. Since Anton has been reading the Redwall books lately, it did not take any time to help the story along.

The girls were a little more reserved about getting in the stream. After their playing on the swings, the moms said they could get into the stream after they ate their lunch. Corralling the boys for lunch was more difficult. The boys inhaled as little as possible in order to appease the mother's and get back the the quest.

The girls went into the stream in search of nature. After about twenty minutes, Isabella came running up to where the moms were eating asking for a container to catch crayfish. As I retold the story to Karl, I smirked at him over his princess wading into the stream, turning over rocks searching for crawdads. She was actually pleading with me to find someone to help her catch one. The children decided "Daddy would definitely love this park!"

Play Space part 2 - Posts!

The next day we were all moving a little slower than the day before. With aching muscles, a few cups of coffee, and determination, we plugged along. The First thing was to sort the wood in the garage, move posts to play space and mark the post positions.

After moving the posts, 6 x 6 x 16's and 6 x 6 x 12's, I was not a happy camper!

It was very heavy and after the third larger post,

we decided to try a wheel barrow to help carry the load.

Then it was on to marking the posts while I ran off to Home Depot

to pick up some 1 x 4 x 8's that did not come in our delivery.

It took us two days to get the posts dug, level, squared and concreted into the ground.

One of our friends came over and helped Karl with the last four posts on Saturday

while I baked bread and ran a few errands.

I think it was quite an accomplishment!

You can see the basic outline of the space,

the other square is for the sand pit next to the structure.

Later that evening, we enjoyed a cookout at

Laura and Micheal's house before running to the fairgrounds for fireworks.
It was very quaint with the small town feel we are growing to cherish.

It was a very long day, so we took the next day to relax and play board games with kiddos.

Play Space part 1 - Contouring!

The next big project has begun! Karl took off July 2 & 3 for a long weekend to begin the Fort!

Here is what it looked like before we got started. You can see the lines where we squared off the space before we used the Round-Up to kill off the weeds.

We had rented a tiller and began the grueling process of moving dirt. What you can not see is a gully in the middle of the space that needs to be filled and the slope tamed a little.

After several hours of moving dirt, we were all getting worn out!

But the results are much better than what we started with!

We still need to get the landscape ties in to hold back the 18 inches we dug down. Maybe next weekend we can get this completed?

Capturing the Season!

I love trying to capture shots of nature and it's growth. It enables me to reflect on the beauty and goodness during those drab months of winter when the weather is not cold enough for snow and the ground is in it's brown resting stage. I have been trying for a few weeks now to record the butterflies on the Echinacea but as soon as I come back out with my camera, they disappear. Today, I was more successful.

Here is one with both of the butterflies. Sorry, we do not have a butterfly identification book so I could define them for you. Does anyone have a good book title they can send me? Since we have been doing so much nature study in our new surroundings, I have been slowly collecting these identification books.

Here are some of my beloved daisies I split from the Connecticut house last fall.

I am still working on pictures of the bees on the lavender. When I grew lavender in Connecticut, I remarked how it appeared the bees would become intoxicated from the lavender. Apparently my observation was correct because the other day while reading about harvesting and propagating lavender the author remarked about "drunken bees". The bees are also more docile when around the lavender. It seems to put everyone in a calm mood. Another tip I picked up while reading, throw a few lavender stems on your campfire and the lavender smoke repels the mosquitoes. Karl is going to make fire starters with his Webelo Scouts and intends to take my left over stems to put in the mixture.

Just Hatched!

Isabella is trying her hand at nature photography here!

It is a little out of focus, but you get the idea!

The kiddos are just intrigued by the baby birds and all their actions. I get many updates!