Shadowfax Snuggling Yet Again

Shadowfax loves her people (truly she loves all people), and enjoys nothing more than being physically attached to them.

If it were up to her the house rules would be changed to allow dogs on the sofa and bed. As it stands, we sit on the floor for snuggling time and allow her to sit on our laps on the back patio furniture. She greatly enjoys this.

Garden Pictures and Future Plans - Part 2 of 2

We continue our pictures and stories about the front yard garden from Part 1.

It took a couple of weeks over the winter, but we had a sidewalk installed in the front yard of our homestead. It was one of the few oddities about our house, there was no front sidewalk from the street to the front door. The steps to the front door just kind of deposited you onto the lawn, from whence you were supposed to make your way to the street.

The walkway alone adds an incredible amount of visual interest and structure. It's always amazing to me how one thing can change the look of a garden dramatically. The picture above was taken in mid-May after we had removed a few shrubs and hadn't added some additional annuals for color.

It will take a few years for the new shrubs we planted to grow up, and we're still planning on pruning or removing some of the other stuff, but this will do for now. The pots on the front step add some color and there are both annuals and perennials in the front beds that should be much more striking in another month.

The current master plan is going to consist of garden beds on either side of the new walkway, with meandering connected grass paths enabling garden viewers to see everything. This will greatly reduce the amount of grass to mow (much off the current grass will become flower beds), granting me less time for mowing/edging and more time for playing with fun plants and pretty flowers.We will have more posts as the front garden evolves and changes.

The Grandparents Visit Aftermath

The Grandparents journeyed out from downtown Cavalier, North Dakota to visit over the past week. We had an opportunity to catch up with them and explore the sights and restaurants here in Boise, Idaho. The dogs (minus Tito) were incredibly excited to have Grandma and Grandpa stay at the house and give them all the love and attention they've apparently been missing.

Constantly getting love from the Grandparents was an exhausting endeavor though, and the pups have spent much of the days since they left catching up on napping.

The Essence of Shaak Ti

Shaak Ti has graced our lives for more than a decade now. We've taken hundreds of pictures and videos of her over the years, as this blog will undoubtedly prove. In all that time though, I don't know if there is one single picture that can so perfectly capture her essence. Until now.

Shaak Ti in all her goofy, upside down glory. At least once a day (usually more) she flops down at your feet and demands tummy rubs. Declining to rub her tummy is not an option.

She often tries to turn tummy rubs into a game, pawing and wrestling with your hand. She's a hilarious and magical beast this one.

A Brief Hailstorm and Apple Trees

We've had some unsettled weather the past week, with moisture coming up from the south and interacting with the early summer afternoon heat. The result has been some showers and great thunderstorms. Not as vigorous as those in North Dakota, but also more fun since they won't involve hiding out in the basement when the tornado siren goes off.

We really only got three or four thunderstorms over the course of the week, with a moderate amount of rain. But a storm on Wednesday involved some close claps of thunder, numerous lightening flashes, and 3-4 minutes of hail bookended with torrential rain.

Less than 5 minutes of hail still managed to leave small piles of hail on the ground. This is the north side of the house. These are Honeycrisp and Gala apple trees that I planted as bareroot trees back in April. They're settling in quite nicely.

I'm going to train them to grow mostly horizontally along the fence, a method known as "espalier". They won't produce as many apples as if they were left to grow unrestrained, but they should still provide enough for eating apples for the homestead for a month or so each. Provided we can keep the squirrels away from them.

Memorial Day Lounging

Happy Memorial Day to everyone!

The dogs will spend the day the only way they know how, lounging around on various dog beds both inside and outside.

A Cozy Shaak Ti

Shaak Ti sure knows how to snuggle, better than the other dogs.

A chilly morning saw her all comfortable in her heated dog bed, dog blankets all around.

 

This isn't the first picture of Shaak Ti all snuggled up, and it certainly won't be the last. 

Shadowfax on a Sunday Morning

Happy Earth Day everyone! We're resting up here in the morning so we have lots of energy to enjoy a sun soaked Spring day.

The weather forecast is calling for temps around 70. It's been glorious here the past week or two, and we've got garden tasks aplenty to get ready for the growing season. In the meantime, please keep it down, Shadowfax needs to get the rest of her beauty sleep.