Merry Belated Christmas

I didn't get you anything for Christmas.  Heck, we didn't even send out or post or usual Holiday Newsletter.  We feel guilty.  You feel slighted.  But we're gonna make it all up to you (and then some) with this...

This magnificent photo is our annual family Santa Paws photo, held every Fall and a fundraiser for the Circle of Friends Humane Society here in Grand Forks.  Alycia's Mom knitted (proof here and here) the whole family matching outfits - sweaters for Shaak Ti and Shadowfax, hats for Alycia and I, and a cowl for Tito.  Why not a sweater for Tito?  Well, any fool who tries to put a sweater on Tito will leave with fewer fingers than they started with, that's for certain.

Hopefully your laughter helps soothe the disappointment of our not sending out a Holiday Newsletter, or even posting more frequently here on the blog.  We hope you had a very merry Holiday season and are on the path of having a happy and healthy 2016!

Transporting Ivy Rose

In mid-September I helped transport Ivy Rose up to Canada for the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network (NBRAN). She came from the Minneapolis area and was heading somewhere into Ontario. I had the leg again from Grand Forks to Pembina, similar to when we drove Remington a few years back.

Here's a picture that her transport team posted of her prior to the trip. She was an excellent traveler for me in our big crate. 

When we got to Pembina, we had a few minutes to walk around. I tried to take some pictures, but it was hard with just one hand. 

She was a nice size for a pibble and I hope that her new family loves her very much. 

Thanksgiving - A dog, a Boy, and a Swan (no we didn't eat a swan)

For our Thanksgiving this year, we left the two little dogs at home for the day and only brought Shadowfax to my parents' house for dinner.  John just stayed for dinner and then hustled back with Shadowfax to spend Thanksgiving evening with Tito/Shaak Ti

Shadowfax made the most of her Grandpa and me time. 

She helped with cooking for a few minutes and was surprisingly good. 

Grandpa was very impressed. You can see the prototypical pittie tail blur.

The main reason that Tito and Shaak Ti were left at home was because we knew my friend Stacey, her husband Tony, and their son Jonathan were in town. Shaak Ti and Tito are not big fans of young kids so it's easier to just not tempt fate.  The guests showed up after we finished dinner and stayed well into the evening. 

Shadowfax, Shaak Ti and Cold Weather

The weather has finally turned chilly here in North Dakota.  We're not complaining (much) since we're had a fantastic run of warm and dry weather so far this Fall.  We've been able to squeeze an extra 2-3 weeks of garden time out of some of our flowers (more pictures in a later post), but that came to an abrupt end this week with a shot of snow and a few days of cold, strong winds. 

The dogs are adjusting to the onset of winter as they usually do, by hunkering down in their heated dog beds and snuggling under their warming blankets.  Shadowfax is generally the more sprawling of the two. 

This is Shaak Ti's "Why don't you get your butt over here and tuck me in under my blankie?" face.  We tuck the dogs a few dozen times a day.  Essentially every time we get up for anything, we're also tucking them in. Yes they're pretty dang spoiled.

This is a pretty typical afternoon scene, the girls sitting on the floor and snuggling together. Shadowfax sure knows how to pose for the camera. 

Rub a Dub Dub

Shadowfax in the tub.

She's not getting a bath, she just really likes to jump in there when Alycia uses the bathroom down in the basement.  Shadowfax has never had a bath in this tub, so she possibly doesn't know what it's actually use is supposed to be, and therefore isn't appropriately afraid of the tub. 

Shaak Ti Goes for a Walk

Shaak Ti is 9 years old, but she still appreciates a good walk. Especially if that walk is a special "Mommy and Me" walk with Alycia.

In an effort to try to get her to sleep in a few minutes later than 5:00 am, Alycia has started taking Shaak Ti on an additional evening walk to attempt to tire her out.  Now, this is in addition to the 2 walks (40-45 total minutes of walking in the morning and afternoon) she already gets every single day.  As you can see and hear, Shaak Ti gets pretty excited about her special walk

Shadowfax In the Sun

You may not know, but pit bulls are solar powered.  They need to spend hours in the sunshine to recharge their batteries, and even then they have trouble mustering up enough energy to do much.

 Shadowfax does this most days, soaking up the sunlight as long as she can. 

You also might not know that pit bulls are also really, really lazy. Shadowfax in particular has two speeds - 5th gear and Park.  That's it.  She's either racing around and instigating shenanigans, or a huge lump of unmovable deaf dog. 

Shadowfax has a pretty rough life here. 

Fall Garden Pictures - Apples and Marigolds

It's Fall here in North Dakota, both the calendar and the weather are attesting to this fact. We have had a long stretch of warm and dry weather, which has extended our growing season a good two to three weeks longer than normal.  It's also been nice that cool temperatures have killed all the mosquitos and made outside work much more pleasant. 

We finally got a hard frost (down to the mid to low 20's) over the last few nights, which means that we had to pull up our tomato and pepper plants.  The more cold hardy beets and onions were able to stay outside for a few more days, but we pulled those as well yesterday and got busy pickling the beets and drying the onions. 

Our zinnias, hostas, Monarda (beebalm), and coneflowers (echinacea) didn't make it through the hard freeze, but the marigolds and petunias are still going strong.  The marigolds look pretty contrasted next to the brown foreground/background of fallen leaves.  The orange flowers on the left are 'Golden Gem' Marigolds, with 'Inca Gold' Marigolds on the right side of the raised bed.  These are regulars in our garden and we plant them in abundance every year.

More 'Inca Gold' Marigolds in front with 'Golden Gem' Marigolds in the back, along with onions and tomatoes and even a 'Paprika' Yarrow way in the back.  We're big believers in flowers and plants that attract beneficial bugs; marigolds, yarrow, sweet alyssum, verbeena, petunias, etc. the list goes on.   We intersperse them with all of our veggies and include them heavily in our annual flowerbed planting.   

These are cherry tomatoes (Sweet 100) which produced prolifically this year. Believe it or not, there are only three tomato plants in that huge mass.   This is probably the perfect location for them, along the garage wall, underneath a bit of the eaves, facing West.  This site was a compost pile last year and has a large amount of well rotted compost and horse manure. 

Our apples are just about ready to pick.  These are Haralson or Haralred apples, I'm not sure.  They can withstand a bit of frost, so we're going to leave them on the tree as long as possible to give them an opportunity to sweeten up a little more. 

That's an update from the homestead in mid-October.  We've been frantically busy around here and posting has been sparse, sorry.  Plus honestly, the dogs just haven't been doing anything cute recently...so there hasn't been much to post about.  

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