Friday, January 22, 2010

Cabin Fever Buster...

This has been a rainy week in the holler. For the dogs, that means lots of time indoors, which eventually leads to cabin fever. So they start looking for things to do and eventually get into trouble. This morning was the last straw. While JP got ready for work, Charlie and Violet decided to have a tug of war with her bed. Now I have to re stuff and patch it. That's when I decided we were going to have a morning of walking on the treadmill. They all love the treadmill except Corrie. She had so much trauma before she got to our little oasis anything out of the normal routine sends her into a little panic attack and we don't want that. Anyway, she wasn't one of the ones in trouble this morning so she got away with just watching everyone else play on it.

We saw Ceasar Milan do this on a couple episodes of his TV show "The Dog Whisperer" and decided to see if it works. IT REALLY WORKS, and not only that, they love it. It's play for them and so good for them because it exercises mind and body. We make it play from the beginning, leading them up and letting them jump off, then lead them up and add movement (I stand at their side until they're in the groove.) Before long we had ourselves three treadmill junkies - Charlie, Scrappy and Speedbump. When we're in the office at the computer Charlie and Scrappy come in and stand there on the treadmill, waiting for it to GO!!


Today Charlie got three turns, Scrappy and Speedbump each got two. Charlie and Scrappy both like incline work too. I alternate the speed slightly so they have to think and adjust their pace (anything to work those little brains.) Speedbump just likes to walk and smile up at me, which sometimes throws her off, but she just trots a little and gets back in her groove. Violet is learning and she likes it too, but I stay right beside her because we don't want any accidents that cause bad feelings towards the beloved treadmill.

Here they are after playtime on the treadmill. Now, those dogs don't look like they'll be looking for trouble anytime soon. That's what I like to see, tired dogs.



Weekend blessings from the holler.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Silver Anniversary...

Wow, it doesn't seem like it, but it's true. Today, JP and I have been married 25 years! When you look at the number it looks like a long time but it has gone by so fast. That's definitely a good thing and we know how blessed we are to have each other.

We had our anniversary date Saturday night and had a lovely time.

The pictures below are depicting our future anniversaries. With grateful hearts, we send blessings from the holler.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The latest Scrappy tale...


For such a little thing, Scrappy has more than her share of adventures. For a quite a few days she's been fixated on this one area of fence line in our yard. She would stand there looking at the ground and move only a few feet from time to time. I'm not talking a pass by and look at it; we're talking hours (remember it's been pretty cold) in one spot. So yesterday, I see her out in the yard just a few yards away from her latest favorite spot throwing something up in the air and when it hit the ground she'd pounce and grab it and throw it again. That's all I needed to prompt me to go and get her and whatever she was throwing.

Sidebar - she is known for finding frogs in the ground, digging them up and playing with them for days until they stink to high heaven and then rolling in them until she smells the same way. Lovely, Scrappy gets ANOTHER bath. She gets more baths than the other five combined.

So, I put on my coat and check my pockets for gloves because I know I'm gonna have something gross in my hands, I find a wad of paper towels which will do fine (disposable!) When I walked out the back door into the "dog yard" and called her she came running, which is unusual for her. JP is the one who can call her and she minds him, but not me.

Anyway, as she gets close to me I see a little mouse tail and foot hanging out of her mouth - oh joy! So I bend down and say "drop it", to which she's thinking "fat chance!" I tried to pry her little mouth open - not happening. I know you would love a picture of me vs. Scrappy but thankfully that wasn't to be. I just wanted that mouse out of her mouth so I picked her up to bring her inside for JP to work his magic, and she spit it out. I threw the little dead mouse over the fence, and Scrappy ran up and down the fence line as usual.

Oh, I forgot to mention that, of course, we had the attention of all the other dogs while this little battle ensued, which made Scrappy growl, and when she did the little mouse's tail would stick out a little straighter. I don't know what that was all about.

Did I mention how afraid I am of mice? Yep, if that little thing had hit the ground running I would have let Scrappy have it and ran in the house squealing.

Oh, that Scrappy, she's a mess in this world.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

OK, so we don't have a coach...

We still have a great mascot and a great band. Also, we're still going to be fans of our poor little team.
In case you haven't heard the latest news, the coach of the University of Tennessee has left us (he should probably keep a low profile here) for Southern California. He was here for a year, made all kinds of promises, (blah, blah, blah) and then up and leaves right before the recruits sign in early February. I feel sorry for those poor boys he left high and dry after building their hopes up. Can you tell I'm a bit bitter? Oh well, that's the breaks and God bless him anyway.

Friday, January 8, 2010

As I promised...


It wasn't a snow storm it was more like a dusting of powdered sugar. The roads back to the holler are ice and the weather people keep using those nasty two words "arctic blast!" Did they sit around and think of these words to torture us? I'm not fond of whoever came up with that term; it makes me cold just to think of it. Sorry, back to fun in the snow. All the dogs except Corrie and Violet (who had their fill of "arctic blast" as pups) love the powdery covering we got yesterday. Oh, the games are the same but they jump a little more and stay out longer before they scratch at the door to come inside and thaw out. Charlie has his stick that both Daisy and Scrappy try to get; Daisy also barks as referee for that game. I don't think Scrappy has any size complex, do you?


Speedbump just walks around the yard looking around and just generally enjoying it all. She doesn't look happy but trust me, she is. She's smiling inside!


At the end of the day Daisy decided to get her own stick and have her own game. I'm sorry the pictures are so dark but it was one of those cloudy, wintry days.

Have a great weekend. Blessings from the holler.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

To Old?.....

Daisy showed me today that she's not to old for anything. Remember, Daisy is our oldest dog (the only non-rescue) who had hip surgery a couple years ago. She has recovered fully; she plays, runs and protects with the whole pack. The picture above was taken in 2002 when she was playing after a training session. Back to today; I was talking with my mom who called to check on me because I have an awful cold (double yuk.) While we were talking I was looking out the door that goes to the back yard and I saw Daisy looking up and then she jumped up and plucked a bird right out of the air!! It happened so fast and then she looked around like "why do I have this thing in my mouth." Needless to say, I interrupted my mom and said "Daisy just caught a bird!!" I know I shouldn't be outside in these cold temperatures but I had to get that bird out of the dog yard before Scrappy (who was going crazy inside) got to it. So I convinced my mom that I'd be okay and suited up. First I corralled the other dogs inside so I could work, unhindered, with Daisy. I said "Daisy come," which she did, and then I revised the command to "DROP IT and come," she spit that bird out and trotted inside. So I called our cat, Spaceghost, and threw it his way. I know it might sound gruesome, but hey, that's life in the country. Don't get me wrong, we love birds and have two feeders for them; this one must have not been aware of the "no fly zone" over the dogs.
With that lovely scene in your mind would you like my recipe for suet? I like to buy those handy squares for the feeders but when we run out I make my own.
1/2 cup lard
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup corn meal
Stir all together and freeze in plastic container. I cut it in a piece the size of my suet holder and that's it. You can add berries, nuts, or seeds. Today I cut up an apple that was a little mushy for me and put it in there. The weather forecasters say we'll have some snow so I'll try to get pictures of the dogs playing in the snow. They love snow!!
Blessings from the holler.

Monday, January 4, 2010

A Little Cowboy blanket...


My good friend Bell
had her fourth sweet child just before Christmas. I had told her that I wanted to do the crib quilt. She decided on a cowboy theme which I love. Her MIL made the bumper pads and crib skirt which are red (cowboy theme) alternated with black ticking and are so cute. So this is what I came up with. My mom and I went to deliver it today and got to hold him for a little while. He's so cute. You can see his newborn picture on her blog.

Here in middle Tennessee it is officially winter. We're talking cold weather that only Speedbump and Charlie enjoy. Although, you know Scrappy, she's always up for a run. Luckily she's stayed within the perimeter lately. So, the crew will be on the treadmill soon to run out the cabin fever. Charlie and Scrappy both love to get on the treadmill and I have to make time for both of them to have a little run each time I walk. The other day JP was sitting here in the office/treadmill space/sewing room/all misc. junk room and he heard Charlie behind him. He was standing on the treadmill, pawing at it and looking around like "how do you make this thing go"!!

Well, that's the update from the holler. Blessings to you all.