Summer is in full force!!!

The flowers around town are absolutely beautiful right now. Lots of rain, some heat and sun and they are thriving!!!! I walk a lot of neighborhoods for my work while walking dogs and it is so fun seeing all the beautiful flowers!!!

 I particularly like these small poppies. Very petite and pretty.

 Such a happy little flower!!!

 Anyone in the Willard Beach area? Big "block party" coming up. Even an outdoor movie!!! Sounds like a lot of fun!!! I will be away at the USDAA Regionals!

 The milkweed looks very happy right now. I have been seeing Monarch butterflies around and they must be happy. The milkweed looks healthy and strong right now!!! Such a unique and fragrant plant!!!

 So many Clematis blooming. Not a flower I have ever had here, but it seems hardy and easy. Lovely when it climbs lamp posts. Maybe I should try it here some day. Like I need any more plants?? LOL!!

 Now for introducing Shirley. She is not one of my charges, just a dog I meet out walking the Oakhurst area. I first met her when they first got her as a tiny pup a few months ago. Their first dog, a maltipoo. She is all of 6lbs and happy, happy, happy unless she has to walk any distance. Then she puts on the breaks and I think you could drag her and file her nails. :O She seriously stops walking, so they now carry her in a sling. Of course, if she is with another dog she trots along like a "normal" dog, but alone little Shirley has her people well trained. And judging by mom's smile, carrying Shirley is A-OK. :D Shirley goes for her first grooming soon. Poor groomer, LOL!!!

We had visitors this morning

The turkey vultures stopped on our chimney this morning when we returned from our walk. Strange. Those are some BIG birds!!!!

 What do you suppose they were doing? Nothing. Just hanging out on our chimney. Wish I had a better camera.

 The last two days have been some crazy weather. Rain, rain and more RAIN. I mean yesterday I sat in my car and waited for it to pass, which it didn't, and watched someone's mulch from their little mailbox, roadside garden just wash away. I mean, it was all gone in about five minutes. The plants were still there, amazingly, but the mulch was far down the road. Poor Roscoe is in a constant state of panic. I never know when to give him his xanax because the storms last all of about five minutes. Then we could go the rest of the day with nothing.

Last week I took these photos of some very pretty flowers. The plants around town are looking INCREDIBLE and I need to get more photos. My gardens are starting to really blossom, although so are the weeds. I have two weeks off starting on the 7th and I do intend to clean up some of the weeds.

Our one local AKC trial was over the weekend

And the weather was actually OK!!! Friday was brutally hot, but the other two days were not bad at all!! Amazing!! Usually, it is either nearly unbearable heat or just rain and mud. I got there early on Thursday to get a good spot for our tent. Hey, we get a trail 20 minutes from home once/year I want a good seat!! Found the most perfect "real estate" right under a tree and in prime position!! YAY!! Steve heads over later as I also set up his tent and he calls to tell me someone was trying to MOVE MY TENT!! WHAT???? Can you imagine that??? How rude can one be???? He didn't know them, but spoke to them about it and they stopped.
OMFG!!!! I can't believe someone would actually do that. They were taking up the stakes and getting ready to move the tent. Unbelievable!!!!!

The next morning, thankfully, it was still in it's spot and we enjoyed front row view. :D

Spur did great, which was amazing for how hot it was on Friday. His starts were all pretty good, his speed and happiness was excellent. I was VERY pleased. We made new fans, additions to the Spur Fan Club. Some folks from Canada with super fast dogs came over and commented on how "smart" he was. And asked, of course, what kind of dog. They really liked him. I was beaming with pride!

Lisa's mom made us killer lunches. We had great company, fun runs, good food, what more can you ask for. I only wish I had taken some photos. I have some video. Bits and pieces as my videographers missed some, but for the most part got my runs, just that some are SO far away Spur looks like a tiny speck. The first part of this video we are ALL the way at the other end and unfortunately you can barely see us, he does his tunnel to DW. My friend must have forgot to start videoing so it starts half way through. :P



That last jumpers run was very fun. Not sub-30 time, but almost. .30.28, so not bad. We didn't break a 5 yps jumpers or 4 yps standard, which is my "goal". Of course, my biggest goal is just to have FUN and have Spur happy and fast, which he was all weekend. YAY!!!

Summer is officially here!

And it is hot as hell and I don't like that. The cows look happy, but I bet the bugs have started to increase in numbers and soon will be tormenting the cows.

 The daisies are in full bloom and SO pretty. They have taken over the fence line and that is really cool!!!

 They surround the water trough!!! Such a happy, sweet and sure sign of summer.

I would be happier if this heat would go away. Thank goodness it wasn't this hot last weekend for hiking Sugarloaf, but I sure wish we could have temperatures like that again this weekend with our only big local agility trial coming up. OI, it is always either rain and mud or brutally hot for this trial. We can't win!!!

Do you have about 10 minutes?

This is a puppy class graduation video from one of Silvia Trkman's on line classes my friend Shona did with her Rankin. GREAT fun!! If you ever wondered if it would be fun to do an on line class, well, just watch this. :D

Rankin's puppy class video

Happy Thirteenth Birthday to Miss Colby Carlson!

Colby turned thirteen yesterday!! Her birthday present was a weekend hiking at Sugarloaf ski mountain. We thought she could handle that as the trails are open and easy for her to navigate with her failing eyesight. She did GREAT!! Only a couple times we had to carry her when the undergrowth was thick and hard for her to see her footing. Roscoe, who we think is 13/14 years old did AMAZING!!! We thought he would be sore, his shoulder was hurting him a few weeks ago, but he has been on an NSAID and did fine! In fact, he lead the way most of the time!! I iced his shoulder after the hike several times, so hopefully that helped, but he showed no sign of lameness. Me? I am a little sore!! Good sore, but sore. I can't believe Rich headed to the gym this morning. :O Although, I guess I should. He spoke to his dad yesterday and learned that last year his dad hiked Sugarloaf. WHAT???? His dad was 78 last year. That is IMPRESSIVE!!! I mean, I was TIRED! And I think of myself as being in good shape, but there were times this weekend I felt old and slow. Geez!!!!

I think these are in pretty much chronological order. This is the very start of our hike. It gently slopes for.......not far......then the field just goes straight up. Honestly, that was the hardest part for me. Muscles not warmed up and no rocks and such for good footing and no winding, zig zag trails like most wooded mountain trails. Just straight up. I was gasping. And wondering how the heck Rich's dad did that last year at 78?????? I felt old and I am not even 50, yet. OK next month I am 50 and I should not feel like I could NEVER do this hike in 18 years, but that was how I felt. Old. Sigh. Did you read that right????? Rich's dad did this hike at 78 years old. I am IMPRESSED!!!!

Carrying Colby through the thick underbrush section.

Can you spot the tiny black spot off to the left far ahead of Rich? That is ROSCOE, leading the way on our return home. He was NUTS!! He never slowed down or looked tired. Well, until we got back to the house. LOL!!

Then he looked tired...........

Yeah, really tired.

Colby was tired. She gets tired I think because it is just plain hard for her to see and that is tiring. But, she did great!!!

They did get bit by blackflies, though, damn it.

You can't see, but she was REALLY red and sore looking. Enough that we gave her some benadryl. The next day I rubbed some eucolyptus (sp?) cream on them and that seemed to work. We also sprayed ourselves with some bug spray and I very, very lightly rubbed a little on their bellies.

Even Spur was tired. And that's pretty hard to do!! Although, after his two hour nap he was racing around the house with his wubba toy, asking us to play tug!!!

We had a GREAT time!! The weather could not have been nicer!! The dogs did amazing for such old dogs!!!

We actually have hope that maybe they are not too old for such things. They totally loved it and while I don't think Colby can navigate a wooded mountain hike and Roscoe probably couldn't handle the up and down on the rock that wooded mountain hikes demand, they both handled Sugarloaf just fine. The open trails and soft open meadows were perfect!! We flushed a mother grouse and a bunch of her babies. I kept the dog's attention while Rich flushed them. Spur briefly noticed, but even the tiny babies took flight, so they were probably in the tree tops. Colby found lots of tiny grasshoppers to hunt. Probably what the grouses were eating. The wild flowers and butterflies were picturesque and absolutely stunning, even though my camera doesn't show that. The wild dianthus, yarrow, trillium were in full bloom. The Eastern Tiger Swallow tail butterflies were EVERYWHERE!! I could never get a good photo of one, though.

We met a breed of dog at the top that I was unfamiliar with. Two Boykin spaniels. They looked like Irish water spaniels, but they had docked tails. I asked if they were related to the Irish spaniels and they said....."No, they are from South Carolina". HUH? An American breed? Yep, I looked them up. A working, hunting spaniel bred to work the waters and marshes of South Carolina. Pretty chocolate, wavy coated spaniels.