Rain, rain go away!!!

I'm pretty sick of all this wet weather! I am worried about the hay! Our neighbors ended up having to make mulch hay out of half of the nicest hay field. Sucks. I haven't heard a word from my hay growers. I know some people made it last week during three dry days, but it probably was risky. The ground is SATURATED. The poor strawberries, just ripe and now soggy. They aren't even opening this morning for picking. :(
We had such a long, brutal winter we deserve a nice summer. It just isn't to be at the moment. We have a date tonight to go out on the boat. I don't think that is going to happen. Sigh.............

And with that, they fledged!

Auto-correct wants to correct the word fledge, but it IS a word, isn't it? 

Mom or dad caught a dragonfly for them. Really? That seems big for those tiny babies.

 Oh and we saw a glossy ibis on the farm yesterday. Cool, prehistoric looking thing!

 See baby phoebe? Oh, what a scary day!!!

 But, it was so hot and I fed the cats SO much that they just plopped on the floor of the barn in digestive bliss and I believe left the babies along. Oh, it was scary. That one took off and then landed on the ground right out back in definite CAT territory! :O

 Precious little thing seeing the world for the very first time.

 NOT a good spot, dumb bird brain..........

 I flushed it to some weeds.

 Precious!

 Then it wanted back in the barn and plopped on the manure pile. Again, NOT a good place, the cats hunt rodents all over that pile all day long! >:/

 I flushed it again and it tried to head back to the barn, then landed on my finger!!! :O I tried to get a photo with one hand, but couldn't manage that and it flew to this location on the back side of the lean-to. I left it there and fed the cats some more.

I have seen no sign of feathers, so I believe they all fledged successfully!! :D Poor things, though, had to weather out that down pour and crazy storm we had last night. But, at least the cats didn't get them. I will give it a week and then destroy the nest. I don't want them nesting there again!

I hope they make is successfully out of the barn!

Normally, I destroy any nest building materials in the barn, but this year the phoebes built and laid eggs while we were away and I didn't have the heart to tear it down. Maybe that would have been the kinder thing, but so far the parents have survived and the babies are about to f ledge.

 We have barn cats, very good barn cats. What WERE these bird brains thinking???? (So hot yesterday even the birds were panting)

 Phoebes are hard to photograph. Their dark coloring and dark eyes doesn't allow for definition.

 The tree swallows have babies now, too!! And they are working hard and heating up.

 I would imagine that pole is hot???? I freshen the bird bath every day. Although, I have never seen the swallows bathe or drink there. All the other birds do. Especially, our poor non-stop singing bachelor sparrow.

Trial report!

Three days of agility in MAINE!! YAY!! At Wasamki Springs campground, a very nice place for a trial. Weather was perfect! Not too hot, not much rain, really lovely! Spur did great! Not breaking the times we want to break, but still very respectable and good for outdoors where he never runs as well. He even beat some super fast dogs! Maybe they held their contacts long, but whatever, Spur beat them!

Spur went 6/6 this weekend, good Little Monkey Pants! And with that he is all qualified for AKC Nationals! He needed 49 points and this weekend he wracked up over 100. :D



We also had a very exciting walk yesterday. George caught scent of something and did a B-line across the field. Of course, we all just sigh and head on after him hoping he will return, Kathy on her phone calling Nate. Well, Nate comes quickly on the golf cart and searches for him. We can see his head as he is leaping in the grass after something. A young groundhog and he got it dead, just like that. OH he was so proud. He marches it back to show the pack and.............well..........Rotten Roscoe was PUMPED and tried to steal it!!! Seriously!!! OMG, we were all both hysterically laughing and totally grossed out watching George and Roscoe play tug of war with the poor dead ground hog. George was NOT letting go. Roscoe finally gave up. OI!!! George went home with Nate to sit on the laugh with his prize............for two hours. You just don't take away a prize like that from a border terrier.


Here is our practice from last week I never posted. Geez, hard stuff!!! But, he sure is faster at home.

Training

Apparently I never trained Spur's DW with a curved tunnel so tight to the DW. So, we had to do some work. He quickly figured it out. Good little Monkey Pants!!



And I WAS going to show our practice, but youtube says it "has a team of intelligent monkeys working on it". Meaning the video seems to be gone. WHAT???

Happy Birthday Miss Colby Carlson!!

She is 14 today! I am very happy to have a dog live that long. I know, longer would be nicer, but Jess only made it to 10 so I am glad to have longer. 

Here she is in her foster home at 5 months old. Pretty girl!

 At her peak!

 Last year hiking Sugarloaf!

 She loves water.......

She is so pretty, even with just one eye.

She love her special ball..

 

 Loves it!!

 She gets it every morning, then we take it away until the next morning.

She and Spur are good friends.

 She loved agility! She can still do her weaves, even with only one bad eye!

 Hiking in the white mountains! Happy days!!

 Wearing her bling!

 Her favorite thing, hunting frogs...........

Amazing day!

We finally get a NICE day!!! So much rain lately, it was getting OLD! But, yesterday, sunny and 73 degrees all day, just LOVELY!!

My foxglove is lovin' it!

 These two good pals helped me garden. Hmmmm, if only I could teach them to kill the moles and not disturb my plants?

 They really are good pals. They even play some, but the age difference is pretty big and Colby is pretty much done with play. She still tolerates him and he is pretty gentle. They often choose to hang out together.

 Even in the shade she squints that eye.

 My beautiful volunteer California Poppies!!! Such a pretty, whispy little flower.

 We headed out on the boat for a sunset cruise. Saw this guy/gal on the dock as we headed out. Looks like it doesn't have legs?

 Rich whistled to it to turn it's head.

 We grabbed a mooring at Cocktail Cove and, well, had cocktails and watched this beautiful creature hunting for dinner. It was quite far away and the movement of the boat kept me from getting good focus, but very cool photos.

 Sure wish these two were in better focus.

 Heading back the sunset was amazing!!

 Over Fort Gorges with the Peaks Island Ferry going by.........

Just gorgeous!