Progressive flowers!

**First, Colby's vet report -
Sore lower back. She totally reacted during manipulation right at that spot. Nothing else caused that reaction, so we are trying some cold laser and Metacam. She seems a LITTLE better today.

OK, now for the flowers. The farm is growing sunflowers for restaurants to use the oil. Then, I guess, it will be recycled as biofuel. It has been VERY fun watching them develop. This is a HUGE field that was planted!!Last week the heads were really developed.One lone flower opened up.

Until today!!!! A whole bunch along the edge have opened!!! It is going to be SO pretty when they all bloom. They are all at different stages, I guess because of the soil, the moisture, whatever.

Just phenomenally pretty!!! The bees are very happy!!!

Babies, babies, babies and one is named Bunny!!

The farm has babies! Babies pigs arrived a couple weeks ago and are SO funny and "cute". They get all silly and jump around when we come by with the pack of dogs. They have the biggest pen!!! Luxury accommodations.

Meet Bunny!!! She was born the day after Easter, so they call her Bunny. She's SO cute!!!!
Mamma got a little nervous about the pack of dogs staring down her baby. She'll get used to us. The dogs are hardly interested. They just want to eat the cow shit.
There are also some new sheep, youngsters, not lambs. I'll get shots of them soon. Many additions to the farm right now. Peas are up, asparagus has been cultivated, so we look every morning to see new shoots. Nothing, yet. We need some warmth!!!

Fall, I just LOVE it!!

This day the light was diffuse. Not the bright, brilliant light fall can bring, but the colors are none the less intense, I think. The dogs seem to just pop out of the dry, soon to be dormant grass. Their black coats shiny and dark.

It's romantic and soothing and I just love fall. Am I waxing poetic and sounding all sappy and stupid? OK, so it's just that it is my favorite time of year. Hot summer sun, not my favorite thing. I am not good at hot summer sun. Like home made apple pies. I bought a frozen shell. Cool, brisk fall weather! I am good at that. I like walking for miles and miles every day with dogs I love when it is cool and brisk. Walking farm fields and wooded areas, cow pastures and horse pastures. I am good at that. Some people design computer programs and email blasts and make a shoe that is comfortable. Some people have these skills. Some make home made apple pie! Me, I walk dogs in fields and buy frozen pie shells and am glad someone designs a comfortable shoe.

The big guy is back to service the cows. He's big. We are glad the fence is between us. He looks harmless. He looks BIG.
The girls had to come see the new addition.

Then everyone had to come see the girls.

Then they went back to their grazing, separately.

(If I knew photoshop I would get that fence line out of there!!!)

These are his offspring born this year. They get to live another year. Their mamas get to live another year, because these two were born. Production. It's all about production.

I don't have one of those cell phones with a camera in it

I showed up today to a livingroom full of what I thought was bloody vomit!! Poor Baxter, the golden, is sick. I FREAKED! I wanted a camera to document it for the vet because it seemed very much like vomit, but he had been having diarrhea. Turns out it was most likely from his rear end because at the vet's they did an exam then had him outside and it was like a hose got turned out from his butt. Poor guy!! So, it was probably diarrhea. His blood work was fine, thank goodness, so they are tentatively calling it severe colitis. They aren't sure why, but I am thankful it isn't something worse.

Over the weekend I took some nice photos on the farm. The fog made for sparkling dew on the oats!! -

The recent rains have filled up the irrigation pond. The culvert was blocked, so the water would fill up. It's full and ready, if needed. This morning we saw either an otter or a beaver swimming along the stream that lets out into this pond!! :O Of course, no camera this morning!!! It went too fast anyway, I don't think I would have had time to take it's picture. That's a FIRST for the farm streams/ponds!! George, the farm terrier, would be NUTS if he saw that thing!!!

The ferns along our woods path are SO pretty right now!! All different shapes and sizes.................

Yesterday was perfect, except if you are making hay!

It was warm enough for shorts, but cool enough for plenty of outdoor activities. I mowed my yard, I moved agility equipment and weedwacked around stuff, I weedwacked the fence line - until I used up my string! I did some gardening, wondering WHAT to do about the moles??? ACK.

My afternoon walk, however, brought soaking rain! YIKES!! I heard them baling the straw. Didn't think I should check the radar before heading out, but once I got out there the sky darkened and as I was on my way home we all got SOAKED!! Including the freshly baled straw. :(

The recent rains have made everything SO green and our road to the farm is LOVELY!! It is no longer used as a farm road since old lady Gladys died and her nieces sold her land to a land rapist, but we use it, the horses use it and it is LOVELY!!

This is heading out......
We keep it mowed. This is heading back. Our neighbors call it "The Road To Rich's". :P

This is the view as we round the corner into the back pasture. I wondered why the horses didn't want to stay out there yesterday. I guess the mowing machine made them nervous?

Colby was "on the clock" all day yesterday. I would love to say she keeps the moles in check, but nope, that's not so. They are all through my garden and I am bumming out!!!!

I got a better teeter photo with Spur doing his "end behavior". Not sure if the end hits the ground before he leaves, but close enough. What I like about this is he looks confident and happy!! Happy enough, anyway! Tail up, ears forward, MUCH nicer look than his look on the teeter last year. Another feather in my cap! Got The Spur Man over his teeter concerns! YAY!!!! How long did it take? Over a year? Yep, but who cares, look at him now!!!!

Bullseye and Patch

Can you tell which is which? I know, you are not supposed to name critters destined for the freezer, but whatever.........

You can see the moms on the other side. We don't know if they are pregnant. The youngsters cross the stream more and are lovin' their new buffet!!! There is a culvert and dirt path now across the stream, but the mothers rarely come over.

The fence has a pretty good charge and we have had to boundary train the dogs. The Pin Heads already understand that type of training, we did it for years at the farm I used to work. Spur, he has never had that and it is taking some time. One zap from that line and he may never come out for a walk again! :O But, he's getting it.

The weather is SO nice, and I am SO busy!

It is hard to find time to post here when I am enjoying long walks with the dogs while the weather is SO perfect. Cool and fresh and bug free. Well, other than those nasty ticks, but not buzzing, biting, obnoxious black flies or mosquitoes, yet. It's lovely out these days! Colby has been hunting the chippie that lives in the old apple tree that blew over in the last wind storm. We figure it must still live there, even though the tree blew over. Plenty of places for it to hole up and hide. She loves that tree!

We enjoy watching the farm get ready. This patch may be "our" ever-bearing strawberries again! It was like we had our own private patch! It was AWESOME! This field (white remay covering) will be "our" lettuce!
We made some new "friends" over at Red Neck City. Rumor is that Mrs. Red Neck wanted some livestock that wasn't going to be put in the freezer. We already came across their poo on the path. I said to Rich it didn't look like deer poo, it looked like sheep or goat. Sure enough, two goats arrived and they take them out for walks!!!! We need to learn their names. LOVE goats!!!!

Yay, the grass is really getting green now.........

The weather has been spectacular! Not your typical mud season. Sadly, last week I had a tire blow out on my scooter. Darn it all! They only have 6500 miles on them. They did look a little worn, but I didn't think they were THAT worn. ?????
I was going past the golf course and BANG, I thought a golf ball hit me. Nope, pull over and realise I had a blow out. Which means a trip to Reynolds for a new tire. Who knows when that will happen. :(

Leta is enjoying the good weather and exploring more. She never stays still, so capturing photos isn't easy........

We have two days of BARK agility coming up. I leave tomorrow afternoon and return Saturday late. Spur's first "official" trial. I say that because he has done some runs before, but this time he is doing all four runs each day. A real show dog this time!! I kind of considered the other runs just practice. I still feel that way, since he is SO green and still such a project, but we have signed up for all four runs each day. The Spurminator will ROCK!

Colby and Mr. Jones are doing one pairs run in hopes of getting her MAD. We have no expectations, I know she could totally refuse her teeter or do some other silly mistake and so could Mr. Jones, but she should be able to handle half a course and getting her MAD would be nice. Why? Beats me, but us humans seem to like these titles, so we are going for it.

We are interested to see how this new facility is. It's much too far for my liking, nearly three hours, so it means night before hotel room stays, which I prefer not to do. I have two thoughts.........One - I hope it's worth it and lovely. Two - I hope it's not so nice and we won't want to go back so we won't be tempted to spent the extra money on hotel rooms. It's just sad that we lost the lovely place in East Hampstead NH that was SO close and SO awesome.

So, if I don't get on here to post again for a while, that's why. Today is FULL with work I had to jam into so I could take Friday off. The dogs need pedicures and we need to pack, print out directions and the trial catalog, get things in order at home. And it's another AWESOME day, so outside we will be, exploring, gardening, preparing soil, brushing dead winter fur off sweet Jewel and NOT sitting at the computer!! :D