Under Attack

Sebastian has a new hobby.

He finds an area in the yard with little or no grass ( not hard to do) and rolls in the dirt.

He rolls till he's covered with dust and leaves and twigs.

We try to discourage this, but he does it almost every time we go outside, but he doesn't always get to enjoy it.

 What are you doing, Sebastian?

Don't you want to play with us?

Get lost, kid.

Aww, come on and play. 

Can't you two little pests leave a guy alone?

That's better.

No dogs were harmed in this little interaction. Yes, Sebastian does have Syd's entire head in his mouth, but he doesn't apply any pressure. He's just reinforcing earlier lessons in manners. Ask before you pounce.

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

I told you last week that we're letting Sydney and Mac spend part of the day in the back yard playing. It's been going really well. They go out for about three hours in the morning, then again after dinner till almost dark. When they come inside, they're nice and tired and spend all evening snoozing on the couch.

Everyone has benefited. The girls are getting lots of exercise and the other dogs are feeling less tension caused by naughty puppies getting into trouble. Win win.

Rob threw this toy for the girls the other day. It's a bumper attached to a ball with a thick rope. They like it because they can both carry it at the same time. They both chase after it.

Mac would like to bring it back to be thrown again, she's all about the chase.

Sydney likes to claim all the toys as her own.

They wind up in a wrestling match and usually forget all about the toy.

 I spoke with our vet about the behavior problems we were having with the two little ones, especially Syd. He agrees that they are probably happier being outside more and getting lots of exercise.

Syd caught her first lizard. The lizard managed to get away but he left his tail behind. Syd, Mac and several of the Water Dogs were having a great time rolling on the little tail till Rob disposed of it. Dogs can be such dogs!

Don't they look happy?

Fall Is Here

When I think of Fall, I think of cool nights with an afghan over my legs as I read or knit. I think of the smell of apples and cinnamon as a pie comes out of the oven. I think of pulling the quilt up over my shoulders as I fall asleep.

My dogs think of different things when Fall hits the air. They think of running. Even Sebastian was running last weekend. He and Noah were enjoying a game of chase. First Sebastian would chase Noah, then Noah would chase Sebastian.

On Sunday we brought out the frisbees and everybody was interested. Look at this excited group.

Everyone went racing down the hill to grab the frisbee.

Look at the left hand side of the picture. Morgan was right in there with ears flying. Don't count her out just because she's a senior.

Mac loves to chase anything we throw. She even brings things back some of the time.

She's a good sport if someone else beats her to the prize. Sydney is a different story. If she chases after something, she wants to get it and wants to keep it to herself. That girl needs to work on her sharing.

Another throw and off they all go.

Fudge seemed to be good at getting there first and even brought the frisbee all the way back to us.

His little friend stayed along side.

Except when she had to take a quick break.

Lola decided to wait at the foot of the hill for the frisbee to come to her. Smart girl!

Bailey caught one and looked to see if anyone was chasing her.

Then she brought it to me to throw again.

Morgan brought back a ball and Sydney tried to make friends in order to steal the ball. Morgan hung on to it. She knows all about puppy tricks.

In case you're wondering where Sebastian was during all this, he was hanging with his person.

Don't get me wrong, the dogs also think of good smells in the Fall. They're dreaming of apple peanut butter cookies and turkey soup.

It was a good weekend.

Memories

I want to reintroduce you to someone special. I say re-introduce you because I've posted about her before, but she continues to surprise me and impress me with her talent. Before I started blogging I started reading blogs to see what this blogging stuff was all about. I found some funny ones, some sad ones, some well written ones and some garbage. There was one I was so impressed with that I started following it. It was the first blog I ever followed and I still do almost six years later.

It's the Rachael Rabbit blog.

When I started following Rachael she was doing knitting and quilting and showed off lovely children's wall hangings and toys.

 Then she had three children of her own and though I can't imagine doing lots of crafting with three small children at home, her creativity picked up and is totally amazing. Look at some of the wonderful things she's done recently.

This is her daughter's birthday party. Wow!! I wish she was my mom. What a wonderful fantasy party for a little girl.

She is into color in a big way and does lots of dying of fabrics. I've learned a lot from reading her posts and I'm going to try my hand at dying some cross stitch fabric soon.

Here is one of my favorite projects. She and her girls found this stick. They stuck it in a vase and they decorate it for each season.  Here is the Valentine Tree.

Here is the Easter Tree.

And my personal favorite, the Spring Cherry Blossom Tree.

Look at those beautiful cherry blossoms.

The little girls help their Mom with most all the crafting and especially the painting. Little brother is still a bit young but he's getting ready to help.

Now Rachael has taken on another project. Where does she find the time? I have no children and can't seem to find time for all the projects in my head. Rachael is making Memory Quilts. She was sent a uniform from a fallen soldier and the family asked if she could make it into a quilt.

She took on the project with all the loving care that it deserved and look what she turned out.

This is the finished quilt that she returned to the family. What a wonderful piece full of special memories for them.

Of course when you create something so special, more memories are waiting. In this case it was a Fire Marshall killed on 9/11. The family sent his tee shirts to her and requested a quilt for his granddaughters. 

She presented the finished quilt to the family a couple weeks ago on September 11.

Rachael has been so moved by these quilting experiences that she's forming 'Quilting A Memory' which will provide free quilting services to service men and women who have lost their lives in service to their country.

I'm sure you can understand why I'm so fond of this talented young woman and wish her the very best with her new and important project. Please visit her blog, it will put a smile on your face.