Here They Come

Tsar and I took a stroll around the yard looking for those wonderful signs of spring and we had mixed results.

We found this Robin hopping around in the grass looking for bugs or worms to take home to the family. When we lived in the Northeast, seeing a Robin was often the first sign of Spring, but Robins winter here so we see lots of them even in the snowy months.

 We decided to look down first and we found lots of green shoots pushing up.

These are Iris and will soon have their pretty purple flowers.

The Hosta are just waking up in the rock garden.

We love how the wild Violets are moving into the rock garden. These always make me smile. I pulled Tess out of a patch of them when she wanted to roll in them.

Some flowers are already up and in bloom.

This Bleeding Heart makes me smile. I've actually tried to kill this plant several times and it keeps coming back. It's poisonous to dogs and when the pups were younger, they loved to chew on plants in the garden. I tried cutting it down and pulling it out, but it's still here. Fortunately, the dogs pay no attention to it anymore.

The Clematis are climbing up the trellis and will be flowering soon.

Do you see the Periwinkle flowers hiding under the leaves? These are growing under the porch and around the front steps.

Now Tsar and I looked up.

The Plum tree bloomed this year, though not as fully as in other years.

This is part of the reason I love Spring so much. The trees and flowers put on such a beautiful show for us.

The Maples in the side yard are sending out their helicopter seed pods. With the next wind, they'll be flying all over the neighborhood.

The apple blossoms were beautiful this year, but we were sad because neither of our Cherry trees flowered. We don't know if it was due to the drought last summer, or because the weather has fluctuated so this spring. We're had days in the mid to high eighties followed by days in the twenties. The delicate fruit trees probably couldn't adjust. I miss seeing the cherry blossoms.

Can I Have A Do Over?

Some days it would be better to just stay in bed all day and pretend they never happened, but a whole week of those days? What did I do to deserve this?

Sunday during the night we had a thunder storm. Of course that meant we had to share the bed with Morgan. She shared my pillow, but at least she wasn't kicking me. She kicked Rob instead.

Monday morning we picked up a new battery for the riding mower. When Rob tried to start it on Sunday afternoon the old battery was dead and though we tried charging it, it wouldn't hold a charge. Monday we put in the new battery, started the mower and did two passes of the yard before the mower quit. Of course, it quit at the very foot of the hill. This morning the repairman pushed it up the hill and took it away for a checkup. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it's an easy fix and that the twelve year old mower doesn't need to be replaced. Let's hope it's fixed before the grass gets this high.

Monday night, as I was getting ready for bed, Rob told me one of the dogs had peed on the kitchen floor. This wasn't impossible, but very unlikely as they had just been outside. On closer inspection we discovered that the twelve year old dishwasher had peed all over the floor before dying.  There had been signs that it was having problems, but I kept hoping I was imagining the problems.

 This makes Sky very unhappy. He used to love to put his toys in the front loading washer and dryer, but last year I switched to toploaders. Since then he's had to be content with cleaning his toys in the dishwasher. Now it's broken. Don't worry, there'll be a new one here next week and Sky can continue cleaning his toys.

Wednesday morning was spent at the hospital as Rob had some tests done.  He was sedated and sleeping while I drank endless cups of coffee and worried.

Rob slept all day, so I did all the dog feedings and outings and I was really tired by 10 PM. I took the dogs out for their last call and Bailey got Monkey past me at the door. I thought she'd bring him back, but she didn't.

I went out with a flashlight and saw Monkey at the foot of the hill. I didn't want to walk down in the dark so I let her sleep with her duck.

The duck has a very realistic sounding squeaker and I didn't want to hear quacking all night so I told her if I heard the duck, I'd come downstairs and take it away.

I got in bed, turned out the light and noticed that the coyotes were howling behind the fence. Unfortunately, Bailey also heard them and started answering them. I lay there thinking that surely they would soon stop, but they went on and on. Finally I got up and went to the door to the girl's room and told Bailey to be quiet and go to sleep. She did.

Rob was still snoring thru all this so I finally fell asleep. Then I felt a cold nose against my shoulder. It was Samba asking to go out. Now I know that being on Prednisone she has to go out more frequently than the other dogs, but I think this nighttime thing has become more of a habit than a necessity. I glanced at the clock and it was 1:30. I considered telling her to go back to sleep, but I saw her eyes and thought she might really need to go.

 

 I fumbled for my robe and slippers and went to stand on the porch while Samba did whatever she needed to do. I wasn't prepared to find a cat sleeping on the porch. Samba was happy to chase it. I put her on the chain I keep attached to the porch rail. I don't want to have to chase a dog around in the dark. Samba hates the chain, but I was very glad it was there this time.

I went back to bed and heard Samba throw herself onto her pillow and make a loud sigh to let me know she'd rather be chasing the cat. I ignored her and went back to sleep.

At 3:20 Morgan started shaking her head, flapping her ears and rattling her tags. She kept it up until I dragged myself out of bed and grabbed her. I pulled her into the bathroom and did my best to clean her ears with tissues and cotton swabs by the light of the nitelight. I removed her collar so if she continued to flap her ears I wouldn't hear the tags clanking.

At 5:15 the Tess alarm went off telling me that the girls were awake and ready for breakfast. I staggered to the garage, fed everybody and cleaned Morgan's ears with blue ear cleaner. Then I sent them all outside. When I called them, everyone came back except Morgan.

I grabbed a flashlight and went outside. There was Morgan rolling in a pile of dirt that Rob had dug up for the new brick wall. I was not about to bathe her at that hour, so I wet a towel and cleaned off as much of the mess as I could. It was mostly around her head and ears.

I put the girls back in their crates and told the others to go to sleep and I got back in bed and immediately fell asleep. About 7:30 Rob woke up feeling refreshed after sleeping for a whole day and night. He wanted me to help him chase the dogs outside, then have breakfast. I felt like a zombie.

I'm still up, no nap today, thanks to mower repairmen and dishwasher shopping. So, that's my week so far and it's only Thursday.

Pool's Open !!

This has been a crazy, stressful week and I'll post more about that in my next post, probably later today, but there was one high spot. Because we've had some very warm, sometimes hot weather, we decided to fill the wading pool.

It was a good time for the dogs and for us, watching them enjoy the water.

When Rob walked over with the hose, everyone gathered to see if he was actually going to turn the water on.

Once he did, they couldn't wait for the pool to fill. Here Norma Jean and Tess are trying to catch the water as it leaves the hose.

Samba's ready.

Boy, that cool water feels good on a hot day.

Fudge and Lola think they could use a little more water, please.

It looks like they're searching for fish.

This is the first year that Lola has shown this much interest in the water. Looks like she'll be going to the lake this summer.

When Norma Jean jumped in, everyone else left. She throws water all over the place and the others clear out when she starts splashing. She practically empties the pool. This was a good start to the season.

Want To Come To School With Us?

Norma Jean thought you might like to meet her classmates, so today we took along the camera and now you can see our schoolroom.

Oh boy, here we are at school. Let's see who's here.

 First one to arrive is Norma Jean's friend Gussie. Isn't she pretty? She's a big girl, but she's very friendly and likes to play.

Gussie and Norma Jean hit it off right from the first day and seem happy to see each other every week.

Here comes Charlie. He's a very little guy, but he doesn't know it.

He likes Gussie, too and has to say hello by kissing her on the nose.

This is Chanel. She a Catahoula Leopard dog. She and Norma Jean don't like each other  so we stay away from her.

Here comes Sugar.

Here's Roscoe. Now all the students are here.

The class before us is still in session so we're all waiting outside.

Now it's time for our class to begin.

Norma Jean likes to check herself out in the mirror. She wants to be sure she looks good for class.

We each have to sit down to go over the plans for the class. First thing today is to review sits, downs and stays.

Sugar sits nicely.

Roscoe is paying attention.

Gussie does nice sits and downs.

Our instructor is demonstrating and observing our moves.

Norma Jean starting her down. Stay is very hard for this busy, bouncy girl so we're still working on that. It's coming along slowly. Today we worked on recalls and that's Norma Jean's strongest command.

Over all I'm pleased with her progress. It's much harder for her than it was for Fudge, but we're making progress and she is still my happy bouncy girl.