Hope you had a Great Christmas!

Hope you have a great New Year Too.!

Here's to the Best Ever 2019!

 

The New Wild Turkeys

Turkeys...

We're torn now, we tried for years to get some local turkeys around the farm, figuring they would help with the local tick population.  Well we finally have them, about 15 or so birds, one monstrous Tom and a few yearlings, and a bunch of hens.

You can generally hear them coming chipping and popping as they go across the road, down the driveway, up the brick walkway, across the front lawn, to the side yard and finally down to the deer yard.

Now The Problem...
The problem is they're like having geese, they are always hanging around, and "they poop everywhere"  all over the walkway leading to the house, the front lawn, the back yard, side yard, you name it they crap on it.  We have to be especially careful now as the newest pup Hannah loves frozen turkey poop and eagerly digs and quickly swallows the turkey delights. I have to be careful walking the the car in the morning to avoid the piles that are seemingly everywhere.

It is amazing to watch birds this big, I imagine 10-20 pounds go from the ground "without a running start" fly at a 45ᣞ+ degree angle up into nearly the tops of the tallest pines on the property.  

 The herd

 Amazing colors when the light strikes them

 Even the hens would provide some fine fly tying material...  did I say that out loud?


Hannah Belle hunting turkeys through the back windows...

 

Labor day 2018, labor is right...

LABOR DAY WEEKEND 2018

 

We've been clearing up some of the many projects we just never seem to be able to get done this weekend.

Installed the 100' Dog run for "Hannah" in the front yard making modifications along the way.

 

Took the new Lab "Hannah" for a swim Sunday got real hot for a couple hours here.  Took her half a dozen times before she decided hey this is a blast and was ready to start swimming for the opposite shore of the lake.  It appears I have a new boat motor...

We took several trailer loads of Common Pokeweed out to the burn pile, the stuff is everywhere this year.  It's easy to cut out, just a lot of work hauling it all.

Bear for the second time took out the Deer feeder, didn't knock it over this time, she ( I assume a she bear) simply knocked the motor off the bottom of the feeder so all the feed fell out onto the ground we woke up this morning to 20 lbs of whole corn dumped all over underneath the feeder.

Feeder before... Roses fawn

Red-tail hawk with Squirrel on Deer Feeder

These pics of the incoming bear are from last night .

 What the heck is with all the Squirrel's, everywhere you go there are so many dead ones in the streets, must have been a bumper year last year for acorns or something, I've never seen so many in the roads like that.

Hope you had a great weekend!

We lost a Great Dog, and Best Friend last night

We lost a Great Dog, 

and 

Best Friend last night

 We love you Harley!

 Harley "Bugs"

 Our best friend, our protector, Rose's knight in shining armor, guardian of boys.

Harley loved "His Boys" he was never happier than when he knew James and Jason were coming over to see him, 

Don't get in his way, he had boys to see!

Our Lab/Shepherd mix, we rescued him, maybe he rescued us, 

he certainly taught us a lot.

Harley was just 8 1/2 year old to the day, not nearly old enough.

My heart aches, I take solace in knowing you're with Magic, Coop, and Chloe now chasing those chippies till we see you again!

"Harley", "Harley Brown" just "H", and "Bugs", 

he answered to all of those names, they all fit him.

Harley was always there, always, ever watchful, that was his job! He did it well.

Harley loved paying the piles of leaves, his tail wagged as soon as you picked up the rake in anticipation.

Ready to play ball with his boys

 

Harley was the Pool boy he loved his pool, the Hose, and sprinklers were his fav's.

Harley with his boys...

He was a chaser of snowflakes, not for a particular reason other than he knew we loved to watch him do it.  

His favorite spots won't be the same, by mom on the couch where he knew he would get the best back scratch that felt so good he just has to do somersaults, by my chair, or on his love seat, or maybe the hole he dug out every year in the side yard or in my office on the floor by my side every morning.

Harley Hugs, I will miss them dearly.

Harley with new sister Hannah

He was working hard teaching his new little sister Hannah the ropes, he was teaching her the important stuff, not to bite, to slow down some, and how to bark for your dinner announcing to the whole world that 

"Dinner was on it's way"!

Somehow it just doesn't seem fair.

God I miss him so much...

Announcing "Hannah"

Update day 2




Hannah slept from 8:30PM last night until 4:45AM this morning, I was up on my computer already and heard her start to stir. She whined a couple times and laid back down, Rosie got up when she heard the whine and Woo, Wooo from Hannah.  I picked Hannah up and brought her out back as soon as I put her down on the ground she squatted and peed.  Day two and she has only gone to outside so far.  She figured out how to go up the back porch stairs this morning too. She's going to be a smart one I think.  



We picked up "Hannah" on Friday, she's a 9 week old purebred Lab.

We had Harley up at our Vet a couple weeks ago and they mentioned they had pups available.  We got one!  She's adorable.  But we were camping, so they agreed to keep her for 10 or so days until we got home.  We just couldn't wait and ended up leaving camp a day early and scheduled a pickup.

Remember puppies, puppy proofing, puppy breath?  We do...

Here's Hannah!

She loves carrying her own leash around, soccer balls and she points already.  Harley and Gordon are still getting used to having a girl around the house.

Camping 2018

Camping last week was HOT!   

Wow, setting up camp in 96 degrees with 70% humidity was brutal, took a while to recover from that, maybe again in the fall.  It cooled off later in the week back to the 80s, that made for some better fishing too.  We cut the week short though, midweek Harley had a stroke (Not as bad in dogs as it is in humans, scary to see though, thankfully we were there when it happened.)  We called our vet and spend a few nights at home just in case though so far no recurrence and Harley seems to be doing much better.

Camping was great, Fishing, eating, swimming, sitting around the fire, a Pie Eating contest.  I caught a nice small-mouth bass, and several Kibs,  I think Jarrod caught a nice size perch and 30+ kibs.  James is becoming quite the fisherman too.  Jason worked on his fishhook removal skills from caught fish.

 Jarrod's dog Lexie at the campground. "Not begging..."

 One of the marauding Chipmunks stealing dog kibble.

 Relaxing

 Boys lit the fire

 Our Campsite for the week

 Lexie catching Ice Cream

 The Tractor ride

Jason  Post Pie Eating Blueberry, and cream

 Jarrod the Camp cook!