baby grasses

Where John ripped out the cement pad and where the big Maple use to live was planted with grass seed early June.

John was able to mow the new baby grasses in the corner yesterday, it came in very lush and green.

The grass in the Maple tree area isn't coming in as well, probably because it's not getting enough water.
I'm scared to see my water bill for the month of July.

The backyard will hopefully getting a new vinyl fence to replace the short, 4 foot fence (who installs a 4 foot fence in the backyard?!?) with the selling puppy money. Winston will be able to walk over the fence in a few short months if we don't replace it, but if we don't sell the puppy then I'm not sure how we'll afford a new fence...

Very old picture, but shows the short fence that gives us no privacy. Whenever we're out and the neighbors are out (they're smokers so they're always out) they want to talk and then have us come over to show us their man eating sized koi fish. It gets old fast so I can't wait for the fence. We told them it was the big dog that meant bigger fence, but that was only part of the reason.

The fence though will be the last thing added to the backyard this year.

P.S. that bush on the side of the house is not there anymore. A couple weeks ago we got central air (pure heaven) installed and the bush had to come out so they could put the unit there. The bush had pretty much died over winter anyway, but removing it in 90 degree weather totally sucked.

July Hiking

July 23rd we went hiking to Dog Lake with a few friends and their dogs. I invited my friend Jonessa and her husband so they could take in the fun of dog hiking and they brought her parent’s dog, Buster. In fact the only picture I got from my camera was of Buster, the battery died right after. It wasn't even a good picture.

The trail is not the easiest and I hadn’t done it since last October so most of the group stayed way out in front of me in the beginning, Jonessa stuck back to keep me company. Once you get past the first few hills the trail flattens off and it’s a nice hike with beautiful scenery, but I didn’t pay much attention since A) didn’t have my camera and B) I was focusing on the trail.
The few pictures I have are from others' cameras. At the lake we let the dogs play and we eat some lunch. It’s always a good time.

Pringo and Makoa have a hard time getting along since Pringo wants to mount Makoa any chance he gets. Makoa will put up with it for the first little while, but then he gets sick of it and then starts telling Pringo he has had enough. You think Pringo would learn, but no. They’re in the background in another tiff.

I guess Klee Kais aren’t really water dogs, but you wouldn’t know that with Makoa, he loves to swim. These pictures are from the October hike that I never got around to posting. Pringo was just a little pup and John was trying to get him comfortable with the water by luring him out with treats.

I really need to get my dad out one of these times! I can’t wait for our new little guy, Winston, to be here and all vaccinated so we can start teaching him good off leash hiking and I bet Enna can’t wait for her puppy to be gone so she can start coming with us again, poor thing hasn’t been off leash since April.

Basement bathroom

The basement bathroom is as done as it's going to be for a while, it's pretty nice though.

Remember how it use to be shaped like this?

and how it use to be boring white?

Well now it's a normal shape and fantastic brown!

That is still the old faucet and we didn't update the light fixture yet. Life kinda fell around us and money drifted away, eventually we'll get them changed out.

I wish I could show you my cool pictures that are going to adorn the now normal wall, but alas I don't have them. I'm ordering them from a shop in Canada and their postal service went on strike so the couple I ordered are still on their way here. Also the pictures cost more than they really should (I tried to not love them and find others, but I just couldn't) and because of the reason above I couldn't buy them all at one time. Once we have them and they're on the wall I'll show you. But here's the layout of said pictures.

Now that I think about it, maybe I should just leave those pieces of paper with blue painters tape on the wall...much, much cheaper than the pictures.

puppy updates

Our boerboel breeder sent us a picture of the male puppies so we could pick out the one we wanted, we got first pick which was cool :)

One of the puppies on the right will be ours. The breeder thinks they'll be more red than fawn which we like, so we told her to pick out the one that she thinks will be the bigger of the two.
She says that their eyes are starting to open and they're trying to walk around, really fast since they're only 11 days old. Like I've said before, it's so nice to have a breeder who actually is on top of things and I don't have to beg for updates.

On the home front, Enna's little pup's eyes are open and he's speedy quick on his stumblingly little legs. I'm not sure when their eye color changes so right now they're just look dark blue.

He's hard to take pictures of now because he just wants to explore everything, I'm sure that will only get worse.
We're still hanging out in the office with him and Enna in camp chairs. As you can imagine it's not very comfortable and as soon as I can think of a way to corral him and keep Clod Hopper Makoa and Too Curious Sophi away from him we'll be moving back downstairs to our wonderfully comfy couch.

Our set-up

He'll be ready to go to him new home after August 20th so spread the word to anyone who might want a miniature husky!

P.S. I forgot to mention how the rest of the pack is handling the new addition. Makoa is allowed to sniff the puppy if we're holding him or he's in our lap. He sniffs every inch and wags his tail like crazy. I've tried to see how he'd do with the puppy on the floor, but Enna won't let him come close. She growls and snaps at him.

Sophi's first encounter was when Enna and Makoa were outside. She walked into the room sniffing the puppy's area, when she caught a glimps of the puppy in my lap her eyes got huge and she slowly crawled over to investigate. She sniffed him once and then sat there starring at me. I'm sure she was thinking, "Another creature!! I was so happy being alone!" oh Sophi, just wait, in a few weeks you'll be getting beat up by the biggest puppy/dog you have ever met. You're welcome.

Are you sick of dogs yet?

I should change the name of this blog to All You Ever Needed To Know About Dogs since that’s what it has turned into. I can’t help it if John and I like dogs more than children.

Our Boerboel mommy was due around the 27th of June and knowing dogs I knew that it probably wouldn’t be the 27th, but my impatient brain wanted an email announcing the birth on the 27th. My distraction A.K.A. Enna and her pregnancy had left me undistracted as of Monday morning, her son is adorable, but he’s not mine to keep.
I couldn’t stand it anymore and Monday evening I emailed the breeder to see if there were any puppies yet, her email back didn’t help because she said, “No, but we’re close!”

Tuesday I kept myself busy with lots of household chores, but then Wednesday I was back at work and checking my email 27 times.
Thursday I couldn’t stand it anymore and emailed, “I’m sorry I can’t be patient, but I’m too excited! Any news yet?” and waited and waited and waited. Finally at about 8 PM she emailed me saying that Allie, the mommy, started whelping at 6 PM. After that I checked my phone every 3 seconds knowing that I wouldn’t get an update until all the puppies were born and settled.
Even into the evening when I was trying to sleep I wanted to desperately to check my phone every time it went off, but resisted. Once my alarm went off in the morning I sprung out of bed and grabbed my phone, 6 emails, but none were the ones I wanted.

Work was really busy today, but not busy enough for me to not check my phone when it buzzed. Finally at 2 PM I got the email I was waiting for.
Allie had 6 puppies, 3 male fawns, 2 female brindles and 1 female fawn. I squealed loudly with delight! I kindly reminded the breeder that we would like one of the males and then danced around the office with glee.

I’m glad I have Enna’s boy’s growing up to keep me occupied until September, 8 weeks feels like 1,000 years when you’re a bad waiter like me.
Time to get our dogs whipped into shape before we get our new pup! No chasing the cat, no barking long after the doorbell was rung, and sleeping in a dog bed and not a crate (crate free bedroom goal!!).

Beautiful mother

Handsome father