Monday, February 27

No Regrets...

I spent the day CLEANING-- dog beds, floors,  bird feeders, the inside of the car, setting up the bird bath (minus the heater) filled the bird feeders and washed my windows!! Tonight the weather forecast is calling for rain, freezing rain turning to snow with a chance of severe thunderstorms, ugh, but, I have no regrets at all.
Cuz, all that moisture will mean muddy paw prints, wet dogs, a dirty car and  mucky windows...all signs that spring is indeed on the way. 
Brown waiting to turn green

Saturday, February 25

Blue Bird Shake...

If you remember my post from yesterday I said I was going to clean house...
I did and the exciting part is.....
while shaking out my throw rugs I observed this

A blue bird checking out one of the new houses that we placed last week!!
 Hope the blue birds put down a deposit, cuz this morning while looking out the
 kitchen window I saw a house sparrow investigating the property. 
Guess we'll see who wins "House Wars" 

Friday, February 24

Hooray it's Friday...


It's friday...we did our walk about the ranch this morning and I am happy to report it was "skunk free" but, I did manage to slip on the frozen grass. No injuries just a bruised pride. I was blessed to have 3 rescue dogs ready to lick me to death as I tried to regain my composure and get back on my feet.

A shot of Miss Molly and I on our walk this morning.

Here is poor Schatzie as she continues to "air" out from yesterdays skunk encounter. 
You can go here to read about that exciting adventure. 
 Today, I am going to clean house, sip on a good hot chocolate
 and read my new book. 

If any of you have read this or have experience with TTouch 
please let me know how it's worked for you! 


 I hope that you have a great friday.

Wednesday, February 22

Mud, Mud, MUD....

It's the season between winter & spring!!! 

Cuz, we got mud on our bellies
Mud on our noses
a muddy front yard

Muddy paw prints, that end up in the house :(
a shepherd that takes her own bath  after getting all muddy:)
Such a Good DOG!!
and when you see lots of flying V's 
and 100's  of Red Wing Black Birds in the cottonwood trees

you know it's the MUD season and spring comes next!!  Yahoo :)

Wordless Wednesday...

my Gracie

Tuesday, February 21

The Traveling Bone...

We headed out earlier for our walk. The snow is melting and the temperatures are hovering around freezing, with that combination we have to get our earlier to beat the mud. Gracie was tickled pink as she finally  found the "lost" bone. It has been buried under the snow for 2 weeks and now, there it was peaking out of the little mound of snow. She grabbed it and pranced her way down the trail. Unfortunately, I didn't think about snapping a photo of her until later as the story developed.  She trotted about 100 yards dropped the bone, did a quick chew, picked it up again and the cycle was repeated several times until she finally got a whiff of something in the tall grass. Thank goodness it was not a skunk--think it was a mouse.
Anyhow, we are now on lap 4 of our morning trek and Schatzie decided to pick the bone up, carry it 100 yards, drop and chew it, cycle repeated.....as you will see in the photos Molly joined in on the action too.
Who know one one bone could give 3 dogs so much joy!!
Good morning from Nebraska
Schatzie picks up where Gracie left off...
yummy...
dashing through the snow...
the hand off....or is that a mouth off?!?!!
Molly's turn

I'm going to leave it right here....(notice paw on top of bone :)



until tomorrow...

Monday, February 20

Mum says.....

It's time to declutter the toy basket...


I told her we love and need all these toys!!

Sunday, February 19

Snow Dog...

It was a beautiful sunday afternoon. The girlz and I spent some time out in the sunshine. Schatzie got a little warm and decided to cool off in the snow. If these nice temps continue we will not have this snow for much longer!!

Friday, February 17

Please help my mum.....

Have a question for you!!  The past few days blogger has gone to this crazy double  word verification process. It stinks, I didn't realize I had it until  Theresa brought it to my attention. You can check her blog for  more information  about changing your settings.  I followed her steps and thought I'd changed my settings to eliminate this step. Well, it didn't....I have been using the new interface blogger program and but wasn't able to change the settings in that program. Finally, at 1a.m. this morning,  I went back to the old interface program to "fix" the problem. I do like the new interface program but do not want my friends to have to go thru that time consuming word verification mumbo jumbo. Anyone else having this issue? I am sure there is an easy  solution to the problem, but I'm not that tech savvy :(   Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Want to make commenting on  my blog as easy as possible.
Please help my mum


Thanks for reading and for your help

Val

Thursday, February 16

Bluebirds wanted...

The three bluebird houses that hubby made for me a few weeks ago were positioned today!!!
 Local bluebird enthusiasts claim that the birds should start arriving in March. I am looking forward to see if we get any new tenants and if they make the ranch their home.  So, tell your bluebird friends that they are some wonderful new houses awaiting their spring arrival in southeastern Nebraska.
Bluebird house contractor/installer
 House #1 can be viewed from my kitchen window

#2 located near a new proposed  sitting area
#3  Located near some cedar trees
Okay mum, enough of this bird stuff, it's time for dinner!
  

Tuesday, February 14

A Valentine's Day Walk...


Our work schedule was changed last minute today so it allowed hubby and I to enjoy a late afternoon walk after a lovely lunch. We decided to leave the girlz at home and investigate an area where we have see a bobcat in recent weeks Yes, we do have bobcats in Nebraska!! 
This creek/railway area  is about 1.5 miles from the ranch  
 Hubby last saw the bobcat approximately 200 yds from this spot.

 Old telephone poles

 Remember these??...line insulators, 
unfortunately someone felt the need to shoot this one.

 X marks the spot...for 

 Tracks...bobcat tracks!! 

 Sigh...tracks were the only evidence of the bobcat...maybe another day

 One of the bridges we had to cross....

 From a distance we thought this was a rock...when zooming 
in we discovered it's some hunters deer blind.

 Bobcat creek

I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Valentine's Day!


P.S. For those of you wondering, Pete the Possum was given a proper burial :)
Sorry, no photos were allowed.

Pillars of Strength

Happy Valentines Day!!






Dedicated to our friends 
KB and K.

  Showing  us how to
 live each day with a
thankful heart!!










Sunday, February 12

Pete the Possum lives....

well not exactly, but the story continues.
For the past  three days this crazy possum has been apart of our life, so I decided he needed a name---he will now be referred to as "Pete"  I really wish I would have done something with Pete yesterday, but nooooo!!  This morning on our walk, Pete was still (and I mean still) in the spot that we left him yesterday.  I was hoping that maybe the cycle of life would come full circle and Pete would become food for one of the passing coyotes. Unfortunately that did not happen.
Rewinding the story just a bit...before the girlz and I headed out this a.m. (it takes a few moments to get ready as Molly has to have the following equipment --one harness, one red collar with id and a jingle bell, one 20 ft lead and her orange reflective vest.Oh, and then there's me--snow pants, hat,gloves, camera, and snowshoes!! Good grief, no wonder I'm exhausted before we even get out the door.We were finally ready to tackle the morning adventure.  I  read my blogger friend Kim's post yesterday click here to check out her life with senior Golden Retriever rescues and a funny little terrier named Todd. Anyhow, Kim stated that she had been having some problems with her "pups" and decided to talk to them about it---after all that would change their behavior right! So I thought, yes...if it works for Kim, it's gotta work for me. Before heading out the door I told the girlz that they needed to stay with the pack, no finding wild critters and most importantly listen to ME... You know where this is going don't ya?!?!?  
Off we go and I was rather pleased as Molly was walking right along side of me and the other two were also behaving....I dropped Molly's lead and she didn't take off with lightening speed, she trotted along side. I must say I was pretty pleased with my little pep talk. Ya, my girlz are behaving and listening to me. Well that's when it all went haywire. Ya, you knew it was going to happen didn't ya???
Gracie arrived at Pete's resting spot first. She however, wanted nothing to do with him, Schatzie did the same thing, now it was Molly's turn....she gave old Pete a good sniff, picked him up by the tail and away she went. She headed east over the bean stubble happy as any old lab could be with a prize locked in her jaws. Now I am figuring I will have to play chase the yellow lab to get Pete away from her. I decided to let her be and the other two and I continued on with our walk. I wanted to take a couple of shots of the barking snow mound (BSM) to share with you. Once at the BSM, I snapped a few pictures and then turned to find Molly at my feet. She had returned to me without Pete!! How cool was that!!( you weren't expecting that one were you??) I didn't have to chase the yellow lab. We returned to the house and I went over to the area where I had last seen Molly with Pete. I could see her tracks....but NO Pete!! Good grief, what had  she done with him. She wasn't gone long enough to have devoured him, plus he was frozen solid. Well with the help of my other two super sleuths  we found poor Pete buried in the snow. Guess Molly was just giving Pete her version of a burial.
Once again, I find myself giggling and shaking my head...what a life we have here on the ranch.

Note to self...give Pete a proper burial tomorrow!

 The pickup...

 The  lab dash...

 needed a rest...long way to the drop off point

 Scene of the original crime....the barking snow mound

 inside the BSM

Finally...Molly's resting spot for Pete.

Saturday, February 11

Playing possum...

This story actually began yesterday afternoon during our late day walk.  All three of the girlz were frolicking about when I heard a dog barking.  I was unable to determine exactly where this barking originating . I did a quick head count and was one dog short....Schatzie, check... Molly, check...Gracie....Gracie.... NO Gracie!!
A few minutes prior, I watched as she and Molly had ventured near one of the small ponds on our ranch..  Panic ensued as I ran approximately 100yds. through the knee deep snow toward the pond and the barking. My biggest fear was she had broken thru the ice and  now was in the water. In my mind  I had to come up with a plan to retrieve her from the freezing water.  As Schatzie and I drew closer to the pond I continued to hear barking and now it seemed to be a muffled bark. Again...PANIC MODE.
Finally, at the ponds edge  I see a large mound of snow move and it was barking!! Gracie had managed to burrow herself into an old muskrat  mound and had found some sort of wild animal. If you know Gracie, she is one dog that doesn't give up, she doesn't let go, she stays with it til the end. I peered into the mound and saw an animal, it was a possum, but I didn't want to stay too long thinking that maybe a skunk had taken refuge in the muskrat hut also. If you have read our past posts you know our record with skunks the past few months hasn't been stellar.
I'm not sure how it happened but as I was yelling, Gracie released the animal, got out of the grass mound and headed back to the house with me. She acted like nothing happened.  I kinda figured and hoped that maybe the possum was just playing possum and she lost interest. By this time my heart rate had finally returned to normal and I could breathe again--- no dogs had to be retrieved from the water,a possum was probably playing dead and best of all,  no skunk..... So, end of story and  crisis was averted.....

Well almost...this morning  as we were out and about again. Gracie and Molly ran ahead of me and then disappeared for a few minutes. As Schatzie and I were watching the sunrise, I saw the two golden girls head toward me. I will let the following photos tell the rest of the story...

 Here they come...their tails held high and they were a waggin!!

 Gracie and a frozen possum

 Once she dropped it for me to see she wanted nothing to do with it...Thank goodness!!
Poor little possum was really playing possum

Life on the ranch with these three just makes ya shake your head.