Scary Donald (and More!)

We recently bought a chainsaw, so Donald ordered some protective gear to wear while using it:

Luna wasn't too sure about that creepy helmet with the face shield...

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I've sniffed out a few more stinkhorn mushrooms since the first one, but so far, it's not too bad.  Maybe we did a good job removing them last year, and this season won't be as stinky as feared!

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Psst!
I'm not blogging here much, these days, as you may have noticed.
The more active blog, at the moment, is over here.  Be warned, it's mostly crafts-oriented.

Luna, Destroyer of Toys

I was looking through some photos this morning and came across this one-- then realized that Luna has since sent all of these three toys to the garbage can.

She ate off the feet and one of the ears of the yellow one.  (Garbage can.)

She dislodged the squeaker from the pink one, but we kept it around.  It could still make a very pathetic, wheezy squeak, poor thing.  But then she tore off one of his feet.  (Garbage can.)

The blue one hung on.  Sure, it had some punctures from her puppy-teeth days.  It didn't squeak with quite the same force as in its happier, pre-Luna days, but it was a tough toy.  It could take the abuse. Until she ripped open one of its "bobbles" and proceeded to eat part of it.  (Excuse me, but there's someonething I'd like to introduce you to-- GARBAGE CAN.)

Oh! and she also tore (and tried to eat) part of a squeaker from a soft, fabric skunk toy (not pictured).  I rescued the squeaker bit just in time, and I think it can be repaired.  At least I'll try...

(I should note that all of this carnage happened when she was out of her crate, playing in the house "under supervision".  Yeah, if you're supervising Luna, you're not allowed to turn your back on her for a few minutes at a time, happily imagining that she's playing safely and sweetly...)

So now she's destroyed pretty much every squeaky toy she had.  There's one more that doesn't squeak unless two strong human hands work together (with great determination) to elicit a squeak-- and even that one's on his last leg.  Now she's reduced to hard, rubber jingly balls and Nylabones and KONG toys... and a couple of other rubbery balls that she scorns, for some reason.  There's a really fun, new squeaky toy hiding out of reach, but for now, it's not for the likes of her. 

How many more months before she's calm enough to not ruin most dog toys?

Deer Me! Is Autumn Finally Here?!

A couple of afternoons ago, smack dab in the middle of the very broadest daylight, I happened to glance out a window onto our backyard and see-- a deer.  Inside our fenced yard!

Donald grabbed the camera and snapped some photos:

As deer go, this wasn't a very large one, I guess, but still! Right in our backyard in the middle of the afternoon.  What a surprise!

Once Donald had taken his photos, I picked up Luna and held her to the window. Nothing wrong with her eyes, at least. She saw the deer immediately and set off the alarm of growling and barking.

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Today, we're enjoying our first real taste of fall weather.  It's so nice.  The windows are open and I ventured out with the camera.

Remember the daylily seeds we planted earlier this year?  Those tiny little things growing in yogurt cups?  Most of them are getting to a decent size for young plants. Here are some of the pots:

The English ivy has been growing, too. It feels like it's growing slowly, but then again, I'm not sure how quickly ivy in the shade usually grows. In any case, it's progressing:

Here's another angle, showing that there's still plenty of territory for it to conquer (and also that the box it's in needs another coat of paint):

By way of contrast, here's the passionflower vine, which has gotten huge this summer:

No flowers at the moment, but it did a good job earlier in the season, and it's been attracting Gulf fritillary butterflies, a species that depends on passionflower for part of its life-cycle.  

Cosmos...

Autumn's arrival always reminds me that it won't be long before the spiders take over...

A smiling Trixie...

And a smiling Luna...

Luna Pix

Here are the latest photos of Luna.  She'll be four months old tomorrow.  :o)


(You can hover over the photo and use the arrows that appear to flip back through the rest of our Flickr photostream.)

She's a sweetie-- sometimes.  ;o)  Other times, she still thinks biting is a fun game.  She loves chasing (and growling at) frisbees, has the word "treat" memorized perfectly, and is pretty good at the three commands we've taught her so far.  Those would be "sit", "down" (as in "lie down"), and "wait" (which means don't take the treat yet). We've also taught her "no", and sometimes she obeys that one, too.  (g)  She loves to give ear-kisses-- and nose/mouth kisses, too, if you aren't careful.  She's still not house-trained, but that's really more our fault than hers, I'm sure.  (She'll learn, eventually.)  She sometimes whines and howls when she's very sad (such as when everyone else goes outside and she's left behind), but she's usually very good at keeping herself occupied with her toys.  She runs and throws herself against the cardboard "fences" that keep her in her room, when she really, really wants out or sees you coming.  She stands on her hind feet and sticks her head and front paws over the cardboard to watch you when you're working in the kitchen.  She loves pulling her blanket out of the crate and around the room.  She has the softest fur ever.  She's an expert at "welcome home".  She's a cutie-pie-- but I may be biased.  :o)

Bad Puppy!

Luna broke out of "her room" (i.e. the dining room, which we've temporarily stripped of most furniture and sectioned off from the rest of the house) last night and had herself a good ol' time.  It's not the first time this has happened, but it's the first time it's happened that Trixie didn't let us know. Also, it's the first time that Luna noticed my yarn, apparently.

This morning, I was greeted by this mess:

And this was after Donald tidied things up, he says.  (He happened to be the first one up today and wanted to soften the blow.)

Ugh.

At least it was only acrylic yarn.  It could've been worse.  There were finished squares she could have chewed into bits (not to mention furniture, walls, cables, etc.), and there's a ball of laceweight on the coffee table that she probably could have gotten, if she'd been determined.  Still, not the sort of thing to fill your heart with joy.


I ended up cutting a couple of times to make the untangling easier, so it's in a few balls instead of one nice skein-- but it's all salvaged and ready for crocheting.

Phew.
There's a saying that comes to mind right about now... Ah, yes: "You're lucky you're cute, dog."

Maybe it's time to start putting her in her crate at night... If not, I will at least be stowing all yarn well out of reach!

Ice Storm & a PUPPY!!!

We did get some "wintry precipitation" a couple of weeks ago.  Mostly in the form of ice.  It was an unusual experience for this area-- and that's probably a good thing!  (g)  Most places that could remain closed for a couple of days did so, and fortunately for us, Donald was able to work from home. 

Photos:

Our roof was coated in white:

Some impressive icicles formed, here and there!

We made sure the feeder was stocked with seed, and we put up a (temporary) makeshift "platform"-style feeder, too-- and scattered some seed on the ground around it.  There were lots of birds visiting.  Mostly sparrows, but also some finches, a couple pairs of cardinals, and a couple of blue jays. 

The birds appreciated the extra food.  (Our local birds aren't used to such prolonged cold, of course.)  --And we enjoyed watching them throughout the day(s).  :o)

More icicles-- on a leatherleaf mahonia, this time:

Another view of the front yard:

(There are more photos of the ice on our Flickr photostream.)

Very soon after the ice melted here, Donald found an ad for Eskie puppies near Birmingham (Bessemer).  We've been thinking about getting an Eskie pup for a while, but they're rare around here, and months and months of keeping an eye on the ads had yielded nothing-- so we decided to pounce on this opportunity right away.  (We also arranged to pick out a male puppy for Granny L., because she's also been looking.) 

Tangent:  We saw some ice and/or snow on the drive up (mostly just on the shaded slopes), and there was still sand/soil on many bridges (put there to help during the icing). 

So here's our little snowflake, the day after she blew in from the north. ;o)

We named her Luna. 

She was born on December 19th, and her hobbies include biting fingers, toes, ears, hair, etc. (with varying degrees of force), chasing toys, chewing toys (fabric preferred, at the moment), chasing Trixie (who would really rather not be chased, thankyouverymuch), running around the yard, pulling at grass and weeds, flopping down on this one particular cushy, grassy spot, growling and yapping when thwarted, and generally being a ball of attitude and energy.  Oh, and napping. 

Here are a couple more photos, taken a few days later:

We need to take more photos, because she's already grown a lot!