Three Musketeers

The 3 boys finally in a picture together! Amazing that Zed stayed still long enough - he tends to make figure eights around the older dogs and they just sit and watch him. Moe seems to be letting Zed get a little friendly - I'm wondering if this was followed by a growl from big, bad Moe.

As you can see in the background, snow still on the ground. I'm not in town, but Steve said we got 4-6 inches of the heavy white stuff. Meanwhile about 500 miles southeast the temperature was 63 and sunny today. Guess I really am getting a spring break!

Happy Easter!

"...I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship"

WMSZ at the Dog Park

Our new call letters here at the old homestead - WMSZ. I'm thinking it sounds like either an oldies radio station or a country station. Hopefully you've picked up that it stands for Winston, Moe, Steve and Zed. The fab four - hey, maybe it is an oldies stations. Beatles music 24/7.

Anyway, I digress. We took the 3 canines to the local dog park today. I met WMSZ at the park on my way home from work. Zed was quite the hit with the ladies and of course their dogs. Everyone really made over him and said what a cute puppy he is, etc. Of course the puppy got his share of sniffs and did his share of sniffing with the other dogs. The set up is pretty nice - just a huge fenced in area that the dogs can just run and play off of their leashes.

Of course for our dogs they have a pretty big area to run around anyway, but they are never bored with all the smells and new places to explore that they find at the dog park. I of course got "blue bag" duty. Not more than a few minutes into our time there, I was scooping for not one but 2 dogs. We have 10 acres for their elimination needs, but they wait until I'm forced to pick it up! Extra dog treat to Winston for sparing me from a 3-dog night. :)

They did have fun though. Zed would take off running and then rush back to us (making sure we were still around). He hasn't figured out how to brake and so constantly would run into our legs. He and Moe are much more concerned with where we are than Winston - he's definitely the Alpha Male.

Signing off for WMSZ - have a good night!

March 2008...similar to 2007?

No, I haven't broken anything (although it is snowing right now, so there's still a chance)! The month of March last year started with me breaking my ankle and then a couple of weeks later we had a grass fire out back of our house.



2008.....got into work last week and had a message from my boss. She had fallen playing soccer (indoors, note the snow mentioned above). She broke her clavicle. Not sure when she'll be back to work - I'm guessing sometime this week since she doesn't have to have surgery. Painful nonetheless.


After her bone break, another fire near our house. The garage was totally destroyed and the house has major damage. The fire started in the garage, but we're not sure how yet.


As you can see from the picture, we still have snow on the ground. We've had over 100 days with at least an inch of snow on the ground. It also has been extremely cold this winter. I'm pretty crabby about it all!

All in One Piece

Unless I slip and fall on the stairs tonight, I have safely made it through March 2nd. That hasn't happened since 2006!

We went out to Target and dinner this evening and we're getting some precip that is freezing on the parking lots, etc. Made me a bit nervous, but Steve lent me an arm and dropped me off at the door. I was still glad to get home. And I'll be glad when this winter thing is over! We've had over 90+ days with snow on the ground. Granted we are seeing quite a bit of grass right now, but there is still snow around.

Blech!

Year Anniversary of the Ankle Break

Leap year confuses the situation a bit since I fell on a Friday and I'm celebrating (or remembering) the one year anniversary of my ankle break on a Sunday.

But, I've made it a year! The doctor had said the swelling and stiffness could continue up until about a year. He sure was right. I'd say after about month 11 the swelling was much improved. It is only occasionally swollen now and mainly after I've been on my feet all day and have had a bit of a heel on my shoes.

In another few days (on the anniversary of my surgery), I'll be given the green light to remove the hardware from my ankle. I don't have any plans to do that anytime too soon, but will keep it in mind as an option. If I'm going to do it, I don't want to wait years either. We'll see. I think I have enough going on with classes, work and the new puppy to not add another thing onto that!

Thanks for all of your support over the last year!

Zed - Puppy Extraordinaire

Meet Zed - he's the latest addition to the canine population here at The Big H Ranch and Kennel.

Zed is a golden lab mix and is now 13 weeks old. We got him from the humane society after they conducted a "rescue" from a breeder who had over 65 dogs/puppies in not the best conditions.

Zed is doing just fine. We were a little worried after the first night because he was sooo mellow. He's now a normal puppy with LOTS of energy!

Today was a big day for him. After a week of quarantine from the "elder statesmen", he met Winston and Moe for the first time up close. Z man was very interested in his big brothers. They were less so. They tolerated him well though and I think they'll co-exist just fine.

As you can tell from the pictures of Zed and the one on the right of Winston and Moe, he's a good mix between the two. I think he's got the eyes of Winston and of course the coloring. However, he's a lab like Moe so has some of his characteristics too. We'll see how big he'll get. The vet's best guess was maybe around 40 pounds. If so, he'll be a bit smaller than the other 2 dogs.

This is my first experience having a puppy in the house - it's quite a bit of work! Thankfully Steve is our resident dog expert and has quite a bit of patience.