Whisker-Butt

Finally! Some photos of lil' Whiskey!

I brought her in the house tonight to see if I could get a decent shot of her. I failed miserably, but here are a few shots I attempted. She moves pretty quick, so it was really testing my skills to get something in focus.





Hmmm ... What is she looking at?

Rascal!



Apparently Whiskey felt it was in her best interest to try to charm the pantaloons off him.



No, it never did work. He was not real happy she was in his castle.

"My mom and my gramps have some very very nice ears. Did anyone see my good ones lying around? Echo keeps laughing at me."



"Here. Do they look better if I do this?"



"How about like dis?"



"Do you think Santa will bring me some if I put it on my list?"

More house pics

Ok ... the living room is green. Bright green. I haven't done the trim yet (hunter green), but at least the awful dark army green and darker burgandy colors are gone. The true hue of the green is not going to be possible for me to capture until it's light outside.



here is a comparison of the yellow in the dining room to where the living room wall starts.



The hallway looking toward my bedroom ... and a very sleepy dog that already got paint on him.



Once the trim is all painted, I get to start breaking out this tile. Doesn't THIS look like a fun project?



Jodi

Who do you like?

So ... I am seriously considering breeding Echo.  Depending on when she comes into season will help make my decision for me.  But I've started thinking about stud dogs and was thinking about which dogs I like and why.  I am realizing that I like the same "type" of dog and tend to be drawn to that type.  Loaded with eye, prefers fetching to driving, very stylish, intense personality, and super biddable.  Zip, basically.  The only thing I have not been real happy with out of the Zip litters is that he doesn't seem to be breeding true.  The pups are all over the map in personality, working ability, drive level, etc.  I am not sure if that's just him, the combination of him and Jenn (the dam of the two litters), or just litters in general.  Would he breed more true if bred to another bitch?  Maybe.  I think I would like to find an outside stud that breeds very true to see what Echo throws before I breed her to Zip.  Or I might just bite the bullet and go with the devil I know for the one I don't. 

 

What do you like in a stud dog?  If you have examples of well-known local trial dogs that you can point to, I would love to hear it.  Do you have a stud dog you've used a few times?  What has its litters been like?  Pretty consistent?  Or quite a variety?  I'd love to hear from you -- either on my blog, or you can email me privately at hayewe@gmail.com. 

 

Happy tails,
Jodi

 

 

 

 

The Green is Starting ...

I stopped by Home Depot on the way home and bought tile for the kitchen and entry way. It's pretty ... and relatively cheap.

Swung by the house and stacked the tile in the entryway. Cranked the tunes and started touching up some of the white paint. Taped off the ceiling and starting cutting in with the green all the way around the living room. Janie called me at one point and asked me what my plan was. I thought that was kind of odd. She said they were sitting down to eat. I thought it was kinda early, so I told her I was going to paint while I had it out. Soon enough, the shadows were doing weird things, and I couldn't tell if I was getting good coverage with the green. I finally figured out that it was well after 8:00!! No wonder she was calling! I cleaned up and went home. Kirk made barbequed shrimp, fried oysters, white rice with garlic, and salad. Yummola!

And now ... it's 10:00. Where the hell did the day go?

Tomorrow I'd like to continue with the green and hopefully get the whole living room and hallway done so I can start working on the trim and have that done by the time the weekend rolls around.

Happy tails,
Jodi

Looking forward ...

I am getting really excited about the house and moving in and stuff.  I can't wait to have my own place again and getting settled in for the winter.  I will miss the fireplace I used to have, but I will soon buy myself a pellet stove.  It's nice to finally have a place where I can do whatever I want with it.  I don't have to worry about popping too many holes in the walls, or scuffing a doorway moving a piece of furniture in.  I can now fix it, and paint it whatever color I want, or put polka dots on it if I feel like it!  Once the paint is done in the living room, I can start treating the hardwood floors.  I can't wait to see what they look like when I'm done!  I will also start breaking out the tile in the kitchen so Kirk can start doing the tile in there.  The kitchen is going to require quite a bit of work, but it will be really cute when it's done, I'm sure.

 

The front two rooms -- the "mud room" and the "utility room" -- will be easier.  There's not much to them.  A little bit of paint, and some wallpaper (and some tile in the mud room) and that'll be that.  By the time Spring hits, I'll be ready to do the fencing and have my sheep back (if I can't get it done in the meantime). 

 

I've also been thinking about what to do with Echo, whether to breed her, or to spay her.  I'm going to breed her.  I don't know if it will be this heat season or next, but it makes more sense to do it when she comes into season this time around so that she's ready to work again by Spring.  We'll see.

 

Happy tails, 

Jodi

 

More paint. Imagine that.

Got up early this morning, and went and prepped the living room and hallway for paint. That took quite some time, as there were a lot of holes and peeling paint and scuff marks on the walls. Sanded off the spackle and laid a layer of white paint. Now it's ready for the light green. I'll probably do that the early part of this week. Once that's done, I get to do the trim in the living room, hallway and dining room. Oh joy.

Phyllis and Glenda came by today to help me. They've been very supportive through all of this. I showed them around, and instead of working, I took them to lunch in Marsing. It made for a nice afternoon break.

Kirk made a killer dinner, and now I'm sleepy.

Jodi

The Cool Part of Painting

So yesterday, Echo and I sorted sheep. She wasn't convinced I knew what I wanted, so we had a heart to heart. I finally got sick of arguing with her. I made it very clear that she is to do what I say and that's it. Afterwards, we got some really good work done. She is just fearless and I love that about her. We had to sort off 5 or 6 sheep to take over to someone's place so they can be walking lawnmowers. We also needed the rams. All of them. One of them (the horned one) was going to go as payment to someone that let us graze on his place this summer, but he decided he didn't want him, and we'll just sell the ram and pay the guy instead. And I needed to bring Pepe and Janie's ram to a friend of Janie's so she could choose a ram to visit with her girls. Well, the rams were none too pleased. Pepe is a "man" now ... not my cute little black ram lamb that I can pick up and kiss all the time. He doesn't even see me as a safe place to be. But man is he gorgeous! I can't wait to see what he puts out as far as babies.

Oh back to the Monster. The horned ram wanted nothing to do with Echo, had no confidence in Echo's abilities, and was going to get rid of her. So he lowered his head and tried to slam her into next week. He was too slow. He got her, but when he pulled his head back, he had a dog firmly attached to his nose. It made a believer out of him, and we didn't have any more problems with him the whole time.

So we loaded them up (that was not easy ... 5 lambs and 3 rams ... go figure) and made our deliveries. I dropped the trailer back off and headed to Marsing for some lunch. Then back to my house to spackle off the living room, and finish up painting the edges of yellow in the dining room. I was rather bummed out about the way the bedroom came out with all of the bleed-through of the black on white, lost interest, and headed back to Janie's for a beer. We figured out a plan for the evening as we were all going to the hoedown, and then Janie told me to go get back to work. Reluctantly, I loaded up the truck and headed out.

I decided to try to clean up the black and white. I can't just leave it there, hating it. So I grabbed a little itty bitty brush, and some white paint, cranked the tunes and went to work. And I think I found the best part of painting! I loved it! I totally have the patience for this type of tedious, time-consuming detail stuff! And it looks great! Janie called me later and said, "We're on our way to pick you up." 2 1/2 hours had gone by and I didn't even realize it! I have a little bit left to do in there, but it's almost completely done now, and I love the way it looks!

Off to the hoedown we went. What an unbelieveably talented bunch of young people ... all led by a very dear friend of Janie's. Amazing! And so fun!

Need to go sand the spackle and start laying the white in the living room.

Laters,
Jodi