Gone to the Dogs

Today, on the way home from the in-laws house we were just 18 miles from where our new puppy lives.  I asked the breeder last week if we could come and visit on our way home and she said yes.  She has 5 Havanese pups, ready to go to their new homes and 2 Bichon pups, aged 3.5 weeks and 11 adults.  We had a lot of fun playing with the older dogs and the Havanese pups. The Bichon pups were still too little to do much but they sure were cute.  The breeder has a spotless home and she keeps her dogs inside. They sleep in little crates and have a play pen to play in when they are up.  All her older dogs are super friendly and very well trained. We had so much fun. You just can't help but smile when you hold a puppy.

 A spirited havanese pup

 One of these bichon pups will be ours in January. Look how tiny they are.

 Snuggle puppy.

 This is the breeder, Linda, with Lacey the mom of our puppy. Lacey is shy and this is her first litter so she was a bit worried about her puppies being away from her.  She's a good mommy.

 Here Linda is telling all the dogs to be quite so they can have a treat. They were very well behaved.

 Now the dogs get a piece of roast chicken for following her command

 Cute and friendly dogs everywhere

This is Brooks and Elisha with Dexter, the dad of our puppy.  He was a love!

Julius

The Lancaster, OH annual fall rabbit show was held this past weekend.  I took Selene and Rocky; neither of them had a prime coat. Despite the fact that Selene has two of three legs needed for her CG the judges don't seem to like her much as her coat has a coarse texture and it is long and hairy looking. She took second in both shows. I'll probably keep showing her as long as I am able and  maybe we will get lucky and win another leg. This was Rocky's first show and he is a senior. I didn't have the opportunity to show him as a junior and he has had three haircuts since I got him since the weather has been so darn hot. The judges liked him a lot but he didn't have the length and condition of coat that the first place winner had so he also received seconds in both shows. While killing time at the show and perusing the rabbits in attendance a charming 3 month old Holland Lop baby captured my heart and he now resides at Lilac Haven. We have named him Julius, after polling our friends for suggestions and having mom remind me that Julius, which was one of the names suggested, was the name of her great grandfather. You might recall that we lost our Duke last month after almost 13 years.  I actually think Duke was a small mini lop or a cross and definitely not a Holland Lop but they are similar and I just loved the lop ears and couldn't resist.

Bichon Puppies

We're getting a puppy! He was born on November 7, 2013.  I just have a couple pictures of the parents and the two males born in this litter (only two pups total). Someone on the wait list changed their mind so we moved up a notch on the list and will be getting the newest member of our family in January. Still missing our Daisy but excited about the new arrival.

Lacy and her pups

Daddy Dexter

Mama and pups

Another Vintage Find

DH and I went uptown today on our lunch break.  After lunch we stopped in to A Gal Name Cinda Lou, a speciality shop that sells 60, 70, & 80's clothes, record albums, jewelry, housewares and other interesting knick-knacks.   I found this really cool necklace and earrings to go with a blouse I just bought a couple weeks ago that has the same flowers on it.  Unfortunately it is not marked so I don't know who the maker was but I plan to do a little research on line just out of curiosity.  It's always fun to find little treasures like this.

Combining Forbs

I asked Andrew for a narrative on these photos last night. He said-"we're just combining for forbs".  I told him a needed a descriptive narrative.  Twenty minutes later after I wrote the following. he said, "well I guess it's not just combining for forbs is it"?

Combining forbs (wildflowers) at Pearle King Savanna with a 1973 Gleaner combine that was bought used and has paid itself off numerous time with the forbs that have been picked with it. Jack M. (RIP) and Gordon M. started picking seed at PK in the 80's and used that seed to start parts of the prairie restoration effort at Darby. As the plots at Darby got larger, the resource management team and a variety of volunteers including Inniswood and Jack's family picked seed from those plots over the years which has further expanded the prairies so there was enough seed to bring it back to Pearle King in 2007. That year Tommy S. and Andrew planted a 6 acre buffer around the original savanna remanent. The process has now come full circle as last month James J. and Andrew harvested forbs from plants that may have been part of the original remanent savanna that helped started it all. The forb seeds will be dried and used to expand the Darby Plains prairies even more. At one time the prairies covered most of Madison County and provided habitat for a wide range of wildlife. Come out to the prairies at Darby and see the bison, the savannah sparrow, bobolinks, and even for the first time this year the sand hill cranes have stopped by in the Kulhwein wet prairie. You never know what you are going to see. It's just beautiful.

 Forbs

Seed drying area

The Darby Wetlands

A perfect day yesterday for an outing to the Darby wetlands in Madison County. DH wanted to check on the prairie grass that he planted last season and also the burr oak trees to be sure the deer hadn't rubbed them.  I love clouds and the ones yesterday were spectacular; as were the fall colors which were at their peak.

 A field of prairie grass

 Woolly worms everywhere-gonna be a cold winter!

 The burr oaks are wrapped in the orange deer guards. One tree was lost to deer out of the 25 or so planted

 poison ivy berries

 dove feather

 beautiful fall color

 the waterfowl area

puff ball spewing spores