Finally "The Wedding"...

Better late than never right??? I think so....
Finally getting around to sifting through the some odd 600 pictures or so that Casi took at my nephews wedding back in mid July.
The wedding was beautiful, the day was absolutely perfect, the location was breathtaking and the scenery was just stunning!
My nephew tied the knot with his lovely bride Brice at an oceanside property. It was set upon a high cliff with ocean below and mountain views. The gardens and waterfalls were spectacular and just all around a gorgeous setting for a wedding.

Here is some of the clan before the wedding....you can see the ocean below. My aunt and cousin were able to come which we were thrilled about!

The ceremony was lovely and struck tears in many eyes as the bride and groom said their vows.

My sister and her family...growing all the time....

Myself and the girls were able to come and attend. It was nice to have everyone together.

Post ceremony....what a gorgeous couple!

This was the perfect ending to the perfect day. A first dance to a Brad Paisley song..I thought I loved you then...

We had a lovely day and were so thankful we were able to attend. It was wonderful spending time with my sister and her family and also my aunt and cousin.

I'm Back!!!

Probably didn't miss me much but since Thursday evening we have been without a working computer!
How internet deprived we all were!
My desktop had gone down while we were away and I just hadn't gotten around to taking it in to be fixed so everyone was using my laptop and it decided to die too!
So today we fixed the problem with the laptop (funky adaptor) and took my desktop in to be fixed too!
Soooo happy to have my computer working again!

Spent the better part of the day...

Doing this....Ok...well I actually wasn't doing this but assisted in a big way! Our sheep were in bad need of their annual hair cut and bright and early this morning our shearer guy showed up!

As Dave was still sleeping from getting home somewhere around 5 am, it was total girl power between the shearer guy and Casi and me... (this actually is not our shearer guy or one of our sheep, woke up too early to remember the camera and really not a fan of taking it to the barn)

We made out pretty good between shoots and gates, had almost 3/4 of them done by the time Dave woke up! It gave us a good opportunity to deworm them and check thier hooves too..

Between Casi and I and the guy we had a good system down! Some of our girls gave us trouble and some more "man" power would have been great but we certainly managed!!

It is a great feeling to get another one of those jobs crossed off the list! I really do not like this job...it is just plain....well stinky....

My sheep look like skinny pigs now!! (again, not one of our sheep but you get the idea! )Also this morning we had our first lamb of the fall season born! The first of many to be born in the coming weeks we hope!!!

Bella - updated!

Wow...2 posts in one day...things are lookin' up!
Had a good friend of mine stop over yesterday and took some great shots of Bella. My not so wee puppy anymore!
She is a complete love bug and craves hugs and pets and whatever you want to give her ALL the time!
For the most part she is pretty mellow and just loves to be near someone.

She did not fare so well last week with no one home most of the time. By the time we arrived home in wee hours of Friday morning she went crazy to see us. Since then she has not let us out of her sight and I have been trying to make up for all the love she lost in the week we were gone!!

She has just finished puppy obedience and next week will start level 2. She is pretty good at sit and down, she will wait when she is put in a sit/stay. She knows speak and paw. She is learning heel. Her best friend in the house is Ty (JRT) for sure...they play and play! She is probably in the 50-60 lb range and might get up to 100 lbs at full grown. She is just shy of 6 months old!

All in all she is a good girl and I enjoy having her around the house.

Ruby - updated.....

I havn't had a chance to post alot of pictures of my latest litter of puppies, they have mostly all flown the coop except for one, little Ruby......

Ruby is the smallest of the litter and at 11 weeks old weighs just 1 lb 10oz..

At one point I thought I might keep her for show and breeding but when her weight gain slowed I knew she was not going to be big enough! I estimate that she will only grow to about 3.5 to 4 lbs.

Today for Ruby was a day that most of my puppies dread...the bath...

She was on my schedule for her 1st bath and like all my puppies she didn't like it!

Giving me the "how could you do this to me???"...look

All dried and brushed out....what a cutie!!!

She is a sweetheart and since us coming back from vacation as all her brothers are gone she has found her way into our bed at night...and makes great use of the space just under my chin for sleeping....

This was my first attempt at a collage using picasa...my sister told me about this program for editing photographs so I thought I would try it out. It will be great for blogging alot of pictures without putting them on individually!! Thanks for the tip Nance!

Ruby forgives me for the bath and hopefully will meet her forever family this weekend so she'll be all sweet smelling and pretty!

Please be patient....

Yes I have a whole weeks worth of pictures and stories of our BC vacation to blog about! However my camera decided it was going to die on me so I didn't get any pics with my camera and will have to steal from Casi's memory card!!! Her camera takes large size pics so I have to make sure I have lots of time for those posts!
Been crazy busy since getting back as while I was relaxing on vacation....everything at home didn't stop so there is that much more to catch up on!
I was very pleased to catch the very end of the strawberry season...barely though...I may have caught it on the last day???
Monday morning I dragged both girls with me to the strawberry patch.
An hour or so later we had 25 litres picked...
Today was jam day as I worked yesterday afternoon!
I started this morning and puttered at it all day and by this evening...this is what I had...

So all in all, 25 litres of strawberries, 10 batches of jam (which I also made some batches of strawberry/rhubarb and s/r pineapple).

I finished cleaning up tonight after 10 pm!!

So that was my day in my very ordinary, so domesticated life...

I do like the fact that I can control the sugar that I put in the jam...and the kids + Dave love the homemade jam...its easy, not so expensive and probably healthier than store bought with all the preservatives...

Garden of Weedin'

Amidst dealing with catch up from being on vacation, I've had a green pool, not so clean house, long grass, seriously ungroomed yorkies and then deck building...my flower gardens were sadly overgrown!!!
So in a frenzy I started weeding and when I was done, I was amazed at how much I had pulled!!

Crazy..... that in just a short time so many weeds and over growth can happen!

Looks so much better now, I'm about half done my flower beds, the vegetable garden needs some attention, got all the weed eating done and I am back to work tomorrow.

I wish I was the kind of person that could just sit back and put things off until the next day....however in my experience the new day seems to always bring a new set of jobs to do and then I am that much further behind!

2 years coming!!!

I am soooo pleased that this project has started!!! I was actually hoping that it might have been started while I was away...ahemm...although I never verbalized that wish and.....incidentally it never happened.

Anyway...2 years in the making our deck expansion has begun!!! This area around the house has been a great eye sore for me, there has never been anything that I could do to dress this area up and it just looked horrible.

We began by taking up the make shift ramp that the dogs had used for the last several years off the current deck into their dog run.

As the project begins....

From the current deck looking into the dog run....

The digging begins!!! This is one time when I didn't mind Dave digging up my lawn!

In about an hour......all the digging is finished and ready to build!!!!

Starting the frame....

Getting there....looks messy right now but its a "good" mess...progress is always messy!!!

Dave attaching to the pool deck.....YAY!!!

We had gotten to this point before we quit for the day....

This a gang plank for the dogs so they can get across to get to the grass and do their business.

Bella walking the plank...works well!

I am so excited to see this project through! We have lots of ideas and plans for the deck and are talking gazebo's, outdoor furniture etc, etc...we'll see what we actually do and put on it!!!

Will continue to blog our deck progress as it happens...will likely be at a stand still for the week as Dave goes back to work and we have to get the cedar and plane it for the top.

Back home...back to the grind!!

We have just gotten home from a week spent out in scenic BC! I am jetlagged...yes its 1 in the morning and I am wide awake!! So what better time to blog???!!!!
Had a fabulous time with family and attended my nephews wedding. Have lots of pictures to share but have to steal them off of Casi's camera as my camera decided to die right before the wedding....
I have collected all my dogs that were farmed out and 2 of them lay snuggled up against me! The men in the house did a great job of keeping up with everything and there are areas that need some feminine attention but I can't complain!
As always had a great time with my sis...those times are always cherished and never last long enough!
Anyway stay tuned will do some serious blogging once I catch up with everything here!!!

As promised!!!

As I promised in my last post...I would upload Autumn's show pics.
You will notice the watermark on this first one...as I have to choose between 3 pictures and then I will get the picture with out the watermark! I did ask the photographer too if he could edit this picture and give Autumn eyes as it looks as though she is squinting.
Regardless of the picture, I am still elated over the points!!!

This is the great one! Those group wins are always awsome and after Autumn's loosing streak I would have never imagined her winning at group level!

Another set of pictures to hang on my wall of fame.

A NEW CHAMPION!!!!

Well my gamble worked and this week of shows proved sucessful enough to bring me home a new Champion!
I am still over the moon!!!
She did all yesterday in one day. After being skunked Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday I had come to terms with the fact that she was not going to get any points this show either.
Yesterday I received a text from my handler that she not only went Best of Breed over a male Special (already championed), she went into Toy Group and won a group 3rd!
I just about lept out of my skin! She picked up 4 points for those wins, leaving her to get one more for her championship.
I rationalized in my head that she was not going to get it, it was a one time thing and in my mind I was already planning which show to take her in for that beloved 1 point!
I didn't hear anything from Peter....nothing...nothing...nothing...so I thought she didn't get it, she didn't finish....
So finally I called him and YES in fact she not only took Winners Female for 2 points but went on to take Best of Winners for another point!!!
YES, YES, YES!!!!
Pictures were taken I just don't have them yet!
I am so incredibly pleased and proud of my girl! She finally decided she wanted to be a show dog and look what she did! I knew it, I KNEW IT!!!
Alas I know she did it for me, and she really doesn't like to be a show dog so she will never have to be shown again, we are retiring her show career! I am so pleased!
Will post pics when I get them in the mail!