New Start?
I really don't think it is fair of me to follow all my LJ friends' lives vicariously, and not let them to the same with mine. It seems, though, that Beatrice's injury took the wind out of my sails, and then the addition of a puppy to the family used up any blogging time I might have thought I had. But Dawn's recent post inspired me. I really do waste a good bit of time on FB and could redeem some of that time posting here. It is funny, but though I seldom blog, I experience life as if I did. I'm frequently thinking "l'll talk about that on LJ." There is no point in "catching up" it has been too long. But I didn't have a plan for this blog, except to warn that I was back at trying again. So here is a little catch up about Poodletopia:
Beatrice: Completely healed from her TPLO surgery. Back to doing agility in class and at home. I do not plan on much competing with her. Even though she has settled down a lot, she is still a handful at trials, and the kind of handful that isn't much fun for me. She is 5 now and completely my dog. We are deeply in love and she is the very best co pilot. for trips.
Gabriel: He is 10 now and the sweetest dog. He had a couple of teeth pulled and every so often his neck hurts, but otherwise is doing well. He lets me know whenever Dove is misbehaving, either by finding me, or if he can't get to me, by barking. He growls softly at her when she is thinking about tearing up the carpet, but is not a harsh disciplinarian. We do some backyard agility and sometimes drop in on a local agility class. I don't insist that he goes through tunnels, and if he declines the weaves I think he has a reason.
Dove: Maybe I'll do a seperate update on her. She is finally settling down into a dog and making my time at home much more peaceful. She wasn't sure that she was able to pee or poo in the snow. She had to be shown by Gabriel.
The Cats: Crusoe and Moli continue to be good sheep cats, Crusoe flirts with destruction by spending time in the tractor barn, which is within reach of any marauding outdoor dog.
The sheep: I didn't breed the ewes this fall. I just felt as if I had too much on my plate. So sad not to have lambs this spring. They are spending a lot of time in the paddock in hopes of having the best pasture so far this summer. They don't understand and blame me. They need their hooves trimmed, Another thing, like blogging, that I think about a lot and don't do.
The chickens: I've lost count. We had about 15 hatched at home this summer, most survived. I got 10 from the feed store to keep the meat chickens company. I lost one to a dog and 5 to hawks. I raised 20 meat birds, which taught me many things I didn't know. I might blog about that too, some day. I have 4 roosters now: Fire is from this summer's farm hatching, He is beautiful, but he might end up mean and have to go. Old Yeller from last the group of sex links, and I still have Phillip and Barney. The chickens were so funny in the snow. They came out, landed in it and then tried to fly away from it. It was pullet popcorn.
The little apartment: It was a Air BNB for one weekend, then a shelter for a family that was down on their luck for a month, and now a very nice lady lawyer who has a new job with the attorney general's office is there with her fabulous mixed breed boy ( I think german shepard/pit) untill spring. When my young friends left at then end of the summer, I was happy to have the whole farm to myself for a while, but it turns out I like having someone live next door. I think one of my young friends will be back for the summer, and I like looking forward to that.
She sent me the fabulous Poodletopia sign, so I know she is thinking of us.
Agility at poodletopia: We have some classes ongoing at the poodlebarn. So nice for me because I have a ready made 'drop in' for Gabriel or a high energy training place for working with Dovey. I hope to have a couple of UKI trials again this summer, and unless vet bills get in my way, I might have new contact equipment for the outdoor space.
That is all very newsy, kindof like those old Christmas letters that my family used to send to me, until they figured out that my address is just a black hole of no response. But I hope with this I might be back part of the LJ family, at least weekly.