Zander

The rains have come, the ground is wet. It's a good thing there are chairs outside, so Zander can sit outside the window guarding both house and territory without getting his butt wet.

Thieves

Charlie enthusiastically defends his food from sheep, alpaca, horses...everyone, it seems, except kittens.

These feral kittens just got a dish of their own food, but obviously Charlie's is far superior to theirs.

It took them some time to sneak up and around him to get to the food. He studiously looked away. Whatever made these little tykes decide it might be safe to steal food from a very large dog?

Charlie's Day

Charlie's best friend came to visit today. Ken is the only one who can get Charlie to stay still long enough for me to do significant grooming, and today was better than usual. Charlie laid between us getting loves on one side and pulls on the other. 

He stayed still long enough that I got about half of him brushed out, and generated a huge pile of dog hair.

If I could only sell it.

The End of Summer

We have had three rain-free months of blue skies and warm sunshine. Dry ground, dry house, dry roof. That would seem to be plenty of time to clean out gutters.

So why have I been out today cleaning the front gutter of my house in between rain squalls? Downpours. Out scraping mud, muck and feathers out of a very wet gutter? Off a very wet roof. In the rain.

Pulling up a long, heavy, muddy ladder, securing it into softening clay. Moving it to the next uneven, muddy spot.

Attempting now to type with hands that only seem loosely related to the rest of my body, they are so cold from being wet and muddy for hours.

And whose fault is this?

*sigh*

Zander, who is even more annoyed at the onset of rain than I am, spent the time on the front porch, watching to make sure I stayed safe from the roof monsters. The Peahen flew up to the peak of the roof to watch.

And there is a truly amazing moss garden growing up there. Beautiful, lush, growth with a wide variety of species, growing on the shingles, the metal, under the eaves. And I only have 7 more gutters to go.

I must admit that I spent a good deal of the time up there being grateful for my one-story home.

So, how was your day?

Berry Time

The blackberries have had another great growing year, and I've spent plenty of time trying to re-establish a boundary - basically taking clippers out and hunting for my fencing.

I was just about to cut off one vine when I noticed it was inhabited.

This lovely Orb Weaver was patiently waiting for me to go away. A quick google search told me these spiders are most active at night, when they eat lots and lots of mosquitos. Welcome to my farm.

Marjay came by to help me by picking the ripe berries I was uncovering. Well, the ones I didn't get to first. That's the bright side of berry control.