Greetings

Happy New Year to everyone!

Life is quiet, just like I like it,  up on the ridge.    It is "big time" winter.     The Christmas storm left a thick layer of ice which has been covered up with a few inches of snow since then.    The day after Christmas we went down to Kenosha.    What a mistake!    It snowed half the way there and all the way back.  But it was great to see Jake's family.    I guess the science of meteorology still needs some improvement.    Libby and Zippy went along with us, and Scooter stayed  home.    He just wouldn't come to us to go and get into the car.    He really doesn't like riding in the car.   The other two were just fine.    Tonight and tomorrow are just quiet days ------ only special because Jake is home.

Blogger won't let me add any pictures or change the side color, so I guess that's it for now.

White Christmas

We are having a blizzard.     It is expected to last through Saturday.   One time today the wind speed was at 40.0  m.p.h. when I looked at it.    The cows are in their lean with fresh straw and three round bales of hay.     The sheep got fed in their sheds tonight.All the outside cats are in various protected places either in the heated milk house or on one of two porches.   Todd is enduring the second blizzard already this season.......not happily, though.   Jake will probably have to work on Christmas.   Even the dogs don't go out to play tonight.......it is tooooooo windy and snowy.  

(Garrett thinks this if fun?)     At least we don't HAVE to go anywhere tomorrow although Todd has to go to LaX for a doctor's appointment. 

We are all warm and safe.    Merry Christmas to everyone and stay safe if you are involved with this storm.


P.S.  Thanks to anyone who sent birthday wishes to me in November.    I can't write to my FB account.   I don't have any idea what is wrong.     Any ideas?

The Upper Crust

Or.............Why We Live in a Gated Community.
                                 

We have found that our culture forces us to live in a gated community.   We just couldn't exist if we were forced to live in a home where all the "riff raff" mingled in one messy group.    The  pictures should explain our predicament.    Here Libby is locked in the living room.   This is unusual for her since she is usually locked out because of her barking at the big window

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Then we have the bedroom.   Sometimes no dogs are allowed to be in the bedroom either.   Usually Zippy is on the other side of this gate in the dining room.     The restrictions from these two rooms is usually because of wet feet.

 

Then there is the gate into the kitchen where the dogs get locked now and then.   They also get separated twice a day when they get fed because Scooter is a FINICKY eater, and everyone finishes before he does.

In the kitchen is the stairway.   It has two gates mostly to keep Zippy from climbing the stairs since the collies don't do stairs which is OK with me.    The cat "stuff" is  upstairs as is my quilting machine, so I really don't need dogs  up there.  The gate in the front swings over to separate the dining room and the kitchen.

 

Lastly, there are the two extra gates which help with any other riff raff that may show up.   One needs fixing, and I think that will be tomorrow's project.

 

Here is some of the Thanksgiving riff raff that showed up with my son Dave.    Zippy really had a ball with the dog on the right, Rover.    We really had the long and the short of it because one of Rover's parents is a Bernese Mountain dog.    They were fun to watch and provided comic relief all weekend.

What next?

This is a picture of the excitement that exists on a Saturday night on the ridge.   A few seconds earlier the cat and dog were touching as they slept.      BUT..............would  you believe that is the same dog that locked his family out of the car with the keys in the ignition at the gas station this morning?    Well, it happened.     Love those automatic locks.     He just stepped on the lock button as I was finishing the gas fill, and Jake was getting some soda in the store.     LUCKILY........Jake had his wallet on him with the OnStar card in it.     One call to them and the fact that there was a dog in the car produced an  unlocked car as soon as they were sure who I was.    Thank heaven for OnStar, and I will never leave the keys in the car when the dog is alone in the car.    That could have happened any time that I was filling the car and had the dog along with me.    Then I might not have my cell phone, and I certainly would not have my purse since I  use a credit card to get gas.          Oh well...............learned a new lesson today thanks to Mr. Zippy.   

As a reward we took him to his favorite store, TSC  (Tractor Supply Company) so that he could comb the dog food aisle for treats besides getting treats from his favorite store employee.    He really loves that store.

For Michelle

Here are some pictures of the bullies.    I can't get good pictures since they come running to the fence when they see me.    I will have to think about how to produce better pictures of them.   The first one is Sammy as he is approaching.   The second one is Sammy being naughty.

 Here are two bullie faces trying to figure out what the heck I am doing.

 

Last but not least are the three dogs in my backyard looking at the house that Jake has spent a week of vacation trying to save.    His vacation is over Monday, and the house is a wreck.  It is an old one room school house that was moved to this property.    The former owner was not a carpenter, and the house is sinking into the ground.   Jake is madly jacking parts up and replacing beams under the house where there is a hole.    Water flowed under the whole thing and caused a lot of rot.    Luckily Todd doesn't HAVE to come home  until Wednesday.    By then, I think, Jake will be able to get the house closed up so that it is "livable" again.

Through the Spinning Wheel

Well, I don't have a picture of this, but I will do my best to describe it in words.    It was just a few brief moments while I was spinning last night.    I was sitting on the couch with my wheel in front of me.    Spinning is new to Zippy.  All of a sudden I looked up from my drafting, and there was a little Cardi head going round and round on the other side of the wheel.    He did it long enough that Jake was able to see it.
You know how a dog will follow motion with his head?   Well, this one was going like around in time with my wheel.    It sure made for a real funny "Cardi moment".  

The funny moment may have been to make up for his trick in the morning.   As I was sitting at the computer he went over to the wheel and jumped up on the couch and took the whole ball of roving I was spinning from and treated it like one of his toys.    Luckily I caught him before he had torn up the whole thing.    It took some time last night to pull the ball apart so that I could salvage the parts that had touched the Cardi lips.    Very little was lost, and the act last evening more than made up for the mess in the morning.

Sunny, frost, and calm up on the ridge this morning.   Looking forward to some mild temperatures today.
Time to go for our walk.

I just went and did it anyway!

Hi, Everybody...................Zippy here!

Just me hanging out on my new playground equipment.

My UN mom knew better, but she put up a bell for me anyway.    She tried to teach me to ring the bells when I wanted to go outside.    Yahoo!!!!   This is great!!!!    I learned just like she wanted me to, and I ring those bells whenever I want to go out...............whether it is to play or to do my "business".    She had been told not to, but I am glad that she did not pay any attention to what other people said.

As you can see from the picture, I have a good time when I go outside.   Libby is the greatest playmate.   I can almost keep up with her now, and we have fun chasing in our yard.

Now, Mr. Scooter just doesn't always know what we are up to.    He  usually just stands and watches us run all over the place.    Sometimes he even joins in.    That is real  fun.

I thought you would like to see my second favorite playmate.   It is a cat, but I pretend it isn't.   We just play like two dogs.    BUT.......I have to be careful when he swats at me because his nails are sharp.

UN mom says she has a surprise for me one of these days.   I have no idea what she is talking about because she keeps talking about something called "snow".    Oh, well............I will just let her have her fun.

And the Dogs

The dogs are enjoying the fall except when it rains, and we can't go for a wal

Libby looks kind of put out with me.    She really was having a good time.

And Zippy got a new toy to play with.   My sister-in-law told me about these toys for dogs, and we finally found one.   So far he jumps up into it, and today he has used is as a place to get drinking water since a few puddles form where he is standing.

And I am learning about this new form of Blogger, so I am sorry about the poor organization.

Sheep and ........nothing else right now.

The sheep come running when they see me or hear me.    I know it is only because they expect food, but it is fun anyway.

Looking for cookies.

That is all for now since Blogspot won't let me download any more pictures.

Fall Update

Well, Jake has been installing our new corn stove/furnace. We sold the wood boiler and bought this new one that burns corn or wood pellets. In the picture you can see how it looks now with the grain bin set up alongside. The second picture is just getting it set up. The third is self explanatory and depressing for October.

The day it snowed like this left no evidence after it was over.

Three on a Couch

For once, a photo op, did not disappear when I finally got the camera out. I was cleaning in the dining room, and Zippy and Scooter were on the love seat together. That was a first, also. Zippy had let out a couple of real high barks at the vacuum that got Libby into the room. The next time I looked, the three of them were together on the "dog couch". They won't fit much longer if Zippy has anything to say about it. His worst trick is to pull the blanket and cushions onto the floor and to shred the foam rubber of the cushion. The corners are beginning to disappear. As you can see the dogs have worked on other parts of the couch, too, but they can still sleep on it. If Zippy does in the cushions, we will have to make some adjustments.


Those three are 3/7 of the Brockhaus Fur Farm although they contribute much more than 3/7. The other four contributors are just cats.

Fur Farm

This is the time of year for tractor shows. Jake can't drag me to them unless they have a flea/antique market. We went to Baraboo on Saturday. The man in the booth with the sign thought I was nuts. Not a reaction that surprised me. When I saw the sign, I just started laughing. I had to have it. It could have something to do with the fact that our two collies are just in the final stages of a massive "coat drop". It felt like a fur farm around here for several weeks. Things are getting better now, but they lost a massive amount of fur.





Zippy has chosen this spot on hot days. It must be cool along side of the water tank, i.e. rain barrel, and lying on the green plants.











Last night, Libby decided to lie down by Zippy when they were up on the bed. It was a "Kodak" moment. It doesn't happen very often.










Innocent is not a word that I would ever use to describe either one of them.

A study in brown and more

Don't I look good in brown?

A walk around the farm with my husband, two sons, daughter-in-law, and seven dogs.


Dave and Holly's dogs are not purebreds, but they sure are big!

Not a flattering shot of Holly, but it shows the path where I walk with the dogs.

Dave and five of the dogs.

Time to go up the hill back towards the barn.


Coming around the last corner, I finally got into the picture.

Zippy Update

Hey, Zippy here!

These are just some pictures that UN mom took after I got my bath. I just wanted Down South mom to see how I am growing into a real little handsome dude. They aren't prize photos, but you can see how I have grown into my ears, which are standing up now, thank you very much!

You can see all of me here but my head. I heard my cousins over at their house and just had to take a look. I have nice white feet, but they are hidden in the beautiful green grass that I play in. It is nice and cool where it grows behind the water tank. I like to relax there when we are outside playing.

In our House

Yes, there is a cute Cardi in the picture, but look IN the toy box. Sammy decided that sitting on top of the toy box was a safe place to chew on some rawhide. Whatever!


Cute Cardi was tired out from our walk this morning. In fact all three dogs are sleeping peacefully. Zippy deserves the rest more since he had to take so many more steps than the collies did.

They're Here!!!

Scooter, Libby, and Zippy met their young cousin, Sammy, this morning. There were no problems, and Zippy and Sammy did a little running in the yard. I am sure there will be MUCH more to follow. Problems and running.

They explored the pool together. Zippy went all four feet in, which I have never seen before. Glad to see that. Sammy is a tax child, born on April 15 which means he is 3 and 1/2 months old. The two puppies are about 6 weeks apart in age. Zippy looks like a monster now. They are the same height, but not the same length. Each one has his forte.

Needless to say, I am happily at home, with elephant ankles and shaky everything from the caffeine. Let's just make a movie and call it "To Hell and Back" because that is how I will remember it. If I never go to Fl again, it will be toooooo soon.

Mr. Schnuffels

Zippy here,

I just wanted you to see my newest friend up here in the north land. UN mom and Jake call him Mr. Schnuffels. They said that he is from some comic strip called "Pearls Before Swine". In that comic strip they have a terrorist cat. They, Un mom and Jake, said that Mr. Schnuffels acts like a terrorist. I don't think so. Take a look at these pictures. He really likes me to chew on his ears. That is fun.

The other dogs went into the house, but we stayed out to play. Mr. Schnuffels comes into our yard through a hole in the fence. He is a lot of fun, and sometimes he even chases me. I sure do love to run.

Un mom says not to worry because my cousins will be here in 10 days. I have no idea what she is talking about, but I trust her. She says one of them is only six weeks younger than I am. His name is Sammy. He should be fun to run with. I hope he likes me. I am trying to get my ears to stand up so I look like a real Cardigan when he comes. UN mom says he is coming from a place where it is very hot just like I did. He should like it up here in the North.

That's it from here, but I just wanted you to see my newest friend. Mom says it is only 7 days until she is going to get Sammy and Pearl and Todd.

Hey! What about me?

When I was ready to go to bed, I found this group on MY side of the bed. We were only missing three cats.


Could be something really neat happening here tonight. I have my fingers crossed.

12 days and counting.

Why I Live Here

I am the designated hay raker if I am able. Yesterday, I was available. While I was driving the tractor I realized that this was one of those special moments. I was so content doing that work. The view was awesome in any direction because we live on top of a ridge.

The orderliness of the hay raked in beautiful rows was pleasing to the eye.

The adjacent field was in full bloom and heavenly to smell, and the temperature was warm but not hot with a wonderful breeze.

And to top it off, I had my headset radio to dampen the noise of the tractor tuned to WPR. Those are just a few of the reasons why I love living here.