Storybook Land - phase one - dog testing

Before, I am saddened to report, the inhabitants of Storybook Land were callously carted off and never seen again. I expect they are buried in the back garden.... Taking it slow this time before I add more plants and little chairs and tables, maybe a froggy or two.

My grandmother always pointed out habitats for little people in her woodland garden. I *know* I saw some scurry off.

Tar loves cherry tomatoes

And he spots some in the crate. Oh, boy, Mom is going to have a bag of dirt out, there are pots to investigate, there are things that need to be gotten in the way of. We're going to have the best day ever!

Face only a vet student could love...

Vet school at GB's college is raising nine baby horned owls whose nests were destroyed. We took the late Heidi up there for treatment and it is always fun to see what comes thru the lobby. Story here.

New froggies arrive

One of my ponder friends has way more frogs show up than her ponds can handle so they come here with their little suitcases packed. There were four in this container, the other hiding. They are out in our pond, joining the one fellow who thought he had the pond to himself, and they are croaking up a songfest. These fellows are Pacific Chorus frogs.

keeping up with the Mad Scientists

 Happy National Physics Day!!!

Forestry officials are considering opening up part of Mt. Baker, a little known and northerly volcano here in WA, for geo thermal power generation. One has to wonder the wisdom of poking around a volcano with a sharp stick...

You've heard about asteroid mining? I want to know how exactly do you stick the landing on an asteroid, how do you stay put and do they use it all up? Needless to say this is Mad Science-ing at its best.

Mad Scientist, GB, computer scientist, in training took this picture on campus Sunday night. Another storm came through last night and, yes, he was out in that one too. At least he didn't fly a kite into it.

Abby broke her tail....

 This is a dog. This is a dog on drugs.

Did I do that?

Abby spent her morning whining, restless and not napping between patrols.

OFF TO THE VET!

From what we can figure Abby managed to crack the base of her tail in one of her epic battles for The Ball. We think Tar body slammed her and her tail got cracked. 

She is on three different drugs. We have to carefully administer the pain meds - there is a fine line between napping and forgetting you are on Mom and Dad's bed and losing control of your bladder.

So add tail breaking to setting your tail on fire to Abby's list of unusual doggy adventures.

If I keep my foots on the shore I'm not in the pond...

I'm tricksy that way.
Abby would like you to know she and Tar scared away two big scary herons today.
They were after Abby's fish and frogs and will not be tolerated.

Abby sets new world record!

In morning game of fetch Abby snagged the ball five times instead of Tar. Usually if she manages it once it is the best day ever!

Abby, gardener dog,

requires all potted plants be up on a table. I'm buying another deck table this month.

even iconic images need to be spruced up

now and then. 50th anniversary of the Space Needle coming up. I was at that World's Fair, lines were too long to go up. Still haven't made it, lololol!

lilac time

Our lilacs are blooming. At the family farm, about three hours north of here it was snowing yesterday. Snowball bush waiting its turn down in the lower left corner.

Happy by Mies Van Hout

Ordered this for niece.or.nephew # 8, due any minute now. Could not resist.
Happy by Mies Van Hout

We were occupied

About 150 people showed up and enjoyed a really nice, sunny day. Not sure if fish had a good time. The protest was around 95% about the clean up of the residue of the Cold War. An ongoing project. The rest was on The Engineer's plant - earthquake! Highest we have ever gotten, historically, is a bit over a 3. Plant built for a 7. Dam breach! Plant is built above the flood plain for a dam breach.

Abby has lost her blooming mind

She spent hours at the back fence. Unless there is a cat crouched on the other side we must assume that there is a pink squirrel and wonder how she got into the booze...

Tar may have learned...

not to eat things off the table. The tube was partially ingested down in the yard. Foaming at the mouth, unhappy doggy. Gave him some milk soaked bread and he was right as rain though will watch him the rest of the day. Abby turned up her nose at the whole disgraceful affair.

the grand Easter cupcake experiment...

Girls read about these cupcakes on Martha Stewart... Daughter on the left and Emergency Backup Daughter #2 on the right, blowing eggs from shells.

Mother wanders in the room and says, 'Can you dye brown eggs?'
Um.......

Kind of, after a fashion, especially if you use wine glasses to dye them in...

Then the cupcake batter is squeezed into the shells. Martha says fill 3/4 of the way full...

oh, my....

We had cupcake explosion. They are waiting for them to cool and then scrape off the excess. They will be going to a niece to consume tomorrow.

Abby knows this

It. Is. Snowing...

2.5 hours from here where GB (and the whole fam.damn.ily) goes to college. It was 60 degrees there yesterday.

There are advantages to being a very small labrador -

This is Tar's 3rd attempt to get out of the slider while Abby held her ground. Really, minions need to be more patient.

Are those... cows?

Brother's family dog is a city dog. A San Francisco dog. On a road trip she saw cows for the first time. She was understandably concerned.