It's a dogs life...

Just relaxing and taking it easy on your deck...

Until you are forced to sit forever and ever, while you have your picture taken repeatedly by your mother.



Rollie: oh great, here we go again. She's camera happy.



Douglas: I don't want to sit in this blue chair anymore, I just love the purple one. It's my favorite... 



Rollie: Oh! I think she may be done... 

Douglas: she's never done taking pictures. 

It's a rough life being a dog. So rough.



Douglas: Your welcome for the pictures. Now I'm off to help myself to your potted vegetables... 



The critters are very happy on their new grass in their second pasture. So is Flavious. Both pastures have a lot of shade, but he prefers this second pasture.



Little Ruby is doing really well. She's so adorable. She normally hangs around her Uncle Horace but the other day she was only following her daddy, blind Braveheart around. Braveheart doesn't do as well in the second pasture at first because it's strange to him so he has to learn how to get around. So she was following him in circles for a bit while he figured out where he was :)



And stopping to eat all the very best morsels of grass...



Just like most blind dogs, Braveheart adapted quite well to being blind since he was only a few days old when he lost his sight. He learned fairly quickly how to navigate in the house (where he lived for 4 months) and not hurt himself bumping into things. It's the same in the barnyard and his pastures. He knows how to get to the water, to the hay piles, through the gates. He mostly follows someone but he does go a lot of places on his own. He's not afraid. He gets confused easily if you change up his routine or put anything anywhere near his paths that doesn't belong, and if he becomes afraid (like if there are strangers or chaos for any reason, such as a bad storm, etc) he will panic a bit and start running in circles and that's when he needs guidance. But for the most part he does very well on his own.

Since my ewe Lila passed away the sheep don't talk much. They used to call to her a lot, and now they lead fairly separate lives. Braveheart and Horace have grown up together but never been super close - they sleep in the same pen but during the day mostly spend time off on their own mixed in with the goat herd. They never call to each other to find each other, and Ruby hardly talks at all since her mama is gone because the other two sheep don't answer her. It's strange. Although she spends all her time with them and they are kind to her - they don't talk back like Lila would. But she's a very tough and spirited little girl and she finds her way around. She is quite happy and very smart and she always knows exactly where to go and what to do.

Usually when I move my yearly lamb to the second pasture with the other critters in the summer, they always get confused. The second pasture is across the road from the barnyard, so they need to come through the gate, cross the open road (which is all on our property not a real "road") and go through the barnyard gate. Every lamb has freaked out the first few times they had to do this and completely went nuts, running around not figuring out the gate or how to get home. It took Ruby five seconds, no panic, and she got it. I like her attitude.

When they get their evening treat of grain, the two bigger sheep always push her out. I started trying to feed her separately but she didn't want that - she wanted to eat out of the feeders with the big boys. One night I was standing there watching and when Braveheart pushed her with his side, she pushed right back! It was adorable. She couldn't do much but she put all her energy into it, and Braveheart was impressed, he moved down and let her have her place at the feeder!



These pictures are from my walk with the boys the other day.... they were so excited to get out on an adventure, even if it wasn't as long of one as usual...



Even Norman was excited....



and I was excited because the wild raspberries are just starting to ripen! I cannot wait to pick them and hope I am able to. Hopefully I'll get a bunch picked before we leave for Georgia and if I'm lucky when I come back there will still be more left to pick.

The blackberries don't come out until August, and they are delicious too but I like raspberries best.



The gooseberries are out too! Not ready to eat but our bushes are loaded with them so it's going to be a good summer with lots of berries to eat.



Douglas decided to lead the adventure...



Everything looks so pretty this time of year. The fields are littered with flowers of all different colors, and everything is so vibrant.



Rollie amazingly was following Douglas, usually he's 3 miles ahead of the rest of us...



He loves a good run. In his mind, he's 100% Husky.



Whoops, I think I've lost Norman in the grass...




Here comes the expedition leader in good spirits, clearly this adventure went well!

Today has been a day of chores, with some lying down in between. Tomorrow I suspect will be filled with quite a lot more lying down. Hopefully I'll wake up and feel better than I expect to.

I hope everyone has had a great weekend. It's Canada day tomorrow, so tonight we can hear a lot of fireworks going off at the lake. The big dogs are really ticked off because they think fireworks are guns, and it makes them mad. I forgot that people would be setting them off and thought they were guns for a second too! I went outside and I'm unable to see anything at the lake because of the distance and trees - but I was treated to my very own fireworks show - thanks to the fireflies :)

Before I sign off and go to sleep, I have a couple blog related things I want to mention before I forget!

1. I have the best blog readers EVER :) Every single one of you! Thank you for comments, for reading, for your emails, support, prayers, and friendship. 

2. I wanted to mention just in case some of you don't know, that since google reader is going away, very likely so is friends connect in the future (which is on the sidebar and a way most people who use blogger connect) so it's a good thing for anyone who uses google reader or friends connect to go elsewhere and get their feeds organized so they can in the future still easily enjoy reading updates from all their favorite blogs. I've switched to Bloglovin.com (thanks Terra for bringing this to my attention!) and anyone can follow me there through bloglovin, and through email. It's just like google reader. Also you can very easily transfer all your blogs on your reading list to bloglovin in a couple of simple clicks. It will update you on all your favorite blogs through email, through their site, and through your browser toolbar if you'd like. I really like the simplicity of it.

If you click the button at the top of my sidebar to follow me by email, you will be directed to Bloglovin and you can very easily sign up to get updates in your email. Anyone who already follows by email through feedburner, can leave their subscription alone, or switch if needed, but you are not directly affected. Just google reader and most likely us at blogger who use friends connect.

I hope that makes sense as it's after 10 PM, which I know is fairly early but I'm wiped out. The last of my cookies are out of the oven, the dogs are piled on top of me in bed and it's time to rest.

Goodnight all!