Big Kyle and Casen

Auri’s Blessing weekend made for a lot of photo opportunities.  Loved recording these handsome, happy faces.

     

Big Kyle knows how to take his boy from pouts and tears to ear to ear smiles.

Meg’s Pile O’ Puppies

Meg’s puppies are here.  Can you tell how many there are?

Try this one -  and don’t miss the one under her chest.

Or, try this photo – and don’t miss the one under her back leg!


There are 7 of them:
4 Chocolate tri-color girlies
1 Black tri-color girlie
3 Chocolate tri-color boy-pups.
All healthy and vigorous and full of the promise that Border Collies are bred for: eager to please, happy to play, anxious to herd, quick to teach . . . (They are, after all, the rocket scientists of the Dog World.)



Faces a Mother can love . . .




Hello world! 
Come see them in a few weeks and help us socialize them into confident, happy (yappy, probably too) puppies ready for the world.  They will soon be on Facebook and KSL Classifieds.
Remembering the adorable Meg when she was a puppy.
  

Good Girl, Meg.

In Which Meg Gets Her ‘Man’

Saturday, March 30th was bright and blue and warmish.  It was a great day for the boys to get on some farm chores with their Dad.  Meg needs a place to be when we’re not around and so we began to build her a kennel.


After leveling the poles and building up a floor form it was time for . . .


Hanging around watching everyone else working is not Meg’s  style, so after a few minutes of supervision  she scampered off to visit her favorite round-up buddies, the chickens.

I had picked up a wire brush and was inside the horse trailer working on the front when I heard a low “baaaaawwwwwk, baaaawwwwk”.  Turning around I was met with Meg’s calm but decisive ‘collie stare’.  She had managed to separate one of the Red Stars from her companions and herd her to me into the horse trailer.  Dear, dear Meg.  It is a privilege watching her be true to that instinct bred into her to herd.  I just watched quietly for a minute.



Then, I managed to get Mark’s attention to bring me my camera and hand it to me from the front so we wouldn’t break the spell of the moment.

Busy afternoon.  Jay helped her immortalize her paw prints in the new cement.
That’ll do Meg, That’ll do.

A Road Less Traveled

When road-tripping with Jay, it’s the road we sometimes take – the one less traveled.  Like the last trip as a family before Neil traipsed off to Brazil.  A wide, smooth dirt road that went on and on, somewhere between the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and home.  Interesting and new, yet always with that edginess that hovers because of the uncertainty of what  lies ahead.  Liisa and Papa had marveled at his audacity, but all of us pleased at the welcome adventure.  That road tipped us off gently into Pine Valley, Utah;  an unplanned, unexpected plum of a place we will not soon forget.  I think it’s one of Jay’s favorite forms of surprise.

This time it was the Burr Trail.

Me, as we set off early from the Sandy Ranch:  Is the Burr Trail a Scenic Trail?

Jay: It’s bound to be Scenic if you’ve never Seen-It.

(I smile loudly, he’s so funny sometimes.)

 

This ‘Ribbon of Highway’ wound and twisted and switched back and back again.  We were in the company of only one car.  We passed it parked off the side. It had a Florida license plate.  The couple inside seemed to be gaping.  Being from such a place as Florida where one can never even see the forest for the trees, this scene is gape-worthy.  Hey, it was gape-worthy regardless of where one is from.

The bluest skies we’ve ever seen were not in Seattle today.

 

Aside:  At one point Jay went galloping down the side of the road during one of our ‘ooo!’, and ‘aww!’ stops.  I wondered what he was up to, then realized he had spied some trash and couldn’t bear to not right this wrong.  He always does that.  He hates litter.  Once, before we were married, I saw him return some through the window to its proper owner who had tossed it onto the grass.  I loved him for it.

Then we hiked to the Lower Falls of Calf Creek.  We had the Mystifying-Meg with us.  ‘Mystifying’ because I am mystified at the accolades and attention our little collie-gal drew from the other hikers. (This trail was not less traveled, but very fun nonetheless.)  She just smiles, wags her foxy tail and looks people in the eye like an honest doggie a human being can trust, I guess.  We never got that sort of attention with our babies.  What is this world coming to?

  

Nut-Meg, showing her true colors.  She was named, actually, for her color.  She is going to be Mommy-Meg soon.  We have all taken guesses as to how many puppies she will have.  Jay – 5, Mark – 7, Kyle – 8, Me – 6.  One thing is certain – they will be A-Door-A-Bull.

Note to self: Take this hike again.  Dress up.  Go in the Autumn.  Go very early in the morning.  Take my camera and tripod so I can be in  a family portrait.  Take the image as soon as we get there, not after the twins have had their fun in the sand and water.  Or, at least, take a ‘before’ picture too.  Better yet, take someone else we love and double the fun.  Then I wouldn’t have to pack a tripod.  Anyone want to hike Calf Creek Falls this Fall?

 

Some new friends made, and an impromptu photo shoot.  He is a foot doctor.  When we got down to the cars, his feet had had it too.  And he wasn’t smiling quite so big.   

FUN day.

Country Boys

I know Spring is imminent when I see the bluebirds, which I did.   There were four of them, Mom.  We are going to reset our bluebird house and try again to lure them in so we can watch up-close and personal again.  (One year we witnessed 2 families of these beautiful creatures grow up to fly away!)

 

Spring break is a stay-cation to get the homestead ready for a productive year.  The list is long.  Today it included, manure hauling to the garden,  raspberry pruning, horse trailer paint prep, and lots of goofing off and country boy fun.

   

Horse trailer before the twins take it on.

 

Meg’s first love is putting those chickens where she thinks they ought to be.  These little Red Stars are unperturbed and are laying eggs way faster then we can use them.  Any customers?  $2 a dozen and going for a good cause (missionary fund).

Speaking of Meg . . .  her first puppies are coming in 2 or 3 weeks.  The Country Boys are giving her extra care in preparation for the Event – a scrambled egg and 1/4 cup cottage cheese added to her kibble, lots of petting and encouragement to have the cutest puppies on the planet – things like that. (We found her a very handsome tri-color collie mate.)  She deserves a post of her own soon.

 Miss Meg has become Mrs. Meg.

 

We never had to work this hard for terrific raspberries in Canada, eh?  but here in the Mountain Desert Valley of Manti, we must.  Mark and Kyle are pros at it now.  Look at this here row of last year’s dead canes all cut and laid out.  I did, however, have to put a stop to their using their favorite hatchets instead of clippers.  They were sure their method was better and more fun.  I prevailed.

  

A couple of years ago he took a hatchet to this tree (hmmmm, sounds like a familiar story of a famous person doesn’t it?)  That was when I showed him how to really prune an apple tree, now look at him go.

Forget using gloves and long-sleeved shirts while working scratchy raspberries when you’re 10.  This way you can compare scratches and scrapes later to see who has the biggest and best ones.

Little Joe is soon going to lose that belly and fuzzy winter fur.  The round corral is in place and the boys are going to learn some horsemanship skills in it this summer – Pat Parelli and Monty Roberts style.  (I’m learning too – it’s so fun)

 

 

Home Evening and camp out by the fire.  We laid our sleeping bags out and immersed ourselves in Uncle Phil and Don’s Cowboy humor – some “Yarns and Rhymes of Cowboy times”.

There really is nothing funny about anybody’s wife running away with a sheepherder.  REALLY.  That’s just not right.  So, why did we keep laughing about it all night – along with many other of Phil’s silly, slightly irreverent drawings?  Loving the Cowboy/Country Life today.