Visit with Jamie

Our friend, Jamie from Saskatchewan came out for a visit & pick up her dog, Roy. He has been here at McLeods' for about a month to get some vet work. So we've been spending the weekend at McLeods' visiting and working dogs.
Here is Jamie's young 5mos. old pup, Glen working sheep for almost the first time.
He was awesome!
Keen but very cool headed. Super nice feel and balance.
Went both ways easily. And squeezed between sheep & fence.
He didn't want to quit.
Glen is from Joni Swanke; her Hope(I think) and by Alasdair's Don.
Lynda working Lark.
Lark driving.
Rose is getting around better with this brace while waiting for surgery on her blown knee.
Lynda & Maureen having coffee in between working dogs.
Rose keeping us up to date with FB.
Jamie working one of her young dogs.
Max who now has a great new home with Jan Alexander in Vancouver.
Blair is ready for his turn.

Plum Pickin

Some of you may remember these pix from the fall of 2006.
Wyatt is picking apples off the tree.
Dusty is hoping he will drop one. Wyatt was 5 years old then, he turned 10 in August this year.
He was successful. The apple tree has not produced much since that first year, so not a lot of jumping going on. Last year they ate a lot of pears & plums that fell on the ground.
This year the harvest has been very very late probably because our spring was so cold & wet. There isn't much fruit on the apple tree again. There is some on the pear tree but pretty small and not within reach. But the plum tree is pretty full and they are just starting to fall on the ground. However, not soon enough for Wyatt:
I am sitting on my deck & look out to see this. He has tried to jump and has reached a couple pears but the plums are too high. And perhaps at age 10, he can't jump quite as high.
No more in reach so trying to climb higher.
There is a strange orange growth on the plum tree that just appeared. It had one something like this a couple years ago too.
He jumped up into the tree probably a dozen times. Sometimes he missed and fell out.
He is getting tired. And discouraged; doesn't seem to be any more within reach. He ate 3 or 4 I think.
Cattle Dogs are far too smart for their own good.
Wyatt you never cease to surprise me.

Feeding my Dogs

No nice pix but just an update. I spent several hours today preparing dog food. Blair is experiencing some issues & may need more fibre in his diet to help with anal glands. But I figure they can all benefit.
I bought a super cheap chunk of pink salmon not long ago & froze it. So today I cooked it up. I also defrosted & cooked a baggie of lamb guts; liver, gizzard, etc....and the last of the $5 turkey from last fall. I cooked up some chicken soup stock and used that to cook a cup or so of brown rice. I also cooked a lovely big spaghetti squash for my dinner last night, so used the left overs of that to add to the mix. Plus cooked up a few yams and added the pumpkin from a tin that I have been adding to Blair's dinner.
So: I have 5 yogurt containers in the freezer to add to their kibble dinners over the next week or two. Salmon/chicken/lamb liver+/brown rice/spaghetti squash/yam/pumpkin/garlic/dill/cilantro/rosemary/corn oil/chicken stock.
It was a nice way to spend a cloudy cool afternoon and to know that I have some good clean ingredients to top off my dogs' kibble dinners with.