The Duck's Demise

Madi may be a duck huntin' dog, but she is also pretty destructive.  The duck and his quacker were disemboweled today.

Any suggestions on some tough, long lasting toys that can stand up to these guys?!  They love to chew

Bath Time

The pups got their first bath this week.  We had a moment of insanity and thought it was a good idea to bathe them at the same time in the kitchen sink.  This was the only decent picture I got before they started leaping out onto the counter.  They didn't love it, but we loved having clean dogs!

Back to School

...puppy school that is!  Madison and Morgan start their second puppy class on Monday at Petsmart.  We are looking forward to some improvements on last week's lessons and mastering this week's lesson.

Last week focused on sitting and getting the pups to pay attention.  No easy task since that was the first time the little monsters had been out in public.  They were like kids in a candy store...or puppies in a pet market.  Every corner held a new smell to sniff, new toy to grab, or new dog to try and meet.

 I've been working on sitting with hand commands, and they are both catching on...if they don't get distracted.  As our instructor said, they have the attention span of a gnat at this age, so anything and everything is a distraction.  It is a work in progress.

 "Sit"

 "Down"

 "Good Boy!"

Meet the additions to our family

Madison and Morgan--Madison (~10 wks old) is a female black lab mix and Morgan (~14 wks old) is a male golden retriever mix

These cute little puppies were adopted in Madison, GA and were originally rescued from Morgan County Animal Control.  We decided to give a little nod to their roots with their names.

 We are just in love with these little monsters.  They are into everything and love exploring the back yard.

 Morgan especially loves the kiddie pool, and it is a great way for them to cool off on these hot summer days.  Of course, he tends to be pretty dirty and wet most of the day.

Madison is full of energy and a little younger than her "brother."  She is very attentive, and you can almost see the little wheels turning in her head.

Cary is teaching them to sit and fetch, and we are both trying to teach them simple manners like no biting or jumping.  All of which is an on-going process to say the least!  Having 2 allows them to learn from each other...the good and bad. 

We know it is going to be an ongoing process and a lot of work, but we are looking forward to this new chapter in our lives.

Green Thumb

    Although Kelly grew up on a farm, and I grew up in the city, gardening was something that we both were able to do growing up.  So we tried our hands at gardening this year, and it turned out much better than we anticipated.
   Our main garden spot was the location of the previous coy pond (removed and filled in with fill dirt).  The other garden spot was our neighborhood's residents garden. 

   It has been a lot of fun doing the gardening in our back yard, and it is certainly a learning experience.

Between the residents garden and the back yard, we planted tomatoes (cherry, parker's whopper, and better boy), bell peppers (green, red, orange), squash, jalepenos, okra, watermelon, and cantaloupe.  Several of these had to be transplanted due to the watering schedule at the resident gardens.  And the squash wasn't salvageable.  They were just getting too much water, and when plants sit in pools of water, they don't grow very well.

It's been fun to watch a 5-inch seedling turn into a 7-foot-tall plant.  Harvesting a variety of fruits and vegetables has been satisfying, too.

 

Tomatoes

 

Bell Peppers

Jalapeno

We got a little ambitious with extra garden plots and planted almost 75 feet of pumpkins last week so hopefully we'll post an update in a couple months showing trialing vines full of little pumpkins.  But, as we've learned with gardening, you never know what you are going to get when you put a few tiny seeds in the ground.

Row of pumpkin seedlings

Two down, two to go!

My mom was able to get her hands on two affordable Tobacco Baskets this past week!  While vacationing in Tennessee, my parents came across two Tobacco Baskets.

 As you can see here (maybe, squint a little), these are actually from Henderson, NC.  They were covered in dirt, but after a good scrub, a hose down, and drying in the sun they are looking pretty good.

I'm excited that I'm halfway there.  Soon I will be filling up that massive wall in my living room. 

 

Savannah

We spent the weekend in Savannah, GA celebrating the wedding of some good friends, Noah and Lindsay.  It was great to see everyone and get away for a few days.  While the wedding was on Tybee Island, we stayed close to Broughton Street.  We were able to walk to the great shops and get out of the heat by going into the air-conditioned stores. On our way out of town, we stopped by Forsyth Park, my favorite place in Savannah (Broughton Street is a close second).