Farewell Gardenia

Poor gardenia, I knew it's days (hours, hell minutes, in this case) were numbered after Boots uprooted it yesterday.  No sooner had I published my Rottweiler Wednesday post when I went back out on the porch to find this:

What?  No, it's not what you're thinking.  It wasn't me Mom.  Actually that plant attacked me.  I was just defending myself.

UGH!  That little booger.  She just couldn't leave it alone.  It might have lived to flower another day, but she fixed that.  All that was left was the root ball.

Ahhh...puppies.  I knew better, too.  I don't know if this is just a Rottie trait, but once they get on to something, it will never be safe again until they have completely dominated (destroyed) it. 

Poor gardenia never had a chance!

Rottweiler Wednesday

I planted a really pretty gardenia in a big pot next to my front door.  It was starting to fill out and even get some buds on it.

Enter rottweiler puppy:

I walked outside to find the entire plant uprooted, leaves, branches and dirt strewn about (I quickly salvaged what I could and re-potted it, hoping it might still live):

Unsupervised puppy + newly potted plants = bad combination.

Seriously, though, who could be mad at this face for very long???

Easter Bunny Sunday

Happy Easter everyone!  Wishing you a peace filled, relaxing day...

Rottweiler Wednesday

Boots is coming up on 4 months old.  I know I keep saying this, but she is getting SO BIG!  We weighed her the other day and she has now topped 30 pounds.  30.5 to be exact.  I love that I have this blog as a means to share her growth and also to go back and see the progression.

Getting tall, too:

I took these pics the other day (notice in the background - Angel's rosebush is full of blooms!)

Happy Rottie Wednesday everyone!  Mwaaa!

XOXO, Boots

Bunny Sunday

Perfect timing ~ my bunny bracelet is featured today in this great Etsy Treasury of nothin' but bunnies!  (Click the link to view the actual Treasury and be taken to each artists shop in order to purchase one of these beautiful items for someone's Easter basket, if you are so inclined :)

Another reason this Treasury is such great timing  ~ Easter is only a week away and for rabbits, that often means bad news, as people buy rabbits as impulse gifts for their children.  This leads to countless rabbits being abandoned months later when they are no longer "cute".  If you are thinking about adding a rabbit to your family, please do some research (The House Rabbit Society has a wealth of information at http://www.rabbits.org/) and adopt from your local rescue.  Know that rabbits can live to be 10-12 years old and that they are social creatures, they love human interaction and should never be left outside in a hutch.

Our Patches was an Easter bunny ~ bought for a little girl's Easter basket and kept in a small cage more appropriately sized for a guinea pig.  Within months, the novelty had worn off and Patches was on Craigslist looking for a new home.  

Bunnies are special little creatures and can bring a lot of joy into your home, just like Patches did to ours.  But PLEASE, adopt from a rescue, do your bunny homework and love them their whole lives.  You'll be glad you did!  

Piper

Last Saturday was the Equine Voices fundraiser.  Piper was one of three featured adopted horses for the event.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and it rained the whole day.  AND it was cold.  Ugh. 

This picture was taken by one of the volunteers, Rose Mayer (she has a photograph/video business, Unique Views of Nature).  I can't get over how big Piper looks in this pic!  We had a little demonstration planned (I was going to ride Piper through some obstacles and generally show how she has progressed in her training, but due to the rain, that part of the event was cancelled).  Darn.

2 years ago (and I can't believe it has been that long already!) Piper was also one of the featured horses.  At that time, she wasn't even 2 and I had not  begun riding her.  I just walked her through some of the obstacles and showed some of the ground work training we were working on at that time.  Check out that post here.  It's amazing to me to look back and see how she has grown.,

Even though we didn't get to "perform" on Saturday, Piper was still able to show off a little. I turned her out in the arena and she ran laps around that thing, kicking up her heels and having a great time.  Scroll down to the very bottom of the blog to check out a slide show of an awesome series of pics of Piper running around (photos by Scotter Grubb).

Rottweiler Wednesday

Boots is getting so big!  She weighs almost 30 lbs now.  I can't believe how quickly she has grown:

Right before my eyes and overnight it seems:

From plump little furball:

To this!

We are enjoying every minute of watching this little girl grow and learn.  So much fun to teach her new things and see her catch on quickly.  Right now we're working on learning how to walk on a leash.  She likes to carry the leash in her mouth while walking along.  Such a puppy.

Enjoy your Rottie Wednesday!

 

Bunny Monday

AGAIN.  Sundays have been getting away from us lately.

I found this pic of Bully in the archives.  Face to face with the (bald) bunny topiary.  Anyone ever had luck with those things?  I thought it would be so cute when it filled in.  But it never did.  I'm still willing to give it a try, though.  Anyone have any helpful hints?  (It would probably be very helpful if I lived anywhere but in the hot desert, now that I think about it!)

I'll bet Bully was thinking something like, "Why are you so ugly?"  Poor bunny.

Have a great week everyone!

You Might Be a Redneck If...

You get excited about a new manure spreader! 

That's what kept coming to mind as I was thinking about writing this post.  So, OK, I must be a redneck...because this thing is GREAT!

If you have horses, I know you understand where I'm coming from.  Our former method of cleaning stalls with a wheelbarrow, emptying the wheelbarrow into an old truck bed trailer and then emptying the trailer BY HAND with a shovel when it was full was just not cutting it anymore...

Now all we have to do is load up the "Newer Spreader" and drive it to wherever we want to spread it. 

Boots loves going along for the ride:

Once you get to where you want to spread it, you just engage a lever on the spreader and start driving.  The spreader grinds up the manure and lays down a nice, neat strip.  Not only does it amend the soil, but it helps to keep the flies down, since the manure is ground up and dries quickly.  Bonus!

This is at the back of our property on a cleared area that we don't really use.  Someday we would like to put in a small riding arena here, so we're putting the manure out here to soften up the soil.  We also bring manure over to several of our neighbors who use it around their fruit trees.  So nice of them to take it off our hands.  :)

When we finally decided we needed a better method of cleaning stalls and getting rid of our manure, we googled "manure spreader" and found the Newer Spreader website.  And, lucky for us, there was a distributor here in Tucson.  We called them up and Peter and Michelle were so nice, they even let us come over to their house so we could see the Newer Spreader in action.  We were sold and ordered one that day.  (If you're in the Tucson area, Peter and Michelle's contact information is on the Newer Spreader website under the "Local Dealers" link.)

And now, everybody is happy. 

Rottweiler Wednesday

Boots is a little smarty pants.  She learned how to sit after 3 tries.  And she's working on "down".  Since the time this video was taken a few days ago, she has also learned how to shake! 

She's had way-too-cute-for-her-own-good figured out since Day 1.  I'm such a proud mom.  :)

Bunny Monday

Hi everyone, Bully here.  We were all being lazy bunnies yesterday and missed our Sunday post.  Sorry!  Better late than never, as they say.

A few pics of my favorite bunny ---  ME! 

 

Lounging around, with my brothers Ginger and Sandie...

Wishing everyone a warm, sunny week, wherever you are!  XOXO, Bully