Mischief Monday - Invasion -by Styx

 Hi friends, hi friends,

We had an invasion on the weekend. Callie came over. A dog was in our house, a dog, a dog! Fortunately, she liked being here less than we liked her here, so it was only for a short period of time.

Me thinking about pouncing Callie

Callie

But there was a bad thing about this too. This meant Lady and Man were gone more than I would have liked. You see, Lady and Man were taking care of Callie and her cats for the weekend. They, especially Lady went next door a lot.  They didn't want Callie to be alone for too long at a time. 

Lady and Callie going for a morning walk

Lady and Cinder - yes when Lady walks at dawn/dusk she wears a safety vest

Lady giving Callie some love and Callie gave her kisses!

I don't think I liked how much of Lady's attention was given to other animals. I was so mad, I even slept at her feet for the first time.

I hope we don't have to share Lady with Callie and her cats any time soon.

your friend, Styx

Wordless Wednesday - Play Time

 

Evening Walks

 Evening walks are great. 

You know what makes them even better?

Sharing them with friends.

Wordless Wednesday - Catching Up With Callie

 

Poor Callie and I Was Right - By Lee

 Dear pals,

You may recall that I have a hate on for Callie's grandpa's dog Charlotte. From the first time I meet her, I have wanted to fight her. Every opportunity I have gotten, I have tried to run next door and fight her. Charlotte has always run away and hidden from me. 

A dramatic recreation from the archives

While I do really like being right, I am not as happy about it in this case.

While Lady was in Alaska, Charlotte was visiting. It seems like, Callie's kids were running and playing outside. Charlotte didn't like this so ran barking after them. Callie didn't like this so she ran after Charlotte. She may have nipped at her ankles in cattle dog style. Charlotte turned on Callie and attacked  her.

You can see the marks on her shoulder

Callie is ok. She has some wounds in her shoulder but is healing well. She is a little nervous around other dogs now, even us. Her hair is slowly growing back.

My fighting days with Charlotte may be over, because we have heard she is not invited over anymore.

I was right, Charlotte was not a friend. I am just glad Callie is ok and she and I can compare vet stories and the trials of having shaved body parts (although her shoulder makes her look cool and my head makes me look silly). 

Hailey, people should listen to me more as I know what is what

The Sniff Train

Hi Callie

Where have you been?

Let's make a sniff train!

Wordless Wednesday - Joy

 

The Joys of Spring - Being Outside

After a long winter and then weeks of rain, we were given a lovely weekend (short weather lovely). It was all about being outside.

The best part about being outside?

Running to greet Callie!

Wordless Wednesday - Flying For Friends

 

Easter Celebrations!

As we mentioned on Monday - in spite of the headaches caused by the storm, we celebrated Easter on Good Friday, by going to Grammie and the Big Guy's for a family lunch. The advantage to not having power, was Lady and Man didn't want to leave us if they didn't have to, so we got to go!

We are here!

Uncle Christ brought us each one of these

Thanks Uncle Chris

As you can see being there was super exhausting.

Look what the Easter Bunny brought us. Lady dropped one. She would also like to thank everyone who thought she made Phod's birthday treats last week. She is not that talented, however she is a master at tapping her credit card!

On one of the trips to get water, Callie came with her kids. She was forced to pay the hat tax. 

She hated it, but Lady said we were making our own fun these days, and since no animals were hurt (other than perhaps her pride). 

In spite of it all, Easter was ok! 

Callie's Sugar Shack

Dear pals, 

We finally made it to Callie's sugar shack. It is behind Callie's house and Callie's Man made it all. It is beautiful. Lady has been calling it the adult clubhouse, because when we have visited a few evenings, it is Callie's Man, her great-uncle and sometimes a friend, standing around with a beer chatting as they monitor everything. 

Phod sitting by the door because it is hot in the shack. He has learned he can just let himself out the back door.  This isn't great because the deer are around. 

Callie's people have about 300 taps. The sap comes into big barrels that are brought to the shack and pumped into this big evaporator. The sap is boiled and boiled and boiled and goes through all the parts of this and when finally it gets to the right temperature (which is about 270F), the syrup is poured out into a barrel (you can see it on the right). To get 1 litre of syrup you have to boil about 40 litres of sap. 

Lee has discovered this is a great fire and likes to curl up by it, and is annoyed that is is constantly being feed and she has to move. 

Not pictured here, but once it comes out of this big evaporator, it spends another hour in a smaller propane operated evaporator. Then finally it is bottled. At our second visit about 17 litres had been bottled and about the same amount was almost ready. It has not been a great season so far because it keeps freezing. The colour of the syrup is a light colour. 

This is a very small operation. Callie's great-uncle used to have 3000 taps (just down the road from us) and our former cleaner's family (about a 15 minute drive) has over 15 000! 

Lady refrained from drinking the syrup as it came out of the evaporator, mostly because it was too hot. She can't wait to get some of the new syrup! 

We hope you enjoyed the visit. 

Wordless Wednesday - Playing with Callie

 

Mischief Monday - Celebrating Without Us

 Dear Pals,

On Saturday night we were left alone for 87 million hours, and the power went off for 30 minutes of this (Lady came to check on us), so the peeps could go to a party next door. 

While they were having all the fun, a huge mouse came in and peed and pooped on the floor. This big mouse would feel bad except the people came home smelling like other animals and we found pictures to show what horrible traitors they are.

First up, a less than impressed Ash. She and her brother Cinder (not pictured because he knew to hide) may be 9 weeks now. 

The Man played with Callie. 

Lady laughed at Callie under the tree. 

Maybe we should be grateful Lady didn't have Santa over for some pictures. 

Milo being forced to love the Man. He stayed hidden most of the party as he is not a fan of this. 

Lady playing tug with Callie. They played a lot. Callie got lots of attention while we were suffering at home alone. 

Ash asleep in Man's arms. It took some doing, but she did settle, better than the 2 month old human at the party. 

Lady getting her smooshing Ash on. We can't believe she not only did this, but let an 8 year old take the picture. 

Lady says to say there were lots of people there - adults, kids - and they were very. nice but the pets were her favourite! 

We hope Santa brings them coal for this display.

A very unhappy Lee and Phod

Movie Night with Friends

 Dear pals,

This really great thing happened a few weeks ago. Callie's kids, Dylan and his sisters M and J came over for a movie night so their parents could go out without them.  We all had a great time and the kids want to come back soon.

Watching Hocus Pocus 2

Sharing popcorn with the girls

Babysitting is hard work

Wordless Wednesday - Can Phod Come Out To Play?