Cold and Sunny

It was 9 degrees when I woke up this morning. That's cold, very cold, but the sky was clear when the sun came up and it was a pretty day. The ground is frozen solid so the dog yard was decent for Theo, Max, and Smokey for the day. The ground in the pasture is solid too, so I took those three boys out for an afternoon romp.

Smokey does seem to remember the lesson he learned from Theo the other day. He ran around and did his own thing for the most part without biting at the hind quarters of the other two boys. He tried it once around Theo, but all it took was a dirty look from Theo and he backed off. I guess he didn't want another ass kicking today. Theo is making better progress with Smokey than I am.

Serena, lumber inspector

It would have been a good day for a hike, but I had another outdoor project that needed my time away from work this afternoon. I'm putting together some wooden walkways on the routes that I walk around the yard. Regularly traveled paths had become deep mud prior to the deep freeze and they will return to being mud for most of the winter. The sections are 12' long, composed of two 1x6 pressure treated boarded, tied together with four, 1 foot pieces of 1x6. Very simple to build, but very helpful when the ground turns to muck and mire as it will again when it rains later this week.

Toquima checking out the first two
sections of the new wooden pathway.

I had several dogs out with me. Some supervised, but mostly they took the opportunity to run around the yard.

For those following Serena's digestive tract: I didn't see anything come out of her today. When she's had problems, she's always made it very obvious by pooping someplace where I can't miss it. The fecal sample I took in tested positive for parasites, I can't remember if it was hooks or whip worms, but she's already had the first of three doses of Panacure knock them out.

Max, Sparky, and Serena

Theo, offering advice

This path gets me to the summer kitchen (left
at the split) and to the back of the dog yard
shed (to the right). I have enough lumber
now to make three additional sections, which
could get me to the trash cans and the pasture
gate in the rear of this photo. 

Sparky