Trusts' 10th Birthday Party!

Today Trust turned ten years old. Hard to believe. If anything, this past year she seems to have become 'younger' and more silly and active. As we have done for years, with all our dogs, we had a birthday party. For years we had eightdogs in the pictures, all calmly waiting while hats were adjusted, candles lit, and pictures taken. Those eight together were 'easier' than today.

Trust was a good girl..she knows the routine well. Look, and act, like a princess, and she did. Tank had some issue with the elastic in his hat...never been a problem in the past...but he was going through contortions trying to get it off, the rest of the time looking annoyed. And Blast! Well, he just wants to kiss Trust all over and wants to flip in front of her, thinking he somehow is appealing...so we actually did these pics. pretty quickly.Tank is now rolling his eyeballs, David was on the sofa with cookies, and Blast was now interested in those. Trust is still "perfect". David finally had to hold Blast, now with his hat askew. Carrot muffins still intact!The birthday princess is always patient and ignores the riff-raff on each side of her. We moved to the kitchen for the feast!Trust took her muffin whole, and turned and ran off to the carpet and dumped it upside down (icing downward) on the carpet. I only got a picture of her with them as Tank was next and all you saw was the icing all over his face as if he hit it at 90 miles an hour. Blast took his, and promptly spit it on the floor. Gave him a cookie.

What a change when the dogs are not "the same old". It was fun (well somewhat) but miss the parties of old with the calm, well-behaved, and patient dogs.

And Kira was not invited to the party as it would have been total chaos. She was in her crate with a chewie and happy with that.

But since she missed the birthday party, she got an extra walk down the driveway and played ball with David. David and I got the "extra" goodies, so we all ended up doing ok.

Only the Dogs love this much snow!!!

This is Blast up on a snowpile where we usually turn around and park beside the house.And Kira leaping and pushing through the snow in the field.Blast retrieving a ball in the front field. He is very tall, long legs, but bogged down here.Kira retrieves a snowball I threw out in the field. Don't you wonder how she finds it?!She is standing here. She's giving me her 'annoyed' look, as her head was buried looking for 'my' snowball when I called her. She found it!Today, up on a plowed pile of snow, I have Blast and Tank catching snowballs, both have turned toward my lousy throw here.Trust decides to climb up snow mountain also. She doesn't want to catch, just nosy.Kira just off the driveway this afternoon. A lovely sunny afternoon after yesterdays' horrid storm.I took Kira out front on Tanks' and Blasts' snowpiles when we came back. She's just about to leap for the block of snow coming at her.A perfect catch...splattered all over....just the way she likes it!!!

Our Little Herd

While I put these pictures on, there are nine deer behind the house, having just come out of the forest. While we don't really want them here, they seem determined to stay. Because they were eating all our bird food, we finally bought deer feed as it's much cheaper than what we are spending on the bird seed. We put the deer food out behind the house, behind the fenced in area for the dogs. At times, they do jump the fence and clean up the bird seed. The buck (first picture) is the most 'tame'.

Here, he stares at me in the living room window, inside the fence where he should not be.Three does walking up the paths they've made to the corn. Taken from bedroom window.This one I refer to as the 'baby' - the smallest - it sees me in the window.Barely dawn two mornings ago, some have already arrived looking for food. A little disagreement between two of them.Yesterday morning, before the snowstorm. Baby and sibling and mom. After the storm, they did not come out last night for food, and we late coming today. As much as we wish they weren't here, we worry about them when they aren't.

Wolves, and last night -28 C with heavy, new and very deep snow now.No-one in sight this morning. I finished with the dog outings and went out to leave the feed expecting them to come soon. Suddenly, the buck came out of the bush and watched me. I began to talk softly to him and he continued to approach. I turned and went to another area and he continued to follow me up towards the house.I went up the stairs to the deck and he flinched when I opened the door, but stayed. I got the camera and went back out and stood on the deck, continuing to talk to him and took these pictures. It took only seconds for him to put his head down and begin to eat.He looks quite relaxed here, chewing away. He has the most beautiful eyes. It wasn't until this afternoon, that the rest of the little herd came up for food.

I think with the easy winter we had early on, they did not move to their normal winter deer yards and then got stuck, left behind. Now, we seem to be 'stuck' with them, as I don't imagine they will leave now.