Burns Creek, Memorial Day Weekend Fun

What beautiful weekend weather! Last weekend began with taking flowers to the cemetery. Then on Friday and Saturday we worked very hard in our garden.

We have the best and cutest rototiller...it’s brand name is Terry Total-Tiller :) hee,hee......ya he is great with a shovel and hoe. I think he missed his calling. His dirt turning skills are awesome! All of us pitched in, I have to admit that it was very hot and we all dreamed of going swimming in the lake but we stuck it out and eventually we had some assemblence of a decent garden :) By the end of Saturday we were all completely exhausted... Terry taking his well deserved nap in our hammock after a long...and very hot work day! :)

Later, we went out to grab a bite to eat and went to the show, “Night at the Museum II” for some much deserved relaxation.

Monday was Memorial Day. Since we had already taken flowers to the cemetery and then had worked hard all weekend we decided to take a picnic up into the mountains. We loaded up Austin’s Go-cart, the grill, the food, a change of clothes (we always get them so dirty)...the camera and then of course the boys wanted our wild and crazy puppy Shy-Anner-Bananer to come too. So, we tucked her in the back and she settled in quite nicely. We went along the Burns Creek Road (Just south of Kelley Canyon road) for a while then we came to the perfect place for Aust to ride his Go-cart. It was an open area specifically for ATV’s and such. Aust took off and found some perfect sized jumps to go off. It was so funny to watch his face .... he is naturally adventurous but the torturous facial expressions he pulled as he bounced mercilessly over each hill revealed the painful fact that our Go-cart has absolutely no shocks and going over jumps, (even little ones) can make you wish you had a lot more padding on your hinny! I lost the pics of his tortured face (bummer!!)... but have a cute one of him driving :)

Aust and Shy-Anner-Bananer explored the creek and when I went looking for the two of them I found them soaking wet and all muddy...the big smile on the one and the other's happy wag of the tail told the story...serious FUN! Then I found several rocks in the back of the pickup...Ah, so that is what they were up to! Austin is a major rock collector. For him the rule of thumb is usually..."the bigger, the better". With all the rocks he has collected thus far I'd have a mountain in my yard! But, I carefully redistribute them in the driveway when the fascination of the current day's findings wears off. :) (Sometimes he finds them again and tells me they look familiar...I just smile)

While Aust and Shy-Anner-Bananer were collecting rocks along the muddy banks of the creek, Ter and I went exploring the creek to the south and found a great waterfall! I got many pictures of it but unfortunately lost those along with many others. This is the only one left that we have. You can kind of see the falls...Ter took it while he balanced precariously on a tiny limb that threatened to break and send him crashing into the cold waters. He is so brave...luckily, he did not go swimming that day but you can tell from my face in the picture that I'm a bit concerned that he's going to though :)

It was quite beautiful up there so I took a few pics with Terry's camera. Here's one..

So we explored and ate our grilled hamburgers and hot dogs ...you'd think the hot dogs would have been Shy-Anner-Bananer's favorite but she would lick you to pieces and wag her tail wildly for a few Doritos! Then we headed home. Not long after, we noticed something moving along side our truck. We looked out our side truck window a little further and there, jogging right along side our truck was a wild turkey! Yup...just jogging along trying to keep the pace...I guess she wanted to look her best when she met up with Mr. Tom. :) I could not get the camera out fast enough so she was up the hill and running like mad by the time I could take a picture of her so the picture is very blurry. But here she is...

All in all... it was a very nice weekend!

One crazy puppy and gardening in the dark.

Well, I went to Wal-mart about two weeks ago and there in a small box outside of the entrance was a litter of the cutest little blond Border Collie puppies I'd ever seen. I immediately fell in love. Since they were free I took one home to Austin. They both hit it off. He named her Shy-Ann since she was really quite shy. She barely moved and hung her tail between her legs. But, we soon learned that being shy didn't mean that she wasn't smart. We made a little pen for her to stay in so that she would not wander the neighborhood while we were gone and get lost. The next day we left for church and when we came home, there she was out of the pen and lounging in the sun on the front porch steps. She saw us pull up and like grease lightening she was back in her pen! ( I guess she thought she'd get in trouble for being out :) ) We tried the pen for a few days but it was obvious that no matter what we did to the pen, she was going to get out so we just gave up and took it down.

Shy-Ann is learning more about us and loves to explore and so far remains mostly on our property. We are also learning more about her and finding out that her name “Shy-Ann” does not fit her at all. For example, yesterday, Austin and I were out in the garden getting ready to plant sugar snap peas and that little pup ran around the yard like someone had secretly fed her a bowl full of sugar!

At first she was terrorizing our 'Lilly-Cat', who, by the way, could stand getting put in her place once in a while since she thinks she is the queen of our little universe! (But, we adore her anyways. Maybe that is the problem... we nurture that “Queen of Sheba“ attitude! )

After treeing our kitty several times (I think Lilly-Cat secretly loves this game, she doesn‘t put up much fuss and she even prances around in a “dare-you-to-chase-me” type fashion to tempt Shy-Ann to do it again) she finally got bored. That's when her scavenger skills kicked in. She loves to hunt for mice, sticks, cans, socks, bowls, funny looking weeds, Frisbees, jackets laying on the ground, tools, balls, shoes etc. She sneaks up on it and then... like a flash, she confiscates it and hightails it back as fast as she can to her lair (her humble abode beneath the steps). You would not believe the stash she has in there and we’ve only had her a little over two weeks and already there is a pile of stuff...Oh, brother!

I had just took my garden gloves off and set them next to me. A moment later the little rascal snuck up behind me, grabbed one, then ran off like her tail was on fire! She ran a safe distance from us so we couldn't take it from her and then proceeded to attack my glove as if it was something that needed obliterating. Austin ran over to try and save it but she would not give in. They played a quick game of "see-if-you-can-catch-me" and he finally caught her and saved my poor tattered glove. Well I quickly put my gloves on and made a mental note not to take them off again! To bad I didn't think about the other things laying on the ground. Like I said, we were out there trying to plant snap peas in our garden and trying to do it before the sun went completely down. Little did we know that we would be so bombarded with a crazy little pup bent on disrupting everything we did.
"NO, NO Shy-Ann!"
I had set two sacks of peas down next to the row we were digging. Shy-Ann came over to see what we were doing. She saw us digging, so she did a little digging of her own (right across our nice new row covering it up I might add, Thanks Shy!) Then suddenly she was gone. She dashed out of there like something was after her. We were still digging the row and did not realize that the crazy little thing had found the two sacks of peas, had grabbed one and took off. Austin went to investigate and to his dismay, (they are his favorite peas) She had ripped the bag to smithereens...his favorite peas were scattered everywhere on the lawn. He hastily picked up as many as he could still see (the sun was nearly down by now) and we put the rescued peas in the wheel barrel to save them from further attacks. I decided then and there her name needed a little modification So, I now call her “Shy-Anner-Bananer” for her crazy little antics and because she can drive me bananas sometimes! But she is a cutie so what can be done?

By now we were planting by moonlight.

Thank heavens it was a bright moon! Everything was quieting down, less cars on the road, the wind died down, the birds were going to sleep, Lilly-Cat came down from the tree and the stars shown bright in the sky. Ah, a beautiful night! I guess the peace of the night took it’s effect on Shy-Anner-Bananer as she decided it was time to stop terrorizing our gardening efforts and go to bed. We finished our gardening in peace. It was great to be out there with Aust in the Garden. He does not really like to garden but the two wild and crazy animals, sure made for great entertainment for him :) ...Hopefully our newly planted row of peas will remain intact and not reemerge in the next couple of days by way of a curious, crazy puppy digging them up!