Sun and Frisbee Dog!

Well, the sun stuck around yesterday! Wohoo!!! I was really happy when I got home and it was a beautiful day still! I wanted to play with all the kids and of course take some pictures. I'm always excited to grab the camera when the sun is out.

Cheyanne had been stuck inside all day so I played frisbee with her first.

Really Mom? Frisbee?!? Wohoo, frisbee!!! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!

Please ignore the hole in the deck. It was a somewhat rotted board when we bought the house and Chey decided to make herself useful one day and help with the removal process. Another project for this summer.

Yahoo! She threw the frisbee! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!

I can't seem to throw the frisbee and get the camera up in time to take pictures of her streaking across the lawn to retrieve the frisbee, but it's pretty funny to watch. She's about 6 inches off the ground and all you see is her hair blowing with every stride she takes and a blur where her legs should be. She is FAST!

She looks like she is going to be a good dog and bring the frisbee right back to me, then she does this...

You can't have the frisbee! You caaaan't haaaaaave it! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee! Oh, you almost got it, but not quite! You can't haaaaaaaaaave it! Hahahahaha! Frisbee!

She wants to be good and "Come" like she's supposed to, but she doesn't want to give the frisbee up either, so she "comes" but stays juuuuust out of my reach. I'm trying to teach her to come straight to me, sit facing me, put it in my hand and then wait until I throw it again. I'm working with treats but I can see the internal battle with her...I want the treat, but I love my frisbee...but it's cheese! But it's my frisbee! Cheese! Frisbee! It's annoying.

She eventually comes close enough for me to snag the frisbee, but I don't want to have to "snag" it. I want her to give it to me. I've tried getting her to trade for another toy, but then she gets A.D.D. and drops the frisbee 10 feet away from me in anticipation of chasing the other toy I have. Atleast with a treat I can get her close to me. Not really sure what to do. I really want to play with her, but when she doesn't want to give the toy up and 75% of play time is spent trying to get her to give it up, it's more frustrating then fun.

But then she does this...

Frisbee? Throw the frisbee! Throw it! Frisbee, frisbee, frisbee, frisbee!

And she is so stinking cute, how can you not throw it again!?!

I know part of why she doesn't want to give it up is because she thinks I'll take it away. That is a ligitimate fear because if I leave it where she can have it unsupervised, she will shred the thing, which is no fun, so I do take it away at the end of our play time. But I give her treats and try to find one of her outdoor toys to replace it with and try to make it a happy occasion, not like I'm the big, bad, toy stealing monster. I'm just not really sure how to improve this situation. She's a total toy whore, not as much of a treat whore, but it's close. Guess we'll have to work on some obedience stuff, like I've been saying since we brought her home, and see where that goes.

Now on to sun!

After playing with Chey for a while I wandered around the property with the camera. I love blue skies and fluffy white clouds so that is what most of my shots were.

That and the big maple tree that is finally coming back to life.

I noticed a buzzing sound while I was out bugging Midori and realized that the bee hive is back in business after the winter. And I think they've expanded. I don't remember it being that busy last year. Then I realized they were all over the ground in Midori's paddock and seemed to be sunning themselves on the rocks just outside of the fence. Yikes!

We tried spraying it a couple times last year, but those bastards just would not die! I got the boyfriend on a mission to kill it good and dead this weekend. I'm allergic to most bees, apparently there is one type around here that won't kill me, but I don't know which kind that is and I'm not willing to chance finding out if these guys are it. They aren't aggressive and never bothered us at all last year, but it doesn't take an aggressive bee to sting. It just takes me walking around outside barefoot (which I never do because I'm too scared) or falling and landing on one or something like that. The time I was stung and found out about the allergy I was drying my hands in a towel that the hornet happened to be wrapped up in. That was fun! My whole hand swelled up!

I do wish they weren't right there, so close to the house, the barn and the paddocks. If they were on the other side of the property or some where that wasn't so central I'd be inclined to leave them alone. I don't mind bees. It's the wasps and hornets that I really can't stand.

So that was my afternoon. When I was finally able to put the camera down for a while I got all the ponies out one at a time and pulled their blankets and gave them a little TLC and did some ground work with them. They were all about ready to crawl out of their skin from boredom and were VERY excited to get out on the long lead. I wasn't sure how the footing was going to be in the arena-to-be since it has rained around here so much this week. I didn't want to lunge them for fear of them slipping and sliding in the mud and wiping out so I just put them on the 15' lead and did a little ground work, getting them to listen to me, change directions, trot out a bit. Then I worked on showmanship type ground manners, moving away from me, not getting in my space. All three of them were snorty and jumpy as hell at first on the lead. It took me a little while to get them working in a circle and not taking off when I asked for a direction change. I know they knew what I wanted, but they just couldn't contain themselves. Poor bored ponies.

Hopefully this nice weather will stick around for a little while so they can get out and we can get some wet saddle blankets! They don't have any turnout at the moment because the pasture is "under construction" and the arena-to-be isn't fenced and the rest of the property is pretty much still a mess. Hopefully we'll get some B&A's of all that stuff coming soon!

Until then, here's hopin' the sun sticks around!!!

Spring is here!

Or so I hear.



As jrosey said on her blog, I don't think Mother Nature has gotten the memo yet.

I took the camera outside last night to try to find some lines (this week's Sunday Stills challenge) since it wasn't raining at the moment. I didn't do so hot with the challenge, but I did end up finding some evidence that spring may indeed be on it's way.

The trees are coming back to life. The weeds are sneaking in. The grass is growing again. The birds are chirping. The boyfriend also mentioned that the frogs were noisy again. I love listening to frogs. To me they are the epitome of spring and summer and nice weather. They are also a great lullaby. I was really happy when we discovered we could hear frogs in the evenings after we bought our house last year. Life just wouldn't be the same for me without the sound of frogs at night.

This morning when I left the house I heard them for the first time this year. I had to take a moment to enjoy it. It put a smile on my face. And I could take a moment to pause on the deck this morning because, as my truck informed me, it was a balmy 45 degrees this morning. Never thought I'd be so happy to see 45 degrees! I didn't even crank on the heat when I got in my truck. It was weird.

I'm getting all excited to get outside and do some yard work. And no, I didn't imagine I'd ever in my lifetime utter those words. I might have to take a trip to the store this weekend to get some new gardening gloves and see what other fun things I can find to get me inspired. I've got a lot of work to do this year!