Maggie's First Week

Maggie has been making all these funny faces. She was chewing on Bear and had her lips all turned inside. Goofy girl!

Her first week here and she has come "out of the box". She's gotten a handle on the whole housebreaking thing, she answers to her name, we are going on long walks and she has a BIG NOSE on her! Not much crosses her path that she doesn't sniff out.

We are still nervous parents who get her out during the night to reinforce the house training aspects of her development but she's sleeping for longer periods of time over night so it's getting easier.....especially since I'm getting really good at getting back to sleep after having a midnight stroll!

Attack of the Tongue Monster!

She's such a motion machine! I didn't even know I had this shot. She's been pretty hyper, and piddly! But, hey, at 8 weeks......SO WERE WE!

Todays snowflakes and chill put everyone in a quiet mode so we can recharge for a day in the sun later this week.

The First 24 Hours

Our little Meggie at 8 weeks. Got her home yesterday in all the bluster and cold so we are liking the sunshine today. Life is good!

Now to go desalivate my lens......

Spring Floods and Baby Eagles

Our spring has really arrived. The 70's and humidity has spurred thunderstorms and thankfully we were missed by some severe ones. The fog held on our flooded river bottoms as the humidity clashed with the icy water.

We have been enjoying watching the eagles nest in Decorah, IA, with its three baby eaglets that hatched last weekend.

Work-wise (if you can call it that) I've been doing a big variety of "prep" projects. Some stained glass patterns, some watercolors (I'm just a beginner in that realm), I blew out some of our multitude of goose eggs which I'll paint on or decorate in some fashion, and then I found some gourds left in the garden from last fall. They are the hard shell variety (didn't know that before!) and I cleaned those up and have a few bud vases and a snack bowl to paint. VARIETY is my middle name. Don just chuckles about my "crafts".

Stained Glass
I made this hanging lampshade for Don's cousin, a Vietnam vet, who wanted a red, white and blue shade to which I added a personalization of his unit. Drawing patterns is a constant task and I will be starting the stained glass for Laddee's Garden at Refuge Farm this week.

Greenhouse Growings On
Now that we are out of freezing nights my lettuce and kale seedling have started making some progress in the hoop house. Can't wait for some homegrown greens. I feel bad that I'm under utilizing it for starting plants, but without heat, I just have to wait for Mother Nature to warm up. It will still give seedlings a head start. It just takes a little longer.

Fine Art 
I'm making progress on three small oil paintings I started last week and I'll get some photos together this week. I have been popping from one project to the next while I still have time........ because Friday we get our new puppy! And life will change once again at this crazy place we call Catfish Corner!

Four week update

Our little girl is on the right. She's darker than her litter mates and according to Ruth, her human mommy, she is very sweet!

Looks like that to me, too. She has a very steady, intense, look about her. She knows she has a family who is waiting for her, and is trying to connect with her over the air waves!

We have been asked about what we are going to name her. It's hard to do when you haven't met the young lady yet! Suggestions have followed: Hilda (mine), Maggie (Don), Ellie, Martha, Eleanor, Bessie............ feel free to add your own! We know we will have several names for her after the first couple weeks she will live with us.......like....Trouble, Messy, Whiney, Poopsy, Piddles and Chewy!

Mid-April will be here soon and we will be "new parents" again!

Our New Girl at Four Weeks

This dear little soul is our next official "Chessie of Catfish Corner". We found her people parents, Ruth and Butch in Pelican Lake, WI, and their female "Gem" had a litter of five pups four weeks ago. Three females and two males. Not a big litter so that could be very favorable for the lucky five---lots of mommy's milk!

She is the darkest of the litter and we're so excited to be looking forward to this little "dark horse" to be part of our lives.

Ruth called us last night to say "she" (we haven't picked a name yet) wasn't moving her head much on Tuesday. She investigated and found the pup had a swollen area by her neck.....so off to the vet they went. The doctor wasn't sure what was going on speculated it might be a .... spider bite? So here she is at four weeks taking this little dose of antibiotic. Hope it doesn't undo all the good of that momma's milk.

Cerra's Best Friend

Cerra has been adopted this winter by one of our geese. She isn't completely happy about it, but she tolerates the gander and so far hasn't stepped on him.

It's an unlikely pairing---or maybe not. This poor guy and his mate went to live with our neighbor and then their dog killed the female. They brought this guy back and he has been an outcast with the rest of the flock ever since. Bullying is common in the animal world!

The goose follows her around, helps her eat her rations and raises a big ruckus when Cerra leaves his range (which usually occurs at 2 a.m.!)

I finally got motivated to finish editing a little video of the horses running around...... giver a whirl!