It’s been a while since I posted any shots of my puppy dogs.  This one is Buddy and I didn’t quite get the focus in the right spot – it’s on his nose instead of his eyes, but his nose does stick out further.  I also cut off his front paws, but that couldn’t be helped.  I was sitting down and if I’d gotten up to move back, Buddy would have gotten up, too.  I’m still trying to get the feel of my new 50mm f/1.4 lens, which is proving a challenge to me for some reason.

Blog visits were started yesterday, later than I had planned, and they will continue today.  See you soon, if I haven’t seen you already.

This little juvenile goldfinch flew into my very dirty patio door last night – it’s so dirty, I don’t know how it couldn’t tell it was glass.  Needless to say the poor little thing was terribly stunned.  Buddy was whining and begging to get out the door to get at the bird.  (Of course I didn’t let him.)  Buster wanted to go out and play catch.  Instead, we sat on the floor and watched it for a while.  I should say I watched, Buster whined to play, and Buddy fixated on the bird.  

Its breathing calmed down a bit and it perked up, ever so slightly, as it sat on the deck.  Sitting was definite progress, as initially it was doing a face plant and I wasn’t sure it was going to come out of the abuse it took flying into the glass.  I took some really bad photos through the patio door, which I cleaned from my side, but the outside was still dirty – auto texture layer! 

I snuck out of the house through the laundry room, keeping the dogs in the house, and with gloves on, picked up the little guy and tried to put him in a box.  After an initial very brief struggle when I first gently picked him up, he quickly calmed down.  He just sat in my open hand, trusting me, allowing me to softly stroke his head.  I lifted him off my hand and into the box that I had fitted with a towel, climbed a ladder and set the box on top of my storage shed, which is next to my aspen, thinking it to be the safest place for the little guy and someplace where Buddy wouldn’t be able to get him.  

As soon as the box was set down, he flew into the aspen tree and stayed there on one of the branches.  I took some pictures (see above) and then left him alone, periodically checking on him throughout the evening.  At one point during the evening, he moved from one branch to another one, but still in the same small area, and at 11:00 pm he was still there, sound asleep.  He was still in the same spot the next morning (yesterday), which made me so unbelievably sad.  I was hoping he’d be gone in the morning, having fully recovered and off to join his family. 

I checked on him a few minutes later and he was gone from his spot –  I could see him hopping from branch to branch to get higher in the tree. Yay!  I feel better.

After re-reading Wednesday’s post I realized that I might not have been exactly clear when I stated the pivot follows a straight line.  It does, it’s just a circular line.  The pivot goes around the center post, where I’m standing in the the image above, and pivots in a circle over the circumference of the field.  This particular pivot doesn’t have a swing span on it, as the previous post did, consequently three corners are utilized for stacking hay - you can see one stack in this image, covered by a tarp, and the fourth corner has a sub-station.  When setting the telemetry, you program in how many inches of water you want applied and over what period of time.  Typically, watering is set for anywhere from 12 – 48 hours, with one to two rotations.

===================================

If you have a moment or two, check out my recent post at Vision and Verb and then linger a while to read the other fantastic posts there.

==========================================

I found out that my photo of Buster that I submitted to Diane Schuller Photography’s Pet Photo Contest was selected as one of the finalists!  How cool is that!!!  Please go to Diane’s site and vote for #5 – Buster is the Boston sniffing a bouquet of roses – see photo at left.  The shot wasn’t set up at all, with the exception that I took the bouquet outside to take some photos in the morning light and Buster came over to sniff the roses all on his own.  He’s such a sweetie.  Go vote – you have until Sunday at midnight.

Hadn’t posted any photos of my pups for awhile, so thought I’d catch up a bit.  Get it??  Catch?  Ball??  Do you wanna??  Okay, lame.  My apologies for the slimy ball, covered in hair.  It almost always is covered in slime and hair, because, well lets face it, Buster is a slobbery dog.  He also keeps poking Buddy with the ball and quite often takes chunks of Buddy hair with him when he’s poking.  I find clumps around the house all the time.  Poor Buddy – he’s pretty patient with Buster.

Hey, do you wanna??  Head on over to Vision and Verb and read up about our Call for Entries over there.  We’re looking for women of a certain age who might be interested in guest posting.  Check it out and contact us if you wanna!

And a Happy Pumpkin Pie Day, a Happy Holiday, a Happy Kwanzaa (begins tomorrow), a Happy Boxing Day (also begins tomorrow), and for my Jewish friends out there, I hope you had a lovely Festival of Lights.

I just Googled December holidays and did you know there is actually a Wear a Plunger on Your Head Day?  A lot of the national days involve food — Red Apple AND Pie Day on the 1st, Fritters on the 2nd, Cookies on the 4th, Cotton Candy on the 7th, Brownies on the 8th,  Noodles on the 11th, Cocoa on the 13th, Chocolate Covered Anything on the 16th, Maple Syrup on the 17th, Oatmeal Muffins on the 19th, Egg Nog on the 24th, Pumpkin Pie today – the 25th, Chewing Gum AND Chocolate on the 28th.  That’s a lot of food days to celebrate in one month.

I think the best thing to celebrate is family.  I hope you are able to spend some time with those you love regardless of what holiday to choose to celebrate.  Wishing you all the best as 2009 draws to a close.

Hugs from,

Toni, Buddy and Buster