Thursday

In contrast to yesterday, this morning dawned through a grey ice fog. The trees are all beautifully flocked with hoar frost. Outside it is bleak, but at the same time beautiful.

Tucker has begun to make his presence felt in the form of scooping up small items and carrying them away. I spent several minutes today looking for a missing slipper, only to find it on our bed. One of my work gloves found its way there too.

Molly came out and about with us this afternoon. She's not so much impressed with the snow and cold; she had reluctantly given up her night time excursions.

Tucker

Oh What a Beautiful Morning...

A glorious sunrise this morning! I headed out to work as the sun was coming up, and a little later on, Mike headed out to Nevada.

Tucker will be accompanying Mike in the New Year...in the meantime, he's becoming familiar with how things are done "on the farm". His playful side is beginning to emerge: he's begun gathering up all Molly's toys, and almost died of fright when he sunk his teeth into the squeaky toy we bought him on the weekend!

It's supposed to be darned cold here on Friday...note to self, use extra heater in the wellhouse Thursday night. When the temperature drops below -27 we've had a problem with the incoming waterline from well to the wellhouse freezing. The solution lies in pointing a ceramic heater slightly downward into the hole the pipe emerges from.

Off to do glamourous things like laundry and dishes. Back in a day or two.

Looking Back...

Tucker and his siblings arrived at Turtle Gardens on February 28 soaked, frosted, terrified, traumatized and unsocialized. That's him top left. They looked like little possums!
Before he was Fraggle, he was Raven...and very, very shaggy.

Here he was at the height of his hippie phase (on the right) before Yvette shaved him!

Tucker is becoming braver each day, and each day his tail rides a little higher in the air. Today it even wagged a few times. He is finding his place in the doggy hierarchy of the house, and isn't hiding every time we walk by. This afternoon while we were out feeding Buck and Rupert we dropped the leash and let him mingle with the others...he almost did a runner, but thought better of it, and bounded back up the stairs and inside with the others when we came in.

A few inches of new snow overnight. Mike plowed the drive and around the house this morning.
When I left for work this morning the highways had compacted snow, when I came home, they were slushy and sloppy.

Happy 27th Birthday to the Lovely Jen!

A day early, but not in Korea! Jen is celebrating her 27th birthday in Mokpo, South Korea...where she will be until late April. Lee took this pic in July when they were up during her summer vacation. We love you and miss you, and your birthday card should be there any time soon (oops...slight miscommunication about who was mailing it)!

Settling In

Tucker is settling in. He likes to sit on laps, and lounge on the bed, but he lacks confidence to approach, and tries to disappear when followed. Once contact is made, he's absolutely fine. He needed a quick bath this afternoon - I think the trauma of relocation, and not drinking well for a day has left him a bit constipated, and we had a small rear end problem to clean up. He was good as gold in the bath.

Still damp...hanging out with the big guys!

The weather forecast is promising snow, but it hasn't yet arrived. The woodstove is lit, the tea is on, and all is well on Inman Road.

Afternoon Chores

It has warmed up a lot today, and was very comfortable for puttering outside. Mike fixed the wind damage to the greenhouse, and then took the tractor down the field to do some fence fixing. The dogs and I walked down to meet him. Tucker was desperate to keep up with the big guys, but he's confined to a leash, so he had to stay with me. Finally poop scooping was on the agenda. I tackled Rupert's place, and Mike used the tractor to scrape up frozen Buck deposits from where he hangs out to await the next flake of hay that's due to come sailing over the fence.