Farm-pond Fishing and Dogs

Ever wonder what goes through a dog's brain? I mean, I realize they don't "think" like humans do, but sometimes you can just see the wheels turning in there.
My husband has been doing a little top-water fishing in the pond lately and my English Shepherd, Trailer, is enthralled! He stays right beside him, watching his every move. At first, he was mildly interested in the casting and reeling in of the tackle ("What is that? What are you doing? Why does it come back to you?"), but after that first large-mouth bass came splashing in, he became obsessive ("What the #@%% is that?! It smells funny! Can I eat it? Just a nibble?"). Now he sits and watches and the look on his face when the lure comes in without a fish attached is hilarious! He looks at the lure, then at my husband, then out in the pond ("Where's the fish?! Why didn't you bring one in?"). When a fish is released (which they all are so they can "grow bigger and reproduce") he wades out and looks for them. I guess you could say he is totally hooked on fishing now! LOL
Farm-pond fishing is great - relaxing for my studly, hard-working,house-building, farm dude, and entertaining for me and the dogs.

Peace and happy fishing...

We have outdoor living space!

Gone are the two concrete blocks for steps and the ugly rock and clay-covered space out my front door! They have been replaced with a beautiful, awesome deck! In keeping with our "good-for-us" as well as "good-for-the-environment" theme for this house, we steered away from treated wood as much as possible. Although we did use some CCA-treated posts, most of the deck is Douglas fir, and boy is it pretty! We counter-sank the screws and plugged the holes, and sealed the whole thing this past weekend.
Take a look!

Peace and happy outdoor living!

Tastes like chicken - eggs

Actually, guinea egg yolks taste creamier than chicken eggs; and they sure are cute!

Here are some happenings around the farm:

1) The spring garden is in and the bedding plants are started. We have lettuce, spinach, kale, Swiss chard, turnips, carrots, peas, and kohlrabi up outside; and tomatoes, lemongrass, and peppers up inside.

2) Our sons cat, Cassius Clay (aka Cash) has moved into our barn and all the animals are adjusting. You gotta love 24 year-olds working on their masters programs...

3) The hens and guineas have intensified their egg-laying efforts and we are getting lots of eggs. Guinea eggs are SO CUTE!

4) Trailer, my English Shepherd, and I attended a herding clinic this past weekend with Bruce Nelson and we now have an inkling of what we are doing. Trailer showed a lot of driving instinct, but that may be due to the fact that he wanted to be close to me. I discovered that it was impossible to get him to gather if I was looking at him - all he would do was look back at me. But when I looked at the sheep and focused my attention on them, he would fetch them to me. I was also amazed at how easily he called off. All it took was an "ack" when he got too excited, and he would stop and look at me. Crazy, biddable dog!

Peace and warm spring days!