Ginger's CHEESE Face!

Babysitting Carter...(My Nephew)

So...before Leah and her family moved to Evansville Indiana they had a big yard sale to get rid of some stuff so they'd have less to pack. Leah called me before the craziness started and set aside a couple of things she thought I could use for my nephew Carter. Leah had a car seat for me and this cute teddy bear rocking chair that Carter really likes! The first time Carter was able to squeeze the bear's arm to make it make noise he was so excited--hence the surprise face!

Me and my Girls

Me and Ginger (2yrs old)

August 11th, 2010

Me and Baylie (5yrs old)

August 11th, 2010

The girls and I in the car...notice in the second photo Baylie is breaking all the rules by barking in the car!

Babysitting the "Cousins"...Dogs that is!

Sherry, Matt, and Carter had gone up to Coarsegold to visit Matt's parents who'd flown in from Texas and his Grandparents for the weekend of August 7th and 8th so I was asked to watch their animals. I was only there for the Saturday evening and Sunday morning feeding times but it was long enough to have some good playtime with the "cousins". As usual I always bring my camera, partially to keep myself entertained and also in hopes of catching that great picture! Here are some of the fun ones I shot...Enjoy!

Bug...(AKA: "Joon Bug") was a very daring kitty...she was outside the whole time the dogs were.

I turned off the electric fence because

my girls don't understand the concept and tend to get shocked over and over. It didn't take Blue and Liberty very long to realize the wire no longer delivered punishment and quickly developed the desire to dig! I had to watch them closely...and remember to plug everything back in when I left!

Ginger was so enthralled by Bug...she couldn't get enough of her...luckily Bug was very tolerant of Ginger staring, poking and sniffing her!

Backyard Play...it's so big back there it's almost like a dog park experience...by the time we were gone all the dogs were TIRED! :)

Gave my yard a face-lift!

My yard this year has given me more trouble than any other, first with the crazy frog infestation on my porch and then a week or so ago when I was mowing my lawn I noticed that my bushes looked blah. The bottoms had dead leaves and then when I looked even closer I saw that they were encased in spiderwebs!!!! I put on gloves and plugged in my hedge trimmer and went all Edward Scissor Hands on my plants. In trimming them all to the bare minimum I was cutting off these disgusting cotton ball sized spider webs (some had big spiders crawl out & required spray glue to stop them in their tracks!) Then I loaded my sprayer with Sevin bug spray and doused my bushes in hopes everything would DIE (except the plants of-course). My next plan of attack was to call back my wonderful bug man (Bakersfield Pest Control) and beg them to come back and re-spray my house to try and get the spiders and ants that I missed. It has now been another week and I am happy to report that for the time being, the bugs have stopped moving, the frogs migrated to someone else's house and my plants are bouncing back!

Ginger was pooped after the long day of yard work...you'd think SHE did the labor!

Pool Side Relaxation!

Ginger is strangely human when it comes to how she handles the pool! She doesn't jump in, she'd rather enter and exit the pool by going up and down the steps. Ginger has also learned to push off the wall or steps to take off quickly and that combined with her expert low profile swimming skills often allows her to beat Baylie to the desired toy!

Baylie on the other hand, LOVES to jump in the pool from off the side and then whenever she gets tired she claims a perch on the "love seat" step in the pool. I think Baylie would literally sit in the pool all day long if I'd let her...as it is, her really white hair on her belly and hind quarters is tinted green from the chlorine!

If Baylie ever beats Ginger to the toy...she promptly steels it right out of Baylie's mouth!

Ginger has a thing for going under chairs and benches...not sure if it is a technique for trying to dry her back or simply a quirk. Ginger has never had an issue going under anything which is lucky for me because Baylie is a big chicken when it comes to duck under things so they balance each other out perfectly! Baylie loves to "put" toys or balls under beds, tables, and couches but then refuses to get them and incessantly barks until I fetch. Instead I lift and Ginger military crawls to the rescue!

Baylie likes to keep her face dry and whenever she does decide to get out of the pool immediately after a good shake off she proceeds to rub her face along the couch to dry off...she makes quite a scene of it!

This is a picture of Ginger's secret passageway she uses in games of "keep-away" because Baylie rarely braves the close quarters to follow her!

The plam tree photo was to highlight gigantic seedpod that popped...really pretty but really messy!

Front Porch Frogs...EEEW!!!

My front porch light has recently decided to start working (after nearly a year long sabbatical) so I didn't dare turn it off for fear it would never work again! Having the light on has caused a chain reaction of problems and once I realized I had a frog buffet on my front porch I of-course took pictures and then turned off the light! The next day I rinsed away all of the bugs and frog poo in hopes that they would go in search of a new location. Without the light drawing in the bugs I have greatly reduced my disgusting frog population, although there are still a few hopefuls that remain!