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Slowly But Surely

Some of you may remember that the last time we visited the WV Place, K found some “treasure” buried in the snow.

One Turtle, Safely Out of the Dogs' Reach

For those who don’t remember, she dug up a box turtle. I am pretty sure it was dead, but I didn’t want the dogs eating it so I stashed it somewhere safely out of their reach.

Later, when I told Hubby the story, he said it was probably hibernating. And he said that poor turtle was going to wake up come Spring, find himself upside down in a tree and wonder what the heck kind of mischief he’d been into before nodding off to sleep.

I still think it was dead. Its face was all dried up and shriveled looking.

But how many times do you think that turtle crossed my mind over the last couple of weeks? I didn’t count, but I thought of him a lot. Especially after a friend’s husband, upon hearing the story, said he too thought the thing was hibernating.

I was sure all the crazy winds we had a week or so ago would’ve knocked the turtle out of that tree. So imagine my surprise last night when Belle discovered the turtle STILL in the tree.

Dead or Hibernating? You Be the Judge.

And he looks exactly the same way he did when I put him there.

He’s dead, I tell you.

But just to make sure, I’m going to take him down and put him somewhere safe where the girls can’t dig him up so we can see what happens to him.

On another note… the girls were sure glad to get back to the WV place.

K and Belle Running Together

Is there any doubt these two are buddies?

So Much to Sniff, So Little Time

K just loves walking around sniffing everything.

Wait for Me!

Belle loves running. I mean, she really loves it. Everywhere she goes, she runs. Here she is running to catch up with K and me. Meg had already ditched us to go visit Buddy.

Perfectly Healthy Pine Tree

I was really happy to see this pine tree survived this season’s multiple snowstorms. It’s an important tree. Not only did it shelter a bunch of deer (or a few deer for a bunch of days) during the blizzards, it is also a favorite hangout for the various little birds that live in the woods around here.

The Three Amigos

K was doing so good sticking with us that we stayed out walking for about an hour. Well, Belle was running. K and I were walking. Though K was walking fast, wide circles around me sniffing everything.

This was the scene at our place shortly after we got back from our adventure…

Belle
K
Meg

There’s still snow on the ground here. It’s melting slowly, but surely. Maybe by the next time we come for a visit it will all be gone. Time will tell, I guess.

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You Capture – Hopeful

This week’s theme was “hopeful,” which for me is VERY appropriate. I am really HOPEFUL someone looks at my pics since I’m all late posting them. I took these dang pictures days and days ago. Then last night I went to bed at like 8:30. And when I woke up this morning, I forgot it was You Capture day.

I’m posting them anyway. Because I took every single picture with this week’s theme in mind. Really.

You can read more about You Capture if you like. It’s basically a project where quite a few other people  post pictures each Thursday inspired by a predefined theme. I love checking out all of the other pics to see how different people interpreted the theme.

There are a lot of Moms who participate. And every week, no matter what the theme, it seems I see a lot of baby feet. That’s cool, because I love baby feet. But I’m sort of jealous. I don’t have any baby feet just laying around to photograph.

Not any human baby feet anyway.

I am HOPEFUL not too many people make fun of me for taking a picture of one of my furbabies’ feet. Doesn’t she have pretty feet though?

One of the "Baby" Feet We See Around Here

I found it interesting, after our last pitiful dusting of snow, the see the ground under the bird feeders covered in bird footprints. I know you can’t really get a sense of scale from this shot, but I know they are sort of large prints left by the gazillion Grackles that have been visiting our feeders. This is evidence that on this day there were a lot of birds HOPEFUL for castoff seeds and/or crumbs.

Grackle Prints

Speaking of under the bird feeders… this cat has stood guard out there for years, HOPEFULly watching the birds come and go.

Hopeful Cat Statue

Look closely at the bottom right-hand corner of this shot and you’ll see Belle’s foot. She was helping me look for bird prints, HOPEFUL that she would catch a bird. She is a bird dog (Brittany) after all.

In case you are wondering, these prints, which are much smaller than those shown previously, are  from a Dark-eyed Junco.

Bird Dog in Action

While we’re talking about Belle, here’s a shot of her with her head on my keyboard HOPEFUL that I’ll turn the computer off and take her outside.

Can We Go Out Now?

Once you have dogs, you realize they communicate extremely well. They just use body language, whines and barks. In the next pic, you see K sitting in front of me looking at the door. She’d look at me then look at the door. Look at me, then the door. She was HOPEFUL I’d get up and let her outside.

Let Me Out

Finally, this next shot shows all of the dogs HOPEFUL that Hubby, who just got home from somewhere, will hurry up and open the door.

Dad's Home

That’s it for this week. I am very HOPEFUL that next week’s shots are more interesting. And posted in a more timely fashion.

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Wedding Tackle

Every now and then, I come across a word or phrase being used as a euphemism in a new and unique way. Since I’m a word nerd, I get all excited and have this compulsive urge to share said discovery with my faithful blog fans. That urge becomes especially strong when that phrase/term appears in a passive aggressive note written by a guy named Fat Tony. If you haven’t guessed already, today’s phrase is wedding tackle.

If you haven’t poked through passiveaggressivenotes.com before, you’re missing out on fun stuff like:

  1. Encouragement for carnivores
  2. Diatribe of an angry apartment complex manager
  3. Rules for proper cubicle etiquette

The list goes on and on. Just keep in mind that some of the communiques are a bit racier than others.

On a completely unrelated note…

Hubby has been taking pictures lately, something he only does when he has good reason. Or when I ask him to, which I guess would also qualify as a good reason.

Anyway… I thought I’d share a couple of his shots so his efforts don’t go unnoticed.

Belle's Spot

Belle is a morning girl in more ways than one. Mornings are her favorite time to sit with me. Whether at the MD or WV home, she likes to be with Mama in the mornings. Hubby couldn’t resist this shot of Belle looking all cute (and me not so much) very EARLY the other morning. It was probably around 7:00 a.m., which is why I look so sleepy.

Enough is Enough

Hubby took this shot to show that K and Belle had been outside so long yesterday, K had planted herself in a sunny spot in front of the wall. It shows more than just that, however.

You can see Belle standing on the hill. When she’s been outside long enough, she stands in that spot, or close to it, and stares into the kitchen. That’s her way of saying, “I am ready to come inside!”

You can also see the little yellow ball. None of our girls really LOVE playing with balls, but they’ll pick it up occasionally. Sometimes they will chase it, too. But they never bring it back. They usually just drop it at some random spot in the yard for ME to go retrieve. They call that game, “Mama Plays Fetch.”

Finally, you can see that the snow is almost gone from our yard. Above and to the right of K is what remains of Bumnabul.

I am still holding out hope that we get more snow. It’s not looking good, though. Spring is just under three weeks away. Although it has snowed here as late as April before, I’m not overly optimistic.

"Mama, can we go outside now?"

I have to end this post now. Belle, who is in her customary spot on my lap, is giving me the look you see in the picture above, which basically says, “Are you done yet? Can you take us outside? Please?”

She looks so darn cute when she gives me that look, how can I refuse?

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Wet and Muddy West Virginia

We went to the WV place for the first time since the two blizzards hit. It was a last-minute decision, made only after we got word late in the week that our road and driveway had been cleared. Since we’d already promised Amy to help her with the kids on Saturday, we couldn’t drive up until Saturday evening.

Despite all the snow, the dogs were thrilled to be back. I was, too.

Digging for Treasure

K was digging and digging and digging. I figured it couldn’t hurt to let her dig, what could she find under all that snow?

Treasure Found

I guess she showed me!

Belle says, "I like turtles."

Once the turtle had been uncovered, I knew the next step would be one, two or even three dogs eating a turtle for lunch. Unless I intervened.

Upon closer examination, I decided the turtle was actually dead, not just sleeping (aka hibernating).

I had three disposal options.

  1. Toss the turtle into the woods (the dogs would just go and get it)
  2. Carry the turtle back to the house and dispose of it there (the dogs would be fighting me the whole way to get at the turtle)
  3. Place the turtle out of reach

I elected option number 3. When you are in the woods, the most convenient out of reach places are the trees.

Mama, look! A tree turtle!

Hubby is convinced the turtle is not dead, but hibernating. It’s going to wake up in the Spring and be all like, “How the Hell did I get up here? That must have been some crazy Winter.”

Wet and Muddy Driveway
That is One Dirty Floor
There Are Muddy Footprints Everywhere
Meg Pauses in the Snow
Snow-covered Patio
The Road to Town

As much as I love our WV house, I am totally dreading the next visit. Some heavy-duty cleaning will most definitely be required.

Hopefully, by then, the snow will be gone and the ground will be dry. I know the girls agree. Walking on snow that either has a slippery frozen crust that they crash through or, mostly during midday, has the consistency of a giant slurpee really wears them out. Here’s some video proof.

The next snow storm, which is pending as I write this, has shifted. Latest predictions have us getting between 5 and 8 inches. But it’s one of those storms where there are an awful lot of different variables at play. We won’t know how much snow we’re talking about for sure until sometime on Friday when part 2 of the storm has passed.

I, of course, hope for a foot. My friends in the northeastern part of the US might really get walloped this time. We’ll just have to wait and see…

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The WV Place

We got word the other day that the road to our WV place and the driveway had been plowed. Since we were both anxious to see if all was well, we decided to drive up yesterday afternoon.

All is well, but boy is there a lot of snow. The snow at our Maryland home has been melting at a much faster rate.

Look at the size of the snow pile compared to K.
Deer trails!

K wondering if she can go off-trail.
This pine tree beside our driveway must have provided shelter for quite a few deer. Those are not dog tracks in the snow, they are deer tracks.

Inspecting the deer resting place.

Looking down our driveway from Turkey Hollow Road.

K testing the deer trail.
You can see where the deer dragged their feet trying to get over the snow bank.
K and Belle atop a snowbank.
K "helping" me blog.

I’m not really sure why, but K likes to spend a lot of time in my lap when we are here. I had just uploaded the above pictures when she jumped into my lap. So I made Hubby take a picture of us to add to this post. Yes, I have bed head. I am not showering until after I do some shoveling (there’s a lot that needs to be done).

I hope you enjoyed this morning’s pics. I’ll probably have more to add later. For now, it’s time to shovel.