Duffy

There's a new member of the family. Duffy is a 2 year old male rescue. He is ready to play 24/7/365. I don't think he'll be able to wear out the Puli brothers though.

Ginny is letting him know who is the snow queen. You can see a little bit of the cotton clothesline "leash" on Duffy. He's been an "outside" dog most of his life so we need to learn things like "come". Right now he's just concerned with staying close to the rest of the pack, but once he starts to feel it's familiar territory then he just might start to wander off a bit. Today has been filled with lessons, sit, come, wait, all sorts of good stuff....

Beat the Devil

They've finally found an appropriate toy. It's a little stuffed squeaky red devil.

Smiles

Ginny doesn't mind the thaw at all....

The flying Puli brothers

I've told you they're nuts right?


This may look like a fight - but it's not- it's a wrestling match and BB is about to get body slammed once again.

Thaw

This is my least favorite time of year, taxes and mud what a delightful combination.

Walking on water

The snow has a hard crust on it so the Hellboyz can now run across the meadow without sinking in. Fun for them- a little harder on me.


Of course the favorite game of spinning with an old sock as pivot point hasn't stopped it's just that the playing field has increased.

nose to the grindstone....

Yesterday Ginny turned into a tracker. Looking at the tracks it looked like a pack of coyotes had moved through in the night- maybe 3 or 4.


This was more important than rolling in the snow or herding the Puli boys.

Zhivago

We had a little mid day snowshoe today. The sun was out and the snow had a satin shine to it. We've had a day and a half of warmer temperatures and now the sun comes out and makes it sparkle, just a little.



The Hellboyz did their very best Dr. Zhivago imitation.


Ginny opted for the back of my snowshoes instead of breaking trail. By the time we'd toured the meadow everyone had decided I should break trail. Lucky me.

Fire in the Sky

Yep, this is the type of Sunset John Denver wrote about- a classic Rocky Mountain "Fire in the Sky" sunset.

Playtime

It was warmer but overcast yesterday and everyone was in the mood for playtime. Ginny just got right in the middle of the hellboyz frolic.


With her ears up and little bouncey front paws......


If they didn't pay attention she'd just grab a hold of a hind leg until they did (they don't call it bulldoggin' for nothin') BB seems to get this treatment exclusively. If they play too hard then they let out a high Puli screech. No screeching is being done here. It's a surprisingly quiet game.


Luverboy just doesn't know his own strength. He's like a big floppy wiggling long haired bear.


Of course a few barks are absolutely necessary....



Then it's back to the scrum...


and finally a trot home to end the day.

Tickle monster

Did your big brother ever get you on your back and tickle you mercilessly? BB tries to be "top puppy" big bad growly alpha Puli and then- boom- Luverboy just slams him on his back and wiggles him to death.

visitor

Not that unusual around here but in midwinter a lone deer probably isn't going to make it through till Spring, especially in a heavy snow year like this one.

Enough already?

Ginny may just have decided she's had enough snow.... we had another 3 inches last night. Our biggest snow months are ahead of us- February and March. I need a bigger plow. Heck, I need a bull dozer.....

Buffalo Pulik

Squeaky balloon snow

It will come as no surprise that yesterday we got more snow. It's cold enough to sound like rubbing the outside of a balloon when you walk on it. It's light and dry and gives that silky swish swish sound under skis.


Just a little 1-2" dusting as you can see by Ginny's roll in the new stuff. It doesn't seem like anyone minds being outside in the stuff except me? I have shoes and I get cold feet- they have paws and don't seem to mind in the least. In fact they like eating snow more than drinking from the water bowl. I think Ginny got into this habit at the Puppy mill and she'll just push along rubbing the side of her face through the powder with her mouth open scooping up snow, licking snow, eating snow.


That doesn't account for the wind however, the drifts can be 3-4x as high. We get a lot of wind up here.


The sunset was crisp and beautiful as usual.

It's supposed to get warmer over the weekend- into the 30's. We'll see if that actually happens.

Winter sunset

Sometimes when the alpenglo hits the ridge you just feel like you're inside a Frederick Remington painting....

... or an N.C. Wyeth....

More Snow...

Monday- what a surprise- more snow... Actually this is great. The old saying around here is "Hard Winter makes a good Spring and Summer."

I spent most of the day plowing and shoveling. I had encouragement from the sidelines....

Sock Wars!

The hellboyz may have started holding the sock...


But not for long....


Guess who won?

sunset sunrise

Yesterdays sunset.

Today's dawn.

.... and probably more snow in between the next.....

tug of war

The hellboyz were playing with the sock until Ginny decided to get in on the action.

Luverboy is hanging on but BB hasn't quite sussed the situation yet.



Then they decide to make it two against one.



Doesn't seem quite fair does it? Although Ginny is holding her own quite well.

Sugar

It's like someone came along and powdered their wigs... The breed standard does include "shades of grey" but I don't think this is what they had in mind.



Since we've had more snow and the previous snowshoe track was blown away everyone decided they would allow me the honor of breaking trail. Nothing quite like lifting up a snowshoe full of snow *and* full of Puli.


When I say "more snow"- well you might get the idea- our fence is almost useless at this point. The elk are walking over it.

mousey mousey

Jinksy would have gone nuts. He was a great mouser. This very bold deer mouse spent the night in our mudroom and left his brazen little tracks all around the door in a little conga line of hip hop and tail dragging.