Summertime Brews Festival

We had an exceptionally busy weekend. First of all, I decided that living in the country means that I must have a vegetable garden. But I will document that adventure later...

On Saturday, there was a beer festival in town. DM was so excited, he could hardly contain himself.

Seriously, he talked about it for weeks in anticipation. Plus, how wonderful is it for him that he has me as a built-in designated driver?

If I counted correctly, they had 238 beers represented at the festival. Basically, DM's dreams came true.

If you have not been to a festival like this before, let me explain how it works. Each beer is available to be sampled by the consumer. At entry, everyone is given a small glass and the brewers dole out 2 ounce samples. But, to be honest, many of them were giving out 2-4 ounces...

2 ounces may not seem like much but repeated regularly certainly adds up! Let me demonstrate...

DM tasted over 150 beers... he did the math... it was the equivalent to drinking 30 beers! In two hours!! Yikes!

Personally, I thought this was clever. They had a keg inside the back of the VW Beetle and a tap that extended through the trunk.

Plus, it had a wheat mohawk. What could be better than that?

Since I was not sampling beers, I was camera happy. I was also fascinated by how many people decided to wear t-shirts revolving around beers. I could literally make a book from how many photos I took of beer t-shirts!

Then I ran into this guy... he noticed that I was taking pictures but was upset that he was not wearing a beer t-shirt... So he said, "Will this work?"

And lifted his shirt to reveal a Jack Daniels tattoo.



He was a very young fellow and all I could think was "Your mamma must be so sad..."

This sort of made me giggle. It was a steel drums band ...

She was serious about her love of hops and barley.

Beer... everywhere

As the day came to a close I thought...I hope they recycle!

Trust

This dog?

I love this dog.

He warms my heart.

The familiar lump of red fur in the middle of the floor is the happiest of sights. The recognizable thump of his tail hitting the floor as he wags is the most glorious of sounds. He is loyal and kind and reminds me everyday that he is the most trustworthy of dogs. He will sleep peacefully on his bed until you return home. He constantly reassures me that under his watchful eye no mischief or bad behavior will occur.

And then I return home from an errand to find the pizza box on the living room floor curiously devoid of the leftover pizza. And I reminisce on all the times that he reassured me of his impeccable and dependable behavior. And I think...

"Well played, Baxter. Well Played."

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For those of you wishing to give Mr. Baxter the benefit of the doubt and wonder how I could possibly know if it was actually he that is guilty for this crime with all of these other critters running around... First of all, I appreciate your way of thinking. I am constantly doling out the benefit of the doubt for all I see. But, unfortunately... he was the only dog inside at the time. Case closed.

a n n a b e l l e

Meet Annabelle. Dear, sweet, gentle Annabelle.

This precious girl was a stray. She wandered up to a barn with three puppies in tow. At first glance she and the puppies all looked well-fed and healthy. She had a collar on so I offered to take her to my vet and have them all looked over and scanned for a microchip. Certainly her owner would be searching for her!

At closer inspection, her collar was far too tight and she had the remainder of baling twine where she had been tied up. At the vet's office we learned she had heartworms and needed treatment. We proceeded with treatment and continued to look for her owners. Once we had her home, it became obvious that Annabelle had been severely abused. I am constantly in shock that people can be so cruel to animals and I must admit I am especially confounded that someone could treat Annabelle in such a horrible manner. She is literally one of the sweetest dogs I have ever met. She is graceful and deliberate in her movements. She does not run wild in the house- she primarily walks wherever she would like to go indoors. She is quiet and hardly ever makes a peep! She has never given a sign of any behavior that would aggravate.

Her one vice? She does not have any sense of spatial relations and she is definitely devoid of the desire for personal space. Her one love in life is to be loved. She will walk in the house and sit at your feet awaiting pets and kisses. If you stop, she will slowly inch closer until she is in your lap and her face is literally smooshed with force against your cheek. I have thought very seriously about training Annabelle to be a therapy dog. She is so kind and gentle that I think she would be suited perfectly for such a job.

I think due to her upbringing and her time as a stray- she is much more inventive and sufficient outdoors than many of our other dogs. She has shown them how to get out of the heat- find new and cool places to lounge. Because of this, she can be quite elusive...

"Nothin' to see here!"

As I mentioned before, Annabelle wandered up as a young mother (we believe she must have been just one year old when she had her litter) with three puppies. One of the puppies went to live at the barn where she was found. It is a perfect fit! The puppy, Tippy, absolutely loves it there and is a perfect "barn dog." Eventually, it came to be that Annabelle and her two other puppies would reside with us and become part of the family.

Annabelle and her puppies-Oliver (top) and Winnie (left)

We absolutely love this little Border Collie mix and her puppies. They are wonderful dogs and I feel blessed everyday to have such great animals in my life.

"Thhhhhhbbbbppppp! I have a great home now!!"

Who did this?

"Nothing to see here!! Just keep walkin' people.

What? This hole? I definitely did not dig this hole. Nope, this hole has been here for ages. Haven't you seen it? I had nothing to do with it. It was here before..."

"Yep, definitely here before."

b l u e

Meet Blue. He is a new member of our family. Blue is a 29 year old (in other words, quite and elderly fellow) Quarter Horse that belonged to the previous owners of our new home.

When we were in the process of purchasing the home, they were concerned with where Blue would live and asked us if we would like to take him and allow him to continue living here. We did not want to disrupt the life of this peaceful little guy if we didn't have to and so we agreed.

In a previous life, Blue was a Hunter/Jumper. I believe his show name was "Rock's Cutter Blue" though I do not have any of his papers and I am not 100% sure of that. He lived here all by his lonesome and I think he is very happy to have a couple of equine companions now. Horses are herd animals by nature and many of them do not do well alone. Blue, however, seemed to manage fine over the years but he seems to be keen on having friends.

For those of you wondering what is on his face... it is called a fly mask. It is see through (so he isn't blind-folded out there!) but it keeps the flies out of his eyes.

A crucial element

Step one of moving is.... (drum roll please)... building a fence to keep all of the critters safely contained.

It is back breaking work, though... or at least that is what I hear.

Not beautiful, but functional. And that is what is most important, right? Right? Please tell me so, because I still ache for beautiful.

Do you know what I think is beautiful? Close ups. I love them. In this case, it is a red farm gate.

We're Moving!

The exciting news from a month ago that I never had a chance to share because my computer suffered an untimely death? WE'RE MOVING!!

We found a great house outside of town where all of the animals can romp and play and have a great time and we are VERY excited about it!

Moving, however, is not my favorite activity. Packing and lifting and carrying oh my! I will be happy when it is all over and we are settled.

"Mom! Mom! Quit your blabberin'! You know how tasty I think cardboard is.. can I have it? Can I have it? I'm surrounded!"

"Pleeeeeeaaaaase??"

"Okay... I guess this biscuit will suffice..."

"But this cardboard...mmmmm.... it still looks tasty. See my drool on the flap of the box? I will just sneak a chomp or two when she's not looking. Woo woo woo!!"