New Beds for the Puppies

At the beginning of January, I picked up a new "living room" bed for Charlie, and he really does enjoy it.  Molly always opts for the carpet, so I really wasn't worried about getting her one.  That was working all well and good until I rearranged the living room and Molly discovered the "cool" bed!  Charlie wasn't really appreciating her in his spot, even if he wasn't laying in it to begin with, so we picked her up one today.  Molly likes to lay up on things, so we went for one with the raised edges.  She's been trying it out in spurts this evening and so far, so good!

Of course, Charlie needed to check it out to make sure it passed his approval as well.  Molly wasted no time in trying his out again as well.  She didn't get to lay there long once he realized that she had his spot. 

Of course these are just for their family time naps.  At night and during the day, they are still in their kennels.  At eight months, there are no unsupervised house visit for these two hooligans!

More Puppy Damage

The four legged kids are driving this two legged momma batty!  I wondered why they were being so quiet the other day and a peek around the side of the house explained it all. 

I keep all my extra plastic and little terracotta pots in my tiny greenhouse that I used a few years back.  Basically, it's just a shelving unit with a plastic cover that I started using for the pot storage.  I put the cover on it so that rain water wouldn't accumulate in pots.  Thing One and Thing Two however thought it had a much more useful purpose...shredding the plastic so they could then rip apart and disperse the plastic pots all over the yard. 

All the pots are now in a large plastic tub that is secured tightly on the porch.  I'm thinking that I've pretty much puppy proofed the backyard unless they decide they need to rip out the few things that I do have in the ground.  Fortunately, they've not showed any interest in these and they've had ample opportunity. 

Mandy

Protecting the Greenhouse

What you ask does the greenhouse need protected from?

From Thing One...

...and Thing Two

What did they do this time?  The heathens chewed off a window flap and the mesh window and then had a feast on my succulents. 

Their entrance is taped up now, but they snapped a few branches of my 'Red Bird' Cactus and the non-variegated Jacob's Ladder...they're really the same thing, but one's variegated and the other's not.

My Kalanchoe 'Fantastic' is minus a few babies that were growing at her base.  We won't discuss the nice fat leaves that got chopped.

This one made me the most irritated.  They were cuttings that a blogger friend sent me that were doing quite well until they got plucked and thrashed about!  I think I salvaged most of them, now to just wait and see. 

The didn't eat any of the Kalanchoe 'Pink Butterfly', but they did snap one of the branches in half.  This is my most finicky Kalanchoe and they really need to leave her alone!

There was more damage, but the pictures didn't come out like they should. 

They're coming very close to being strung up by their not so little necks if they don't knock it off!

I thought about what to do while out Christmas shopping with my oldest and decided on fencing it off.  A quick call to my friend who lives across the street and it was settled...we'd build a fence around it when we both got home. 

The trip to Home Depot proved to be less expensive that I'd originally thought and the guy that helped me was a great help in getting me exactly what I needed without any overkill.  I think he felt sorry for me when I explained what I was doing and why. 

My youngest helped me get the posts where we wanted them and then covered up the damaged window.  Needless to say, that window won't be getting opened.  We also have an issue with this awful post from the phone company next to the greenhouse.  They've been working on it and some nincompoop left a ton of exposed wires, one that the dogs helped cut in half, so I decided to just fence off the whole space.  Amy got home just as I was bringing the fencing back, and we got right to work.  She taught me how to use a post pusher inner...it's amazing how easy things work when you do them right!

The cinder blocks help hold the covering down so the wind doesn't pick them up.  It's also come in handy to to keep out heathens.  It's classy I know, but the upturned laundry basket is covering the electrical outlet post that is there for the pool and my heater.  If they don't see it, they're less likely to want it.  I can untie and fold back the fence to get in and out.  Thankfully I don't go out everyday unless it's cold and I have the heater or lamp on.  

This should keep the heathens out and keep me a little more sane!  I'm not so sure how happy my husband will be tomorrow when he gets home from the deer lease, but sometimes a girl's got to do what a girl's to do! 

 Everything is tucked back in and we should be able to keep it this way.

Mandy



Puppies in the Greenhouse

Saturday started off just a tiny bit stressful.  It was raining and so I only let the puppies out just to eat and do their business before putting them back in their kennel so I could go back to sleep.  They did incredibly well at that and I was able to get another two hours of sleep in.  About 9 a.m., I was putting the ornaments on the tree, looked out the back window and realized that the zipper door was up on the greenhouse.  Thinking that I knew I had shut it, I walked out and the closer I got I knew something was up.   It had stopped raining so they were of course running around sloshing around in the mud and water.  They both followed me into the greenhouse and that's when I lost it.  Somehow, these two terrors; gone were my little angels, unzipped the door and then busted through the mesh window.  I had left one window up for ventilation, and it was definitely letting air flow through at that point!

The trampled the Palmer Sedum and made it to the back of the crushing things that were in their way to their prize.  I've decided that certain succulents must put out more appealing smells because they bypassed a lot to get to the one in the back.  And out of that pot, they only dug up the one.

The Sanseveria's took a nice hit too.

Needless to say, I sprayed the Boundary stuff all around the greenhouse and put bricks at the bottom of the door's zippers to keep them out.  They got a pretty good tongue lashing too.  They're lucky that I didn't catch them doing it or they'd have been in bigger trouble.

It's gonna be a long winter!

Kalanchoe tubiflora 'Chandelier Plant'

I was trying for record heights with my 'Chandelier Plant' this year.  Note the key word "was" trying.  Everything was going quite well until the dynamic duo fell into it Wednesday this week and well, let's just say I'll be starting from square one again.

This is the most recent picture I had of it, not too tall, but it was getting there.  I thought I had another picture, but this is the only one I can find.  It's the one right at Molly's ear, the stalks were starting to curve under it's weight. 

This is what I found when I walked out to get them for bedtime in the kennel...grrrr!

The pot was upside down and everything in it strewn all over the porch and carried over to the yard.  I must be mellowing or finally accepting the fact that this could happen more frequently than not for the next year and a half with the dynamic duo because I was actually pretty calm.  I just stood there and breathed for a few seconds and then reminded them that , "good puppies don't knock down, play with or eat mommy's plants".  I think they're getting the picture, or maybe I'm just more delusional than I will admit!

The good thing with this particular plant is that it's quite invasive and all I need to do is break apart some of the rescued pieces and stick them back in the dirt.  I would have cut it back for winter storage, but that would have been on my own terms. 

Today, after getting into it and having to be sprayed with the hose to let go of each other's faces (all over a bone disagreement), I discovered they had also managed to knock down my Texas Sedum that I had on the top shelf down in the ruckus.  I'm guessing one of them hit the shelf in their argument and knocked it down because it wasn't mauled necessarily, just snapped in half.  In addition to their hosing down, they got popped on their backsides and received a stern lecture on what was accepted behavior and what was not.  They also lost their bones for the day...silly little giant puppies!

The Puppies

Charlie and Molly are closing in on six months, which means we've had them for three already.  There was a good couple of days not too long ago when I was threatening to send them to boarding school!  I'm not sure why, but Charlie loves anything fuzzy.  That means that any fuzzy Kalanchoe he can get his mouth on is history; you can imagine my irritation with him and his attraction to my favorites.  The trainer at puppy training suggested this great spray and I went to town! We haven't had an issue since except the morning I left the chair next to the plant rack and wouldn't you know it, Charlie found the only fuzzy one there!

Charlie is very found of Daughter #2, actually they both are, but we won't tell Daughter #1 that! She can get them to do just about anything.  Charlie is definitely the stubborn one of the two, so she's got her work cut out for her.

Molly is a trip, she comes out of the kennel with a toy in her mouth and out the back door usually with two.  She snorts like a horse, but refuses to come out of the house any other way.  Molly is our fetcher.  She loves to chase and is pretty good about bringing it back to you.  That is of course until Charlie decides he wants the toy and then you can forget about getting it back.  He's much more into tug-a-war as long as he's winning.

This weekend, we picked them up two new beds for their kennel.  The plan was to get another kennel, but we're going to hold off for a while longer before we separate them.  They both loved them!  This was the first night since we've had them that they just chilled in the living room for longer than five minutes. 

Charlie really likes his.  He took about an hour and a half hour nap; again a first out of the kennel! 

Daughter #1 is trying to grow on Charlie.  Molly is hers, and Charlie just likes to scare her.  He doesn't give anyone too much trouble but her...I'm thinking it's because she squeals like a girl!

My big baby!  I did not want a boy dog, but I love my little guy.  He loves to cuddle unlike Molly who just likes to jump and terrorize you with her tongue...gross!!!

How can you not love these faces!  Last week we weighed them...  

Charlie is at 29.5 lbs.

Molly is at 26.5 lbs.

Mandy

Mr. Graceful...not!

Charlie has learned there's a whole new world to be explored at the top of the stairs.  We've had Charlie and Molly with us for about two month, and until last week they never paid any attention to the staircase.  Gone are those days.  The first couple of days when he found the stairs, he would only go to the first or second landing.

I tried to get him to come up the stairs, but he just stood there and looked at me while banging his tail against the wall.  That was yesterday.  This morning, he made it all the way up and explored the bedrooms.  It was kind of cute watching him go room to room.  As he walked from room to room, he'd do that wiggly, submissive puppy thing like they do when an older dog is checking him out.  He wasn't so sure about coming down, so I had to pick him up and lug him back down.  It was that or face the wrath of a teenager being woken up by a barking puppy.  The girls didn't have school today and had them out of their kennel more than they should have.  I got a call about 11 a.m. asking me how to keep Charlie off the staircase.  My suggestion was to put the guinea pig's cage in front of it; that got tossed out.  Throughout the day he got a bit braver, and by the evening had become quite a pro at zooming up and down the stairs.  The landing isn't always graceful though! 

I wish I had been further back, because he completely bellied out when he hit the floor...hilarious!

I'll be picking up a baby gate in the near future. They had to go in their kennel early because the girls were preoccupied and he really digs his new game!  I on the other hand don't have that much patience to keep retrieving him from upstairs, not to mention pulling the socks out of his mouth that he keeps carrying down!

Molly hasn't found the joy in the game like Charlie has...no, she'd rather just knock the trashcan over!  I suppose it's a good thing that we're starting obedience classes on Thursday.