It has been a while . . .

We really have nothing to report on our Rocketdog business, and this is likely to continue for a bit longer. We are building a new farmhouse and kennel, so new pups are definitely not on the way.

I'll post changes as they happen, but you can keep up by following our Facebook link (above).

The Cool Comes to Creekside Farm

It was rainy and forty-six degrees this morning. Fall fell like the hammer of judgement (cheesy line). And even though nobody looked particularly cold,  I broke out the  winter rain coats anyway.

They were well received.

Laffy Taffy's Fall Morning

It was a brisk forty-nine degrees this morning, with a light breeze,so cuddling up in the sun is just the right thing to do.

Laffy Taffy: Hammock Life

It's a perfect Summer Sunday  afternoon. Seventy-five degrees with a nearly perfect westerly breeze. 

We were going to the movies, but we need no escape from life on Creekside Farm. We have built a great place to hide out built behind our tiny home cabin and it comes complete with tables, chairs, a swimming pool, and a hammock which came with a stand. 

Ann got the hammock for her last birthday and she spends most of her down time lounging there in the dappled sunlight under the Walnut tree. 

For a while now, Clarke and Taffy ask (nicely) to be allowed to climb in with her for a nap. Both Clarke and Taffy love sleeping in the hammock, but each has their own style.

Clarke usually starts off in a lap, then crawls slowly forward, pushing his head uphill until his backside slips down, locking him in a sort of cotton burrito. He hates being left alone in the hammock and dives out once Ann gets up.

Taffy loves to find a nest near to Ann's side and be rocked to sleep. She'll stay there until playtime when she'll attack a hand unprovoked and get herself kicked off the hammock.

Tired Out Laffy

All the gardening wore Laffy Taffy out.

Taffy in MacGreggors Garden

Hide Hay was planting spinach and Laffy  Taffy  was helping. But she soon lost interest. Hast as she had done when helping me weed.

Laffy Taffy helps with the weeding.

Rocketdog Grizzelda Laffy Taffy

Grizzelda Laffy Taffy came to us from Idaho at ten weeks this past Saturday.  She fit with our tangle of hounds and The Cinnamon Bear took her as her very own puppy to raise.

This is a good thing, since the Farm is still a somewhat dangerous place for a little girl all on her own. She spent the first night in our temporary kennel, sleeping in the middle of ClarkeBar and Cinnamon Bear, where she was nice and warm. They woke up in the morning and piled out for breakfast, but Laffy Taffy wasn't interested in kibble. There was too much going on. Eventually we brought her into our tiny home cabin and trued to get her to eat something. We finally got her to eat at about six in the evening, but only a few bites.

She spent the second night out with the big dogs, happily snoozing in the puppy pile. This morning she woke up hungry. i brought her into the Cabin to eat and she finished breakfast quickly.

Clarke and Cinnamon found a cool place.

Today is unseasonably warm,  a record 86 degrees.

Clarke and Cinnamon took a break from chicken watching to find some cool grass growing under the Cabin.

Endlessly fascinating

Since we moved the chickens to the farm ClarkeBar has been wanting one for his very own.

Yesterday he got into a few chicken chasing episodes, today he ought to get the idea that chickens are not for chasing.

Moving Our Hounds to the Farm

It has been a while since I posted here in our Rocketdog page(s). Things have been busy so most of the time I have kept the posts short and on Facebook. But here's something new: We are ready to move the hounds to the Farm.

We had already prepared water and a place to stay, (a place with a bed and enough to keep them safe when we moved cars and trucks through the gate) but simply being able to keep them all out there isn't enough. Hounds can get barky when they are cooped up and bored. We needed something bigger. I needed to build them a place to stay when the gates are open and when we are not there. This required building a larger fenced area.

Even though money isn't our main concern, we will have to build many dozens of them to define the edges of Farm features and paths. So this design does the job for about three dollars a linear foot and I can build them quickly. I used wire concrete reinforcement panels to keep people and dogs out while letting chickens and ducks roam the Farm freely. Best of all, each panel can easily be re-positioned as things get developed by just pulling up the rebar and moving the panels to their new place.

Each fence panel is tied to the next.by eye bolts
through which rebar is driven into the ground.

From their new yard they can see the whole farm,
but not the trail across the road.
So they won't bark at the bikers and hikers.

Their doghouse (with the heated floor)
opens into the lean-to workbench area.
The new back door opens into their  new yard.

Once the fence had been moved around a few times to find a shape that will keep them in while still giving them a view of the place, I put down a few yards of Hemlock bark mulch. The mulch is soft on the paws, keep those paws clean, easily cleaned up, and provide a good barrier to weeds.

After we move to the new kennel the mulch will have "cooked" down into a fine growing mulch and we will till it into the soil to add nutrients. The area where the Cabin and temporary dog yard is presently situated will become a pear orchard.

This is them the first time they went into their new place.
I got the camera out too late to show them tearing the place up.

We are now completely ready to make our move permanent.

March 16, 2018 Saying Goodbye to Carmel Corn SanDiego

In the beginning, when we were making plans rationally and had done none of it, we decided to never use a dog if it would harm them, and not keep one when they were not going to be productive. We decided to find good homes for those dogs that deserved a good retirement from the puppy business.

We seemed to have it all figured out back then.

Having found that Carmen would never have the psychological fortitude to be a good breeder  we struggled in deciding to follow through on our plans. But we bit the bullet and decided to let her go.

So this morning I dropped her with her new family. Nice people who have a goat farm near Ferndale, California. But it was not as easy to do as the plan carefully said it would. The plan said that these are farm animals and "we won't get too attached". The plan wasn't wrong. It just wasn't as easy as we thought.

Carmen came from eastern Washington.
From a good amature breeder.
Her mother was pretty.
Her father was handsome.

Carmen was our puppy and she will be missed. We hope she finds her new life to be wonderful. We hope her new family falls as hard for her as we did. 

When she was large with puppies,
she spent hours on my lap.

Her pups were a combination of
her parents and Clarke's good genes.
She threw exceptionally pretty pups.

Clarke is the tri-color (front and center).
Our litters were a family affair.

Most carried a championship stance.
Most were very high quality.

And all are were very pretty.

March 13, 2018 Carmen got fixed

I really don't know why the vet
docs call having a hysterectomy "fixed".

If it ain't broke you can't fix it.

A plan which worked!

Once the sun came out the hounds figured out why I built the stairs the way I did.