Summer Time!

Well Summer has been a long time in coming but it seems to finally have arrived. I guess we will enjoy what is left and not worry too much that it ends in just a few weeks. Alex, Will's son came to visit for a few weeks. Will and him went to Aquaboggen, Maine's biggest water park. I have put in some pictures below. We wish he would of stayed longer but our christmas trip is coming soon.

He looks more and more like Will every day. I'm sure he will turn out to be a handsome young man. Andrea and I got out paddling in Stonington for a few days as well. It was nice to get out paddling, I wish I had more time for it (if only dakota fit into my boat and would sit still). We had fog one day but otherwise we had some gorgeous sunny weather. It was nice to finally be out in the sun soaking up the rays.

Last weekend Jeremy and Danielle came up to do a hike in the White's. We were able to meet them for half of the hike (I had to work at night). So we met them at the bald face circle trail and hiked up to the shelter and had lunch before we had to head back. Dakota loved hiking, once we got on the trail we were able to have him off leash and he loved it. He would run ahead but was always looking back to make sure we were coming. He loves the water as you can see from the photo of him splashing around. When we got home I went to work and slept for several hours, he was worn out from the whole thing. Will is calling him the hiking puppy now. Last but not least - we have a ton of porcupines at our house - we call them all porky and see them on a regular basis in the summertime. Dakota has even had a run in with them but he is more curious than anything and has already learned to keep his distance. Will caught this one in a tree during the day and took some video of it eating leaves.

When is Summer Coming?

I felt like I had to go with a rain background since June is almost over and I think it has rained more days than not this month. Not sure if summer is ever going to come. If you look at the weather for Poland this week it shows rain every day and it was like this last week as well :(

Some rain is great but this is getting ridiculous. Our poor garden is just rotting away, nothing can grow with all this rain. Hopefully the sun will come out sometime soon. Poor Dakota is going stir crazy too. He wants to go out and play but all this rain has limited the amount of time we all spend outside. He is 8 months old now and is HUGE. We weighed him last week and he was 75lbs and he still has some growing to do. I have included some pictures of him below so you can see how big he is getting.

He is a really good boy - mostly. He is still a puppy and doesn't yet realize how BIG he is and that he can't do the things that he used to (like sit on my lap, go under things, etc.). He will figure it all out over the next few months though. We were really lucky to get a dog with such a good disposition. He loves everyone and thinks all other dogs should play with him and all people should pet him. We love him so much - he is still our little baby puppy!

Mud & Rain!

So the snow has been melting and bulbs have finally been coming up! Here are some pictures of our attack dog, Dakota protecting the house. He loves that there is grass now and loves to run around in the yard. You can still see a few patches of snow here and there. Hopefully in the next week it will all melt. Soon the ground will thaw completely and we will be able to tackle fixing that fence for the garden. It definately needs some tlc and additonal stakes before this summer. (And yes we know we need to take our xmas lights down - the snow just melted so we can now do it easier).

It's been raining a lot lately. We had rain from last Fri through Sat night. This past Sat night when I drove in the driveway after work (around 11 PM), part of the driveway gave way, like quicksand, and I was stuck. Ugh. So although we had grand plans for doing a variety of house work this summer like tiling floors, staining the exterior, etc. it now looks like we will be paying to re-do the driveway. Will tried to pull me out but his little car couldn't do much. Luckily he was able to get out around me to get to work the next day. Sunday morning I was able to get a tow truck to come in and pull me out. Now we have to drive very carefully down this section of the driveway to avoid the quicksand. I'm sure it won't help that is is going to rain for 5 more days this week and we are currently in a flood warning till late tonight.



After they pulled me out I took another picture of the damage that I had done by getting stuck in it. You have to be pretty careful now to avoid another spill. I guess we will have to have someone come in pretty quick to do something so that it does not get any worse. The coming rain, the rest of the snow melt and the fact that we are on a wetland all contributes to this ongoing problem. I think that we will always have a problem with drainage and water while we live here.

I guess you can say that it is definitely mud season here in Maine!

Spring is Coming!

The snow is finally melting, the days are getting warmer and dakota is digging little holes in our driveway. Spring has finally come, I just wish it would all happen faster. Hopefully we will have leaves by the end of April.


Dakota is getting big, almost 40lb and only 5 months now. We figure he will be around 100lb when all is said and done. He has been going to dog training classes (or you could say we have) for a month now and is doing pretty good. We just got him this new bed and as you can see he sure does love it. He got fixed last week, it went pretty well, he just doesn't understand why he can't run around and play like normal. I think Will took it harder than Dakota.

He's a cuddler as you can see and a big baby. Last week he was in the car while we were having dinner and he accidentaly turned the hazards on in the car. I saw it out the window and thought it was the alarm. Lately when I get in the car the wipers are always on too. Mostly he just sleeps in the car and would rather be with us than at home.

He outgrew his old crate, so we got him this new one. We got a great deal at a new place, Tractor Supply Store. Its much roomier for him, at least for now. It should be big enough forever which is good, but now it takes up half our living room. We are trying to figure out a better long term place for it.

Both Will and I have been pretty busy lately. Its been nice to finally have some good weather heading our way - let it all melt! We can finally see big sections of lawn uncovered and of course lots of mud. Dakota has done pretty good with it so far and it hasn't been as big of a mud problem as we thought it might. He loves the lawn and likes to dig little holes in the lawn and driveway for us. We are considering getting chickens this spring and we know training Dakota with them will be lots of work. We have to decide in the next week, so we can order the chicks. It would be nice to have free range eggs all the time and they are also supposed to take care of all your tick problems (they love to eat the little guys). We just have to figure out a coop and learn more about it before we get in over our heads.

I definitely have Spring fever now, I'm ready to get out in the garden. We have already been planning our vegetable garden for this year. I can't wait for the first spring bulbs to come up, it will be happening soon.

This last picture is of Dakota playing with his buddies Bamm and Tonka, they live next door and come over often to play with Dakota. He's been sad lately that we haven't let him play when they have come over but we don't want him to break his stiches. Maybe next week.

Ouch!

Wet, heavy snow, a late night and a steep hill made for an accident for me this past Wednesday night. Everyone was okay, although I am really stiff and sore. Those curtain and side airbags are great - I have to say if I didn't have those I think I would of really been hurt.

Funny how the pictures below don't really look as bad to me now as they did when it happened.

You can see part of the curtain air bag in this photo. We had to roll it all back up and tuck it back in so that I could drive it home. We also had to break the trim piece off and put it in the car. We heard from the insurance guy today and it looks like it will be around $7000 to fix it. Good thing we have good insurance and a low copay.

I've been pretty sore in my neck and back on the left side. I've spent the last few days resting and as Will says, milking it.

Dakota doesn't understand why I'm not playing with him all the time, he looks at me on the couch and barks. He would rather that I play than rest. He is gettting big as well, below is a picture of him. This is normally a place where the cats sleep but he seems to have claimed it for himself now. He is now able to jump up onto most things, we are constantly reminding him to stay down. He knows but doesn't always want to obey. He is good boy and is growing up into a great dog.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

This past weekend we got over a foot of new snow. Dakota loves the snow as you can see from the pictures below.

It must be nice to not really feel the cold and wet but his fur is so thick that he stays warm out there for a long time. He definitely is a spoiled little guy.

It will be strange in the spring when the ground is around again. Not sure what he will do, as its always been snow for him. He has almost doubled in size since we got him but he has a lot more growing still to do. His feet are HUGE. 

He's learning quickly, he already knows how to sit and is learning to like his crate. Most of the time he is pretty mellow and good but he has his occassional puppy fit. Overall we think we got the best pick of the litter and someday soon he will be a great dog. 

Kicking off the New Year!

Well, we hope that everyone enjoyed the holiday break. We had a nice relaxing holiday and are sad to see that it is approaching its end. We added a new member to our family over the holidays, we got a cute little puppy. His name is Dakota and we have posted some pictures so you can see him. 

He is 1/2 rott and 1/2 bouvier shepherd (a long haired shepherd). He is a sweetie and already in the week that we have had him he has grown. His paws are much bigger now than they were when we got him. I think we are in for a big dog later on. 

He loves all the toys, although his favorites seem to be things we didn't expect, like pine cones and matchbox cars.  

Since we have both had the last two weeks off of work it was a good time for us to get a puppy, we've been able to spend a lot of time with him over the first few weeks. Unfortunately we both go back to work next week. Luckily our schedules work out so that he will not have to be home alone too often. He has already been going everywhere with us and has had many fun encounters with other dogs, people, cats and kids. 

Our kitties are slowly adjusting to life with Dakota. The first few days they watched from afar, now they are more curious and know that he is here to stay. They have touched noses a few times and even played games of chase. Although the cats don't like being chewed on and Dakota wants to chew on everything right now. They are adjusting well though and we are now outnumbered by the animals. 

We hope everyone had a great holiday season and wish you all the best of luck in 2009! 

Ice Storm 08

We got hit with the ice storm this past weekend. These pictures are from our property and you can see how much ice came down. It looked beautiful. Most of the birch trees are now bending over towards the ground though, from the weight of all that ice. I had to help Will push his car out of the ice this morning. Overall it has been beautiful and I got a day off from school :)