all around the place

I got some comments... maybe not enough to know that everyone looks in here, but I guess you do. So I'll put up some more videos. For a lot of these guys, this is their last gallop here before we head back to the city this afternoon.

This is the folder with all the videos. Blogger isn't letting me embed the videos today.

I went for a swim with Cassidy, Cozy, Gordon and Tango. Cassidy and Cozy are the sweetest pair. They sit side by side in the sun, picking each other out of the crowd for companionship. It's a very quiet, sweet relationship. And Gordon and Tango look alike, I guess both the same breed, and they act alike and play nicely. Both Cozy and Gordon are doing great. Not nervous... getting comfortable. We went for a swim and then they went tearing around the hay field but my battery died... so none of that is recorded. I will work on getting Cozy and Cassidy snuggling. Here's us at the pond.

I also wanted to get Rosie, Pipi, Gracie, and Muri in on a little dog group shot (the other little dogs need leashes). They wouldn't really cooperate and give me a nice cute picture. Here they are. And here are some more.

This one is pretty long. Cleo, Freya, WIlly, Simon and Cali go on a trip past the tomatoes, through the hay field, then Willy finds the swamp. He needs a swim. We see the tomatoes in their infant state and I begin to dream of the succulent delicious bounty of late summer, when I have bowls and bowls and buckets of these delicious (did I say that?) gorgeous tomatoes. Mike, the farmer, lets me pick all the ones with spots. That's 90%. He only harvests and markets 10% of the crop because 90% have splits in the top or spots or won't transport well because they are too ripe. I am not joking: 90% is wasted, because I can only eat and freeze about .5% of that 90%.

And 90% percent of the herbicides, pesticides and fungicides (including the ones allowed according to organic standards, like copper) are applied for aesthetics. If there were a way to get people to eat produce with spots and cracks, this world would be much cleaner, our food would taste much better and be much healthier and I wouldn't be worrying about all those chemicals next to my house... although Mike is pretty responsible even if he isn't organic. I wish he were organic though.

And I bet he wishes I wouldn't let my dogs run through his baby tomato plants. In the later summer, he would welcome my dogs to impress deer and ground hogs, but now, they can tear up a little plant.

One of the themes of today is cleanliness. You'll see some blankets hanging from the fence, for example. Cleaning the blankets is a terrible job but not so bad when it's so nice and sunny. Here is the main yard with a lot of dogs. I will let the little ones have the main yard and put the big ones inside later on. Helmut is messing with my blankets.

If you look at this video you will see most of the dogs and we will go from the dog yard, through the dog house, out down the lane toward the horse, then get diverted to the house. So the whole place in one video. Most of them are in here but Jackson and Shiela come with me.

I have tried dog beds: they don't work. I want only stuff made of biodegradable material, all cotton, all wool. Otherwise when the rip is up, and they will, sometimes within 30 minutes of unsupervised access to a new bed, I can dump it with the other matter in a big pit and let it decay. If some artificial material gets mixed into the wood shaving and other waste, then the whole thing becomes non-biodegradable and it has to go to the dump, filling up land fill instead of slowly (very slowly) turning back into dirt.

So, if you have any old blankets you want to get rid of, but not stuffed dog beds, I'll take them. And tennis balls. Otherwise, I think I have everything I need.

The other thing is the car. It can really smell. I tried to put sheets in but they get ripped up, and I seem to be doing as much cleaning as before or more, since I still have to clean the car. I figure sunshine and wind is one of the best ways to make it smell a little better so I leave the windows open in weather like this. Simon took full advantage of the open window to get himself some peace and quiet. He's asleep in the car as I write this. I just got it all clean... it used to be our family car but now I only use it for dogs. I can get quite a few in there and it gets 28 MPG, which is pretty important when you drive 600 miles a week (2 trips to the city) although the van is okay too (about 18 MPG although it should do better). Lot of money.

Well, all that is more than you need to know and I didn't catch all the dogs in the videos today... see you later.