Birdie has finally come in season ~ this will be her one and only litter as she is really my son Seth's (and his family's) companion but we do want to save these valuable bloodlines for our breeding program since she's out of our WTCH Briarlea Lark of High Rolls TD CD PT and one of the titled dogs we imported from France - We'll update when we have an alliance with Solo.

It seems the cold weather a few weeks ago has slowed down the green-up here in NM; our flowering jasmine looks dead although our neighbor swears it will come to life...how, I ask, when we have had no moisture all year?

First, a note that my son Seth was quoted with pictures of his Saunas in an msn article! I am unable to put the link here (too bad!) - also, he's coming down here next week for a visit! Yippee!! I'll be so excited to see him ;)

The winds are truly remarkable here in NM - and maybe some rain tomorrow so we're getting ready with books and videos at the library this afternoon. Thank goodness, no snow! I got the contract from community ed for the upcoming family dog obedience classes I will be teaching when I go back up north - it should be fun!

It looks like the wind is arriving in New Mexico a month early this year - predictions of winds up to 80mph are forecast for the weekend. Yikes!! I've been busy raking, pruning, cleaning up the yard and taking trips to my sister Suzanne's place in La Luz to do the same. The dogs especially enjoy her place which is big and fenced in so they get to raz around like crazies until they poop out and flop down in the shade. The grass is just starting to green up and the local Lowe's and Home Depot now have the flats of tomatoes and marigolds out...oh, the temptations....! Trouble's doing well, fat and sassy - Una goes in to be spayed on Tuesday and we're still waiting on Birdie to come in season. Solo had his coat cut down yesterday; the leaves and bits of flotsam and jetsam became just too much. He is figuring out the article indication for AKC utility, has his positions down (for french ring) and we're working on the rest of his exercises for both as time permits. He's a lot of fun to partner with!

Not too much else to report for now, just enjoying the weather and looking forward to having Jim come down next Sunday!

After a quick trip to Las Vegas, New Mexico, we're back home taking advantage of the warm days (70F) here in southern NM. Las Vegas is about an hour east of Santa Fe and is gorgeous mountainy (and very western) country. The dogs enjoyed the cool climate and I began a new collection of copper cowboy hats! We're hearing from our friends up north that the snow has been piling up ~ Jim's gone off to Milwaukee to stay with his folks while his mom undergoes surgery - and will be heading down here the first weekend in March, dragging me kicking and screaming back to the frozen tundra in the middle of the month.

Solo has begun article training in AKC Utility - he loves it - and now that Trouble has been bred, we can all take a break from that particular excitement :)

It's almost 75F here this morning and not even noon yet! I took Una down to the 'dogwash' and gave her a bath; we're off to pick up some blooming hyacinths and crocus to put in the big pots by the front door. We're also going to take a look at fig trees; our neighbor has one that produces for him so it might be worth a try!
The big news is that Trouble and Solo have had 2 successful alliances the past two days ~ puppies would be due around April 19 and ready for new homes Father's Day weekend if all goes as planned. If you have sent a deposit for a pup, you are on the official list now!
Tomorrow I head north for a little adventure (with the dogs!) to visit my son Miles near Santa Fe...he starts a new job near Colorado Springs on February 28 so this is our window of opportunity for a visit. The birds are very active here in the mornings, it sounds like Springtime in Wisconsin!

Happy Valentine's Day! Reports from Wisconsin that the first set of lambs has been born! The old earless ewe had twins on Saturday over at Phyllis' place where she had been volunteered for stockwork. Phyllis has put her and the other two aged ewes in the barn now. Good old ewe to wait until the weather had warmed up to lamb!

Here, we heard from Nancy Culley that Riker had qualified in Excellent Standard and Jumpers and that Bennie had finished his FAST title - Noche, Ziva and Stryker are all out there training and/or trialing in Minnesota and Kaida and now Cayuse continue to work in French Ring out in Seattle. We are saddened to report that Bruta passed away last weekend; I"ll fill everyone in on the details in another post.

In the meanwhile, the temps are in the 60-70F range here, talk of the dry winter and sell-off of livestock on the radio this morning. Trouble is due to be bred this week; I"ll be back in town in a few days to report on her progress!

It's Tuesday and back to 'normal' here in New Mexico with temps in the mid-60's today however we also seem to be having a 'wind event' with white sands blowing across the desert. It's nothing if not interesting! The good news is that I am feeling much better, the water is unfrozen, the house continues to be snug if a bit doggy now that Trouble has come in season. We had an appointment to spay Una last Tuesday but it was not to be .... she will have it done before we head north however. Yesterday we drove up the mountain to Cloudcroft to see what the fire damage looked like - a number of the small businesses went up in fire and smoke right before Xmas but all had been cleared up and the town certainly seemed to have plenty of cars lining the street. We stopped in at a new art gallery and picked up Valentine cards for my mom and my mom-in-law.

We are delighted to be feeding the winter birds; rufous sided towhees, stellar jays, and myriad other 'little' birds, mostly grey and brown, that need identifying yet. Bird feed, like all feed down here, seems remarkably expensive.

Jim reports that winter is still in full swing up in Wisconsin although folks at the little Cafe seem to be mollified temporarily by the Packer win!

New Mexico in the winter ~ this year it's been an adventure! All of January I felt blessed to be where the sun shone every day without fail, the temperature hovered between 60 and 70F and we took long walks in the canyons around High Rolls. February 1 arrived with the snow of the century - our water froze, the windows were caked with an inch of ice, I came down with the flu and Una came in season. Unable to travel down the mountain due to black ice, we holed up for the week, watched movies (War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice (along with commentary) 5 episodes of "24" and watched dog training videos until we could truly take no more! Today I am feeling human again, we ventured out and are amazed to see snow in Alameda Park in Alamogordo, snow on all the mountains east and west of us! There is no water to be found in the local grocery stores and everyone is bundled up although the temps are predicted to be in the upper 40's today! Let's hope we've seen the end of 'winter' here!

Here is Magnus, in the Pacific Northwest - one of the beautiful pups from a couple years ago. Thanks, Larry, for sending it on!

Here in New Mexico I've been busy volunteering at the local No-Kill shelter 3x per week training dogs. It's exhausting but interesting to see the differences in the various breeds. They seem to have a lot of pitbull cross dogs, big and strong but not aggressive (thank god...) and then some 'reservation dogs' from the Mescalero Indian Reservations - these tend to be smallish, thick coated black dogs that look like they have coyote or shepherd backgrounds - and they tend to have a lot of interesting personality. So, as I say, I'm learning! We have an appointment to take Una in to the vet next Tuesday to be spayed; she will be 8 this year and we certainly don't have any intention of having this grandma pregnant. Her son Solo is getting in a lot of training, some VST-style tracking, obedience classes indoors and work at the local college for socialization. Trouble and Birdie should be in season this month so we do have breeding plans for them - which will mean puppies this spring! We have some deposits on the litters but are mostly asking folks to wait until they are bred before sending them to us.

Thanks to our friend Betsy for giving us a report on Stryker's new AXJ title! And to Susan for keeping us posted on Noche's progress!

A couple surprise emails today!

First:
My husband got Bigsby and brought him to Chicago ten years ago – I thought you’d like to see him now! He’s happy and healthy and the love of our lives. Thank you so very much!

And here's Lee and Sam down in Alabama! Thanks so much for sending pictures everyone! Sam looks so much like Trouble!

A picture of Noche' up in Minnesota - we're glad to hear it is warming up a little bit as it's been frighteningly cold there. Meanwhile, we're enjoying sunshine and mild temperatures here in New Mexico, taking hikes in the mountains and generally enjoying ourselves. Solo is attending obedience classes in Alamogordo on Saturdays and I continue to volunteer at the local no-kill shelter, training dogs. My son Seth called this morning to tell me that he's going to be delivering a sauna sometime in February down here in New Mexico so Yippee!! We'll get to have a teeny vacation together!

Our Juliet au Clair de Lune from Lark in April, 2009 is a lovely pet for us and the darling of our neighborhood. Here is a recent photo of her sitting on our front porch.

My husband, Chuck, and I and our two girls, Jackie and Juliet, relocated from Louisiana to Pawleys Island SC last summer. Juliet loves the beach. We picked out this location in part because the beach is pet friendly.

I read your blog from time to time. Thought you might like to see Juliet. She is a regular at our local Ace Hardware store where they have named her their mascot.

Carol Ann

A note from Gary - this is Kane from Cyrano x Ruby - and Gary's Malinois Lexi. They live in Michigan; we're delighted to hear from them and to see what a handsome fellow Kane has turned out to be!

We're enjoying more warm weather down here; the dogs all joined me on a walk yesterday in the canyon - we seem to see quite a few pinon jays and this morning a raven was torturing Jet by calling back and forth to his barking...lovely!! I began volunteering at the Animal Village of New Mexico yesterday - and, as I suspected, it is an experience to work a dozen pitbull cross dogs in one afternoon.

I have also been working on painting and repainting in the house; it looks great! And, Solo and I are continuing to work VST tracks using the Steve White hydration method. Next weekend there is a big powwow in Silver City that we're hoping to make time to attend - it's a bit of a drive with 5 dogs though so we'll see what happens there.

This morning I saw a large black spider behind one of the wall rugs - a body about the size of a blueberry!! I had a lunch out with a friend who told me that this year they had seen both a small rattlesnake and 3 tarantulas in High Rolls - atypical since at this elevation they aren't usually seen! Yikes!

We're feeling very fortunate to be in New Mexico this year; it was 66F yesterday ~ I took the dogs for a long hike in the canyon, range cattle safely at bay, the dogs running around like crazies. Solo seems to have finally put together the 3 positions for french ringsport! I was very happy to have him do the series this morning along with some jumps before we headed down here to town. There is a great balloon ascension this morning in Las Cruces, something like 75 balloons but we are missing it, instead choosing to watch the local rodeo kids work horses and calves down at the fairgrounds. It is like something out of the 'real' west which, of course, this is...even so much so that I wonder about my "Wool...it's what's for winter" bumper sticker!

Monday I start training dogs at the local (and very new) no-kill shelter. It will be a new experience for me; many of the dogs have come off the Mescalero Indian reservation and are "indian dogs" whatever they are. It'll be an experience regardless of the dogs and one I expect to learn from. I am also taking some dog obedience training classes of course and am doing VST tracking with Solo ~ great opportunity down here with no snow and all.

Just stopping by the library to check my email - Trouble's OFA hip report arrived with a rating of "Good" so that is always excellent news. All else is going well, we're getting in some long hikes in the warm sun (60F!) and generally enjoying ourselves!

Thanks to my friend Lynn for this lovely picture of Ziva - one of Una's girls, looking lovely in the Minnesota winter.

Before I forget! This year, our mailing address is:

Sunny DeYoung
General Delivery
High Rolls, Mountain Park, N.M. 88325

Amazing that I can actually upload photos you send! Here is Noche' after an extreme buzz job - she is busy with obedience and from all accounts enjoying Minnesota winter!

In the meanwhile, down here in the southwest, we spent yesterday in Capitan, N.M. (home to Smokey Bear) where Jet-the-Kelpie was neutered at Dr. Becky Washburn's clinic - Becky is somewhat of a local legend, ex-racehouse jockey, vet for the Wild Horse removal from White Sands, etc. She also is extremely affordable ($57 for the neuter included a current rabies vaccine!) At any rate, we went to art galleries in Capitan and Three Rivers, had a great lunch of chili rellenos in Carrizozo and motored out way back to the Sacramento Mountains in time to watch the sunset. We got up this morning to another 40F degree day and, unfortunately, some well problems, now hopefully sorted out. The well crew consisted of two extremely polite cowboys, "Yes ma'am, it sure doesn't look good" and a bill somewhat higher than Jet's visit to the vet. This afternoon we're doing some little errands and will head off for a hike once we're done here at the library.

Here in New Mexico we have 60F this afternoon; we are just back from a lunch of onion and cheese enchiladas and dog training and are now winding down the afternoon with some computer time at the library. Our neighbor James Cadwallader brought over a cord of wood ($90) mostly pinion which smells heavenly...he remarked (among other topics) that the elk and deer buck population was down due to the increased mountain lion population. Yikes! The dogs are all doing well and enjoying the long snow-free walks in the mountains with us.

Hello from Tucumcari, New Mexico! The first leg of our trip, Wisconsin to Des Moines was JUST NUTS! as Jim was repeatedly describing it - blowing snow, icy roads, you could hardly see the car in front of you going along I-35 much less the cars across the freeway heading north...we crept along at 35 mph for much of the trip...but finally, after Des Moines the roads cleared up - no snow but huge gusts of wind catching the van and trailer combo - all quite exciting! We got to just north of Kansas City last night and stopped for gas in Liberty, KS - it was dark, around 5 or so and we noticed that the lights were off on the trailer -- well, actually, they were off on not only the trailer but the running lights on the van were out as well. Jim checked and replaced a fuse, grinning as he jumped back into the van only to have them short out again...needless to say, we weren't driving through KC with no lights .... so we drove about a mile down the freeway to a motel (Indian run, having a party in the office, curries and all!) This morning we got up to 40F and sun - a Starbucks across the street and life was looking pretty good. Jim checked the fuse again and reseated it and the lights on the van came on. No lights on the trailer but that's okay, we'll stop at night...we drove straight through, stopping near Pratt KS for a mile walk with the dogs (all 5 of them have been great travelers!) and then again in Liberal where we went to "Super Pollo" for outdoor bbq chicken (very good!) and now are in Tucumcari. It was 55F in Liberal where we ate outdoors, the sun shining, the smoke drifting skyward and all seemed right in the world. We have been listening to public radio some of the time, this afternoon we ran across "The Thomas Jefferson Hour" - amazing!!! It is a weekly program out of North Dakota of all places, which has 2 actors, one being President Jefferson - the other the interviewer - and they discuss topics current and historic. It was wonderful. We are seeing lots of hawks of course and waterfowl, some cold looking meadowlarks and a couple mule deer near the roadside; Jim saw a coyote run across the road but I missed that one. We're having good conversations and are enjoying spending time together...tomorrow we'll be in High Rolls!!