Big Puppy and a Road Trip

I totally forgot just how time consuming a puppy can be,

especially a big puppy.

Who might look like a grown up, at 30 pounds and rapidly growing, but definitely isn't.

I spend all this money on great dog food with no corn and no by products and then this big galloope eats dirt. He will eat anything, rocks, sticks, bugs, dirt clods...very picky gourmet eater.

I have to spend a majority of my time watching him. So he doesn't eat something that would get us into trouble. He has to learn everything. Puppies don't come already housebroken. They are good at house breaking! Thank God for baby gates and linoleum.

In between puppy training I started cleaning up the garden.  My garden was a bust this year. Too many bugs. My tomatoes made more plants than fruit. Some of the bushes were 6 ft tall, but almost no fruit. The tomatoes they produced were weird. Just weird, I never have seen such strange abnormalities in a tomato before. My farm friends that had 248 plants gave me several boxes of tomatoes that were just gorgeous. I canned salsa and cooked tomatoes. After filling up my pantry I pulled my tomato plants up to get rid of the bugs.  Not exactly your gardener happy ending story, but that's life.  What if we had to depend on that for our living? I guess I would have been out there smashing bugs all day. I told the hubbins next year I'm planting all flowers and a couple of cucumber plants.

Every now and then my hubbins gets a good idea. He suggested we take a drive and a break. Every new mother needs a break, puppy mothers included. Did I mention that my puppy wakes up early EVERY day? He is doing very well with potty training. His only confusion has been about the carpet, he thinks its grass. We have only had 3 accidents with that. I try unsuccessfully, not to FREAK since it's my brand new carpet. I just had a brain storm and had the hubs cut a piece of the same carpet to fit his crate so maybe he would get the idea we don't pee on carpet. What do you think? Think he will make the association?

See how I get my mind off of things? Still thinking about potty training, the important issues of life. 
Isn't this  gorgeous?

The hubbins was really racking up the points. He pulled over a bunch of times to take pictures. He really got into the picture taking thing. What a great guy.

My zoom wasn't strong enough to really get as close as I wanted too. This post was way out in the water. It was so cool to see this crane perched there. We have a bird sanctuary and it is common to see big cranes. We have white ones too but this fella is gray.

The water lillies are blooming.

and the cypress trees that grow in the water...

It's about 50 square miles of reservoir. I pretend it's Monterey Bay.

The hubs wanted to see all of it, no puppy no kids.

 The hubs was relaxing. I was making an attempt at relaxing. I have been very uptight lately.
Kid issues and puppy training, and me old bones are acting up.

I think he was maximizing his puppy break. I was enjoying the scenery, really I did. I had too,....

because we went around the whole thing. This is the boat dock. If I was still a hippie and it wasn't hot I might live over here. Houseboats. I could handle a houseboat in the fall.

But I'm not hippie anymore and it is HAWT, just saying. It's been the hottest summer ever, a record breaker.

Then we drove through some expensive neighborhoods in the country. Very pretty. I am amazed that some people have million dollar properties in Mississippi. The hubs had to explain to me that we are the weirdos  unusual people who moved from their home state. Most folks apparently don't make moves like that. Because with a million dollars you can live just about anywhere you want too right? It might be an itty bitty apartment in New York, or a double wide mobile home in California but you know---the choice is for the choosing. So why chose to burn up?

I'll take my modest little place. Actually I have been seriously thinking of down sizing.  When your a gardener it's not the house you live in that makes those decisions tough. It's your 10 year old garden.
It's all the work you and your hubbins have put in over the years. But it is too much for me.

I found a 2 bedroom 2 bath house plan that I really like, with no stairs. Have you ever thought about how silly it is that we spend our whole lives accumulating stuff, and then want to get rid of it?
Some people maybe never do feel that way. I want a lot less to take care of right now. I suppose having bum bones has something to do with that.

In the mean time I'm very busy with this puppy. He is napping right now which is why I am finally blogging. By the way he gets called;
Baby
Roman
G
Ro-G
Puppy
and
luvins...

not bad for starters...