My dog - the underwear model.

'Barktoria's Secret' here she comes! Abbie has once again taken a shine to modeling Sarah's undies. It's not the first time this has happened. Somehow she gets 'em wrapped around herself. I'm almost embarassed to post this pic and admit that it is Sarah's underwear. It certainly isn't mine! Sorry, I can't do butt floss. Seems pointless. Why not just go 'commando'? As cute as Abbie was strutting around the house in her new attire, I just had to snap a pic. Hope it brings a smile to the faces of those who view it. My dog - the underwear model!

Bears!

Sorry, I don't have a pic because he/she came under the cloak of darkness, but we had our first bear Monday night. He ate all the corn in the deer trough and ripped into the garbage can next to the garage. Garbage was strewn all over the yard. I don't mind the bears, they are cool, as long as they don't damage anything. They are really active this year, probably due to the dry weather. Todd hung a thistle feeder from the deck for the goldfinches - I am really hoping the bears do not take interest in it.

Flew the coop

These baby sparrows were about to leave the nest when I snapped these pics. An hour later I heard squaking, chirping, peeping, and woofing as my dogs discovered they had flown the coop! Luckily, they didn't hurt our sweet little birds whom we've watched grow from speckled eggs to fledglings! God speed baby birds!

Strangers In The Night

Check out these cool creatures that we photographed by the garage Friday night. The brown one is called a Polyphemus moth and the green one is a Luna Moth! They are quite large and fit in the palm of both your hands! They have been appearing almost every evening along with a bajillion other moth species. Welcome to the country!

SOLD!!!

After a stressful month of owning two homes, we finally closed on 510 4th street today! What a huge relief! We were originally scheduled to close May 29th, but the underwriters said they were backlogged and pushed our closing date back 2 weeks. It seemed touch-and-go for a while but our buying and selling process is officially complete.

Last evening we met the new owners who seem very nice. Carol, the purchaser, has been equally stressed and equally eager to wrap things up. What a rollercoaster ride for us all! It made me feel good to see how excited she was to get into her new home. We did a walk-through of the house with she and her fiancee, pointing out all the little nuances they might not see up front. I wrote her a list of all the important details, like how 200 kids come at Halloween and to buy at least 7 bags of candy because she will go through it! I am really going to miss that about 510, I soooo looked forward to that night each year! Sadly, we won't have any trick-or-treaters at the new home.

I think tonight calls for a celebratory glass of wine...or three! I left Carol and Jerry a bottle on their new counter ~ I know they will be enjoying every sip of it this evening as they celebrate new home ownership, one of the sweetest rewards in life!

It's a dogs life!

Well, I think the dogs are adjusted to country living. They've already managed to disembowel a chipmunk, be attacked by mom and dad robin, and make peace with the hummingbirds who they were'nt so sure about the first dozen times they got 'buzzed' by the kamikaze flyers. Here are a few shots I took of them in the yard.

Trade River Winery

Yesterday was my first day working part-time as a wine server at Trade River Winery. LOVE it! So much fun, and a great chance to meet wonderful people with a common interest - WINE!

To give you some background for those of you who are not familiar with Trade River Winery, we are just over an hour drive from the Twin Cities. It is a great place to come relax on the patio, which is surrounded by landscaped gardens and a waterfall. Bring a picnic lunch or phone ahead to order a Wine Country Lunch. You will find a warm and friendly atmosphere in our tasting room, where novices to experts alike can explore delicious undiscovered wines. Visit our gift shop where you will find a fun and interesting array of gifts for the epicurean at heart. Please check out our website and Blog links on this page for more details.

Funny, my friend Wanda who inspired me to blog, recently retired from Colorado's Coors Brewing Company. I call her the 'beer lady'. Maybe eventually she'll refer to me as the 'wine lady'. The yin to her blogging yang. Ha!

Wildlife

The wildlife at the new house is great fun (at least so far)! We have birds nests galore...robins, fly cathcers, bluebirds, swallows, oriels, pheasant, grouse, turkey, and hummingbirds! The baby robins flew the coop on Sunday and ma and pa robin just about pecked Abbie to death. At night we hear the great horned owl and wonder what else lurks along the forest edge. Future animal stories are sure to grace my blog. Check out the evening entertainment...I think we are up to at least a dozen hummingbirds at the feeder. I captured this little guy with my Nikon D50/Tamron zoom lens.