A weekend on the farm

We decided to pack up and head to the hills..literally this weekend. My parents live in the sticks (I am a redneck by blood) and sometimes we treat their house as a vacation home. So we brought Kristen and Gyeong.
Now my parents live on 30 sprawling acres completely fenced in..for horses. AND my dad isn't exactly keen on the whole..indoor big dog thing..much less indoor 8 dog thing. So we decided to leave all the kids at home..except Shiloh. She can be off lead with no worries and loves being a farm dog.
Dana showed her disdain at being left behind by falling off the bed.
So Kristen, Gyeong, Jason, Shiloh and I pile in to the Saturn and head deep in to Southwest Virginia. We are greeted by peace and tranquility
Gyeong has lots of pool shots that will make it to his blog within..maybe the next month. So keep checking his for that action!
On Saturday, we went to...guess...a WINE FESTIVAL! I know...shocker! It was at Tomahawk Mills Winery which is about 20 minutes from my parents house. And shocker..there were a lot of hillbillies there! The banjo players were singing a song about the "10lbs of possum" they had waiting at home for dinner. I kid you not!!!
And in true fashion..a tractor took us up the hill to the wine festival
It kicked up quite a bit of dust..But we came, we drank, we shoppedMy parents enjoyed the festival as well. My mom doesn't like wine so she wore the wine sling to fit in..We had two lazy days of swimming, eating, playing Wii (my mom is a hip g'ma!) and drinking wine.
And we entertained ourselves by calling the horses to dinner once they had gone all the way out to the edge of the far field. Mac, the retired racing thoroughbred and Rocky and Sugar the rescued miniature horses from Roanoke Valley Horse RescueCreek Schmeekand laughing at my mom's 'farm dog' Truflz when he would get whatever stuck in his beardAnd yes, I saw my nephew, Boone. He is much cuter now and slightly more fun. He still drooled (that ended the Aunt Trina lap time) but he was more interactive this time. And he is the pillsbury doughboy now..

I have a new foster dog now too. M's Sweet Baxter ..aka Baxter. I haven't had a chance to take any photos of him. He is really sweet and loving. You can see him on the GPA blog (along with the other 6 hounds that arrived on Saturday..I had the miss this haul :-( )

I will take more photos of him soon.

2 Lulus, a boo-boo, a jolly rancher..and wine.

Last weekend, we had Ana and Blue
And Lulu..we all know her 'fear' of photographs. I have heard there are cultures that think taking photos removes your soul..there might be truth in that..
Poor Lulu..I did finally get her..she was trapped!
but we went to the South African Food and Wine festival at Grayhaven winery last weekend. I have photos..but they are on my phone and not too exciting. Great food, great wine and great company (Kristen and gyeong!)
I couldn't resist this one..Dana has a habit of sleeping on her nose. We were getting ready to head to the festival so we had them muzzled..Dana was resting comfortably on it!
Dante had his teeth cleaned last week. And he had a little growth on his nose that he was itching and bothering..so we had it removed too. Dante's boo-boo (and boy is he MILKING this one!)

This weekend we had another Lulu..who likes to be photographed.
Gabby who just hung out a night or two before going to her new forever home (isn't she striking!)
And Sam..aka..The jolly Rancher. We decided he was the thickest greyhound we have ever met. But he is sooo sweet. So we named him the Jolly Rancher..sweet as sugar but thick as a brick.
So we inform the dogs that we are ..yet again..heading off to a wine festival. And because it is 100+ degrees right now, dogs aren't allowed. They aren't happy
But we head off to Lake Anna Winery for their annual Wine and Whiskers event to benefit the Fredericksburg SPCA. It was a great dinner event with a lot of activities. It was hot as hell though!
These next photos are just too funny....

Stay tuned for photos from the upcoming weekend. YES..another wine festival but this one occurs at my parents house. And our trusty wine festival companions will be accompanying us there. So photos of farm life and lounging by the pool to come!

Happy Independence Day

We had a 4th of July party this weekend. Jason cooked out and we invited some close friends over. And as always it turned in to a big ol' greyhound party!
Nerice has been taking a cake making/decorating class. She is just like Chef Duff on Ace of Cakes!!

Some greyhounds playing


And we got a baby pool which was enjoyed by all. Dana for some reason always has a lot of fun in the pool..she splashes and bites the water..it is hystericalAna has to endure a little festive outfit for the occasionAida gets some loving from Ally and DiegoKristen and I can't resist a photo-op...And partying is hard...some people/greyhounds just can't hang...You can check out more photos at Matt's flickr page or on Gyeong's blog...fun was had by all and the greyhounds are EXHAUSTED!!

More of the same

We are fostering Justin for a week, his race name is Bobbye's Just Up (and no..I am not spelling that incorrectly..) and boy is he a sweetie. He likes the couch..luckily his new family doesn't mind.

We had a 'reduced' number this past weekend. Just Hemi, Bella, Justin and my normal crew. It was a lazy weekend of chores and cleaning..
Now..everyone who knows me..KNOWS that the following photos were NOT a result of lack of a bed..Dana just wanted HER bed and Cali happened to be in it. So Dana snuggled with her sister.And I realized that the majority of snuggling photos are between Cali and Jason. But contrary to popular belief..they DO snuggle with me. Now this snuggling DOES usually occur around 6PM in the evenings. But sometimes..there is random "for no reason" snuggling with the Momma.

On a side note, GPA had Blues and Royals arrive in the haul last Tuesday (you can see his photo on the GPA blog). He is a blue male who is just too cute. But for some reason, at some point and unbeknownst to anyone, he decided to eat a washcloth. After 3 days of not eating and vomitting, GPA had many tests done and eventually exploratory surgery had to be done to find the offending washcloth in his stomach. He is doing very well now and is on the road to full recovery. But all this vet work left GPA with a mountain of vet bills. So we are running an auction for Bluesy. So check out this website (and items are being added over the next few days) to see if anything strikes your fancy!

And check out the Dog Lover's Wine Club to see if it is something that might strike your wine fancy and help the greyhounds and GPA to boot!

Happy early 4th of July!