Mighty Stewart... and OW!

How could we say no, to this face?

This is Stewart. His name is of Scottish/English origin and means keeper of the house OR steward or manager of a household or estate. Quite appropriate it seems for a dog who'll hopefully watch over our farmstead whenever we are away.

So far he's not only handsome, but of excellent disposition, and eager to please. He cried a bit his first few nights here, but he is already settling right in, learning Fergus's quirks and that kitties are a big no-no!





Here Fergus is thinking, good golly, I was never that goofy!

At any rate we now have our hands full again, potty training for starters!

It was another "meant-to-be" situation with the dog. We've discussed to death what exact breeds we would be interested in, and finally determined to hold out for a very specific Rottweiler, German Shepherd mix.



J happened to look at petfinders.com... lo and behold here was a litter, right in our area at the Alternative Humane Society, specifically both parents mixed of those two breeds. They wanted us to come by the next day and see them at a place not more than 2 miles from our house. Stewart was the last pup they had, but was the least dominant of them all, which is exactly what we were after.

Maybe Fergus does have a little goofy left in him!


***This next photo is not for the faint of heart, so consider yourself warned! ***

J had a fatty lipoma removed from her arm this Tuesday. It's been pretty painful, but had to be done before it got any larger. Here's her arm in all it's painful glory! It's feeling better today finally. They are biopsying the lump, just in case, but quite certain it is benign. The surgeon will take that bandage off after 5 days.

It makes me hurt just looking at it!

Lots of news, not much time

We've made some big changes around Seven Trees. Mostly personnel changes. Luna is no longer with us, and it was a sad time for us all. Chappelle went to live around the corner with another goat and a nice farm family. With Stella the cow coming here soon, there just isn't enough goat forage for everyone. So Chappelle moved while the family's kids were at the fair, so they could come home to a surprise. We still have 27 or so little chickies, only they aren't as little any more. The 3 old red hens are now free ranging with the goats, since they are pretty much done laying eggs and are too mean to put in with the new red hens.

And.....

We have added a baby. So far his name is Stuart/Stewart, but could change as we've only had him a couple hours and haven't gotten to know him yet. As Luna aged, we knew we'd need another big dog, and had been researching and checking out likely breeds. With so much going on right now, we also had decided to wait til the rains start to get serious about it. Well for some reason I looked at a local shelter website and saw a little of Rottie/Shepherd puppies available. Those 2 breeds were at the top of our list, but purebreds of either can have issues, let alone expense and finding a good breeder. One problem with mixes from a shelter is that sometimes they just label a dog according to their best guess, and it could grow up completely different. But these puppies were purposely bred from Rottie/Shepherd parents, both mixed. So the babies are a nice blend of the 2 breeds, not just a random cross. The shelter people liked our application, and though the litter was all spoken for yesterday, some people had cancelled. So tonight I stopped at a kennel just a few miles from home where they were being fostered, and brought home a little boy. So far he misses his family, but Fergus loves him and they are starting to play. Now we get the fun of housebreaking and "no kitty" training, but I'm sure he'll learn fast.

Anyway, hopefully we'll get some pictures up tomorrow. It's been a hectic week, with one of us getting some kind of bug and the other heading for minor surgery in the morning. Lots of canning done, off-loaded a cord of wood, worked on the chickie pen, moved a hay stack and so on.

I sure hope winter makes us slow down a bit...