Morning Bray Farm

To this day, I still think Lonesome Dove is my best part.

                                                                                –Robert Duvall

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Two doves meeting in the sky
Two loves hand in hand, eye to eye
Two parts of a loving whole
Two hearts and a single soul
Two stars shining big and bright
Two fires bringing warmth and light
Two songs played in perfect tune
Two flowers growing into bloom
Two doves gliding in the air
Two loves free without a care
Two parts of a loving whole
Two hearts and a single soul

                                                                            – Author unknown

Fergus’s eyes are so soft and fluid.

So doe-like, so beautiful.

Fergus’s BLM freeze mark. Also tattooed on my left shoulder, along with Nigel’s freeze mark. ♥

Fergus’s leg stripes.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

In celebration of their marriage, my parents bought a miniature poodle puppy. They named her Fete… a French word meaning festival, celebration or party. This picture is of my daddy, me and Fete.

Fete lived to be 16 1/2 years old.  ♥

“My” first dog was another poodle, whom we rescued. We named her Jolie, because she was so beautiful.  Très jolie. ♥

My fond memories of Fete and Jolie make this next picture even more special for me. Meet Ellsworth and Gordy.

Gordy’s mom, Martina, recently acquired a donkey bank that she named Ellsworth because the bank has similar color to Ellsworth. According to Martina, Gordy has many characteristics like a donkey: sweet, good sense of humor and loves scritches. Gordy is a rescue, and like Ellsworth and Co, Gordy arrived at a very loving home. 

Martina shared that sometimes she feels like adopting Gordy was the best thing she’s ever done for herself.  His grin makes her heart happy.   ♥ ♥ ♥  

This picture is of  Gordy, formally known as  Gordon Lightfoot vonPudel (Martina gave him a classy name to make up for his neglected/abused puppyhood), and Georgie, formally known as Georgie Tara. Georgie is Martina’s other poodle; she’ll be 13 next month. Gordy is très handsome and Georgie is très jolie.  Hugs to you two!

I’ve always found there isn’t much middle ground for most folks when it comes to poodles. Love them or not, in many circles, poodles are regarded as the second most intelligent breed of dog after the border collie, and before the German Shepherd. The breed is believed to have originated in Germany, where it is known as the pudel… and standardized in France, where it was commonly used as a water retriever.

What was your childhood pet and what was his or her name? If you have photos that you’d like to share, email them to morningbray@hotmail.com and I’ll post them here. ♥

Back in June, we took the boys’ Jolly Ball away after we discovered Bernard stepping on and shredding it. Naturally, we were terrified that Bernard would eventually swallow a piece of it.

The following week, we brought home a brand new Jolly Ball for the boys.  Blue Jolly Ball wound up with the same fate – in the trash can – after only one day. Just like that, Mister Bernard had shredded it.

Fast forward several weeks. Guess what happened to neon orange traffic cone? If you guessed trash can, you’re right. Poor, poor traffic cone… chewed to bits by Bernard. Note: This picture is obviously not from July of this year, but it is the cutest picture ever of Barnyard with the traffic cone. It may also be the reason Bernard felt it was necessary to shred traffic cone.

So, imagine our surprise yesterday evening when we looked out the window to see something that looked a bit like this. Really, Bernard?

Don had obviously parked the tractor too close to the corral and Bernard was sucking/chewing on the tractor tire. Really, Bernard? ♥ ♥ ♥

Note: Tractor is not in trash. Tractor was moved.

It was one year ago today that Ellsworth came into our lives.

We’ve had an incredible year with him and are looking forward to many, many more. To celebrate his fourth birthday, he’ll be getting Paco treats and lots of extra hugs and scritches. And he’ll be showing us where to scritch.

You see, Ellsworth has learned that he can show us where he wants to be scritched.

Mamma, scritch right here, please.

A little to the right, please, Mamma.

That’s perfect…

…but I’m just going to move your hand over a tad to exactly where I’d like it.

Umm… Mamma? You’re not stopping now, are you?

Pretty amazing, hmm? Watching Ellsworth blossom over the last year has been incredibly rewarding. We think the sky’s the limit for Big Red. ♥ ♥ ♥

Okay, Bernard, it’s like this… I point here and you scritch…

Happy Birthday ‘Worth! We love you so! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Just the other day, we were comparing notes with Carson about how our respective dogs react when they hear coyotes. Normally, our dogs completely ignore them.

You’ll see that was not the case with Kassie on Friday evening as the sun was setting and a pack of nearby coyotes started howling, yipping, yelping and barking.

We measure Kassie’s alert status by how close the tip of her tail is to touching her back. ♥

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge was to photograph things that start with the letter “S”, so I figured it was as good a time as any to face one of my biggest fears… spiders.

Being as how I can barely stand to look at pictures of spiders, this was not easy for me. The easy part was finding one to photograph!

You know that one thing each of us has that can make us go weak in the knees? Turns out, Nigel’s weakness is weeping willow leaves.

(By the way, if you click on the picture below, you’ll see that not only is Bernard smiling, he has green lips.)

My goodness. Look at the unwavering concentration on Nigel’s face, and the cute pattern of color that travels up from his lips to his nostrils. Another discovery. I noticed this for the first time yesterday.

In any case, I’ve never seen Nigel so animated and excited… more proof he really is getting more comfortable here. Love it. ♥

It’s a good thing Carson loves the boys, because they sure do love her. There was practically a riot here when she showed up yesterday morning.

Carson had the honor of being the third two-legged to touch Nigel. We think that’s quite appropriate because if she hadn’t come into our lives, our beloved boys probably wouldn’t have either.

Carson was there with us on day one for Ellsworth. It appears he hasn’t forgotten that.

Once the ruckus quieted down, Carson was able to spend some time with Nigel. Pretty cool.

For Don and me… one of the highlights of our day… fresh eggs from 7MSN.

And wait, there’s more. In true Carson fashion (this lady never does anything half-assed), look at the 7MSN egg carton.  Morning Bray Farm officially has the coolest egg carton ever in our refrigerator. Ever. ♥

9/24 Note from Carson: Click here for the source of the egg cartons – they come with label sheets and the vendor also has a Word template for the labels that you can download.

It rained like hell yesterday. We had two inches between noon and 5 pm, and it was still raining when we went to bed last night. Gads.

As we were rushing around yesterday evening to make sure everyone would be warm and safe and dry for the night (my mantra… everyone MUST be warm and safe and dry), look at what we discovered in the goat stall.

Three beautiful, perfect guinea eggs. A couple of guineas from next door seem to have moved in over the last week or so. 

We’re totally okay with that and figure their eggs were the silver lining in yesterday’s clouds. ♥

9/23 Note for Posterity: Meteorologists recorded 1.74 inches of rainfall at the Albuquerque International Sunport – the greatest amount in one day Since October 22, 1969.