The fastest summer ever

This summer flew by in a hurry. I will remember it as the most time spent with raising puppies. 

Yes, I was mostly occupied looking after our litter of Dachshund puppies. They required a lot of attention, feeding, cleaning up and pee pad training. After my return from Germany I had them vaccinated and ready to be rehomed. They were already 9+ weeks old. Legally pups are not permitted to be rehomed before they are 8 weeks old. I placed an ad in Kijiji, an Internet buy and sell firm. Most items are placed for free, however pets are not one of them so the ad costs money (have to re-purchase after 4 weeks) and if you don’t want it to be buried, boosting the ad to the front costs extra. The ad, although placed for our area is also posted for all of Ontario. That is maybe a good thing, but most people will not drive long distance to get a puppy. At the same time our ad was placed, there were 41 other ads for Dachshund puppies running, each with several pups! I could not believe the amount of Dachshunds on the market, some people advertising the pups as early as a few days after they were born, ready to receive deposits!

For the doxie lovers here are some pictures:

This time around it took much longer and more effort to find a loving family for our pups. It turned out that none of our puppies ended up in Leamington. Some we had to deliver partway to meet their new owners as they came from afar as Port Perry, St. Catherines and Fort Erie, all in Ontario. One pup went to Windsor and one to Chatham. In the end we are confident that all new families are happy with their pups and we have received pictures and phone calls telling us that it was a good match every time.

This picture of "Marvin" was emailed to me from its new owner

This last litter of puppies was not planned. Our Elsa demonstrated that she is a very good mom and she diligently cared for her puppies day and night before we weaned them. Now its time she just enjoys being our pet together with Reggy. We had her spayed and the whelping box and playpen were sold to a breeder out of town. 

Our grandson Hans playing with the puppies when he was here for a visit

While I spent so much time with the pups, Benno had projects of his own. He decided to extend the parking area for our travel trailer to make the back-in process a bit easier.  That included a few hauls of various gravel, backbreaking shoveling of the stuff and the rental of a plate tamper with Honda engine to pound the gravel down.  Now finally we could park even a 45 ft. Motorhome in this spot. (Don’t give Benno any ideas!)

Also the new property needed more work. He rented a MT85, Diesel Mini Bobcat and spent a day digging out tree stumps, moving dirt and two piles of woodchips around the property. By mid summer the place looked somewhat decent, but the ground was still uneven. 

We hired Brian from the Deer Run Excavating Services to put several truckloads of soil on the low spots and then to level it out. Most of the grass is covered with dirt now and we should get our rakes out to smoothen the surface, pick rocks and debris that come to the surface in the process and then sow new grass.

Benno’s cousin Regine, who lives in Germany, flew with her husband Atti and daughter Lisa for a vacation to New York. They rented a Motorhome to tour some of the USA. When they drove up to see the Niagara Falls, we met up with them in the area. Since the Hwy 401 is under construction for long stretches, we opted to take the Talbot Trail Road #3, which is very scenic, but also a long journey. While we were parked for our visit with our cousin all these exotic cars came into the parking lot. They were new customers out for a test drive to the Falls.

The end of summer is in sight and the Monarch butterflies are coming into our area for their flight south. Usually they gather by the thousands in Point Peele National Park, which is near us, to take advantage of North winds to assist in their journey. 

Also, I am getting ready for my next journey this coming Thursday to Germany. Mom is selling her house and it has to be emptied of all contents by month end.  Wishing everyone a great September, I will be back in October. Thank you for visiting again.

The Dog Days Of Summer

Actually, in China the dog days of summer start in a couple of days, on July 12^ththis year and I take this phrase for the devastatingly hot and lazy summer days where dogs just lie around panting. As a matter of fact this phrase has many more meanings and originally meant the “Dog Star Sirius” and its position in the heavens, usually July or August.

So we lowered the temps of the thermostat in the house and look what happened.

Reggy must have been cold ;))

Since my last update when the pups were three weeks old, I have been pretty busy with them, the garden and overall with projects.  Mom in Germany needs our attention pretty well daily with phone calls alternating between my sister and me or both of us!

When our weather finally dried up I got to work on the deck, my yearly chore in the springtime which was this year a month behind. The sanding of the floorboards is a pain in the neck, or rather my back although I use a power sander and then the application of the wood stain to preserve and seal the boards. If anyone out there is considering building a deck, you might want to consider composite decking unless you want the wood to turn grey or black. Anyway, I got it done.

And then there were the issues with the zillions of fish flies or the May flies how they are called, sticking to the house, truck and anything else, additionally on top we got rained on with the keys of the Maple trees that landed on our property by the thousands and afterwards the cotton balls of the Cottonwood trees, not to forget the spiders and the birds. You got to love country living (we do LOL) or you go crazy here trying to keep the place clean!! 

We've had two sets of breeding birds in all our birdhouses this year

We are having a lot of fun with the puppies. They are really adorable and so playful. Of course they want us to keep them company which we do a lot, but after some activity of running and playing with each other and the toys, they do get tired after a while and so we get a break and let them nap in their box.  

Elsa is still lactating but I am trying to wean her off. It is hard because she still wants to feed and the pups want her milk as soon as they see her, so I have to keep her away from her pups.  Reggy is taking it all in stride and likes to visit his family but wants nothing to do with the feeding or cleaning up! 

Here are some pics of the gang. I feed them their kibble, special puppy food for Dachshund puppies from Royal Canin in a muffin pan. I find it easier to watch this way that everyone gets enough food as some have a bigger appetite than others and some are slow eaters while others are ravenously hungry. 

Begging their mom for some more milk

So before I forget, I am flying out to Germany again this Sunday. Yes, again! I will only stay a week and come back next week because the pups will be getting ready to be rehomed after 8 weeks of age. In September I will be flying out to Germany once more to help sell off and empty the contents of my Mom’s house. That will be a huge job! 

Hoping everyone is having a great summer and I will be posting one more set of the pups before they are all leaving us. Thanks for visiting.