Monday, September 3, 2007

Mosquito mania!

I'm realizing that the subjects of many of my postings are quite uninteresting. Sorry. But this one is serious. we have a mosquito infestation in our town! I have over 2 dozen mosquito bites on my body, and the village of gurnee has hired a bug-man to go around and spray throughout the town. But if we spend any collected amount of time outside we encounter an army of mosquitoes!


Yesterday i relocated my mums from their window pots to the dirt below (see picture of previously living mums). With the excess rain during the flooding a few weeks ago, all of my blooms dried and died. I contacted the flower master - my grandmother - and she told me that mums do better in the ground, especially through the winter. So, i put them there and i'm hoping they might bloom again next summer!

Yesterday we also began to dig a tiny trench for our invisible dog fence. 500ft. of cord to put into the ground. Landon dug the line and i shoved the tiny red cord into the trench, so little Duvick will learn his boundaries in the yard. The invisible fence is more of a training tool than anything else. I mean, you spend all this money on the "fence" and bury it and mark it with flags and when Duvick crosses the flags he gets shocked. So he learns not to cross the flags. Once he has that down, we remove the flags and he still knows his boundaries. Dogs are amazing like that. So we're hoping that it will only ever shock him a few times and he will learn his boundaries. I'm wondering if there is a cheaper way to achieve these kind of results?

Oh yeah, but with the time spent kneeling in one place: planting flowers on my knees, or shoving a cord into a trench on the ground, the vampirous mosquitoes were swarming. I had bug-repellent on to the MAX and was wearing layers of clothing protection, but somehow i cannot out-smart those little suckers (pun intended)!

Today our good friends from Colorado are coming to visit with their retrievers. We are so excited to see them!!! Wow, i have definitely been feeling the absence of friends and family in my life lately and just longing for someone (besides Landon, of course) that i can just be with and love and not have to be always just getting to know... ya know? Well, we love the Emeneckers and can't wait for their visit!!! Plus, they have a little lab who is only a few weeks older than Duvick and another lab that is just about the sweetest dog in the world, so i think Duvick will be happy to see them as well!

We took Duvick to the doggy park for the first time yesterday. I really need to learn this about my husband: when he asks me to join him and Duvick to the park, i should know not to expect to be home for hours. Meaning, i need to make sure i bring water, food, toilet paper, bandaids, a compass, bug spray, sunscreen, a change in socks, etc... I'm thinking that we'll walk to a field with some water and landon will throw dummies for Duvi and i'll watch and try not to be a distraction and then we'll walk back to the car and leave. yesterday Landon had me going up and down every wooded trail, walking across rivers and bush-whacking! Don't get me wrong, it is a lot of fun to do some extensive exploring, i'm just never really prepared for a day in the wilderness when i'm expecting it to last for 30 minutes. Duvick did well with being exposed to the other dogs, but i didn't realize how little he still is. He is just so sweet and still such a puppy that he got dominated by other dogs. Poor little guy. He's already losing his teeth and has grown so much; not too long and he'll be the dominator!

Well, i'll post again after our exciting day with the Emeneckers - nothing too exciting going on around here otherwise.

1 comment:

Maryn Forney said...

YOU'RE BLOGGING AGAIN!!! yayyyyy!!!!! miss you so. i'm in pa now...and have been almost 3 weeks....its odd not being in colorado - i now know what you feel like with all the distance you have experienced these past years! miss you hannah.