Hey you guys, what's going on? I promised I would check in more often and here I am! I've just been fooling around on the computer today because it is too cold to go outside. I know you think that because I'm a dog and automatically have a fur coat the cold should not be a problem, but hey! I DON'T WEAR SHOES OR A HAT, and I get cold!! Mom has offered to get me some shoes but I can't wear them, they bother my feet. And she says a hat would just fall off. So, even though it's only November and not even Thanksgiving yet, I'm hanging out by the woodstove and checking out the world on line.

Here is a picture of some of mom's soaps and stuff at a craft fair she did a couple weeks ago. Pretty. They smell pretty good too. We didn't see her for weeks before it, she was always in the workshop making soap. Now she is down there again, 'cause she sold all of her soap and needs to make more. so, like, what was the point? She could have just saved the soap she had and then she wouldn't have to make more. Humans are very strange.  We are not allowed in the workshop because of some dangerous stuff, I forget what it is. Plus, Bear tries to steal the bath poufs to play with and once he tried to eat a sugar cookie wax tart. (once!!) No dogs allowed. 

I was going to put a picture of me up but I can't find one that you haven't already seen. well, Mom did take some pictures last time we went to grandma's house but they make me look kind of fat. Maybe I will put one up next time.

I am still looking for Old/New Yellers. PLEASE, please if you see them will you let me know? I miss them and it's getting cold outside at night. I am kinda worried about them. ...I'm back now. I had to go see what was going on with my bro Winston. Mom is real mad at him. She says he's getting crazier every day. He peed in all his diapers just since this morning so she is doing laundry again. Seems like he's having a lot of days like that. Plus he growls and stuff and picks fights with us for no reason. So Mom just put his fleece jacket on and told him to go outside and play for a while.  Mom says he has some kind of disease and it's not his fault but it's still not a good thing. 

Yesterday Mom and her friend Sue, and Sue's mom Mary went to that Snow Farm Artists Sale like they did last year in November. Check out my old post from last November for a link to that place. Mom got a pair of copper earrings and a peace dove pin for her coat. There was some very cool stuff there, but she said she wouldn't take me because there was a lot of breakable stuff and sometimes I am clumsy. Like she saw a beautiful Josh Simpson megaplanet for $5000 and the first thing she said to Sue was, 'let's just back away now!' Do you know about Josh Simpson? He is married to Cady Coleman the astronaut. He makes amazing glass art objects. Dad's previous girl Jack Russell, Jasmine, gave him a beautiful little planet one year for his birthday. He keeps it on his bedside stand and sometimes he tells me about her and why she chose it for him. You can see some pictures and read Josh Simpson's funny timeline here  There are beautiful pictures and some cool videos of how he makes his planets. Wild. some of them are called inhabited planets...I wonder who lives there and if they know how cool their planet is? He lives in Western MA. We have lots of cool stuff in Western MA. All those Boston people think we are in the boonies--they have no idea, which Mom says is good, because if they did they would all be here and we would be miserable.

Uh oh. I gotta run. Mom just yelled at me for pushing the clean clothes off the bed and onto the floor. I was looking for socks, that's all, and it was an accident. But I guess I better go clean it up. I will chat with you later. Love, Me.

Happy Veterans Day

FREEDOM....is being able to run as fast as you can without a leash or a fence to stop you. FREEDOM.... is being able to take a nap whenever you please. FREEDOM.... is being able to hang out with dogs that are different colors and are from different places, just because you like them. FREEDOM.... is being able to bark at the moon just because you want to.  FREEDOM....is what I have and I just want to thank everyone who has protected my country and kept it free for more than 30 dog years. (which is more than 200 human years because you count differently.)

So I'm sorry I have neglected you terribly. I've been so very busy--you know how it is, supervising 4 other dogs can be very time-consuming. Here it is November 11 already, my goodness we are on our way to another cold New England winter. Ick.  But Mom has the woodstove going today so it is nice and cozy in here. See this picture? It is at my grandma's property (my human grandma). She has 90 acres of mostly woods and Mom and Dad took Bailey and me for a hike a couple days ago.  We ran and ran and ran. It was lots of fun, a lot muddier than Mom thought it would be.  We like mud but she wasn't wearing the right shoes for mud. Ha ha. At one point I thought they got lost because I couldn't find them. But they were just pretending to hide from me.  That wasn't funny I was really worried about them.  Plus, my grandma has bears and coyotes. What if they ran into them?  Hey, what if I ran into them?  And Bailey really took off. He is such a show-off. He is always bragging about how his father was a champion racer blah blah blah. Dad would have to whistle real loud every few minutes so Bailey would remember to come back. We had tons of fun and we were both really pooped out. I can't wait to go again.

So what's new with you all?  I'm kind of bummed because Old Yeller and New Yeller have gone temporarily missing. I can't find them anywhere so I have to play with that stupid green frisbee that is all cracked and hurts my mouth. Mom said she didn't want to get me a new one in case the others showed up, they would be jealous. Mom has been very busy making soap and stuff. She went to something called a 'craft fair' the other day and sold it all. So now she has to make more.  Why would you make it and then not keep it?  Humans don't make sense sometimes. 

And I can sleep better at night, knowing that the Romney guy will not be in charge of anything, at least for a while. Mr. Obama won being the top dog and will be taking over the kennel soon. That was a relief because even though the McCain old fart didn't pick the Mittster, he picked some lady named Sarah that gave Mom the willies. Dad didn't mind McCain and he said the Sarah lady was 'hot', but I think he was just trying to irritate Mom.  And I guess there's some big problem with money and jobs and stuff in the whole country. Lots of places are closing and people are losing their jobs and their houses. That's scary. I haven't had a chance to read much of it, I've just been listening to Mom and Dad. They say it's not good right now, but maybe in a couple years it will get better, and that everyone, dogs included, has to watch their pennies. If you know me at all, I haven't really paid much attention to pennies. I'm more of a quarter person myself, because when I pick quarters up and run around with them, Mom gives me cookies. She has always told me pennies aren't worth any cookies so I don't play with them. Maybe I should remind her that pennies can add up, there's usually some on the floor and I might get more cookies out of her. He he. Okay, now I PROMISE I will be back soon to check in with you. I PROMISE. Oh, and I've started making my Christmas wish list. Have You?  

Bye for now, love Casey.

 

I've been on summer hi-ate-us

...just like the TV shows! I'm back now though,  and I'll be better about letting you know what I think, I promise. Do you like this soap that I helped my mom make? It's a rosewood and patchouli hemp oil soap. I made the swirls. (not!) So, what have you been up to all summer? Me, just doing the usual--supervising my brothers, helping mom with the laundry and other chores, surfing the net for the news, and stuff like that.

We've had rain every weekend, tons of it, all summer. You should see our garden. I will try to take a picture of it soon.  The picket fence is working really well because none of us have been able to get in to get the tomatoes. We had a gazillion cucumbers and squash of course, and the beans grew almost too quickly to eat. Mom should have let Bandit in the garden though because something ate all of her lettuce and Bandit would have stopped that from happening. Now our tomatoes are ripening and our peppers are growing good. We've already had cabbage (I like mine steamed with hamburger mixed in--yum!) and celery too. So you can imagine that with all the rain Mom has spent a lot of time in the garden just weeding. Finally I suggested that she put newspaper down to keep the weeds under control and she did. There's still a lot of weeding but it's doing ok. 

Bailey is spending all his free time in the upper water-garden. He is trying to catch frogs. He's actually doing pretty good. Plus there are a bazillion tadpoles that are turning into frogs so he has plenty to do. But Mom gets upset with him--one day he spent almost 6 hours in the water and she had to put a leash on him to get him out. I help him by encouraging him and sometimes I push him a little with my frisbee. I think it's motivating for him to know I stand behind him! Plus, sometimes he falls into the main pond and that's funny because he can't swim!

 

Speaking of rain, Florida (that's the yard that my human brother Dan lives in) got a lot of it last week! He lives in Port Saint Lucie (like Lucy, my dead half sister who jumped in front of the snowplow to escape her crazy owners). He said their street had 2 feet of water on it but their house didn't get flooded 'cause it's on a bit of a hill.  That's good. And he works at the Walmart there and they are real busy now because people came through like a pack of locusts (those are bugs) and cleaned everything out to stock up 'just in case'.  And the TV news said there are alligators and snakes and such swimming in the streets. Bailey would think that is so cool!!

I had a bath yesterday. Ick. Mom made me, cause I'm allergic. It was a bath with oatmeal shampoo and now I smell awful, although Dad says he likes how I smell now. I had to go to the vet the other day because I was bleeding. I was real itchy and kept scratching. I tried to tell her it was blood from battling the giant weasel in the back yard but she didn't believe me. Now I'm on medicine to make the itch go away and more medicine to heal my boo-boos, which are infected cause there was dirt under my nails. Mom says I'm allergic to grass pollen and it'll go away when the frost comes. Okay, I guess. But no more baths. It ruins my bad-ass image. I don't even wear a collar anymore around the house, so I look like I live out in the wild. he, he. 

So that Mr. Obama is the one running for president. He has another person running with him, called a Mr. Biden.  I'm not sure yet how that is going to work. Mom said she was 'reserving judgement', whatever that means. (I think it's like when she is deciding whether or not to give us Greenies before dinner--there are good and bad cons-e-quences. (I just learned that word.).

But what she did tell me, and shhh, don't tell anyone else, is that people are saying Mr. McCain is going to have Mitt Romney run alongside him. OH NO. what a scary thought. You all know how I feel about him. He is an evil, dog-hating, blah blah.  Imagine having him a heartbeat away from being the 'leader of the free world dog pack'!! And that McCain guy is no spring chicken.He could keel over at any time. This is scary. It's like waiting for the dog-catcher when you are running loose without your tags. It's like going to the vet for all your shots, and the vet you like is out sick so you have to see the vet who uses your tail to stand you up straight (that's not what it's for, you're a doctor you should know that) and has a loud voice and cold hands. It shouldn't be allowed. We will just have to see what happens. but I promise you that if the Mittster is going to be running, I'll be campaigning against him. I'll make sure every dog in America knows the truth about him. 

Ah, Mom is going to make breakfast now. Did I mention I haven' t had breakfast yet? It's Sunday, so she usually makes us some scrambled eggs for our dog food. I'll check back in soon. What have you been up to?? Love, me.

hey everybody? Did you forget about me??? I had to take a little break but I'm back now. Mom went away to a 'confrince' I don't know what that is but I'm glad she's back. She took a train and was gone a real long time, like maybe almost a week or so. Bailey and I kept my dad company while she was gone. My other brothers went to sleep-over camp. I kinda wish I went to sleep-over camp, except the beds are too hard for me. They don't allow pillows. Anyway, she was too busy when she came back to let me log on and post anything. As a result, I missed wishing everyone a happy Independence Day. I am still looking for a picture of the dogs that were at the Declaration of Independence signing. They must have been under the table or out in the back drinking water when the paparazzi were there. I think they were not in the room for the whole discussion, otherwise we would not be wearing collars and licenses today. Is that the second amendment thing, or is that the one about the bears? 

Here's a couple of funny things to look at. Well, the waterlily is not funny, it's pretty, isn't it? Still haven't seen any fish in the pond. Oh, and the froggie that has been living in the pond...well, I am sorry to inform you that he is dead. We believe it was amphibicide and the case is currently being investigated. There are two suspects, GBH (Great Blue Heron) and Bailey Clapp. There is no conclusive evidence though.  Aunt Lisa found him floating in the pond and he was all mangled. We need to get to the bottom of this so any other frogs that move in can be safe.  Don't worry. I am helping in the investigation. It is also possible that a load of mosquitoes did him in and just made it look like someone else did it.

And this is my rain barrel. Well, it belongs to mom and me. We bought it to help save water. Dad set it up for us, he had to get a connecting piece and then unhook the gutter and rehook it up.  He didn't feel like doing it in the rain (it has been raining A LOT!!!). Mom says that now it won't rain for the rest of the summer, because it's set up and ready to go.  Did you know that 700 gallons of water can roll off the average roof during the usual rain storm here in the Northeast? Mom and I will use the water for our flowers and for the garden too. The weeds look fantastic in the garden. Actually the plants are all doing ok too. Mom and I have been spraying with neem oil and that keeps the bugs from biting the plants and making them sick or dead. BUT, something bigger than bugs is coming into the garden and nibbling also. The other night Mom took us all out to pee before we went to bed and Bailey went crazy over by the back fence, looking up at one of the trees. He does that every night lately but he was really going nutso, so she walked over to take a look. The biggest, fattest creature was walking along the top of the fence, moving kind of slow. Mom said it was a possum, and it was very acrobatic because it is kind of wide to be doing that. Mom was nervous that she was making it nervous and it might fall into the yard. Possums can have rabies you know. We are all vaccinated but Mom is not.  They are kind of ugly and they have pointy little teeth. But I guess they eat bugs and mice and stuff. Maybe Bailey sees the possum every night. OR, it could be the bear. Dad saw him the other morning in our neighbors yard. Our neighbor is the one who feeds the bears. The bear knocks over the bird feeder and the man sets it back up again. I think that is the second amendment thing that the supreme court decided..the right to feed bears. He is a very big bear, much bigger than the mom bear and cubs that are usually around. He likes hanging around near Mom's flower garden on the side of the house near the neighbors yard. So, Mom doesn't really like going out there too much unless she brings Bear with her. (Our Bear, the Jack Russell.) I know it's confusing. Bear (dog) likes to hang around with Mom and won't run off, plus he would warn her if Bear (bear) came into the yard. BUT, Bear (dog) would probably be too dumb to leave Bear (bear) alone and Mom thinks he would be lunch so she won't go out there. Good thing those flowers like to be ignored. Dad told me that bears can eat Jack Russells in one or two bites. One time there was a bear in our tree and we were this close to him and he was swinging his paw at us. But Dad made us come inside.He said after we went inside the bear climbed right over our fence like it was nothing. Our fence is 6 feet tall!!  That bear was much smaller though. Would have taken 4 or 5 bites to eat one of us. And Winston, who has fought with a pit bull and won, would probably scare a bear away. Hee Hee!!

you know it is very hot lately. I have been staying cool by playing with the hose sprayer. I hope you are staying cool also. It's 8 pm now, and Mom needs to make my dinner, so I'm going to sign off now...this is Casey Clapp, signing off...I will see you later. Love, Me

Hi guys! Meet Bailey's new buddy...NOT! He is a big froggie and Bailey is spending all his free time trying to catch him! Ha ha, I just stand by with Old Yeller and bark at him cause he is so stupid. Mom gets mad at him because he has wrecked her waterlilies--they are just starting to bloom and he keeps falling in and crushing them. I don't think the frog is too scared of him because he just sits there while Bailey goes crazy trying to reach him. He's not scared of mom either because she got real close to him to take this picture. Did you know Bailey doesn't swim very well?? Ha, he just flaps around when he falls in. Now he's laying in the sun. Mom yelled at him again for about the millionth time today and told him to get out of the water. I love it when Bailey gets in trouble. He is such a goody-four-paws.

 

So I overheard Mom and Dad talking. Mom is going away again. Bummer. She has to go for work. That means some of us go to the kennel. I think Bailey and I are staying home though, with Dad. Bear, Winston and Bandit are going to the kennel-camp. You wait, Bailey will pout and won't eat. And Dad will feel sorry for him and probly let him sleep on the bed or something like that.

Mom is trying to finish weeding the garden before she leaves so it won't be all weedy when she comes back. She's laying down newspaper and leaf stuff in the paths to keep the weeds down. We have excellent weeds here! And she still has some seeds to plant. But she might not get everything done. She has to make soap too. The other day it was Bunker Hill Day and it was a holiday. Why would anyone celebrate a hill?? Anyway, she made some lavender-teatree soap, it is pretty--just white with dark lavender 'frosting' on top. And she tried to make a coffee salt bar. She used coffee and that irish mocha fragrance and her other stuff. It's different. I guess. Anyway, she needs to make more Citrus Splash and Lavender soap this weekend. And something else too, I forget. She just got some fragrances for fall and winter soap. I smelled one, called Macintosh Apple and it smells just like fresh apples. And she got clove and cinnamon-vanilla and cranberry fig. I don't know what a fig is. I've eaten cranberries when Mom accidentally drops them on the floor. They are kind of tart, unless they have muffin wrapped around them. Anyway, that cranberry fig was not what she was expecting. But who knows.

If I can get the links to work I will send you to a fun game  Hot Dog Bush  helps you earn money for george bush for when he is done being president and needs a job. He is selling hotdogs. You know it's not as easy as it looks! Anyway, Mom made a whole bunch of money for him so she said he can leave sooner if he wants and open that hot dog stand anytime.

Hey I gotta go help my Mom finish the weeding. I will try to get back later and post another picture or two. Love, Me.

Happy Father's Day!!

Happy Father's Day to everyone who is a father and especially to my Dad who's the best one in the world. Sorry to everyone else, but I got him!! Here is NOT the Father's Day gift I got him, it's a gift basket that my mom made for someone who is getting married and wanted a present for her maid of honor. It has Lavender, Tangerine Lavender and Passionfruit-Rose soaps, Lavender body powder, Tangerine Lavender body lotion, watermelon lip balm, a pouf and a soap dish.  Mom always forgets to take pictures of her gift baskets, but I reminded her this time. She cropped me out of the picture, as I was sniffing it--boy it smelled purty!

So today I am going to cuddle up to my Dad and sit on his lap or drape myself across his shoulders, and I will follow him everywhere and make tiger-faces at the other dogs who try to come near him. Hmm. Sounds like every other day. And we will cook burgers on the grill, cause that's what Dad likes on Father's Day. Well, really he likes brisket on the grill but we had that a couple weeks ago so we'll have burgers today instead! 

Well I didn't do much on Saturday. I hung out in the yard and then in the afternoon when it started to rain I hung out in Bandit's crate. He was kind enough to lay on the porch floor and let me have the crate. I was hoping Mom would start the hose sprayer for me but she said no, go out in the rain and play instead. Not the same!! And later she and Dad were watching The Negotiator with Samuel Jackson and I didn't want to watch it. I don't mean that Samuel Jackson was at our house, I mean he was in the movie. English is hard. Anyway in the beginning of the movie he is a hostage negotiator who goes into an apartment where a man is holding his daughter hostage and he has a shotgun. And Samuel Jackson tricks him and one of the things he says is how much he likes dogs. The man has a big dog, a pit bull/rottweiler dog. But later after he catches the man he says he doesn't like dogs. Well then, I don't like him either. So I don't watch that movie but Mom and Dad like it. 

And then later Mom made some soap; she made Spearmint-Lime salt bars. This time they are green, not pale orange. They smell nice! Last time she made them she was making two batches of different soaps and had her colors set out. She grabbed the wrong color so the Spearmint Lime came out pale orange instead of green. FOCUS!! And she also made lemongrass hemp oil soap. Someone asked her what lemongrass smells like. She said it's kind of like a slurpy lemon with a hint of vanilla. It is an essential oil and it is a deep yellow color so she doesn't color the soap unless she is putting some swirls or frosting on it. I can't be around when she is making lemongrass soap, it's very very strong smelling. It is sometimes used in combination with other essential oils to make insect repellent. (I copied that sentence from somewhere else. )Er, do you think it might be a dog repellent too if I don't like to be around it? Maybe later she will let me use her camera and I will take some pictures and post them for you to see.

Today she has to make Grapefruit Salt Bars and Sandalwood-patchouli Salt Bars. But first she has to melt the oils for it and she hates doing that. I sure hope she feeds us breakfast first!  

We have a new rain barrel. Mom and Dad picked it up yesterday at the recycling center. It is so we can save rainwater and use it to water the garden if it decides to stop raining this summer. but before we can use it Dad has to re-arrange the gutter thing that the water runs down. And that could take a while.

I know a secret....there is a bird's nest in our yard, over near our grapevine. I was with Mom when she found it.  She said don't tell anyone or the birds might not come back if they are scared and then the eggs won't hatch. So don't tell anyone. She was going to clip out this monster vine that tries to invade our yard every year. Some of it has grown up into the grapevine so she said she would clip it so it would die, then she could pull it out easier. But when she was over there, she noticed a small nest that had been woven right into the vine and the grapevine. It's only about 3 feet off the ground. It has 5 white eggs with brown speckles.  That's kind of close to the ground for when those babies hatch and start squacking for food. Maybe Bandit will guard the nest from the weasel that lives in the wood pile. Bandit loves baby animals. Yes, we have a weasel in our wood pile. He goes back and forth between the wood pile and the old dog kennel house. There is space underneath there for him to hide. Mom says he is an "urman", no wait, I think you spell it "ermine" but you say it "urman". English is dumb. Anyway, he is brown with white feet and in the winter he turns almost all white. She says there have been ermines in the yard since before I was born, and it's a good thing because they eat mice and stuff. I've smelled something over there so I guess she is right. Bailey says there is something there but he's never seen it. Anyway, I don't know what kind of bird it is yet. Maybe a wren or sparrow. I hope it comes back soon so the eggs don't get cold!

Well, maybe I'll catch up with you later, I am really kind of tired right now. It's only 8:30 or so i the morning but I was up early with Mom. So I think I'll go back to bed for awhile. Love, Me.

Which is the mother and which is the daughter? DUH.

Well here is a picture of me and my mom. I am the cute one of course, the one with no gray hair. I look a little stressed out in this picture because what you can't see is that Bear is trying to take a walnut from the desk and it is MINE. I wanted Mom to re-snap the picture but she thinks I am adorable in it. she said we should have a picture together, and later a picture of me and my Dad, so that you could see the family resemblance. NOT. Well, except I do have my dad's nose, but that is another story for sure!! I have been waiting for it to stop raining but it is still icky outside. Mom made us go outside though, for a while in the rain...something about a spillage she had to clean up. It was pond salt. That's dried up ocean water. It goes in the pond to help the imaginary fish keep their slime coat. I'm not making this up. I think my mom imagines that there are fish in there. i never see them. Bailey does, or says he does, but he sucks up to mom big-time, so he could just be saying that. Anyway, when she came home today there was a box at the door. She had ordered some pond plant fertilizer and some pond salt. And the lid was completely off of the pond salt so it was loose in the box and slipping through the cracks. Salt is bad for dogs. I always thought it was the popcorn but it is the salt, or that's what the vet website says. So no more going to the movies for me, I only go for the popcorn. I'm kidding. I've never been to the movies. I have to watch them on cable. So anyway she made us go outside while she vacuumed and emptied the box of salt into a container. So I was outside in the rain. Ick. My feet were getting wet. I hate that. Do you think Hilary clinton will be the vice president contestant person? did I change subjects on you too quickly? it is supposed to be in it's own paragraph. English has lots of rules.

Okay. So Mr. Obama is going to run for the Big Dog job. He runs against Mr. McCain. And they both need assistant big dogs. I hope Mr. McCain does not pick Mitt Romney. I heard he ( M.R., the Anti-Dog) bought a house in California. He SAYS it is because his wife has horses she rides there or something. I THINK he is establishing his mailing address so he can run for governor of California. Let's all send him a postcard that says, "glad you are there and not here".Well, I hope he does and I hope he wins. And I hope California slides off the earth into the ocean while he is at home. Oh, sorry. Mom says that is not kind. I should think it, not say it. Okay. whatEVER.
Anyway Mr Obama has to pick a Big DogHelper too. And Hillary could be it. Or, who else? I'm not sure. She would be a good choice because she has a dog and he does not. That covers just about everybody then. Well, not the cat people but they are usually independent or something. There's just no telling what cat people are thinking.

Well, it is now time for us to have snackage. And Mom has to figure out something for dinner. I like to help because then I can nibble and everyone else has to just watch and drool. I will update you over the weekend on "stuff" (possibly inappropriate use of quotation marks. I will have my Dad check it for me. He was an English major, you know.) (I posted the links I am using to learn English writing...they are helpful. Also I posted a link to the Bad Dog Chronicles where I read about adventures that other dogs have had. Bear put some stories in there and so did Bandit, a long time ago! ) Enjoy.

Love, Me