Dave’s Ramblings

Gab and I went out for the afternoon to cruise the lake and just goof off to spend some of that ‘quality time’ we rarely have time for. We were going to try to get her up on skis for the first time, but wasn’t able to find anyone else to go to serve as a spotter for me. Normally I’d have to turn people away to go boating, our boat will seat eight comfortably, but is stickered for six, but we’ve accumulated all sorts of things to drag behind the boat so there’s always something to do. So instead we took my big baby, Hunter Briars, his first boating trip. Judging from his reaction it will not be the last time… we all had a good time.

Wasn’t able to get very many pics while we were out, Hunter was having such a good time diving off the back of the boat to chase his retrieving dummy, by the time I could get the camera back out and turned on he’d jump back in the boat to shake off for the next run.

But a good time was had by all, of course with a storm looming and threatening to break we headed back in, by the time we got back home (only 10 miles) the sun broke through and the storm was gone, go figure. Hunter is just plain crashed out, he’ll sleep pretty good tonight

Next weekend should be the fireworks display for the forth they put on every year at the lake. They put on a pretty decent show, but it’s even better watching from the water, that’s where you’ll find us.

We started an ad the midle of last week in the local paper and Angel has been fielding calls continually, we’re down to three males left that are looking for loving homes, here they are at 6.5 weeks or so.

For more info on them jump over to Briar Patch Puppies. Tommorrow they’ll be 8 weeks old and getting thier first puppy shots

Okay so over the weekend we had some friends literaly fly in for the day Saturday. Brian is a pilot and has his own little 4 seater plane. The idea of planning out mini vacations and jumping in your own plane to get there is just so cool… no traffic jams, no road construction, and shaves 3/4 of the travel time off.

I’ve been half teasing Angel about buying a plane for years now, never really thought it could be a simple reality. She’s been griping “no planes” for years now, she’s not fond of the motorcycle, but has learned to trust me a bit more on it. We’ll see what some sweet talking and stuff can do. Now I’ve got my head wrapped around it and decided THAT is exactly what I want to do for my mid life crisis… I spent most of Saturday night just buzzing, reading up on all the info I could find on the costs, FAA rules and requirements, even found an instructor pretty local to us. Subscribed to a bunch of General Aviation magazines and Ezines as well to start reading up on more and more. Even grabbed a “$49 for your first flight lesson” certificate from BeAPilot. Looking at around $4-5K to get all flight and ground training completed. Really not too bad a deal in my books, given I’m a very quick study for anything I’m interested in I might be able to cut down the time and thus reduce my costs, which means more savings towards buying a plane By my figuring I spend that on smokes in a year!

So that’s my goal for my 40th bday next spring… to start training and have my General Aviation Permit by summer’s end. Even got the perfect ‘butter her up plan’ for Angel in mind, her birthday is a month before mine…so big plans in the mix to do it up right and make it a lasting one… one where she’ll need a passport for! It’s going to run me about the same cost as flight lessons, so I’m looking at somehow pulling together about $10K between now and next April. Time to start saving all of my pennies. I think with a little effort I can swing most of it in time, I want to have at least hers saved up and at least 1/2 of mine put away in time.

Pup #2, now better known as Sophie (I guess that’s how it’s spelled….who knows), but she has been adopted, her new owners did not want to wait a moment longer than at all possible, no more rough and tumble time with the other pups, she went home Friday (at 6 1/2 weeks old). No big deal they have been weaned off of mothers milk and been eating solid food for weeks now… not to mention whatever little critters Momma may have brought them while we were not looking. But we sent along her 8 week injection and a couple doses of wormer to boot.

She’s going to a great home and will be one spoiled rotten puppy

For more info on the litter jump over to Briar Patch Puppies. New updates pictures of the babies will be up soon, the present ones posted are at at 4 weeks, time is flying by so fast it’s hard to keep up with them. Growing like weeds and they’ve got needles for teeth, I’ve got a few perforated fingers to prove it too.

Our first pup from the litter of English Springer Spaniels is now spoken for…

Say hello to Jack,

Old picture I know, we have a few new ones, just not fair to post only some until we can get all of them shot.

He’s going to a wonderful home down in Madison, WI in about two weeks.

The whole litter got their first real bath yesterday, someone really wasn’t thinking too well…. I put all 7 in the tub and started counting as I was washing them…. when I hit 9 it really dawned on me that I’d not really thought this through well enough After they dried off and took a nap everyone got piled up and taken outside to play in the grass out front. What a monkey pile!

See this post for more of his litter mates, or the Briar Patch Puppies website for contact info if you are looking for a great pup!