Well, we got into work-week preparation mode last night & the bride & didn't get around to getting all the dogs to sit still & pose for the camera. That effort will likely be realized in the near future.

Actually, when you look at the pictures below, you'll see the Presto Dog pack is generally in the shot; only trouble is, they're all sort of drifting around. To make 'em sit still for the camera, I position one, put another next to the first, and then reach out for the third. By this time, the first has walked away and the two youngest ones, Dougie the Collie who's two years old & Maggie who's less than six months old, have run off into another part of the house. By the time I bring them back, the first three have run away and are hiding because I've asked them to do something that's anathema to them: sit still.

So, all this diatribe simply means taking a group picture of our four Shelties & tri-color Collie is definately a two-person endeavor.

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In the post immediately below this one, I lamented in the last paragraph that I couldn't find the cable that runs from my digital camera to my P/C. Without it, I couldn't upload any pictures. With a stroke of near genius, I realized that the cable I use to upload shots from my binocular-camera to my P/C would also work with my digital camera!

Putting my idea into action, here's a shot of all five of the Presto Dog pack taken with the aforementioned digital camera & uploaded to my P/C with the also aforementioned cable:

Clockwise from the left are: Lily, then the feet of li'l Maggie, Declan, Lyric's snout (near the pink ball) and Dougie, the Collie, taking a rest on his side.

Here's another shot of our five canines:


From left to right, the cuprits are: Lily, just over her shoulder in the background is Maggie, then Declan, Lyric and Dougie the Collie sniffing around on the far-right.

It's tough getting 'em all to stand/sit/lie still long enough to get a group picture. I'll try that later; the Presto Dog bride has told me she thinks she can get them settled enough for the shot I want to take. We'll see..check back later!

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Well, to show you how well I'm attuned to the outdoors at our new home, we had a bit of rain today. That, in turn, prevented me from working on the fence I'm assembling for our dogs. O.K., I admit it, I'm a wimp, afraid of a few rain drops.

Now, I say the fence is for our dogs (four Shelties and a Collie) because until it gets up, they can't run around free like they used to when we lived in a more "civilized" area a couple of months ago. It's gather 'em up, put on their leashes & walk 'em around every couple of hours. That's in great contrast to the way I used to operate: open the back yard & let 'em run out the door into our completely fenced in yard.

That's where we want to be here at our new home. Trouble is, instead of a mere 50' x 100' postage stamp-sized piece of land, we now need to enclose two whole acres before we can let the pack safely run loose.

Oh, and by the way, I can't locate the cable that feeds pictures from my digital camera to my P/C. Until same is found, I can only take shots of the dogs with my binocular-camera I ourchased a few weeks ago. The digital camera is, of course, more convenient; I gotta find that damn cable!

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By around noon yesterday I finished putting up the right-side of the fence on our property. I estimate I did about 200', as I assembled 20 sections @ 10' each.

It wasn't that difficult, but the heat & humidity made me pay a price for my endeavors. The Presto Dog bride brought me down some water, cold towels I could put around my neck & a portable seat so I could take a more civilized rest when my batteries started to run down rather than merely resting on my haunches or sitting on the ground.

Here's a picture of the sections of the fence I put up:

Actually, once the fence is up,my efforts won't be through since I'll then need to attach chicken wire around the entire inside perimeter . This way our four shelties, Lyric, Lily, Declan & Maggie and our tri-color Collie, Dougie, can run around the backyard in a safe, enclosed environment.

Tomorrow, I'll be putting up the fence at the back of our property. Looking at the picture above, that means extending the fence out to the left of the last upright post piece you ee. I think it'll run another 10-15 sections of 10' fencing. This particular run also includes posts for a gate that we ordered but don't have yet. It's 5' wide so I'll plan accordingly.

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It's summer time...the weather outside is muggy, it's humid, and the temperature's expected to be about 87 degrees or so today. All this can mean only one thing-we need to move on putting up our post 'n rail fence!

If you've been following this on-going drama, you\'re aware that we had a guy with a big auger come to our property to drill about 150-160 12" diameter holes around the perimeter of the place for a fence. We couldn't do this ourselves with one of those two-man augers you can rent at Home Depot, Lowe's or your local hardware store 'cause there were too many real BIG rocks in the ground. I suppose these were deposited in the area millions of years ago by those giant glaciers that traversed the East coast during the planet's Ice Age.

In a few minutes, I'll be loading up my post hole digger (to remove the excess dirt that's fallen back into the holes), gloves, ruler, gallons of water 'n ice to keep me hydrated and assorted other tools into the garden wagon that gets pulled behind our Cub Cadet tractor. Then, it's out to the back yard where I'll continue setting posts at their proper heights and then putting the required posts into 'em. I'll then make sure the posts are straight so the fence'll look appropriate.

A prior picture posted here on the Presto Dog web site showed a red barn off in the disance. In the new picture below, you can see that I've brought the fence up to this area:


I'll take aother picture later this afternoon/evening (or tomorrow) so you can check on my progress.

Of course, all this is being done so that our pups (three Shelties and a Collie) will be able to romp & play unfettered. We can't wait!

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Shelties love to bark...it's part of their genetic code, of their integral make up. So, since the Presto Dog pack consists of four of this fine breed, you can imagine the riotous behavior and noise that eminates from our den every time a bicycle goes past the window, or someone strolls/walks by, or a delivery is made. It's instant mayhem, a time when ear plugs are more in vogue than any fancy shirt or bliuse you may want to wear.

Now, our dogs range in age from eight years to five months. They pan out as follows: Lyric-8, Lily-5, Declan-5 and little Maggie-5 months. We also have a two year old tri-color Collie named Dougie that generally acts as the watch dog. He's constantly looking out the windows and when he sees something moving, he immediately starts barking which, in turn, sets off the already high-strung Shelties into a frenzied mania.

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As if the prior few posts weren't enough, here's yet a few additional words on the fence we're constructing that'll encompass the entire Presto Dog property.

One of the pieces of the puzzle we needed to consider as we planned our fence was the type of gate that would add the finishing touch to our massive project. We considered a post 'n rail gate like you see on some properties, but these have the tendency to sag over the years. In fact, we experienced that exact fact with a comparatively light picket fence that we built around the old Presto dog house.

So, we settled on what could be called cattle gates. I can attest that these are cattle gates 'cause the place next to us has a couple of cows & they use the same gates on their pen.

In the center of the picture below is an angle shot of the type of gate that's gonna be placed on our fence once it's set up:

True, it ain't much to look at but it's pretty light weight & will stand the test of time.

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As readers who frequent the Presto Dog web site can attest, we moved from a suburban area to a very rural area about two months ago. The actual, physical move itselk took place over a two week perid in which we rented several moving trucks (not vans) and moved all our worldly possessions from there to here. And, we even remembered to bring our four Shelties (Lyric, Lily, Declan & Maggie) and our tri-color Collie, Dougie, along with us, also.

About a whole week's gone by since I last wrote about this, but the topic's seemingly all-pervasive. It's on my mind during the day, and has even infringed upon what's supposed to be the solemnity of sleep. What could this all-encompassing problem be, this trying issue that forces it's way into all aspects of my life? It's the construction of a fence around our entire property.

Here's a picture of a single section I set up just to see what it would look like:

If you look to either side of the fence I put up, you'll see there's a ton of work remaining to be done. But as noted previously, the finished product will be a play area of dogs are gonna love for years to come.

BTW, if you feel you wanna come by and help me put up a section or two of fencing, drop me a line. And, some day I'll learn how to improve my picture-taking skills and get better resolution in my shots.

Update: I put up about 150' of wooden post 'n rail fencing last evening. When I'm done with the remaining 1,800 to 1,900', I'll then need to install hexagonal chicken wire on every last foot of the fencing so our five dogs (Lyric, Lily, Declan & Maggie, all Shelties, and Dougie, our tri-color Collie) can't escape.

It'll be great when I'm done, but what a job!

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Last week, on a lark, I purchased a pair of binoculars from Amazon.com. Now, these aren't your normal, every day, run-of-the-mill binoculars. These one can take pictures of the scenery you're lookin' at through the lenses of the binoculars!

And without further ado, I'm showing you the very first picture ever taken with our new binoculars/camera:

It's a shot of a red barn on the property next to the Presto Dog Phunny Pharm, down the hill and off to the right. In the foreground is a field of feed corn that's gone to fallow. And if you look real carefully toward the bottom of the picture, you can even see the posts I'm putting in the ground that'll eventually be the integral part of the fence that will surround the entire Phunny Pharm. Between the dried up corn stalks & the barn, in the center of the picture, is an old farm wagon. I'd love to get that thing as a decoration for my front lawn!

The area's real rustic, with farms & hills our neighbors & scenery. Ya gotta remember, however, that we came from an area that once was pretty suburban. In fact, when I first moved there some 30-odd years ago, the main intersection didn't even have a traffic light. Sadly, it became a hustling, bustling little community that's now straining with a mass influx of people, their cars and the supporting stores and creature comforts that make even more people move into the area.

Bless 'em; they can have it. We made a conscious decision to move to a country environment & we ain't looked back yet.

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