Ice has given birth to 5 pups!  4-females and 1 male.  The male is all-white, and the females are white, red and white, and 2 gray and whites.  They were born early Sunday morning July 9th, a little behind their anticipated arrival of July the 4th.  They are sold or are sale pending.  The expected go home time will be Labor Day Weekend.  Ziva meanwhile, is expected to give birth any time now.  She is looking big, so we feel the possibility of a big litter exists.  But as with every other litter, it will be wait and see.  Finally, Josie is a few weeks along, and is expected to give birth in mid-August.  It is too early to confirm her pregnancy.  We should be able to do this in about 2 weeks or so.

There is still no sign of the expected heat cycles from Aleu, River, Willow, and Ellie.  I will say this though…This is likely a blessing in disguise.  With the overhaul of the barn stalls currently happening, having 7 or 8 litters at once would be VERY difficult!  With Luna having hers a couple months ago; Ice, Ziva, and Josie currently; and the other 4 still to come; actually helps us by spacing them apart somewhat!  We realize that it will make some wait a little longer, but it certainly helps us with our scheduling.

Speaking of the stall project, here is a quick update…I mentioned in the last update that we had 4 completed new stalls.  We still sit on that number of 4, but the other 3 on that wall are fully framed.  Right now, focus has changed to shifting the front walls and doors of the 6 old stalls on the west wall back about 6-12 inches.  The problem there is that the main posts of these stalls are dug into the dirt floor.  They need to be removed to prep for the upcoming concrete project in the middle section.  Once that is complete, I will go back to finishing the other 3 new stalls.

The heat of the summer continues, and as is typical, the dogs are inventing ways to keep cool.  We do what we can, with the fans, water tubs, and giving them chunks of ice on occasion.  They love the ice!  Pouring ice into the water tub will make for an entertaining 20-30 minutes while they continue to bobb for ice chunks!  The other method of keeping cool that is not spoken of much, is the hole digging.  The dirt helps them cool off, so they love to dig in a little (or a lot) deeper and lie in their holes.  As we’ve shown in a Facebook Post a couple weeks ago, one particular hole is becoming more of a cave!

Before the days of the farm, I didn’t particularly care for this time of year.  July and August are always hot and muggy, and I prefer cooler (not cold!) weather.  Fifty to Seventy-Five degrees is my preferred range.  But since moving out here to the farm, I have an entirely new perspective on things.  Right about now begins my favorite time of the year.  Something about the farmer’s fields full of crops, with the anticipation of the harvest and the county fair, make the heat and mugginess tolerable.  The tall field of corn, coupled with “The Buck Moon” (July’s Full Moon), made for a very nice evening to sit outside a few nights ago.

Our “Huskies will be Huskies” amusing (sort of) anecdote of the day: 

A couple of weeks ago, while Heather was visiting her brother in Virginia, I woke up in the morning to go to work as is normal.  That day, as I got up, I smelled  what I thought was a skunk, and just rolled my eyes assuming the dogs scared one and it sprayed.  As I went downstairs to the kitchen, I noticed how the smell got a lot stronger, and started to smell of manure.  At that point, I assumed one of the dogs in the house (Holly and Czar) did their business somewhere.  However, after going toward the kitchen, I saw that the door to the garage was open.  Suddenly, I was concerned.  I looked into the garage and realized that the big garage door was also open!  I immediately turned around to locate Holly and Czar.  I found them both inside, resting comfortably acting like nothing happened.  Both of them were covered in manure!  We live near a cow farm, which is on the Southeast corner of Peterson Rd. & SR 589.  The cows are currently not on site thankfully, but a very large steaming pile of manure was ripe and there for the rolling and playing.  And play they did!  As I said, they were covered, and they thought nothing of it.  I had to go to work, so they went outside for the day until I got home.  When I got home, it was bath time.  I put the large black water tub inside the kennel cage out in the yard.  Filled it with water and proceeded to wash them with Dawn Dish Soap, one at a time.  Czar was first, and was relatively painless except for a few heavy shakedowns.  I expected, and was prepared to be wet, so no big deal.  Holly on the other hand was a different story.  She never has liked the water, but a bath is a whole new level.  Good Ol’ Happy-Go-Lucky Holly becomes Hell-Hath-No-Fury Holly when introduced to a bath.  She has very thick hair and the manure was caked on even worse than Czar.  I needed at least 4 hands, but only had 2.  To say the least, it was a difficult task to wrestle with her, hold her, and scrub her at the same time.  In the end, I’m not sure who was more wet, her or me!  I rinsed her off with the hose, and then had to rinse off myself as well.  I was covered in soap and fur, top to bottom.  Afterward, we both stood there and shook off.  She gave me a look that would melt the hide off a mountain goat, and I of course returned it.  I put her back in the back yard until dry.  After drying, Czar seemed back to normal.  Holly however still smelled of manure.  I thought we’d have to go through it all again.  However, after giving her a another day to air out, she was normal again.  Needless to say, I need to check to make sure doors are closed before going to bed!