Christmas day fun

After a morning of swimming and chasing frisbees on the beach, we came back ready for a good lie down.  Gracie decided that the bale of hay under the deck would be just the ticket to dry off and have a snooze.

 She looks like a dog in the manger!

 It looked like a good nest tho, so when she got up for a minute, I jumped in...and yes, it was quite cosy.

Earlier that morning, we got to unwrap a lot of Christmas prezzies. 

This is Neil with his...

and me with some of mine.

They were chewy, squeaky good fun, but it didn't take me long to shred them all! And Gracie's too.

Gracie and her favourite hole

Turns out Gracie has a few holes that she works on when the mood takes her...

This one.

  

And this one.

 But this one is her favourite on a hot day - cool and shady under the banana trees.

And it is getting hot these days. The tomatoes are bursting out of their tunnel...

So Neil had to build something more spacious for them...

Voila! A very tall tomato tunnel. That should keep them happy for awhile. You can see our grass isn't too good - seems we run up and down too much for the stuff to grow. 

Hmmmph, surely not our fault! Maybe Neil should fertilise it more or something.

Definitely not my problem!

Gracie digs a hole

Gracie! What have you been doing?? You look like a strange Siamese cat... or a very dirty dog!

I'm thinking there is a very large, Airedale-size hole in the garden somewhere.

So? What's the problem?

We're still here...

Gosh time gets away when you are busy. Once Spring arrived, there is so much to do in the garden, not to mention training for some upcoming agility and obedience trials.

 The plants in the Gro-cover tunnel are going really well. 

 We are getting armfuls of greens - kale, spinach, beetroot and silverbeet.
It's pretty tasty, we get the extras in our dinner as well.

 Neil stays busy working on his 1930 BSA. It started as a box of bits, but now is actually looking like a motorbike and he even got the engine running for the first time last week. Amazing.

We have been very busy with our agility training. I now have my Agility Dog and Jumping Dog titles. Gracie still needs a few more passes before she gets hers. It's such good fun. 

We also got our Rally Novice titles last month too.

Here's a few clips of us training in the backyard. 

First me...

Then Gracie. We love this game!

Photobomb

There was a stiff onshore wind at the beach the other day...

Gracie just couldn't keep her ears under control!

jumping frenzy

It was jumping craziness today in the backyard. We were flying!

Team Airedale brings home the gold

We went to an agility trial this weekend in Port Macquarie. It was cold and wet and VERY MUDDY.

But Team Airedale rocked! We got 3 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes.
 That's 7 places for 8 classes entered. Not too shabby!

I got a qualifying certificate for every one of my classes, Gracie got two for her jumping classes, but just had a point or two off in each agility classes, so NQ (no qualify).

We won lots of prizes as well - some of them edible! Gracie got my tub of treats when no one was looking and ate the lot - lucky she won the same on Sunday. She had to share hers with me. They were delish!

Kay got really muddy - so did everyone. Some people slipped and fell in, but she managed to stay upright.

 Her tennis shoes don't look so good, however.

 We got muddy too.  We are now confined to the laundry until some of it drops off. 

  It was Gracie's first competition and only my second. Go the Airedales!

We showed those Border Collies a thing or two.

kangaroo patrol

Look who's taunting us from the other side of the fence...

 We were going berserk barking at him...

 So what does he do? Lies down for a little nap...oh so cool.

 He's a BIG buck kangaroo.

 He eventually hopped off - but we stayed on the lookout from the deck, just in case he came back.

Don't worry, we're on the job!

gardening update

The veggie beds are finished and things are growing nicely now. There are Airedale nets on both beds...(don't know why they call them beds if they don't want a dog to sleep there).

 This one has a fancy "grow cover" that keeps out Airedales, parrots, bats and even little bugs, like fruit fly (we hope!). The tomato's are going in here I think. The cover looks like gossamer.

 All the little baby lettuces are up and growing - this was a few weeks ago - they are even bigger now.

The lemon tree is powering along.  Kay told us all to pee on it, so we try to remember as often as possible. Seems to be working.

Presenting our first radish! Our first harvest from the new gardens.

Gracie wasn't too impressed, she said it didn't smell anything like what a dog would like.

The wind in my ears

Gracie loves outings in the car. 

If the window is down far enough, she has her head totally out.

 

Delicious smells whishing past, one foot up, always at the ready to jump out...

Unfortunately, I can't quite get out the window - I know, I've tried.

Beach time

We live at the beach all the time now. It's pretty good.

Here we are one day last week when we went to Back Beach. It was cold and windy, but sunny.
We had a bracing romp in the fresh, fresh air and the cool, cool water.

And a quick stop at the local co-op on the way home as well.
Nice smelly fish for tea!