last day of work

Neil, Gracie and I are now officially retired from working. Hooray!

Not that I minded working, we always got to see and meet a lot of interesting folks along the way. We've been working on Fozzie's house for the last few months.

He lives in a neighbourhood that has tiny, tiny backyards - so us dogs didn't get too much room. There is even less in the front garden where we are here. As you can see, the play yard is a bit cramped.

So finding a quiet place for an afternoon nap wasn't always easy.

But it did allow one to beg shamelessly over the fence. That's a yummy looking pig's ear, Anthony!

At the end of the last day, all the tradies had a beer with Neil and farewelled us off into retirement.

It was always lots of fun working with Anthony and the crew.

But even if we hadn't retired, I am off on maternity leave for the next few months.

I thought I was putting on weight with all that yummy food... seems like the problem started back when we went to visit Romper!

I can hardly lug this tummy around anymore - I have definitely lost the spring in my step and certainly can't jump into the car at all.

I'll be glad when the little nippers finally arrive!

food, glorious food

Gee whiz, I'm hungry all the time these days. Might be the cold weather, I guess.

Kay is being very obliging and giving me all sorts of extra yummy food. I even get breakfast now - which is a welcome change.

Here is a tray of fresh liver that is going in the freezer - I get one slab a day, quite delish.

And here is the raw vegie mix that Kay makes up for us. She says it has all sorts of good ingredients in it. Don't know about that part, but it is pretty tasty as well.

Here we are licking the bowl. It's a flurry of Airedales!

After all this extra eating, I get pretty tired and like to sleep a lot too. Neil says that I am getting fat - he might be right, I do seem to have put on a few extra kilos.

Nevermind, it's nearly time for morning tea... I've gotta go hang around the kitchen!

nearly famous

Who are those good looking Dales in the latest Freedom Furniture catalog? Why, it's us!

We are nearly famous now, I would think.

It is just a tiny photo - about the size of a postage stamp. We were supposed to be on the cover as well, but I guess we were left on the cutting room floor.

Anyway, we spent a whole day at a posh house in the Southern Highlands, waiting for our photo shoot. It was an interesting day watching the arty types at work. Neil said the renumeration was worth it. Not too sure what that means, but he was pretty pleased with it.

See the nice brown leather couch? We bought one just about the same recently. Kay says it is in dirt colour... something about having too many Airedales rubbing up against our old white ones. I'm not fussed what colour a couch is, as long as I can dry off on it.

swimming merit badge

This is to certify that

Doubledaire Trust Me (Gracie)

has earned her Airedale Terrier swimming merit badge.

She successfully passed the stated criteria of

plunging in and swimming to the target (Neil).

We knew you could do it, Gracie! Congratulations!! An Airedale really should be able to swim, I reckon. She even got the hang of jumping over the waves to get to the sticks - but she didn't often get there before me! I love swimming and I am sooo fast.

Here's Gracie demonstrating her new found talent (with her Auntie Megan).

a word from Gracie

Hi - it's me, Gracie. We've had a bit of an adventure and Ruby isn't here to tell you about it. So I'm going to.

First, Neil found another old motorbike to buy. It's a 1930 BSA and it looks like this:

Except it really looks like this:

We had to drive all the way to Victoria to get it last weekend. Neil was very happy about it. But even better, the motorbike lived right in the same area as my Dad - Romper Stomper.

I had never actually met him, so I was really excited that we were going to go visit. Ruby was excited too. It has been ages since she has seen him.

They were so happy to see each other after all this time. He was big and shaggy and very handsome. We played chase around the paddock while everyone else had a cuppa tea. He is great fun.

Then, when it was time to go... Ruby decided to stay longer. Something about they wanted a little 'together time' or something.

Neil and Kay and I came back to Sydney that night - and gosh, that was a long drive - 16 hours by my calculation. We were in the car forever and hardly ever stopped. I complained loudly from the backseat...quite a lot. So boring.

I've been an only dog ever since. At first I didn't like it, but then I realised that I get all the attention, I get all the petting, I get all the balls -now I think it's pretty good.

Ruby is coming home sometime next week - she's flying back from Melbourne (1.5hr flight). Smart dog.

Callan Park revisited

Gee, it's been a long time since we updated our blog. Our lives are generally not that exciting, just the same old, same old most of the time, so it doesn't seem that newsworthy or someone has forgotten the camera...

But this morning was lovely and cool, so we headed off for a romp in our favourite Callan Park.

It was a hospital grounds many years ago and there are wonderful old trees, garden features and stone walls still there to investigate.

And some great stuff to sniff too.

We played hide and seek with Neil and Kay. They are always amazed that we find them so quickly, but honestly, how easy is it to sniff out your human??

And lastly, here is a recent tongue-shot for Anna's Spectacular Tongue-Tacular contest. This was on a warmer day and our tongues were lolling.

dance of the Airedale

Kay and I have a new training method these days. It's called 'training in drive' and I love it. So far, it involves me trying to catch a tug toy and then I hang on and do NOT let go...even when I'm supposed to. We are still working on that bit. I just can't bring myself to give it up once I've locked onto it with my jaws of steel.







It's a great workout for both of us. Kay says I am getting stronger and she can barely keep hold of the tug... that of course is my plan. This is the best kind of training we've tried so far - right down a terrier's alley!