Search This Blog

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Tickle my Bunnybone !!

We realised that we haven't published a "Tickle my Funnybone" for a while so thought we would show you some funny Easter pics *giggles*

Please help yourself to an Easter Egg while you're here.

But first, this comes to greet you with wishes sincere, for a very glad Easter and joy through the year !














We hope the Easter bunny is very generous to you all !

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Aussie Road Trip - Ladies on the Move!

We are awfully excited and very busy ... some of our lady furriends have had enough of their winter weather and are headed this way on an Aussie Road Trip to enjoy our summer weather for the weekend! They are Lola, @BoBubbles (Ireland), @Cricket1230 (Texas USA), @IamDaisyDoo (Massachusetts) and @MeisRoxyThePug (Ohio USA). Our pal the lovely @Charshy_pup from just down the road (Melbourne) is going to join the Trip too:
Clockwise from top left: Lola & Bo, Charshy, Roxy, Cricket & Daisy
My brofur Raja and I will be carrying out extra patrols for the ladies, just for their peace of mind (and to make sure no crawlies get near them).

Upon arrival, each lady will be greeted with a cold rose champagne cocktail and nommy cake at the main house while their luggage is taken to the Summer House:

 
And in their rooms in the Summer House they will each find a bouquet of Australia flowers, a gourmet doggy gift basket and a genuine Akubra hat for their own:



We have cleared a picturesque area in one of our paddocks and reconstructed our popular Summer House. There are six separate bedrooms, each one boasting a fabulous sitting room, walk-in-robe, ensuite and private balcony: 

A private balcony, luxurious living room and king sized bedroom for each guest

The Summer House is also equipped with a brilliant Olympic sized swimming pool with wet bar service, and an award winning 3 Star Michelin restaurant which is open 24 hours a day and caters to room and pool guests:

 Top: Fully stocked swimming pool wet bar Bottom: Award winning nommies

And when the ladies need a pick-me-up, our onsite Spa should help lift those lagging spirits and renew their energy levels. The Spa's luxury gift pack is complimentary to all guests who stay at the Summer House:

Top: Relax in the Summer House Spa / Bottom: Complimentary luxurious Spa gift pack
We are all ready now for our lady furriends to arrive at their leisure via the Google Earth Jet. I have my pawses crossed that my darling @Keely_Bobs is able to visit sometimes during the weekend too. She has been very busy with our wedding plans and I'm sure would enjoy a short break away:

Keely & Thomas wearing their Akubra hats

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Backseat Driving

We love going out in Pop's car. Once our collars are on (which is a whole different story: Collar Crazies ) Sam & Raja race each other to Pop's car while Elisabeth & I herd him out of the house and to the garage as fast as possible. And then we're off!


We have a special "Back Seat Buddy" which is a strong doggy seat cover that latches to the back of the front seats and keeps us safely in the back. We don't often travel on the motorway, but when we do we are (usually) buckled in safely. And when we reach our gravel road, Pop always releases us so we can hang out the window:

Monday, January 17, 2011

An American Doggy in Queensland

My bestest friend in the whole wide world is Dakota (@DakotaBDog) who lives on the other side of the world in the USA. His mama was going away and so let him come spend the weekend with me!

Raja, Elisabeth, Dakota & Me
We decided that we wanted to camp in our paddocks so we set up our tent in the driest spot we could find. Pop also helped us set up our very own BBQ for noms *drools*.

My brofur Raja and sisfur Elisabeth joined us during the days but they slept at night in the house with Nan.

In this pic of us all, my mama Sam & my Nan are in the background, checking for snakes & creepy crawlies. Dakota and I are brave members of the #BadBoyzOfTwitter but we draw the line at crawlies.

@doglvr4evr (Lori) tent bedroom
Our dear human friend Lori (@doglvr4evr) also came over to camp for the first night, but we didn't think she'd want to spend the night listening to me & Dakota snoring so we set up a tent especially for her. Very comfy.

Dakota arrived quite late that night so after a quick intro to the family, a whirlwind tour of the place and then some BBQ noms, we crashed in our tent. We both slept pretty soundly, even Dakota despite the unfamiliar creepy night noises. They didn't seem to disturb him - he snored his way through the night, hehe.

Elisabeth (left), Tom (back) & Dakota
As you might know, we've experienced a lot of rainfall here lately, so much in fact that our turkey dam filled to capacity and then burst a wall and the water rushed down the hill, eventually washing away the tarseal from the road at the bottom.

Pop decided to go ahead and rebuild the dam wall this weekend before more rain fell, and we pups of course had to help.

But we weren't of much help to Pop - we were having too much fun playing in the muddy water!
Dakota in his Aussie hat

It took most of the day to fix the dam and by the time we had cleaned ourselves up we were famished. Dakota & I got the BBQ going again and sat down to nommy sossidges while we discussed our plans for the rest of the day.

The weather was hot and sunny and as Dakota had forgotten to bring his cap, I presented him with his very own special Aussie hat. Not only does the Aussie hat protect you from the sun, the little corks help to keep the flies away from your face!

Me & Dakota on the RV
We decided that it just wouldn't be right if Dakota didn't get to ride on our RV so later that afternoon we went for a spin around our paddocks.

Dakota drove our RV like a professional - he has had a lot of practice driving his Mama's car and his neighbour's snowmobile, hehe.

It had been a long day for us, so we had an easy night after our BBQ dinner. Nan gave us her guitar and it turned out that Dakota was a natural and could strum out just about any tune you liked.

We spent the evening in sing-a-long around our campfire, our loud music-making and laughter competing with the angry noises the bats were making above us in the trees.

Dakota posing with a kangaroo
After another good night's sleep and nommy BBQ breakfast, we went for a walk through our paddocks. There were a lot of smells that were unfamiliar to my buddy so we investigated thoroughly - he was especially taken with the kangaroo poo and fox pee.

We were lucky enough to pick up the scent of a some local kangaroos and went off on the hunt, eventually tracking them down and getting a snapshot of them for Dakota.

Me & Dakota acting ape
We've got a lot of trees on the property, and Dakota & I climbed almost every one of them over the weekend.

Sure, we lost some fur and scraped some skin, and sometimes we were met by angry ants. At one tree we even disturbed a very unhappy and nimble goanna, but we met these challenges face on and conquered every tree we attempted to climb.

Me Dakota, you Jane
Some of our trees have vines weaving their way through them and we had great fun climbing and swinging on them.

Personally I think Dakota might be part monkey 'cos he was swinging through those trees just like Tarzan (or George of the Jungle, hehe).

Dakota holding a Koala Bear
While we were playing at jungle tracking in the paddocks a little later, Dakota spotted a lone bundle of fur making its way down one of our gum trees.

The little bundle turned out to be a friendly koala bear who was happy to take a picture with him. I was really pleased that my friend got to see one of our koalas because we don't get very many passing through - we don't have enough of the type of gum tree they feed on.

The afternoon was turning out to be rather warm for Dakota - not unexpected considering he was experiencing winter at his home and was therefore wearing his winter coat!

Dakota caught the one that didn't get away
Pop suggested that to cool off we go fishing or swimming in our dam. Dakota & I decided we wanted fish for our BBQ dinner that night so we tied a hook on and threw a line in. I got a few nibbles but it was Dakota who landed the big one!

That evening was my friend's last with us so we all shared the BBQ fish and sat around the campfire talking and laughing into the early hours of the morning.

Dakota as a Wallaby (Rugby Union)
We wanted to give Dakota something that would remind him of us whenever he saw it. And so after much debate between us, we got him an authentic Wallabies rugby shirt.

Early the next morning saw Dakota leave on the Google Earth Jet. I ran through the paddocks waving as my buddy zoomed away back to his home, knowing how much I was going to miss him. We sure had a great time and I sincerely hope he comes back again soon - but for longer! (we might keep him)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Queensland Floods (3)

Pop has been out today, helping our neighbours down the road whose houses were caught in the flood that came down from Toowoomba. He also took some video clips. This one shows a road in Minden where the water went through:


This video shows more damage, including the Glenmorganvale Rural Fire Brigade's big shed having been washed away and dumped on the side of the road:

  

This one is great. The Fernvale School has been turned into an emergency evacuation center and they've also made their tennis courts into temporary animal enclosures. This is the doggy compound:


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A swim in the dam

We love being taken down to our dam, and it's even better when there is water in it! Our dry season is roughly from May to September (the cooler months) so summer usually sees our dam filling a few times:

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Queensland Floods (2)

After a night and morning of more rain, we took advantage of a break in the weather to take a couple of videos of our property:


Our dam is often dry but sometimes has enough water in it that the dogs can paddle and/or swim. We have never seen it with this much water in it


We are basically OK here, in that we have to deal with surface flooding which could come in the house, but we are on top of a hill and the likelihood of high flood waters reaching us are remote.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Queensland Floods (1)

Australians are battlers. They come from a long line of battlers, many of whom fought crippling heat, burning sun and withering droughts to carve out a home and living in what is often an inhospitable but beautiful land. And between times of sometimes barely endurable conditions, Mother Nature often threw in a deluge of water big enough to fill Sydney Harbour so many times over.

Some news video footage on the Toowoomba flash flood 10 January 2011

Some news video of aftermath of same Toowoomba flash flood 10 January 2011

Toowoomba is at the top of a mountain range. At the moment there is a 7m high wall of water coming down that mountain and towards the small towns below, eg Gatton, Lockyer. And the news is reporting huge mudslides crashing down the Toowoomba range.

It has been raining for days now but the long term forecast is good and shows easing. We are OK in these floods as we are on top of a hill. But our heart goes out to our neighbours who have been affected and we hope they & their animals stay safe and out of harm's way until the waters recede.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Tropical Evening Chorus

Sometimes during this time of the year there's no point in Nan & Pop having the TV going 'cos they can't hear it for the songs of the frogs, toads and crickets. The noise is even worse after rainfall and during the evening. Nan & Pop like the noise though because it is a sound of the tropics; reminiscent of balmy evenings, salt pools and palm trees.

Nan has taken a video just so that you can listen to these tropical noises for yourself. She stood just outside the family room sliding door. This is what we hear. Make sure you've got your sound on!


It took some time and a number of reference books but Nan has identified the types of frogs and toad responsible for those noises.When she can she will post their names and pics.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Collar Crazies

(Click to go back to "Backseat Driving": Backseat Driving post)

We love car rides. We know we're going in the car because Nan puts our collars on and we only wear our collars when we're going in the car. Nan usually puts them on while Pop is doing his ablutions, and we get pretty vocal about the whole affair!


Once in the car though we are quiet, well-behaved doggies (most of the time):

 

Pop calls us his in-car security system, hehehe.

Secret Santa

My Secret Santa sent me a squeaky blue octopus-thingy toy! I was so excited, I wouldn't even share it with my doggy family. I took it to my chair and there it remained.


It took me two days and I eventually chewed the legses off, but it still squeaked, yay! The third day I started carrying it around with me. Unfortunately I've dropped it in the paddock somewhere but these things have a way of turning up again!


So thank you Secret Santa for giving me such a fun gift *hugs* xx

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Paperbark Trees & Swimming Pools

Summer around here is usually heralded by a number of things. The weather warms up, of course, and the humans complain about the humidity, but there are other tell-tale signs.

For instance, our paperbark (melaleuca) trees shed their bark. This goes on throughout summer as the new bark underneath is revealed. The paperbark isn't used for many things but it is used by the Aborigines for such things as containers, totem poles, seal for ovens and canoes. Paperbark is also used for habitat for shelter when on "walkabout" around the countryside. And the thick old paperbark trucks provide hollows especially when fires occur during dry season:
The second absolute indicator of summer being here is our summer pool looks more inviting if you were a crocodile than a dog or human. There are swamps around that are less dirty than our pool at the moment:
No doubt Pop will have it clean and ready for use just in time for it to be too cold for Nan to swim.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year - 2011

Keely and I would like to wish all our anipals a very Happy New Year. Wouldn't it be nice if this were to become the "NO MORE" year ... no more lost/abandoned pets, no more hungry animals and people, no more miserable emptiness in the world. Together we can make it a reality.

Wherever you are in the world, we wish you joy and good health this year *raises a glass* xxx