Let Freedom Ring!

Note the fire in the hot air balloon.  Jared had to time the photos just right to get that!  He really cared about the flames in the photo.

We had the BEST fourth of July in a long time!  We woke up so early and wend to the balloon launch at the Freedom Festival where Grandpa G gets us tickets for the pancake breakfast each year.  He volunteers for the Kiwanis Club and it was fun to see how they do it!  Each year we've been, they have never been able to launch and this year was the same!  Still fun though.

At night we had a BBQ and had lots of family in town.  We started at 7.  We usually start our 4th of July celebration too early and it it too hot and no one wants to go outside.  This time it was perfect!  The best part was having everyone over and visiting.  I really love all my brother-in-laws and their wives.  

We played some cornhole, crossnet, and the little kids swam.  Everyone brought amazing food.  It was so fun to see everyone!  I wish we had a big picture of the whole family.  

Then we went to Travis's and watched his fireworks show and it was so fun to see all the fireworks all over the valley.

I'll tell you one of my favorite things right now is Substack.  Freedom to read uncensored information from a variety of writers and experts is really a breath of fresh air.  Bari Weiss is still my favorite.  She posted a Walter Kirn piece and I just loved it so much!  If you like to read things that are funny, witty, and make you think about things in a new way, you'll like it too.  I felt very validated when I read this particular piece about the news today.  I'm tired of being force-fed the BS.  Its nice to hear that others are feeling the same way.

https://walterkirn.substack.com/p/the-bullshit?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

This one is good too by a different author but also regarding censorship and the state of journalism (why we have the BS).

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-news-media-is-destroying-itself

I'm feeling a pushback happening against the things that were formerly forbidden to discuss and it makes me happy.  

Happy 8th Birthday Lewis!

Animal updates and introductions around here.

Lewis is our boy Australian Shepherd and he turned 8 years old yesterday!  I love Lewis the best of all our animals.  He was a very hyper and rambunctious toddler.  But he grew into the most loyal, brave, and chill dog ever.  He also super nurturing.  He loved the puppies.  He loves all puppies.  He gets along with every dog we have ever introduced him to.  He is a sweetheart. 

Annie is our girl dog.  She is playful and affectionate and high strung.  She gets anxious from fireworks so this time of year she is pretty stressed.  Annie gives hugs like a human and is a licker.  She will lick your legs and every other part of you, but I hate being licked and she knows it and doesn't lick me. 

Annie has bear fur.  It is not silky like Lewis's.  His hardly needs to be brushed or groomed and looks fabulous all the time.  Hers gets matted and burs.  So last week she got a UTI and we got her into the vet first thing the next morning but Lewis stayed right next to her all night and licked and comforted her.  It was the sweetest thing.

Jared sent me this photo last week and we both laughed.  Aussie butts are a real problem.

We decided to cut her hair short.  We think her UTI was because she is hard to clean when her hair is so long.  And honestly her coat is already terrible.  So we don't have much to lose.

She looks like a different dog!  And our cat Milo saw her inside yesterday and didn't recognize her and started hissing.  So then she went after him and they got into an actual fight.  Milo hid under Soren bed and still doesn't realize its just Annie.  So now they don't trust each other.

In other news, our dogs are fat.  And when we took Annie to the Dr. he told Jared she is morbidly obese.  This was funny to me because he is always saying "Annie just looks fat" and she is "big boned"  haha.  In such denial.    

I will tell you why they are obese.  My husband can't just give them dogfood.  He feels so bad for them.  It took me awhile to convince him that they are only supposed to eat once per day.  Finally he realized that is what they needed.  His dogs growing up were all small and an unlimited bowl of food wasn't an issue.  

Then I had to talk him out of soft dog food cause it isn't good for them.

So finally he would buy them a pretty expensive dog food and also vitamins for their joints.  Everyday he would mix in an egg or chicken broth, cheese and also bits of meat.  Yes they loved it.  No they did not lose any weight on this "diet." Lol.

This week I've had all kinds of "raw" dog foods delivered frozen to our door.  Maybe one of these will be the ticket.  He tried also tried a Keto dog food this week and they hated it.  Even the magpies didn't like it. The dogs don't like the raw dog foods yet.  Hopefully they get used to it because I have two freezers full of it now.

Speaking of magpies, we shot 5 of them with a bb gun last week.  They were infesting our whole yard and pooping on literally everything.  All the other birds in the yard were getting bullied.  So I was very pleased to be rid of them.  

That is another funny story.  Jared hates hunting and doesn't like killing animals.  He doesn't mind fishing but he accidentally killed a mama bird with a lucky slingshot aim when he was a kid and he's felt bad ever since.  So when I asked him to get me a bb gun and some ammo he was reluctant.  I was insistent, I wanted that bb gun.  And you can see that it didn't take long for him to want to keep the bb gun himself.  Lol.  

They look so eager.  It actually was really fun.  I hate magpies.  They are mean and even tried to eat our kittens.  So I had to chase one off with a rug (what I happened to be holding at the time).  They make a terrible warning noise all day because of our cat.  They are super smart and apparently learned real quick to not come back to our yard.  Yay.