Anne's Blog

Just before Christmas the building is finally framed in, the bedrooms complete and the runs connected to the building. Also, although you can't see them from this picture, the guillotine dog doors for each dog bedroom have been connected to walls. Each door is on a pulley track so that I can open them every morning just by pulling on a weighted dog bone, an unexpected and cute addition.

Building framed and roof on

Once the building was framed in and the roof on, we had yet another inspectiion and then called my chosen electrician and the power company so that we could have lights. We got in line with both of them. Meanwhile, my grader started digging the trench to bring water from our spring's reservoir down to the building. If we had been having a typically cold winter, we would not have been able to continue with grading and trenching work. Thank goodness, it's been unseasonably warm this winter so far.
In early January, the electrician arrived to begin his work, which includes four celing fans and dedicated outlets for refrigerator and portable heaters should we need them. Last week the rough electrical work passed inspection. As I type this entry, we are still waiting on a light kit that had to be ordered for the office room. It has been raining constantly this week so the grader can't finish his work, which will make it easier for me to get down the mud bank to the building. I would really like a little front porch and steps to more easily get to the kennel but that may have to wait until I can refill the dogs' bank account. I am determined to get the big fence put back up around the orchard as over 50% of it has been taken down by various workers doing their things. Once it's back up, porch or no porch, the dogs and I will move down their from the main house and start learning how to sleep in a kennel bedroom, which should be interesting in itself for my dogs, most of whom are used to sleeping on my bed. Of course, they still will sleep on my bed but there are too many of them now to all sleep on my bed at the same time. Hence the kennel. They're just going to have to learn to take turns sleeping up here.

Pad is poured 01/12/2012

Pad poured and blockwork begun

Finally the pad is poured in this picture. By this time, it was getting late in autumn and holidays were approaching. I was beginning to panic at this point because I knew that bad winter weather could put a complete stop to the work and we wouldn't be able to get into the kennel until spring. I shouldn't have worried, though, because the block man went right to work and, in fact, is in the middle of blocking in the runs side of the building and would start work on the bedrooms the following day.
Notice that I'd moved the runs to the pad from my front yard where they'd been sitting since I bought them over a year ago. Right now I have only five runs but I hope to have a maximum of eight runs eventually. I have no plans whatsoever to be a big kennel, but I do want each of my dogs to have his or her own bedroom and for me to have a nice office for their records and where I can work during the day.
That round blue object is a cow trough that serves as a swimming pool for the dogs. After everything is complete, the grader and I will figure out the best place to put it so that the dogs won't have to jump so high to get in, probably next to the part of the pad that doesn't have any runs on it.

Foundation work 01/12/2012

Foundation before pad was poured

Here's what it looked like just before the pad was poured. I was shocked at how high the back part of the building is off the ground, but it was necessary in order for the building to be level. However, that high back necessitated moving the door I had planned for the back up toward the run side at the front of the building. In this picture, the runs will be on the right and the main building, which includes the dogs' bedrooms, will be on the left closest to the gravel driveway.

Catching up on kennel progress 01/12/2012

Before we began all the work for a kennel building, this was the view of the house from where the building now sits. A big part of me hates losing the beauty of the orchard, but the dogs are more important to me than a few apple and chestnut trees. The reason I had the three chestnut trees removed is that the little sticky balls that carry the chestnuts hurt the dogs' pads. So removal was necessary for their health and happiness.

Dogs' view of the main house

When I am in the main house working on the computer, I am in that far left portion of the house in this picture so I can always see the dogs when I am not with them.
I have been remiss in not writing here as the building has progressed so I apologize for that. We had a long period in October when I could't find a block mason I was happy with to build the dogs' bedrooms, but I finally found him in early November and got back on track to have the building finished and the dogs and I moved in by early in 2012. Being your own contractor has been more complicated than I thought it would be, especially when it comes to inspections. We even had to pay a good amount of money to have the concrete pad sprayed for termite protection even though no wood anywhere on the building touches the ground. I still don't understand that one.

Breaking ground 10/09/2011

Back in 2006 I realized I would need to build kennels to house my dogs in the healthiest environment possible and to save both my house and my sanity. At one time I had prided myself on my gardens but the dogs had seen those bushes as challenging toys instead. For years now, the dogs have been living inside my small cabin, napping or playing on its deck, eating its siding and filing down their nails on my oak floors, now totally stripped of their finish. So, in 2006 I began to study the buildings that other Labrador breeders had erected for their packs and soon realized that building such a home for them would not be cheap.

Orchard before work had begun

Surprisingly, I couldn't find a great deal of information on building the kind of kennels I felt were the most sanitary and safe for the dogs and where I could spend my days too. After many false starts, I finally began to amass quotes in 2009 and 2010. I quickly realized that I would never be able to compare these quotes unless I got good architectural drawings, which I frankly didn't want to have to pay for. Thankfully, I was looking to place an older puppy and the woman who wanted her just happened to be an engineer with great drafting skills so overnight I began to get quotes comparing apples to apples -- appropriate since the site is an old apple orchard.
In late August grading was begun on the site and I was surprised how uneven the existing land was, an almost six foot drop from the back of the future building to the front door. I really shouldn't have been surprised, though, since flat land is virtually impossible to find in these mountains where I live. We had to tear down existing fencing prior to starting and we'll have to put it back up when we're through. That just means that the dogs, who've been let out in the orchard for exercise, would have to do without until the project is completed.

Grading has begun

Everyday what I'd considered a lot of land looked smaller and smaller. And, because of the variance in height from front of the future building and runs to the back, I quickly realized I'd need to put in chain link at the edge of the runs' outside walkway. Note to self: find more money somewhere. The dogs have enjoyed having workmen to bark and wag at while the work was going on, a good thing since I was busy with two litters inside the house. By mid-September most of the grading was complete. After the building is in, he will come back and dig a utilities ditch for power and another long ditch to bring my spring water down to the kennels.

Pups leaving me 10/08/2011

This is Junebug

Where has the time gone? To be more precise, where has the summer gone? When it began, I was busy with Amelia's litter of chocolates and when it ended I was covered up by 16 puppies from two different litters belonging to Peaches and Mouse. Oh well, one benefit of not taking summer clothes out of storage is that you don't have to put them back.
One by one, these beautiful and bright puppies have stolen my heart and then, in the wink of an eye, they leave me. As of today, I have no more yellow puppies here. The last one, Miss Ida Claire, left yesterday. Maggie, the last chocolate girl, leaves Sunday afternoon when her new family gets back from their vacation. Ida Claire, Maggie 1, Maggie 2, Bailey, Jake, Bear, Otis Blue, Herschel, Penny, Gracie, Pumpkin, and others have gone on to enrich the lives of their new families in ways those families have yet to imagine. That is the magic that comes with a new puppy. I have heard from just about everyone, but I'm still trying to reach a few to make sure everyone is getting along and settling in okay.
I knew I wanted a chocolate girl to continue on the line begun by Google, but I couldn't decide between two of the girls -- beige and brown. So both are staying here, at least for a little while, so I can get to know them better without the interference of 14 bothers and sisters and cousins. As of right now, beige is Junebug, named after my favorite dog when I was a child, and brown is Betamax or Maxi for short, named for. . . well, she is quite big for her age.
This will probably be my last post about these two simultaneous litters. Most of them are someone else's babies now, not mine, so I'll shift my focus to Junebug and Maxi and building our kennel down in the orchard across from the house.

Delightful Puppies 09/18/2011

The puppies have been outside for about ten days now and, my goodness, how they've grown. We have a ten pound chocolate girl and a nine and a half pound yellow boy and everyone else is close behind. I think this crisp early fall weather must be agreeing with them.
In their puppy pen, the kids have one of those green Walmart turtle sand boxes, but we don't put sand inside it. The puppies use it to play King on the Mountain. Tonight I heard whimpering coming from the turtle and found a little yellow girl had fallen inside the turtle. She'd obviously knocked the top off when she went to jump up and then slid down inside the turtle where sand would be if we'd put any sand in it. Then somehow the turtle top had slip back over and closed, leaving her inside with no way out. I'm surprised she wasn't screaming because I think I would have been. She was grateful for the rescue and thanked me with copious kisses and a lifetime of puppy breath. The chocolate puppies and yellows play together as if they were all from the same litter, but, when night falls and they get in their puppy piles, they settle down with their own litter. I took Worthy, the chocolates' daddy, out to visit with them all this afternoon and he, as always, was wonderful with them. He lay down in the middle of all 16 puppies and let them climb all over him. For those of you waiting for your puppy, they'll be ready in two weeks now. These last two weeks are very busy here learning to swim, getting their first baths, having the veterinarian visit with each of them, give them their first check-up and vaccinations. They'll also each take the Volhard temperament test to find out who should go where, including a test for retrieving instincts since at least one of them will go to a hunter's home. They are all learning so fast now, and there's not a shy one in the bunch.

Moving outside 09/04/2011

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It's been two days since Peaches provided nourishment to her pups and longer than that since Mouse did so all 16 puppies are completely weaned. When weaning occurs, the messes get bigger exponentially! We are having to clean each of the two whelping boxes three or four times daily as well as the vinyl flooring we put down outside the boxes near the area where we're trying to potty train them in horse pellets. Note I said "trying." And cleaning is harder because 16 puppies come running whenever we go inside their compound now so even picking up a whelping pad has its challenges. Because of these challenges and because the puppies are ready for a little more adventure now that they're four weeks old, we'll be moving them outside today. At some point this morning, the puppy cam will no longer be streaming video to all of you who've been watching them grow to this point. Don't worry though. Leighton will videotape them and post it on the video page and we'll continue to take still shots as well. If you are waiting for one of these puppies, I'll be updating you on personalities as well. They are all so wonderful that I'd keep every one of them myself if I could. By "outside," I should add that they will be sleeping and playing no more than ten feet from my bedroom window so they're not any farther away from me than they've been for the past four weeks. It's just easier to clean the ground than it is the floor.

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Yellows to try gruel too 08/29/2011

I'm going to give the yellows a late-night feeding of gruel instead of Mama. I predict that they will not be as neat as their chocolate cousins in the box beside them. Hopefully, we can gradually add more gruel feedings and decrease Mama's feedings so that, by this coming weekend, everyone will be on puppy food for all but one bedtime meal. At that point, we will start moving them outside to the puppy pen beside my bedroom window.