Blu's 'time-out'

Blu...

I was told he had had a lot of 'blog-time' here at the Johnston Chronicles.

I believe it was Biscuit who told me that.

Now while this may be true, I have to be honest and let you know that Blu, while he is a great dog, does have his times of ... well, lack of discipline.

Case in point - the beach.

Now dogs will be dogs... and when other dogs come and want to play and run amuck, well, what dog wouldn't want to do that? However, Blu's master Josh had other ideas. He did NOT want Blu to 'run amuck' with other, unknown dogs. Blu disobeyed... not good. He ended up in 'time out' - which is what this picture shows.

Notice how he is just watching Joshua? Amazingly, after he was out of his 'time-out', that 'other' dog came back, barked that he wanted to play.... and Blu just gave him the cold shoulder.

"Banana-Slug Smooch"

On page 106 of the August/September issue of...

is this article...There are 3 articles on the page, but this one is the first. I've been excited, waiting for it to come out...I was hoping it would come out while everyone was here, especially Thalia. But it didn't...
You may remember this post? In one of the recent posts, I have more photos of Thalia and another banana slug. She does love those little critters!

Thalia... what a cutie!

Ripstick

This is a ripstick.

Thalia brought it with her...and it was a hit. Just about everyone, except - thankfully - Saddie, tried their luck at riding it. This blogger decided pretty quickly that it wasn't for me - no sirree, it would be an emergency room visit.

Thalia is a master... uphill, downhill, in circles, walking Blu... she's good, really good!Thalia and I were on a walk - well, wait a minute - I was on a walk and Thalia was cruising along on her ripstick. We were on this beautiful trail. Thalia, who loves nature, was able to look all around, ask questions about things she was seeing, and still just cruise effortlessly on her ripstick! "Come on, Mimi!"
Now Lindsey is an athlete, always has been, and she has great balance. It didn't take her anytime at all to master the ripstick. Oh, she wasn't as good as Thalia, but then again, she only had a few days.
Look at that form...
There she goes... past the Great White......down to the end of the cul-de-sac......back up the hill she came. Oh, oops! Well, just a little loss of balance..."Whew! This ripstick business is tough!" (Actually, I don't really know if Lindsey said this or not, but it fits the photo!)Thalia was good at instructing. I think here she was showing Lindsey how best to come up the hill.Gabe decided to try it... as his mother, I tried to convince him to not do it with glass in his hand. Did he listen to me? Why no! I just knew we'd see the emergency room doctor. Here comes Lindsey again. She did the 'around the wheelbarrow' maneuver. ...and the 'around Dad working' path... (notice her concentration!)...I'm sure her dear brother, Gabe, is telling her how easy it all is...Saddie was enjoying the escapades of her grandkids and great-granddaughter! Saddie was also hoping she would NOT get to meet any emergency room doctors on this visit.Now Joshua may appear to be... well, 'holding on for dear life' could be used here. But I actually think he is holding on so his Saddie won't be nervous.My guy, not to be outdone by his boys, got on the ripstick. Now I cannot tell a lie, nor deceive the readers of this blog, so what I will tell you is this.... My guy was actually holding on until the split second that he screamed, "NOW!" and simultaneously he let go and I snapped this amazing photograph!Now Joshua could not let his baby brother and baby sister put him down... so he showed us his skill on the ripstick. Again, he started off slow - JUST for his Saddie's peace of mind...of course!
Lindsey notices her brother's excellent form ....Notice his shirt billowing in the breeze... Now, this may look like a spill, but actually it's not. Josh did this on purpose. He was trying to show everyone how to GRACEFULLY get off the ripstick. I did a close up so you could see his gracefulness!Oh geez, forget it Gabe. (Ahhh, no glass in his hand!)Well, rats. The glass is back, but do you notice anything different?

Come on...look a little closer at the 'ripstick'... yep, it's NOT a ripstick. No, it's a dolly. Now this is not one of Lindsey's old dollies...but the dolly my guy bought to move the piano. Gabe wanted to show he was multi-talented. He can not only ride a ripstick, but he can also ride a piano dolly!
Lindsey and Gabe giving their command performance... dualing ripsticks!Saddie enjoyed the show...Actually, we all did!

Projects

My guy is big on "projects."

He's had his "Joshua" list developing for quite some time. A "Joshua" list means projects for Josh to do when he gets here - on his vacation! The list didn't have "Gabe" or "Donnie"... just 'Joshua.'

Joshua noticed the list was growing once he got here.

Gabe and Donnie felt sorry for Joshua and pitched in... although sometimes Gabe's 'pitching in' was just when this blogger came out with the camera. But not always... everyone helped out.

One project was the shed...the wood shed. Now Pete had framed it - but that's as far as it got. Joshua spearheaded getting it completed. I think Gabe was 'supervising' Joshua's carpentry skills. Brothers...working together to help their Pops...and in turn, their Mom. I love it...so much.When this blogger came out with the camera, Gabe showed how HE was making sure it was level. You can see the seriousness of Joshua's face...notice who is holding the hammer?Now this ladder was close-by. Joshua kept his beverage on the top shelf. Oh yeah, Gabe put his beverage on the ladder too - but not on the top shelf.Other projects needed to be taken care of too. Um? Who is this orange-shirted guy under a Honda? It's Donnie. He got the car project taken care of... now it was ready to roll.

The wood in the driveway was a HUGE project. Ron's been collecting it, gathering it, cutting it in rounds, but not splitting it...and not carrying it around to the back. Of course, there was no wood shed to put in, so it made sense (to my guy) to leave it in the driveway.

All - every one of the MEN - worked on this project. They were all exhausted at the end of the day - exhausted with red necks.

Apparently, the MEN noticed the different techniques of log splitting. I didn't notice anything except how hard it looked. Here's Gabe...he's like the bull, I think.Maybe this is the "on the toes" technique..."Hey, not a problem...this is a piece of cake," says this he-man with his biceps bulging.The audience is enjoying this lumberjack show.I think Gabe was contemplating the best angle to attack this round of wood...
Um, will he make it?Gabe is strong... he got fed up with the ax and just decided to RIP that wood apart. "Who needs equipment to split wood? I'll just use my hands!"My guy did his share of splitting...but someone had to haul the wood around back and put it into the finished wood shed.Even Thalia helped haul ... oops! Well, she hauled a lot of wood, and maybe one or two loads took a spill.Now Donnie is an engineer. That plays in to his technique. He calculated the best trajectory ... he aimed...He looked at the aerodynamics of the maul flying through the air and hitting its target...Mission accomplished... yep, that was Donnie's technique .Whoa! Look at that maul fly!From what I was told, Joshua's technique was just FAST... he just hauled off and split the wood. I guess maybe that's why I don't have any pictures of him splitting ... he was just too fast. But Joshua does everything... he even helped haul it around to the new shed.Erica also hauled a LOT of firewood...but I didn't get a photo - rats! She worked hard ... and long!And then there was Pete... he came over - with Ozzy - to visit...not work, although he would have if we had asked - but he came over to hang out a while. When he saw me with the camera, he hussled over and 'hid' behind the grill. Ha! That's what he thought!

Yep, projects are big at the Johnston house!