It's Official!

It's official - I now own 17.95 acres of land in Fryeburg, Maine!

!!!!

(Well, I own about 20% of it, and the rest of it I'll be paying off for a pretty good long time, but oh well.  :P )

My land starts a little bit behind where I'm standing in the next photo, and goes along the road almost as far as you can see in the picture: 

I'm excited!!  :D  :D  :D

Sunday Pooches

Land update: the appraisal came through, and I have the okay to close...just waiting on the seller to get back into town from a trip so we can schedule the closing...maybe this week or next!!!

It was a little chilly today, but the lighting was nice enough to draw me outside and watch the dogs play for a few minutes.  It's quite entertaining...Thane likes to grab a toy or a stick and play "keep away" with Thea.  Here he is taunting her with a stick: 

He really has a lot of fun trying to get her to chase him!  :P  

Watch out, Thane - here she comes!

Once Thea gets into the chase, they zig-zag all throughout the yard, taking advantage of natural obstacles to dodge around.  Tight corner around a bush:

Looping around the other side of the yard...oops, looks like Thane lost the stick, and now he's chasing Thea!

Thea's not one to hold back; she gives it her all, even though she definitely can't keep up with Thane yet!

He helps her out...you can definitely tell that sometimes he's running slower on purpose so she can keep up: 

This does backfire sometimes, lol.  :P  

Thea pauses for a break every once in a while...

...but is raring to go again if Thane dares come too close!  

No wonder she takes such good naps!!  :P

A Bunch of Trees...But Is That All?

Today I dug out two pairs of snowshoes that I've possessed for several years and never actually used before, lol.  Dad and I drove about 25 minutes away to a side road in Fryeburg, Maine, and tromped around in the woods for a while.  It was Dad's first time on snowshoes (go Dad!!), and it was a lot of fun, but this outing was about more than just getting out and enjoying the fresh winter air.

The pictures below may not look like much...but there's something special about them...

You curious yet?  :D

So...these pictures were all taken on a 17.95 acre lot...that MIGHT BECOME MINE SOON!!!  The seller and I have signed the contract...and I've signed a MILLION papers at the bank.  Now I'm just waiting for the bank to get the appraisal back...and if there aren't any problems there, then we'll schedule the closing. 

I'm not sure I'm even able to be really excited yet - it's too surreal at this point!

I would own a BIG chunk of land that contains, based on my limited observations: a small creek, a beaver-chewed tree, some marshy ground, some flat ground, a LOT of trees, at least one boulder, probably a fair bit of wildlife, and lichen.  I've never particularly aspired to own lichen before...but if I owned it, that would make it special.  :)

Anyway...I think it's fairly certain to go through, though I'm still kind of trying not to get my hopes up.  

Lol, if it does go through, then the next big adventure comes along - building a house.  I've already designed two distinctly different floor plans so far.  :P  

So...that's why these trees are special...they might be mine soon.  <3

Okay, yeah, I might be starting to get a little excited....  :D

Thea Update

Time is flying - Thea is almost four months old already!!

She remains very spunky, energetic and adventurous at home, though she's quite shy with strangers, and I need to work on socialization more.  Total opposite of Thane.  :P

She and Thane continue to be best buddies, playing almost constantly.  He's very gentle with her...especially considering that she is really NOT very gentle with him, lol.  :P  I keep waiting for her "puppy license" to expire.  I probably ought to expose her to a couple adult dogs who will let her know that it's actually not okay for her to be jumping all over them.

Thea has begun joining Thane and me on our morning walks.  She does her best to keep up with him; he occasionally takes advantage of his longer legs to play "keep away" with her.

She's an adventurous soul, challenging fencing and barriers like Thane never did...that lattice above the railing is because we had serious concerns that Thea would climb over the edge.  Just today, I was out in my skirt and Sunday coat dragging wood pieces around to block off a section of temporary fencing (long story) that would doubtless have kept Thane in with no problem...but that Thea was already working her way around.

I can see promise that she will be a nice, calm dog as an adult, though.  I brought her along to a friend's house for lunch today, and even though she was a little unsettled about being in a new place, she stuck near me, and relaxed and took a few catnaps here and there.   

She likes to snuggle a bit here and there too, which is nice...Thane's not opposed to a good itching, but he's not really much of a snuggler.

Anyway, Thea continues to settle in, and I'm highly optimistic that she'll be every bit as good a dog as I dreamed of when I got on the waiting list for a puppy from her mother well over a year ago.