If You Can’t Beat Old Man Winter, You Might As Well Join Him

On a recent trip to our local independent pet food store, I saw this great sled.

Sled
Sled

I thought it was pretty neat, but with a price tag of $265, I am not sure there will be any takers.  They actually had two of them on display.

Nestle

Its true.  I rarely feature Nestle on the blog, but I got a couple of cute pictures of her.  Here you go kitty fans…

Nestle
Nestle
Relaxing
Relaxing

Poor Nestle.  This winter has been rough on her.  She is not a fan of cold weather and spends most of her time sitting in front of the heater vent.

These pictures were taken at our cabin.  If we are only going for a night or two, I usually leave her at home because she does not like to travel.  Normally when she sees me gathering up the stuff, she hides.  On this particular weekend she was underfoot so I figured she wanted to come along.  She spent a rare winter weekend at the cabin.

Finches

With the bad weather, birds have been scarce around the cabin.  Even the woodpeckers have been scarce.  However, the finches came around.  It was nice to see them.

Finches
Finches

Changes And Random Dawg Pictures

You may have noticed that I have made some changes to the subject matter of my posts.  When I sat down and reviewed my posts in preparation for the Pet Blogger Challenge, I realized that last year I participated in hops four out of the five days that I post.  I love hops.  For newer bloggers, it is a great way to discover new blogs.  It is also helpful in prompting ideas for posts.

Thunder
Thunder

For me the down side with doing so many hops, was that I was not able to get to some of the topics I had wanted to write about.  Either they did not fit with the subject matter of the hop, or I was so busy visiting other hoppers that I did not have time to research and write about more complex topics, like my Canine Health Series.  (The next installment on Eye Certification is planned for next week.)

Storm
Storm

I also wanted to make time to reply directly to comments which is something I used to do regularly.  Finally, I kept falling way behind visiting and commenting on other blogs.

I decided a couple of changes were in order.  Blog hops are supposed to be fun.  They are not supposed to be stressful or a competition.  I decided cut back on the hops I link up to.  I feel like I am doing better at staying caught up and replying to comments.  I am not perfect and there will be times I probably fall behind, but for now it is working out.

Freighter
Freighter

Does that meant that I won’t be joining any more hops?  No way.  I love hops.  In fact I plan to join the See Beautiful Hop tomorrow which I think is perfect for Valentine’s Day.

This is the Thursday Bark And Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like A Dog.

B&B3b_Fotor

Grab the badge from my sidebar or from Heart Like A Dog and join the hop!  All are welcome!

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35 thoughts on “Thursday Barks And Bytes–Random Stuff”

  1. We are all hoping you have a break in the weather soon and an early Spring. We too are hoping the rain will stop as the flooding is really bad over here. We don’t do blog hops but glad you enjoy them. Have a tremendous Thursday.
    Best wishes Molly

  2. Enjoying the beautiful photos of the brown dogs and nestle… they seem to be united in sporting what looks like the why-don’t-you-stop-taking-pictures-of-me expressions. Funny. 😛 The health series sounds interesting so I’ll be looking forward to reading that. 🙂

    1. LOL yes they are not keen on pictures for the most part, especially Nestle. 🙂 If you missed any parts of the health series, you can access them at the top of my blog. 🙂

  3. I feel the same way about blog hops. I’ve gotten a bit off kilter in the past couple of years by joining so many. (And that’s is entirely my issue; the hops are great.) Then I drive myself crazy visiting the hop participants which means I miss some of my usual blogger friends, plus no longer blog about issues that I used to. Ironically, I’m joining this hop today. lol Love the photos of Nestle 🙂 Have to say again that I love your blog makeover – just beautiful. And love the educational posts you’ve been doing.

    1. The health posts take a lot of time because I have to research. I have a bunch of other posts in mind, but just need to find time to type them. Plus I hope that once the weather breaks, I will have some more interesting pictures. I have a lot of dogs playing in snow so far this year…lol. Thanks for joining the hop today. 🙂

  4. I know what you mean about joining hops, I had to cut back to one a week at most, and some weeks I can’t even manage that OR posting at all OR visiting blogs. My workload has increased so much that I don’t have as much time for the fun stuff, but things should level out in April and I hope to get back to normal then.

    I’m always so struck by your photos of Nestle – are his eyes blue or green?

    1. But in the field, it is really difficult. I have to spot a collar, or sometimes I can tell by their tails. Most times I have to really study them…lol.

  6. Awe Nestle you are beautiful and you take great pictures. Great dawgs pictures. I know the sled would be fun for the dogs but I hate the cold so don’t think I would of bought it either. I fall behind too. Have a great day.

    1. This winter sure has delivered the cold. If I had some kind of sled dog, I think it would be fun to train sled pulling. Not that I like the cold either.

  7. Lovely photos as always! I have always been “hit or miss” with Blog Hops, there are none I commit to on a weekly basis. I just go with the flow, makes it all A LOT easier!

  8. How wonderful that Nestle wanted to join you at the cabin! I sure hope the weather warms up for you soon – I cannot imagine being stuck in the house. I agree with you on the blog hops as well. The only one I join “regularly” (and sometimes I miss it) is Wordless Wednesday. You are right that you spend so much time visiting all in the hop and then miss out visiting those that you consider “friends”. There are so many hops now, it is overwhelming. Great photos of the Brown Dawgs, of course! Oh and I am using your “heel” technique and wrote about that in my WOOF Support post today. Thank you.
    Oz

    1. I like Wordless Wednesday too. Once we get back to regular training, I plan to add a WW post back in, although I am not sure I will join the hop. That one has so many hoppers.

  9. Thank you for the cat photos! So many people are snowed in this week. I’m sure that the cat was happy to be with y’all.

  10. I like that sled. Along the same subject of price I saw a beautiful replicate in metal of a the Engineer’s station of a train (I think it was for yard decoration) but it was $1,995! I can’t imagine someone buying it for that price.

    I love that you go to your cabin almost every weekend, that must be so relaxing!!

  11. I used to have all sorts of finches at my old house. This fall when I put my feeders up after the move, I have had no luck! Maybe they will venture out and find them in the spring. I do have a pretty pair of cardinals that come to the safflower feeder a couple times a day.

    1. We normally see cardinals at the cabin, but this winter I haven’t seen any. All we have been seeing are finches. I bet it will change soon though.

  12. So did Nestle enjoy her stay at the cabin? I understand what you mean about the blog hops. I enjoy them too but try to be careful about getting caught up in all the different blog hop topics. So I’ve selected a few and just stick to those, including the Barks and Bytes for my other blog.

  13. Great pics. I hear you on trying to keep up with hops/replying/commenting, etc. One thing I like about your new B&B hop is that I feel like it’s okay to write about whatever and not be constrained to a pre-set topic. I’m also cutting back on my blogging though this year. There’s just too much going on! Blogging could seriously be a full-time hobby! Having said all that though… See you at the See Beautiful hop tomorrow!

  14. Love the kitty pics! We have the same thing with the hops. We still do join 4 or so a week, but are slowly learning to pass them up on occasion for other topics we want to post.

  16. Hi Y’all!

    Oh Nestle is so cute and looks so content!

    We just got our electric back after the ice storm that struck the deep south.

    Y’all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

  17. Pingback: Talk to the Paw, human! | We Live In A Flat

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