You gotta love those farm dogs

Farm Dogs, they will never win best of show at the Westminster dog show but they are invaluable. They are protection, company and entertaining among other things. Mollie and Murphy know when I strap the vests on, we are going on an outing in the gator, we drive down the road serenaded by a cacophony of barks from the bed, they just can't contain themselves.

It's another beautiful Saturday so we went to the pond to check for interlopers living under the bee hive, there were none, so we hiked on to the picnic area to see what was going on over there.

Even through the big ponds are still frozen, we have a few geese already.

They have to search for a place to swim, unless they want to go ice skating.

There are still snow piles but they are shrinking.

The dogs found some open water and went in for a drink, racing through the trails at full speed makes a dog mighty thirsty.

Murphy goes in for a dip and a shake.....

.....and continues on about her business, dripping water.

Being a farm dog ain't for sissies. 

There is evidence of a beaver working, if he is smart, he will move along before Bruce goes hunting.

Another frozen pond slowly thawing around the edges. We've been watching for any sign of dead fish and so far, so good. With the ponds full going into winter there is a good chance they all survived.

It's time to head back to the gator.....

.....and they are happy to have a ride home.

We stopped at the bridge to check on the progress of the beaver living there, he is hard at work, busy as a beaver, so to speak, cutting down trees there.

I set up the game camera to see if I can get a picture of him.

We went on to the farm to check for rats, Bruce found a hiding place behind a wood door of one of the bins. He was moving corn this week, opened the door some rats bailed out. He got one but the others escaped unscathed. This morning Ole was at the bin site so Bruce opened the door and four ran out, Ole grabbed one but it was too tough for him and got away.

I really didn't expect any to be back yet but I was wrong, I primed the dogs, "Rats, watch for rats!" and swung the door open. One rat was perched on an upper bin ring with the dogs racing in circles, "Rats, we want RATS!!" He didn't want to jump but had to so he launched himself as far from the bin as he could, landing in the grass, running hard. But he was no match for the dogs, Mollie made quick work of him. Murphy ran over, "Oh, can I smell your breath???" 

Farm Dogs, you gotta love them.