More Historic Stuff and Guard Dog Action

Due in no small part to momma's recent infatuation with the sound of her own voice, under the guise of a walkie for ME she suggested that we visit historic Saxonville located just north of our estate.

Of course she took more of those boring movies, but at least I convinced her to include more of ME in them this time. Total running time is about 10 minutes. Just ignore any comments about me being nervous. Lies! All lies!

Dexter's tour of Saxonville Part I - In which we look at the Sudbury River a lot as well as the old mill building.

Dexter's tour of Saxonville Conclusion - In which I go on a scary platform, discover an agilities park, and look at some old houses.

Momma insists I tell you that the textile industry was very big in Master Chew Sits and that they have preserved some of the mill buildings as museums in Lowell. While it did bring wealth to the area, the working conditions in the mills were, for the most part, deplorable, but it is a part of our history.

I was alert enough to suggest a few still photos for our readers who do not have the high speed Internet (or who prefer not to listen to the DOH babbling for ten minutes).

So here is a photograph of our Saxonville Mill (or at least part of it, since the mill complex covers several acres). They made mostly carpets.

The mill was powered by the Sudbury River. This big waterfall traps the water and funnels it into fast moving canals which were then used to turn the cranks on the looms.

Now the mill building is home to a bunch of small businesses, including this one which appears to have a flat guard dog (not really very intimidating if you ask me).

At one point along the river there is a platform which juts out way high. I was not afraid to go on it, but momma FREAKED every time I stooped down for a better look.

I was forced to periodically "regroup" because some DOH's cannot operate the camera, yammer away, AND give me proper attentions at the same time. Subsequently, I did pull just a tad and had to practice sitting now and then.

This looked like a great place to stop. Momma said, "oh no, Dexter, that is not for YOU." Does it say "no dogs" anywhere? I think not!

Momma and Master really wanted to move to this neighborhood, but most of the estates here have tiny yards and they thought a big yard was more important than the house upon it.

This barn is even bigger than Master's! In fact, it is some body's house now.

And the houses where the folks who worked in the mills actually lived. They are condominiums now. Look at all those chimneys! One for each room almost.

When we finally arrived back at the estate, the RH was once again acting like his usual self and doing his howling routine.

I was busy ignoring him when all of a sudden he sounded the intruder alarm. Watch this!

Dexter done!

P.S. Momma has to go back to the work place tomorrow. She said she could either spend the day doing housework and paying bills and getting everything tidied up for the week ahead, or she could enjoy one last day of vacation and be a total slug. Hmmm.... which do you think she did?

Historical Walkie Movies and Some RH Action

Momma thought it would be fun for the humans to do a tour of our historical district on walkies. We shot some really loooong movies and she thought about posting them on separate days, but decided to just do it all at once, so sit back and enjoy.

Just a warning that you will need about 15 minutes to watch them both, but if you like looking at old stuff the time will fly by. I also managed to intersperse some cool agility moves and the RH appears in the end of the second movie.

Here you go;

Dexter's Historical Walkie Part I
Dexter's Historical Walkie Part II (this one has more ME and less old stuff)

Try to ignore the slobbers on the lens (which I did NOT put there) as well as the constant rush of traffic sounds (which we are kind of used to by now).

The RH tried to interfere with my posting day by demonstrating his stupid walking around the yard. Well, as you can see, I soon put a stop to that! There will be no Mango movies on Dexter day!



I coaxed him out of obedient robot dog into ACTION MASTIFF with my irresistible good times labramoves.

Oh ho ho! Boing! Boing!

If I cut that corner any tighter, I'd jack knife, but I know my limits.

Guess he's tired now...

No worries. While we were at the beauty parlor yesterday, Momma washed the beds in the dog cave and fluffed up the pillows. I don't mind grabbing a little shut eye on the dog cave beds when they haven't been all flattened out by the beastie.

Dexter done!

P.S. As long as this is a movie intensive day, I want to share this that one of my pals posted (sorry I forgot who). Just watch it. You won't be sorry.

My New Ramp

The other day Momma had a chat with me...

She said that even though I am a most fit and athletic doggie right now, that might not always be the case and there could come a time when I might not be able to leap nimbly into my mastiff mobile.

Then she showed me this big box which she said had something special JUST FOR ME!

Oh goodie!

Huh? Telescoping ramp? What?

Apparently this was the only ramp she could find that is said to be able to hold the weight of doggies in excess of 200 pounds such as myself.

Being an adventurous sort, I said, "bring it on!"

Apparently I have to "practice" with it before I can try it out with my Mastiff Mobile. Whatever. Momma is in charge now. Sigh.

But really, I knew right away how to use it.

See? It was barely out of the box before I put my big old foot on it.

I wanted to see how it worked right away, but Momma insisted that I get used to walking on it flat on the ground inside.

Good sport that I am, I went along with this rather insulting suggestion. Here is the movie.

It might look funny because the room was dark and we were experimenting with the iMovie adjustments. No worries, you can still appreciate all the action.

OMG! She is wearing that sweater AGAIN! How embarrassing.

OK, so that was totally worth it because when we were done I got a BRAND NEW STUFFIE!

A Mango sized Wart Hog!

Thanks!

Stay tuned for more adventures with my new ramp (once it stops raining I think).

Mango Man! Oh yeah!

Beware of Peemail to your Humans and Vacation Fail

This is a tip for all you doggies out there...

If your human starts getting peemail from other humans, watch out! It turns out that the humans of Vito and Loki and Monty and Niamh and even (gasp) Honey have been secretly plotting with my momma about "teaching me manners!"

Oh the horror!

Oh the duplicity!

Oh the betrayal!

Momma has been boring me with stories about when she was in her twenties (about 500 years ago) and she used to ride horsies a lot. Mostly jumping. One time she went on a fox hunt (drag lure only, no fox) and she said NEVER AGAIN because it was really scary. But most importantly, she played polo for a bit.

Now to hear her tell, polo ponies are not normal horsies, but actually cracker dog insane terriers in horse suits who go totally psycho when they hear the smack of the mallet against the ball. Apparently she spent much of her polo "career" flying though the air whilst her pony continued on in the opposite direction...

But the POINT (oh, finally) of the story is that she was not afraid of showing those crazy horsies who was boss and now she is saying she has to take the same attitude towards ME!

Well, friends, the mind boggles at the thought...

In other news, Momma is home from the work place all week. She and Master were supposed to go on a little holiday, but then Master got the bad flu and they had to cancel (they lost the HOOGE deposit they made on some swank hotel too, but no point spending dollars if Master was just going to have to spend the whole time in bed I suppose). Good news for me, right?

Means more time for Momma to help me keep up with my pals, because I can't resist making new friends, like little Mayzie, who is all striped LIKE ME!

Plus, with Master having morphed into a cootie farm, Momma has been sleeping on the couch to avoid possible contamination. This works for me as I am able to position myself strategically nearby so as to be alerted to any movement.

Tough break for PeeWee if I happen to be blocking access to his bed.

Nope, not getting in this way either. Go sleep in the dog cave for a change you little black devil.

Of course it is kind of tight quarters and I sometimes find my large and not easily compressed self a but, er, stuck! Sigh. A little help, please.

Mango Man! Oh yeah!

P.S. All the Mango Minster prizes and whatnot are now officially in the mail. US domestic should get your packages in the next 8-10 days. Foreign lands, a tad longer.

Wordless Wednesday - Proud Warrior

Mango Man! Oh yeah!

P.S. Why is the barn pink? Well, we live just outside the historical district of our town and believe it or not, that is an actual historical color. In fact one of the officially old houses down the street is the same lovely pink. Go figure.

Happy Barnaversary to Master!

Alert Readers will recall that it was one year ago today that Master and Momma came home from work to discover that our local fire department had come to call because our barn looked like this!

And this!

And this!

And the next day when the sun came out it looked like this! Eeesh!

What a mess! We were even on the news. Hehehe. That video has the fiyah mahshall speaking Bawston.

Master had built the barn himself when he and Momma moved to the estate 12 years ago and was so sad because not only was it a fine building, but it had a lifetime's worth of tools and stuff inside that were all gone. The good news is that we were all OK and nothing bad happened to our house.

Pretty soon, a big monster machine came and ate what was left of the barn because it was a "total loss."

Naturally, I, Mango, was ready to lend a paw with the reconstruction.

But it was frustrating at times given that Master put a fence up around the constructions site.

I was really worried when I saw that my simple minded Master had accidentally built the new walls flat on the ground.

So I set out some tool time bait and in no time had attracted enough manly men to do a barn raising.

Ta da!

The walls went up fast and Master was able to start replacing the big equipment.

I continued to be quite vocal in my directions for proper building techniques even when I had to yell!

Jarrod and Evil Rick did a lot of the heavy lifting what with Master being ancient and whatnot.

Even Hector helped out.

We had lots of nice weather for Jarrod to do his painting.

I like that Jarrod dude. We are totally pals.

Now the upstairs of the new barn is a nice storage area.

Master has all new equipment which Jarrod and Mickey helped him arrange just so.

See? Good as new!

And this is what the barn looks like today! I spend a lot of time in there assisting Master and absorbing the heat from the wood stove.

Exhausting!

Mango Man! Oh yeah!

P.S. If you are interested in more constructions photos, you can see all my barn building posts by clicking here.

For New Bloggers and Momma Goes Big Dog! Oh no!

So I was reading on Twinkie's bloggy about how confusing things were for her when she started blogging and how few pals she had and I got to thinking. It starts that way for all of us. It took me a long time to make pals. And some of my early posts got NO COMMENTS! Sob. But Momma was really just helping me post for her own amusement, so we weren't too bothered, but now I have lots of pals and it is swell.

All that said, I want to give special thanks to some great friends. First of all, Bogart, who was my blogging mentor and who helped me figure out how to do it all in the first place.

And secondly to Maggie and Mitch, my second oldest blogging pals. You guys are the best.

To any new bloggers out there, don't be worried if some stuff doesn't make sense or if you don't get the comments you expected, just post from the heart and you will never go wrong. Heck, when I was invited to my first party I didn't even know that it was a VIRTUAL party and thought I was being asked for a playdate.

Now then...

Alert readers will notice that there has been a bit less of the Mango lately. Why? I am PROTESTING! That's why!

Momma has decided that I am, quote, "a big spoiled baby" and that is bad because?

She says she is TAKING CHARGE! Oh please.

So you know how I like to sun bake?

But not come inside?

Well she started coming out and putting my leash on me and MAKING me come in even when I don't want to. Yes! I kid you not!

And you know how I don't like my meditations disturbed just to go potty when it is convenient for HER?

Now she brings stupid suck up PeeWee into the dog cave and has him do his dumb tricks RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE! And gives him foodables RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME and of course I do have to get up to see what is going on and then she MAKES ME GO OUT AND POTTY!

Not to mention that she has started leash walking me in my own yard! BORING! And she doesn't think my body slams are cute anymore and makes me walk around until I "simmer" and I have to do pointless sits and everything.

I ask you, is this any way to treat the Mango???

The worst part is that stupid PeeWee all gloating like totally, "See? I TOLD you to listen to her you big doofus." He even told me that he overheard momma making a date for his Good Dog Attention teacher to come over and give me a talkin to! As if!

Well fear not, dear readers. I have nothing better to do all day than to figure out how to confound momma with my "bratty behaviors" whilst she gets the busy brain and cannot always focus on annoying training. I think I can outlast her.

In a pinch, I can always unleash the ultimate weapon...

CUTE FACE!

Mango Man! Oh yeah!