REAL Labor Day.....

Looks like today we will have a real LABOR day!  Eloise thinks it is awesome to have Labor Day Double Doodle puppies! I think we are going to have oodles and oodles of new baby doodles!  So exciting.  I have lots of help too which is awesome!  My daughter is home and Bri is here and Mr. Yesteryear Acres and my son and I are all gathered around and we are having lots of family time AND lots of doodle time.  Perfect way to celebrate the weekend.  Family, food, doodles and lots of love.  Enjoy your weekend!  We will too. Look for PUPPY NEWS TOMORROW!  Yay!

Doodle Looking for New Home

One of Maple's sweet adorable beautiful Double Doodle puppies is looking for a new home. His family has now decided they don't want a standard size doodle doggie. They named their puppy "Waffles" and he is just a lovely puppy with a perfect coat. He is 10 weeks old and has made excellent progress in puppy training.  He is a super lovable puppy - he will just be bigger than they now want. Double doodles are just about the most perfect mix of doodle doggies!  They have everything awesome about them - the perfect amount of goldendoodle and the perfect amount of labradoodle.  I just love them.
Waffles is in Maryland - so if anyone knows of a family around the Maryland area looking for the sweetest double doodle baby to love, Waffles is available.
Please email me and I will forward the contact information for Waffles.

I am Waffles

I was born at Yesteryear Acres.  My mommy is an Apricot Double Doodle named Maple and my daddy is an Apricot Poodle named Waffles.  My family loved the name Waffles so much, that's my name too!

I am very good at playing fetch

And I know how to walk on a leash

Ultimate Frisbee is my favorite game

I am very polite when waiting for my supper

And I love to take naps with a blanky.

Won't someone please adopt me?

I would love a new home!

Getting Ready

Today I have been busy in the kitchen getting ready for Yesteryear Acres Labor Day festivities. No Labor Day weekend would be complete without homemade ice cream so of course that was first up on the to-do list. Coffee Heath Bar Crunch was the first flavor of the day and I have to say.....mmmmmm!  Next up was Vanilla Malt Heath Bar Crunch. I had Mr. Yesteryear Acres lick the dasher and I was awarded an honorary blue ribbon of excellence.  He said he was pretty sure I could win a National championship with that flavor.  I am so excited for everyone to try it as that one is a new flavor I just made.  Now all I have left is to make one batch of banana ice cream and then one batch of Maraschino Cherry Chunk and the ice cream making portion of my weekend will be done.  I also have a loaf of whole grain bread baking in the oven and a double batch of homemade rolls up next on my baking list. Mr. Yesteryear Acres is in charge of his special BBQ baby back ribs and then I think the feasting can begin! Happy Weekend!

So much love!

I suppose I officially have to put an end to my birthday celebration as today is a full 5 days past my birthday. I am not saying that I didn't love having almost an entire week of birthday celebrations. I mean who doesn't love birthday celebrations?!!! I was blessed with lots of family, love and a few birthday presents or two!

Mr. Yesteryear Acres Mommy made me a homemade birthday dinner with all of my favorite things AND a homemade pecan pie!!!!

My sister got me the most beautiful bowl

See?  It is even more amazing in person!  I am going to eat lunch from my birthday bowl every day!

My younger daughter got me a few of my favorite desserts. She even put notes on them that say that I can put them by my desk and eat them all by myself.  I don't have to share. Mmmmmm.  Cookies!  Chocolate!

I even got a homemade birthday card. This says,

Happy BIRTHDAY! Love Ellie.

She yelled BIRTHDAY when she read the card to me.  She put a lot of love and enthusiasm in her card!

And today as my final (your birthday is really truly over) present

My mom got me CANDY!  From the candy store!  Please don't judge me for my love of sour flavored sugar in a plastic straw. I know it is a wee bit unhealthy but mmmmmmmm! So good!  YUM!

Be Safe

Thank you to everyone who asked how my son was doing after the car accident. His head is still bothering him but he seems to be improving each day.  No one ever wants to get the call, "There has been an accident".  It is so scary and a reminder of how fragile life can be.  How many times do we get in a car and think nothing of it? How many times do we mindlessly and effortlessly drive down the freeway? My son was merely returning from delivering some adorable furry doodle puppies when out of the blue he was hit by another driver who was not paying attention to the road.

Here is the damage to our SUV

2/3rds of our SUV will need completely replaced as the frame is bent and the damage extends to the front passenger door.  The sun roof is missing as well.

The parts have been ordered for our SUV and the remaining estimated repair time is an additional four weeks. Every time I look at our driveway and see our missing SUV, I immediately think of how lucky we all were that no one was seriously hurt. Early yesterday morning I let my son know that I was leaving the deep dark woods and I would be back home around 10:00am.  This is what he wrote to me......

 "Be Safe"

That is my wish for us all.  Be Safe.  Make Every Day Count. Be Grateful. Most importantly - don't ever put off telling the ones you love how important they are to you.  Let your loved ones know how deeply you love them and make sure that every day, they know, without a doubt, they are loved and cherished. May we all be safe.  

Life Essentials

I made it back to civilization! My weekend in the woods was terrific but I have to say - I really really really love things like:
Internet
Cell Service
Toilet Paper
You know - life essentials!  The second I returned home, I took pictures of our new goldendoodle babies!

Birdie did a wonderful job!

We have 3 boys and 4 girls

And they are just as cute as can be

Goldendoodle Snuggleville!

We also have one dark red Double Doodle baby

This is Lady's very last litter - and she just had one little red boy

Who is just perfect

I think he might need to stay here at Yesteryear Acres!

Happy day after Monday Puppy Picture Day!!

In The Woods!

Hi everyone! This is Amelia all the way from college!!! I am here to tell you all that my mom is in the woods.... and when I say in the woods I mean sooooo in the woods that she has no internet or cell signal! My mom will update the website and post puppy pictures as soon as she is able! She is really sorry for the inconvenience she may have caused anyone. She is so far in the woods that I have to write this blog for her!!
My mom, aunt, uncle, and cousins are all staying in a cabin in the state park about 25 minutes away from my university, and man did they have an adventure today! I got to hear all about their trek through a spiderweb infested trail of thorns! Apparently there were so many spiders that my mom had to be the fearless leader through the small and winding trails. She had to use a stick and swing it  in front of her to twist up all the spiderwebs. There were so many that by the end she had what looked like a grey blob of cotton candy on a stick. All I can say is I am SO VERY LUCKY to have had classes all this morning and afternoon :) As soon as I got to the cabin I got to hear about the terrors that lurk inside the state park and crawl on you like you are invading their space or something... I heard there were so many bugs and spiders that they were crawling in their ears and in their mouths! My aunt choked on a bug, which means the bug was big enough to semi-block her windpipe! My cousin was telling me that there were so many thorns on the trail you could barely escape by them. One bush was so gnarly that when he tried to go around it, the thorns caught on his neck and wouldn't come off!!.... Again... I am so very glad that today was my very last first day of school! No bugs for me!! Just assignments! HA HA HA :) I also got the other end of the happy stick and got to take ALL the food when I left the cabin this evening!!! My family all leaves tomorrow to go back to their homes where they can enjoy their home cooked meals and comfy beds... (cue puppy eyes)... YES! IT WORKED! THE BREAKFAST HASH AND JUICE ARE MINE!!! :) Thanks everyone for coming down to see me! Even if that meant getting swarmed by spiders and me taking all the food!! I love you all and can't wait until we are all together again!!! Enjoy a night deep in the sticks!!!

Best Bowl Ever

This morning I left home early and drove 3 hours to meet my sister. Happiness!  My sister lives in Vermont and we don't get to see each other very often even though we LOVE spending time together.  My sister and her family were driving back to Vermont after their summer vacation and made a pit stop about 3 hours from Yesteryear Acres. As soon as I heard the good news, I was on the way to meet her.  She is staying the night in a state park cabin, so I am joining her!  My sister planned a big birthday celebration for me and the whole day has been awesome!  We went hiking, my daughter drove up from college and brought me a homemade chocolate birthday cake and then we had a delicious dinner.  My sister made Chinese Lettuce Wraps for dinner - So good!  I was super overwhelmed by the big birthday dinner and family and cake and then...I got a present too!  My sister found the most beautiful bowl - ever.  For lunch almost every single day - I either have soup or a big salad.  Now I have a beautiful bowl for my lunches. I am going to use it every day! Awesome sister day!!!!!!!

That's a lot of Happiness!

As soon as I opened my eyes this morning, my Happy Birthday happiness began. I had my morning coffee served to me in a "Happy Birthday" mug by Mr. Yesteryear Acres. My son got up early and made me a delicious birthday breakfast that was sooooooo good! My inbox was already full of birthday wishes and happiness and my Facebook page had so many happy birthday posts that I was grinning from ear to ear with each message.  Thank you everyone for all the sweet and adorable and doodle-filled happy birthday posts!!!!!  I loved seeing so many of our Yesteryear Acres Doodle Doggies sending birthday wishes to me!  They are all so adorable!!!!! Thank you for making the last year of my fourth decade so awesome! I guess I will now officially start counting down the days to next year's big 5 0........I am thinking I will need a big party full of candy and more candy and maybe some cookies too!  For today - lots of happiness and doodles and family! Perfect!

What's All The Fuss?

This afternoon I got a heart-stopping phone call.  My elderly neighbor's daughter called to say she was talking to her mom and all the sudden she heard the phone fall and she couldn't get back in touch with her mom.  She had been calling and calling and the phone just rang busy. My heart sank to my stomach and I ran out of the house full speed to find Mr. Yesteryear Acres. He dropped everything he was doing and we drove as fast as we could to our neighbor's house. I was terrified as I rang the doorbell.  What would we find?  How was my dearest sweetest most kindest neighbor?  I ran all the scenarios in my mind when Mr. Yesteryear Acres said, "why there she is".  My neighbor opened the door and I immediately hugged her so  hard.  My neighbor said, "What's all the fuss?"  Turns out she didn't drop the phone.  The connection was just lost and she was trying to call her daughter back at the same time the daughter was trying to call her back and the signals were busy on both ends.  I was SOOOOOO happy to see her.  I hugged her again and again.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres too.  What's all the fuss?  Oh nothing ........we just dropped by to say we love you!

And Another One Gone

My son and I left this morning at 5:30am to take Bri to college. The three of us had a long sad drive as we knew it was going to be hard to say goodbye to Bri. My son and I helped Bri unpack and get all her things put away and I made her bed and put the little stuffed doodle doggie that I gave her on her pillow. And then....it was time to say goodbye.  Sigh.  That was a hard one. Bri came into our lives mid-May of this year.  The minute we met her, we all loved her.  Sadly Bri doesn't have the home life she deserves. Not even close. Some people are just dealt a rotten deck of cards - and Bri is one of those people. How someone could not just squeeze her and hug her every single day and tell her how amazingly awesome she is, is beyond my comprehension. Bri graduated from high school with perfect attendance and a 4.0 GPA. Bri is compassionate, thoughtful, caring, hard-working and just about the sweetest person you could ever meet. We pretty much adopted Bri this summer. Bri jumped right in and did all the farm chores and hay baling and house cleaning and doodle doggie chores as if she were always meant to be a part of Yesteryear Acres.  We loved having Bri here and I know she loved being here.  She loves our doodle doggies as much as we do and we are her family.  Last night when she said goodbye to all the doggies she wondered if they would remember her.  The answer is YES Bri - all the doodle doggies will definitely remember you.  Love lasts forever.  Yesteryear Acres will be here waiting for you when you have long weekends, and holidays, and school breaks and we will text you and email you and call you.  You might feel alone at school - but you are definitely not alone.  We are all here cheering you on and are so proud of you.  You are going to be an AWESOME nurse! And when you come back home......I know a few doodle doggie tails that will be wagging with joy when you walk in the door!

Every day ..in the car

One of my least favorite activities is running errands.  I don't particularly like to drive and I don't particularly like leaving home.  I try to compile all my errands into one day so I can just get it all over with rather than stretch out the agony over multiple days.  The only thing that made errand running halfway pleasant was my sweet beloved SUV.  Of course now that my poor beloved SUV is in the body shop for the next month.....I have ONE MILLION errands to run.  How did this happen?  Normally I am home most of the time but for some reason, this entire week I have to go somewhere every single day and part of next week too.  Good thing I have my mom's car or else I don't know how I would get it all done.  I wonder if my SUV felt under-appreciated?  Maybe I didn't tell it enough how much I truly love it.  Dear SUV - you are the only vehicle I have ever loved.....please get better soon.  I miss you so much!

Back to School

My son left for the first day of his senior year of high school this morning.  The house just feels empty without him here.  All the doggies keep going to the door wondering where he is.  Olive is particularly lost.  She is his constant companion and has the saddest look on her face.  I hate the first day of school.  I always have.  I know some other mothers who express joy in having their kids finally out of the house but I never feel that way.  I feel that the end of summer is one of the saddest days of the year.  I love having all my kids home. I love having them around me. I miss them when they are gone as much as the doodle doggies do!  I realize my son will be home later this afternoon and I am lucky to still have one last year with him but that doesn't stop my mind from thinking...."this is the last year".  I honestly can't imagine life here at Yesteryear Acres without his presence and constant help and devotion to our doggies and farm life.  Day one....I already miss him!  This will be the longest and shortest school year ever.  I know it will be a blink of an eye when I will write, "Today my son graduates from high school".

Puppy Watch

Our pregnant mommy doggies forgot to look at the calendar this morning.  Didn't they notice it is "Puppy Picture Monday"???  How can I put up cute adorable doodle puppy pictures without newborn doodle babies?  I asked them if they could take care of this dilemma and I believe I will have "Puppy Picture Day" later this week!  Stay tuned for adorableness!!!  And a big thank you to everyone who sent their thoughts for my son and his girlfriend Bri.  I spent most of the day taking care of the insurance issues and getting the SUV to the collision center.  Bad news - the SUV is REALLY damaged.  The entire side is buckled all the way up to the roof. The sunroof is even out.  The rear lift door is destroyed along with the entire back end.  Over 2/3rds of the SUV needs completely replaced including the air conditioning system.  We will be without my beloved treasured most valuable SUV for a MONTH or longer.  And no - we do not have the rental car rider on our insurance so no rental car. I was just about the point of "WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?" when my mom called.  She said I could use her car for the entire month!!!!!!!!  Is that a hero or what?! So even though I won't have my big gigantic SUV - I will have a car so at least we can make multiple trips to get what we need.  I am so grateful my son wasn't hurt. I am so grateful Bri wasn't hurt. I am so grateful the puppies were not hurt.  I am so grateful that the only thing "hurt" was an inanimate object that eventually will be repaired. I am so grateful my mom offered her car to me. I am so grateful to have the car already!!!!  The next month will be tricky - but not impossible.  First mission......how to get all of Bri's things to college.  I am supposed to move her on Thursday.  Could be a two trip event...but I will get it done!

Bad day for the Puppy Mobile

My son and Bri left early this morning to do a puppy mobile trip. We had families eagerly awaiting in Maryland for their furry new family members to arrive.  The puppy mobile made it safe and sound to Maryland and all the doodle puppies are now happily at home with their new families.  The drive back was not so great. About 2 hours from home, my son was hit by another truck. Both my son and Bri are not hurt but our SUV is in bad shape. It wouldn't start again and was stuck out in the lane of traffic.  Luckily a sheriff was nearby and kept everyone safe. Roadside assistance arrived pretty quickly and thankfully they were able to get the SUV started again. The back end is pretty bad - thank goodness all the puppies were already delivered!!!! Despite the obvious damage, both the sheriff and the Roadside Assistance guy thought my son would make it back home so he is now on the way. 2 hours to go...... I am counting the  minutes until he arrives safely home.

ZERO Warehouse Clubs!

Yesterday I got the biggest anniversary surprise of my life!  Normally we really don't do anything special for our anniversaries.  It isn't that we don't think an anniversary is a special date, but we are so busy with our doodle doggies and doodle puppies that we just acknowledge our anniversary and spend the day just like we would spend any day - happily enjoying each other's company and appreciating how much we love each other. Yesterday our anniversary day plan was to go to both warehouse clubs for our monthly shopping trip and also run a few more doodle doggie errands.  The big special part was that Mr. Yesteryear Acres added a lunch date. We rarely go out so it was a nice change to go out for a lunch date.  Since we were going out to lunch, both Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I got dressed in nicer clothes than we usually would for a typical warehouse run.  I didn't think anything of it - because we were going to lunch. Well guess who went to ZERO warehouse clubs??!!!  ME!!!!  Guess who was surprised yesterday?! ME!!! Mr. Yesteryear Acres drove to the warehouse clubs and then said he needed to go to Lowes Home Improvement store first. I did have a moment where I thought, "oooooh Home Improvement Store - ROMANTIC!" He was in the parking lot looking at some kind of hydraulic something or other and then parked way far away from the doors.  We got out and then started walking the other way!  What? That is when he took me to a jewelry store and Mr. Yesteryear Acres had picked out an anniversary gift that was waiting for me!!!!!! Oh my gosh! I was so surprised and so excited.  It was beautiful and special and unexpected and wonderful.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres had been putting away a little money here and there for a long time.  He had wanted to do something special for our 25th wedding anniversary but the finances wouldn't allow for it so he just kept on saving.  This year marks 3 decades of being best friends and 27 years of marriage AND a big anniversary surprise.  I will never ever ever forget my 27th anniversary.  Ever.  After we picked up my most wonderful bestest anniversary present - we went out for a romantic dinner!  I have to say, that was the best zero warehouse club shopping day I ever had!!!!! 27 years - and so much happiness. Thank you Mr. Yesteryear Acres!

27 Years

As with all normal days here at Yesteryear Acres - our plans this morning didn't go exactly as planned. Mr. Yesteryear Acres and I wanted to leave this morning at 9:30am for our Anniversary date.  We have a full day planned of warehouse club shopping and doodle doggie supply shopping AND a lunch! It is now almost 11am and we are still at home.  The car brakes had something wrong with them and so this morning we started with a trip to the auto parts store.  Ooooh!  Romance and then some!!! Mr. Yesteryear Acres finally has everything fixed with the brakes and now I am just waiting for him and our exciting doodle shopping day. Any minute now....any minute now......I am sure we will be walking out the door.  The good news is that after 27 years of marriage - I have come to accept and expect delays.  It is all part of our wonderful doodle filled, nothing goes as scheduled, crazy fun life.  I love that when things go wrong, I can count on Mr. Yesteryear Acres to fix it.  I love that even when we go to the auto parts store, Mr. Yesteryear Acres makes it fun.  I love that after 27 years, Mr. Yesteryear Acres is still my bestest friend in the whole world and every single day is a day filled with love.  27 years of unconditional love.....and a new brakes! Happy 27th Anniversary Mr. Yesteryear Acres!

All together now!

Things here have been pretty busy of late and I have to say the house has been suffering from lack of attention. Each day I have been running out of time to get my MUST DO list done. When it comes down to a choice to either clean the house or take care of the puppies - puppies always win.  If it comes down to bale hay or clean the house - the hay wins.  If it comes down to catching up on my unopened mail, unpacking my suitcase or getting the laundry done - that all wins too.  This has left me with a very neglected, very sad house.  Today EVEN though the weather was PERFECT outside......everyone came inside to help clean the house. That just made my heart smile.  Mr. Yesteryear Acres, my son AND Bri all worked with me all day long and now my house is all clean and happy.  Every room looks great.  At one point I looked around and Bri was vacuuming under the radiators and my son was dusting all the high ceiling moldings and Mr. Yesteryear Acres was finally putting away his "I'll get to it" pile.  Ahhhhhh.  Such happiness! I am so thankful for all the help and now when I walk into every room, I just smile. If you listen closely, you can hear my house say, "Thank you so much!  I feel so much better now!" Me too!

But I Gave you a Kiss!

This morning at the wee hour of 4:00am - Grits decided to walk over to my side of the bed and lick my hand. As much as I love Grits, I do not want my hand kissed at 4 in the morning.  I told her to go lie down and I tried to go back to sleep.  Of course now that I was awake, I had to go to the bathroom and on my way back to bed, what did I see?  Grits.  In the position.  Of POOPING ON MY FLOOR!  ACK!!! GRITS!  What are you doing??!!!!  I ran her outside immediately.  I had to turn on all the lights in the kitchen which woke up the puppies and so they all had to go to the bathroom too.  SO I cleaned up puppy poop and waited for Grits to finish outside and then went upstairs and cleaned up Grits poop.  Let me tell you - Grits is not a small doodle doggie and her poop is not small doodle poop!  Mr. Yesteryear Acres kind of groaned and said it smelled awful but he didn't get out of bed and was barely bothered by the event.  I finally got the floor all cleaned up and went back to sleep.  When my alarm went off this morning, I got out of bed and took a few steps and yes.  You guessed it.  I stepped right into a pile of cold smelly poop.  In my bare feet.  ARGH!  I had to call down to Mr. Yesteryear Acres to get some more paper towels and cleaner and cleaner for me!  I gave Grits the look.  The look that said WHY DID YOU POOP ON MY FLOOR??!!!  Grits gave me the look.  Her look said, "But I gave you a kiss!!!!  Oh..... silly human.  Didn't you know that "Hi, I am kissing your hand at 4am because I am gently waking you in the most pleasant way possible to say......I have to go potty".  Let's just say, no. I didn't get that.  And for the record - I am hoping tonight that I do not get another kiss from Grits.  

Planning for the Big 27

This evening Mr. Yesteryear Acres took a little time out to plan what we wanted to do together for our 27th anniversary.  Normally our anniversary day comes and goes without much fanfare but this time we are actually thinking of making a day of it.  Sticking true to our Yesteryear Acres traditional "date" outings, we are planning on going shopping at two warehouse clubs. Yes. 27 years of marriage and dog food shopping at the warehouse clubs is the first thing that comes to our minds.  I mean it has to get done - so might as well go get it done on our anniversary!  Then we figured we would do something crazy like have an honest to goodness lunch date.  Since we rarely do anything together away from home, we might even go as far as actually going to a matinee movie.  A movie theater outing is super luxurious and unheard of....but it could happen! In any event, it was a ton of fun spending the time together thinking about being together for the big event.  We are blessed to have so much love and happiness. I really couldn't ask for anything more.

Best Way to Enjoy Morning Coffee

Juneau's puppies will soon be leaving for their new homes.  They are all doing so great with their housebreaking and they are just so much fun to play with.

We love hanging out with Mr. Yesteryear Acres! He gives the best back scratches!

The best way to enjoy morning coffee is with doodle puppies!

Good morning everyone!

Snuggling is pretty fun too!

Psssst - wanna know a secret?

I love you!

I found a Shady spot!

What do you want to do now?

How about playing Gecko Fetch!

I'm waiting my turn

Me too

This has been a great day!

I'm going to be a St. Louis puppy!

Happy Monday!

I miss her already

We left Yesteryear Acres early this morning with all my daughter's belongings packed and ready to go. My daughter said a tear-filled goodbye to her doggies and an even more tear-filled goodbye to her Daddy and we were off.  My son and his girlfriend Bri drove our SUV while I rode with my daughter in her car. As soon as we arrived at her dorm building, we had a nice picnic lunch and then the unpacking began.  Having 2 more people to help move in all the stuff was awesome.  We had the cars unloaded in record time.  My son arranged her furniture and started putting together the computer/printer/electronic gadgets, Bri started hanging all the dresses and I started putting clothes in the dressers.  It wasn't long before we had everything squared away. My daughter had a work meeting to go to and so it was time to say our own tear-filled goodbyes. Good luck my sweet daughter.  Your dorm room looks great!  Happy Senior Year.  I miss you already.

Hay! Job Well Done!

Against all odds - we got our hay in!!!!!! We worked until long after the sun set - but the rains held off and our hay is now baled.  We weren't able to get any square bales done so hopefully we will get a second cutting for our square bales. Thankfully we got a pretty good yield on our round bales and now we can put the endless discussion of "when will we get the hay in?" behind us.

One last test to see if the hay was really truly finally dry

Yes!!!

Of course we needed a second opinion and Olive was glad to help

Our official hay tester

She says it looks good to me!

Time to bale!

See?  Hay baling IS SO MUCH FUN!

Lots of hay to move

The back field all nicely baled

Time to pick up all the bales

And move them off the field

It takes a long time to get them all in

And covered

You have got to be quick!  The next bale is on the way.

Ready for the next bale

Bri is an expert at covering the bales.

Hardest working hay balers around!

Hay! Job well done!