Besides Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum (Francie and Kate, above:) we brought Ollie up to Red Bluff this trip to cause some trouble. He is in heaven up there chasing squirrels and running around all day with Sadie. The big project one day this weekend was the "burn pile" that had been building since last Thanksgiving. Heff and Doug got to be pyros and set a pile of wood, yard clippings and all kinds of stuff on fire, while Opa supervised the fire. Ollie was circling the pile waiting for a rodent of some kind to jump out... his efforts paid off when a little mole jumped out and quickly met his demise in Ollie's mouth. A while later a big rat jumped out and Ollie pounced missing the little sucker by a few inches. He saw it jump BACK in the burning wood pile and my genius little dog decided his instinct to kill was stronger than his instinct not to jump into red hot burning flames. He dove right into the biggest flaming part of the burn pile and pulled out the rat who was by this point a RAT ON FIRE! He killed the disgusting burning rat and staggered around aimlessly looking like a Tom & Jerry cartoon doggie... you could see the stars circling his pudgy little head! His whiskers and eyelashes were singed off and he smelt like a cooked little sausage :) I wonder if he learned his lesson?!

Scorched puppy whiskers

That hurts... (The skin on his nose is now falling off, yuck. I found the 1% of my heart that actually cares about animals and let him sleep on our bed today, safe from little grubby hands, to recover.)

The big cheese :) Ellie the rule follower tried her best to keep all these little ones in line. It's a tough job.

When it's cold and wet outside what do you do? Climb on the doll-house, of course.

This picture was taken AFTER we moved this dollhouse away from it's previous home next to the banister/stairwell... Francie gave her parents a minor heart attack when we found her perched on the roof looking out at us over the railing.