They're here! AKC Springer Spaniel Pups

On Friday February 3, 2012 Abby had 6 puppies and we got to watch them come out. The girls had a wonderful time seeing the puppies arrive and Andrew even brought his Science class over to watch. What a miracle of birth! It never gets old for me.

All of them got up to the bar early and are doing so well.

They are a bit noisy in our room but are so healthy and for that I'm thankful.

There are four boys and two girls and I believe they are seperated by gender in this photo- on their own accord. Most all of them are liver color but they all have white bellies. I will get their tails docked and dew claws removed on Monday. I will start posting about their personalities and temperments as they grow. Abby is a terrific mom and we look forward to them getting big soon. They will be ready to leave the middle of March.

AKC Reg English Springer Spaniel Pups are coming!

This is our dog, Abby. A 6 year old English Springer Spaniel. She is due Feb 4, 2012.

Another picture of Abby.

This is Abby when she shaved for the summer. She looks really young and is a small springer spaniel- 35 pounds. Her mother was a show dog and her dad was a field hunter.

Abby is the best dog: sweet, kind, all heart. Abby is an inside dog and sleeps with us in our bed. She loves our kids. She never gets angry and is very obedient. She loves anybody and rarely if ever barks. Every where we go Abby goes. She sits right in between the girl's carseats and cleans up dropped snacks.

Prior to Abby's first batch of pups she took to mothering our two kittens which grew into full grown cats. She nursed them for a long time and even lactated. The cats thought she was their mother. She did too. This will be Abby's second batch of pups.

Abby is bred to a wonderful hunting dog named Cappy. His owner, Jerry Pier, uses him exclusively to hunt. Cappy is all heart when he hunts and has to be told to slow down or he will hunt until he hurts himself. He lives to hunt. He is a very impressive hunter and  follows commands flawlessly.

Besides Cappy's incredible hunting ablility he is a real sweet dog. He is great with people and didn't seem to mind our kids at all. He is just a happy dog.

Cappy

This is Andrew and Abby after they went hunting one late afternoon. Abby has all the hunting instinct and the heart. Although we had her trained to the T we've barely taken her out hunting this year or last. She still hunts well but is out of shape. She was so easy to teach.

This is Abby's personality when at home. Very relaxed and not hyper at all. Although is very high strung when hunting. We find her to be a great blend of hunt and house dog. Our kids love her and play with her all the time.

photo by: daronshort.com This is a pup from our last batch in 2009. Quinn lives in NE. They say he is, "the best Christmas present." Quinn was our only male in the last batch. His new owners run a hardware store and he goes to the store with them to be loved on by the customers. 

photo by: daronshort.com This is Harley and she lives in CO.

photo by: daronshort.com   This is Coldwater aka "Coldy." She lives in NE with a family that had never had a dog- ever. They love her. She plays with their two girls a is an avid hunter. He takes her out with several of his buddies and their dogs. They group hunt. They also own a hotel and Coldy is a door greeter.  

We are excited about this next batch of pups. This will Abby's second batch of pups and both times we've bred her to Cappy. We have no less expectations for the quality of these pups. We've heard so many great things about the first batch of pups and are so happy with the great families they went to.

Abby and Cappy have great dispositions and I consider Abby to a be a once in a lifetime dog and we hope that she passes that quality onto her pups. People that don't like dogs love Abby.

If you are interested in a pup please email me: Darcy darcycbeck@yahoo.com  We are located in Central South Dakota.

Changes in the wind

The days of summer are slowly changing into the fall season. We have enjoyed many evening walks with the girls around the school. We alternate our time between having them in the stroller and letting them "wander" behind us to release some energy!

The girl's climbed up on the hay bale for a picture. A couple key ingredients to our walks are dirt and rocks which are seen on Dakota's face. Dakota likes to do taste tests along the way. They fill the seats in the stroller with rocks to take back to the house to collect and play with. I may appreciate this in the middle of the winter when I need some rocks for the science class I'm teaching:)

One great thing that the fall brings is football games! The girls love playing with the other families that come up to the games. By the way, did anybody catch the Michigan game last Saturday? Go Blue! Incredible nail biting game!

The times they are a changing! The fall colors are here and Abby is getting ready to hunt!

Construction on the new multi-purpose building for the school is rolling right along. It has been awesome to see the progress made this summer and we praise the Lord for his provision so far in this project.

We've had a great month or so since we last did a post. Darcy was able to travel to MI and see our friend Martha get married. Thanks to all the family and friends who were able to spend time with her-she had a wonderful trip. Thanks also to Dixie&Dave, and Rachael&Brady for helping with taking care of the girls during that time.

School has started with a bang and according to the calendar I guess we are cruising along on week 4. It has been a good start but the pace of life has sped up tremendously. I've taken on a couple additional responsibilities at school this year which has kept my life interesting. One of these changes is teaching an 8th grade science class which has been a blast. It takes some extra prep time for me but I enjoy the opportunity.

The girls continue to grow and at times we wondered what happened to the baby stage. Potty training has been frustrating but we are now to the point where both girls are interested so it may become a competition. We'll see about that.

Darcy has taken some awesome photos lately, however, I'm having trouble getting them formatted so these are the ones that worked tonight. I just finished another Randy Alcorn book titled Safely Home if anyone is looking for a good book to read. Speaking of books, Unbroken was probably the literary highlight of our summer.

Thanks for tuning in and hope to catch you on the next edition!

Pool, Trail Ride, and a Party!

Well, summer has been rolling right along! We made a $15 investment in a pool for our deck and it has been well worth every penny!

In addition to the deck pool, we also go into Miller and use their pool after work some evenings.

I had the opportunity to ride in a wagon train ride from Phillip to Ft. Pierre SD for 3 days. They actually had to cancel the ride for 2 days, prior to my arrival, because a couple horses died from extreme heat. The days I rode were nice and we got an early enough start that we were done riding by early afternoon each day. Here I'm getting a drink with my horse-they had a tanker truck that delivered more than 20,000 gallons of water during the whole trip.

The trail ride followed a historic Indian route along the Bad River. This pictures is of the sun just starting to rise on the final journey of the wagon train. The two of us would get up early in the morning and just watch the world come alive. It was very peaceful and serene. We crossed some beautiful country on the ride!

Darcy came and camped out with me every night. She would have loved to ride but we didn't have a horse for her and she went back to Pierre during the day to watch the girls with her mom. Darcy, the girls and Darcy's mom would come out at supper time and then they had music groups perform and historians speak on the history of the trail. The girls loved seeing all the horses!

We started off in our tent for the first night. That changed pretty quick on the second night when a storm came up and showered us horizontally with torrential rain. We put down all the seats in the suburban and slept in there for the remainder of the trip. The next we battled a ferocious wind storm that shook the suburban and trailer. Dutch, our horse, ended up breaking his halter and tearing off the license plate by rearing back during the storm. Did I mention that our port a potty blew away too? It was an exhilirating experience with rustics twists. It added up to minimal sleep but refreshing. Thank the Lord for suburbans!

There were supposed to be about 250 people on the trail ride with some on horseback and others in wagons. Some dropped out after the first couple days but I think there was close to that number on the last day. There were many more people than that at night when people came to the campsite for the programs and to see friends and family.

You meet a lot of people on these rides and everybody is willing to take pictures. We had an awesome camp site the last night and Darcy rode Dutch around the camp for a while that night.

We had to go up some pretty steep, winding roads the last day but all the teams made it. This is a family I met from White River, SD who is related to our former Principal at Sunshine. It's a pretty small world!

We ended the ride with a parade through Ft. Pierre. It was a great experience and I'm grateful that it worked out for me to do this for a couple of days.

The trail ride ended on Daraby's birthday, so we got a hotel room at the Ramkota that night. Darell, Deb and their kids joined us for a night of swimming and hanging out. We had a party for Daraby on Sunday after church. Grandma Wanda is holding the balloons for the party-Daraby was more excited about the balloons than anything else!

We did a simple picnic lunch with subs and chips and then Darcy's mom made cupcakes for dessert. Daraby preferred licorice!

Daraby loves her cousins and it was great to celebrate with the Beck family!

Enjoy the last couple weeks of summer-the school year is coming up rapidly! We have been blessed with time together with family and friends throughout the summer and are now transitioning into school mode.

Thanks for tuning in!

Summer!

After a wild school year, we took a trip back to MI to spend time with the family and see Susan and Michael get married

Daraby made quick friends with a cat that she met

We climbed up to the top of the lighthouse at Little Sable Point

Rachael was able to spend over a week with us in MI. She got a little frightened at the top of the lighthouse but was able to pose for a picture with Darcy and Grandma

The girls loved playing in Joel's boat-in the garage:) We never got out on the lake with Daraby and Dakota, however, Joel, dad and I nailed the bass one early morning at Stoney Lake

Sand and Water+ Grandpa and Joel=Lots of fun

There's a great animal farm close to the cottage that we took Daraby and Dakota to and they go crazy over petting all the animals...I wonder where they got that from?

Dakota is petting a goat her own size

Darcy and Dakota are chomping down on an ear of corn together

All in all it was a great trip back and we enjoyed seeing many friends and family members. God has blessed us with incredible friends and family who are a source of encouragement and laughter along the journey of life. Though traveling with two young girls brings about some challenges, they did very well. It is awesome to see them interact with other kids and start to recognize and relate with family members.

We look forward to many other summer festivities in the weeks ahead and we appreciate you tuning in for the latest!