The dogs have begun to sleep in their winter pods again. In the summer they sprawl out on the veranda floor but in the winter they find their pods and curl up like fossils out of the wind and sleep there.
Here is a better picture for you in case you want to make these simple dog-beds for your dogs. Get a big plastic barrel and cut it into three. The two ends become pods, the center circlet is good for a small raised bed in the garden. In the summer I use these for water for the animals. The cats sleep in the pods too, which the dogs find irritating.
Old duvets are laid into the pods, and when it is colder I fold the blanket over the dog. The dogs take turns being on guard throughout the night. Around two in the morning the inside dog will wake me up and I open the bedroom french doors and the inside dog goes outside and the outside dog comes inside. Then I shut the door and go back to bed. And the new inside dog lays down beside my bed and the outside dog lays down at the top of the steps outside to watch the dark.
Lady Astor waiting in the gathering dark for her turn to be milked. She is endlessly patient.
The steer (Bobby Two) and Aunty Anna. Aunty Anna is probably the noisiest heifer I have ever met.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
20 responses to “The Pods”
Excellent guard dogs! Love how they know to take turns!
I have never heard of dogs taking turns. You have trained them well. Hope they keep warm.
That face! Didn’t look too pleased to be photographed in his pod. How well trained you have your pups C. Amazing.
Have a beautiful day.
🙂 Mandy xo
Boo is definitely giving you the stink eye. When you say noisy and heifer in the same sentence do you mean Aunty Anna is noisy all of the time or just when she is looking for love? If it is the latter then I think my slutty heifer Biscuit could give her a run for her money. There aint no peace on our wee farm when Biscuit gets to hankering for a man!
Aunty Anna has a very hurt expression “What, me? Noisy?” Which means it’s probably richly deserved…
Love the dogpods, and the changing of the guard for the Night Watch. You have exceptional dogs, who have been exceptionally well trained.
Love how your dogs take turns and share the pods with the cats even if they don’t want to. Fall is in the air, isn’t it???
Love that woolly Bobby face 🙂 Laura
I love that they work shifts and “hot bunk”!
Nice dogs ♥ Happy Monday♥
I love cow faces! I just want to hug them, which would, no doubt, alarm them no end and possibly end in injury for me. But they’re so darned cute I can’t help it.
Those faces! Boo, Lady and everyone else. Cracks me up!
Boo’s all grown up now 🙂
Love the sleeping pods, and their versatility. We upcycled a bed for our Diesel from a caravan camping mat, solar panel cover & a couple of old crochet blankies that belonged to my old dog, dead a dozen years. He was sleeping under our bed but has figured out next to the fire is warmer… it’s still cool here.
Is it the sun giving Lady Astor that stylish striped sweater she’s sporting?
Yes – the sun is wonderfully low at milking time now – in fact it was dark by the time i came inside tonight
Oh boy: those dogs do work in harmony! I can understand the ‘outside dog’ woofing to come in out of the cold, but that the ‘inside dog’ is ‘fair enough’ to let you know it is his shift starting : !! And he does not even wear a dogwatch 🙂 !