Travel writer Rick Steves makes his views on the Trump putsch known with a recounting of Adolf Hitler’s imprisonment and execution of his political opponents, who were the first concentration camp inmates in fascist Germany. He reminds us that Hitler was duly elected, then seized power by bullying, fear, manufactured crises, propaganda and lies.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1363863331256571

5 month-old Skye, littermate to Jet, is off being ‘coached’ by friend Kathy. The farm is a tough environment for pups. Not a lot of human time.

Kathy is an athlete and coach, with a passion for dogs. She successfully takes pups of mine, brings them forth into a world off the farm, with humans and other things, and readies them for new homes. She does for dogs what she does for young athletes …coaching them, nurturing them, giving them confidence and guidance to achieve unrealized potential.

Kathy reports in shared videos of young Skye, that Skye settling into her new life, off the farm and coming into her own. The transformation is amazing to watch. Kathy has a gift!

It remains to be seen how Skye will react to sheep, whether she will be a working dog or companion. With frigid temps, a foot of snow on the ground and my leg still in a walking cast, sheep will be a challenge in the near term.

5 month old Jet by my #1 dog, Peter, shows all of his sire’s promise and character. Jet and Peter, are the kind of dogs that define my breeding program: smart, sharp-styled, intense, highly instinctive working dogs.

When you’re a Jet,
You’re the top cat in town,
You’re the gold-medal kid
With the heavyweight crown!

When you’re a Jet,
You’re the swingin’est thing.
Little boy, you’re a man;
Little man, you’re a king!

Then you are set
With a capital J,
Which you’ll never forget
Till they cart you away.
When you’re a Jet,
You stay
A Jet!

‘The Jet Song‘, West Side Story.

Martha sent me the most amazing photo of her Rain (Jazz x Max), now in Portugal, where Rain looks after 150 sheep in the uplands. I sighed at the beauty of the scene. Martha is a kindred spirit, a refugee from the chaos and horrors of America. I plan to follow in Martha’s footsteps, though to a slightly different corner. I must admit, the scene of Rain in the water and mist makes Portugal seem awfully nice.

Sue (Clwyd Bob x McCloskey’s Nel) is what a working dog should be: gritty, instinctive, tough and intense. She is a throwback to the sheepdogs of old, before they became wiry trial competitors.

The 10 Nel x Blu pups made it to five weeks today. They appear healthy. They are certainly eating a lot. The pups are yearning for more space, but need to spend another week in the warm puppy room before going out to the cold. It’s tricky having pups at this time of year. Cold is their enemy.

Trump’s excesses wear us down, in their outrageousness and number. We lose the ability to be shocked …but we shouldn’t. I am sickened by this post from Thanksgiving 2025. It should make our holiday turkey churn in our stomachs. Anyone who understands America should be shocked.

Donald Trump is beyond disgraceful. He is the embodiment of everything America should not stand for. Trump and his hoodlums are poisonous, toxic to a nation founded on equality where everyone (native or foreign born) may enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Futurist, scientist, science fiction writer, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, recorded this in 1964 for the BBC, a vision of the possible city of the future enabled by communication.

And he lived long enough to see it mostly come true!

There is a bowl of food in the middle of those 10 4-week-old puppies. When I put the food down, there is a surge. Some of them actually get into the dish.

At some point, things start to clear out and everyone, even the smallest, gets a chance to eat.

What is a happening in the Maine woods, home to Rachel Carson, is happening all over the United States.

The perp is not surprising, at all. It is the age we live in.

Woody Guthrie sang about it:

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me
Sign was painted, said, “Private Property”
But on the back side, it didn’t say nothing
This land was made for you and me

So did Mavin Gaye in his classic, The Ecology.

Oh mercy, mercy me
Ah things ain’t what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can she stand?