Water Dog Extraordinaire

 

Has anyone ever heard of an English Bull Dog or a Blue Heeler enjoying the water?  I certainly haven’t, but I’ve never had either breed of dog before.  Now I have both, wrapped up in one very dense, heavy, solid puppy.  Oh, I forgot stubborn, obstinate, intelligent, challenging, and ornery.  And cute.  Mostly.

Calypso loves the water.  I mean LOVES it, with a passion.  Unlike Heidi and Stormy, who just wade up to their bellies, Calypso dives right in with gusto and swims around the pond without a specific destination in mind.  She also enjoys bathing in the 100 gallon horse trough that I have in the yard for Lucille, especially when I’ve just cleaned it and put in fresh water.  Lucille is usually not amused.

 

She also loves to fetch and will swim out into the middle of the pond simply to bring me something that she only thought I threw out there.

 

 

 

The real fun comes when she reaches the shore only to find Heidi there waiting to snatch the stick from her mouth.

 

And did I mention she only shakes off the stinky pond water when I’m in range?  Adorable.  Simply adorable.  Really.

Some Assembly Required

I did a little retail therapy the other night and bought Glenn the grill he’s been wanting forever.   Since I’m on-call for work this weekend, I had plenty of time to put it together.   On the front of the instruction manual it says “Estimated assembly time:  30 minutes”.   HA.  It took me 30 minutes just to get everything out of the box and unpacked.

 

Once everything was stacked around the porch and I had found the package of nuts and bolts, things went pretty quickly.   I got the casters on (without the caster wrench, which I didn’t find until I was almost done), then got the two sides and back up without a hitch. 

 

 

That’s when I hit a bit of a snag.

 

Lacking a second human, I asked for a canine volunteer.

 

I couldn’t have done it without her.  And without the Noodle, that one piece would have been cold and hairless when I put it on.  I’m not sure how I would have managed.

 

 

“Mom, you owe me quite a few meaty bones for this.”

 

As always, there were a few extra pieces.   I’m pretty sure they were just included to make people like me feel like they did something wrong during assembly. 

 

Go team!

 

I’ve got some chicken breasts thawing on the counter, lettuce, spinach, and herbs in the garden, and some raspberry vinaigrette in the fridge.  I can’t wait for dinner!

On the Road Again

I really need to get more organized. I seem to spend all weekend on the road running errands, and never get much done at home. This past weekend was no exception. Saturday was spent delivering Pearl and Chessy to their new homes. Pearl went WAY south to a wonderful home with another mini and an old retired quarterhorse. The introductions were fairly low-key, as the priority was to just find the grass and get to munching.

As soon as I got home from delivering Pearl, it was time to trim Chessy’s feet and load him on the trailer. Everyone was really concerned that Chessy and Duchess would have a hard time being apart after living together alone for so long. Duchess followed Chessy to the gate, gave her son one last look, then walked away to eat hay with her buddies. Chessy walked right on to the trailer and never looked back. Yup! It was very traumatic for everyone.

Ok, so maybe it was a little traumatic. I don’t believe Chessy has ever seen cows before. After a quick roll in the dirt, he spent a lot of time doing this:

just staring at cows, waiting for them to either stop staring back at him, or bust through the fence and eat him.

On Sunday I did a lot of running around as well. Getting water for the big beasts, dog and cat food for the little beasts, and picking up two more Silkie hens because I’m addicted. At one point, I came home to find a crime scene in my own yard.

Those poor socks never had a chance.

Random Lunch -- 3/6/09

It's a beautifully warm, sunny, and breezy day here today.  Everyone is relaxed and naps are of the utmost importance.  Especially naps taken in holes in the yard that have been dug with your own two paws.  It just gives one a sense of accomplishment, pride, and exhaustion.

Spring fever is setting in for all of us here on the farm.  The chickens are going further from the coop each day and some of the younger birds are finally starting to lay some eggs.   I used my lunch break to sow some seeds, the horses have been alternately cantering around the pasture in play and napping in the sun, and the cats have been up to no good all day.  Especially Lucifer.  The biggest, furriest, and silliest cat we have.  

He posed for this session just for you, so please enjoy the following pics of Luci.  It's not likely that I will ever see him like this again.  At least for another 10 minutes or so.

 

 

 

A face only a mother could love

 

I catch all sorts of odd faces when Thor and Heidi are playing.  That first one was after about 10 minutes of play as Heidi suddenly decided she was done chewing on Thor's leg and walked away.

 

Then there's the fight for ear dominance.

 

 

Thor weighs almost twice as much as Heidi and she is the gentlest most passive dog we have.  But you wouldn't know it as much time as Thor spends on the bottom of the play pile.

 

Do I have to keep asking you to ignore the mess in the background of all inside pictures, or is that coming naturally to you now?

Heidi Ho

I was cleaning up and moving around all the pictures on my laptop today and found some really cute ones that I'd like to share. Plus, I'm a little tired of talking about the garden. Just as I'm tired of canning, freezing, and drying. But have no fear my fellow garden zealots, just like I'll be back to do more canning, freezing, and drying, I will also be back to talk more about the garden at a later date.

But this post I thought I'd dedicate to the Ho. She's my baby, and although I try not to play favorites, I sometimes fail miserably at it. In thinking of that, I realized that I've shown very few pictures of Heidi on my blog. So be prepared for a little Heidi picture overkill.

Let's start with adorable puppy pictures. Because who doesn't love an adorable puppy? Ho was 12 weeks old when we got her from a family who had adopted a puppy without realizing how much work a puppy could be, especially when living in a townhome.





This is her "I'm about to do something really silly... want to watch?" face.





This is her patented "I'm sorry I've been bad, but I'm really way too cute to punish, don't you agree?"




Heidi has always adored the cats and the feeling has been returned. Even the playful "eat the kitty" scenario goes over well.




After playing, it's always nice to nap with the one you love.





Even if your pillow chews on your ear.




Three is never a crowd. Whatever.



And sometimes it's nice to just be able to stretch out and have the whole couch to yourself.

A modest start to the orchard

My Raintree Nursery (http://www.raintreenursery.com/) order finally came in today! Of course it did... after 1o days of beautiful sunny and warm weather, it's just my luck that it arrived on a chilly rainy day when it's supposed to get down to 38 degrees tonight. Lovely.

But I love Raintree. I've been ordering from them for years and they have always sent me healthy trees and shrubs that have taken off as soon as they hit the dirt. In this shipment:

1 - Sweetheart Cherry tree (self-pollinating)
2 - Glenora blue seedless grapes
2 - Lakemont green seedless grapes
1 - Chandler Blueberry
1 - Darrow Blueberry
2 - Crimson Cherry Rhubarb
5 - Anne Rasberry (gold)
5 - Caroline Raspberry (red)
5 - Tulameen Raspberry (red)
1 - Lattarula Fig

The strawberries come in groups of 25 for under 10 bucks. But with Raintree I've always gotten a few extra! I haven't counted the Tri Star (everbearing) plants yet, but I counted the Benton (June bearers) and got 29 plants! I got the Rhubarb planted first, then Heidi Ho and I started planting the Bentons, but then a storm whooshed in and drenched us in rain before we had a chance to make to the porch. It's only 51 degrees out there now and still raining, which is why I decided a change of clothes and warm blanket took precedence over the strawberries.

Check out the cherry tree! Look at all those buds just waiting to grow!



And take a look at the raspberry sprouts just waiting for some soil and sunshine!





Over the weekend Glenn brought a Bobcat skid steer home (the joys of working for an equipment rental!) and we were able to do a few things around the farm, as well as fill in the last two garden beds! He scooped up some really nice black soil from in front of the small barn, then put the two truck loads of compost on top of the soil in both beds. He wasn't even done filling in the second bed before I had started planting in the first one! I planted the rest of the onions down both sides, then calendulas and dill here and there down the sides. The perennial stuff went on the ends of the beds: bronze fennel, parsely (biennial), catnip, lemon balm, and borage (annual, but gets huge).

Breaktime! Ho and Brie both had to check Glenn out in the Bobcat to make sure it wasn't eating him. Brie, who is always up for an adventure, probably wanted to ride with him if it wasn't so noisy.




Neither of the boys thought climbing into the noisy metal beast was such a good idea, but they're big whimps anyway.

I'm worried about Mr. Brandywine, the poor little tomato seedling that was made to suffer for my gardening impatience. It's supposed to be 38 tonight and 34 tomorrow night. Yikes! The good news is that this seems to be winter's last horrah for the season because starting Wednesday it's back into the 50's at night and 70's during the day. So just like Junior, my little 'mater has his own blanket on tonight. I covered him with straw and grass cuttings then topped it off with an upside down plastic pot. Let's hope it's enough!