Honey, we’re home!

 

After Gilbert packed his crap and left without telling anyone (*sigh*), we had to come home for a couple of days to initiate the new guy.  However, once we were home to the disastrously filthy house (again), a few of the horses looking worse than when I rescued them (again), and a warrant for my arrest (thank you for writing that bad check on the farm account, Lee) we finally had a stroke of good luck.  Yes, really!  A friend of ours called us one night to tell us about a local driving job.  The job pays great (more than Glenn was making on the road) and he’d be home every night!  Woohoo!  More importantly, they are so desperate for drivers that they may even stoop to hiring me, even though I only have a few months experience.  Suckers!

Kidding.  I’m a good driver (said in my best Rain Main voice).

So, we’re home.  Home for good, I might add.  No matter what, I just can’t leave this farm again.  Thanks to the losers that we hired, we’ve lost two dogs, have a house that needs major cleaning and repairs, a truck that is drivable but still won’t pass inspection, horses that were once pocket ponies are now skittish, and a couple of the horses have been starved.  When we came home on the 7th, Don Juan was in the main herd instead of in the stud pen, so we’re also looking at Lutalyse shots for all the mares in a couple of months (you have to wait at least 45 days after exposure before giving them the shot).

I thought I couldn’t afford to NOT go out on the road, but it turns out that I couldn’t afford to leave the farm in the hands of lazy incompetent idiots, either!  The horses are already gaining weight and should be back to normal in a few weeks.  Poor Sketches is the worst, so I hug her several times a day while she’s eating and apologize for leaving her.  She seems to understand when I cry into her mane and stands quietly for the extra attention.  Quill and Sky were skittish when I returned, but have already reverted to the pocket ponies that I remember.  Maggie and Matilda still haven’t forgiven me and want nothing to do with me unless I have food in my hand.  Jethro ran away every time he saw me, but today he and I took a nap in the hay together, with his muzzle resting on my shoulder.

Oh, and let’s not forget the 10k worth of tools that are now missing out of the garage.  If you happen to see a tool for sale at a pawn shop with the initials G.W. etched in to the handle, please let us know.  I hope Gilbert got more than the price of his plane ticket home out of those tools.  They were certainly worth a lot more.

Then there’s Timmy, who somehow got frostbite on his penis, of all places.  Doc came out and explained to Gilbert what he needed to do to take care of the horse and said that if he didn’t start right away, Timmy might lose his wanker.  I talked to Gilbert on the phone that day and he said “don’t worry, he’s just like my horse, I’ll take care of him”.  Then he packed his shit and left the next day without taking care of Timmy’s wanker once.  We got Timmy into a foster home within a day or two, with someone that would take the time to take care of him properly.  It’s still up in the air, but he’s finally looking a little better now that the penicillin shots are over.  I’m hoping we don’t have to put the old man down, but I certainly don’t want him to suffer any more than he already has!

And I keep looking for Thor and Xena to come running home from the back pasture.  I look for them while driving down the back roads.  I listen every night for Xena’s whimper at the door, wanting to come in.   Sometimes Heidi sits, gazing into the distance, as still as a statue, and whimpers.  I think she’s waiting for them to come home, too.

I can only handle so much

 

This winter has been the hardest one ever, and I’m not talking about the snow.  Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse after Lee, this week has proved that it can get worse.  MUCH worse.  The new guy on the farm, Gilbert, has proven to be a better choice than Lee, but only because he remains sober.  He’s feeding the horses, which is also a bonus.  With Jamie going out every week to make sure he’s taking care of the horses properly, I think the horses will get through the winter just fine.  Here’s the bad news.  On Monday, we called Gilbert to see how things were going, since he refuses to pick up the phone and call us.  Glenn talked to him for 10 minutes before asking how the dogs were doing and what we heard next had me randomly breaking out in tears for the rest of the week.  And now that I’m typing it, here I go again. *sniff*

We told Gilbert at least a dozen times to not let Heidi, Thor, and Xena outside together.  They have a tendency to take off for the day when they are together and we didn’t want them disappearing or wreaking havoc with the neighbors while we were gone.  Like most things we told him, Gilbert ignored us.  He let Thor and Xena out together on the 18th (six days before we talked to him on Monday) and they had disappeared.  It’s now the 30th and they have still not returned.  Gilbert wasn’t even going to tell us. Jamie has spread the word with the other county shelters and has put an ad in the paper for us.  But at this point, I have given up hope.  Neither of them have ever left for longer than a day.  They have always come back around dark.  It’s winter.  There is a pack of wild dogs roaming the area and then there are the coyotes. 

I simply cannot bear to dwell on what has probably happened.  So I stick to my butterflies and flowers approach and think of them in front of a warm woodstove, being fed and loved by someone new.  So this is my goodbye to them, in the hopes that writing about their disappearance and my loss of faith in their return, that fate will bring them back home just to spite me.

Xena.  Where do I start?  You were the pup I hadn’t planned on and it was uncertain whether or not you’d ever bond with me.  But, oh what a companion you were when we finally did bond!  Loyal to a fault, I was the only human you loved. 

 

The most intelligent of our dogs, you could have learned anything if I had had the time to teach you. I’ll miss the way you were there to say goodbye when I ran to town and you were always waiting at the top of the driveway for me when I returned.

 

I’ll miss the way you and Lucky chased each other around the yard.  I’ll miss the way you used to lie on your back with me in the hammock, your legs in the air and your nose on my neck.

Who’s going to lick the tears from my face now that you’re gone?

 

Thor, I will miss your 100lb body trying to fit in my lap and your grunts of satisfaction when you finally settle on my legs.  I’ll miss the way the cats all loved you and would curl up with you for warmth in the winter.  And the way you chewed on their heads affectionately when you could have easily snapped their necks.

 

I’ll miss the way you’d lay on your back in the sun, legs in the air, jowls hanging down in a goofy upside down grin.  I’ll miss playing fetch with the only dog who ever brought the stick back to me.  I’m going to cry a river when I get home and see this boot still lying in the yard.

 

I’ll miss the safety I felt late at night and alone in the dark - I knew you’d never let anyone get past you. 

 

I hope you’ve found someone new to love and protect.  You deserve it, big guy.

 

I’ll be stepping away from the blog for awhile.  I hope you understand.

Inter-species relationships

I am the last person in the world to be called racist.   Just look at the variety I have here on the farm!  I don’t view humans any different than chickens – variety is the spice of life.  So when it comes to inter-racial relationships, I’m all about doing what makes you happy and to hell with what anyone else thinks about it.

But I guess in some ways I’m a little more traditional than I think.  Take the Elvira / Travis relationship for example.  I figured maybe Elvira was big enough to go into the coop with the rest of the Silkies so I moved her out there Sunday evening.  Bright and early Monday morning, she was standing on the porch scolding me about how terribly frightening it was to walk all the way from the coop back to the house on her own.  I bent over and she practically leapt into my hands and I put her back in with Travis, who was jumping around the hutch in bunny ecstasy when he saw that Elvira was home.

I don’t get it.  Does Travis think he’s a bird or does Elvira think she’s a bunny?  They eat together..

 

… and they even sleep together.

 

Odd as it is, I suppose I can live with it. 

 

But then there’s this.

 

 

  

 

And I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to handle  that.

Put on a happy face

 

Or the face that says “insert cat here”. 

 

Whichever one floats your boat.

Doing what he loves

Being part Lab, Thor loves to fetch.  He's not the fetching machine that Heidi is, but he's pretty darned good.   On the plus side, he's not one of those Labs that will run himself to death fetching.  When he's had enough, he'll take the stick somewhere and turn it into toothpicks and splinters.

Needless to say, it's difficult to take action shots of him when I'm both throwing the stick and trying to take pictures.  Somehow, the tail is the only part of him that's always in focus.

 

But I guess the picture quality doesn't much matter as long as he's this happy.

 

And as long as he's not chewing on someone's boot.

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?

Battered and bruised

Is there a doctor in the house?


Can you get tennis elbow from hammering? I must have hammered hundreds of nails over the weekend, in all positions and from all angles possible. It was like Twister with tools. I did learn one very valuable lesson -- I'm not ambidextrous when it comes to hammering. Not unless you call it talent that I can hit the nail 1 out of 5 times with my left hand. And I have bruises all over my arms with no clue how they got there. And my right elbow aches. And I think I'm done whining.


We finally got a roof on the new run-in shed. It's a temporary roof, but it will keep the bachelors dry until we can bring in more plywood and tin. We also got the truck very stuck in the mud while hauling the rafter materials. And I am being incredibly generous in the use of the term "we", seeing as how I wasn't even in the truck at the time and was yelling for Glenn to stop before he got past the point of no return. Not only did he reach that point, but kept on going. Poor Bertha truck now has one less tail light and a huge dent in bed on the driver's side. Cattle Baron had to come over yesterday with his tractor to pull Bertha out of the hole Glenn had put her in. Now I'm really glad I didn't get too vicious over the cows in my yard.


We also built three more standing stalls in the big barn yesterday. Now Gentry, Willow, and Meghan have a place to eat where they can't beat up on anyone else once they're done. This leaves Mandy (who goes home tonight now that everything is frozen and we can get to the trailer), Hunter, Jewel, and Radar out loose with their own buckets. Three more standing stalls and I won't even have to tie up the brat pack while they eat and life will be good. Or at least feeding the herd will be easier.


Anastasia came over this weekend to show Glenn how to butcher a chicken and to show me how to "disassemble" the chicken. I'm honestly curious as to how Glenn did the deed, but really too much of a wimp to ask. I can live without the details. Really.


And what was I doing yesterday evening as the wind was whipping through our hollow at 40mph with the temperature in the teens? I was in the garden. Clipping spinach and collards. Then I canned the greens (7 quarts, thankyouverymuch). Have I mentioned I don't even eat canned greens??


It's extremely cold today and I've had to break the ice in the troughs twice already. With another hammer. Cause I seem to have a thing for hammers lately. All the critters are cuddled up in the living room around the kerosene heater. I really wish we had a toilet in the living room because the bathroom feels like -30 right now. And I have to pee. But that's another story. Heidi and Cody are sharing the dog bed, Brie is under my feet (of course), Zeus is taking up his usual spot right in front of the door, and Thor, well... Thor is just Thor.

Random Lunch 10/30/08

We've had about 10 nights of frost so far. The garden is dead.

Or is it?

Glenn's collards growing happily without protection. This weekend I'll take the same stuff I made the tomato cages out of and make a hoop frame using clear plastic for extra protection.




Glenn's spinach. Picking up on the theme here? I am ready to be done with the gardening and canning for the year, but because my man wants more canned greens this winter I'm still at it. He owes me big time for this.





Thor's life is so very hard. I'm really not sure how he copes with living here.

Quest may not like Maverick at feeding time, but I think it's safe to say the two are getting along just fine.

Random Lunch 10/10/08

One of the things that I majorly suck at is keeping track of the camera. I haven't seen it since downloading auction pictures last Saturday. The pictures of the trail ride were taken with Anne's camera. I've torn up the house from one end to the other looking for the darned thing, and I know where I had it last but it's not there. Do they make those clapper things for cameras? Heeeere camera! CLAP CLAP!

I do have a question for those dog people out there that are way smarter than me (Lena, this means you). Recently the BDD has become aggressive when being disciplined. And I don't mean discipline like smack him around or beat him with a rubber chicken. I just mean raising my voice and pointing a finger at him. And if I'm really mad, I get up in his face about it. Cause I'm just SO trusting like that. In the past month or so he has started growling and barking at me when I'm mad at him. I haven't backed down, but maybe I should? Yesterday I was yelling at him and Thor because the two were having a growl fest out on the porch. They haven't growled at each other in a long time and even seem to be friends these days. When I heard them carrying on yesterday I thought I'd go out and break it up before it became a physical fight, as has happened before when Thor first arrived.

I sent Thor to his corner, then turned to Zeus. I pointed my arm off the porch, stomped my foot, and told him to "go lay down". That's when he started barking and growling at me. That's when I saw a big black blur fly past my right shoulder and land squarely on Zeus. Thor had him pinned to the ground with his jaw around BDD's throat. But Zeus was up quickly and the battle was on. I grabbed the closest thing I could find, which was a walking stick left here by the previous owners. A couple of quick whacks with the stick to both of them and they broke it up. Neither one was hurt, except maybe in the pride department.

What am I doing wrong with BDD? Not enough time spent teaching him things like COME, HEEL, DOWN? Granted, he's the only one of my dogs that doesn't know these things. He can't even shake. I've tried teaching him, but run out of time because it takes him forever to pick something up. I'm used to brainiac dogs, but BDD is as dense as a rock. Any ideas? Should I break out the rubber chicken?

On another note, the TB trainer that brought the boys called me yesterday "just to check on them". Imagine that... a racetrack trainer who gives a damn about where her horses end up!! And two of the boys weren't even her personal horses. But Joma's previous owner called the trainer up crying because she was so worried about him and wondered if he was in a good home and being cared for. I guess there's hope after all if there are breeders and trainers like them!

Random Lunch 10/1/08

I thought maybe I'd try something new on top of my regular posts and do a quick post on my lunch break of only pictures that I've taken during that break. I'd like to do this on a daily basis, but I don't always get a lunch break. For some reason, clients sometimes think that I don't need nourishment and don't understand that I become a raving lunatic when I'm hungry. If only they knew.

On today's lunch break I went out to the garden for the first time since the weekend. Why did I wait that long? What was I thinking? Did I assume that just because it's now October that the garden would be almost dead and not producing?

All I can say, is that it's a good thing one of our friends gave us a bunch of jars they weren't using anymore.




Today's pickin's. What you can't see are the dozen or so eggplants and five chocolate bell peppers on the bottom. Oh, and the gazillion little Litchi tomato fruit. I didn't even bother with the pineapple tomatillos. Collecting those requires more time and patience than I posses on my lunch break.







This is not my boot.







And if anyone comes looking for it, this is not my dog either.

Call Me Ishmail

I thought we were going to be extremely busy this weekend, but I was wrong. At least about Saturday. Saturday morning we ran to the feed store because I wasn't able to make it there on Friday before they closed. Then we stopped by the Middlebourne Farmers Market to say Howdy to Anne. On our way to the grocery store afterwards we saw a deer on the side of the road that had been hit and couldn't get up. We are who we are. We stopped. She kept flopping around and getting closer to the road so I pulled the Jeep up between her and the road. The poor thing was panting and in terrible distress. Glenn didn't have his gun or his hunting knife on him, but luckily some dude from Florida stopped and said his brother lived right in town and had a gun. Would we like him to go and get his brother? Why yes, what a wonderful idea.

Anne stopped by on her way home from market a few minutes later and so did one of her friends, who happened to have a cell phone that actually had service (this is a new concept for us Nextel owners). They called the police, who really didn't give a rat's ass about the deer or her proximity to the road. Fine then, up to us. Floridian came back with his brother and his brother's very loud, very powerful rifle. We waited for a break in traffic on what had been a very busy road that morning, then BAM! The doe was out of her misery, but not out of my mind.

After that, the mind and body just weren't in to working. On our way home the wonderful idea of taking a break actually surfaced and we decided the best way to do that was out on the boat. And what better way to see if Thor likes the water than to take him with us?

The Captain of the boat, standing tall and proud on the bow as he keeps an ever watchful eye for icebergs and horny sperm whales in his Larry the Cable Guy t-shirt.



The First Mate knows no fear and looks death in the eye as he posts guard on the stern where 20' waves could easily wash him overboard.



He wasn't exactly washed overboard. We were looking forward and heard a loud splash. Poof, gone was the Thor. Then he surfaced slightly behind the boat, paddling for all he was worth. Good thing we were only using the trolling motor and Glenn wasn't doing his usual petal to the metal imitation of a speed boat racer.



Once we got Thor back on board we outfitted him with the latest fashion in swimwear. Just in case he decided to take another dip when Glenn turned into Mario Andretti on water.



Ahh... this is what the brain needed. And the body needed a little swimming, which also happened. I keep waiting to turn green and get all glowy, but it hasn't happened yet. The Ohio river is not exactly known for it's cleanliness in these parts.




And for those that have asked, yes, Thor has an appt to be neutered. But our vet is incredibly busy and can't get to him until Sept 15. This shouldn't be a problem since he doesn't leave my side. Ever. Which is a good thing since I couldn't possibly do anything without him. And I do mean anything. At least he's cute.

The Mighty Thor

Here's Thor, spending a hard day at work with me. It's no wonder he sleeps through the night, work like this can be exhausting.





Please ignore the mess on the floor around him. He's still in that must-chew-rip-tear-everything puppy stage of life. If it's paper, either on the floor or within reach of his snout, just consider it gone and hope it wasn't important.

Someone asked me a couple of weeks ago how I did everything around here. The answer is simple. I don't. My house is a disaster area and I haven't danced with the pushmower in weeks. Every minute away from work is spent either with dogs, in the garden, or more often than not, with the horses. It's a good thing we haven't had much rain in the past few weeks because the yard still looks at least partially presentable. We couldn't cut hay off of it yet, which is always a plus. As for the house, I just don't ever invite company in. That's what the porch is for!


I think the stay off the couch training is going well, don't you?

BDD Jr.

Yes, we got another dog. Before I introduce you, please don't think that this is Rocky's replacement. If Rocky is ever found, we will still take him and give him a home. He just won't be going out in the truck with Glenn. His hands are still sore and swollen from all the bite marks and he's not such a big fan of little dogs anymore.

Now let me tell you Thor's story. Maybe I should start by proclaiming yahoo groups are dangerous! Or maybe it's just my inability to say NO to an animal in need that's dangerous. No, that can't be it.

One of our soldiers was headed overseas and couldn't take Thor with her. She was heartbroken and tried for a month to find him a good home. When the day came that she had to leave, her husband took matters into his own hands and took Thor to the all ready overflowing county shelter where they euthanize surrendered dogs before strays (this would have been grounds for divorce in my book!). Fortunately for Thor, the woman at the shelter knew him and his owners, since that's where they adopted him from in the first place. She decided to give Thor a stay of execution for a day or two in the hopes that someone would want to take him home. That's when someone on this yahoo horse riding forum that I subscribe to cross posted about Thor. I contacted the rescue that was trying to place him and Glenn picked him up yesterday. And that's a bit of a funny story as well... Glenn went to get him in my Wrangler and had the top down. On the way home he stopped at Taco Bell for some lunch and while cruising down the highway afterwards he gets pulled over by a state trooper. The cop walks up to the door and tells Glenn he pulled him over for littering. Then he noticed Thor in the passenger seat with a big wad of taco bell paper hanging from his mouth. The cop smiled, shook his head, and said "Nevermind, I understand".

I call him BDD Jr. for now because he's going to be huge. He weighs in at probably 65-70 lbs now and isn't even a year old. He may not make it to BDD size, but he'll be awfully close. The previous owners think he's black lab and mastiff. I don't see much mastiff, but maybe pitbull? What do yawl think?

And of course I can't have a post entitled BDD Jr. without pictures of the original BDD. I actually noticed some smidgen of intelligence in that stare tonight.

No matter how dumb, he sure is purdy.

Thor and the BDD are both in love with Brie. Who wouldn't be? Especially with groundhog intestine breath? That's right, she found the dried up intestines from the dumbest groundhog in the world and chewed them right up. Mmmmm, groundhog jerky. That dog is not licking me in the face for a month.

The herd has been spending most evenings in the top field, so it's been a rare treat that they all come down towards the house. Tonight was one of those nights. This is Junior, Stride, Dolly, Willow, Classy, Meghan, and Semi. Kita and Indy weren't far, but just outside the picture. Manny the wonder horse and his little buddy, Chief were far to the right, by themselves as usual.

Megalia and Tabby up on the ridge. Their sister has found a place in the herd, but these two prefer to stay apart. Which is probably a good thing, because they are beating the hell out of Stride and Dolly. When Manny isn't picking on the poor old fogies, the girls are. Junior and Semi have taken the ancient ones under their wing, so they usually defend against the two Troublets. But both Stride and Dolly have scrapes and bite marks all over their butts. I've started locking them in the barn in the morning so they can eat in peace and stay out of the sun and away from the bugs. Hopefully, that will help keep the girls off of them.

Have a great weekend. And if anyone is bored this weekend, come on over. I have plenty of things for you to do! :)