Our pasture is full of wildflowers, or as I like to call them, invasive weeds. It’s all a matter of perspective. They’re pretty, but if you don’t keep them under control the county will show up and talk to you about it. So I mowed about a third of it the other day, then let the dogs out to play for a bit before I finish the job.
Navi walked all around the field with me, then waited for Barclay to catch up. He kept stopping to dig up field mouse holes.
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I had a great day, but I didn’t take any pictures. What’s a blog post without pictures, right? Well, I’ll tell you about it anyway…
I got up and got right to my chores, then went to the hairdresser and got a long-overdue haircut. While I was there I got some gloomy news about how bad the economy is for them right now. I’m tired of hearing how bad it is for everyone. Wish I had better news to share myself.
Then I came home and worked in the garden. I tore out the overgrown lettuce last week, and today I put down compost to get those areas ready for planting my winter garden. Cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli starts are growing in little pots on the back porch, ready for their new digs. It’s always nice to make progress in the garden. I also picked up a glass window to be the top of my cold frame, so I need to get that built soon. Winter lettuce needs to go in in September to get it’s growing done before the days get too short.
Then we went Letterboxing. I have put off letterboxing for a long time because I didn’t have a homemade stamp and wasn’t keen on making one. I finally carved one out of an eraser, a little dog paw print. So I finally picked up an ink pad for it, and printed out a couple local letterboxes and we went and found them. No problem, found 3 out of 3 – I won’t expect that all the time! To my surprise, when I checked the log almost everyone had stamped it with professionally made stamps! Well heck, I should have just bought a cute stamp ages ago and got busy looking! Well, anyway, it was fun. I miss Geocaching, but since we don’t have a GPS anymore, this will do for now. Looks like there are lots of Letterboxes in our area to find.
Came home, had a late lunch, saw Dave off to a meeting in town, and then I rounded up the eskies for a little walk at the park. We walked down the road to the secret entrance to the horse trail. Then we followed the horse trail up past group camp. There were campers there, singing songs, and Navi didn’t like it. She kept stopping to look around and growling at the sound, since she couldn’t see the campers! We left that park at the group camp entrance, came back down the road and then took the abandoned railroad tracks back to the house. Along the way a lady sitting on her back porch near the tracks chatted us up and complemented me on how pretty the pooches were 🙂 They behaved pretty well on their walk. I have them on a Y adapter, and most of the time Barclay was walking next to me with his half of the Y hanging loose, and Navi was pulling ahead. I need to work on her loose leash walking skills, then the two of them will be a joy to walk!
Then we played some fetch, the dogs took a dip in the pond, and finally everyone has worn down. Dog nap time! Now we just need Dave to get home with the pizza, maybe watch some Doctor Who, and life will be perfect.
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Barclay and Navi. Navi has survived a week of limited activity since getting ‘fixed’. Or I should say WE have survived a week of trying to limit her activity! This dog needs a LOT Of exercise. I can’t wait until we get back to a normal routine!
Poor Navi is on crate-rest today. Yesterday she went to the vet for her surgery to get ‘fixed’. Now I’m supposed to take this hyper-active little peski and somehow keep her from ‘running, jumping or climbing’ for 14 DAYS!!! That’s like FOREVER to a puppy! The vet must be nuts! Well, we’re trying. Keeping her on leash, trying to keep her from running and jumping, letting her and Barclay play a little without letting it turn into roughhousing. It’s going to be a long two weeks!
Today was hot, and I thought I’d pull out the sprinkler for the dogs to play in. Barclay thought that was a curious thing, and he sat just outside the wet zone. Navi, on the other hand…
This morning was exceptionally active, and much earlier than I’d have liked! Sorry, no pictures, for obvious reasons. It started off at 5am when I was woke up by the visiting roosters. The roosters are ones that were hatched out of eggs from my flock by a neighbor in town, and of course the roosters had to get out of town when they started crowing! Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find homes for them, and you can’t have that many roosters in one place without fighting, so they are scheduled to end up in the stewpot pretty soon, as soon as I can get the guy out to butcher them. They’ve had a good life so far at least, but their ultimate destiny is to be meat. This has been a terrible year for roosters, everyone is overrun with them. This lady got 4 roosters out of 6 eggs, our splash chicks appear to be 7 roos out of 10 chicks. It would be nice if it would have skewed towards hens instead!
So at 5am I got dressed and went out and caught the four of them from the pen I had left them in last night, put them in a dog crate, and put the crate in the chicken shed. Once they were in the dark shed they went back to sleep. Unfortunately when I walked over to the shed I spotted something else out of place – my four little splash chicks had escaped the chicken tractor and were running around the back field.
I spent the next 45 minutes trying to gently coax them back into the tractor, but ultimately ended up getting the net and catching two of them that way. The other two ran off and disappeared into the blackberry thicket. That was disappointing, because I am supposed to take them over Sunday to give to a friend who has their other 6 siblings, and I would like to take her all four. So I let the dogs out to play for a bit then went in and went back to bed.
A couple hours later I got up again and went outside and found the two stray chicks hanging out by the tractor, so I got the net and managed to get one of them, but the other one disappeared into the bushes again. Since I figured she’d be hiding for a couple hours after all that drama, I let the dogs out to play and got back to my morning chores.
A bit later I was in the kitchen preparing a crock pot full of carnitas, all chicken drama forgotten, when I heard squawking and fussing outside. I ran out to find Barclay had the chick pinned, and Navi was bounding around trying to help him. I’m sure he would have eaten the chick, he just hadn’t decided where to start! I ran over, telling the dogs how good they were for catching the chicken, and scooped her up and rushed her inside. Dave pushed the dogs out of the bathroom and we set her on the counter and had a look at her. Surprisingly, she seemed none the worse for wear, with just a little blood from a couple broken feathers. I put her back in the tractor and she seemed happy to see the other chicks, and when I checked on them an hour later they were all running around like they hadn’t had the adventure of their lives this morning!
After all that, I was happy to grab Barclay and go to work where it is peace and quiet!
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Navi & Barclay were wrestling and playing so hard yesterday, that today Barclay has been pooped out all day. This afternoon they were laying in the living room, gnawing on each other’s faces, because that seems to be all the energy they had left.
Yes, I complained, complained, complained about the rain – but now all that is in the past! Now it’s too hot! It has been ridiculously hot the last couple days. Because it was cold and rainy for so long the dogs haven’t shed their winter coats – Barclay looks like a big wooly bear. Then the cold wet spring went directly to temps hovering around 100, and there’s nothing to do but stay inside with the AC on all day and sneak out when it starts cooling off around 8PM.
Then the dogs can come out and play…
Sometimes he even gets the toy!
But then someone else spots it and races over to steal it (leaving behind the dog she was mauling)
What’s that? What have you got? Is it a toy? Can I have it?
What is it huh? Can I see it? Gimme!
Let me see it, let me see it..
Oh, give it to me, give it to me, give it to meeeeeeee
Jack: I’ll give it to you, you little punk!
*krnch*
You’ll never catch me, slo-pokes!
Ha ha! Got her!
When she’s had enough of being mauled, the chair is her safe time-out spot
Whew, break-time!
Into the water trough for a cool-off
Lay in the cool grass…
Just another afternoon hanging out with their buddies
Oh yeah, workin’ hard…
I enjoy taking Barclay to work with me when I can, even if he spends most of the time napping behind the counter (or stealing my chair). He loves schmoozing up to the customers.
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Steff Does Stuff! 