Category: jack

There’s a disturbance in the force

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, dave, jack, mouse, navi, pets5 Comments
There’s something going on at our house…

Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it!

Something viciously attacked the water dish!
The cats are worried…
Barclay and Jack were peacefully enjoying a rawhide, when suddenly
Attack! What could this monster be?!
Introducing..Navi!
Yup, we succumbed to the charms of the 5 month old eskie that needed a home.
She has been a constant blur of activity for the last six or so hours.
Wish me luck for a good night’s sleep!

_

Beautiful Day…Miserable Day…Beautiful Day…

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack1 Comment

And today it’s – Miserable Day! I went out to dig some holes for my baby apple trees and the skies opened up! It was hailing! Unfortunately Jack had just found an old steak bone in the field (my theory is that crows raid neighbor’s garbage and drop them in our field) and I’d grabbed him by the collar and was trying to talk him into dropping it – can’t just take it away because he gets ‘bitey’. So I was out there holding his collar, hunched over, when it started raining cats and dogs! But I wouldn’t let him go, because I know he really hates rain, and I figured he’d drop it faster the wetter he got. Finally I let him go and he shook and the bone went flying! I got it and we hurried back to the house. Dave helpfully snapped a picture.

The Dehydrator

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, farm, food, garden, jack2 Comments

I am taking a class about food preservation, and a couple weeks ago we learned about dehydrators. I got to bring the class dehydrator home to finish our lab assignment, and I loved it! I have never cared much for the dehydrated fruits you get from the store, but these were fresh and crisp but not so hard you’ll break a tooth. The pineapple came out like natural candy! So I wanted one bad!

This week I easily sold all my pullets (baby chickens), and actually made a profit (miracle of miracles) so I felt like I could splurge and a get a dehydrator, tah dah!

It’s really simple, just a fan and a heating element, so it blows warm air over the food trays and dries stuff out. It can be used for fruits, veg, jerky, herbs, or even drying flowers for crafts.

I did some apples and bananas, then tried peppers and pineapple. The pineapple is ridiculously good. The peppers come out crunchy and sweet – I’m going to try sprinkling them on a pasta dish.

I suppose it could be used to make dog treats!
I’m enjoying learning how to use it! It’s really going to be nice to have this summer and fall when I have too much produce from the garden, or too much fruit from the orchard. Last year I had to let a lot of pears and stuff go to the chickens because I didn’t know what to do with it all. And the herbs that went to waste at the end of the year when the plants started dying down? Into the dehydrator! I think this is going to be a very useful addition to my kitchen/garden.

Fun with pictures

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack2 Comments

I had some fun this morning sitting outside with the dogs, watching the sheep, and taking pictures on this beautiful sunny morning

An airplane flying overhead. This guy kept doing laps around our neighborhood, fairly low despite how small he looks in the picture. I suspect he’s the picture guy. They take pictures of your property then come around a few weeks later and show you a framed and matted picture of your property and offer to sell it to you for an outrageous price. We refuse, of course, and I’m sure he gets back in his truck, slides the next house picture into the frame, and goes and knocks on their door. Perhaps he gets enough takers to make flying around the countryside taking pictures worthwhile, but I can’t imagine. We don’t get a lot of door-to-door out here (mostly the picture guy, the meat truck, Schwanns, and Jehovah’s Witnesses) but I thought that was a particularly odd gig.

I had to look out over the hills to find any clouds to take pictures of. I love the blue sky, white cloud, green trees in this shot. That’s the northwest in a nutshell.

This ewe huffed on my lens and fogged it up.

This is my ‘laying on the ground, looking up at a tree lit up by the morning sun’ shot. When was the last time you did that?

Jack
The Barker. After being removed from the sheep pasture – twice! He keeps finding places he can slip through the fence by going between the rails – despite his massive fluff, he can slip through a 6 inch gap in the rails. He’s like a cat, if his head fits through he can squeeze the rest through. I think I’m going to have to put wire fencing on the other side of the rail fence to keep him in the yard where I want him.

The sheep invasion!

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, farm, jack2 Comments

My neighbor Kelley showed up with his trailer this morning
And released a whole flock of sheep into our field! These are his sheep he uses to produce lambs for the 4H kids. They had eaten down his field, so we figured why not take them for a ride around the corner and let them eat down our pasture for a bit. 
The dogs absolutely lost their minds when they saw them!
Jack was on full beagle alert – woo woo wooooooo
Barclay would like to get out there and chase them.
The sheep have bells on. The bells are to frighten away the coyotes. Kelley says it works for him. They make a pleasant jingling as they graze around the field.

Visited a Forest Preserve

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, outdoors3 Comments

In Brush Prairie, back behind the sheriff’s office, is the new dog park. Behind that is a stand of trees. To get to the trees you have to drive past some signs that say ‘no trespassing’ and look like they mean it. The trick is that if you are brave enough to push on past, those trees are actually part of a county park. There is just one parking space by the gate. It is the Lauretta Norene Forest Preserve.

We took Jack and Barclay for a little walk there Wednesday. We had been heading for the dog park, but when we got there we saw there were a couple pit bulls on the ‘small dog’ side of the park where we usually go (it’s normally empty), and I don’t let my dogs play with dogs I don’t know, so we opted for a walk instead.

The forest preserve has this deep, dark, forest feel to it. It’s very cozy.

Lots of great stuff to sniff!

Dave handled Jack and worked on teaching him not to pull, while I walked Barclay on his flexi leash.

When you come out the other side of the woods you see this sign.

It’s not clear which part of the park is the Lauretta Norene Forest Preserve and which part is the Groth Nature Preserve, but all together it adds up to a beautiful stand of forest surrounded by rolling fields.

Really lovely rolling fields, and room for the dogs to run (as much as they can on leash, of course). It was so generous of people to put this land aside. It’s just gorgeous.
It was a bit cloudy, but normally you have beautiful views of Mt Hood. Here you can see snow-covered Silver Star Mountain on the horizon.

Back into the woods to head back to the car.

Happy dogs!

Eskimo Playdate!

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, pets1 Comment

Today we had a doggie playdate! Sherry is in our dog training/activities club and she has two young eskimos – Sake and Sitka. Her’s are minis, like Alki. We’ve met at the dog park a couple times and they all get on great with Barclay, so I invited her over to the house so Jack could play too.

Run for your life, Jack! It’s a pack of eskimos!

I love Jack’s expression in this one!

They all know where the treats are!

They are all shamelessly working Sherry for treats! Even my two!

Thanks to Dave for thinking to grab the camera and get some pictures! I was busy watching dogs 🙂 They played until they were so wore out they were just laying around rolling on each other. Then Sherry took hers home, and Barclay sat in the front window and pined for them for a bit – he loves his new friends! But they left just in time, it started pouring rain about ten minutes after they left. Then everyone (me included – ha ha) napped away the rest of the afternoon.