Posts from — June 2008

I was talking to a close friend about my dogs during lunch today.  She asked how old Gel was and I told her he’d be four on July 29.  Then she asked how old Fern was:  she’ll be a year old on August 7.  Then I said to her, that is really perfect spacing between dogs as they are almost exactly three years apart in age.  She said, yes, that’s true, perfect spacing for children too.

While I don’t call my dogs my children, bringing up active, intelligent dogs has some similarity to bringing up children.  You need to be able to devote a good amount of attention to each individual so that they are able to become all they can be.  If you have two (or more) dogs who are close in age it’s hard to devote sufficient time to each dog.  Fern is like a sponge, she learns from both me and Gel.  Because I had a lot of time with Gel in a one-on-one situation, I was able to put an excellent foundation on him.  Gel is a perfect role model.

I’ve finally chosen an agility trial that I’m going to shoot for this year:  the Charlotte Dog Training Club AKC trial in October.  I can’t recall for sure, but I believe last year’s CDTC trial may have been the first agility trial I did with Gel.  The goal is to finish up Gel’s Novice AKC titles (he already has his Novice Standard title) and then focusing solely (or almost solely) on USDAA trials.  If I’m going to spend the money to enter and travel to trials, I want the opportunity to do as many runs per day as I can.  In USDAA, you can get upwards of five runs a day.  Unless an AKC trial offers FAST classes, and many do not, you can only do two runs a day.  CDTC offers FAST so if all goes well, I can finish Gel’s Novice Jumpers with Weaves and FAST titles and maybe get a leg or two towards his Open Standard title.  For me going to a trial and only getting two runs a day is boring and not cost effective.  I feel the same way about herding trials.  Until Fern is ready to run in USBCHA trials, I’m not going to bother going to them unless they are in my backyard.  I’m hoping Fern will be ready for ASCA herding trials in the spring.  It will be expensive to run two dogs in an ASCA trial, but I’ll save my pennies and go.  Once Fern is ready to run agility, I may reconsider my decision not to do AKC trials because I’ll have two dogs to run.

Of course, Fern isn’t going to be ready to run in agility trials unless I get my butt in gear and start training her.  I am hoping to schedule a private lesson with my agility instructor on Thursday.  That should be sufficient to jump start agility training.  Fern is going to be a hot little agility dog, I just need to turn her on.

As far as USBCHA trials go, I’m still very much on the fence about them.  I enjoy ASCA trials more.  It makes more sense to go to trials that I enjoy rather than doing what other people think you should do with Border Collies, which is USBCHA trialing.  Sure, in general, ASCA trials are easier than USBCHA, but ASCA trials are not a given.  Not all dogs will work sheep, ducks and cattle and many Border Collies have difficulty working in close quarters.  I know Gel did, but that’s over now.  He’ll work tight if I ask him to and of course he’s perfectly happy working in a 40 acre field.

I’ve noticed that a lot of the die-hard USBCHA trialing people say that they’d like to do arena trials like ASCA or AHBA, but they are too expensive for them to attend.  I agree, they are expensive, but if you factor the number of runs you get in a day, they usually come out to about the same price or just a little bit more than a USBCHA run.  Luckily I have a well-paying job so I can afford to trial where I want to.

I mentioned that my landlords had a well dug in order to refill the pond which they irrigate out of.  When they first started refilling, they had a large hose attached to the well pump running into the pond.  I came home late last week to find that they had removed the hose and installed plumbing to create a waterfall and brook going into the pond.  It’s far from done, but what is done is very pretty.  I love the sound of the waterfall.  Gel and Fern love lying at the mouth of the brook where it goes into the pond.  The water coming out of the well is colder than the pond.  The pond is already looking better than it did last week.

As is usually the case, I did not take time to post updates on the weekend.  I spend as little time as possible on the computer on the weekends.  I didn’t get my runs taken apart this weekend as I planned, but I got a lot of other things done instead.  If all goes well, I’ll be off work Thursday, Friday and the weekend this week.  Wally was in Ohio this past weekend and will be back late Tuesday.  I might see if I can get his help in doing the runs as it’s always easier of you have two people doing it.

Sunday was my birthday.  I had a very nice day.  It was very low-key.  I got some lovely presents from friends and family.  We got rain both Saturday night (very heavy rain!) and Sunday night which was a gift itself.  Unfortunately, there isn’t any more scheduled for the rest of the week, but at least it will be cooler.

My sitting area is shaping up beautifully!  I bought some glass torches to add light to the area and received an additional one as a gift.  I bought another set of chimes and received another set as a gift.  It’s nice to get useful, practical gifts.

On Sunday I went to the flea market for hens.  I felt so bad for the rooster.  The last steroid-hen  died early this week.  They just were not able to survive as regular chickens.  The heat killed them one by one.  I paid way too much money for the hens I bought, but it was worth it to see how happy he was with his new girlfriends.  One of the hens kept getting out of the pasture.  Gel and Fern did a fine job putting her back up each time.  Finally I clipped her wings, which I thought would do the trick, but she found another hole and got out again!  Put her back up and then she stayed up.  Around 8:15 I took Gel out to put up the chickens and ducks.  It was a bit earlier than they would have normally gone up, but I wanted to make sure I got them all up before I lost light.  Gel was brilliant at getting the chickens and ducks up without fuss or muss.  He really doesn’t care for working poultry, but last night he seemed to understand his job and did it with style.  Good boy!

My economic stimulus check was due to arrive on June 27, but to date, it has not arrived.  Hopefully it will come today so I can pay for hay and get that put up this week. 

I was able to walk out in the back fields for the first time in months.  They finally cut and baled all the hay.  It felt so good to walk with the dogs.  First we brought out the sheep and cattle to let them graze until it was time for me to go to work.  Fern and I brought out the sheep while Gel brought up the rear with the cattle.  On our walk, the dogs scared up a deer and both dogs went after it.  Gel left Fern in his dust.  He’s a fast dog.  When they took off, I did too and hid behind a hay bale.  I could see Gel looking for me.  It didn’t take long for him to find me either.  When he did, he had the biggest grin on his face you’ve ever seen.  They are both such good dogs.

I am incredibly lucky to live where I do and to be surrounded by my beloved animals and friends.

I’ve seen a lot of reference lately to torn, bruised or otherwise injured paw pads.  Here  and here  are references to local dogs with “blown” paw pads.  I discussed it with two holistic-minded friends of mine and asked if they thought it was some form of chronic disease.  They both wrote back saying they thought it was distemper-related.

Shows how much I’m up on canine diseases. The only canine disease that I know anything about is parvo. Overgrown, crusty, and crumbly paw pads are a common sign of canine distemper. These crusty pads can occur even years after distemper has been treated.  Canine distemper is sometimes called “hard pad disease.”

A healthy dog should have soft, flexible paw pads, which would not be as susceptible to injury as a dog with hard paw pads. Could continued vaccination with canine distemper induce a chronic distemper state such that the dog’s paw pads harden as they would if it were to contract the actual disease?  It makes sense to me.

Zinc deficiency can also cause dry, cracked pads.

I tend to doubt that my dogs run any less than those whom I’ve seen who are suffering (or have suffered) from injured paw pads, yet mine have remained sound.

Food for thought.

Things have been pretty quiet on the home front.  We’ve been in the hole that hasn’t been getting any rain.  I just noticed on the weather channel, however, that we are not under a severe thunderstorm watch.  May we get inches of rain!  My landlords drilled a new well down by the pond for the purpose of re-filling the pond which they are using to irrigate their young trees and other plants.  I’m not so sure how I feel about water gushing out of the ground being diverted into the pond, it almost feels, to me, like Mother Nature has been cut open and is being left to bleed, but I guess given that it’s going into the pond and ultimately back into the ground, it’s not harming anything.  The more greenery that we grow, the better it is for the environment, but …

The plan this weekend is to take apart my dog runs and then put them back together in a more orderly fashion.  I have some bamboo fence and shade cloth around the outsides and on top of all the runs, but it was done in a haphazard manner and is falling down.  I am going to cover the spare run with a heavy tarp, take the front off it and use that to park my ATV, mower and other things that should be under cover.  I was going to buy a portable shed, but this is a more cost-effective way to get the same results.  Since I have no plan to add a third dog to my household, I can use the spare run to house my ATV.

On Saturday I have to go and get a round bale of hay to feed the calves.  Hopefully if we get some rain over the next few days I’ll be able to move my ElectroNet.  Right now it’s essentially in the back yard and I don’t want the cattle out there given the size of their stool.  They are up in the fenced-in area getting grained and hayed twice a day.  The far back field is growing up well and if that keeps up, I’ll move everyone day there for the day.  I do still put all the livestock out in the morning and evening to free graze in the back fields.

They are finally cutting and baling the other fields around me so I’ll have plenty of areas to work the dogs.

On Tuesday we moved the sheep that are at Wally’s house to a new pasture.  The ewes gave Gel a hard time coming through one of the gates, but with persistence, he got them through.  I put Fern on them once we had them moved and several of them turned on her.  I kept Gel in there to back her up, but it looks like it’s going to be a while before I can work her on that group.  The sheep at my house are finally working reliably, just in time for them to go back over to Wally’s.  Isn’t that always the case?  The end of July all of the ewes at my house will go to Wally’s and I’ll get the just-weaned lambs.  Just-weaned lambs are so much fun to work … not!  Then again, their quick movement may be just what Miss. Sticky Fern needs to work.  I need to make it a point to get over to Wally’s several times a week from now until the end of July to work the group so the lambs will have some experience being moved by a dog.

I haven’t mentioned the bike recently.  I haven’t riden it recently.  They tore up the roads around me and instead of repaving them, they have done this form of gravel with tar poured over it.  Not terribly conducive for bike riding.  I dropped the biek off this morning at the bike shop to have my gearing changed so climbing hills won’t be so difficult.  Then it will be back in the saddle.

If the people I work with only knew what I did before I came to work each morning.

I thought that as I was driving through grass over my ATV this morning getting the cattle up.  They are getting trickier in their hide and seek games.  Luckily, Gel now understands the game and he finds them for me.  I drove out to where they have been lately, but they were not there.  Gel broke off in a different direction and at first I ignored him until I came back to where I started and waited for a few minutes.  I went back the way I came to where Gel had broke off and sure enough, there were the cows in thick brush.  It took a bit to get them out.

Fern is intense.  Gel is sometimes very “loosey-goosey,” my fault for sure.  He’s got plenty (PLENTY) of drive to work.  He’ll work all day if I ask him, but he’s slow and methodical in his work.  I wish he had a bit more push, it’s there if I ask for it, but I have to ask for it.  He doesn’t quite understand that cattle are not likely to move unless you lean on them.

Last night when I was taking the sheep and cattle out to graze, I used Fern to bring the sheep down and when they were in the field, I turned back to see what Gel was doing with the cattle.  They were coming, albeit slowly.  I shhhhh’d Fern and she ran out and got behind the cattle, at warp speed.  The cattle immediately started trotting.  Good girl Fern.

The problem I’m seeing with Fern, however, is she’s got a bit too much eye and can be sticky.  I used her to take the ducks out of the pen last night.  I was near the gate and that was enough pressure on the ducks so that they stopped.  Fern stopped too.  Then I had a heck of a time getting her back up again.  She did a lot of creeping on her belly.  Not good.  Style is nice, but it isn’t terribly useful in regular work.  The judges may like it, but I don’t have use for a lot of style.  It’s pretty, but pretty is as pretty does.

Fern needs to learn “get up” and that’s something I plan to work on tonight.  It’s time to start getting flanks on her and whistles.  We are going over to Wally’s to move the ewes with lambs to a different pasture and I’ll work Fern tonight.  I had planned on working last night, but I had to mow the path for the ElectroNet and re-set that.  When I was finished, I mowed most of the area where the sheep and cattle were grazing.  I mowed until I ran out of gas, me and the mower.  By the time I was done, it was 8:30 and almost time to go out and get the sheep and cattle.

It’s unfortunate that the days are already getting shorter.

I called my venison supplier, Deana, this morning.  Another example of meeting some really nice people because of my dogs and cats.  I found out about this processor several years ago now, called and asked if I could buy venison scraps off them.  They live about eight miles from me.  During venison season, I get scraps galore, all for the price of a couple of cases of beer.  I called to ask if Deana’s husband could find me a used 22 rifle.  He’s going to go to a local gun shop that they frequent and pick one up for me and then show me how to use it.  They also have three processed deer in the freezer that were not picked up.  I’ll buy them over time.  I am out of venison, have been for a while now, and I know the dogs and cats will enjoy having more of it.

Gosh would I love to learn to shoot well enough to go deer hunting on my own.  I’m all set for it, lots of land with lots of deer (saw some last night when we went out to find the sheep and cattle) and an ATV to haul the carcass out with.  All I need is the proper rifle and the ability to hit what I shoot at.

Hmmmm, probably best to leave deer hunting to Marcus.  Men are useful for some things.

Fern, Monty and Pyro got to spend time playing together over the weekend.  They all seemed to remember each other and had a ball together.  It was interesting to see the three of them together.  Monty and Pyro have Gel’s size, but they are thicker in body than he is.  They are all so black!

Monty went back home this morning and I’m sure he’ll be very glad to get back to his kids.  Marcus came over Saturday night with his son.  Monty latched on to him and wouldn’t leave his side.

Gel got a bit of work to do this weekend.  On Saturday we caught up all the ewes and lambs and inspected the lambs.  The testicles of ones we banded last month have all fallen off so they are officially wethers.  Last year Wally and I screwed up on the banding of two of the ram lambs and we didn’t want to make the same mistake again.  The ewes have stopped fighting Gel so I’m going to start working that flock on a more regular basis so when I take the lambs over to my house, they’ll be accustomed to being moved by a dog.  On Tuesday or Wednesday of this week I need to go over to Wally’s and move the flock back across the street.  Wally is going away from the 27th through the 1st of July and it’s easy for the man who cares for them when Wally is away to have them on that side of the street.  When they are moved, I plan to take the dogs over there a few times a week to work Fern in particular.  The pasture set up is conducive to working a young dog.  My fenced-in area is fine as well, especially now that I’ve dug up most of the thistle that was growing in there. 

On Sunday we went over and helped load some sheep that Wally bought at the auction for Marcus.  Like Wally, Marcus is starting to keep more sheep than goats.  It was obvious these sheep had not ever been moved by a dog and were quite difficult, but we got them up.  Gel loves loading livestock.  He’ll get more opportunity, hopefully, this week when we swap out the cattle for goats.  Marcus has told me that we’d continue to have access to the cattle in their new location which is good.  I need to keep Gel sharp on them and keep Fern on them as well.  Her confidence is increasing on a daily basis.  I took the above photo this morning.  The cow in the picture turned off from her.  Normally I have her working with Gel, but she moved them on her own this morning without any trouble.  The goats will help her learn to push slow-moving livestock.  I’m glad she’s going to both head and heel; Gel will only head, which is common in Border Collies.  While Gel can get and keep the cattle moving, it would be a lot easier of he’d hit a heel if necessary rather than circling around to their heads to grip.  Heading is great to stop escaping livestock, but not so useful when keeping them moving.  Perhaps I can encourage some heeling in Gel with the goats.

The images I’ve posted lately have been taken with what is essentially a point and shoot camera.  It is convenient to be able to put the camera in my pocket and take it out when I need it.  The quality isn’t so great though.  I have to mow the path for my ElectroNet tonight.  I set it this morning.  We got a good amount of rain last night so I was able to get the poles in the ground without too much difficulty.  Now that it’s set, I can mow around it and unfortunately I’ll need to re-set it again, but it shouldn’t take too long.  Then I might go out with my real camera to take some decent photographs.

I wrote  in NRN some about connections and more about my healing journey.

More later …

I took some photos this morning of the cattle and sheep playing hide and seek.  Interestingly, I saw the cattle (Gel did not) and I sent him to the right.  He took the flank without question.  Of course, I couldn’t see where he was because the grass is so tall.  He found the sheep first, I didn’t see them myself.  After the sheep came out, I sent him back, again blindly, for the cattle.  Here’s the photos in a series.  You can click on them to see larger sizes:

I couldn’t resist this photo.  Gel says “hi!”

Here’s two of him driving.  As you can see from the distance, he’s finally comfortable driving and he has to push on the cattle to keep them going, especially when going by a tasty bale of fresh-cut hay.  

 Here’s two of Gel gathering the sheep and cattle so we could put them up for the day:

 I apologize for how dark the gathering photos are, but it was in the shade.

Finally, here’s one photo of the fence I put up around my sitting area this past weekend: 

 You may wonder where Fern was during these photos.  Well, both she and Monty got into a lot of trouble this morning.  I took them for a run on the ATV early in the morning, then went in the house to do chores in there.  I checked on the dogs a few minutes later and found Fern and Monty had cornered a duck and were playing duck-tag with it.  Granted, Monty doesn’t know any better not to mess with stock, but Fern does.  Both got unceremoniously locked into their respective runs.  I know Fern was most unhappy when I took Gel out to gather the livestock when it was time for me to go to work.

I got home a bit later than normal last night because I had to stop at the grocery store.  They were baling the hay out in the back pasture so I went out there with the dogs to ask that he leave me a bale of hay.  We sat around and talked for a while, then I went out to the way back field to look at it because it had just been cut.  It’s so nice to see the open fields again.  After the guys quit baling and went home, I put the sheep and cattle out into the back pasture and went into the house to eat some supper.

It was later than I normally go out to pick up the sheep and cattle.  Too late actually, it was was getting dark.  Gosh was it pretty out there though.  The contrast in colors from the dusky sky, to the almost full moon and the golden hay.  It was mesmerizing.  Soon I realized however, I should have gone out sooner to look for the sheep and cattle.  We found the sheep easy enough and I left them where they were so I could find the cattle before it got completely dark.  They were in the same field they were in the night before, but much further back.  Remember, there is over 100 acres of open pasture land behind my house and much of it still has grass on it taller than the cattle.  When we found them, I considered going back the way we came, which would have been the shorter route, but it would mean pushing the cattle through the tall grass.  Instead I had the dogs (I bring Gel and Fern with me on these search and retrieve missions) push them into the next pasture over which has been partially hayed.  There is a very wide path cut through it.  This pasture leads into the ones directly behind my house. 

The cattle were not being cooperative.  I think they were enjoying the grass and moon beams and were not happy about being disturbed.  They kept turning on the dogs and trying to break off.  They were not successful and eventually we got them back up into the ElectroNet.  Then we had to go back for the sheep who had drifted deeper into the field we left them in.  I brought Fern up on the ATV with me so I could send just Gel on an outrun rather than driving out on the ATV and picking them up.  Because it was getting dark, I knew the sheep were going to be skittish and more than Fern needed to be involved with.  We put the sheep up and I am sure both dogs slept very well last night.  It’s hard work running through tall grass and they have to work much harder pushing cattle than they do sheep.

Fern is gaining valuable experience working with Gel.  If Fern does something that is inappropriate, I simply growl her name.  I want her to figure out what’s wrong and fix it herself.  Really the only thing she does on occasion is circle around the stock so that she crosses in front of me.  Her lie down is solid now.

This morning I pushed the sheep and cattle into the side pasture and did my chores.  Before I got ready to get in the shower I came out to check the side pasture to see if I could see the sheep and cattle.  Nope.  Got on the ATV and went in search of, again.  The sheep were essentially where they were last night, I just couldn’t see them from the house because of the tall grass.  We put the sheep up and then went back to where the cattle were last night.  They were not there.  We drove around for about 15 minutes before we found them:  in the front pasture.  This meant we had to bring them up the driveway past the neighbor’s rude pack of barking dogs.  They were not thrilled with this, but Gel kept them going.  Because they thought maybe they were going to get some grain, they did not want to go up in the ElectroNet and were pulling the same tricks that they did last night.  That’s when I noticed Gel was not doing the fly-by gripping that he sometimes does.  He would head the cow and if she didn’t turn off him, he came in straight and hit her nose.  Good boy! 

I wonder if the cattle are not going through some sort of terrible twos period, or maybe it was because it was so much cooler last night and this morning than it has been for a while now.  I wore a sweatshirt while I was out running the dogs this morning and could have used an extra layer.  The cooler temperatures are going to keep my gardens from drying out so much.  There is rain forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Fingers crossed.

When I got home last night the goal was to reset my ElectroNet.  Gel and I put the sheep and cattle out into the side pasture and I got to work.  Agh, what an awful job it is setting that fence when the ground is dry and hard.  I had paths mowed around the area I wanted to use so all I needed to do was to touch it up with the mower.  Even taking down the fence when it’s dry is a lot of work.  I wish my hands were bigger so I could easily hold all the fence in one hand, but alas, it almost always ends up a tangled mess.  Untangling ElectroNet when you are sweating is just no fun.  At least the bugs were not bad.  Several of the posts are bent and I need to figure out a way to fix them.  That’s a Wally question the next time he’s over, which should be this weekend.  I only used two rolls of ElectroNet which means the sheep and cattle are in a smallish area, but that has been done purposefully.  In the last place they were fenced, they had too much room to roam and pick and choose what they wanted to eat.  They left a lot of tall grass stocks that they ate the seeds off.  Now I have to mow that down.  In a smaller area, they will be forced to eat most all the grass and what they don’t eat will get tromped down.  I’m trying to use the mob grazing  approach which as I’ve said before, makes a lot of sense.

I was very pleased to see that the back field has been cut and they should roll the hay today.  I will ask for one of the rolls to be put on my property so I can use it as a fall back if I run out of places to set my ElectroNet.  Praying for rain and  unfortunately, there’s none in sight.  At least there was a good spring cutting.  I talked to Marcus last night and he said they put up 5,000 bales of hay already.  That’s good.  The prices are reasonable.  When I get my Economic Stimulus Check this month, I’ll buy 50 square bales and put them up in Wally’s barn.  That, along with a few round bales, should take me through the winter.

Marcus and I discussed what to do with the cattle and goats.  He needs to wean the goat kids.  Goats will be easier to feed than the cattle.  I believe Marcus has a pasture set aside for the cattle and hopefully I’ll continue to have access to them.  We haven’t talked about that yet.  He’ll have new calves born this fall so hopefully we can continue with this arrangement: I take the stock he has to wean to my place to work.  This gives me the opportunity to have fresh stock to work; lots of challenges there.  He’ll be getting these calves back in excellent shape and very tame.  So, if all goes well, I’ll soon have a small flock of goat kids and I’ll buy all the billies and keep them until the fall for butchering.

Fern is managing the sheep quite well though.  She put them up in the ElectroNet this morning while Gel put up the cattle.  When I move the ElectroNet it’s always harder getting the sheep in it because it’s a new location.  Sheep are creatures of habit.  Fern is staying well off them and lying down on her own to relieve pressure.  She understands gathering and bringing stock to me.  She’s a nice puppy.  I’m hoping to have her ready to enter in the ASCA trial I first entered with Gel in April in Ball Ground, GA.  I now understand the rules to play by in ASCA trials so it should be a lot easier this time around.  The problem is I’ll need to enter both Gel and Fern (heaven forbid I go to a trial and don’t run Gel) and may have to take out a loan in order to pay for it!  The trials are expensive, but it breaks down, run-by-run close to what USBCHA runs are; the difference is you get a lot more runs in a day in ASCA which makes driving to a trial more worthwhile to me.

While I have no intention of breeding Fern, well, unless she turns into a superstar, she’d make a wonderful mother.  She’s mothering those kittens as if they were her own.  Last night, one of the smaller ones came up to her and started to look for the milk bar.  Fern stayed where she was (she lies at the base of the couch right at my feet).  When the kitten realized there was no meal to be had, she curled up against Fern’s abdomen and fell asleep.  If I could have got up and got my camera without disturbing them I would have taken a photograph.

Now that I have the ElectroNet set, I can relax a bit tonight.  I want to move my air chair to a different location within my sitting area and when that’s done, take some photographs.  It’s so pretty and relaxing in there.  I’m thinking now about what I want to plant in there.  I think I may make some trips to flea markets this weekend and look for interesting containers and just plant a few containers of ferns and leave it at that for this year.  There’s no sense adding more ground plants to the watering program.  I’ll probably put a layer of pine needles down to keep the weeds under control.  Even in a drought, weeds grow.

Last year during the drought I stopped filling up the duck’s swimming pool and just allowed them to go down to the pond every day.  This resulted in them ultimately going wild and it took a lot to get them caught and back up in their pen during the winter months.  This year I have been filling their pool, but I hate to think of the amount of water it’s taking to fill the pool.  So, when it comes time to dump it, which now is about twice a week, I take the water out of the pool with buckets and pour the water into a garbage can that I carry in the wagon that attaches to my ATV.  I then use that water to water my vegetables and herbs.  I figure if I’m not using water from the well to water my plants, I can use it to fill the duck pool.  There’s some fertilizing effect to be had by using the water from the duck pool so I think it’s all going to work out fine.  I except I’m going to have to start going to the laundromat to do my laundry starting this week.  Anything to conserve well water.  Last year I had planted a garden, no where near as nice as the one I have this year, but when it got so dry, I just let it die.  I’m not going to let that happen this year!

So, we are all managing well here.

I had an extremely busy, but productive weekend.

On Saturday morning I went on a shopping spree.  I bought more drought-tolerant plants for the garden behind my house, mostly all fragrent, flowering herbs: lavender, Russian sage, rosemary, thyme and St. John’s Wort and 15 bags of mulch.  I also bought a good-sized ceramic pot that I filled with water, some water plants, a Beta fish and a goldfish and put that in my sitting area.  It looks very pretty.  I bought a few more chimes to put in my sitting area as well as the wooden snow fence that I had been intending on putting up to keep the sheep and cattle out of that area so I could start to plant in there.

I bought a pleasure book!  Something I haven’t done for years.  I used to read a lot, but now with my commute, I listen to books on tape.  That service costs me $40/month which could buy a few books, but you can’t read and drive. I bought The Story of Edgar Sawtelle  and I’ve only read a bit of it, but so far, it’s living up to the reviews  it received.

It rained a bit on Saturday and while it was raining, I planted the new plants and mulched the whole area.  While I was planting, I noticed a heavy stream of raining coming from one section of my roof towards the middle of the garden.  I put a five gallon bucket under the stream and the bucked filled up in no time.  Note to self: need to get the rain barrels done.

When I’m home to keep an eye on them, I put the sheep and cattle out into the side pasture to graze.  I’m very quickly running out of forage on the property where my house sits (seven acres).  They are supposed to hay the back field, I hope soon, but there isn’t any shelter so when it’s this hot, I don’t like to put the sheep and cattle out there.  The farthest back field has been hayed and is growing up pretty well.  Moisture from the river helps keep that area greener than others.  In a week or two I should be able to set my fence out there.  Until then, however, I may have to feed some hay.  Not good. 

It can be difficult locating the sheep and cattle out in the fields when the grass, in some places, is over their heads.  I have to rely on Gel to find them for me and he does, every time.  He really has to lean on the cattle to keep them moving through grass that tall.

On Saturday night I realized Gel finally understands the concept of driving.  He was bringing the cattle towards the gate and when he got within ten feet of the gate, I flanked him all the way around to the heads of the cattle in order to drive them back out.  By that point, the cattle where at a trot and really didn’t want to turn around and go back the other way.  It took a few redirects and a couple of nose bites to get them going in the opposite direction, but he did it.  Once he was comfortably driving them in a straight line and the cattle were moving cooperatively, I flanked him around again and let him bring the cattle back through the gate.  Success!

On Saturday afternoon I was supposed to go to an agility demonstration in Salisbury, but around 11 one of my cats, Matrix, came home with a hunk out of his rear foot.  That necessitated a trip to the vet’s and half my paycheck.  The wound is healing well and Matrix is getting around pretty well on three feet.  The vet didn’t think it was a bite wound.  It looks like he got it caught in something.  If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Given that I couldn’t go to the agility demo and it was a bit cooler after the rain, I decided to put up the snow fence.  My hands are killing me from pulling the fence, but it’s up and looks beautiful.

I spent most of the day on Sunday in bed sick with some version of the stomach flu.  I’m still feeling a bit under-the-weather.  Hopefully I’ll feel better soon.

I know that animals (and humans) age far more gracefully if they consume a healthy, species-appropriate diet, stay away from annual vaccinations and other medications as much as possible, get daily exercise, have plenty of mental stimulation and live in a healthy environment.

I will be 48 in a few weeks.  I feel and look 38. 

When I’m out among people with their dogs, I look at most of these dogs and think they are far older than what they really are.

A poor diet prematurely ages all creatures.  They cannot remain healthy and vital unless they consume a good diet.  Sure, kibble is supposed to be nutritionally complete, but is it?  How can it be?  Do kibble manufacturers keep their test animals on a particular brand for their entire lives to see how they do on it?  Of course not?  Feed trials typically last weeks, not years.

I am assuming that I am being called mean-spirited, etc. because of my post on the half-life of a trial dog.  It makes no sense to me that a nine or ten year old dog cannot still run an Open-level USBCHA course.  Nine or ten seems very young to me.  Not too long ago the veterinary community started considering seven year old cats ”seniors.”  That blows my mind.  Cats and dogs should live to be twenty years old which rarely happens any more.  Why?  Most people will say that dogs, cats and humans are living longer today, and that may very well be the case, but what is the quality of life?  Is it okay for a dog, cat or human to be “old” and be on five or six different prescription medicines?  Not be able to walk a block without getting exhausted or to be in so much chronic pain that they cannot even walk that block?  Conventional medicine does not truly understand health; our modern diet (for humans, dogs and cats) does not support true health.

The sad fact is that a lot of people have too many dogs and as such are prohibited from feeding a proper diet.  It’s too expensive and too much work.  It’s much easier to stop at a grocery store and pick up a frozen dinner and throw it in the microwave than it is to take the time to shop for ingredients to make a meal from scratch.  

So, if this is mean-spirited, then I’m sorry.  Go back and stick your head in the sand and stop reading what I write if it’s so upsetting to you.  And just so you know, Gel may very well be ten before I’m ever able to figure out running in USBCHA trials, but mark my words, one day he will run in Open.