Tag Archives: dogs

Kansas Holes

Tonight as we discussed our favorite moments of the day we realized that many of them had something in common.

Watching people fall into holes.

Unfortunatly it wasn’t watching “people” fall it was watching me fall.

Normally when you are hiking if one foot disappears up to the knee in a hole you lunge your second foot forward to catch yourself, stumble a bit and move on.

Here in Kansas land of gigantic holes completely covered with prairie grasses that’s not the case.

Here once you lose one foot there is a very high chance that when you try and save yourself you will instead end up with both feet in a huge hole. Then comes the teetering, and the tottering, the attempts to save yourself, save your gun, and the praying that no birds go up while you are so compromised. Sadly no matter what you do, you still end up on the ground.

I was not the only one to have this problem, just the only one to have witnesses.

Both times.

Tyler described his favorite moment of the day as when he looked over and saw Mom walking though the field and a hat sitting on the ground…. I was under the hat.

Mom described her favorite moment as watching  me try to save myself as my body “bent like a willow stick in the wind” while my feet and legs looked like they were “stuck in cement.”

Sadly I never got to see anyone fall today.

Instead my favorite moment actually involved hunting and watching Misty point and then circle around in front of me to put up running pheasants between us.

My hope is tomorrow I tomorrow it’ll be my turn to watch someone else fall in a hole and that the birds Misty puts up will be roosters instead of hens!

Notable Numbers from Norton

Today was the first day of hunting in Norton, Kansas for my Mom, my brother Tyler and I.

Notable numbers so far:

30 mph winds

20 degree temperatures

6 great horned owls

100 prairie chickens

30 bob white quail

20 pheasants

5 good dogs who had too many points to count

23 deer

1 giant buck

1 coyote

1 friendly guide

6 staples in a dogs nose

1 bluebird

3 dead pheasants

This is the first bird up, killed by the first shot, dead when it hit the ground. At least that's what we thought until we looked at each other and saw three people, three empty barrels, and three dead birds... just in case anyone is wondering!

1 dead prairie chicken

1 very tired brother

4 marsh hawks

26 tired legs

1 delicious pumpkin pie

1 great day

Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s On!

This is my favorite cooking utensil. It has no equal and I don’t even know what to call it. It is made of bamboo and came with a wok as a wedding gift, sadly its brilliance went unnoticed for the first few years of married life. But now… now, I know this thing, (what ever it is called) is perfect. It tapers to a fine point on the end, perfect for scraping up things like scrambled eggs. Its odd shape makes it perfect for stirring the entire bottom of a pan of sauce. It’s perfect for stirring pasta. It has no equal when sautéing onions in butter in cast iron. It can serve things like rice just as well as a spoon.

I love it.

When I cook at other peoples houses I always wish I had brought it with me. When I wash the dishes I never put it in the dishwasher because it would take too long to get clean and I might need it. That’s how much I love it.

Or should I say loved it.

My beloved bamboo, thing (Help? What is it called? Anyone?). Now looks like this:

And the mouse war, it’s ON!

Sadly the mice are already winning—-

–We interrupt this post with breaking news!—

Upon going to check the mouse trap set previously in the day when the damaged “thing” was found Jessie discovered a rat under her sink.

—We now return you to your previously scheduled post.—

Earlier today I set a mouse trap under the sink. Shortly after starting this post I checked on it – tripped and empty. So before relaying by how much the mice were already winning I went to check again…

…and there was the rat.

The rat was facing away from me in the cupboard under the sink, I was peering in the door and we were both frozen. I had a rat, not moving, and I couldn’t come up with a good way to kill it. So I did what any self respecting house wife would do. I grabbed the rolling pin off the counter and tried to smash it while it ran around in circles under the sink, then screamed like a girl when it came out by my bare toes. Now I had the rat corned in the kitchen and my toes were feeling awfully vulnerable. It was time for reinforcements. PIPER! Had the dog out of her warm bed under the covers at a run. Piper skidded into the kitchen and when I yelled “GET THE RAT” to my amazement, she did! When it was dead she accepted my praise, followed me to the garbage outside to see it thrown out, barked once at the night and then went back to bed.

My dog rules.

So now the mouse and rat war is on.

Trouble.

We’ve beaten the mice in winters past.

The rats are on a winning streak.

But they chewed the wrong kitchen implement this time, I’m serious now.

It’s on rats, ITS ON!

Walking Piper

Piper is the best dog ever.

I can say this, because she is my dog and everyone knows that their own dog is the best dog ever.

Exhibit number one of Piper as the best dog ever:

Just so you know and can be suitably impressed my calculator and I did some figuring, Piper is approximatley three times bigger than Ivy.

I am extra proud of my big lug of a dog, when I think back on how Piper started out heeling.  While it has been long enough that I’m not exactly sure what the issue was in the beginning  I do vividly remember Piper refusing to walk on a leash.  Refusing to the point that she would lay on her back and while growing and attacking the leash.  Things were so bad that we started over and switched sides (she’s a right sided heeler now) before she would walk next to me without turning into a psycho attack dog.

Then we hit the stage where she was an extra large puppy, and she sort of knew the rules but still had too much puppy left to follow them all the time. The trouble was that when heeling and seeing something extra fun like a squirrel I started to worry my shoulder would be dislocated before she learned she wasn’t allowed to lunge after them.  We invested in a Gentle Leader and while I’ve heard some people had bad experiences with them it was perfect for Piper and I. Now six years later we were running at the local park and I had the only dog not pulling off it’s owners arm when it went by another dog.

Piper, the Great Dane even a three year old can walk.  Clearly is the best dog ever.

Well, most of the time…

Insurmountable

Recently talking to my cousin we had a conversation about how small tasks while sleeping become insurmountable. Things like blankets falling on the floor have us huddled under pillows because it is clearly an insurmountable task to reach down and find the blanket.

Last night was our first night visiting Tyler in his new place. Tyler very nicely offered me and Ivy the bedroom and only bed in his barely furnished house so that he didn’t wake us all up early in the morning when he left for work.

Last night I found myself sleeping  on a twin bed between Ivy and Piper.

In case you were curious that is approximately 300 pounds of living things sleeping in a twin bed – not a good idea.

In the middle of the night I knew it was not a good idea.

In the middle of the night getting either dog or kid out of the bed – totally insurmountable.

Tonight I gave Tyler his room back!

When things started to get really crazy was after a minor bed wetting incident. And I use the term minor in regards to urine amount only, everything else about it was a calamity. The chaos was over and I was trying to fall back asleep when Ivy started kicking at Piper because she didn’t have room for her legs,while trying to steal my pillow and Piper who had gotten off the bed when she got kicked at was staring at me waiting to get let back on. Instead of doing something to solve the problem for the night, any number of somethings that make perfect sense while I’m not sleeping, like moving Ivy to the floor and locking Piper out of the room, all I could think about was falling back asleep quickly. So I turned myself into a human wall between the fighting kid and dog and went back to sleep. I’m pretty sure I nodded off just after hearing Ivy say “I can’t fall asleep” Which was a good thing or I would have mentioned that it was likely because she had yet to stop talking or wiggling and I’m certain I would have had trouble phrasing that constructively. Instead I fell asleep and spent an overly cozy night as the filling in an Ivy-Piper sandwich.

Someday I’ll figure out how to get that blanket back off the floor,and if I can’t figure that out defending my space in the bed will surely continue to be an insurmountable task in the middle of the night.

That’s why tonight Ivy is sleeping on the floor by her uncle Tyler and Piper and I have moved to the living room floor.

We are on a queen sized mattress.

We are not concerned with early morning noise.

The only thing that is cutting into our sleep is late night blogging!

Chatter Box

This was this mornings sunrise:

At the time I took that picture Ivy had already been talking for an hour.

Then we drove to Cabela’s in Indiana, and she talked the whole way…

We met Uncle Jim who gave Storm’s progress so far a thumbs up and John and I new instructions on her care, and Ivy kept talking…

We headed into Cabela’s where it’s impossible to lose her becuase even when she is a bit of a brat and hides, she can’t resist talking, so her hiding place only lasts for about 30 seconds…

We got back in the car for the three hour drive home, and she kept talking…

Clara took her third nap of the day, and Ivy kept talking…

Once we got home we repacked and headed out to enjoy the rest of the day, running for John and I and swing sets and slides for the girls, Ivy kept talking, but this time to other kids… I love other kids!

We drove back home, and Ivy kept talking…

I tried to run away from the chatter by mowing the lawn, (desperate times, call for desperate measures!) Ivy followed me.

Just as I was starting up the lawn mower she and her half eaten apple (thank you Uncle Jim and Callie) climbed up in my lap. So I stuffed my ear muffs on her head and off we went mowing the lawn, and Ivy kept talking. Fortunately for my sanity it was a brief attempt at talking, between the ear protection and the noise of the lawn mower she gave up and just sat on my lap munching away on her apple. Pretty soon I felt her start to slide off my lap, and I realized that when she stopped talking for the first time all day, she had finally let herself fall asleep. There Ivy was, sound asleep in my lap, ear muffs on, apple core clutched tight in one fist that was curled up under her chin like it was her favorite stuffed animal.

Good Dog

Piper makes a great babysitter, she’s part of the reason we were able to finish the workshop roof last night.

Good as she is Piper draws the line at being a carousel horse.

You know, the ones that bounce up and down…

Dogs and their Owners

They say that dogs and their owners often look alike.

It is less common but it has also been put about that dogs and their owners act alike.

Personally I choose to believe that I am nothing like my dog.

I rarely drool, the only spots I have are freckles and while I’ll never be called petite I certainly don’t tower over my friends.

Piper hates to be disturbed when sleeping, sleeps late whenever possible, and has a tendency to think she’s in charge of everything, clearly we are nothing alike…

Right.

Right?!

There are two things that have been brought to my attention recently that I can’t dispute.

The first is that Piper and I go up and down stairs the same. I’m not sure why it bothers so many people but apparently tromping up and down stairs like a herd of elephants is not considered ideal. Piper and I are united on the stand that dainty stair climbing is  for wimps who have no sense of urgency in their life.

The other thing that I’m afraid I can not deny is that Piper and I are resistant to change on our home turf. Especially if this change were to be carried out by someone else while we were not watching.

Piper dislikes new items in the yard, brought by man, fallen out of tree, fallen out of sky, four legged or two legged, however it got there, whatever it is, if it hasn’t happened on her watch it is not OK. The very large tree branch that fell down in a recent storm got a thorough barking by Piper.  As loud as that was you wouldn’t want to be a  opossum or a cat that happened to cut through the yard.  Once Piper even barked at a headlight I had replaced on the truck, no idea how she knew it was different but she did!

As for me, well, you can ask Sarah how I feel about such things. She will probably agree that in two straight years of living together the only time we had serious issues was when she rearranged our room without me…

Keeping It Elevated

Over the weekend my Uncle Jim (you may remember him from the Pewaukee Triathlon) and his super staff fixed Storm’s knee.  While Uncle Jim makes a pretty good biker for an OFG we are fortunate that he is a far better veterinary surgeon than triathlon team member. Nobody in this family is going to talk smart about out-suturing him, we just come visiting with our broken dogs and make sure to say please and thank you! Uncle Jim had a big job with Storm’s knee, from what I heard about it everything in her knee was messed up in some way, a few of the major items: grinding off extra bone growth and replacing her ACL! All reconstructed in her bright pink bandage (chosen by Ivy of course) Storm is back at home and doing well. Right now Storm is confined to her crate and while she may get tired of that in the weeks to come today she’s going with the flow, and making sure to keep that leg elevated!

And no, I don’t force her to lay like that it really is her preferred sleeping position!