Category Archives: Dogs

The Last Days of Spring

Cherries, Cherry Tree, Chickens, Dogs, garden, Killdeer, Nature, Pond, Power Outage, Rain, Reflections, spring, The Farm, Tomato Weaving, Tomatoes, Weather, , , ,

The Pond

Hot weather moved in before summer actually arrived. It was time to make the pond more welcoming, so on Monday, June 16 I started by raking some of the weeds and leaves out of the beach area before rototilling the beach.

My husband brought out the beach chairs and I cleaned them up. Then we set up the chairs with the umbrella and a small table on the beach.

Ruby enjoys the pond as much as I do. She brings her ball the beach so we will throw it in the water for her to retrieve.

And Ranger, AKA our beagle fish, goes for regular swims just to cool off.

I’m not really a swimmer. I like to be in the water, but I don’t like my head under water..

I use this floating ring as my watercraft. With my upper body floating on the ring and my legs kicking in the water I find I can get a good lower body workout. Probably as good as the recumbent or stationary bike. So, my goal, as often as possible this summer, is 30-60 minutes in the pond each day.

My first time in the pond this year. In spite of my objections my husband took my picture. At least he didn’t figure out how to use the zoom.

Chickens

My husband gave the chickens a mound of fresh topsoil to bathe in. We had a very happy flock.

Prayer Garden

Abundant color.

So pretty.

Killdeer Update

I didn’t get any pictures, but on Tuesday afternoon we saw our young killdeers take flight. They are still hanging around the garden area which is fine with us because they do eat a lot of bugs.

Despite the storms that brought high winds and torrential rain both of the other killdeer are still dutifully sitting on their nests.

Sweet Cherries

The second sweet cherry tree that we planted last year was more productive than the first. I harvested these on Wednesday morning. Enough to have with lunch. And that concludes our sweet cherry harvest for the year.

Except for this lone cherry that my husband discovered on our youngest tree (third tree). I never even saw any blossoms on that tree this year. I did pick and eat this last sweet cherry.

Before The Storms

With heavy storms in the forecast for Wednesday afternoon we wanted to make sure the tomato plants were supported. Last year my husband discovered a method called tomato weaving. No more cages or staking each tomato to keep them upright.

To weave tomatoes, you need a stake at each end of the row. You also need a spool of twine or heavy string. You tie the twine/string to the stake at one end of the row then string it out weaving it in and out of the tomato plants. (On the right side of one plant then the left side of the next all the way down the row.) Make sure that the string is up against the main stem of each tomato plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight, wrap it around the stake a couple times, then weave it back down the row in the opposite direction, making sure that the string is on the opposite side of each plant and up against the stem of each plant. At the end of the row pull the string tight wrap it around the stake and tie it off.

As the plants grow taller you can add another layer of weaving higher up on the stake.

Once we were done with the tomatoes I spent about an hour pulling weeds in the garden.

Here are some views from when I was on my knees in the garden.

This storm went to the north of us. It was after we went home for lunch that the storms hit our place.

A baby tomato, I would not have noticed had I not been on my knees in the dirt. 🙂

Sweet Peas

In April I planted sweet peas in two planter boxes on our deck.

This week’s harvest.

After hulling. We normally don’t grow peas because you have to grow a lot to get a decent yield. I ate these raw with my lunch. 🙂

After The Storms

On Wednesday the storms dumped three inches (7.62 cm) of rain on us. We didn’t have any flooding, but the ground was saturated with standing water in areas. We got more rain Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Our gardens that were doing so well are now struggling. We will likely lose some tomato plants – hopefully not all.

The water level in the pond is up. It is littered with cottonwood seeds but the water is refreshing.

We are currently in the middle of a heat wave, experiencing record high temperatures and intermittent power outages but that’s a story for another day.

Thanks for visiting.

Wordless Wednesday -A Memorial Day Tribute

Dogs, Reflections

I forgot to take pictures this week for my wordless Wednesday post so I decided to be a little wordy. 🙂

Monday was Memorial Day here in the U.S.A.. It’s the Day we remember those military Men and Women who lost their lives serving our country. Today I want to pay tribute to what the U.S. Department of Defense refers to as Four-Legged-Fighters. “Dogs didn’t have an official role in the U.S. military until the creation of the Army K-9 Corps in 1942. But they’ve joined American troops in battle since the nation’s earliest days, and many are still remembered today for their acts of canine courage.” (Click the above link to learn more about our military working dogs.)

Click here to learn more about the Memorial Working Dog Teams Monument located at Joint Base San Antonio – Lackland in Texas.

Thanks for visiting.

Adopting a Shelter Pet -When They Pick You

Dogs, Reflections, , , , ,

Quickly approaching, April 30th is National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day. If you have some extra love in your heart and room in your home and are considering adding a new pet, I encourage you to consider adopting from a shelter.

This post is a long time coming but it is the second in a series of posts that I am writing about our experiences adopting shelter dogs. The first post can be found here.

We have adopted 4 dogs from animal shelters and all of them have been wonderful pets. There are two things we do when going to get a new pet that I believe have contributed to us finding the right dog for us each time. First, we pray about it. Our prayer, “God please help us find the right dog.” Second, I have come to realize that we have let all of our dogs pick us. In very different ways each of our dogs has let us know that they wanted to be part of our family. Below is the story of Trooper.

Trooper was the second dog we adopted from the shelter. It was 2009 and Scout had been with us for 2 years. My husband’s work took him away from home for up to two months at a time and the girls (three of who still lived at home at the time) were at school or work all day during the week. Our routine during the week was that Scout and I would drop the girls off at school in the morning and when we returned home, we would go for a 30 – 60-minute walk depending on the weather. We would then come back home, and Scout would usually go lay on one of the girls’ beds while I did whatever chores I needed to get done that day. Around 2:00 p.m. Scout and I would get back in the van and go pick up the girls from school. When we returned home, we would go for an afternoon walk, usually one or more of the girls would come along. The evenings were usually busy with both Scout and I spending time with the girls.

The problem was that I felt that during those daytime hours when it was just Scout and me at home, we both were a bit bored. I thought we both needed something more – a puppy. I began praying about it and I asked my husband what he thought. He said that another shelter dog would be ok, so I began looking at the animal shelter website.

When I saw his picture on their website I knew I wanted to meet the dog they called Jack.

Trooper about one year old

It was a Friday afternoon. My husband was not scheduled to come home for vacation for a couple of weeks. Our oldest daughter was working and the younger two would be away for the weekend. I went to the shelter, by myself. to meet Jack. According to their website he had come in as a stray, was about 6 months old and was a shepherd mix. We later learned that he was a Leonberger.

At the shelter I told the attendant that I was interested in meeting Jack. Since there was no one else there they brought him out to the lobby to meet me. The first thing Jack did was put his front paws on my chest, but when I pushed his paws down and knelt down in front of him, he sat down and held up his paw for me. As I took his paw in my hand, he looked deep into my eyes, so much so that I felt like he was looking into my soul.

That was when I knew that Jack, who later became Trooper, was coming home with me. He picked me.

We couldn’t have asked for a better dog (family member). He was a quick learner, especially with his mentor and best buddy Scout teaching what was acceptable behavior. He was fun and funny, a gentle giant and a loving and loyal friend. He was with us until January of 2022. He outlived the average life expectancy of his breed by several years, but it still broke our hearts to say goodbye and he will forever be missed.

Thanks for reading.

A Peek at Last Week

Dogs, Harvest Moon, Horses, Nature, Reflections

Hello and welcome. I am just sharing a few pictures and notes from last week.

Monday morning when I took the dogs out for their morning romp, we were greeted by this heron who was enjoying brunch at the pond. It didn’t stick around once the dogs and I got out of the van. I do hope it had its fill.

That same evening when I went to close up the coop the moon was big, bright and beautiful in the eastern sky. It was a day short of being the full (harvest) moon. This was also a supermoon.

On Sunday we hosted a special visitor at the farm.

Some of you might remember meeting Taffy in my post from last year. It was actually a year ago this past week when we picked up Taffy from the shelter and took her to her new home to live with her new best friend, my dad.

Dad doesn’t get out much due to physical problems, so Taffy doesn’t get out much either. Ever since dad got Taffy my husband has wanted to pick her up and bring her to the farm for a visit. We finally did it.

Ranger and Ruby didn’t mind her being there. I suspect they were already somewhat familiar with her because I always come home from dad’s place with her scent on my clothes. Their meeting was a matter of putting a face with the scent. Likewise for Taffy. She probably recognized their scent as the one I have on my clothes when I come to her house.

Taffy seemed to enjoy being able to wander around off leash and she walked the perimeter of the back field with me.

She was curious about the horses. She acted like she wanted to play with Bernard (the miniature) but she backed away when Colby Jack got close. I think he was a bit intimidating.

At first Taffy didn’t pay any attention to the chickens but eventually she got curios and began chasing them. They were easily able to outrun her and knew the good hiding places so she didn’t hurt any of them. Next time she visits I will do some on-leash training to teach her not to chase the chickens.

After about an hour and a half I took Taffy back home where she slept the rest of the day away. Spending time at the farm does seem to have that effect on dogs – it tires them out.

Thanks for visiting. Did you see the full moon last week?

A February Walk at the Farm

Chickens, Dogs, Eggs, garlic, Horses, Pond, Reflections, The Farm

Hello and welcome.

We been having some nice weather this week so I thought maybe you might join me for a walk at the farm.

One of the first things you might notice is that our neighbor to the east, who has horses, extended their corral. The fence that my husband put up last spring is their barrier to the west, so they come right up to our property line. For the first couple of weeks Ruby and ranger would go over and bark at them, probably thinking they were doing something they shouldn’t. But Ruby and Ranger have since gotten use to them being so close and while Ruby and Bernard might touch noses through the fence, she no longer has an issue with them being there.

Ruby greets Bernard and Colby Jack

My husband said that every morning when he goes to open up the chicken coop Bernard and Colby Jack greet him at the fence. He likes to have a couple of carrots or other treats for them.

Bernard

They are very friendly horses, especially when there are treats to be had.

Colby Jack

The chickens out enjoying the nice weather. The hens started laying more eggs this week. For several weeks we have only been getting between zero and two eggs a day, but in the last four days we have collected 18 eggs.

Rex, our rooster, is one of the chicks that we got last spring. Unlike roosters we have had in the past he not aggressive toward people or the dogs. It’s nice not to worry about turning my back on him.

Garlic Sprouts

They are a bit difficult to make out in the above picture, but the garlic is about 4 or 5 inches high. I spotted daffodils, lilies and irises sprouting as well.

While things have started to dry out a bit this week the pond is still running over its bank. This is the highest we have ever seen the pond this time of year.

Most of our beach is under water.

As I walked down the west property line I loved this view of the barn.

The thin layer of ice that covered much of the pond early this week has since melted since temperatures reached up into the 50’s and 60’s F on Thursday and Friday.

There is still plenty of time for winter weather to return but we will certainly appreciate these nice days while we have them.

Thanks for joining me.

How’s the weather in your part of the world?