BASSET EVIL

The other day I was enjoying my leftover spareribs (recipe not posted yet) when the dogs had surrounded me in the usual beggin' position. Now, mind you.  In spite of their powerful pleading,  that is the basset specialty, I knew that I would not and could not give them the tasty, succulent treat they desired, spare rib bones are not safe to give dogs.  However in the basset world the mere idea of a bone, the concept of a bone, the Aristotelian  model of a bone can lead to madness and chaos, the fogging of the basset brain.  Louie's eyes glazed over, with spare rib bone lust, the drool slowly hung from her jowl in a long stream of glistening siliva. Before I knew it - she snapped!  Literally and figuratively.  A tussle broke out and the fur was flying.  Heroically, Bob ran from the other room and grabbed the rump of Louie and I had the back end of Percy and we pulled them apart.  We knew little of the extent of the damages until later in the evening, at bedtime, when the dogs joined us as we snuggled under the covers, that the true damage was exposed.  Percy was perforated in the face!

Evil, Louie, bad Louie.  Poor Percy!  How can just the notion of food turn an otherwise pleasant and passive, stinky smelling hound into a crazed, blood thirsty, psychopathic killer?

No worries, Percy is healing well and is on the road to recovery.  I spent several times cleaning it with peroxide and putting iodine on it.  She's looking better every today.

Louie says she's innocent.  She can't take blame for when food takes over her psyche.

MERRY CHRISTMAS DAY 2012

Ha!  It was a wonderful day, in spite of not having my baby girl, Madison here.  She's living in L.A. now and had no money to come back home for Christmas.  Waaahhhhh!  But lucky for me, Sam came over for Bob's birthday on Christmas eve and stayed the night, so she was here in the morning, just like the old days!  That made me very happy! : )

This was the start of Christmas morning:  an asiago bagel with artichoke and spinach cream cheese ( a new find) onions and cucumbers. Nummy!  and a real treat for me since I don't eat much bread anymore.

NO!  I do not have too many cats!!!

So all the animals got their special treat:  the pig - a whole apple

the cats - cans of cat food

The horses:  extra hay

 Edy got one of those smart toys that you put treats into and they have to move the little nobs around to find the treats.  She figured it out right away, of course!
Percy and Louie got a bone that they immediately unwrapped.  Edy got one too.

This was my pile, which included this really cool coffee mug:

it's even purple too!  (I now it looks black here but trust me it's purple)

and my new awesomest Carhardt Jacket!  Now I'll really look cool riding the tractor!

Here's Sam's pile!

and here's Bob's!  See that Life Is Good shirt?  It has Bob on it, with a dog and a cup of coffee and a barcolounger.  Which is Bob.

Then Edy had a moment of selfishness and rage:

 Louie got too close to her bone.  Although Louie denied the whole thing!  Look at that innocent face!

I'm warning you!

I'll eat you alive!

So Louie went and hid by grandpa.

 Cashew's first Christmas!  Not quite sure what's going on.

 We offered Edy some food and water because guarding your bone from the evil Louie can be tiresome.

The carnage!

And then it was over.

THE SECOND HARVEST

So when one is gone for  few days, things start to grow faster then before in the garden.  Well, at least it appears to do that.

Ok, where is the actual garden bed???



 So in between trimming the pig's hooves, bathing the dogs,

making Parmesan cheese, deworming the horses and cleaning out the camper and doing the laundry from it, i decided i would go out to the garden.  Get the rest of the things planted that needed to be and see what i could harvest.

What i got was a five-gallon bucket of leeks, and two baskets of spinach and lettuce. 

So what we had for dinner this beautiful Memorial Day was grilled leeks and red onion over fresh salad greens and a sprinkle of my homemade goat's milk blue Stilton cheese and topped off with some champagne vinaigrette dressing. Nummy!

PERCY IS NO SPRING CHICKEN!

No, she's not.  i look at her face now and notice all the gray, the forlorned look and lack of spunk. I've noticed things about her that are not the same. For example, I miss her in the kitchen, begging.  The other dogs and the pig are in there but i notice Percy no longer gets up to run into the kitchen to beg when someone is preparing food.  She also has been slow at walks this year.  She lags behind and looks exhausted. 

I guess in the human equivalent of dog years she's 70, that's kinda old. It saddens me to know she's getting older, because it means her time here is getting shorter and the thought of her being gone - well, i can't go there.  Although her spunk is around today because as I am writing this i keep hearing noises in the kitchen and when i get up to look and say, "What are you doing?"  She hangs her head in shame. (we had sausage for lunch and counter cruising is her specialty)

Percy was our first dog after Bob and i got married, a suggestion from Maddie (or was it a demand?).  We had to find a new home for our old dog, Nigel at the time because Nigel was never gonna be a house pet. Not around Everett and Bob.  He was too obnoxious and untrustworthy.  So Maddie didn't care for not having a dog and would calmly suggest this nearly every day, "A dog would just really bring such joy into our lives."  So we thought about what kinda dog would be good for our family and came up with a beagle.  I contacted all the local shelters and let them know we were looking for a beagle if one should come in - to call us.
The next week, we got a call.  They got in a beagle/basset mix puppy and we were over there the next day.  We went into the back where they have rooms families can sit down in and meet an adoptable puppy.  They brought in this dog, "That's a puppy?" I ask, because when that's what they told me she was, i was expecting a little puppy!  But no, this was a 25 lb dog!  (turns out she was 9 moths old which is still pretty much a puppy) This puppy sees us, begins to pee on the floor in excitement and then ... rolls over in it!  Bob says, "That's the dog for us!"  The kids loved her and so i paid the $15 and we took her home.  On the way out of the shelter, Maddie asks, "What should we name her?"  Sam says, "How 'bout Percy?"  and it stuck.  Percy came home, her forever home.

a very young Percy and Maddie! 2003



Little baby Louie and a Percy with no gray!



THE EYES HAVE IT!

 Eyes, it's all about the eyes!

ok, it's not an eye but what is it?

CARPE DIEM!

Carpe Diem!

It was morning and sometimes I like a change in pace when it comes to breakfast food, this morning it was my left over Subway sandwich.  I set the tasty, meat encrusted sandwich with ‘the works’ of veggies on it on the counter.  I also needed to get in the shower and found myself looking at the empty towel shelf frowning.  I headed down stairs to the laundry room to retrieve a towel, it, mind you, was no longer then a total of one minute in elapsed time from the moment I left the sandwich on the counter, retrieved the towels from the basement and returned. Yet, as I round the bend, there! There lay the thieving hound, formally innocent brown eyes now bulging with guilt, tail tucked between her quivering legs, the smell of the finest subway meats still on her breath. 

What? Amazing! That in a split second really, an animal can attack and effectively eat a large sandwich.  I also found it amazing that in spite of the fact that even though they must know they will never starve; that they receive bounteous servings of kibble, twice a day, every day, not to mention the sporadic generous helpings of treats periodically given when there is a leftover crumb on our plates after a meal; they still seem to think that their very existence relies on taking what they can, when they can or they will die. This is the pure brilliance of animals – they cannot help themselves.  They live in the moment. That sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do when you gotta do it! Carpe diem! Seize the day!

Perhaps all of us should live our lives a little more like my dogs and seize the day. Dogs don’t let their guilt or fears stop them from seizing the moment; they don’t have any limiting beliefs stopping them, and I admire this about them.  We as humans tend to ignore those moments of precious time we have, those fleeting moments because we are focusing on other things or what has to be done. We must embrace the possibilities that the present does hold. We need to seize the moment and make the most of every day.  To treasure every moment of life means living in the present moment, after all, the past is gone and the future is yet unknown. 

Are you missing out on the "right now" because you're moving too fast, dwelling in the past or worrying about the future? If you're not living in the moment you risk letting life pass you by. Start paying attention to your thoughts, your feelings and your surroundings at this very moment because it is the only moment that is guaranteed. This is all there is, this is all that counts: right now!

Here are six ways to help you to be in the moment:

1. Slow down:  Life is short and we move too fast through it. Pause every now and then and take it all in. Stop and smell the roses.
2. Really taste it: Instead of eating to satisfy a hunger, experience food as a pleasure. Whenever you put something in your mouth, savor it.
3. Stop and observe: Notice the people and things around you as they are not how you wish them to be.
4. Soften your focus:  getting caught up in details can be stressing.  Ask yourself, “Does it REALLY matter?”
5. Forget the little things:  and trust me, they are all little things.
6. Breathe:  so often when we are moving through our day we forget the first and foremost thing we have to do: breathe!  When we get upset we tend to clench our teeth and breathe very shallow while trying to force what’s not working to work. Try taking one long, deep breath. It will relax you and refocus you. It works!   

Another would be to just imagine yourself as a dog:

   

BOREDOM FROM WINTERDOM

So the other day, another boring winter night, i decided to play with my camera (i know what else is new, right?) So i am sitting on the Lazy Boy and am thinking of the new flash i am getting for my camera this week.  I hate flash, always have, no matter what you do - it looks like flash.  Not natural, the way our reality is, but fake, bad.  So this will be my adventure with the new flash; trying to make it look real!

But anyway, i am sitting there playing with the on camera flash (which really stinks), when Maddie walks into the room.  She is eating a morsel of food for a slight snack and when this occurs in our household, a creature of some sort will not be far behind.  And in Maddie's case that evening, like many other evenings, she had the gamut of creatures: hounds, pigs and cats.  I took an image - with flash - yuck!

see? overexposed in the front, backlight too dark...ugly! (ignore mess in living room)

So i decide well, lets see what i could do - raise the ISO, play with the shutter speed:

Better lighting but then again, blurry (unintentional).
Animals move too fast for a slow  shutter speed to be effective.

But then it got me to thinking: "how fun would that be to work on some long exposure times??" Yes!  So i played for a little while and this is what i got:

Must - hold-  camera - still. try again....

 Still without a tripod - blurry but i am playing here so its ok.

Nicer - got the ghost effect i was looking for.

So i have just decided that i need to head on downtown at night and start doing some long exposure images.  But its supposed to get down to negative 10 this Monday.  Don't think that will be fun to do in the cold, darnit!  Mother nature - please bring me some warmth soon!  Snow is ok, but 20 below is not acceptable.

POTSTICKERS, PILE OF HOUNDS AND PHOUL WEATHER

That's right - phoul - phor the phonetically challenged types (no- it just kept with all the p's in the previous words).
This was my sad, damn cold winter day today:

I am often challenged by breakfast, mainly because i now try to eat better then i ever have and because most breakfast foods are bad for you: sausage, bacon (although i really do love bacon), bread, sweet breads. All that stuff really isn't very good for you, well if you compare it to what is: like fresh fruit and vegetables.  And think about it:  a full plate of bleached white flour, with milk and some leavening = pancakes! Yuck, plus add that syrup and butter to the top just to make it edible, double yuck!  For me, anyway.  So i have to be quite creative in my food choices.  And as i am thinking about this, maybe potstickers were not the best example in comparing bad breakfast foods to good breakfast foods, but i regress.  So i had potstickers for breakfast.  and they tasted good! : )

Nummy potstickers frying the pan - grease almost hit my lens!

Then the next part of my day, as i settled into write on the blog and check my Facebook pages (when really i should be thinking of more important things i should be doing like getting the tax stuff together or replacing the tile in the foyer - but i regress), i found a PILE OF HOUNDS on the couch.  Now this is nothing new really for my girls but i thought i would share the beauty:

Now the next part of my day belongs outside because dear old mother nature has sought revenge on MN again this year and there are to be windchill factors of -25 to -30 degrees tonight.  Yes, your heard me right - NEGATIVE 30!  All this does is create more work for me, because i can't leave the horses out there in that kind of weather when they don't have a three sided shelter in which to stand under.  So i will be bringing them in to their stalls tonight.  Ahhhh.... life on the farm.

This is the weather forecast for the next 12 hours, and yes that is a FEELS LIKE of -29 at 11 pm tonight folks!

Weather Warnings
Thursday Jan 20
Time	Forecast	Temp	Feels Like	Wind	Humidity	Precip Chance	UV Index
12 PM	Blowing Snow	8°	-12°	22 mph NW	69%	40%	1
1 PM	Blowing Snow	7°	-14°	21 mph NW	69%	40%	1
2 PM	Blowing Snow	5°	-16°	21 mph NW	69%	40%	1
3 PM	Blowing Snow	4°	-17°	21 mph NW	69%	40%	1
4 PM	Partly Cloudy	2°	-19°	19 mph NW	70%	0%	0
5 PM	Partly Cloudy	-1°	-22°	18 mph NW	72%	0%	0
6 PM	Partly Cloudy	-3°	-24°	16 mph NW	74%	0%	0
7 PM	Partly Cloudy	-4°	-25°	15 mph NW	75%	0%	0
8 PM	Partly Cloudy	-6°	-26°	14 mph NW	76%	0%	0
9 PM	Partly Cloudy	-7°	-27°	13 mph NW	78%	0%	0
10 PM	Partly Cloudy	-9°	-28°	11 mph WNW	79%	0%	0
11 PM	Partly Cloudy	-11°	-29°	10 mph WNW	80%	0%	0

But at least the sun is shining~!