The Obedient Wood Man, part 2

Really the earlier post should have described him as the disobedient one as well, but we are staying focused on the positive because we are working on positive dog training.

Wood Man has been out on the leash only since the last post, because he has discovered that he can easily jump the fence in the back where we let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. He is not happy with his leash-only walks, even though we graduated to the 20-ft Flexi leash. He nearly pulled me off the porch onto the concrete the first time I took him out with the longer leash, but that's definitely my fault for not explaining how this works.

Yesterday, since I did not have to work, I thought I would try to let him go free and test my recall abilities. I am a failure! He went out at 9:30 am, and I didn't get him back until 1:30 pm—and only then because a neighbor helped me. Susan from the horse farm called him to her, and he immediately turned around and ran back to the house...go figure!

At least my "No Road" training seems to have paid off. For all the hours he was running yesterday, he never went out in the road, even though another neighbor was directly across the street playing Frisbee with his dogs.

These photos are post-party. He was totally exhausted for the rest of the day, barely getting up off the chair until bedtime.

A tired dog IS a good dog! If only I could get him tired in some less dangerous way...

Lazy by the woodstove...all snowed in!

Hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or other holiday of your choice! I spent so much time writing out Christmas cards, that I gave up blogging for the holidays...

We had about 4 inches of snow for Christmas day, just enough to make it pretty. And then we got socked with what is now about 2 feet, but it's hard to measure because the wind is so strong that there are drifts of 5 feet or more. As soon as the blessed Mr. Kelley snowblows the driveway, or as soon as the frigid farm folks blaze a path to the chicken coop, the wind pushes the snow right back in place.

I did a short weekend in NJ just before Christmas, and managed quite a few visits with friends and family. The Husband is on his way back today from an even shorter weekend down there. He left yesterday just as the second snow this week was starting, making for a slow trip. I hope his return trip goes a bit more smoothly—at least the sun is shining today.

The goats seem to enjoy the snow, or at least ignore it, unlike the pigs. Since I was on farm duty today while the Hub was away, I got to spend some quality time with all of the kids. The poor chickens are not happy "all cooped up", but their feathers do a good job of keeping them warm. Poor piggies on the other hand have virtually no hair, so they spend most of their time happily cooped up in the shed. They do like visits however—the second piggie pic is Steve and Eydie singing "Baby It's Cold Outside". Frank wasn't in the mood for singing today.

The goats are no different than any other day: Lucille, in heat, whining, Jack and Helen looking for more food to dump on the floor...

But the dogs are quite happy to sleep the day away right next to the woodstove, which pretty much describes my feelings as well.

The obedient Wood Man

The Wood Man came to us in August just months after graduating from "Obedience Class" in NJ. In the top photo he is looking very obedient, letting me take a nap with his butt as the pillow. The next photo, however, shows the true spirit of the hound boy—tail wagging a mile a minute, proud of the mess he just made of my "kindling" by the wood pile while I was talking on the phone.

The days of Woody running free have ended for now. A week ago he ignored The Husband's calls and ran across Rt. 28 to visit the horses again! The Hub got him out of there and back across the street, only to have him turn around and run right up the middle of the road while cars were doing their best to avoid him. Four kind people had to stop to help corral the bad boy and send him back home.

Then he ran off again the next night (while I was in work) and the following night when I came home from work at 7 pm and could not get him in until after 9. And only then after hunting him down, in the dark, and leashing him. At least both of these times he stayed away from the road...we think... As far as I can tell he spends his night romps chasing the night critters in the woods. Maybe he's trying to live up to his name, Wood Man.

I was sorely tempted to borrow a shock collar from Don on the Hill, one that beeps before it shocks, and starts with a shock I could barely feel, but after doing some research online, I ended up on positivedogs.com, a site promoting positive reinforcement training. Most if not all positive trainers hate shock collars, so I was pretty easily convinced that was not the solution. Turns out the humans are the ones who need the training, the dogs learn pretty quickly once they are given clear direction.

Pam Dennison, who runs the website, called me the same night after I e-mailed her to ask a few questions. We don't really know each other, but both graduated from Rowan as art students in 1978. Rather than signing up for her online classes (and because I need more immediate help!) I am starting with her book—The Complete Idiot's Guide to Positive Dog Training—which I've had for years but never read all the way through.

Believe it or not, Woody has already made some progress, but it will take many more weeks of training before I can trust him off-leash again. In the meantime he is taking out his frustrations on the wood pile, Sophie, The Hub and me! I told Pam I would take some photos and videos of the Bad Wood, so we could have something to compare to the fully trained obedient Wood Man photos. Hopefully they won't be too far off in the future.

Take a few minutes and check out this video from Positive Dogs. This will be our goal, Wood Man. To get your perfectly trained self back off-leash again, some time soon!

Superstorm Sandy sails on through

The lights here went out for about 30 seconds total and somehow the modem got fried, but we were otherwise unaffected by Superstorm Sandy. Family in South Jersey made it through without any damage, cousins in North Jersey lost power, friends who live on Long Beach Island were not so lucky. Last I heard they were still not allowed back on the island to assess the damage, but online photos pretty much tell the story (see above). If the flooding didn't cause enough damage, the sand washing over the island created a true disaster area.

The new job at the Freeman's Journal/Hometown Oneonta weekly newspaper(s) is going well, even though it is only about 20 hours a week. My job is simply to create ads. I don't do all of them, and most of them use existing templates, but I am starting to see a difference—all the vast improvements I have made (hehe). The real benefit is that I am learning InDesign and how to work on a PC. Being a Quark girl who has only dabbled in ID, and only ever worked on a Mac, I felt like I had moved to a foreign country and had to learn a new language, or 2. Almost 3 months in, I am feeling a bit more comfortable.

Goats and pigs and chickens are all thriving, although the hens are either taking a winter vacation from laying eggs or are back to hiding them or eating them. The Husband and I have searched everywhere, and have yet to find the buried treasure chest. We were collecting 7 to 9 eggs a day in the summer; now it's 2, maybe 4 on a good day. My one little araucana who lays blue eggs hasn't given one up in a month.

The Wood Man is settling in. As long as he gets a good run, or 5, he is a happy well behaved dog (mostly) but there are those days where he is just not satisfied with the world. When I was on the phone with Verizon for an hour trying to get the new modem connected, he barked/howled almost the entire time. When I let him outside to try to get some peace, he jumped the back fence and ran like a kook through the back 40—and that was after he had already been out there for a good run just a few minutes before the phone call.

I am currently reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski. I am hoping to learn some of Edgar's dog whispering techniques by the time I finish. Problem is, it's hard to whisper and be heard over a howling hound! Here he is, the Wood Man himself, in a more peaceful moment. Quite the handsome boy when he settles down...

Hold onto your Phillies hat! (credit to Little Sis for this title)

Here comes Hurricane Sandy! I am more worried about NJ with the renters in our old house and Little Sis down there too, but even central NY is supposed to get high winds and a lot of rain. The house here at Lester's Flat is on a high and dry spot, so the wind is more of a concern than the flooding, but we have more critters and more buildings up here to worry about. We are hoping the 3 sheds and our little satellite coop by the garage will protect all the little ones...

Speaking of critters to worry about, the Wood Man made his way across the highway again to go and visit with the horses. I really need to work on keeping him on the back 40, where he can't get into any trouble. In fact, we did start our walk down by the creek, and he stayed with me the whole time down there, but when he got back, he put the ear-lock on. He stared me right in the eyes when I called, and then he ran across the busy road.

He is actually more interested in the kittens inside the barn than the horses. Tiny as they are, they stand up to him, inches away from his big barking mean-boy face. I think that's why they are so interesting—he doesn't know what to make of them. I truly hope that one of them scratches him so that he finally learns that cats are not toys…or dinner. I wish he could learn that lesson in here, but our cats are still hiding on the second floor.

Trouble is his middle name, or maybe we need to call him Hurricane Woody. I thought he might have settled down a bit by now, but every time I think we are making progress, he gets wacky all over again.

This little video will give you a good idea of how much Sophie appreciates her new wack-a-doodle family member! At least this old girl can still give him what-for, just like the kittens.

A typical wild night at Lester's Flat

 

These were taken a few days ago, but will give you an idea of how wild and crazy we regularly are here at Lester's Flat. I'm not sure who wins the "Strike a Pose for the Camera Contest", but let's just say that no one put a lot of effort into it...

Sophie probably put in the least effort, but at least she managed to include the Super Timothy feed bag/seat cover, The Hometown Oneonta newspaper (my new place of employment) and a copy of Dwell Magazine. Apparently reading makes her sleepy.

After a dry summer, the beginning of fall has been wet and grey. I tried to finish painting the goat shed before the weather got nasty, but was barely able to finish the front of it. Prime time for staining is at least 48 hours after rain, AND when rain is not expected for 24-48 hours after the stain is applied, AND it has to be above 50° long enough for the stain to dry completely...I think another 24 hours...

Unless an Indian summer kicks in soon, the shed won't get finished until April or May!

Frank Sinatra comes to Lester's Flat!

Old Blue Eyes (his eyes really are lighter than the others!) joined Steve and Eydie in the pig pen today. After a conversation with Cousin Greg, who said he and Cousin Chris want in on the pig project, we decided to get a third piggie, same age as the others, about 9 weeks old.

The people who sold us Frank said he had the biggest personality of the 13 that survived in the litter of 17. He grunted the whole way home in the car telling us the very interesting story of his short life thus far.

Pigs are the least amount of work, and probably need less feed than the goats because they love the table scraps and garden leftovers. You can see they are quite happy chowing down on tomatoes and corn, although with the freezing temperatures expected tonight, those garden leftovers won't be edible for too much longer.

You might also notice that Eydie isn't camera shy. That's her with a big chunka tomato hanging out of her mouth.

Got the woodstove fired up in here today for the first time this season. Poor little Frank has a less hairy coat than the others, he might be a bit chilly out there tonight! Let's pray they welcome him into the pig pile to keep him warm!

Have you seen the little piggies?

Piggies, round 2: Eydie, the gilt (female), and her smaller brother, Steve, the barrow (castrated male). It will be interesting to see if Steve outweighs Eydie after a few months of good eats. He was one of the runts of the litter.

The second pic is the beauty shot of Eydie. We picked them up on Sunday from the same guy who gave us Rick and Michelle. They were good healthy pigs the last time around, and we expect the same this time.

I will get better photos when they are finally allowed out of the new goat shed and into the sunlight. Until I get the goat shed painted, at least in the front that faces the pen, and until we finish putting up the rest of the fence, the goats have to stay in the old pig shed, and the little piggies get the whole huge goat shed to themselves. As they are still in shock from being taken from their Mama and siblings, they don't know what they are missing and are quite happy where they are.

Check it out large (click on the photos) they both have long red eyelashes/eyebrows! Very cute, although hard to see with all the hay in the way!

One little tornado, too many tomatoes and just enough chickens

September weather has been just perfect. Except for a little tornado that swept through our little town, just skirting the far side of our property and taking down several trees, we've been having the warm sun and cool temperatures that make Fall so pretty up here. The leaves are just beginning to change color, which usually doesn't start until October.

The Husband's garden has been enjoying the perfect weather as well. Even though he has been battling the groundhogs for control, the garden still produced about 4 times as many tomatoes as the ones shown here, a large crop of sweet corn, plenty of pumpkins, squash, peppers... Thankfully the freezer full of pork is no longer full, so we have been making and freezing tomato sauce, tomato/corn salsa, gazpacho, and sometimes just peeled tomatoes when I get too lazy to do the rest of the work.

There are only 3 eggs left under the broody hen. She started with 5 or 6, then the other hens started laying eggs on top of hers, then they (or she) broke some of them... I had to close her up in a crate by herself to keep track of what is going on in there. I have no idea if the 3 remaining eggs are going to hatch, or if they are just rotten by now. If they do hatch, it should happen soon.

Either way, we still have 13 hens and the original Rotten Roo. You can see him proudly protecting his little women in the photo. Not sure what will happen when winter comes and they can no longer easily make their way from the coop back to the house. Lately all they do is sleep in the coop, but that is probably why there have not been any more Jack Russell attacks. Smart chickens are hiding as far away from the road as possible!

The view from above

On Sunday afternoon, The Husband and I took the WoodMan and Sophie to visit our nearest neighbor, Don on the Hill. His dog Bandit is the long-lost, long-haired twin of Woody. Being way up on the hill, we can let the dogs run free with no danger of them finding their way back to the busy road, or to the chickens down below. In the last photo, that's Don mowing a path to the creek (behind his house, the same creek that runs behind us). Bandit is leading the way back to see his visitors.

The Husband found himself settling in for a beer with the boys watching football, while I had a beer and all 3 pooches outside on a perfect Sunday afternoon with the best view of everything: Canadarago Lake, Panther Mountain, and the pretty little blue-grey house down below. If you click on the second photo to make it larger, you can just barely see our house, right in the middle, Charlie's barn to the left.

Don is a great neighbor, and we time our visits to the Post Office so that we can chat with Sherry the Postmistress as often as possible, but I must say it is a nice change to have my closest neighbors this far away. At the house in NJ, everyone was tucked in so close that you couldn't avoid the neighbors if you wanted to. For the 20 years that we lived there, all my neighbors were good ones, but times have changed. The latest addition to my quiet little street is really stirring things up, including venturing onto my property with his pruning shears and ruining my not-so-perfect landscaping. Even if we didn't still own the house, I would be horrified. I couldn't even bring myself to drive down that quiet little street when I was back there last week. I might have had to cry...

New Jersey and the new job

This past weekend, I made a little trip back to the old homestead in NJ—truly the old homestead—the house where I grew up. I took the Wood Man with me to meet Little Sis, and OR Sis and her husband; and to visit with his foster mom, Dawn, and Lorraine from BCAA, the organization that rescued him from a shelter in VA.

Dawn had told me that he was a terrible passenger in the car, and she wasn't lying. He howls and barks, and jumps from one seat to another, including trying to sit in my lap while I am driving. With that in mind, and because there is also a new law in NJ that says dogs have to be restrained in the car, I loaded his crate into the back of the CR-V, and I am glad I did. He whined only for the first 2 minutes, and then settled down and slept for almost the entire 4.5-hour drive, up and back! Good boy, Wood Man!

He was also better behaved with Jersey Girl than he was with Sophie in the beginning. I think because Jersey doesn't give him as much sass as the Sopher, and also because they are the same age. The large photo is Jersey and Woody relaxing while Little Sis was at church on Sunday morning. (You can almost see her blue chow tongue in her smiley face!) The other is a close-up of Woody, with his favorite pose for the camera. Although the cats were happy that Woody was on vacation for the weekend, Sophie seemed happy to have him back.

The other big story on Action News is that I started working part-time for The Freeman's Journal, the weekly newspaper in Cooperstown. I've been there about 3 weeks, and I am still figuring out the mysteries of working on a PC after being a Mac girl for so many years...like since the beginning of (computer) time. For all those people who told me PCs are faster than Macs, better than Macs, easier to use...I say you are all wrong.

I miss my Mac!!! but it's nice to have some cash flowing back into the old bank account. I'll suffer through the PC nightmare for the cash.