Deer spotting

The weeds (mostly goldenrod) are growing taller making it more difficult to see the deer in the yard. That's not to say that Cyrus can't spot them on a clear night, moon shining, at 3:30 am.

Lack of sleep does not agree with me. Let's just leave it at that. So after several nights of interrupted sleep, I went on Amazon and purchased some frosted window film for the 5 living room windows. I thought I could use it at night and remove it during the day, but the manufacturer said no, definitely not. So I cancelled the order and went with some silver sheer curtains that I used to have out in The Dump. So far so good, at least to get us through the night. I just can't stand having the windows covered up during the day.

Curtains down, The Husband spotted our little spotted fawn this evening before the Cyrus caught on. He went out and took these blurry photos of fawn and mama together. Blurry being the fault of lousy telephoto on the little Canon, not Husband's fault.

Note to self: Buy a better camera sometime soon. Missing a lot of good photos.

Update: Cyrus has not yet made peace with the crate. It seems only Woody is comfortable sleeping in there. So the Cyrus-house-training process continues. Not going well. Good for a week or 3, then again a double dose today when I was gone only an hour and a half.

Note to self: Next time get a puppy and train it properly. Or how about an old, mellow, already house-trained, lovable dog?

We'll see. Probably we will end up with another badly behaved beautiful wacko sweetheart of a pooch or two. Just like the two we have now.

Something other than dogs

Eight Happy Goats

Left to right in the big photo: Mr. David Bowie himself, getting to be a big boy now. Soon we will have to separate boys from girls or we will have a little too much action in the goat barn. :) Then, Miss Blossom Dearie, named for the singer, but looking just like her dad, Charlie. Rosie, the white Saanen mama between her 2 girls. Lovely Rita, turning out to be a redhead, just like her namesake, the lovely Rita Peters.

Next photo: Rico was initially named Rita, until we found out he was a boy. He was born just a day or 2 before Rita came to visit, and we asked (while she was holding him) if she would mind us naming her (him) Rita. Oh well, good intentions. He is looking a bit crazy in this pic, probably because those crazy horns are pushing against his skull. We'll have to get them trimmed soon. Then Mr. Bowie with the crazy ears looking adorable, as always. We won't be trimming the crazy ears.

Next photo, left to right: Lucille, the black Saanen mama who started this little herd. She's the oldest of the bunch, and the best milker. Jack behind her, munching on hay, next oldest. Then Crazy Rico, Redhead Rita, Blossom way in the back, and Bowie with his head in the manger. Beatrice, on the right, also looks just like Charlie her dad.

We have that plastic calf hutch, in the last photo behind Lucille, just in case anyone needs to be separated from the rest. So far no one has earned a trip to the isolation booth. Just 8 very happy boys and girls...as it should be.

Fire in June and the crate training

The WoodMan says "It should not be so cold in June. We should not need a fire in the stove (but I love it)."

It's just plain cold here and I refuse to turn the heat back on in the middle of June. A wood fire feels pretty good though. 77° inside, 48° out.

These are new pics of Woody in the crate. From all the recent photos of him, you might think he was a nice calm sleepy hound. He isn't, but he is so much improved from when we first got him and he was the one barking like a fool at the deer. And barking like a fool for no reason. And running off for 6 hours at a time.

Woody likes the crate.

Cyrus does not like the crate. He wears the fur off his nose trying to ram his way out. You can see the slobber marks on the floor surrounding the crate from him working himself into a lather. I will keep trying a bit longer at getting him used to it, but am almost ready to give up.

Maybe Woody is trying to show him that it is a perfectly comfortable place to be...at least when the door is open.

We haven't had a deer and fawn siting since about 5 am. That also gets Cyrus in a lather, trying to charge through the windows to get to the deer. In addition to the slobber on the floor outside the crate, look at the window behind the crate. They all look like that at dog level. If it isn't deer, it's the ducks (which we don't have anymore). If not deer or ducks, groundhog or cat or any other critter.

I will simply have to be patient with my boy like I was with Woody. Some day we will have 2 well behaved boys who are thankful for being rescued.

Some day.

PS: Sorry Husband. It must be true. All I ever talk about is the dogs.

Cyrus and the iris, plus a few other goodies for The Husband who says I have too many dog pics up here

We have fawns!

We heard Bandit (Don's dog) up on the hill being pummeled by a doe last weekend. Trained bird dog that he is, he was following a grouse and happened upon a doe and her baby. We haven't seen too many deer here at the bottom of the hill recently, not until a day or 2 after Bandit's adventure. Then, as Cyrus has been pointing out, there is this one doe who has just been wandering about by herself. Only she wasn't actually by herself. It's hard to get a good pic without a good telephoto lens, but here are 2 that came out OK. Tiny, tiny fawn baby!

This deer post is for The Husband who has been saying the blog is a bit too dog-centric. Perhaps he is right about that. Just so happens they are the best posers and always present. Woody spends the nice days sunning himself in the backyard. I use that time to sneak Cyrus out for a power walk—something recommended by the trainer—all walking and no sniffing. Then the WoodMan gets his walk while Cyrus goes in the crate for 20 minutes or so. Not loving the crate, won't even touch any of the special treats I put in there. Woody goes in the crate when I let Cyrus out, and steals whatever Cyrus hasn't eaten. Cyrus doesn't care, he is too upset about being crated. There is no way I can leave him in there for longer periods of time while I am in work. I'll just have to keep on plugging with other ways to convince him that the house is not his bathroom.

We are still having some crazy spring weather in mid-June. I even fired up the woodstove a couple of times this past week when it was down in the 40°s at night. The apple trees did not have a good year for blossoms, so we won't get a large crop this year, but the little garden in the backyard inside the dog fence is doing very well. Even though the painter knocked off one of the iris stems before it bloomed, this is the first year where my NJ transplant is doing well. Semi-wild rose (right of the iris) that we bought from someone up here looks like it is going to bloom like crazy for the first time too. Chives to the right of the rose, lady's mantle that we bought at the Heritage Plant Sale at the Farmer's Museum to the left of the iris.

Last pic is the MonkeyCat on the dog bed in the music room that is really supposed to be the human bed in the guest bedroom. Beware B&E when you come to visit, you may have some nighttime visitors!