Monday morning as I was getting ready for work, I got a phone call from Cousin Chris saying how pleased he was with Frank the Pig. While I was talking to him on the phone, something huge flew right past my dining room windows. I looked off to the side to see that it was a bald eagle, who conveniently landed in a tree just outside. We've seen him (or her) several times before, but never this close to the house. He stayed on that branch long enough for me to run around the house to find the best window from which to take a photo. I took about 20 shots from inside, but it turned out the best shot was from outside when I was leaving for work. In the pouring rain I got the best photo, and thoroughly soaked.
So what are the chances that Don on the Hill's dog would be running around just behind the eagle in the photo? Bandit is a white dog, which made him pretty easy to spot, although I had no idea until I downloaded the photos that he was in there. Of course with me trying to get closer for a better shot, the eagle flew off...but I also just barely caught him in the photo as he was flying off.
Altogether a pretty lucky photo shoot for a not-so-great little camera!
I took a short trip back to visit with Little Sister in NJ for Easter. Sophie came along for the ride, and Woody stayed home with The Husband to keep him company. Much fun was had by all.
In a perfect world, the first day of spring would look just like the masthead at the top (with the big Lester). Only that photo was taken on May 20, 2011, and maybe the color was enhanced just a bit in Photoshop... In 2012, we had a frost in early spring that killed almost all of the apple blossoms, so we had no pretty spring photos AND no apples last year.
The first day of spring 2013 looks just like this. A foot of snow yesterday, and snow showers for the next several days, including this afternoon while the sun was shining. We had just gotten to the point this weekend where we could see almost all of the grass, and some of the trees have the earliest leaf buds. Now it's white all over again.
If you can see the snow that's disturbed in the bottom right of the big photo—I think that was from last night where a few of the deer dug themselves a bed in the snow, right over the leach field for the septic, nice and warm! Good thing Woody has a sheet over his crate. That is right outside the window where he sleeps.
I took these photos while I had Woody out on the leash in the back. I can't even let him out to go to the bathroom, because he jumps the fence and takes off, never to be seen again. So I take him out on the leash, and he barks like a fool and aims himself at the chosen weak spot—straight ahead of him in the photo. He had also just seen some deer wandering back there, so he was even more interested in the great escape.
Sophie just hangs out on the porch with me. We both wonder if he will ever calm down.
I've been neglecting the blog again...sorry folks! I've had the flu (or some nasty bug) for almost 3 weeks now. That's my main excuse, that and I just have not been motivated to take many photos of our snowy landscape.
This winter hasn't really been as bad as they predicted. We have had a fairly constant snow cover, but in inches, not feet. It warms up and melts, we can see the grass, and then it snows again within a day. What we are missing, most of all, is sunshine! This grey snowy landscape just doesn't inspire me to go out with my camera.
The Wood Man and me, we're staying close to the woodstove. He gets so close to it that I am surprised he doesn't start burning up. I can't even pick up the poker for how hot it is, and he lays right on top of it!
Woody is making very slow progress with his training. I think we need spring to inspire us both to work harder on that...
But those chickens think it IS spring. They are out and about every day, strolling around in the snow, hanging out in Charlie's barn, and laying about 8 eggs a day compared to their winter totals of about 10 eggs a month. The first sign of spring is when my araucana (the blonde to the right of Roo in the closeup) lays her first blue egg since November!
Mama doe, Lucille, got to take a ride yesterday in the back of the hay transport vehicle, our Honda CRV. She has been complaining and rubbing up against anything she can find, to the point where she rubbed off a big swatch of hair on both sides of her neck. Best we could tell after minimal research was that it was either lice or mange (caused by mites) neither of which we were capable of treating.
So while The Husband was in work yesterday, I packed her up into the CRV with a little help from my neighbor, Don on the Hill. She was surprisingly well behaved sporting her pretty collar and leash (both from Sophie). We had to wait in the car for about 45 minutes, but then she walked right into the vet's office like she owned the place.
Other than doing a big P&P in the office, twice!, she was a very cooperative patient. Although she tested negative for both lice and mange, the default diagnosis is mange, which is often missed in the skin scrape and blood test. She has to return in another 2 weeks for a follow-up shot, but will otherwise be fine.
As for the wayward hound dog: I took him up to Don's house to wander because it is much farther from the road than our house, and because he has always been much better at staying with us when we walk up there. Maybe because Don and his dog Bandit weren't home, or maybe because he is just in his bad boy phase, he took off again. I gave up waiting for him and took Sophie home as soon as Don came back. Woody turned up about an hour later looking for us...bad boy...but yes we did praise him profusely when Don brought him back here.
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...
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 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!
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...
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.
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!
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!
Monday morning as I was getting ready for work, I got a phone call from Cousin Chris saying how pleased he was with Frank the Pig. While I was talking to him on the phone, something huge flew right past my dining room windows. I looked off to the side to see that it was a bald eagle, who conveniently landed in a tree just outside. We've seen him (or her) several times before, but never this close to the house. He stayed on that branch long enough for me to run around the house to find the best window from which to take a photo. I took about 20 shots from inside, but it turned out the best shot was from outside when I was leaving for work. In the pouring rain I got the best photo, and thoroughly soaked.
