Tired

Well, I am really tired and can't find the motivation to do anything that doesn't require sitting. I was woken up this morning by four big paws jumping all over me. I slept in. It was 6:54 AM. Tucker was wide awake and ready to start his day.

This long weekend has been tough on me. I stayed up too late on Friday night because we went on a double date with Barry & Lanette and saw UP. It was a good movie. But it ended at 12 something. I went to bed after getting the dogs all settled for the night. It was 1 at that point. That is by far the latest I have been up since moving here.

Then I woke up before 7 because I heard Tucker chewing on Jasmine's collar. He kept pulling it off her neck so I finally left it off her and set it on the hearth. The tags on it were tinkling together so when I heard that, I knew it was time to get out of bed to keep Tucker in line. We went for a walk (all 5 of us). After that and a good breakfast, he was fast asleep...like he is now.

I spent the afternoon and evening at Katie and Aaron's. We had bbq ribs and lots of sides. It was good. I taught them "graces". We played too long and left an hour later than we were planning on. We had hoped to get back before too much of the traffic started in the towns gathering for the firework displays. Really, the dogs are scared of fireworks so we needed to be home anyway.

Adam made it out to their house for a couple of hours. He was on call and ended up getting a call when he was only 10 miles from their house and then he got another one not too long before the rest of us left.

Back at home, our neighbors were shooting off rockets. We could see the light and colors through the sky lights. I took the dogs out to be in it. I played with anyone who was brave enough to come off the deck. Tucker was nervous about it at first but quickly forgot about the blasting and played. So maybe he will grow up fine with the fireworks and gun shots. Poor Bear was huddled behind the toilet. It's not an easy place to get into but he managed it. When Adam came home, he laid under Adam's legs for comfort and protection.

Again, I went to bed around 1. Now I am TIRED! I need to take a nap or get to bed very early tonight so I can be awake through the work week.

Returning to Georgia

A lot has happened in the last month or so, so let me see if I can make this fit into a nutshell version.

The dog I wrote about…well, I got him. His name was Tiger and we renamed him Tucker. He’s super smart and very sweet. I love him but Adam isn’t into having 4 dogs so he has to be worked on…but very subtly. He isn’t house trained so that made for an interesting and stressful road trip for Adam.

It took us nearly a full day longer than planned to get on the road. We packed the trailer with help from a friend of Adam’s (really he mostly just helped with the piano). Somehow, the things left in the house and yard filled up the entire trailer! We weren’t expecting that at all. It was just a good thing that I sold some things on craigslist and what I couldn’t sell, I took to Goodwill (2 truckloads).

We drove to Provo the first day, getting in entirely too late.

The next morning, I left on a road trip to California with my dad. My grandpa had been sick and wasn’t expected to live so they were sending him home. My mom made it there before he died but my dad and I did not. Most of my time off was actually spent in CA instead of UT like I had planned but I’m glad I didn’t pass up the opportunity to go out there and see everyone. I will post more about my time spent there another time.

Then another road trip back to Orem with both my mom and dad this time. I spent two days in Orem. I got to meet Aileah, my newest neice. What a cutie! On Sunday, the whole family got together for dinner. So I got to spend some time with everyone, including Mike and Mia who came over to say hello to me. They gave me 2 homemade cookies that made me very happy on the flight back to GA. :o) (Thanks, guys.)

In the mean time, Adam was making slow progress to South Dakota where he was meeting his dad to caravan back. The dogs were refusing to go to the bathroom in the rain (which it did the entire time) so there were many accidents. Not all were from Tucker. So dogs and people alike were stressed to the max on this trip.

He finally made it to South Dakota almost a day later than planned which cut his two days off in half. The dogs managed to get ahold of his aunt’s cat while they were running around her fenced yard. Poor cat. Luckily, even though Adam was on the other side of the fence, they listened to him and let the cat go but the experience wasn’t good for his stress level. Adam said he had some bite marks but over all wasn’t hurt. They didn’t open him up…thank goodness! Adam felt terrible about it. And his aunt doesn’t seem to have disowned us because of it.

More slow progress from there to home. He had to drive through the night on that last night in order to make it home in time for a flight to Dayton, OH for some training for work. He left Sunday afternoon.

I got home on Monday night. Barry and Lanette took care of the dogs for us during the stretch we were both gone. They also cleaned up the house and yard some and blocked off the bedrooms from the dogs since tools and other things were out.

They were kind enough to invite me over to dinner every night for a week while I worked on finding some things and unpacking boxes. My motivation was low however and I don’t think I unpacked a single box the first two days. Then I got tired of living like that and got to unpacking the kitchen things. I’m still missing quite a few things but I can cook now. Never mind that I have to go over and borrow cookie sheets, pitchers, glasses and various things.

Adam got home from Dayton and got to work. We work different shifts. I work from 8AM – 4:30PM while Adam works 2PM – 11PM. So we don’t see each other too much these days.

I am preparing to take my final for dog training in the next 2-3 weeks and providing I pass, I’ll graduate. If I get above a 90%, I’ll graduate with honors.

Adam has been working on some plumbing for the new laundry room. It’s very cool that he is so comfortable and competent doing that kind of thing. The fact that I was sleeping kid of hindered his progress last night since he was trying to be quiet and couldn’t drill anything. He is amazing with all the handyman stuff he knows how to do.

On Saturday, I started pulling poison ivy from the yard on Saturday. I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and capris. I knew that I wouldn’t get poison ivy if I washed up quickly enough so I hurried and did as much as I could, getting touched with the vines and leaves. What I didn’t consider was the mosquitoes! You can wash all you want but the bites just won’t go away. So I took a quick shower and got away with no poison ivy but landed about 100 bites which are mostly on the backs of my legs.

Well, that’s as close to fitting in a nutshell as I’ll ever get it to be. Pictures will follow later of various things once I get my computer set up.

How much is that doggy in the window?

Last night, the dogs were barking insesintly at another dog in the workshop area behind our yard. He was there all night.

This morning, I went to go see if everything was ok because he was making such a rukus. I brought food and water. He scarfed down the food like he hadn't eaten in a long time. He drank some water but wasn't all that into it. Then, he crawled into my lap and curled up. Mind you, this is a 50 lb dog (I think). He fell asleep there. I stayed with him for 1 1/2 hours and I really liked him. I talked to Adam and told him about the dog and that I had no idea who's he is.

I went back to the house and worked for a while. But the poor guy was still barking. So I finally locked the dogs out and brought him into the house. I fed him a little more food and he sarfed that down too. He is a very skinny dog...much too skinny. He laid down behind my chair and slept for a bit.

The guy who does work in the work shop drove up so I went out and asked him if it was his dog. It was. Sad. :o( I really liked that dog's personality.

I talked to my landlord before I found out it was Nick's. John said he told Nick he wasn't allowed to leave dogs overnight so he came by the workshop to talk to Nick today. Nick is deaf so he can't call him. Nick told him a different excuse than he told me why he left him. He told John that his daughter came home unexpectedly so he left in a hurry and left his dog and never made it back to get his dog. He told me that the dog had worms and was making messes all over his house so he left him there. He said he was taking the dog to the vet today. But then I don't think he ever left with the dog during the day.

It started pouring and raining and thundering and he started howling and barking so I found out he was still there.

I called John again and asked him to have Nick come by and pick up his dog. John called me back at almost 11 to talk to me. Nick had promised him that he wouldn't leave the dog overnight again. John said that if he did it again, he'd take the dog to the pound. I told him don't do that...just give it to me!

It doesn't seem like Nick really cares that much about this particular dog. He brings his other dogs with him to the workshop but he;s never left any of them and I doubt he would leave them there in the rain with no shelter. Then there's the whole thin thing...poor dog can't be comfortable sleeping on the hard ground with his hip bones sticking out.

I decided he was a german shepherd/hound mix. But Nick says he's a boxer/lab mix. I can see the boxer in the brindle coloring but that's it for either dog. He's is such a pretty dog! I love his coloring!!! The way he had his nose to the ground sniffing things out, I can see him making a great search & rescue dog...maybe he'll be mine yet!

So what kind of dogs(s) do YOU think he looks like?

Skinny! You can't see his bones but you can feel all of them.

See how cool his fur looks!

Long, floppy hound like ears.

It was hard to get him to stay put for the picture, he wanted to be beside me the whole time.

Sprouting

I've been interested in sporouting for about a year now but I didn't really know how to do it or where to find the things I needed (other than online) so I just never did it. But when I went to Boise Co-op to buy the grains, I found the sprouting section they have. They carry a sprouting lid for wide mouth Mason jars. It was only $4. I bought a small bag of mixed seeds with broccoli, radish, lentil, mung bean and alfalfa. I was reluctant to pay almost $6 for the very small bag but after doing three batches of sprouts, it's not quite as bad as it seemed. You only use 2 tsp. of seeds per batch and I've barely made a dent in the amount. They've already paid for themselves. They taste better than the ones I've bought at the store and are tons cheaper. Even Adam likes sprouts so he'll be pleasantly surprised when I make some for him. It's super easy to do too. You just put the seeds in the jar, screw on the sprouting lid which has tiny holes in it. You leave the water in overnight. The lid makes it to where you don't ever have to take it off through the whole process. In the moring, you empty the water and rinse the seeds a couple of times. Do that again every 12 hours for 3-5 days until the stems develop 2 leaves. At that point, put the jar in the sunlight for a few hours to turn the leaves green. Then, put it in the fridge. They keep for a few days.


The seeds in the first jar are the same amount I used in the second jar and it ended up filling the jar completely.

Scenic Drive

Yesterday, I took a scenic drive. I really wanted to ride my bike in this area with Jasmine earlier this spring. And while it was absolutely beautiful, I'm glad we didn't make it. It was a forest (dirt) road. I knew that but it sounded fine in my head. It had pretty bad and constant washboarding. If I ever moved back here, I would definitely ride this road...with a mountain bike though, not my touring bike.

Jack played with me :o)

Ever since we got Jack, I've been trying to get him to play with a toy with me. He plays tug of war with Jasmine with all kinds of toys but he has never played with a human. Yesterday afternoon, I walked outside where the dogs already were and Jack came running to me with a stuffed hedgehog in his mouth. That's one of Jasmine's favorite toys and they play with it together a lot. He played tug of war for a minute before I got it out of his mouth and I teased him with it and threw it. He ran after it and grabbed it. I ran over to him and we did it again. Then he was done with that toy and I was so happy but then he grabbed a water bottle (they love the crinkly sound they make) and started dancing around with it so we did the same thing with the water bottle and I got two throws in with that one too. But after the last throw, he grabbed it and laid down with it.

Jack played with me. :o) I know it doesn't sound like much but I didn't think it would ever happen with Jack. Whatever he went through ealy in life, he wasn't taught to play and most dogs never do if they're not taught or not allowed as puppies.

Prison dogs and a gopher on death row

On Saturday, I was a volunteer dog handler for a dog that was just released from the prisoner dog training program. Only the most out of control (but not agressive) dogs get into the program. A prisoner is given a dog to train for a month or two...I don't remember which. There is a trainer that trains the inmates and he goes there once a week to go through trials with the dogs and check on their progress. All of the dogs passed this round.

I got in line to get a dog. I saw a pyranees puppy coming off the truck and I was next so I was excited because he was so cute. But the woman ganding out the dogs recognized me from the training class and told me I couldn't have that dog because it was too easy for me. I ended up with Farrow. I think she was a yellow lab/pit bull mix. She was quite lively. We each exercised the dogs for about 30 minutes before the trainer showed up. He went through a very long session of "Training 101". It was hot and so the dogs weren't happy having to walk around in the heat with no water.

Robyn, the trainer I worked under, warned me that he was old school. Still, even with the warning, I was unprepared for the physical way he dealt with the dogs. There was a little terrier that he actually flung around on the end of the leash to get its attention. He was telling people not to be afriad to knock a dog hard in the head with their knee because it would teach them not to walk too close. I wasn't comfortable with being that physical. Luckily, Farrow minded pretty well...except for the constant whining. All the dogs (except for two) had possible owners waiting to meet them. So the owner went through the same thing in front of the owners. These dogs are amazing. They can down on recall...which is not something most dogs can do. They can walk backward, know several tricks, heel off leash, and of course, all the other obedience cues. Winston was the star of the show, I think... I want that dog.

Sadly, Farrow was one of the ones that wasn't adopted. Her possible owners backed out a couple of days before she was released. She is in a foster home though so at least she doesn't have to live in a cage at the humane society.

I got home and got busy doing things. I ran down to the basement to grab something and I heard a scratching sound. I had visons of mice jumping out of drawers and cabinets on Hoch. I slowly made my way to the corner I heard it coming from. Turns out, it was from beind the blinds.

I pulled up the blinds and there was this ugly rat looking thing. Then it popped up and it showed me it's 4, yellow buck teeth and giant hands with long claws. I almost jumped. That thing was ugly. I called the dogs down and they came running. I pointed to the window and Bear saw it. The other dogs looked too. No one barked but they were on high alert. I lifted Bear up to take a closer look. I set him down, then lifted Jack, then Jasmine. Jasmine hates being picked up but she liked it this time. After I set her down, Bear siddled up next to me and looked up at me, then the window and back to me. So I lifted him again. When I let him down, Jack came over to me so I lifted him again. Even Jasmine came back for more. I lifted each dog 4 times then I went outside to try to let the gopher out.

I put a hose down into the window well. I put a rope into the hole. I waited a little while but the best this little thing would do was chew on the things. I wasn't thinking when I went to the garage in the backyard and asked the guy there to help me get it out. He put gloves on and he grabbed it right out. He walked away with it. He told me later he threw it in the canal. :o( I felt bad. I was trying to save the things life, not end it. I should have waited longer for the gopher to climb out on it's own but I didn't. I hope gophers can swim. It wasn't ugly from the top side as it was from the underside as seen from the window.