Apropos of Nothing v.10

Laurie - first they gnaw down the ones they want for their building projects, then they eat the bark around the tasty ones, then whatever is left gets drowned by standing in water up to their knees. Alder does OK in damp conditions, but not total immersion. I've reconciled myself to planting only those trees/shrubs/plants which can actually withstand their feet in constant water, which is opening up a new vista for me (trying for a little Pollyanna here), but it's a slow go.

Nothing wrong with nature doing her thing in a space that large. It's beautiful.

For those of you who don't wake up all by yourselves, here are some new alarm clock designs:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36021492/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/?pg=5#Tech_AlarmClocks

Thanks, bonehead -- if I only had more than 2 feet to jump with.

Laurie, I wish you weren't so attached to England and would come live in OUR rain -- you would make the perfect next-door neighbor.

Willow, I agree and have been more proactive about beaver coexistence than my husband (the guy on the orange tractor). If only we could find a compromise, as in the critters can chew and build and flood as much as they like if they will just leave our access to the back alone. But how to communicate that to the little buggers?? I also worry about the falling dead tree danger to my granddaughter, who is now old enough to explore out back without direct supervision. So, a bit of a quandary.

Laurie, I was celebrating a birthday with my kids and grandchildren. We skied and skied and skied. Even the three-year old was on skis, but was mostly interested in looking cool in his goggles and helmet. We went to Park City, Deer Valley and Sundance. Here's a photo of Koka on a snowshoeing outing. Goodness, she loves the snow!

Pony, Really glad you have kind of a road map towards feeling better now! I also really hope that your fishing line deters the dratted coons. Mom uses short re-bar just like Pixy does to string hers, and hers is kind of done in a dream catcher/spider web type effect. So far the heron has not figured out a way to get past it.

Summer, sounds like you have some new adventures in store for you. Here's to hoping that they are good ones.

Bonehead, you have me completely convinced that I am glad not to have beavers as neighbors! I have enough water problems as it is..... Don't you wish that the critters would cooperate with a happy co-existance? I would love to have a "grazing" garden specifically for my deer....if only they would stick to that and leave my roses and grapes alone! BTW, your back 40 is lovely, flooded or not.

Laurie, I am envisioning little "no beavers" and "no wolves" beyond this point signs along the Scotland border (animals with a slash through them, kind of like they do for "no vehicles beyond this point").

Kathy, My husband needs that flying alarm, although I don't think that it would take it long to go flying itself...

Judi, Forgot to say welcome back. Glad you had a good trip. That pic of Koka is fantastic. Isn't it fun to watch the furries play in the snow?

I learned a tiny lesson yesterday regarding humming bird feeders. I had to do two chores that I found disgusting yesterday.... clean the toilet (necessary evil, but still somewhat disgusting by nature) and clean out the one humming bird feeder that I forgot to bring in for the winter. I would rather clean a toilet any day.... yuckkkkkkkk...... ants and earwigs embeded in a substance with the consistance of jello and the tenacity of super glue filled the lower section of the feeder. I will repeat.... yuckkkkkkkk! Big NOTE to self..... hummer feeders come in EVERY year... even if it's not going to freeze....

The plus side is that I did have two male rufus hummers at one of my feeders only minutes after I had hung it out!

Judi - That Koka is a totally different dog than the one you first adopted. She has hit her stride and looks so happy to be with you. Good thing she's a snow bunny since clearly you and your kids are also.

Yes, Koka is definitely a snow dog. Only one problem with the snowshoeing - she chased a herd of deer and then rolled in their poop. I had to roll her around in the snow and use all wet wipes I had packed to get most of it off, then gave her a bath in the hotel in Boise that night. Ick!

Oooooh. A nice herd of deer to chase. Does it get any better than that for a dog. A nice, steaming delicacy.

And you thought you were well past the baby-wipes stage . . .

Well, thank goodness for those wipes! And thank goodness we didn't run into a bear - they are starting to appear about now. Are bears afraid of barking dogs or do they see them as dinner?

Most bears would run - they really just want to eat the berries and fish. Momma bears in spring who are separated from their babies are another story. That's when people tend to get hurt - when they inadvertently surprise momma or get in between momma and very young cubs.

The good thing with dogs is that their noses will give you the advantage. And making noise well ahead of the time you'd meet up is a good thing. It allows the bear to take a different route.

Sweetpea did not like this blustery day!! More sunshine please!

Woah, Julie... that feeder sounds nasty! I keep both of mine up year round, because we have hummingbirds all year. I change the nectar every few months. I did find an ant in one once, but that's the worst I've gotten. What are you using for nectar? I buy the powdered mix, and I've never had it get slimy.

Looking forward to seeing my doctor tomorrow- (woah, never thought I'd hear myself saying that...) I can't wait to get started on whatever suppliments will get me back to feeling alive again.

I guess I need to get some rebar- the plastic stakes from the now-dead electric fence aren't sturdy enough to pound into our hard ground- I can't get them stable enough to keep the line tense. I have no idea how I'll get rebar to go in either, though... I need a piledriver!

LOL! I'm with you, Sweetpea! Cute pic, Bea. :)

What a cutie the Sweetpea is!

Further comments:
Pony: a sledge hammer and a man. Hope the injection fixes your pain and the thyroid medication helps. We're looking for an up--to-date endocrinologist for my daughter, who has a wacky thyroid that causes all kinds of grief. She really needs to see a specialist and we do not want someone who is 'old school endocrinology. We want someone who is going to be up to date on the latest treatment protocols. If you hear of anyone, I'd appreciate knowing who it is.

Laurie: Beavers are not 'little creatures'. They are quite large, actually. And very interesting, too. Probably especially interesting when they don't live just on your own property! :)

Portland: Koka is beautiful! I'll bet she is lovely to watch in the snow, even while chasing deer. Small price to pay for such a brilliant dog.

Summerkid: What happened to Jack? Did you give up on him? I take it that you are actually pulling our collective legs when you refererence staying in a condo with a man you don't yet know. Geoducks. Ick. Those are the most suggestive things on the planet. And not necessarily in a good way. Sounds like your 'bubble' might be worth more to you than it would cost to replace it later.

Bea, Sweetpea is just a doll, and I totally agree about the more sun part as well!

Pony, I make my own nectar (just sugar water) and usually don't have it gel like that. This was the first (and last) time! We don't have many hummers over the winter, so the liquid had been in there since last October, and it hangs under a cedar tree so lots of ewwies can get into it.

You will be surprised at how tough rebar is in terms of pounding into the ground. That is what I use to stake all of my roses as it is the only thing that will survive being pounded into the rock pit we call home. The cool thing about it is that it has ridges so that it makes keeping the fishing line in one place fairly simple. I know that you are planning on scrapping the electricity idea, but just in case, I will tell you that it is pretty easy to built a little "hut" for the electric box (with a hinged lid so you can turn it off and on) and that will keep most units weather resistant enough to survive in our wet areas. I have a "cow trainer" in just such a box that has moved from house to house for at least 25 years, and still works wonderfully.

I am sad and missing my little girl tonight. Phoenix went in today to have her "female" operation, rabies vaccine, and microchip done. We opted to leave her overnight as I was worried that the temptation to play with her friends when she got home would cause her to hurt herself. Mom and I are headed to EWA for the Sandhill Crane festival tomorrow, so she will get some R&R on the couch at the EWA house before she comes back to the wolf pack. Hopefully that will at least give her enough time to heal a bit.

Mom took her in this AM as the vet didn't open until 8 and I had to be at work well before that. When the vet's assistant put her into the kennel the first time, she walked into the kennel with Phoenix and then undid her leash. Mom said "Are you sure that you want to do that? She is a pretty good escape artist." The vet's assistant assured her that "she could handle it". Leash off..... dog out the kennel door.... POOF! After a few minutes of trying to stop Phoenix from enthusiastically greeting everyone in the rest of the kennels, they managed to get her BACK into her own kennel.

Apparently there was a similar episode when she was taken out to go into the operating room. I was told my dog is very sweet, very friendly, and VERY energetic.

Aw, poor Phoenix! I know she will be healed and back to her sprightly self before you know it!
I am jealous - I have always wanted to see those Sandhill Cranes!

Julie, Hope Phoenix is on the mend quickly. You must get a picture if she is given a cone collar to wear. Always funny!

Phoenix, hope you feel better soon, little girl. It'll be nice to have that microchip in, too.

Sweetpea, it took me over an hour and a half to get home from work tonight. I'm with you on this weather!!

Pony, thyroid helped me quite a bit. I had had muscle cramping that I thought was just a part of old age. It went away within a couple of weeks of starting the meds. You do have to get it checked regularly as they need to get the right amount for your body and then your thyroid levels may continue to drop.

Pony, um, I don't want to sound mean, but have you ever looked at the ingredients in "hummingbird mix"? Basically, you're paying about $7/lb for ordinary sugar with potentially harmful coloring and preservatives.

Here's the recipe I got from our local bird store for mixing it at home with normal "conventional" sugar.-
--------------------------------
1 part sugar
4 parts water
Heat water to full boil for 1-2 minutes
Remove pan from burner, add sugar, stir until dissolved. Cool fresh nectar and fill feeder. If you are making more than will fill the feeder, store in the fridge for up to about 10 days. Feeders should be cleaned every time they're filled, and they shouldn't be filled with more nectar than will be consumed in 3-4 days.

DO NOT USE ORGANIC or RAW SUGAR!! The less-processed sugars contain more residual minerals, particularly iron, which can harm a hummer. Their system stores up the trace minerals because they get so little of them, and so a mineral-laden sugar can be deadly as they store too much.
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Judi, sounds like you had a great trip. The Koka snow pictures are great.

Hope Phoenix's surgery went smoothly and that she won't hate vet visits after this. :)

Pixy, the cranes migrate through W.WA also. Probably not as many, but some, anyway. Every year this festival has special tours to see the migrating sandhill cranes.
http://www.ridgefieldfriends.org/birdfest.php

Microchips are creepy to me.

Oh Pony I hope you feel better soon. It's not fun to be in a funk. And your back - that can't be easy to live with!

Julie - hope Phoenix is back with you soon!

I need to look up sandhill cranes - never heard of them before this. Sounds interesting.

Thanks all for your well wishes for my little girl. She came through just fine and was resting happily tonight. I am going in late tomorrow and will be at the vet's office at 8 am sharp. She will be a working girl with her momma tomorrow (bennefit of running your own business... no one can complain if you bring your pup in!) and we will be heading out for the other side from work.

Deb, I decided to chip Phoenix because she hunts with me and as a result, spends a lot of time hunting off leash in strange territory. She is very good about comming any time I call, but I am terrified that if she gets on the scent of something when we are out, she could easily run out of hearing range, and get lost as a result. She is definitely my heart dog, and it would tear me up to think that I could lose her because I did not do everything in my power to make her easy to identify. She wears her tags, but I have first hand experience with how easy it is for a shorthair to lose tags, if not the entire collar when running through the woods.

The sandhill cranes are a fantastic bird, and watching them is like watching colorful canadian geese without the "year round" feature. Othello has a wonderful festival that is focused on the sandhill cranes and burrowing owls, that Mom and I went to for the first time last year. If you are into nature/birding, it is an incredible experience. They have seminars every hour on topics that cover topics relating to birding, preservation, bats, reclamation, etc. Most of the seminars are done by authors and professors in the related areas, and are just fascinating. If anyone has an interest, you can find more information here:

http://www.othellosandhillcranefestival.org/

Our EWA home is less than 15 miles from the festival, so if anyone was to seriously want to plan to visit during the festival next year, let us know. We have a place to rest/hang out, and stay the night if you would like.

Sue, I'm too lazy to make my own. :p I've never heard anything about the coloring being bad- I like having it red. But maaaaybe once I use up the supply I have I'll think about making it from regular sugar.

Pix- good luck finding the right endocrinologist. I'm just going to my regular family practice doctor for this, so I won't be encountering any specialists. (hopefully I won't need to, that is!) Are you with Group Health? I've had really good luck with them finding me the right doctor. If I don't like one they send me to, I tell them, and they give me another with no hassles.

Julie, I hope Phoenix recovers quickly. I'm sure it will be tough to keep her quiet while she's healing. Critters are crazy like that.

I meant to comment about the beaver dam issues- Tracy was up at the Scout camp recently for a work weekend, and they had to dig a new drainage channel to undo damage done by a beaver dam. Fascinating animals, but boy do they make a mess of things.

Hope Phoenix recovers quickly. Poor little girl.

My dogs are all chipped, Julie, as are my cats.

Pony, ok, whatever works for you-we all pick our battles, so to speak. :) I think there are mixes without the food color if you wanted to continue a mix. For me, on some things I'm really cheap (more money for plants...) -it kills me to pay that much for sugar when I know how much it normally costs. :/

As to chipping, I think it's smart, especially if you know you're going to be out and about. A long time ago, before chipping, a friend's parents had (and were breeding) award winning field trial Brittany's and one got lost while they were away from home at an event, I think in Idaho. He was tattooed, which was pretty advanced at the time, but the shelter that found him didn't find the tattoo until after he'd been put down. That story has been breaking my heart for about 20yrs.

We're not with Group Health. We have a couple of names, just want to see which is the right fit and which one is the most up to date. I'd rather take time to choose carefully on the front end than take a chance at having a bad experience. I've heard so many horror stories about endocrinologists, mostly from my own sister who has seen several of the local versions.

Eep. I've never been to one. I hope I never need to, if there are so many icky ones. o.0

My dog came with a chip (pound puppy) which I tried to have removed, but apparently that isn't done. I do put a collar on her when we go camping (with our phone # on it) and she behaves well on a leash if need be, but generally she's a naked girl. I work from home and she rarely is far from sight, usually under foot. I can see that chasing after animals on a hunt could be a problem, though. The only dog I've ever lost was a pound puppy who I am fairly certain had some coyote in her. I think she answered the call of the wild.

My cats and Koka all have chips. Koka always wears a collar with all the tags but she has managed to lose it a few times so I can't count on that. When we're in a more wild place I also make sure she has her red harness on because I'm afraid someone will mistake her for a coyote or wolf and shoot her! She always comes to me when called but if she gets on the track of some creature I just don't trust her to choose me over the thrill of the hunt! I've never heard of bad side effects of chips, but Bonehead if you know something about that I would like to know!

I think chips are very important for the furries that tend to wander further away from their owners or are a particularly valuable breed. Both of our German shorthairs are chipped because of their propensity to hunt but also because of their value as hunting dogs. My minature Schnauzer is not as she sticks close to Mommy wherever we are. I am glad Julie is chipping Pnoenix as she fits into that hunting category very well.

Yup, you gotta know your dog and accept their traits!

Phoenix is so cute! I've been following her thread.

Portland, I don't know of any side effects from chips. They are just too weird for me. I think it may be age-related (something I hear all too often from my doc).

This message was edited Mar 26, 2010 9:50 AM

LOL Bonehead. Don't you hate that age-related stuff? At your age.......grrrr.

I picked my little girl up this morning, and she is doing fine, although is SO not my normal dog right now. She was very happy to see Mommy, but is still very out of it and quiet. She is resting in a sunbeam at the foot of my borrowed desk (in the back of the office where I could be close to her). I know that she will be back to her spunky self soon.......

It's interesting that we're talking about chips now. I "just" (as in last night) saw an article in which one vet is talking about localized cancers forming around the chip. That's the first I've heard of it in 30 years of pet ownership. All the Silken owners I associate with use chips - sighthounds are out the gate at the first opportunity and most often don't come when you call.

It's also added protection because labs that perform experiments on strays (e.g. stolen dogs that people are selling to labs) are supposed to check for chips first. Or, if your dog is stolen, it does prove ownership.

I'm guessing that any tumor formation depends on the animal - it's not the chip that causes the tumor, but the presence of a foreign object under the skin.

Bonehead, the idea of having permanent ink under my skin gives me the heebie jeebies, and, judging from the number of people out there with tattoos, that's an age-related thing for me. ;-)

Haha, Katie - the only tat I have is a little stripe on my ring finger from cutting myself while changing the oil in my car decades ago. I do admire some of them, but haven't yet felt the urge myself. But, one never knows...