Equilibrium and Dodecatheon Road Trip

I had Equilibrium and Dodecatheon here today on a native plant hunt. When we planned it, none of us thought about the fact that traffic on I90 out of Chicago would be brutal, so it took them eons to get here. Dodecatheon brought me baby baptisias and coreopsis, and Eq brought me a big clump of blue fag iris! Eq was even nice enough to remove one very full cart-load of garlic mustard for me!!

They left just in time - it started raining here about 20 minutes after they left. I left my camera in the house, unfortunately. True to form, though, Eq managed to smack herself on the head with a shovel.

Will someone please have a video camera around when Eq is gardening with friends? It sounds like she could have her own bloopers show.

And the discussion on how many glasses of Merlot were consumed?

No butt shots - that's incredible.

Did Lauren smack some sense into herself?

ROFLOL,,,it's a wonder Eq's still in one piece. Sounds like you all had a nice day.

Get a lot of IDing done?

Ton's of ID'ing, but unfortunately no merlot. We were completely sober.

I promised myself there would be no butt shots (at least not taken by me). Eq brought a camera out, but I'm not sure how many pictures she took. We spent most of the time in one small patch in the back woods.

I swear... that shovel just jumped up from no where and tried to attack me in the head. It was as if it had a life of its own. I gave the shovel a time out for bad behavior and there are no hard feelings.

You know something Kelly, my husband marvels that I remain in one piece too. And Sofer, I don't drink much more than a few times a year and even then I stop at one of what ever I am drinking- scary thought that I do all of this 100% sober isn't it? All joking aside, I won't even go into how that shovel incident happened because it was pretty stupid but I didn't lose any teeth or end up with stitches in my head or leave a pool of blood on Stacy's ground so all's well that ends well.

Stacy and her husband have a beautiful property there. I must admit they are wonderful hosts too. There were cupcakes on the counter top. They had pretty little sprinkles on them. I spotted those right away and immediately made my way over to that area to snarf one up as a reward for the road trip. They had all kinds of yummies for the tummy. I so love houses that have little food sources here there and everywhere. Forget the liquor, gimme nummies. Speaking of nummies, Al... dooooooooooooon't forget the Thin Mints ;) I'll need a box of those to help me recover from the road trip up to Janesville. I'm counting on you Big Boy.

Yes, I brought a camera but incredibly I only tried to take a few pictures. I tried to get a photo of a big happy bumble bee bumbling around a huge Lupine. I missed my Kodak moment with the bee. He was faster than me. Then I tried to get a photo of a little snake that had been sunbathing by their little lake and the snake was faster than me too. Come to think of it, I tried to get photos of several chipmunks they had scurrying around and they were quicker than me too. I also tried to get photos of the Mallards in the middle of the lake but they were too far away. That is the story of my life when it comes to critter photography... everything seems to be faster than me or too far away. I am no Magpye with the camera. Speaking of Magpye, I saw her thread where she made a birdhouse out of a Folgers Coffee Container and Stacy had a few empty ones on a shelf in her garage and she let me have on to take home to be able to try to make oneof the "Magpe Creations" I saw in a thread over in WildLife. Oh Happy Dance!

Hey Marie, when you come visit me you can bring a video camera. I'm sure something will happen that you can catch on tape and share with the entire world wide web.

I had a shovel incident once also,,,I'm sure all gardeners have,,,only, mine was in the front of my house (which is on a main drag in town) with my Gran, Aunt and passers by that happened to be be driving past when the shovel turned on me,,,I gave it a swift kick and it now behaves itself,,,,until next time,,,,lol

My Aunt and Gran were laughing quite hysterically after they asked if I was o.k.,,,I was except for the Dinosaur egg on my forehead,,,,sheesh,,,gotta train those shovels earlier,,,and I don't even use a really long handled one.

My biggest garden attack came a few years ago.....and it was a real surprise. I was pruning some crab apple trees, and being careful since I'm a clutz, and a branch snapped back at me out of nowhere. I ended up having to call my dad to take me to the ER. I guess that I was lucky that the branch only took out my contact lens and scratched my cornea. I was sure that with the kind of seering pain I had that there must be blood dripping, but it was only tears. I couldn't even get my eye open to check for damage. Other than my eye almost getting ripped out of my head.....I didn't have another scratch on me. And....the contact was never seen again. (The tree left in a truck this last winter.)

Note to everyone: wear goggles!

And.....if you're working with someone on home improvements.....it might be good to get a hard hat. Stitches were involved that time. I'm too old to be getting myself beat up so bad. Medical personnel sure have a lot of probing questions when you need stitches.

ooooo,,,glad it wasn't too aweful bad. Ah, yes,,,the things we do to ourselves while *enjoying* our hobby,,,lol If we had any more enjoyment, we'd all be in the hospital. I"m a clutzy gardener also. Marie and I work well together,,,,lol

Skip is very good at first aid - I'm sure he could have taken very good care of EQ until the ambulance arrived.

Equil you need one of those helmet cams like they use for jumping off cliffs in Baniff Film Festival. Then we would be able to see it on America's Funniest Videos. And your head wouldn't hurt.
Just think of the comic book overlays. Boom, Crack, Crunch, Thump, Oooooowwww, Thrash, Ker-thump, Wop, Eyyyyyyyeeee, Ohhhhhhhhhh, .........

This message was edited May 28, 2006 9:59 PM

ROFLOL,,,Now That would be a hoot!!!!!!

LOLOL!!

Equil's Comic character would be something like: Wanderwoman, The black and blue hornet, Rode Hard Runner, The Pink Planter, Betty Shin-Splintstone, Georgia of the Jungle, ACBC, I vant hoe............. This could be a thread in itself. LOL

ROFL!

I hope the next Road trip heads south... I have lots of garlic mustard that needs pulling....

Yea, and stop here for more Garlic Mustard. Equil--you could have just buzzed down Route 47 and come by to visit after you went to Stacy's. Heck, bring Stacy with you! I have some pond grasses and sedges spreading all over--I share.

lol Kevin. Thanks for the offer!

How on God's green earth did I miss other posts in this thread after I posted? Big oops.

Kevin and Joe, I would gladly help you pick Garlic Mustard. I have thousands to my credit this year so what's a few thousand more.

Sofer- "The black and blue hornet"? What can I say. I was sort of thinking along the lines of Fearless Weeder but the Pink Planter is sounding like a good possibility.

I want you all to know we got a new dog this past Saturday. When it drinks, pools of water fall out of its face. I slipped in the pond he created in the middle of my kitchen yesterday and please know I did not do bodily harm to myself on the way down because I fell in a nice big box of plants that had just been delivered. Now I must admit that the wind was knocked out of me so I never noticed that a drawer was open when I went to get up. Ouch, no stitches in my head but lots of blood. It was a pretty pink mixed in with the pond water. See, Pink Planter wasn't so far off after all.

Equil,

Aw,,,,,we need a pic of your new addition. Glad that big box of plants was there to break your fall,,,,how did they fare? oooo, and your head,,,hope it's o.k. now,,,,,knock any sense into you? ah,,,,roflol,,,,

The plants will be fine. I had ordered an assortment of ferns and those were kind of squished real good by my butt but they'll bounce back. I keep forgetting this dog is a major slobber master. It never ceases to amaze me how cuts in heads, feet, and hands can bleed so much to the extent you are convinced you are going to need a stitch or two. I was fine other than a nice big lump on my head and a little V-shaped cut from the underside corner of the drawer. I do need to get a photo of him though. He looks like such an angel when he's sprawled out sleeping. As far as knocking sense into me, I can't answer that question. I literally slipped in the slobber. I didn't realize it had pooled as it had and spread out. That's hard ceramic in there and if the box wasn't there I could have broken my tail bone. We moved the water bowl into an area that has less foot traffic. Looks as if our new dog is going to be one of those where water falls out of both sides of his mouth. He's not exactly a dainty eater either and food falls out of his mouth but at least you can see the chunks of dry dog food so you don't end up taking a spill on them although I must admit that when he is done eating it looks as if somebody rolled out a bunch of brown marbles for an obstacle course.

Equil....good hear that you're doing fine inspite of your new addition. I don't think that I could deal with a slobbering dog....especially after squishing new plants and a bloody floor. You didn't mention if any choice words managed to slip out after you caught your breath.

No choice words out of my mouth. I was totally relieved I hadn't hurt myself until... I went to get up and boinked my head on the drawer. I'm sure an entire slew of truck driver words could have come out but they didn't. I was too interested in parting my hair in front of a mirror with another mirror in hand to try to see how bad I had cut myself. Wasn't nearly as bad as what I had suspected so I stuck a bag of frozen mixed vegetables on my head and held it there unitl the bleeding stopped and that was that.

Slobbering dogs aren't that big of a deal. It could be worse, This one doesn't seem to be prone to having those big saliva shoestrings hanging out of his mouth which is nice. When they get those hangers and shake their heads, the hangers go flying and end up in very interesting places like... on people and light fixtures. We've had a few dogs that had these and we just lopped clean dish towels over their collars so that if they got a hanger we could get rid of it before it went flying.

I've been trying to get a photo of him but it is hard when he doesn't sit longer than a few seconds and is too busy trying to lick your hand. The training collar came with the dog and he certainly does walk very well on a leash with it. I know he isn't all that attractive but he does have very gentle eyes which match his personality. His lips, what can I say but that they are truly something only a mother could love. This is the best I can do in the photo department unless I stay up late and sneak in on him when he's sleeping.

Aw,,,he is a cutie pie,,,just look at that face.

Mooshka is a sloppy drinker. We usually have a river in the kitchen

Oh my goodness......that's a BIG doggie! Now I can understand the potential size of his 'ponds'. I met a dog like him once. He just brushed my hand while I was talking to his owner and I got 'slimed' big time.

We don't think he's cute like a Springer Spaniel or a Border Collie but he does have a very sweet and loving face. Right now his back is just a touch underneath being level with my kitchen counter tops. He doesn't need to exert any effort at all getting at anything up there that interests him. He's still growing! He should pick up another 3-4" at the shoulder and conservative estimates were that he needed to gain another 30-40 lbs plus the weight associated with whatever his adult height will end up at. He won't be anywhere as big as some of the dogs we have had that pushed well over 200 lbs but he could conceivably hit the 200 lb mark, just not much over it. One plus, he doesn't slime you unless he just had a drink. We're not used to dry mouth dogs so this is a pleasant surprise.

Are you sure that you're not raising ponies? Being a cat person whose cats normally don't exceed 12 lbs., I find this all quite mind boggling.

Equil,

Just glad to hear that you are o.k. for the most part. He's a big one tht's for sure. He's so cute though,,,again, that face,,,,too cute.

No, no ponies but do you like Arabs? We've got some of those. We call them pasture pets saved from the glue factory after people tired of them and stopped paying board and vet bills. Oddly enough my husband and I are cat people who are accidental dog owners. The animal shelters always have this song and dance that if somebody doesn't adopt the bigguns that they get put to sleep and not a lot of people have the yards for them or want to pay to feed them so the smaller dogs get picked first. This is probably the main reason why we always take the bigger ones that have been in dog runs for ever waiting for a home or the needle. I can't tell you how many times we have gone to a shelter to pick up a cat and walked out with a dog. I grew up with dogs and so did my husband but we never gravitated toward them per se. We love our dogs as well as our cats but I can honestly say we don't necessarily love other people's dogs unless they are gentle natured. We are cat people and we have quite a few of those too that are all from shelters. We have two that are at or over 20 lbs, Melvin and Elliott. The other house cats are more normal sized at around 12-15 lbs. We had one tiny one at around 6-7 lbs but she passed away just recently at around 23-24 years of age. Siamese can live very long for some reason.

Ya Kelly, we love that face too. He's a cuddler too and he'll come and rest his whole neck and head in your lap. He's got a good dispostion all right. So calm for such a young dog. I might volunteer to take him over to the nursing home for an hour a month. They like the small lap dogs, brain dead cats that travel well (I have one of those), and large dogs that will gently rest their heads in the laps of people in wheel chairs to be petted. I think, not positive, that I might just have lucked into a good therapy dog here and an hour a month to commit to a nursing home is no big deal. We've had a good one before named Norton and I committed for one year with him and he was considerably bigger than this dog but he had that same easy going disposition that they look for.

You're good people to take care of other people's cast-off pets. You must have a good sized piece of property to handle so many bigguns. The vet must also be a good friend by now. Thank you on behalf of those that can't speak for themselves.

You're giving us too much credit here. We are lazy people by nature. If we take adult animals we get a pretty good idea of the personality we are going to get. This is a plus given we have all kinds of kids around here as well as grandmas and grandpas who aren't all that steady on their feet. The other deal is that puppies can take months to housebreak and older dogs generally can be crate trained in all of about 2-4 weeks and some of them even know how to sit and lie down. Kittens have this nasty habit of getting under foot or wrapping around your legs when you are going up and down stairs- I so love hanging on to the railing for dear life as my arm is wrenched out of its socket. Very young kittens will scale you like you are a mountain when they are hungry. The old stimulus response deal with the sound of the can being opened. Have you ever been a human pincussion? Get a few young kittens and you'll know what I mean. I'm not into pain or shredded panty hose.

Let me tell you a big plus to having very large dogs, door to door salesmen think twice about walking up our driveway and if they do end up at the front door, they don't ring the doorbell a second time after we say no thank you and shut the door because they aren't all that comfortable with what they saw on the other side. We get no more Jehovah's Witnesses, they must have crossed us off their solicitation list. The neighborhood kids still come to sell things though because they've all run into us walking the dogs and know ours are milktoast.

Vets- plural. We love all of ours and I am relatively confident the feelings are mututal. They're all just really neat people. Think about it, have you ever met a vet you didn't like?

And watch out when I come over they love to talk to me:)
Mia sitting in her hideaway hole..

Oh my gawd! Did she dig that hole all by herself? Holy moly great balls of fire. Lemme guess, is that hole underneath that big Spruce tree that she runs circles around?

Yes my dogs like to talk to you. They'll talk to anyone who will pay attention to them. Say Lisa, you get to meet the new "baby" this Saturday!

What new BABY??????????
Yes that is the hole she dug under that tree she runs around..

A dog! No more humans for us, we're done taking children. Our cup runneth over at this point with two-leggers.

Lauren - he looks so much like my Pete did! I'll have to round up a pic of him somewhere. I know I have printed pics, but I'm not sure if I have any digitals.

Does your gentle giant have a name? He does look like a real sweetie.

Umm, he came with the name of "Twinkletoes". I wish you hadn't asked. That name has got to go. We've tossed around a few names. So far the top picks are Wilbur, Electrolux (just like the vacuum cleaner), Cedrick, and Carpenter because he chewed up one of our kitchen cabinet doors. Carpenter would probably be good because he's been "teething" a lot around here since he came. He's not housebroken yet and my husband did come up with another name for him that he shared with me after the kids were in bed but it wouldn't be appropriate to share that here. For what it's worth, he comes to the name my husband came up with which is hysterical. Oh how we laughed when my husband sweetly called out that name in a soft voice and Twinkletoes came ambling over to lick him in the face. You had to be there I guess. It was late, the dog had gotten into the refrigerator earlier and had chewed our egg holder and broken a dozen eggs then he stood in the broken eggs and ground them into my grout and then for an encore he had a big accident on the floor. We were slap happy at that point.

Stacy, how do you post a photo that isn't digital?

I had to scan it - this is me and Pete when he was 2 years old. He was my third Dane, and by far the best dog I ever had. I still miss him something awful.