Life Reset

 Several days of snow piling up + freezing rain = four days no power, tv, phone or Internet = God pushing the reset button on our normal lives.   (Pictures enlarge for your viewing pleasure by clicking on them)

It was a beautiful mess around here with a massive amount of trees down (looked like a bomb went off in some places) resulting in roads closed, whole blocks of stores closed, schools closed, towns closed, etc. all dressed up in white snowy, icy glory so much so that you could almost pretend all was well in the world and ignore it.  At least we could.  And we did.

 We took the "reset" in stride and just had fun making a fire outside for ambiance as we listened to the amazing sounds of crashing trees all around us. (Our neighbors thought we were nuts of course)

Mark spotted this eagle surveying our neighborhood.  Seeing this reminds me of Isaiah 40:28-31, one of the anthem scriptures of Samuel's life.

 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired.
His understanding is inscrutable.
 He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
 Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary. 

Isaiah 40:28-31

The litle dogs LOVE the snow.

Max, however, not so much.

We maybe had 6" of snow on the ground but it wasn't the snow that was the problem.  It was the massive amount of ice that lingered for several days.

 We actually started the fire after Mark broke a lot of the ice off our tree limbs in the hopes that the hot smoke would melt some of it before limbs started crashing into our neighbors garage.   Thankfully, none of them did.

 

Bushalee and Bunny.  (Dad and daughter)

This is the first time I've ever seen anything like this!  Truly amazing.

Bud enjoyed a week without having to wear his muzzle.  He was bundled up warmly as you can see and enjoyed lots of extra food rations.

As we were driving around, we saw another horse with Bud's same blanket on, only it was orange.  Of course I loved it and wished I had bought orange for Bud, but with the help of Adobe, he has an orange blanket for my personal viewing pleasure, and yours!

Doesn't he have the cutest butt?

He's quite playful these days....

Especially when Mark chases him.  Love this one!

Bud is really coming along training-wise and once the weather clears, I cannot wait to show you his Christmas present. 

Blackberry bushes covered in ice.

 So yummy!

The views from Bud's barn.

 

 You might remember the saga of gathering wood last summer?  Don't think we didn't remind our children about how all the work equated a warm home when it became our sole source of heat.

 And heat is not the only reason to own a wood stove.  It also dries clothes, towels, and shoes plus cooks dinner and BONUS boils water for those warm baths we were able to take for four days with no hot water heater.

 Up here we have the pressure canner boiling water, the ceramic crock simmering Mexican stewed elk, and the stock pot simmering cornish game hen stock.   SO yummy!

 One of Mark's many talents is preparedness and I am always so grateful for that when God chooses to reset our normal.  Mark took preparedness to an all new level when Samuel was here knowing it would be so much harder to care for him if we had to endure a prolonged outage.  That said, we were quite comfortable and in good spirits because of all his well thought out plans and gadgets.   Read, it was kind of fun!  At least for us adults and even though the kids complained about their "severe lack of entertainment," they didn't starve, they weren't stinky, they didn't have to go to a "warming shelter" nor were they blinded by the darkness.   The girls didn't even bother to get dressed half the of time.   They sat around in jammies and read books, drew pictures or watched movies on the laptop.   We also enjoyed  watching the 70's version of "The Adventures of Black Beauty" where they lived a much simpler life than we do today when we weren't visiting my Black Beauty.    Mark and I think we had to have been born in the wrong time period.

We all learned a few things about making the best of the resources you do have during this time that we plan to implement into our normal lives.  Things like cooking on the wood stove.  That food was fantastic and fun.   I also really enjoyed getting up to candlelight.  We'll have to do that more often.  We have also had some entertaining family time that we don't usually get these days with all the blessed technology.

Our time was well spent.  I'm sure everyone can benefit from defrosting their refrigerator and thoroughly cleaning it out.  I know we did!   Anna found magnets under the fridge that are at least four years old.  It was like lost treasure in the midst of a lint mountain.  We also canned the game hen broth yesterday and today I am cooking up some ham soup with it since I need to cook all my now thawed meats as the freezer became a fridge for awhile. 

Aren't they pretty?   Tasty too!

The leftovers will become dog treats.  I love that!  Nothing is thrown away/wasted.

  All in all, I enjoyed the "reset."  Parts of it felt like camping and parts of it felt like a vacation from my regularly scheduled life.  It was a nice break from the work I've been doing for my own healing as spoken of in the previous blog.    We all agreed, however, that the one thing we all missed most was access to the Internet.  

We're back online!  At least until next time our life is reset.

It's Never Easy to Say Goodbye

But it always helps to receive updates.

Arika's new owner, Georgia, called me today.  I was going to call her today; been dying to call her all week but didn't.  Arika is well loved and Georgia was just gushing about how well she is fitting in with their family.  I was so thrilled to hear all about their week but it's still bittersweet.  Arika's absence has been sadly obvious this last week.  Strangely enough, neither of her canine parents notice she's gone, nor her siblings, just the rest of us.  Her pictures are all over our computer screen savers and wallpaper and everytime I see them, I say, "Hi Grungie," and miss her.  She had the cutest little habit; when I would lay down on the ground she would climb up on my back to get to my shoulder where she could sit like a parrot and lick my face.  I miss that.

Georgia knew we would miss her and mentioned it during the call.  "It must be so hard to see her go," she said.  She can tell how much Arika was loved here and how well cared for she was with us.  I told her that of course it was horrible to have to let two of them go.  The new owners have little clue how much time I personally spent with each puppy being their "mom" especially during those first few weeks. Choosing which ones to let go was awful.  Kaysha's had a rough week too.  I told Georgia that the puppies we decided to find homes for were the ones that needed things from us that we couldn't give. It wasn't fair to them to stay with us because of that. Brutus needed a quieter household and Arika needed to be the queen of the house.  Neither was thriving in the "herd" we currently have and in loving them dearly, we knew we needed to let them go. 

I don't know how breeders do it...let them go.  And do it over and over and over again.  I guess if you don't get attached, if you choose not to love them, if you just "don't do it right" it's easier.  I'll go to bed tonight and remember my chat with Georgia.  We brought a puppy into the world that she doesn't know how she ever lived without.  That's cool.  It truly is.

I've done this all before.  Loved someone enough to let them go when I could no longer give them what they needed in this life here with me.  Convinced them to go when it was unfair for them to continue trying to stay here.  Knowing it was the right thing to do, the selfless thing to do, does not make the absence easier.  But it does help to receive updates and to know that they are loved and doing well.

Just my lament for the week......

Bud's doing better.  The big dogs are also well.

Our Animals

Arika went to her forever home today.  The perfect family for her has been found and while we are thrilled for her, we are feeling the loss.  Suddenly it's really quiet around here and I am trying not to feel like I sold one of my children.  Arika is going to be a little queen where she's going and I am sure the transition will be harder on us than on her.  Let me just say that it is a lot easier and more exciting to go buy a puppy than to go sell one.  And I still have five dogs!  I love animals if you haven't noticed.

Bushalee and Bear are recovering ever so slowly from their spay/neuter surgeries.  Bear has been pretty listless over the last several days but is finally perking up tonight.  Bushalee, on the other hand, could not leave his incision alone so we had to get him a lamp shade collar and boy is he embarrassed.  He probably thinks we hate him after the trauma of the surgery and now this insult. 

The Bunny is very intuitive and she is really melting my heart.  She absolutely knows that her parents haven't been feeling well and she tries her best to comfort them.  It's really special to watch.    It seems she has had this sense from birth.    When Javier was dying, she was the one snuggling with him and in the time he lived, she was always with him.  So now, she has been snuggling with her parents whether they want her to or not trying to help them feel happy or at the very least, not alone.

Diego is the one who constantly notices injustice and barks about it.   If Bushalee growls because he is grumpy or snaps at someone, Diego gets right in his face and barks his head off.  If he senses something isn't right, he barks about that too. 

It's really interesting to watch both him and Bunny's personalities come through.  And that saying about how animals take on the personalities of their owners is so true.  Each puppy who has been mainly cared for by one specific person in this house has at least some quality of that person.  Brutus was taken care of by Daniel and he was the most sensitive (and messy).  Arika was taken care of by Kaysha and she was the most opinionated little princess of the bunch.  Diego has been taken care of by Anna (who day by day reminds us more and more of Samuel) and he seems to have a wisdom beyond his puppy hood while still being the happiest little clown in any situation that you ever did see.  And then there's The Bunny who is totally mine; the one who takes care of everybody whether they want her to or not.  She looks harmless because she is still so little but Mark says she has the heart of a lion.  She's not afraid to stand her ground against the big dogs and she is quite strong willed when she thinks she isn't getting her fair share.

And then there's Bud.  We went out for our daily check a couple days back and he was limping again.  So frustrating.  I have been cautiously allowing him to graze a few days a week with no muzzle as it has been rubbing his face raw.  He seems to be doing well, no soreness at all until this.   The severe limp was reminiscent of an abscess and luckily, I found the tender spot immediately.   The pasture is soaked of course and muddy so I left it unwrapped hoping the mud would keep things soft enough to open up.  By the next day, it was open and he was better.  Tonight, it's still draining but oh so muddy and he's still slightly limping.  Not a good time for this at all.  Hopefully, this is the last one and he'll continue to improve.

Bud's lameness, Bushalee and Bear's misery, and now parting with Arika and Brutus made for an emotionally wrung out week worrying about all of them.   The way I used to feel when Samuel wasn't doing well is the way I have felt for my animals that were feeling poorly.   And I'm worthless to do anything more than take care of them.  Bud is the worst one though simply because we don't want him to relapse when the foot is about 3/4 of the way grown out and there's not a whole lot was can do but wait and watch and pray it's just an abscess and nothing more.

Then add the tragedy in Japan and heartache for those living there.  Kaysha has a heart for the Japanese people and has spent the last several years teaching herself Japanese hoping to travel to Japan one day so watching that all play out has been very very awful.  Our prayers are certainly with them.

14 Weeks - Leaving the Nest

Video of puppies at 37 days 

Video of puppies at 75 days

View all puppy blog entries

Brutus left to his forever home last night.  I did my best not to cry.  We will sure miss him.  Originally, we thought we'd keep both him and Panda, aka The Bunny, but as time passed, it became obvious that he needs a quieter household.  He is a sensitive little boy who went to a younger (than us) couple with no kids.  He was a birthday present for the lady and I cannot think of a better gift.  She was thrilled and we were happy to see him go where he will be babied and spoiled.  But I am going to miss that cute little nose of his and his many kisses ( and ear pierces) in the mornings.  It was a little sad this morning for us, not the puppies or the parents who don't even seem to miss him.  Hmm.

Arika has had many lookers but no takers yet.  We have been adamant about matching the puppy to the kind of family the puppy would do best in which is why they have stayed with us this long.  Arika is feisty but kind of the black sheep here so the search for the right home for her goes on.  

And then there's Diego, aka Kit Kat and also Garfield depending on who's talking.  He was going to be sold and now he's staying.  We named him Diego for Samuel and this puppy is truly "Pooper's Puppy."  He is the sweetest happiest puppy ever.  The most easy going, loving and humorous boy we've ever met.  He has really come out of his shell in the last couple weeks and made it impossible for us to let him go.  He is a true clown and everyone adores him.  He follows me everywhere and has the silliest bark you ever heard.  I'll take another video soon so you can hear him.  He loves playing fetch, and he actually brings the ball back too.  He also stands up on the stool in my bathroom so he can look at himself in the mirror.  He thinks the hair dryer is the funnest thing ever, but the cutest thing he does by far is barking at Bushalee.  When Bushalee gets into trouble for XYZ, Diego seems to mock him by barking right in his face.  And his bark is so funny, almost houndish in nature that you just cannot help but laugh and encourage it.   And he's so floppy, like a cat.  He tries to jump onto things and over things but always misses and flops. 

But from now on, this post is being hijacked by The Bunny who got a bath today.

Don't let the sweet look fool you, she is a wild and crazy girl.  She looks quiet but she is a stick of dynamite just waiting for you to light the match.

She is amazing with a personality very opposite of Diego.  She's cute and she knows it.

She is still tiny.  Somewhere around five pounds still so she will definitely be our smallest when full grown.  Compare to Diego who is around 8-9 pounds now. He is a lunker.

The Bunny's Mommy and Daddy are at the clinic today being altered.  NO MORE babies.  They are WAY too hard to watch go out into the world we found out.

There's nothing like raising them though. They are still just amazing.