The Dogs

 We have three dogs here on the ranch with us.  

Many of you will remember Kersey, our yellow lab. She came to us as a puppy right around the time I started this blog.  She will be 12 this summer.  Kersey has been suffering from severe arthritis for a number of years and is currently maxed out on medications.  She's still a happy dog but she doesn't leave the front porch too often and is starting to show signs of dementia.  

Sage is three years old.  She is very busy, all the time, keeping Acorn in line and hunting squirrels and gophers.  She is the best rodent control we've ever had.  While she loves agility, she also has a nagging soft tissue injury in her front leg.  It doesn't bother her when we do short sessions here at home but she can't tolerate training class which is more intense.  She is very anxious and doesn't like to leave home so my plans were never to compete her.  She would hate it.  So, I've decided to stop with formal training and just work with her here at home.  I've converted the dressage court to an agility course so we can practice there -- which she loves.

Acorn is 16 months old and has been a real challenge.  He is Sage's brother, from a later litter obviously.  He is endlessly devoted to Brett and lives to run errands in the truck.  If Brett leaves, in the truck, without Acorn all hell breaks loose.  Acorn howls like his heart is breaking and runs up and down the driveway frantically.   While Sage is a timid and anxious dog.  Acorn is bold and brave.  He's very affectionate with people but has been aggressive with other dogs, including Kersey.  Working through this behavior has been a huge project.  Kersey was Brett's dog before Acorn came along and so he is very jealous of her.  Brett's done a ton of focus and control work with him and that, combined with Acorn growing up, has made a big difference.  He tries to herd the donkeys and horses but mostly they either ignore him or, if he is really getting on their nerves, they herd him away.  He's been known to dig up all my drip lines, multiple times, and drag them across the property.  He's destroyed patio furniture and rugs.  He's beautiful and is going to be a wonderful dog when he matures.

Skunked

 Kersey is a very sweet, affectionate and obedient lab.  But she isn’t very smart and she isn’t very fast.  She’s getting up there in age and arthritis has really slowed her down,,, but she was never fast.  Most often, I use two nicknames with her: Old Lady and Dumb Dumb.  Affectionately, of course, because she is looking at me with her big wet brown eyes and slowly wagging her tail from side to side. 

Before we go to bed at night, we take the dogs out to pee.  They normally do their business and then come right back in, ready for bed.  Sometimes, Sage will take off barking at something but she’s never gone long.  Kersey just sniffs the grass, does her thing, and comes back up onto the porch.  A couple nights ago, Sage took off barking in the direction of the compost piles — and Kersey followed.  Sage usually runs off towards the front gate or barn which means she is probably chasing deer.  The compost piles are not a good place — skunks love the compost piles. 

Sage came back pretty quickly and headed for bed.  Kersey did not come back, despite me calling and calling and calling.  Brett came outside and took a turn at calling.  Then he got a flashlight, put on his boots, and headed off in the darkness to find her.  Which he did...by the compost piles.  He brought her into the house and called me over, “take a look and see if you think she got skunked.”  Um, yes.  She had rolled in the compost after getting hit with the oily spray so she was a lovely shade of black where the compost had stuck to the oil.  

We took her to the barn and gave her a bath.  This is the third time that she has been skunked.  She was very pleased with herself.  Thankfully, a mix of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dish soap works really well to remove the oil and odor.  I rubbed it onto the top of her head, around her eyes and muzzle, down her back and her left side — she was very thoroughly skunked.  Luckily, we have warm water in the horse wash stall in the barn.  And, I have all ingredients for skunk wash on the shelf because, like I said, she isn’t very smart and this isn’t the first time she’s been skunked.  It didn’t take too long to bathe her, but was not my preferred thing to be doing at 11pm on a cold night. 

And, yes, the house reeked from the brief time Kersey was inside before her bath.  We kept a window open all night and it was cold in the house in the morning.  

Brawl in the Barn

The dogs are fed their meals in the barn, at the same time as we feed the other animals.  There are two storage containers of food, one for each since they are on very different dog foods (Kersey being a senior and Sage being a super active youngster).  The two containers are touching each other, forming a low wall of sorts.  When feeding, Kersey waits on the far side where she can snag any pieces that fall and Sage waits a few steps behind me in the area where I place her food.  There is a good five or six feet between them, including the food bin barrier.

Photos on the back porch, not in the barn

So, I was dishing up their breakfast.  The dogs were in their usual spots.  And then Kersey, who is the friendliest most unaggressive lab ever, started growling.  And snarling.  Sage stepped backwards and dropped her tail low to the ground.  And she wasn’t even close to Kersey.

As I reached into the bin of Kersey’s food to fish out her medication and add it to her bowl, I have to admit that I fumbled a bit.  Kersey was still growling and snarling and looking downright mean and ugly.  Sage was now laying across my feet, whimpering.

Once I gave Kersey her food, she was fine.  And at dinner she was fine.  She hasn’t done it again — this was four or five days ago.  But it was weird.  Very weird.

Maybe she was hangry?

Leaving the Animals

It is difficult for us to leave the ranch.  I know we aren’t alone in that space.  We wouldn’t trade our life here, with the animals, for anything but it does make it very difficult to travel.  Unlike some of our other retired friends, we can’t take off at the drop of a hat and go hither and yon.

Fortunately, we have two very good people who take care of our animals when we do leave.  They both are experienced with horses and we trust them.  Of course, we still look for the daily text telling us everything is okay, but we don’t worry too much.  Laura also sent us photos which was really nice.

Pistol

For Thanksgiving, we traveled to my father’s home — about six hours away by car.  Laura stayed at the house and took care of everyone, in the snow and cold.  We had the horses in their stalls in the barn so she didn’t have to slog out to the pastures.  The first day that Laura was here, Lucy got a bit impatient while waiting for dinner and was demonstrating all her athletic moves.  Of course, all the bucking and leaping about didn’t make Laura want to go into the stall but Lucy did, eventually, chill.

Lucy is also a pig.  She poops and pees in her bedding, unlike the other three who do their business outside in their run-outs.  Flash takes big mouthfuls of his hay and dunks it in his water.  As a result, the area around his water is always wet and the water in the bucket is a lovely shade of green.  Unless the weather is really bad, or the snow is deep, it’s easier for us if they are in their pastures and they are happier there too.

Laura stayed at our place, but she had additional places where she was feeding pets and livestock.  She had asked us about taking the dogs with her and I said that Sage hates the car and it isn’t fair to leave her behind and just take Kersey so we expected that they didn’t go with her.

Kersey loves the car.

She took them both.  And, Sage was fine.

Not thrilled, but not unhappy either.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fu-uhn

Part of the reason we got Sage earlier this year was that Kersey has really slowed down.  She acts like an old dog now, sleeping a lot and watching us from the front porch during chores instead of coming along.

She had some ACL injuries when she was younger and now her joints are fused and arthritic.  She’ll be ten next summer.

So, Sage arrived and immediately started tormenting poor Kersey.  Then, Kersey taught Sage what to do with squirrels.  Sage is fast — she catches ground squirrels a lot.  She didn’t know what to do with the squirrel at first; Kersey demonstrated.  I won’t go into details but our squirrel population has decreased, which is a good thing.

We put Kersey on a new arthritis medication a month ago and she is a new dog.  She’s dropped almost 15 pounds in the past six months and she looks good.  She was way overweight before.    The two of them have a lot of fun together chasing squirrels, swimming in the stream and digging in the compost pile.

A Dog's Christmas

Kersey had a great Christmas.

Photo by Camille

The house was full of people; and she loves people.  Love, love, LOVES people.

Even better, those people included Camille (above)...

and Kyle.

Aren't these photos awesome?  Ana (Kyle's girlfriend) has portrait setting on her new phone.  So, I had to order one -- look for better photos in the future in this space.

Hot; Just Hot

Today is the first of September.  The days are getting shorter and the nights are normally cool.

But we are not having normal weather.  When I left work this afternoon, this was the temperature (Sacramento).

I stopped at the grocery store, half-way home.  It was hot there, too.

At home, it was a bit cooler.  But when its this warm, hot is hot.  Whether its 93 or 97 or 100, it is plain old miserable doing chores.

Kersey is the smart one on the ranch.  She does this multiple times a day.

Kersey and Rosie

We celebrated Easter with family and friends.  The friends brought their dog, Rosie, along.  She's a nine month old labradoodle who lives in the suburbs.

She couldn't figure out the horses.

And the donkeys weren't too impressed with her.  Imagine lots of barking and braying going on.

Her favorite, though, was playing in the water.

Kersey showed her all the best places in the stream.

Rosie went from fluff ball to... soggy.

Poor Kersey

As I mentioned in a previous post, Kersey really missed Brett last weekend.

And then there was the minor issue of me forgetting to feed her.  It was Saturday evening, and I was busy feeding the horses, and cleaning the stalls.  I topped of the horses' water, closed up the barn and headed back to the house.  I was wet and cold and thinking about a nice hot shower.

I wasn't thinking about Kersey.  Normally, Brett feeds her (I can blame him, right?) and I just got into my normal groove and forgot all about her.  When I got to the porch, I took off my rubber rain boots, slipped on my clogs and turned to go inside.  Kersey, was sitting in front of the closed barn doors, looking forlorn.

I called her.  "C'mon," I said, "its time to go inside and get warm."  She didn't budge.  I called again.  And then it hit me.  She was still waiting for dinner.  ...she gets dinner first, before the horses, so she can do her business afterwards, while we are doing everything else.

I clomped out to the barn in my clogs and fed her.  She thumped her tail and wolfed her dinner.  The nice thing about labs is that they finish their dinner in under a minute.  And, they don't hold a grudge.  If someone forgot to feed me, I would be pretty pissy.  Not Kersey.  Maybe there's a lesson there.

Snow Day

Guess what we woke up to this morning -- Snow!  Lots of snow.

It was soft, and dry, and fluffy.  It's kind of melty slushy now but it was sure gorgeous this first thing this morning.

At noon, we moved the horses back to their pastures.  We may get a bit more snow tonight and then we have sunshine on tap into the weekend.  Lucy walked very carefully through the snow.  She doesn't trust it.  Tex couldn't wait to roll and then play:

Kersey in the Snow

She's not really sure what she thinks of the snow.

Its fun to run through... for a few minutes.

But its cold when you sit.

...so confusing.

Is it time to go back in the house, yet?

Morning Chores

I'm really getting a workout this weekend.  Brett is in Southern California visiting his son's family.  This means three days of solitude (which I enjoy) (which isn't to say that I don't miss him), and three days of full responsibility for the ranch.  I enjoy the morning chores best, when it is cool and crisp, and I still have lots of energy.  I can knock out the morning chores is under 90 minutes.  Lunch is a piece of cake -- just delivering hay to the three pastures.  Evening chores are pretty much a repeat of the morning, minus the vitamins.

I slept until 7am, when the grey light of morning and the pacing hoofbeats of Lucy and Jackson woke me up.  Brett starts waking up around 5 or 5:30 and is restless thereafter.  We are normally up by 6:30.  So, this morning felt deliciously luxurious.

After giving Kersey her medication and letting her out, I turn on my espresso machine, grab the chicken scraps, and head outside.

All our kitchen scraps and leftovers go in here.  The chickens eat well.

After opening the hen house door, Kersey and I head to the barn.  She's first up for breakfast, and it is devoured before I get the first buckets done.  All the horses get a scoop of vitamin pellets and carrots.  Tex gets magnesium to help him relax, Lucy gets magnesium and a joint supplement, Flash gets his arthritis medication - hidden in a fig newton.

The prep table; carrots in the refrigerator to the left.

We converted a stall into the feed room.

Pistol gets her bucket first.  She leaves puddles of drool all over her pasture, anticipating breakfast.

Tex and Flash get their buckets next, and then I push the hay cart over to Lucy and Jackson's pasture.  Lucy works up an appetite patrolling the fence line and urging me to pick up the pace.  While she and Jackson eat their vitamins, I clean/muck their pasture.  I mix 50% leaves with the manure, from the oaks which have carpeted much of the pasture, and then dump it in the compost bin.  After turning it a few times, I will have amazing compost in the spring.

Next, I let the goats out; Bear, Cowboy and Whiskey head for the area where Tex and Flash dribbled and dropped vitamin pellets; Thistle heads straight for the hay.

While they are sorting that all out, I muck the pasture they share with Tex and Flash.

Then its back to Pistol's pasture to pick up manure there.

Back in the barn, I rinse out the vitamin buckets

and reload the hay cart.

Kersey supervises.

Lastly, I walk down the driveway to the road and pick up the paper before heading into the house for that espresso.