Our Cone-Headed Dog - and his trip to the vet.

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UPDATE BELOW.

Poor Seth - affectionately known as Seffers. He has had it really rough lately. After his abduction and trip to the pound, we've had to keep him on a short leash. Literally.





At first we left him tied up all day, as he likes to make his rounds. The mean neighbor keeps a shed and pen full of hound dogs. He's got a puppy mill, and he didn't put it up by his house, it's built against our fence line in the back where Seth patrols. This is very efficient. He doesn't have to hear the dogs bark, or smell them, or even go back to feed them anymore, as they are all now automated in their cages. It's only we who get to hear them and smell them, and chase them off when he lets them go for a practice hunting run. Ah, but I digress. It was on one of Seth's rounds at the back of the property that the mean neighbor Shang-Hai-ed him.

These are the events that add interest to life. What else would we talk about if it were not for the challenges? I mean besides vacations to the seaside, nightly feasts, and how unusual and utterly delightful it is that we never have any problems...

After a few weeks, we found that we could let him go, but leave his rope trailing behind him, and it seems to be enough to keep him close to the house and out of danger's way. But we do tie him back up whenever we leave the house, and we are gone a lot.

His range has been reduced, and because of longer times tied up, he's developed spots where his skin is getting rough and irritated. On top of that, he's begun to worry them.

Right on top of his head, just above his ears are the worst two places. I don't think they are mites, as he does not seem to be trying to scratch IN his ears, just on top of them. So we are treating the spots with ointment, and we fashioned a cone for his head.





So far it's lasted 24 hours, and it's made out of poster board we pulled out of our home schooling material pile. Even if we have to make a new one every day, it will still be cheaper than having to purchase a cone, I'm sure.





But oh, the indignity!

UPDATE - After rising this morning and seeing the cone still on, AND in good shape, I began patting myself on the back for being so ingenious. We changed the cone and saw his ear wounds were improved, and continued patting ourselves on the back for being ingenious.

Then the new cone was torn off in a frenzy of unbridled passionate digging about the head with natural paw daggers, and I realized we cannot beat this thing. So we took a trip to the vet.

Mind you, there is no money for this. But the thought of dying from long-term scratching, and slowly bleeding to death brought many memories of my own health troubles to the forefront, and off we went packing.

Poor dog has a yeast infection in his ears, and what I thought was mere fleas all this time, is really very itchy skin. Nary a flea on this dog, amazingly enough. I can no longer affectionately call him a flea-bitten mutt. He's as flea-free as they come.

So we left the office well over a hundred dollars in the hole, and armed with sprays, drops, a steroid-injected dog, and instructions to improve his diet and try to find what is not agreeing with him. Ouch!

Despite it all, he's still out there scratching, but we have already lost so much time just standing there attempting to prevent him from scratching, that we've got to let it go and hope the drugs do the trick here very soon.

If you think about it, send a little prayer for Seth's skin to settle down. I know it's a small thing, but having suffered at the cruel hands of yeast before.... well, I'm sure you know how much he'd appreciate being well.

So yeast is not 'in your head'. Let's hope it's only in your bread.

~Faith

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Beds 10 through 12 - of 24?

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Yeah, I'm not sure we're going to make it, but we are going to give it a shot.

We waited on so many things with this garden. Here it is, halfway through May, and we've got very little planted.

What we DO have is a good start on some permanent raised beds. Even if we don't get them all planted this year, they will be ready next spring, with hopefully NOT much work to do. I'm really looking forward to a spring that we are not tied to working the earth as much as we have been for the last two years.

The hope is that the hay will be mulched thickly enough to prevent weeds, even from the seeds that will be IN the mulch itself. If not, we are in the same boat anyhow, so it's worth the try.

Here is the first bed we mulched with hay, the lowest future melon bed, which we hope to seed tomorrow.

This is laid down at least 6 inches thick, and it's partially decomposed already.





I found my summer squash being attacked by mangey little striped beetles, which I picked off and squished in my fingers. I didn't used to do that, but the harder I work on this, the more vicious I become in protecting it.





And here is the area we needed to work on for the last three beds on the first side.





This has a really bad area right above the peas. The dirt was turned over, toward the downhill direction, leaving us with a sharp bank heading straight into the pea bed. I was not sure how we were going to level it all out.

But I left Michael manning the rototiller...





... and I went on a walkabout down the meadow way to where we'd been hunting for rotten hay bales the neighbor said we could have.





I was dying to get some photos of this flourish of wild daisies we'd traveled through.

















Ooooooooh, look at these!





Here are some of the places we picked up hay from where he'd stored some bales.





And tucked back under the trees and a wild grape vine...





...was this wonderful find!





I hope we can get a chance to eat these grapes. Usually they are so high up in the trees you can't get to them.





We are so blessed to live by this meadow. Can't see the house from here.





Some sort of fiery weed.





A vivid red clover blossom.





Heading back home.





Michael getting his shoes back on after going in for his drink igloo.





While pulling a few weeds I found these sweet potato surprises! They must have very prolific roots, because these were a good 8 feet uphill from where they had been last year. I haven't decided whether to leave them, pull them, or move them, so they are still down there.





We decided to really make the garden straight and neat, so we marked it with string and recut the top border in a straight line to till it in. It was a lot of work, but we are so glad we did it.





Then we needed a shovel. We'd been working with only one shovel, and trying to make do with a spade and a trencher, but our backs have been screaming for weeks. So we took a trip into town to buy a super-duper shovel, and we also invested in a super-duper lopper. We are really going to be blessed by this! Every year I struggle with loppers that barely cut. Now we are set!





Ready to get back at it?





Ready!





There is a very naughty dog on the end of that chain. Twice he has been caught laying on top of our summer squash seedlings. He's going to be kept from the garden until they are much bigger. He gets to be tied up where ever we are working outside so he doesn't feel lonely.

Three beds marked out and digging begun.





All done.





And look at that beautiful straight top, where we plan on placing the cold frames.





T.I.R.E.D.

Tomorrow we hope to mulch all the beds we've done so far. Then we can call the garden beds half done.

~Faith

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Pool Deconstruction.

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Removing the filtering system.





Cutting away the side wall, piece by piece. You need tin snips for this job. They only work in one direction, so it's good to have two that each go in opposite ways so you don't get stuck having to go at a cut in an awkward position as we did. I have two, but they both are the same.





The rotted out track between the outside dirt and the sand on the inside that is used to make a smooth floor.





I had hope to leave the liner in place, cutting it into a circle that would act as a base to set the new pool on, but it was so difficult getting the wall out, that the base was torn up and will need to be redone.





We grabbed the back edge of the liner, by the deck, and rapidly pulled it, hoping to direct most of the water out and downhill as we came. Most of it came out, I think, but it was still a pond til the next day.









Groan..... Lots of redoing needed here. No quick set up for us, this time around.





The underside of the deck. After 6 or 7 years, lots had crumbled down and fallen against the outside of the pool. With no support in the center, it is sagging. The new pool has to be taken down and stored yearly. I think I will wait until then, when it will also be cooler, to take the deck up and redo it. Perhaps by then we might find a more permanent pool solution as well.

Several things to avoid here.

Do not, under any circumstances, allow your spouse to spray Round-Up along banks to avoid using the weedwhacker. I caught him too late. LOL

Secondly, dogs like to find cool shady places to dig in in the summer. I will block off access next time.

Thirdly, I believe I will also install a french drain above the deck to channel water around, rather than through.









These pool wall pieces will be used to line the chicken house walls. When I was a child, my dad got tin-types from the local newspaper office. I don't think those exist any more, do they? We lined our chicken house with those. It was fun to read them as well.









That's the progress so far. :)

~Faith

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Sea Monkeys!

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Michael has been sick since Thursday. Yesterday, being our usual sabbath day of rest anyhow got him to thinking about our tradition of pulling out a craft or activity from the studio on Saturday afternoon. His choice was to grow another batch of troips, or what I used to know as Sea Monkeys, from the backs of comic books as a child. They should be hatching by Monday if they work. I'll post pics. Try not to fall off the edge of your lawn chair in suspense. LOL

I have figured out how to drag and drop pictures in a larger format here, using my Flock browser. I do like this browser, though I've heard that Firefox has an extension that is almost the same. I don't want to try another extension. My computer has about (__) this much room left...

Gardening successes and failures are coming to the forefront.

We started the last herbs we had in seed last week and these little guys are coming up. Aren't these German Chamomiles cute?




I did do a quick deadheading on my one fragrance-free peony by the studio.




Thanks to Tracy at Peaceful Acres We are trying to save a little money by finishing out our potato bins in straw. I'd heard of growing in straw but didn't think of applying it to potato bins. The bins are new to me, so it's an interesting experiment.




Blackberries and grapes are all pruned and tied up.




Flowers on the wild blackberries are white, these Doyle's are very light lavender.








The sunflower cutting garden. We're succession planting.




Not confident in our first pumpkin planting, in which we followed instructions for a 12" high hill in the garden, we dug a spot in a well fertilized area of the pasture and replanted. The stakes are high now in our competition. If we win, the other family has to dress up for the Christmas Ball.




An overview of the garden. Really a slow start this year.




Our first flush of Sugar Snap Peas.




Our second and third plantings.




We put in new melon seed one week ago. They are actually coming up this time. I think our spring was just too cool and moist for them. I'm so glad we are getting melons!




The summer squash are not doing well at all. The weather kept us from planting and I've read that if they stay in the pots too long before transplanting they will bloom far too early for their size. Just like this.




Michael gets 30 minutes a day for computer games. He doesn't use them up sometimes as we are so busy, but he got to use some saved minutes while sick on Saturday.




Where we went outside to enjoy perfect weather and work on our seasonal to-do list.
You can see, the front yard has had nothing done to it. The soil is awful. Some day! :)




Me, sporting that bruise from falling down while chasing the filly.




Seth, the Faithful Doggy.




Our initial lists, to be added to as we find the need. Don't know if you can read them. I'd like to put a list at the side of my blog that I can cross off here, if anyone can tell me how to do that.










Now that my list is done, I'm a lot happier!

Faith

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