Month: December 2015

Huge puppy.

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“What?  Was that a command or a suggestion?”



“I look so innocent”

We are waiting for this calm to develop in the puppy.

The puppy is a dog weed basically.  He grows and grows and grows.  He is 19.3 lbs already with no signs of slowing down.  It is amazing how quickly he is gaining weight.  It shouldn’t be since he consumes two times as much food as our adult 50+lb dog does. Luckily, he is smart so that is offsetting his puppy behavior.  He is truly annoying.  At night he wants to go outside and pee every 15 minutes.  Can you imagine how awful pausing your movie every fifteen minutes is when you have no control of the pause location.  It is crazy.  He pees every time.  I offered a suggestion to Annmarie that we not let him drink any water after dinner.  She wasn’t going for it.  He can now jump on the couch, so now we are teaching him the “off” command.  He is also starting to bark at the cats inside the house.  That is a big “NO”, he ignored Annmarie this morning until she hollered at him.  He took her serious and stopped.  They tell you to maintain your calm and control.  It is not always possible.  We are picking him up every day and carrying him around to get used to being man handled.  I want to be able to carry him or put him on his back whenever is necessary without him panicking.  He will now sit for his food and tonight he waited for a release command.  He is scary smart. 

It is December.

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It is the first week of December, in Eastern Oregon.

It is amazing!  It is the first week of December and the snow is gone, no more in our little neck of the woods.  We had a very warm chinook wind come off the mountains and melt all the snow off in a single day.  I went to Pendleton for errands in the morning and by the time I got back that afternoon this is what I saw.  The stupid trees better not get fooled and try and come out of their winter stupor.  It will kill even more this year than last. 

I had to rush out to the back runoff creek and move fencing.  I have cow panels hung over the runoff creek in six different places.  I had to go lift all those sections of fence out of the creek bed while it was still dry.  It is incredibly painful to do while hanging over a two foot deep raging runoff stream.  I don’t swim well and those conditions are better for a kayak than swimming.  I walked around in a long sleeve shirt only.  It was great, bad for the trees but very pleasant to be out and about.  I had an EMS call and had to run from the school house to my pickup by the house.  I thought I was going to die before I got to the truck.  I definitely need to do more aerobic exercise.  The horses and sheep are starting to go up on the green hillside and eat the grass that is now growing again. 

I cannot believe it is December, wore a long sleeve shirt and blue jeans to move fences.

Predators 3, Farm 1. Deer vs Car tie.

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It’s only fitting that the farm come out swinging in the last month of the year.  I went out tonight with Zeke and Mouse to feed the animals and almost stepped on a possum!  Directly in the path to the barn laying down and not really moving was a possum.  Nasty dirty little creature, I could see him jonesing for a chicken.  I had to run back in the house for an appropriate dispatch device.  The possum was kind enough to wait for me to come back with my favorite chicken killer laser directed dispatch device.  One shot wonder to the rescue.  The current price and availability of 22 LR ammo necessitate the conservation at every opportunity.  Zeke of course ran to the barn when he saw the firearm emerge.  Mouse wasn’t sure what to do so he just stayed back ten feet and sniffed the ground where something had been just prior.  We went into the barn and fed all the sheep without any further attempts to create a chicken dinner.  Mouse thinks pushing the sheep around the barn is a fun event.  The sheep are afraid of him because he is a dog.  He has no idea that they would stomp him into the ground with nary a thought.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t listen to anyone.  I cannot call him off the sheep, so then I end up running around the barn chasing a puppy trying to keep him away from the sheep and any injury.  He is coming along so well, it is amazing how quick he is learning.  Sarah said he rang the bell to get let out four times today.  It was his first time ringing the bell!!

Annmarie called me this evening to tell me that she had hit a deer in her car on the way home.  The deer died alongside the road and the car is still drive able but not going any where.  She said the car had a shake, plus it was missing a headlight and some plastic pieces from the front right corner.  On the plus side she managed to dent the same side she hit the deer on last year!!  Always a bonus to get the old dent fixed at the same time.  So now I get to drive the pickup for a few weeks until our car is fixed.  The evil deer coalition has not won, our car will be back and in working order eventually.  This is merely a temporary setback for humankind.