Empty Nest

...Yes, even though I completely left out a blog entry on the subject, oh...8 weeks ago, our little ladies have moved out on their own. I have a feeling I won't sleep well tonight because I will be worried about them.

How to turn your dog bulimic in 11 easy steps!

Step 1. Make a large grocery run. Preferably after helping a friend make it to an appointment to get an MRI then going out for a burrito and beer.

Step 2. When you get home, unload your groceries from the car to the house. Put all of the bags on the kitchen counter except for 2 of them.

Step 3. Run upstairs to check your email. Make sure the dogs follow you up.

3a. Do not notice one of the dogs slip away downstairs unnoticed.

Step 4. Come downstairs to find said dog starting in on a one-pound carton of butter.
4a. Look around for the other pound of butter and find only the gnawed outer carton.

Step 5. Become incredulous that a 35-pound dog would have consumed a pound of delicious, delicious butter, waxed wrapping and all. Look around for the other 3 cubes he couldn't have possibly eaten.

Step 6. After realizing he had ingested a pound of butter (unsalted, luckily!), scold him as if it were entirely his fault, then send him to his crate.

Step 7. After a brief moment, snap back into reality. Recall the time 2 years ago when he ingested almost an entire box of Samoa Girl Scout cookies, and what the emergency vet said about saturated fat.

Step 8. Call your vet, panicked, and explain (sheepishly) how your 35-pound dog ate a pound, not a cube, of butter.

Step 9. Realize that your dog is not in grave danger when the first thing your vet playfully says to you is, "well, you know...you really should feed him regularly."

Step 10. Confirm with the vet your known method of inducing regurgitation: hydrogen peroxide mixed with peanut butter.

10a. Feel embarrassed when the vet says, "...well, I think he's had enough fat for today. Just take a turkey baster and force the hydrogen peroxide down his throat."

Step 11. After following the vet's instructions, spend the rest of the afternoon feeling the scorn of the sick dog because you're the one who made him sick.

It was a bad day for this dog mom.

Sunshine Came Softly

It must be spring here on the peninsula...

These are some of the prettiest tulips I've ever seen...

The scent of the narcissus are so intoxicating, I can't cut them and bring them in the house. They're too overwhelming!

I don't really like to eat chives, but I think the plant is so pretty.

I wish I could say this is the lone dandelion in our yard.

Oh, yes. And chickens. 6 cute little peepers who live in a galvanized watering trough in our spare bedroom, with nothing but a heat lamp, food, water, and attention from us twice a day. What a life.

Cal has been busy building a coop, because he's good like that. No real building plans, just an amalgamation of coop plans he's seen, combined with his intuition, intelligence, and focus. It's almost done, and once they get their big-girl feathers, in about another 4-6 weeks, they will get to live outside for good, eating grubs, ants, and vegetable scraps.

And most likely boss the dogs around.

Time

I apparently have a horrible sense of time. On March 2nd, I told you I would be back in a week. It is now the 29th.

That's more than a week, right? I mean, my calendar here at my house still says February.

I have a few things to blog about:

• Chickens
• Cider
• Travel
• And of course, the yard
  

For the first 2, I even have pictures to go along with the upcoming blog entries! For the third subject, the travel is coming up--this week and in June--so there will be pictures. For the last subject, every time I walk around the yard, I get slightly depressed. There may or may not be pictures, depending on my pride.

So. Much. Work. To. Do.

Thanks for your patience!

Holy Mackerel

8 months since I made a blog entry?! That's just ridiculous.
I've been gearing up to start writing again, but I'm not quite ready tonight.
Check back in a week (she says to probably nobody.)

So I broke North with no delay *

I've always been enamored of members of the Ursidae family, having grown up going to the Oregon Zoo a lot, and always wanting to spend more time in that area than in any other. Ursus maritimus has always been my favorite of the bears, but I love them all. In fact, for the minute I was a Zoology major, I considered focusing on the study of bears (Ursology?). I curse my math-feeble brain for holding me back from that, with a possible failing grade in Physics on the horizon.

When Cal and I decided to take a vacation this year (our first since our honeymoon 3 years ago), and we decided on Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park, I only had one thing on my mind: Bears. Not the threat of encountering one on a hike or picnic, but the promise of seeing one from a respectable distance. Because, while I daydream about cuddling up with a bear and perhaps talking over the state of the world, I know the reality of their ferocity.

While I was helping Cal watch the road for deer, elk, sheep, and goats, I was all the while scanning for signs of Beardom. In the brush right off the road, in the distant tree-filled slopes, on the lakefront taking a bath. Nothing. Lots of mountain goats, Bighorn sheep, ground squirrels, deer (oh my heavens, did we see deer!) but not a bear to be found.

The day before we left for home, we were coming back from our beautiful hike at Haystack Butte. I was feeling a bit glum, having encountered no bears during our trip. After we crossed back into Canada, on our way to the lodge, we noticed cars were stopped at the side of the road. We pulled over to see what I assumed to be some boring old mountain goats (we had seen so many, it almost wasn't interesting anymore.) On the little hill, about 100 feet from the car, I saw some ears (4 of them) poking up that definitely did not belong to a goat. Or a sheep. Or a deer. I thought maybe they belonged to some wolves.

And then...
they raised their heads...
and we saw...

(No, it wasn't a Two-Headed Bear)

















*My excitement at seeing two young grizzly bears from my car window was a high that lasted for days. I had an excited little hand-dance I would give intermittently while Cal was driving, always to the tune of "Girls" by the Beastie Boys. But, of course, it wasn't girls I was singing about, it was bears (two at a time I want...)

I will have to write more about our trip later in the week, as I'm headed up to Seattle tomorrow for Riesling Rendezvous, hoping to bring some information back to my people and bust some myths about Riesling. As I've said before, my job sucks.

I really should send W. a Thank You note

After all, we wouldn't have been able to take a summer vacation without his stimulus (sorry, couldn't resist.) In fact, I can't remember the last time I took a summer vacation as an adult.

Glacier National Park, I will sign your name to the card, too.

(Our decision to spend the stimulus on a vacation is great and all, but it's not as good as the guy Cal heard about who was going to donate his entire stimulus check to the Obama campaign.)