The Weekend.

Here is Hannah Belle face on.

After weeks of living in crates and cage things in noisy situations, Hannah has found her new life in a quiet household with Charlie.

At night I allow her on the loveseat with Charlie and I so we can do a bit of cuddling time. Hannah doesn't burrow into the blankets but splays out like she is on a beach in the Bahamas. 

Charlie has his half of the couch and Hannah has to stay on her side. I am allowed to sit in the middle.

This photo shows you the size difference of them at this time. I imagine that Hannah will grow tall and be slender like Rat Terriers [and whatever her 'mix' is]. She adores Charlie and he is actually showing interest in her. 

He waits at her crate door to greet her after a nap and then show her where to do the potty stuff. She watches and follows.

I've always believed in having an older dog teach the younger dog things. 

Manners are the first things I have been teaching. 

Hannah will even sit for a 4 year old child when I show the child how to do it without words. 

Amazing what pups can learn in tiny little sessions that are consistent.

I don't mean for this to turn into a 'training' blog, but this is what captures my interest at the moment. I don't follow any particular 'method'. I have methods that were taught to me 40+ years ago plus life lessons with hound dawgs. I've used the same 'methods' of consistency with both my equine and dogs.

Charlie? He had to be the hardest dog I've ever had to work with. He was the first dog I had that had such a mind of his own. He could turn his ears off and totally ignore me. I found his secret to attention was 'food'. 

Consistency and nibblets of food work so well with both Charlie and Hannah. 

It isn't all training and for a pup, work only lasts for 5 minutes at a time. 

I let Charlie do the hard stuff. 

He shows her where to potty, he comes on the run for recall which teaches her to return quickly also.

I have found that while travelling in the car, Charlie is quieter with Hannah in the crate next to his car seat. 

She should eventually get her own car seat so they can see each other. I've downloaded an app called BringFido. This app was suggested by my oldest son to find places that would allow the 3 of us to travel and stay over night together. 

[Though under what is currently happening, we may be camping in a pasture overnight to have our wilderness experiences together.... and that is okay with me.]

After all, I need to learn how to set up a tent and do a camp out. Why not do it with my pups in our pasture for the first couple of times?

Saturday Hannah Belle met her pupsitter for Easter Weekend when I go visit my eldest son and get to see my beautiful youngest grand daughter. 

Charlie continues to show Hannah the ropes. 

And then this weekend my youngest son came to visit.

Charlie shined while calming my grandson.

Hannah showed considerable love and attentiveness to the gals.

My doubts about adopting a dog disappeared. Hannah took to everyone. She was calm and non-reactive. She took everything in stride.

She also fell for Elena who showed a great interest in caring for Hannah while I worked with my son, Jer, on cutting down trees around the crushed garage or on a hike. Elena fed Hannah, pottied Hannah, and kept watch over her in the yard while I was working.

Thank you so much Elena. You showed a special perception at knowing when Hannah needed feeding, pottying, and petting! Awesome!

I have to also credit Charlie for his incredible attitude. 

I quipped at one point that I should have named Hannah the Queen of Chaos. She and Charlie handled the kids and all of the competing commands they gave the dogs with grace. They just did their thing which is be kind to the kids.

I have Million Dollar Doggies.

Jer and I cut down the box elders that have grown around the crushed garage. The plan is to clean things up and have Frank take down the old beat up building. This area will be cleaned up and graded. 

We have a plan and are working on it.

The kids are gone. Charlie, Hannah Belle, and I are chillin' on the loveseat.

What a busy weekend.

One of the weirdest things

Today I went back to fixing fence and prepping for Fall and Winter. I change things up a bit when I do that. I re-arrange a few fenceposts and change gates also.

I noticed that a boxelder had twisted over the wires but wasn't touching them. This was a job for hubby always. It was a chainsaw job. The tree part that was over the fence was 6 inches in diameter. I started with my little reciprocating saw that Rich bought me years ago.

I trimmed off all the little branches that were in the way and then started working my way back to the thickest part. Back in the day, hubby was the chainsaw operator and I was the picker-upper. Now I got to do it all.

I couldn't get through the large part of the branch I wanted to take down. I made some headway, but my little saw just wasn't going to do it. I have a 6 inch little battery chainsaw, but I didn't want to use it at the angle I needed to.

What to do? Dang it, I was not going to call a neighbor up to ask them to cut through 4 inches of wood. Nope, not me. I remembered that we had a series of little hand saws for when we were riding in the woods and came across a snag.

Bingo! 

I walked into the house to make lunch and tend to Charlie and found myself talking to Rich in my head. Explaining what I was doing and where I was doing it. 

I nodded as I made my sandwich as our conversation went on. 

"Yep," he'd say, "use that little hand saw that way you won't be taking off your leg or something. Those boxelders are a pain, and by the way...trim up the branches that will knock me in the head when mowing while you are at it."

Okay. The conversation took place in my head, but his voice there was clear as a bell.

That's the strange part. I didn't even think it was strange.
For the past 10 years, I've always run things past him before I doing it. We'd discuss the pluses and the minuses and he'd give me tips at how to get things done.

After I made lunch I looked out at the yard thinking about mowing at least the ragged part of it. I could hear his judgement on the matter. "It might be a bit wet yet. Maybe later and... besides, it doesn't look that bad yet."

This guy taught me how to cut up limbs, fix fence, run his country clipper, fix a weed whacker, hunt with a hound dog [dawg], fish, watch for critters, trap varmints, and use a lot of common sense.

It may be weird to some, but to me it makes perfect sense. I often went to him -- even in his last months of life to get an opinion or help on a farm project I was working on. I wanted him to know how much I respected his ideas.

I will however completely fail at being any sort of mechanic. If something won't start, and it is an engine. I am completely and hopelessly lost. He could look at it and fix most things without hesitation.

Give me a problem animal and I can usually turn it around. Engines no. Animals yes.

I did finish cleaning up the mess, rewired the fence, replaced the broken post, and mowed a section of the yard.

Charlie and I then enjoyed some quiet time on the porch.

Lucky us. We saw our first monarch of the year.

Dis... organized?

I went downstairs to get the clippers so I could clip the mule's manes. I'm late doing it this year. As usual.

I picked up a strange blue colored hammer when I grabbed the clippers off the shelf. Hmmm, must have been left behind by the electrician from a few weeks ago.

I put the clipper boxes on the porch so I could get right to the clipping job. When I took the hammer to the kitchen to take a photo and send it to the electrician, I noticed the floor was pretty dirty. I walked around the house and picked up all the rugs to get shaken.

Then I started randomly picking things up in one spot and putting things in another. When I turned around I noticed that the little table the tv was on needed dusting. And behind that? The window sill could use a bit of attention.

I opened the windows wide to let in fresh morning air and then got out the window cleaner. Oh wait, I wanted to vacuum. When I walked past the bathroom, I picked up the trash and cleaned the little bin, then took the trash out and ...

somehow in a most unorganized yet busy manner got the house vacuumed, mopped, windows washed, sills cleaned and discovered that I still had not addressed the mysterious hammer. Plus the clippers were still on the porch next to a pile of rugs that needed cleaning.

I finally did get a shot of the hammer and send it off to the electrician, but not before I had the two Lasko fans pulled apart and washed.

Oh and the mules?

Here is Sunshine, my red headed darling...before clipping.

and after...

I didn't get shots of the others as I did them, but they sure look more like mules than some strange equine now.

And then a couple hours later we had rain! Beautiful wonderful amazing rain.

We may have gotten 1/2" all total. Hopefully the pastures will green up a bit.

Looks like I'll be out doing some wild fungi foraging and searching this afternoon in the sweltering heat!