Challenges with Charlie

I have such a hard time with Charlie. He is so mild mannered and sweet.

He wants to hike with me at all times. That is no problem because I like his company and the little bells jingling on his collar. But the field grass and the forest undergrowth is getting tall!

Soon I won't be able to find Charlie! He is 7 inches tall at the shoulder. He has grown in length to perhaps 12 inches?

There are many groomed hiking trails at parks I can visit. I've also been looking for an over the shoulder bag to carry him in when he gets tired. So far I've just resorted to carrying him tucked under an arm.  I'm going to try out a canvas bag on our next walk. I've looked at many of the 'dog' bags on different sites and am not sure what may be comfortable for him and me.

We won't be doing Marathon Hiking together, but nice 3 to 4 mile hikes may be in order. A hike around Jersey Valley or Sidie Hollow would work out nicely.

I think our local deep woods hiking may have to be put on hold unless we stick mostly to the creek bottom. I used to fear losing Morris too in deep summer as the undergrowth got thick.
I don't worry about Dixie, she is easy to spot with her bright collar and generally never goes more than 30 feet from me. She also runs like a maniac to me if I just cluck or whistle.
Charlie tends to ignore me if something is more interesting. But perhaps doing groomed trails will help with that. Once he learns the routine he will stick closer?

He entertains us always. Yesterday I opened the inner door so he could look outside. He played with the Lime Green Hedgehog toy and when I turned around I saw this....

Too darned cute.

In the morning he has a routine. I use a gate to keep him confined to the kitchen until about 7:30 or so. When the clock hits that minute, he is at the gate waiting to go wake up Rich and get his morning pet and cuddle.

I think some mornings he'd just lay down and sleep next to Rich.

The car rides are getting better. Charlie does so much better if he is held while being transported. If he goes in his crate and isn't held, he gets sick.
However, I've been taking him on short rides with his tiny bed on the car seat and a leash/harness contraption so that he can look around but not crawl into my lap while I am driving.

I think I will devise a 'booster' seat of some kind so he can be busy looking out the windows.

We are getting there. Charlie is amazing. Last night Rich wanted to watch some stuff on Netflix and Charlie settled in between us on the loveseat. I glanced over and noticed that Charlie was on his side with Rich's hand slowly petting him over and over.
There was such a great look of contentment on both human and dog faces that I couldn't help but smile inside and out.

Morris never liked petting much. Charlie loves being touched.

After all, what is not to love about this face?

One saddle

In 2011 I had a friend who rode Endurance call me up on a saddle she found on Craig's List. The saddle was missing the fenders and most of the other parts of the saddle were quite worn.
However, it looked much like an old Cavalry Saddle and weighed next to nothing!

I drove over and looked at it and realized that it may in fact be an old Stonewall Saddle.

The first photo is of Sunshine with the saddle on her.
Here is a shot of Siera after we outfitted the saddle with new straps ordered from Stonewall and English synthetic leathers along with synthetic stirrups.

It really doesn't look like much does it? With mules we use a crupper on the tail and a breastcollar. These items keep the saddle from sliding forward or backward while negotiating our steep hills.

Sunshine's back with the saddle again. You can see the breast collar is also sort of an Aussie style collar and not the typical western breast collar. We found that the typical western breast collar could choke the mules on a really steep hill.

Then here is Mica wearing the same saddle and you can see how the crupper fits.
Excuse the hair all over the yard, it is shedding time and I cut her mane with a pair of scissors.

When I first started using this saddle, I was sure that I'd fall right out of it with the least little bolt or spin that a mule would make.

One afternoon I took Opal [she's gone now] out to pick black berries and wild yellow raspberries.

She was by far the quickest mule we'd ever owned. She was my husband's Team Penning and Gymkhana mule. Eventually she retired from speed work and I would take her on solitary rides.
A doe burst out of the corn field we rode by on our way home. Opal leaped into the air and did a 180 turn and began to gallop in the other direction. Spooks happen.
How I sat that event out is still anyone's guess.

And then there is Siera. The least spooky critter I have. If she gets frightened, she generally freezes up solid. [Unless it involves farm machinery or baby carriages]

Well, back to the saddle. It works on all of these mules and is super lightweight. I like riding in it. The English stirrups require that I wear half chaps to keep my lower legs from pinching.

It wasn't until two days ago that I realized that I've used this saddle on every mule I ride and it works wonderfully.

Of course I have other saddles but when the grand kids show up to ride I have to let them use my Western saddles.

This is the end result of all the work I do to keep these mules in tip top shape.

What is nice?
I can just use one saddle for all these mules.
It is a terrible job, but someone has to ride them right???

It is riding season again!

Flowers and Mules

Here is some of the fencing after I have spent hours cleaning weeds from below it. The three lines keep the small Dexter cattle from climbing under the fence. I think I could modify this, but right now I won't make adjustments.
I will have to resort to some 'brush' spray as the berry briers and multiflora rose bushes insist on growing into the electric lines.

I did a section and quit. I can only do so much per day. I have to go deeper into the woods and repair a rather large section. But not until I finish what is already set up. The new/old section is above the creek, I have to take down the line and then put up new wire and in spots move the posts.

After supper I grabbed another mule, Mica, and we went for a cruise.

I am taking each of the riders out for their Spring time tune up. Memorial weekend will arrive and the grands will want to go riding. I want to make sure all riding mules are ready and willing.

Mica found Blood Roots!

Who says you can't take a decent shot with a point and shoot pocket camera???

I rode Sunshine the day before. She was in a major need of a mane trim.

Both mules didn't really need any tuning up at all. They both did exactly what as asked of them and did it willingly.

I sure do love our mules.

And that is that.

Weekend Away

Okay, it was not 'away' really. But it was away from Mother in Law care and appointment making, check book balancing, book-work, and fencing.

My friends from the Kenosha-Racine area came for another visit.
The men folk changed the oil in the diesel and we moved a hay feeder, took care of chores and items that needed extra hands.

Then we packed snacks and sandwhiches and instead of hiking in Awesome Creek we went to Duck Egg County Forest.

As you can see in the top shot, the Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River was running hard. Normally it is a very swift river anyway. The six inches of rain was still coming down the hills into the streams and rivers.
We had a scare with Scout, pictured below.
He loves water and decided to jump in next to the bridge, he was swept away and we all freaked out.
Lucky dog. He was able to get out about 10 feet down stream. We kept him on a leash near all the water crossings after that. Whew!
However, Scout is a quick learner. He didn't try those waters again.

Saturday morning was spent on exploring the recent flooding of the Kickapoo River.

The Kickapoo River is a rather slow moving river and when it floods it just creeps over the banks and spreads out.

Most of the towns along this river have parks into which the river can overflow into. After many historic floods most of the homes that can be flooded have moved homes out of the flood plane.

The wild flowers at Duck Egg were in rare form. 

I'll have to do another blog just on them.

So many wild flowers vivid at the same time instead of the usual order of things.

Goodbye Morris.

Here is Charlie helping me, sort of. He is actually just playing in the yard and amusing himself while I dig out the hostas from around the pine trees in the yard.

Those hostas needed thinning a few years ago. Yesterday afternoon was when I decided to do it.
Well, there is a reason behind it.
Morris left us in February and I couldn't bury him. I know. It sounds disgusting and strange, but there you go. We froze him.

Morris always without fail ran to these two trees and peed on the hostas or the tree itself every single morning and night. It simply was his personal place.

I wanted to spruce up that section of yard anyway. I was tired of the same old thing year after year. The hostas look great in the spring and so tired and crummy by late summer. Perhaps a nice hosta and two colors of impatiens would look good.

There was several minutes of crushing heart ache as I placed Morris in the ground. I held his head and cried like a baby, wailing just loud enough to make Charlie cry. It is with the final act of kindness and deepest love that I placed him in his favorite spot.
I'll never quite get over Morris. I never have gotten over the other pet losses I've had over the years. Each dog has always take a special part of my heart with them.

Goodbye buddy, I hope to see you on the other side.

I hope you found Badger and the two of you are reunited.

After the Rains

After the rain yesterday morning, I walked out with Charlie onto the wet grass and surveyed the damage to the driveway. More wash outs.

Mental note. If Rich doesn't call Jeff in the next few days, I will stop by or call his farm and ask him to stop by. For some reason Rich has put off calling Jeff for months. Jeff was the fellow who reconstructed our driveway in 2007 and then also made us a ridge road through the woods with his bulldozer.

The fog was eerie yet beautiful. Droplets of water were still hanging on everything.

I don't think Charlie was impressed much. He sniffed around in the wet grass and did dog business.

I went back to the house before the rest of the farm woke up and to get the laundry out of the dryer and fold it. I had bed sheets to change and a huge load to fold.
I knew we'd had about 3 inches of hard rain and that should have caused a minor flash flood in the creek.
After chores I wanted to explore, so I packed my sling camera bag with items I thought I'd need.
Just for fun I added two Morel Mushroom Candles so I could play a photo trick on everyone.

It actually worked. I did state on Facebook, that the Morels were not real, but the amount of people that didn't realize that was amazing.
I even titled it 'Deception of Candles' and added the character 'Creepy Baby' next to the one candle.

I have to admit, they look like the real deal unless you notice the wicks.

I did get to hike through the creek and wished I had been there when the water was high. That would have been before dawn though.
The water was still running off the hillsides and into the creek creating a muddy look with little bubbles floating on the surface.

I experimenting with some short-long exposures and found that a 4 second exposure gave streaks to the bubbles.

The sun came out and exposures got a bit trickier. So I dug around in my pack and pulled out the Infared Filter.

It didn't change the first photo much, but the second photo did as it should. Greens turned white.

These two shots were my favorites of the day.

My whole intention on going out was to see if any of the wild flowers were appearing because of the rain.
I was not disappointed.

I didn't find blood roots, but I did find what we call Spring Beauties or sometimes just Pinks.

And on the south banks of the creek, the Maidenhair Ferns were curling upwards.

Rich wasn't having a good day, so the rest of the day was spent near the house. I dug hostas out from around the pines where I am going to bury Morris. Charlie helped me and we have a lot more work to do to make things just right.

I cleaned around the east flower garden and quit about 5pm. Charlie was dirty from helping me and my poor hands hurt like the dickens.
It was a fairly good day.
Rich felt better by chore time and the thunderstorms moved back in.

Off to the VA for appointments today...

It's all about Training.

I am getting this. Really I am!
She gets out the tiny black cord and attaches it to my collar. I run to the door and stare up at her.
It is Adventure Time!

If She walks towards Dixie's house, I run ahead and Dixie starts to bark. It means the both of us are going on Adventure! I like having Dixie along except when Dixie steps on me.

She mostly takes us to the creek bottom when we are together. I don't get the reason. She said something once about me learning to stay near her and the tall banks of the creek would keep me 'in' her ... eyesight.

I can't climb the tall banks like Dixie can. It must be the curse of the short legs. I mean come on. Short legs in the creek really can be a curse if one doesn't want to get wet!

How mean of Her and Dixie to walk across the creek and leave me on the other side! How rotten! How terrible! 

Dixie came back across several times as I cried in protest.

Dixie assured me that I would not drown and that it was a piece of cake. 

Just follow her, she said, just follow my footsteps Charlie!

OHHHH!

Right, well that worked! NOT!

Does no one get it that my legs are so short? I know I have great power and stamina and can dig like no one's business, but come on!

She finally took us onto some forest trails so she could find some spring plants. She knelt down and took some photos. She had to yell at Dixie because as soon as She was laying on the ground Dixie came and stood on the plant She was trying to photograph.
I stood on her back.

There is an advantage to weighing only 7 pounds as compared to 60 because She didn't call me any names at all!

I must be making progress, She took the cord off and left it off because I was coming properly when She called.

I look forward to our daily hikes and walks. Perhaps I can train Her to start picking me up and carrying me over the creek. 
It is worth a try.

I believe it is only fitting for such a noble little dog like myself to have a minion I can order around.

Maybe She is trainable. 
Dixie said no. 
I think otherwise.