archie the wonder dog

We have two German Shepherds. Our old girl, Tash, was our introduction to the breed and pretty well convinced us to always have GSDs. Smart, friendly but protective of the family, excellent with the kids, she is now over 12 years old and definitely slowing down, but still retains all those characteristics.

And then there's Sam. Or, as I fondly named him, Archie the Wonder Dog. He's now five and from day one was good looking but not all that bright - sort of the Zoolander of the dog world. He falls into that category of dogs called, very scientifically, complete goofs (Canis oafus). But yesterday he was quite pleased with himself, and rightly so. I ran over to the coop in response to his repeated barking. Not "people are coming" barking, not play barking. Hm. I found him staring up the back wall, trying to scale the logs to get at a red squirrel. Now, this is not your ordinary run-of-the-mill red squirrel. No, this is the crazy Ninja Squirrel who evades traps, swipes chicken food, and then dashes up the wall with a flick of his poofy little tail. Ninja Squirrel was running from side to side, trying to find a way down but stopped by Archie on all sides. This squirrel had teased Archie several times before and had become something of a nemesis to him.

After a bit, I had the bright idea to go and call D with the alert. Archie stayed there, and out came D with the .22. He lined up the shot at Ninja Squirrel, who was now half hiding behind a plank, and fired. D didn't say anything so I figured he missed - until I came around the corner to see Ninja Squirrel fall with a plop on the ground. Archie was duly praised as a Nobel-prize winning dog and got some cooked chicken for his efforts. I think he really wanted a bite of Ninja Squirrel, though.

blah

Today was good but I find myself feeling worn out and tired and generally apathetic about things. Not the farm, that is all good and an auction this morning resulted an several very practical little things for that. Just ... other stuff. I feel very blah about it all. I'm not sad, or upset, just drifting between "whatever" and "why bother" this evening.

Apathy is a comfortable place to be, but it's not a good place to remain. I occasionally visit but I don't want to live here.

it's raining, it's pouring...

... and so I can't go to serendipity's cottage. It doesn't rhyme, but then I've found that so few of life's important events do, in fact, rhyme. Well, there's the "in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue" but of course who remembers that he also sailed in 1493? Nobody, because it doesn't rhyme.

horseradish

This morning was spent at the dentist, realizing I really do need to be as diligent about getting myself in there as I am about getting the kids in there. Then it was off for a few errands, including a trip to the bookstore for R to spend some birthday gift cards (bought Eragon and its sequel, having been muchly inspired by seeing the movie). She also pre-ordered the next Redwall book. The place was taken over by hoopla for the new Harry Potter book, which I will read when it comes out. I obviously won't read it before then.

But why the obscure blog title? While at the book store I was wandering through the kids' section and a book caught my eye by virtue of its odd title: Horseradish, by Lemony Snicket; yes, he of Series of Unfortunate Events fame. It is simply a collection of wry little sayings, some of which have a great deal of truth and some of which had me laughing out loud with their quirky, random humor. For example:

"If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats."

"If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkghasgasdf."

"A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded."

"It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting."

So today I am amusing myself in this way. It is nice. I also have multiple chores to do (big surprise there) and must see just why my children are currently talking in little squeaky voices.

progress

We're back into life as usual, with all sorts of little pressing jobs but no one that stands out and screams "do this first!!". There is work to do inside the house, cleaning and reorganizing our office thanks to some new shelves, but I want to save that for bad weather days. I did mow the lawn yesterday with the tractor, but there's still the edge parts to do (tractors and precision don't go together for me, so rather than trash my place I use the smaller mower by the buildings), the veggie garden needs some weeding, the flower gardens need a lot of weeding, the coop needs cleaning ... and on it goes.

The veggie garden is coming nicely and it just on the verge of flooding my kitchen with fresh food. The peas have pods that are fattening up, the beans have a few wee little beans on them, the tomatoes have flowers, the corn is knee-high, there are some cucumbers on the vine and some zucchini to harvest, the lettuces have already been enjoyed. There was some nice looking kale and broccoli until the chickens got in there and attacked it. It was kind of funny to come out and see their heads pop up looking a bit guilty. Perhaps those veggies will make a comeback. I have to harvest some oregano since it's taking over the herb bed, and the lavender is covered with lovely purple flowers. Blackberries are now coming in daily, just enough for us to enjoy a few each day so far.

Strawberry jam season is done for me, with 10 batches now reposing in the cellar. One of these is for goaliemom who's 'stuck' in Alaska, 2 are strawberry-rhubarb, and the rest will be enjoyed by us or given as gifts. I hope to put up some tomatoes this year, freeze lots of beans like last year, make more sweet pickles, and try my hand at hot pepper jelly. As long as we don't run out of jam in February like this year *shudder*. Maybe I'll get keen and do some peaches.

This time of year is good because I really feel the progress both with this season's own work and the overall multi-year work we've been doing. The things in the main areas are tidier and the longer grass nicely hides things not done yet (a copout, I know, but I take what I can get). So, on to the day's little pressing tasks, hoping that in doing them I will make that one more little step in the progress of this place.