Shadowfax - Sleepy Face

Shadowfax generally has only two speeds. 1) 10,000 rpm of love/mischief and 2) sacked out asleep. It's rare when you get so see the immediate progression between the two, but recently Alycia was able to capture the quick transition.

Searching for trouble and/or for someone to actively love...

...trying to keep her eyes open and not really succeeding.

New Garden Art?

We wanted to unveil a new piece of garden art that we had transported to the homestead the other day. Too much? Do you think it might overwhelm the garden?

This is the current view out our front window, but this isn't a new piece of yard art. Our neighbor is a retired commercial pilot and has still flies recreationally. I'm not sure how many planes he has, but planes and/or plane parts parked in front of our house is actually a fairly regular and humerous sight. In the couple of hours that I watched over the course of the evening, several cars stopped to take pictures.

Shaak Ti Upside Down

Sometimes all you can do is sit back and bask in the majestic glory of your dogs. Shaak Ti is a prime example of that.

While some dogs nap in odd positions or may occasionally be upside down like this, she does this on a regular basis.

In this particular instance she was in a deep sleep and Alycia watched her for a minute to double check that she was breathing. She was breathing all right.

Tito Health Scare

The truly old man in our house Tito has had some health concerns over the last few weeks. Don't be alarmed though, he's OK. Those of you who have had the (privilege? distinction? bad luck?) of meeting him know that Tito is a fighter, he will certainly not be going out like no sucker chump.

Tito had a seizure a week and a half ago, right in front of Alycia and I, and while it only lasted 20 seconds or so, it was pretty alarming. Even though he'd been to the vet just a month before and gotten a clean bill of health, he'll be 17 years old this Summer, so he's no Spring chicken. He probably would very much enjoy a tasty spring chicken though.

We called a different vet and brought him in for a full heart and respiratory function workup. He's also had an odd cough for the last month that has steadily grown worse. The diagnosis was an enlarged left side of his heart which was pressing on his bronchi, causing the cough. Congestive heart failure couldn't be definitively ruled in or out, but it is likely and he's going to start on some heart medication and a bronchi-dilator to try to encourage his airway to open more.

We're going to watch and monitor him carefully over the next few weeks and ensure that the side effects of the medication aren't too harsh. As for the seizure? We still don't know why that happened. As the vet said "dogs his age don't suddenly develop epilepsy", so we know that a seizure isn't a good sign. But he hasn't had any since and we're hopeful that was a one time occurrence. And Tito is still eating, drinking, going on walks, peeing on stuff in the yard, and viciously snarling at anything that moves, so he's OK for now. This photo of Alycia and Tito is from last Fall..

If you're reading this and worrying about poor Tito, don't fret, he's fine. Seriously, he's fine. Except for his cough he looks and acts the same as he always has. Alycia is doing fairly well with this whole business too. Tito has been part of her life for more than 15 years and she's given him the best life a dog could ask for. As I mentioned before, Tito is a fighter, he certainly isn't going to let something like heart or breathing problems stop him from enjoying his twilight years.

First Day of Spring and Spring Cleaning

Hooray, it's the first day of Spring today! That doesn't mean a whole lot to us here in North Dakota, other than portending the likelihood of warmer temperatures eventually. It was above freezing all weekend and the backyard mud pit drained a little bit, but still has a long way to go before it's a playable surface.

We took the opportunity over the weekend to get a jump start on our Spring cleaning. The first order of business was to give all the dog blankets, bed covers, etc. a cycle through the washing machine.

It may be a blurry photo from Alycia's iphone, but you get the idea. Shadowfax did her best to get us to drop the load of fresh-out-of-the-dryer dog items on the ground so she could snuggle up with them. It looks pretty cozy.  

New Jolly Ball Rope

We recently lost the full functionality of our Jolly Ball toy, the rope portion at least. The rope runs through the middle of the Jolly Ball and makes it a much more interactive toy to play with. After several months of play, Shadowfax had pretty well shredded the rope and we just had a plastic ball left.

We stopped by our local independent pet shop Treat Play Love (website here) and inquired about a new Jolly Ball. Kelly, the owner of Treat Play Love though happily supplied us a new rope for our old Jolly Ball. She had some extra ropes gathering dust in her shop, so she passed on a few lengths of rope to us for free.

 

Shaak Ti loved her new toy, which was just a plain rope. She enjoys sitting quietly and trying to turn a rope into a pile of string.

Shadowfax had grown a little bored with the rope-less version of the Jolly Ball. But with the new rope running through it, she was reinvigorated and we played with the Jolly Ball for nearly an hour. 

Old Guys Rule

As part of a general continuing series of "Stuff I meant to post earlier in the year, but got sidetracked", here are some pictures of your intrepid blogger and my awesome volleyball companion Tom. This same photo also represents the Grand Forks, North Dakota 2-Person Sand league champions.  We may look like an amalgam of knee braces, gray hair and receding hairlines (conveniently hidden with a hat), but the reality is we're a fearsome flurry of swear words and crafty old-man volleyballness. 

Previous finishes have included a couple of second places, and third and fourth a few other times, but this was our first championship.  Without revealing too much embarrassing information, I'll say that I'm no longer a spring chicken and Tom easily has several years on me, but over the course of the season we beat multiple other teams that were literally half our age.  As I get older there's some special joy in such things. 

Shadowfax and the Arrival of the Grandparents

Shadowfax might be a big tough pitbull, but she's really just a big softie.  She may look like a rough and tumble, muscle bound fearsome beastie, but she's really a 70 pound wiggling pile of love.

I'll set the scene for you.  Shadowfax is upstairs and has spotted the unmistakable red Pontiac Aztec of Alycia's parents pulling into the driveway.  You'll want to have the volume on for this video...

This is a standard scene every time that Grandma and Grandpa stop by for a visit.  Shadowfax turns into a whining, howling, tail-wagging mess until Grandma and Grandpa come inside and give her some love. For the record, Shadowfax never acts up this much when Alycia or I get home, this special performance is only for the Grandparents.

Giving Hearts Day

Today is Giving Hearts Day!  It is a statewide day of charitable donation to numerous charities and is a huge fundraising event for the Circle of Friends Humane Society.

We would love your support on this Giving Hearts Day.  You can follow the link below, click on it, scroll down, and search for "Circle of Friends Humane Society".

Giving Hearts Day Link

Super Bowl Sunday Dog Pictures

Super Bowl Sunday is pretty quiet around here.  It's been a chilly winter weekend and we haven't been able to to spend much time outside.  Instead we've focused on indoor activities, where it's warm and dry and we don't need to wear our sweaters. 

Alycia and Shaak Ti spent a bunch of time doing some team computing.  Once it was time to grade student assignments though, Shaak Ti was conspicuously absent. 

We spent a lot of Sunday playing inside and wrestling with various dog toys.  Shaak Ti got in the Super Bowl spirit and chomped on her new football toy. 

Shadowfax had a festive weekend playing with her toys and balked when it was time to play outside. A fresh new blanket of snow is falling and Shadowfax displayed zero interest in going outside and getting her toes chilly.  As you can see her interest in the football game is minimal...

The Shaak Ti and Shadowfax Sheep Shuffle

Shaak Ti got a soft stuffed sheep toy for Christmas and Shadowfax got a chance to finally grapple with Sherman the Sheep.  Sherman the Sheep sat untouched for nearly a year, we thought he was too cute to be destroyed, but eventually Shadowfax and her winter indoor playtime needs took precedence.

The end result was a simultaneous sheep festival.  Shaak Ti playing with her stuffed sheep and Shadowfax disemboweling the poor, unfortunate Sherman the Sheep.

It was a good opportunity to fill the house with toy stuffing and for the people to practice their "sh" sounds. 

Shadowfax in the Snow

Shadowfax loves being outside, especially if her people are out there.  When it's warm and pleasant she spends hours just lolling around on the grass, thoroughly sniffing every square inch of the the yard, or supervising us doing yard tasks.

In the winter though, it's a different story.  She tries to fight it and stay out as long as possible, but she just can't manage it for very long.

If we're out shoveling snow Shadowfax tries to come out and help, but invariably after a couple of minutes just sits down and looks cold and pathetic.  We have to herd her back inside to warm up, usually shutting her behind one of our many baby gates to keep her from getting back outside.  This is OK with her as she's content to supervise from the window as well. 

Snowy Pictures

We got yet another substantial snow storm to start of the beginning of the week.  It's only just January and we're running out of some space in our favorite places to store the snow.

The official tally from this storm was just over 9 inches of snow in about 48 hours. The path from the door to the garage is a wall of ice and snow that is waist/chest high.  It's a lot like living on Hoth.  I fully expect to find a remains of rebel base somewhere in the backyard when the snow melts. 

Every year we toil to create a good space in the backyard for the dogs despite the snow.  They need both cleared space for "business" and sometimes some more fun or unusual features.  Last year I made a sweet terrain park for Shadowfax including a ramp so her fetching ball could get airborne, this year I went with the banked oval design.

With Tito's vision deteriorating we try to keep the paths in roughly the same area so he can find his way around outside.  We've seen Tito get turned around and flounder in snowbanks in the backyard, so we closely monitor when he goes outside to make sure he gets back in safely.

Snowy Christmas Forecast

Christmas is just around the corner here at the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes homestead.  We received over a foot of snow from Blizzard Alivia a few weeks back and have even more snow and wind in the forecast for Christmas Day. 

Here is the Grand Forks office of the National Weather Service forecast for the upcoming holiday weekend. 

Alycia and I have been taking full advantage of the snow cover and relatively mild temperatures this week (it's been near 30 degrees all week) and have taken several snow shoeing adventures along the Red River of the North.  It is very convenient for us, we just walk down the block, over the dyke wall and we're on the Grand Forks Greenway along the Red River.  This upcoming snowstorm should mean enough snow cover for show shoeing and cross country skiing for the rest of the season. 

The dogs are either unimpressed with all the snow, apprehensive about another foot and a half of snow on the way...

...or still trying to impress upon Santa that they've been good all year. 

Shadowfax Indoors in Winter

With temperatures plunging below zero, accompanying wind chills making it feel even colder, and a fresh layer of snow on the ground, it's cold!  That's expected here in December in North Dakota and so we spend a lot more time indoors. Outside playtime is relegated to a minute or two at most before the critters toes get chilly, so we spend more time playing indoors. 

Shadowfax loves her 6-Foot Rope Toy (Amazon Link), and we have three of them, swapping them out every few days so she has something fresh to chew on.  It's a pretty good workout for the human too. A game of Tug-of-War with a 70 pound chunk of deaf dog on the other end is some pretty serious lifting and pulling.  In this case she's actually chewed herself into an almost-nap, barely awake and chomping away. 

I also thought we should throw in the stereotypical (and always funny) "big dog in tiny bed" photo.  Tito barely fits in this dog bed, let alone Shadowfax, who is twice the size of Tito. 

The First Snowstorm of the Year

A very warm Fall and lack of snow through the first part of December had us dreaming of a mild winter, but such thoughts are often soon dashed here in North Dakota.  A storm arrived on Monday evening and dumped a foot of snow by Tuesday midday.

We weren't complaining much as both Alycia and I had a snow day on Tuesday.  All the snow from that storm was augmented by three more days of snow showers and light snow, accompanied by howling winds.

This is the blueberry area on the East side of the house. We ended up with  total of over 16 inches of snow and drifts caused by the high winds that were significantly higher.  Alycia and I cleaned off the back steps several times each as they continued to fill in with blowing and drifting snow from the high winds.  We also wound up snowblowing the driveway and sidewalks three times over the course of the storm and subsequent days of wind.

Recognize this character?  This is the Petunia Tower, now well covered in more than a foot snow.  This was the biggest snowfall event since the Christmas storm (Blizzard Alvin, more pictures) back in 2009, which was our first winter here in North Dakota. 

Deaf Dogs Shaak Ti and Shadowfax Wrestling

Shaak Ti and Shadow fax don't play together very often, mostly because Shadowfax gets a little too amped up and spazzy.  So we carefully monitor playtime between them to make sure that Shadowfax (who is twice the size of Shaak Ti) doesn't play too rough.  In this case, Shaak Ti is exhibiting her classic "I really wanna play but I'm too lazy to get of of bed" game. 

Being winter time here means that there's going to be a lot more indoor playtime in the coming months.  Cold and wind have made expending energy outside all but impossible for more than a few minutes at a time. 

Thanksgiving in North Dakota

For the first time in our tenure in North Dakota we hosted the Thanksgiving festivities here are the homestead. Everything went well, Thanksgiving dinner and all the accompaniments were well received. 

Shadowfax and Shaak Ti were overjoyed to have Alycia's parents in the house for multiple days.  There was multiple hours of snuggling and quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.  And Tito?  He seemed pretty happy to have a few more people to randomly snarl at.  

After all the leftovers were parsed out, shopping trips completed, and pies consumed, the dogs were pooped.  They passed out in their warming beds and dreamed of turkeys roasting in the oven.   

Heated Dog Beds Make Happy Pups

As the weather gets colder here in Grand Forks, North Dakota, attention turns to keeping warm.  We've always had dog bed warming inserts in several beds.  We purchased a few more heating inserts recently to try to ensure that everyone has a warmed bed to choose from.

The results are predictable, everyone lines up to make sure their tummies and noggins are adequately heated.

These dog bed warming inserts are significant components of the dogs daily routines, especially throughout the winter months.  If you have dog beds that have an outer cover, you can just slip this heater in the dog bed and run the electrical cord discretely out one end. 

Another North Dakota Sunrise Picture

We hope you have a fantastic day!  We had an incredible start to the morning here in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  May the sun rise and greet you with equal splendor wherever you may be.

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Snoozin' Pooches and Garden Chores

It's been another long break since our last post.  My stars have things been busy around here!  Busy for the humans at least, the pooches haven't participated in this sustained onslaught of busy times, they've been their usual sleepy, slacker selves.

One cause of our jam-packed schedules has been the beautiful weather we've had over the past few weeks.  Little to no rain and daytime high temperatures in the 50's and 60's have abounded.  Knowing that snow and cold are around the corner, we've seized upon this great weather and been busy in the gardens; raking leaves, clearing out garden beds, and preparing the homestead for winter. 

And today, Sunday November 6th we had our Annual Daylight Savings Celebration.  This is where we try to explain to Shaak Ti that is in fact only 4:00am, not 5:00am and it is NOT time to get up yet.  No amount of bargaining or explaining or rationalizing has ever seemed to work with Shaak Ti, and thus what should be a glorious day of an extra hour of sleep becomes another early dog walk in the darkness.  This has been an annual celebration in our household for almost a decade. 

Resting Up After a Tiring Weekend

We had a glorious weekend here at the homestead in North Dakota, so glorious that we're still recovering from it. We hosted visitors from Southern California, showed them the sights, enjoyed some local cuisine, and basked in the autumn splendor. 

The dogs were so exhausted from all the extra people and love and playtime, that they sacked out before our visitors had made it to the airport.  Friday and Saturday were particularly eventful as they had both sets of grandparents in the house, ready to shower them with love.  It was apparently exhausting, so exhausting that they snoozed noggin to noggin in their cozy beds.  

Even Tito was tired from all the shenanigans. Delivering all that anger and all those snarls to so many folks can wear down even the baddest dogs of the bunch. 

North Dakota Sunrise

Don't fret we're still here, we're just preoccupied. Pesky things like work and meetings get in the way of the quality dog and family time, and suddenly the garden gets neglected.  We've been methodically going through our end of summer harvesting and fall garden preparations.  An hour or two here and there in evening and weekends scrambling to catch up.

Luckily we get sunrises like this in the mornings.  It's a great motivation to enjoy the day and a first glimpse of fall colors splashed across the sky.  There's a blue jay outside somewhere now, I can hear his bossy shrieks through the open window, I'm gonna go see if I can spot him. 

Shaak Ti the Delicate Lady

Shaak Ti is indeed a delicate lady, genteel and proper in every respect.  She even sleeps with her paws delicately crossed. 

As you can see, it was a pretty rough weekend for the dogs of the homestead.  There was a lot of lounging in their dog beds or supervising from their pillowed perch in the upstairs window while us humans toiled in the garden.  

More Late Summer Garden Pictures

We're bearing down on the end of August, then Labor Day and possibly soon the end of summer. Here are some pictures from around the garden in the last week of August. 

This is the Blueberry area, just next to the Petunia Tower in the back yard.  The blueberries are surrounded by some assorted dianthus, sweet alyssum, and more petunias. 

This is the front edging of the garden area on the south side of the driveway.  The plants that aren't blooming are Indian Summer dianthus that I planted this Spring, I expect a great bloom showing next year.  There are also some trailing red verbeena, and the yellow flowers are Helenium autumnale - Sneezeweed. We only bought the sneezeweed because Alycia thought name was cool, but they've bloomed steadily and consistently all summer. I think we'll be adding more sneezeweed next year too.   

More verbeena, sneezeweed, dianthus, and even a lovely pink petunia. 

The Great Wall of Cherry Tomatoes.  These are planted in a raised bed along our garage and face south. Between the all day sunshine they receive and the heat that reflects off the metal siding, the tomatoes are really happy here.  Along the front edge of this raised bed are a few different varieties of marigolds (Inca Gold, Golden Gem and others). 

View of the Great Wall of Tomatoes from the other side of the raised bed.  You can barely make out the celery that we planted at the front corner of the box.  These got a bit overwhelmed, and probably were not my best decision to plant these here. 

Close up of the Golden Gem marigolds. These are one of my favorite marigolds and I either save the seeds every year, or let them go to seed in Fall and spread the seeds around the area where I want them to grow the next year.  Then I let the army of volunteers take over the next Spring, thinning them where it's needed. 

We Won - Free Stuff From Our Blogging Friends

Many thanks to Get Busy Gardening! for their awesome recent online giveaway.  If you haven't checked out their website or Facebook Account, I would highly recommend spending some time on their site.  They are our (almost) neighbors just down in the twin cities in Minnesota and have a huge repository of helpful gardening information.   

We entered online a few weeks ago and won: 

• a Cool Pour and Measure Quart Jar 
• 4-Pack of Old School Blue Pint Ball Canning Jars
• 4-Pack of Old School Blue Quart Ball Canning Jars.  

Thanks so Much to Amy at Get Busy Gardening!

Take Time to Enjoy the Sunbeams of Life

Shadowfax knows how to best manage a Monday morning: Find a good sunbeam and take a nap!

School has started again for both John and me, and we're cautiously optimistic about the upcoming year. Just 9 months to go until summer vacation...

Cucumber Trellis Update

We posted pictures of our Armenian and Pickling cucumbers growing on a trellis (see post here) last month.  It's always impressive to me to see the growth that happens in late summer.  Here is that cucumber trellis last month:

Here's the same cucumber trellis exactly one month later. The heat, humidity and rain of the last month have helped these grow by leaps and bounds.  They've taken over their trellis completely and have overtopped the 6 foot fence. 

We waited and waited for the Armenian cucumbers to ripen and now we've got more than we can consume, multiple large ones are ripe every day.  That's the nature of of gardening here in the Upper Midwest...wait, wait, wait, then explosion of veggies. 

The Armenian cucumbers are eaten raw, the pickling cucumbers are used to make my tasty Refrigerator Bread and Butter Pickles, several quarts of which are sitting on the fridge right now.  I'll eat them throughout the winter and use them for fresh homemade relish as well.  

You may notice from the picture that many of the leaves in the middle and bottom of the plants are are whitish or pale looking.  This is most likely powdery mildew, which will eventually kill the plant, but won't really have a significant impact on the development of the remaining cucumbers.  Due to our short growing season here, a hard frost is going to kill this plant long before the powdery mildew will. 

Petunia Tower Update

The Petunia Tower I created a couple of months ago (see Petunia Tower) is filling out nicely and chock full of lovely blooms.  It's on the East side of the house past the blueberry raised bed area and gets full sun until early afternoon, which the petunias have seemed to enjoy. 

This is the Petunia Tower and clematis (jackmanii clematis) growing on a trellis that we see regularly every day on our way in from the back gate or garage into the house. 

The close up of the petunia tower shows that there's a little room for improvement next year.  These look a bit straggly for my taste and I think next year I'll treat this more like a potted planting like we have on the front steps (pictures of front step posts here) and have more variety of plants rather than just petunias.  This is the fun part of gardening for me, trying something out, seeing how it goes, then making improvements for next year!