Tired Shadowfax

Shadowfax had a tremendous playtime session in the back yard, fetching basketballs and sprinting to a fro.  She needed a moment to lay down, cool off on the hardwood floor, and gather herself before an afternoon walk. 

She was fairly mellow for the rest of the day, mission accomplished. 

Deaf Dog Aftenoon Playtime

Alycia and Shadowfax enjoy some low level chomping time.  Shadowfax loves to snuggle while she destroys toys and play tug-of-war, so the Extra Large 6-Foot Long Rope Toy (Amazon link here) is perfect for her.  It's also long enough that it prevents hands and fingers from being accidentally subjected to a wayward chomp.  We're big fans of these rope toys and get a new one once or twice a year, since eventually they get shredded and beat up.

Through it all, Shaak Ti is pretty content just to sit and chew on her "Crazy Eight" rope toy (Amazon link here).  Shakk Ti is a simple gal, she's happy with a toy that can be meticulously disemboweled or slowly pulled apart, thread by thread. 

This is a pretty standard afternoon scene here at the household. We've had our outside play time, a nice walk, and some dinner.  This is the wind down stretch, where we expend a little bit more energy and see if some snuggling develops (it usually does). 

Homemade Apple Cider from a DIY Cider Press

I've got some pretty awesome and entertaining co-workers in my job as a Community College Instructor.  Over the last few years we've developed a small circle of folks who swap the results of DIY projects and share the bounty of our various gardens and orchards.  Sauerkraut, home roasted coffee, jam, fruits and veggies of all kinds, baked goods, and numerous recipes have all been shared and swapped over the years.  It's the kind of virtuous circle of sharing and goodwill that keeps me going and energizes my mind toward sharing with others and experimenting with new ideas.

In late September I was talking with my friend Rob about my apple trees that were bearing a huge amount of apples when he mentioned that over the summer he and a friend had built an apple cider press. They built their apple cider press for less than $200.

They took a sturdy old kitchen table and outfitted it with a garbage disposal (purchased new).  All that need to be done is to roughly chop the apples into 8ths and then they get pushed through the garbage disposal slot. 

The Nose Knows Where the Treat Ball Goes

One of our most reliable training tools is leaving treats for the dogs when we leave the house. Many years ago when it was just Alycia and Tito, she realized that his separation anxiety would be lessened if she left him a small Kong filled with treats when she left the house. This tradition took hold and became our routine.

When we leave the house Shadowfax gets a large Kong filled with treats and capped with peanut butter that has been frozen.  It takes her a little while to get through the frozen peanut butter and get the treats out, and provides her a challenge and a little snack. The dogs have learned to look forward to us leaving because they associate us leaving with tasty treats.  I would highly recommend this approach to anyone with dogs with separation anxiety.

We came home a few weeks ago to find Shaak Ti with the scrape on her nose you see in the pictures above.  We were unable to find her Kong Treat Ball.  These two facts only mean one thing, Shaak Ti has hidden her treat ball somewhere.  I looked all over the house for 15 to 20 minutes, but neglected to look outside.  It was near 0 with snow flurries and a brisk wind, so I figured that there was no way she'd gone outside and buried it.  I was wrong. 

Shaak Ti is good at a lot of things, but digging is not one of them.  She had left her Kong Treat Ball just laying on top of the snow, barely buried.  It's likely that she had it buried or hidden elsewhere, but moved it here when she realized that we were on her trail. 

This Kong has held up for several years (maybe even 5 years), but is starting to show some wear.  And leaving it out in sub-zero temperatures sure doesn't help.   It might be time for a new one. 

Another Day of Muddy Splendor

It's a banner stretch for muddy dog time here in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  For the first time in a while, we were able to get outside multiple days in a row and play vigorous games of fetch with Shadowfax.  That's the good news.  The bad news?  That game of fetch had to be played on pretty muddy backyard pitch.  Shadowfax didn't seem to mind at all. 

Shadowfax was pretty pooped from romping around in the mud.  It'll take her a few weeks to work off that winter sluggishness and return to prime outdoor season form. 

Shaak Ti and Tito are in the background, clamoring to get in on the action.  Part of the action means getting your toes cleaned off though, and they want no part of that. 

Shadowfax isn't winking, she had a bit of dirt in her eye, which I promptly helped her remove.  In the upper left hand corner of the photo you can see the old beach towels that we use for for removing the bigger chunks of mud from puppy feet.  Ahh...Springtime!

North Dakota Polar Bear?

Even though it's pretty far north, there aren't any actual polar bears in North Dakota. But, it's spring melting time right now, which is great even if it is weeks earlier than normal. Shadowfax though is still holding on to winter like a polar bear clinging to a melting iceberg.

The ring of snow was part of a sweet snow volcano that John created as part of his winter "backyard terrain park" for the dogs.  The giant mound of snow made a great ramp for rolling the ball up into the air for Shadowfax to chase, a fun king-of-the-hill mound, and the perfect obstacle to chase around.  We're not sure if her preference for the small patch of snow and ice is a good thing because she's staying out of the mud or if it's ridiculous that she chooses to chance an icy slip. 

Leap Day

February 29th, Leap Day.  To honor this day, we're supposed to post pictures of our dogs leaping.  I caught this pretty nice action of Shadowfax a while back. 

Last summer Shadowfax was digging a hole in the dirt when she noticed that I was watching her.  She tried to spring out of the dirt and look innocent...to no avail. 

Melting Snow and Mud Parade

So today happened. It was sunny in the mid-40's, an otherwise glorious day. The dogs spent three months of pent up winter energy in one glorious afternoon of misbehaving and repeatedly tearing around the back yard. 

Shadowfax and her "I'm so sorry I was bad and got filthy and trashed the back yard..."

"Psyche!  Hahahaha, I'm not sorry.  I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!"

This is just a small snippet of the carnage.  The backyard is a giant cauldron of mud, snow, slush, and doggy footprints. 

Giving Hearts Day

The Circle of Friends Humane Society in Grand Forks, North Dakota is participating in a huge one-day fundraising bonanza called Giving Hearts Day.  The Dakota Medical Foundation is partnering with numerous charities in the state and is offering to match every donation greater than $10 (up to $4,000 total).

We would love to have your support in this statewide online fundraising event, and know that if you make a donation greater than $10, your donation will have double the impact when it is matched by the Dakota Medical

Here is a link to the Giving Hearts Day page. You can click "Donate" and then enter "Circle" in the search box to find Circle of Friends Humane Society. 

Seriously Sad Sack of a Deaf Dog

The blog has been a bit Shadowfax-centric lately, but that's mostly because she's the one most frequently engaged in some manner of silly shenanigans, or getting herself into some pickle.  This is her most recent escapade. 

Shadowfax was tearing around the backyard and managed to rip up her dew claw.  The backyard is a bit of a mess, melted snow has pooled and refrozen and is slippery as heck.  How she managed to tear up a dew claw so badly is beyond me, but she did it. 

Shaak Ti is inspecting her temporarily broken little big sister.  Shadowfax hobbled around on three legs for the better part of two days until we removed her foot wrapping. 

Ah poor little pibble, milking this for all it's worth, tucked into her cozy blanket.  One little owwie and she plays it up as much as she can, trying to elicit as much sympathy as possible. 

Nap Under a Rocking Chair

Shadowfax has a half-dozen comfy dog beds in the living room to choose from, but she'd rather take a little nap with her head underneath this rocking chair.  Go figure. 

Does this look comfortable to you?  It sure doesn't to me.  But who am I to argue? 

Shadowfax Asleep

Shadowfax the deaf pittie mix snuggling hard against the North Dakota winter. 

She spends a decent amount of time here in her cozy slumber ball and warming blanket.  I you want to check out the slumber ball bed or reflective warming blanket for your four legged friend there are links.  In many respects Shadowfax is a stereotypical pittie (or pittie mix) - lazy as all get-out.  If you want to know what a pit bull dog is like, here it is. 

That is the happy face of a dog that shall always have the finest things in life. 

Indoor Gardening and Pruning

It's been cold here in North Dakota, the third consecutive day where the temps haven't reached above 0. We're not complaining (much), that's winter in North Dakota.  Winter has some enjoyable activities, but it leaves a big gaping hole in our gardening yearnings. Some indoor gardening is in order.   

This is a ficus (ficus benjamina) tree that Alycia's parents had in their house for a number of years.  It belonged to Alycia's grandparents and is probably 20-30+ years old. It's been around for a long while. We've had it in our entryway for a few years and (as you can see above), it slowly grew to take over the East facing window in the entryway and leaving it looking really unbalanced.  Some pruning is in order!

I trimmed a bunch of unruly branches and rotated it. I don't rotate it very often as ficus trees can be finicky about being moved. They're prone to sulking and dropping their leaves if they get drafty or jostled around too frequently. After the trimming, you can finally see the nice window in the entryway with the leaded glass and tulip designs, I knew there was cool window behind all that foliage. 

Indoor gardening isn't as much fun as outdoor gardening, but it's a reasonable substitute for the next few months until the weather warms up and Spring arrives.  

Merry Belated Christmas

I didn't get you anything for Christmas.  Heck, we didn't even send out or post or usual Holiday Newsletter.  We feel guilty.  You feel slighted.  But we're gonna make it all up to you (and then some) with this...

This magnificent photo is our annual family Santa Paws photo, held every Fall and a fundraiser for the Circle of Friends Humane Society here in Grand Forks.  Alycia's Mom knitted (proof here and here) the whole family matching outfits - sweaters for Shaak Ti and Shadowfax, hats for Alycia and I, and a cowl for Tito.  Why not a sweater for Tito?  Well, any fool who tries to put a sweater on Tito will leave with fewer fingers than they started with, that's for certain.

Hopefully your laughter helps soothe the disappointment of our not sending out a Holiday Newsletter, or even posting more frequently here on the blog.  We hope you had a very merry Holiday season and are on the path of having a happy and healthy 2016!

Transporting Ivy Rose

In mid-September I helped transport Ivy Rose up to Canada for the National Brittany Rescue and Adoption Network (NBRAN). She came from the Minneapolis area and was heading somewhere into Ontario. I had the leg again from Grand Forks to Pembina, similar to when we drove Remington a few years back.

Here's a picture that her transport team posted of her prior to the trip. She was an excellent traveler for me in our big crate. 

When we got to Pembina, we had a few minutes to walk around. I tried to take some pictures, but it was hard with just one hand. 

She was a nice size for a pibble and I hope that her new family loves her very much. 

Thanksgiving - A dog, a Boy, and a Swan (no we didn't eat a swan)

For our Thanksgiving this year, we left the two little dogs at home for the day and only brought Shadowfax to my parents' house for dinner.  John just stayed for dinner and then hustled back with Shadowfax to spend Thanksgiving evening with Tito/Shaak Ti

Shadowfax made the most of her Grandpa and me time. 

She helped with cooking for a few minutes and was surprisingly good. 

Grandpa was very impressed. You can see the prototypical pittie tail blur.

The main reason that Tito and Shaak Ti were left at home was because we knew my friend Stacey, her husband Tony, and their son Jonathan were in town. Shaak Ti and Tito are not big fans of young kids so it's easier to just not tempt fate.  The guests showed up after we finished dinner and stayed well into the evening. 

Shadowfax, Shaak Ti and Cold Weather

The weather has finally turned chilly here in North Dakota.  We're not complaining (much) since we're had a fantastic run of warm and dry weather so far this Fall.  We've been able to squeeze an extra 2-3 weeks of garden time out of some of our flowers (more pictures in a later post), but that came to an abrupt end this week with a shot of snow and a few days of cold, strong winds. 

The dogs are adjusting to the onset of winter as they usually do, by hunkering down in their heated dog beds and snuggling under their warming blankets.  Shadowfax is generally the more sprawling of the two. 

This is Shaak Ti's "Why don't you get your butt over here and tuck me in under my blankie?" face.  We tuck the dogs a few dozen times a day.  Essentially every time we get up for anything, we're also tucking them in. Yes they're pretty dang spoiled.

This is a pretty typical afternoon scene, the girls sitting on the floor and snuggling together. Shadowfax sure knows how to pose for the camera. 

Rub a Dub Dub

Shadowfax in the tub.

She's not getting a bath, she just really likes to jump in there when Alycia uses the bathroom down in the basement.  Shadowfax has never had a bath in this tub, so she possibly doesn't know what it's actually use is supposed to be, and therefore isn't appropriately afraid of the tub. 

Shaak Ti Goes for a Walk

Shaak Ti is 9 years old, but she still appreciates a good walk. Especially if that walk is a special "Mommy and Me" walk with Alycia.

In an effort to try to get her to sleep in a few minutes later than 5:00 am, Alycia has started taking Shaak Ti on an additional evening walk to attempt to tire her out.  Now, this is in addition to the 2 walks (40-45 total minutes of walking in the morning and afternoon) she already gets every single day.  As you can see and hear, Shaak Ti gets pretty excited about her special walk

Shadowfax In the Sun

You may not know, but pit bulls are solar powered.  They need to spend hours in the sunshine to recharge their batteries, and even then they have trouble mustering up enough energy to do much.

 Shadowfax does this most days, soaking up the sunlight as long as she can. 

You also might not know that pit bulls are also really, really lazy. Shadowfax in particular has two speeds - 5th gear and Park.  That's it.  She's either racing around and instigating shenanigans, or a huge lump of unmovable deaf dog. 

Shadowfax has a pretty rough life here. 

Fall Garden Pictures - Apples and Marigolds

It's Fall here in North Dakota, both the calendar and the weather are attesting to this fact. We have had a long stretch of warm and dry weather, which has extended our growing season a good two to three weeks longer than normal.  It's also been nice that cool temperatures have killed all the mosquitos and made outside work much more pleasant. 

We finally got a hard frost (down to the mid to low 20's) over the last few nights, which means that we had to pull up our tomato and pepper plants.  The more cold hardy beets and onions were able to stay outside for a few more days, but we pulled those as well yesterday and got busy pickling the beets and drying the onions. 

Our zinnias, hostas, Monarda (beebalm), and coneflowers (echinacea) didn't make it through the hard freeze, but the marigolds and petunias are still going strong.  The marigolds look pretty contrasted next to the brown foreground/background of fallen leaves.  The orange flowers on the left are 'Golden Gem' Marigolds, with 'Inca Gold' Marigolds on the right side of the raised bed.  These are regulars in our garden and we plant them in abundance every year.

More 'Inca Gold' Marigolds in front with 'Golden Gem' Marigolds in the back, along with onions and tomatoes and even a 'Paprika' Yarrow way in the back.  We're big believers in flowers and plants that attract beneficial bugs; marigolds, yarrow, sweet alyssum, verbeena, petunias, etc. the list goes on.   We intersperse them with all of our veggies and include them heavily in our annual flowerbed planting.   

These are cherry tomatoes (Sweet 100) which produced prolifically this year. Believe it or not, there are only three tomato plants in that huge mass.   This is probably the perfect location for them, along the garage wall, underneath a bit of the eaves, facing West.  This site was a compost pile last year and has a large amount of well rotted compost and horse manure. 

Our apples are just about ready to pick.  These are Haralson or Haralred apples, I'm not sure.  They can withstand a bit of frost, so we're going to leave them on the tree as long as possible to give them an opportunity to sweeten up a little more. 

That's an update from the homestead in mid-October.  We've been frantically busy around here and posting has been sparse, sorry.  Plus honestly, the dogs just haven't been doing anything cute recently...so there hasn't been much to post about.  

Follow us on Instagram

Link to Our Online Store

 

Watermelon Harvest

For us, watermelon are the ultimate demonstration of gardening perseverance.  We plant them and they seem to languish in the ground for weeks, doing nothing.  Our dreams of delicious melons disappear with every passing day of non-activity.  But then in late July they pick up steam, then explode in the heat and humidity of late summer, and invariably we have some nice looking melons come harvest.

This was the biggest of the watermelons we grew this year (overweight ginger gardener for scale).  We have another 4-5 that will be big enough to eat as well, and out warm, dry early autumn is helping squeeze every last bit of growing season out of the watermelon. 

Shaak Ti's Tongue

We hosted out of town visitors at the homestead this weekend.  My Dad and his significant other flew in from San Diego to spend the long weekend with us.  We had a grand time at the University of North Dakota football game and went out to eat at many of the fine restaurants in the area. 

Between all the extra pets from both sets of grandparents and the commotion in the house, the dogs expended a whole lot of energy on Sunday.  On Sunday we also too a trip to Kelly's Slough, West of Grand Forks (we've visited there before) and that finally did Shaak Ti in.  She came home and totally sacked out.

When Shaak Ti is really, really tired she naps with a little bit of her tongue sticking out.  You can just make it out in this photo.  She flopped down in her heated dog bed and didn't move much until bed time.

You can see that tongue much better, just sticking out.  It takes a lot to tire out Shaak Ti, she's a machine and has never met an adventure she didn't exuberantly embrace.  This is usually a positive sign that we'll have a quiet day today. 

Welcome New Reader - Karina

You may not know it, but our official policy here at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes is to personally welcome all of our new readers. We haven't welcomed a new reader since 2013 (I blame the economy), so this truly a special event. Today we welcome Karina!  We know Karina though the vibrant Grand Forks volleyball scene and are quite happy that she's found our humble blog.  

Granted the people we've welcomed are only the people who've subscribed via blogger and whose icon shows up as a "Member" of the "My Awesome Readers" group on the left hand side of the blog.  It's possible that you're a subscriber through some other method (I use Feedly to subscribe to a bunch of different sites), so I can't see that you're a regular reader.  If anyone knows how to find out who has subscribed to a blog through other sites, please let me know in the comments. 

Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation Blog Article

We were amazed and humbled to be featured on the Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation blog this week.  We here at the homestead have been fans and followers of Wallace and his people for several years, and we shed more than a few tears when he passed away in 2013.  His spirit lives on though through his humans, their current foster pup, and the Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation.  Their mission: 

"Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation provides resources for foster homes to help them care for their foster dogs until they find their forever homes.  Wallace the Pit Bull Foundation also provides resources to help improve facilities and fund programs devoted to helping homeless dogs."

Wallace went from the doorstep of euthanasia to the National Disc Champion, and we're honored to be mentioned in the same breath.  We continue to be supporters of Wallace's mission and all that he represented.  All of the people and pooches here at Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes were truly excited to see our blog post on the Wallace website.  Thanks again for making us famous!

Shadowfax - A Delicate Lady

Shadowfax is a delicate lady.  Not all dogs would have the decency and discretion to make sure to have their lady parts covered up with a fluffy pink blanket. She's a big tough pit bull, but also needs to make sure that everyone knows she has a delicate side too. 

She probably wouldn't be too happy that the paparazzi have snapped this photo of her napping, especially in this scandalous pose.  She's also mentioned on more than one occasion that photos from this angle always make her tummy look big.  And in her defense, pictures of her sleeping on her side do make her tummy look much bigger than it actually is. 

Her heated dog bed isn't plugged in yet.  It's still pretty warm and we're a month or so from being chilly enough that the dogs demand we turn on their heated dog beds.  But that doesn't stop the dogs from using them anyways, especially for a comfy, splayed leg nap.  As we've known for years, Shadowfax is indeed a delicate lady. 

I'm Melting - Shaak Ti in the Sunbeam

Shaak Ti enjoys her sunbeam.  Generally if we can't find Shaak Ti at any point during the day, we just go check all the sunbeams and that's usually where she is. 

And no, the GoughNut Stick Green is not speared through her neck. This is how she chose to pose.   As we've said in the past, she's a odd little critter. 

Triangle of Napping Power

All of the dogs are currently simultaneously sleeping and snoring. Seriously, it's pretty dang loud in here right now. I might have to go upstairs so I can concentrate and get some work done. 

There is possibly some kind of debilitating, Bermuda Triangle of napping thing going on in this particular area of carpet that is making all the dogs sleepy.  I'd go check it out myself but am pretty scared of what might happen.