Bingo and Easter and Spring

It was a whirlwind of a weekend, so much so that I'm just now pausing to update the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes crowd of the happenings around the homestead.

On Saturday Alycia's parents visited us from their Cavalier, North Dakota country estate.  Alycia got the bee in her bonnet that we should try our hand at one of the many local bingo events in town.  So the four us stopped by the VFW in East Grand Forks, Minnesota (just on the other side of the Red River of the North) on Saturday afternoon and we had a blast learning and then playing bingo.  I committed a rookie blogger error and forgot my camera at home, which is too bad since I can't adequately capture in words the bingo scene at the VFW.

The bingo companions that we shared our table with were most gracious and helpful and prevented us four bingo newbies from making any egregious or embarrassing bingo faux pas.  And to top it off Alycia won $100!!!  It was quite the outing and I think we're going to return, possibly semi-regularly, it was a lot of fun.

On Easter Sunday we headed up to the Cavalier, North Dakota estate for an Easter feast and celebration of family with Alycia's parents.  We hauled the dogs along with us (of course) and Shadowfax showered everyone with kisses and spazzy puppy hugs, while Tito and Shaak Ti snacked on turkey tidbits from Alycia's Dad. 

Despite the cool weather the last few days, there are signs of Spring everywhere.  This week we'll have some posts about our vegetable and flower seed germination, some new feathered visitors around the urban homestead, as well as an update on our un-hibernating garden gnomes.  Stay tuned.

Puppy's First Stitches

Shadowfax the puppy got her first stitches on Tuesday.  This is an unfortunate coming of age benchmark and it's the first time we've had to get any of the dogs stitched up.  Most of the previous self-inflicted injuries the pups have have sustained consisted of scrapes, small punctures, and some small cuts - the kind of thing that we could treat at home with peroxide and Neosporin.

But on Monday night as puppy was in the midst of a high speed tear around session, Tito "The Moray Eel" lurched out from his hiding place under the dining room table like a moray eel and nipped her good.  I actually didn't notice for a few minutes since other than letting out a yelp (the loudest I've ever heard her yelp), there was no indication she was hurt, she just kept racing around and playing with Shaak Ti.

She wound up with a decent sized gash and 8 stitches.  While not life threatening, it was definitely beyond our first aid abilities so we took her first to the emergency vet (it was late evening) for staples, which didn't hold very well, and then the next day to the vet to get sewn up.  Between the emergency vet visit on Monday night and the follow up visit to get stitches, it was an expensive little incident and the cost is definitely coming out of Tito's allowance.  

After she came home, she just kept right on playing.  I don't think she even knew that she'd been injured.  At the vet, even though she had a gaping wound, she jumped right up on the counter.  Not front-paws-up-on-the-counter, but jump through the air onto the counter with all four feet so she could give the receptionist kisses. The receptionist commented "my she's s a busy dog isn't she".  Yes, yes she is. 

Here she is in her Comfy Cone chomping away at Triumph the Triceratops. We're big fans of the Comfy Cone, it's much less damaging to the shins (of the people, not the dogs) and and still keeps the pups from pulling her stitches out.

Here's the puppy napping in her Comfy Cone, cozy and comfy, but a little sad looking.  She's healing up quick and will be flying around the house before we know it. 

At the Fire Station

My nephew Jacob with his Mom at the fire station.  He's getting big, at only 15 months he's already showing off the inherited family height, big feet and torso girth.

Esquire Article - The War Against Youth

If you have 20 minutes I highly recommend reading this article.  It's very well written and summarizes so many of the economic/political/generational conflicts going on today.

Esquire - The War Against Youth

"The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people.  The Baby Boomers took care of that." 

Spring Continues - Tulips, Honeyberries, Trash

Spring continues to take shape here on the Deaf Dogs and Benevolent Gnomes urban homestead.  There are finally flocks of robins (Alycia contends this is the true indicator of the arrival of Spring) clamoring around and there's been some rustling and commotion from the garage cubbyhole where the garden gnomes are hibernating, I think they're beginning to awaken from their winter slumber.  More on the developing garden gnomes situation later this week.

The tulips continue to emerge, looking ready for a good spring color show.

I think we may even get our first tulip blooms this week.  My fingers are crossed.

The honeyberry is almost fully leafed out and looks terrific.  It's not a native but thrives in our very cold winters and was one of the first plants to set leaves.  It needs another variety as a pollinator and the second honeyberry we had was nothing more than a 4 inch bare root twig didn't survive last summer due to a series of unfortunate episodes of neglect when I was out of town.  We may buy another pollinator this year so we get berries.  The berries are small, oblong, dark blue (like a blueberry) and very tart.  They are not the best to eat raw and we'll use them to make jam.  

One of the Spring tasks I despise is picking up all the trash that accumulates over the winter, gets stuck in the snow and then reveals itself after the snow melts.  The truth is that picking up trash is not just a Spring job, but an unfortunate year round task for Alycia and I.  The regular heavy winds are partly to blame as they tend to blow trash around until it gets caught on shrubs and windbreaks, but the majority of the fault is with people who are just messy inconsiderate litterers.  Weekly we pick up candy wrappers, cigarette butts, pieces of paper, soda bottles, fast food bags, beer cans, you name it.  People who litter suck.

Every once in a while the litter though is mildly entertaining, such as the picture above - I found the Giraffe 9 of Spades in the garden. 

The Giraffe 9 of hearts was in the front yard (sorry the picture didn't come out great).  How these particular cards made it into our yard I'll never know.  Perhaps this was a losing hand in some majestic poker game.  Or perhaps this was the winning hand (tallest animal on the card wins?), we'll never know.  What I do know is that littering is pretty bad around here and it makes me sad/angry. 

It's a lovely sunny day outside, 70 degrees and light winds, the perfect day for some light outdoor tasks with periodic bouts of distracted bird watching and miscellaneous procrastinations.  Have a fabulous Sunday.

Deaf Dog Photo of the Week

Shadowfax is an imposing figure, striking when she sits up straight.  And she certainly knows how to pose for the camera.  I'm pretty sure she's the best puppy in the world. 

Being so pretty all the time can tire you out though (I can also personally attest to this).

Deaf Dog Bed Repair

One of the dogs beds opened a seam in the last few weeks and had a 6 inch gaping hole on the top with stuffing/fuzz coming out.  It wouldn't have a been a big deal except for the fact that the puppy likes her fuzz like politicians like fuzzy math.  Yeah, that much.  So Alycia grabbed her sewing kit and, even though she's not the fastest seamstress in the world, doggedly (I went there with my awesome pun so deal with it) set out to repair the dog bed.  I figured that she'd work at the table or even on the couch, but she decided to sit down on the floor to work on the dog bed.

"Uhh you know what's going to happen if you do that, right?" I inquired. 
"What?  It's fine."
Sure enough about six seconds later, this happened.

And then this.

Which quickly led to this.

Luckily despite the fact that sewing needles were inches away from everyone faces, no pups were accidentally injured and the dog bed was repaired.  It must be nice to be so well loved that the second you sit on the ground multiple dogs are jockeying for position to snuggle with you.

Starting Seeds Indoors

The warm weather and Spring-like atmosphere has made me antsy to get gardening, but since it's only March, I'll have to settle with starting some seeds indoors.  It might be too early to start seeds, but I think that it might be warm enough to set out some of these transplants when they're ready in a month or so.  It might be pushing the envelope, but I like living on the edge.

I started four large trays with about two dozen six packs of pots I've saved from former nursery purchases.  It's super easy to just fill them with fresh potting soil and pop in the seeds.

All of the seeds are on the counter down in the basement with a large shop light on a timer so that seeds get plenty of light and (hopefully) germinate like champs.

These have some of our veggies (tomatoes, squash, honeydew melons, watermelons, eggplant and cabbages).

These are some annual and perennial flowers (zinnias, coneflowers, salvias, hollyhock, lavender, and clematis).  I'll be sure to show updates if/when things start to germinate and are ready to put out into the garden.  It's easier for me to be slightly more aggressive putting the flowers out sooner, when there's still a danger of frost, if they get frozen there's no big loss.  If I lose one of my delicious Sun Cherry Tomato plants though, I might be a bit of a sad panda, so I'll wait to put those out. 

This is only a fraction of the veggies and flowers that we plant.  We will still make our annual May pilgrimage to a nursery in Fertile, Minnesota, the fantastic Bergeson Nursery and buy other plants from local nurseries and hardware stores.