A Birthday Milestone

We are nearing Hoovers 3rd birthday this March 20th. As I look back on the last few years I see plenty of laughs, smiles, and pee puddles. He is slowly maturing into a very fine hound. Bassets are known to be very difficult to house train and for taking half of a life time to mature. He has fit that label to a tee.

I can't even begin to tell you how many rolls of paper towel we have gone through. Lets also not forget the miles of toilet paper spread around my house and back yard, the amount of hours mopping my already cleaned that day sun room floor because of lake size puddles. Who even knows how many jugs of Pine sol and Mr. Clean I went though with all that mopping. If I could tally up the amount of money spent on him over the last 3 years I could have afforded to put that steel roof on my house last summer. But the amount of hugs, kisses, trips, laughs, and loving pets could never be bought, and have no financial value.

He is one of those dogs that doesn't sit beside you on the couch, just to be near you, like his brother Odie does. He has to sit ON you, sometimes rather entertainingly too. He will spy my hubby from far across the room, and measure him up. Get a take on his personality from far back before going in close to see if he gets that pet on the head and a living "How's it going Hoover"? 'smack, smack, smack' on top of his head. This has clearly become his signal that Daddy needs some lovin' he will turn around jump up onto the couch and slither across to hubby's lap and lay right on top. As close as he can get to the big mans face. The big man really doesn't appreciate a basset sitting up so high on his chest so he pushes the droopy dog down on to his lap. That is apparently another signal to try the puppy eyes. Hoover will turn his head, yes, just his head upside down and stare at Daddy Dogs face. This is usually followed by a rather long sigh requesting a neck rub, and seeing as it is upside down you can reach it far better Pop! I will be honest with you, hubby falls for it nearly every time too, makes me sometimes wonder who is smarter and more gullible.

Hoover also like to lay "with" the boys when they play video games. Again, yes by with I mean on top of the boys. Hoover will just walk over and nonchalantly plop his big old butt right onto the boys, often blocking their view of the t.v. or sitting on their controller. He feels loved though. :) We really are crazy about him. He is extremely gentle and quiet, and passionate about all he does. He wants to be every pets Momma. If I bring in a chicken, or the rabbit is out of his cage, Hoover feels like it is his job to take care of the critter. If Odie gets rained on, Hoover will lick him dry. He really has tons of Mothering instincts, and would be a great surrogate to puppies. Who really knows what his future will bring.

I have set aside 2 dried grouse wings to start him on this summer. Hubby and I both want to get our licenses and a good gun to start bird hunting this fall. I would love to teach him to point and or flush, that would be helpful, and he seems to have the smarts and courage to excel. With 3 still being a puppy we know that by all means we still have a good 10, 12, maybe even 14 years left with him, so the more jobs that he can learn the happier and more active he will be. I am glad that once in my adult life, and my children's life that we all got to experience a puppy with the ups, and downs of it all. But also glad to know that I have NO plans on doing it again. I like to tell Hoover that it is because he was such a good and loving pup that I don't want to erase these warm and fuzzy thoughts. But the honest truth is that he was so horrible that I NEVER want to put my self through that again. Please don't tell him that though! There are many. many perks to adopting a rescue dog. One that we aren't supporting any back yard breeders, two, that we are saving a life (Odie), and 3 they are done the bad puppy phase. Although Odie has had a few boo boos on the floor over the last 2 years, he has never chewed up and wrecked anything of mine. He didn't cost me $400 to get all his needles up to date, and another $500 to neuter him. Yup, he paved the road to rescue for me for ever for house dogs. His memory will stay with me for ever as the WORST puppy I ever owned, but also as the puppy who gave the most love and laughs. Happy soon to be Birthday Hoover!

Life between shucking peas and shovelling dirt....

Summer in the North is so fast that it feels like its gone in a blink. So in the North on a small farm there is rarely a moment of rest, and NEVER a minute of boredom. All chores and tasks on the farm are completed by the whole family and they are nearly always learning experiences, or turn into one of those "remember when" chores. We can usually laugh together, then at the end of the day look out at what we accomplished as a family, while we eat our home grown chicken, and a salad with fresh veggies from the garden. Really I don't think that life gets any better than the one that my family has built for itself. I mean, ya, money is often a little tight and we have to keep watch of the bank account, but I wouldn't trade if for that little 30 x 90 lot EVER!!!

Civic holiday weekend we took off to a little town called Notre Dame Du Nord, its a quaint little town of only a few hundred people right on the Quebec/Ontario border. But for one 3 day weekend a year it turns into a redneck "big town" with well over 10,000 people crowded along the edge of one down town street while transports race up the hill with a full load of lumber, the black smoke rolling out of their pipes like an old coal engine train. Some even have train whistles on them, its really neat, and for my 3 truck enthusiasts life really doesn't get any better for them. As for myself, well I will put it this way, it takes a little getting used to, I found that at the bottom of the hill it smelled awful of burning rubber, and raw burning diesel fuel. Apparently to the guys that is a good smell, but too me, not too great, it was everywhere, choking and blinding you. So we tried the top of the hill where the trucks don't smell. But the trucks go so fast at the top of the hill it was scaring me, yes I am a total wuss. I am OK with that too. We had a great time overall and I got a few good pics of some great looking trucks, and some crazy hillbilly men! Next year is up in the air for me, not too sure if I will be attending or not. The boys go every year, and love it, they come home stinky with smoke and looking a mottled grey colour. I will see what next year brings for me....

We have also managed to make it out to my in-laws cottage a few times this summer, only about a half hour drive from home, we know that it will be a good afternoon. We eat great food, have better conversation, and create some dang good memories for my growing boys, who are actually blessed enough to have Grandparents, and Great Grandparents, in their early 80's they are still healthy and live out there for the summers, on the lake living the quiet and peaceful life like they have been for the last40 years or so. The other day was actually their 63 wedding anniversary. Holy Crow, that's all I can say!

My friend came out to the house one day last week and we butchered the last of the meat birds, aside for one. She is the one that was attacked by the dog and survived, we felt that she deserved to live a long life after what she went through. She has affectionately been named Tracy, after a friend that has had more than her fair share of battles. Anyways one of those hens must weigh about 12 lbs cleaned, they are just beautiful birds and the first one we butchered went right onto the BBQ grill, we ate like kings that evening, fresh chicken, sweet potatoes, salad and a raspberry cake. Well worth all the work of cleaning and plucking those last 6 birds. I tried to send a bird home with them last time, and they wouldn't take it so my solution was to feed them supper. It sure was fantastic too! :)

My garden is doing really well, my peas and beans are ready for picking, I have a few lbs of fresh peas in the house today that need to be shucked, and put into a pot to be steamed for supper. The beans are just to say ready, we have started picking the odd one, but in a few days we will once again have beans coming out of our ears, no one really complains about that either, the Swiss chard is growing like a weed and we have been eating from it for the last week or so. I have potato plants out there that are up to my armpits and must be 4 feet wide, I have actually seen hedges smaller than those plants, we are just hoping that the potatoes underneath are as well endowed as the plants above the ground.

My hubby brought me home a tandem load of sand last evening, so my old unused well in my dog kennel is now gone, and filled with sand, the top tile from the well was pulled off with the big truck and just kinda rolled off with out breaking, so I think that I might keep it, and use it for a planter, possibly filling it with fresh herbs to be used in the summer months, we can paint the concrete with pretty designs and flowers, now just to figure out where to put it. I still have about half that load of sand, and it will get spread in the low spots in the dog kennel, and on the front lawn where we yanked out the trees, to landscape. Then we can just plant the new pyramid cedars and spread topsoil and grass seed to finish up my front lawn. It really is never ending, the boys and bassets are loving the huge sand pile in the kennel. Hoover was so excited when he saw the pile through the patio doors, giving me that "really? for me?" look. The boys and the hounds have been busy digging holes and running around on top, well I should get out there and get to work, gotta spread it by the wheel barrow load..... Gonna be a long day, perhaps with a Mr.Freeze break and some fresh scrambled eggs for lunch...

Gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day....

Well it appears as though the nice weather has finally arrived, and we are all hoping that it might actually stay this time around. I was able to get my garden planted a couple of weekends ago thankfully. It is just beginning to pop out of the earth now. I still have plants left to go in, and more plants to buy to put in as well.
But anyways, my duckies have been out and about a lot recently, one neighbour has even nick named them the happy travelers. It seems as though they have picked the lawns around us bare of bugs and worms so they have now decided to venture down and across the road to the yards with the nicer, more bug ridden lawns. Well Sunday evening after a very long day of outside work moving the chicken coop. (Pictures coming soon I hope.) Those little brats took off once again across the road, this was about 9:30 in the evening too, so there I was all cozy and comfy on the sofa when I see them out the front window running fast to get away. I had to toss on some boots and head down the road and chase them home. I figured, well that's enough of that so I cornered and caught them and threw them into the dog kennel so they would be stuck safe till I could build them their own pen when I got home from work on Monday. They were not impressed with me at all about the whole situation, quacking up a storm and pacing the fence with a look of forlorn on their little faces. How can you see forlorn on a ducks face you ask? Well it is as obvious to me as a mother of any baby, you know your child.... Well actually that isn't true at all. They don't seem to have any facial expressions at all ever. I see a curious look, but that is more by the tip of their head and the beady little black eyes, they really can't smile or frown like a dog can. Basically, they just always look surprised!
But back to my story, well the ducks had to spend the night and next day in the dog kennel, I figured, well hey, there must be a lot of bugs in that yard, for one, the ducks have never been in there before, and for 2 every time I pick up a poop, there is always ants or little dung beetles underneath.... YUCK... I am not too sure what they did all day when I was gone to work and the dogs spent a lazy afternoon locked up in the house. But I do know that they got a rough and tumble hour of "play" in the middle of the night. Let me explain, Hoover went out for a pee around 11 pm, he did not even notice that the dicks were in his pen. He went out, down the stairs, peed on the grass, back up the stairs and into the house onto the futon. That is his regular routine, why change what works for you. Right? Well Odie has a very different routine, he does not go out at 11 with Hoover, he stays in snoozing on the couch in the living room, unless I feel motivated enough to go and drag him to the door. Most nights I do not feel that energetic. Instead Odie wakes me up sometime between 2 and 4 in the morning. His routine is as follows, cry at edge of bed till mom wakes up, (yay) go to door and cry till mom gets there to let me out. Then he ever so slowly goes outside, stopping on the deck to smell the night air, checking to see if its raining and he should make this a quick pit stop. If it isn't raining, he will saunter down the stairs and wander around the yard. He is usually at least 15 minutes. I go back to bed now, I was getting to cold in the early spring waiting up for him to do his duty, standing there at the door while he takes his time and my precious sleep eludes me, so that he can sniff. Darn hound. So when Odie asked at 4 I got up let him out and went back to bed. I forgot about the ducks......
I was woke up at 4:51 to barking. Oh crap I thought, I forgot Odie out, he must be getting chewed up by the bugs. But, Oh no, he was out there chasing and catching the ducks, he would run and jump on top of one, chew him up, (playfully like he does with Hoover) then dash the other way waiting for the duck to chase and attack him. Well the ducks of course would just run in the other direction, flapping to try to fly over the fence. With no luck of course. I was standing out there laughing at them all and the whole situation, Odie's tail was wagging so fast, and I have never seen him so happy before. So it took me a few minutes to catch him, with ducks flapping and flying over my head and quacking. He didn't put up a fight to come in, he likely just thought that he would play with them again when he got up at 7. Poor birds were so relieved when I came into the house, they first strutted around the yard like they beat him up and that was the reason that he left, then they cuddled up in the corner and went to sleep. Odie did the same thing in the house, fell asleep right away and didn't want to even get up at 7, till I reminded him of his ducky friends out in the yard. But that time he was tied. Hoover still thought nothing of them in the morning, smelled them all from top to bottom then came into the house. So everybody lived to see another day. I wonder though how long they would have live together before they would all be friends? So the ducks are once again fenced in next to the dogs and the 3 of them and Odie play together through the fence again like they always used to do. It really is a wonderful life, especially if you are lucky enough to have a "wee" farm!