Walking in the Woods

We had a lovely weekend. It was a bit chilly-- jacket weather for sure-- but it was clear and even better, Andrew had both days off! He went and cut more logs, then brought them over to the pole barn to cut down to wood stove size and split them.


Maisie is showing off her mad climbing skillz. The pile of firewood, standing over 5 feet high, is now twice this size and still more to go! We still have a fire going just about every other day, but usually doesn't get started until evening, when the temperature drops. Our goal for next winter is to fill up a quarter of the pole barn with wood, which should be plenty. We're planning to clean out the pole barn and stack the wood nicer in the back and keep going until 1/4 of the area is filled and then some. As of now, stuff is piled in there all willy-nilly and we're not making good use of the space. Too many unfinished projects in there that need to be weeded out or completed.

While Andrew was busy splitting and tossing logs, the kids and I stayed out of his way and went for a walk in the woods on the other side of our driveway. We have 15 acres, split in half by a driveway and we live on the right side, the other is all wooded. Makes for great hiking when all the poison ivy is dormant and no mosquitoes to swat away. There's an old dirt road that goes up and circles but we veered off when we saw fresh woodpecker holes. I showed the kids how the birds can tell when a tree is hollow and filled with bugs to eat, so then they peck away at the trunk to the bug-filled center and eat. The kids stuck their fingers in the holes and could feel the hollow inside the trunk. Then they looked around for more woodpecker holes, old and fresh.

There are huge trees on this half of the property. Love this triple-trunked one! Of course each of the kids had a turn standing in the center for a picture. It was too high for me to climb in and the trunks were too big around to grip, so no picture of me.

Evelyn, monkey that she is, climbed up again after we were done with the pictures and getting ready to walk on. "Peek a boo!"

I love, love, love this picture of the kids! One of those rare moments when all 4 are looking at me and smiling all at the same time! Definitely frame-worthy!

Same Old, Same Old

Nothing new to report around here. Keeping busy with kids, harvesting the tomatoes and green peppers from the garden, canning the tomatoes...

We went to the store on Sat in the big town and the grocery store had excellent-looking white corn on sale 4/$1 so I caved and bought another crate-- 48 ears. We ate some for dinner, made fresh corn fritters for another dinner and I need to can the rest today. On Sunday, the same grocery store had ads in the paper and the corn is now on sale for 6/$1!! agh! I just might get one more crate of corn...

We had Maisie the dog spayed last week. Poor girl. She gave me such a pitiful look with those brown eyes of hers when I picked her up from the vets in the evening. A couple of days easing into her favorite chair and taking it easy and now she's back to her old self again. We take her in tomorrow morning to remove the stitches and get a rabies shot for her.

The vet is nice; holistic and homeopathic. We found them online and they are not too far for us to drive, we have to leave an hour before the appointment to get there on time. A very hippie sort of house converted into a vet's office. My kind of place. When you go in, there's peace signs and pictures of animals on the walls; an old church pew painted sky blue; an owl puzzle glued together and hung on the wall. Probably not the most sterile of places, but it looks clean and the vet assistant was very nice and easy for me to lip-read and understand. We went through a spay/neuter organization that helps low-income people to get their pets fixed and they were on the list of participating vets. I think we will keep them as our permanent vet for our other animals, I felt very at ease there and so did Maisie.

We took her to another vet previously, and the entire time, Maisie growled. It got to the point that the vet felt the need to muzzle her. It was kind of funny to see her in a muzzle, her tongue working around the edges trying to figure out how to get it off, and at the same time, I was a little disturbed that she was so nervous being there and the vet and his assistant didn't seem to try and calm her or ease her fears. At the vets where she was spayed, she didn't growl once, and only barked when the cat sleeping on the fax machine moved and caught her attention. Big difference in behavior and I'm going to follow her cue and continue to take Maisie there.

We can learn a lot from animal behavior. I have had cats that didn't like a certain person, and I pooh-poohed it and later, I found that person to be not the kind of person I should be friends with. People that my cats adore have usually turned out to be great friends for me, including my husband. The first time I brought him home, I opened the door where my cats were and they ran out and Tiko immediately did the cat thing between Andrew's legs and purred loudly. Tiga held back a little bit, sizing Andrew up and sniffing his hands and legs before deciding he was OK. Tiko and Tiga were great big Tabby cats, my first on-my-own-away-from-home cats. I miss those big fellas! I'll always have a place in my heart for a Tabby cat.

The day is going fast, so I need to get going and do what needs to be done. See ya next Month! :o)

Getting There...

**THANK YOU** for all the great tips and ideas you have given us about training Maisie! It really helped us to read about your own dog-training stories and knowing that training a dog doesn't take overnight and I admit, I was feeling a bit like a failure thinking we have had her nearly 3 months now and she still isn't potty trained yet.

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Maisie's indoor accidents are becoming less frequent and I am pleased to say that I only cleaned up 2 accidents yesterday! We try to keep a little area for her to do her business in when we go outside and it works-- as soon as I lead her in that spot, she promptly pees.

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We are also keeping her on a long leash when we take her outside now. We had an incident when she knew we would chase her off when she found some cat poop, so she ran off towards the front yard. As I chased her, she ran into the road and I feared for her, praying that no car would come flying down the road and hit her. She looked anxious and tucked her tail under and ran back to the yard when a SUV slowly drove by and I swear the driver of the car gave me a dirty look. I managed to grab Maisie and told her that was the end of her "leash-free" days.

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The leash also keeps her away from the areas where the cats poop and we hope to nip that yucky habit in the bud. She already learned not to snack from the litter box in the house so it's just a matter of helping her learn not to snack on poop outside.

photo taken by Oldest

Here's Maisie all wrapped up. She is a real sweetheart and the girls love her. Though we have our rough moments, I am glad we got her. Just have to remember that not only do we have to train her, we have to train ourselves to adjust to her needs, too. Again, thanks for all the advice, I couldn't have asked for better help and I am so glad that I have you all as friends! :o)

Poop!

I now understand why 637 people told me, "Glad it's you and not me" when I said we got a puppy and need to potty train her. Had I known it was going to be this hard to housebreak a puppy, I seriously would have thought twice about getting a dog.

I have asked long-time dog owners and the vet; searched the internet for advice and tips; looked up dog books for information and we are -this- close to throwing in the towel.

We take Maisie outside and use the same word every time we take her out. We give her positive praise when she pees or poops outside. We have her outside for 15 to 20 minutes, freezing our tushies off, only to have her take a dump on the floor not 5 minutes after we come back in the house.

She has an irritating habit of searching for cat poop in the yard and eating it. Talk about butt breath!

She has definitely calmed down and is not so crazy-goofy anymore, but she still has her moments when the kids decide to run around the house and she joins in on the chase. We've had to remind the girls again and again that dogs chase and they catch what they chase which results in bites. Poor Middle has been the recipient of several bites and that alone makes me want to say good-bye to dog ownership. Her arms look terrible with all kinds of scratches and teeth marks and I pray they don't leave scars. Let me add that Middle has finally learned to stop flailing her arms while she runs and has not had any recent bites from Maisie.

I have days when I ask my husband to remind me again why we wanted a dog. Oh, right, to alert me when something or someone is around or to bark when phone rings or someone is at the door. Is that all?

Then the husband hears on the radio that lots of people are giving up their pets because of the economy and they can't afford the costs of pet ownership and that makes me feel bad, to contribute to the problem if we get rid of the dog. And what would that teach our kids, to get rid of something instead of trying to work things out?

So please, tell me, is there a foolproof way to potty train a dog? Like fast? And how do we get her to stop eating cat poop? Our outdoor cats are polite, they do their business in the woods, not in the yard where we play, so we've been keeping her on a leash now when we take her outside, but we really want her off the leash when we are at home.

I'd appreciate any advice or tried-and-true tips you can offer us. Thanks!

Maisie Update

Poor Maisie...

I spent the day following her around with paper towels and cleaner, wiping up diarrhea. We all went to my husband's parents' house for Christmas and Maisie got into the turkey carcass. Whoops! So when she got diarrhea, I assumed it was from the turkey. Then I saw something wiggle. Upon closer inspection-- worms! Ugh!

I called the vet, hoping I could get an appointment for Maisie, like NOW, TODAY, PRONTO!! Luckily, they had an opening and we got an appointment for 4:30. In the meantime, I had to collect a stool sample-- ewww! It's not my idea of fun, grabbing wormy diarrhea and scooping it into a zippy bag.

Maisie has become a well-loved member of the family! It's already hard to imagine life without her! Maisie has claimed this kiddie chair for her own, and seeing Baby in it has not deterred her from sitting in it, she just plops herself on top of Baby! Good thing Baby thinks it's funny!

The girls have much fun pretending Maisie is a doll-baby. They make little beds for her and dress her in doll clothes. When I found out Maisie had worms and a friend of mine told me to not let Maisie lick our faces, I quickly had to put a stop to the playtime and warn the girls that Maisie was sick.

Turns out, poor Maisie has BOTH roundworms and tapeworms. She got 3 shots today, plus 3 oral doses of different medicines and a topical dose of flea medicine. Poor girl is all sore and konked out on the couch. We got rid of all her chew toys (thankfully it was only a couple of rawhide sticks and 2 squeaky toys) and I am in the process of washing all the doggy bedding. Hopefully we can kick some wormy butt and she'll be back in all her puppy glory in no time!

Puppy Days

This is the view we see every time we head out to town. It was particularly nice this day, as we love seeing the fog rise from the trees. We live right in the middle of the mountains and we are surrounded by other mountains, near and far.

Today makes one week since puppy has become part of the family. We named her Maisie.

If that mutt sticks her nose up my butt one more time, she's gonna get it!

The cats have taken to Maisie really well, considering. I think it helps that she is smaller than them and doesn't bark too much, but she has been getting braver and has actually tackled them.

We had an unseasonably warm day a couple days ago, and I shooed the kids and puppy outside to play. They wore each other out!

Maisie is all pooped out and naps on the couch. We don't mind her napping on the couch, we are of the mind that a dog becomes part of the family and we don't crate her. Our biggest challenge with her right now is the potty training-- it's 50/50. The girls also complain she bites and we explain that puppies like to play and their idea of playing is biting. The girls are asking Santa to bring chew toys for Maisie this Christmas!