Downward Dog

I have invented a new exercise routine, requiring no equipment purchase and guaranteed to improve balance and reach. I call it “downward dog” but it has no relationship to the yoga position of the same name. You need:

               1) a very large, quite old and arthritic Akbash dog,  

               2) and 3) two medium sized Border Collies, and

               4) one small but weighty, deaf Lhasa Apso, Jack Russell cross**.

These four pieces of household equipment simply need to remain in places of their own choosing, a position which seems to suit them quite well and requires no encouragement.

In my case dog number one will move but prefers not to, makes quite a show of creaking up to a standing position and lumbering out of the way. He stays in my kitchen (his size and copious quantities of shedding hair have made this a necessity), usually on one of the stress relief mats in front of the sink or stove or on the door mat, and he willingly accommodates my exercise program by always being exactly where I want to work. 

Dogs 2 and 3 are excellent contributors to the program. Anyone who has ever met a Border Collie knows that when focused on anything they sit very still, stare, sometimes tremble, and are absolutely oblivious to anything other than the subject of their focus.They are also affectionate, jealous of one another, and tend to vie for attention via soft frisbee, ear scratches, or jumping on chairs and laps.

The fourth dog - well he’s privileged. He knows it’s his right to sleep like a stone on the bed right where I’d like to move my legs, take his rightful position next to me when sitting, or reside under the footrest of my recliner.

The secret to this exercise routine is simple. Work around and/or over these immobile pieces of equipment. Stretch to reach household items without causing a disturbance, avoid tails and paws by delicately stepping between them in a ballet-like position, gently push bodies aside when absolutely necessary, and acquire a sort of sliding gait at night to avoid collision. This exercise routine can easily be practiced daily (and nightly) with no special set up on your part, no expensive exercise clothing or shoes, and is a spontaneous activity which has, at times, the ability to get your adrenaline pumping.

• Caution, this routine is not recommended for everyone. Extreme caution must be taken to avoid falls and/or strain from twisting into peculiar positions. And, as is always suggested before beginning any exercise routine, be sure to consult your doctor.
• ** Note: Other dog breeds may be substituted - perhaps an old Bullmastiff, a Cocker Spaniel and a couple of toy Poodles…

A Rant

            So I'm a "Trekkie" from way back, have watched every single Startrek episode over and over again. So I was excited to check out Startrek Discovery. Yuk! They turned it into just another war show, killing, more war. Clingons are the enemy, weaponizing  sentient beings... It stinks.      

            One of the major aspects of Startrek has always been that a moral dilemma is presented and a moral solution is sought. Not so on Startrek Discovery.

    An unfortunate new pattern has surfaced in American films. The "good guys" are also bad, just not as bad as the bad guys, or bad for a good reason. Heroes these days are killers, destroyers. You have to watch an Australian, British or Canadian film to see an actual good guy deal with a bad or difficult situation.

    Along with accepting bad for good reasons surfaces a "My country can do no wrong" mind set. If they appear to do wrong it's because they can not achieve their goal any other way, which somehow makes wrong right. This attitude justifies torture, assassinations, drones, support of drug cartels, election interference, weapons of mass destruction...

    Films reflect our society. They also influence society. In many ways the US has melded with Hollywood and neither of them is taking responsibility for their effect upon their own citizens or the rest of the world.

 

What a Difference a Day Makes!

I have been absent from my blogging world for nearly a month. A holiday you say? Hardly. I’ve been in Colorado helping out my older sister who had a catastrophic fall, breaking her hip. One little tilt, a wobble not recovered, an older frail woman with other contributing health issues loses her balance and a major disruption settles into her life…and mine as well. Suddenly a medical proxy, signed over 20 years ago, has a surgeon asking my permission for my sister to have a hip operation. “She will not survive without it,” he claims. “She will not be able to get up, pneumonia could easily be contracted. No operation will result in sure death.” Whew!

By the time I got to Colorado my sister had been in re-hab for a week. For awhile there was hope she’d be able to return to her apartment in a senior’s independent living complex. But hope gave way to reality - she had to move somewhere where she could get assistance with daily living. My sister could not wrap her mind around this fact. She wanted to “go home” to her apartment. She still does.

While she remained in re-hab, trying to stand, trying to walk, and having a hard time staying positive, I began searching for a place for her, touring facilities from nursing homes, to assisted living apartments, to what is referred to as “memory care”.  At night I began packing her possessions. One fact was clear, she would have to downsize to a one bedroom apartment, to a studio apartment, or possibly to what is essentially a hospital room. Just 8 months ago she moved from her large house to this two bedroom suite. That move was difficult, a hard decision for her to make, a life’s worth of accumulated memories filling every nook and cranny of the home she’d lived in for decades. Eight months, such a short time.

So I did my best to keep what would be cosy and familiar and find places to distribute the rest, making judgement calls on what should be kept and what should not. It was not a role I enjoyed. I had help though, lots of it, both in hard work and understanding. My sister has a fine group of friends. A cousin even showed up from back east. I couldn’t have managed without them.

For now things are doing okay. I’m home. My sister’s in her new home. Our connection for now is the phone.

While I was in Colorado a young friend was in a terrible vehicle accident. What a difference that day is making for her. Yesterday another friend fell down the stairs and is now in hospital, and another was in a motorcycle accident also with life changing results.

What can a person do when life flips over like this? Some would say pray, but prayer is passive. It puts the shoe on the other foot, a foot not even of this world. So what do we do? We rally - as the one directly affected, as a family member, as a friend, as a community. We rally because we must, because life is sometimes hard. We rally because we love our friends, our families, our community. We do whatever we can do. We do the best we can.

The Purrrfect Visitor

“Holy cow” I said, “there’s a cat outside!” The surprise and concern reflected in my voice came from the sure knowledge that cats do not survive on our farm. Josie, our lovable and watchful sheep guardian dog, hates cats, hates cats so much that she deals out an instant sentence of death the moment she sees one. Fortunately Josie was not at home. She was off at another farm doing the mating dance with a handsome male Guardian dog. My husband said, “So what are we supposed to do with a cat? Leave it alone, just let it wander off.”

The cat slipped out of my view. I secretly hoped she had moved on. But no, I went outside for some wood (we were suffering from an unseasonable cold snap or perhaps a seasonable warning sign to tell us it's time to prepare for the coming winter) and there she was, digging a wee bed in the wood chips and purring. She (actually he) did not run away. I walked right up to him and picked him up. He immediately cuddled in, rubbed against me like cats will do, and said in his little cat way, “Love me! Aren’t I just the cutest little orange kitten you ever did see!”

Now what…. My husband didn’t look too happy when I walked back in with the cat. We wondered where in the world the cat had come from, our nearest neighbour being over a mile away. “Maybe it’s Charlie’s cat,” I said. But no, a phone call negated that possibility. “I bet it belongs to Frank,” I said. “Maybe he jumped in the truck when you were over there last time.”  I went to the storage shed, found a small kennel, and my husband took the kitten over to Frank’s place and dropped him off with all the other cats at their shelter. Frank was not at home to identify the cat.

A day later my husband was chatting with the fellow who owns Josie’s mate. “By the way,” he said, “You haven't seen a little orange kitten, have you?”

Whoops…! The kitten, it turned out, belonged to his children and must have hitched a ride when my husband took Josie down to be bred.

So my husband went over to the neighbour’s place to fetch the kitten back. “I wondered where that cat came from,” the neighbour said. “I have a few kittens around but didn't remember this one, and he's so friendly! Most of my cats are pretty wild. He got a good meal though.”

The cat stayed with us for three days until we could get organized to take him home. It turned out that one of our Border Collies treated the cat like he was a demon straight from the bowels of hell, so, for his own safety the cat was banished to the bathroom for his stay. I forgot how three dimensional cats are. Having no kitty litter on hand, I gave him a box of dirt for his litter box. Before he went home there were little brown paw prints on every level surface of the bathroom! But I didn’t mind. He purred his way into my heart the moment I first picked him up.

My goodness, how happy those kids, and that kitten, were when he got home! He took many a whirling trip around the house first, and was playing happily in the barn when my husband left for home.

Buttercup Squash

I wonder, if summer never stopped - would this one squash plant take over our whole yard?

Enough for winter and still producing, but soon a fall frost will put an end to that!

Honey Flow Hive

An update on the Honey Flow Hive system.  We never got a chance to see for ourselves because our hive was slow starting and the bees only managed to make sufficient honey for their winter food, but many have asked us if this Australian hive invention will work in Canada's cold climate. I read this statement on a Honey Flow site.

For those with questions about using Flow in cold climates, you may be interested in this experience from Alaska: 

"I am an Alaskan beekeeper. We just got our first batch of honey from the flow hive. It worked JUST like in your pictures......20 minutes for a frame to empty.

I had seen a comment on a web site about the fact that this may not work in cold climates. It works VERY well....considering the hive keeps the temperature ~90 degrees, the honey flows out just like in Australia!

If anyone is concerned about using it in northern climates where it is cold, it very DEFINITELY works as advertised and makes recovery on the honey SO much easier." - Kathy, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Apples, Apples, Apples...

Apples, apples, more apples. Crab apples, Norton apples, applesauce, apple jelly, apples and strawberries. Apples for me, apples for you, and you, and you. Apples for the sheep. 

We now have the rams and some wethers at home on enough pasture for a couple of hundred sheep, can hardly see them in the tall grass. My husband actually went out and mowed the field in front of the house so the sheep could see an approaching coyote - and the coyotes are here nightly, singing their hearts out while Josie the Guardian barks and protects. The rams love garden treats - pea pods, carrot tops, beet tops (yes, we eat them too), extra zucchini, vines of anything that’s finished producing, and this year - apples!

        I’ve done all I can with apples. The peas are filling out now, the cukes are happening, beets…  a busy, busy time.

       …and an update on the bees. Our bee master found time to visit, gotta love this man. He and my husband had a good look at our colony. They are healthy, active, filling up the second brood chamber with a winter’s supply of food. But honey for us won’t be happening this year. We don’t know why but we learned, once again, more about bees. They may have swarmed. The queen may have been weak. The bees may not have liked the queen for whatever reason - pheromones, weak?? If they decide the queen must go they surround her in a tight ball, so tight you’d have a hard time breaking it up, essentially smother her, boot her out of the hive and make another queen.

So, as we always say in Alberta, this is next year’s country. We will protect the hive as best we can (time now apparently to insert strips to kill mites) from the winter’s extreme weather conditions, and hopefully have a strong, healthy colony come spring and many kilos of honey next fall.