How Sweet It Is

It is exactly three weeks ago today that the poodles, Pooker, and I moved to the new house. And today, exactly three weeks later, the other feathers and furs joined us. They moved in like they have been waiting to arrive, waiting to demonstrate their new routines. And they got right to it.

At some point I'll be able to articulate what I am feeling in this moment. For now, I'll use words like relief, contentment, satisfaction, pride, exhaustion, hopeful, encouraged, grateful, humbled, determined, protective, accomplished.

Today, it's mostly about the word gratitude. Heaps and buckets, rivers and pools, an endless supply.

Moving the ranch is not easy. Moving while renovating is not easy. Moving while leaving half your family behind is definitely not easy. Without my friends, well, let's just say I was fortunate enough to not know what that would mean.

I thank you, my friends and family, for your support, your time, your encouragement, your talent, your car, your trailer, your truck, your generosity, your caring, your strength, your humor, your effort, your thoughtfulness, your food, YOU.

I love you all. You all have your own spot in my heart. And while my animals are not sure who some of you are yet, I know they too send you love because they know who and what is important to me, that is for sure.

So, as I sit here worn out from the day's physical activity and emotional experience, I am freshly showered and comfortable on my sofa. The night air is cooling. I can hear the night bugs, I can hear my pups breathing in deep sleep. And I can hear my boys outside my window moving around, Shadow calling up to me on occasion, and I can reassure him quite easily no matter where I am in the house.

This is how sweet it is.

Rosie the Riveter

"We can do it!"

I always said that I don't want to have an animal on the ranch that I cannot handle.  Of course, there are things that require the expertise of others, but it has always been important to me that my animals come when called, respond appropriately and treat me with respect.  It doesn't mean they all don't have their bad boy or bad girl moments, but at the end of the day, they know who rules the roost.  And it has to be that way.

While taking care of the animals was always my responsibility, I used to have help from the ranch hand for projects, repairs, an occasional feeding and trimming goat hooves once the little wethers got too big for me to tip and hold down to do on my own.  Then things changed and the directive was given not to help me any longer.  He would sneak help me with certain things, acknowledging it was a lot of work for one person.

I don't have a ranch hand at my new place but on occasion I could call him and hire him to help me with a few things.  With Pinkie's recent vet bills and the rising cost of hay and feed, my budget is too tight to call in help.

This morning, I woke up feeling strong.  I did two 20 minute segments of Rodney Yee's Power Yoga video and then I did plank for 1:14, which I used my timer to record because I wasn't sure if I was really hitting that 6 minute mark that it felt like!  With the sun shining and the air still, the temperature was very agreeable and inviting for spending the morning outdoors.

I took care of the regular chores: giving Alibi his twice daily Cosequin supplement; treating Faramir and Hy Note to a bite of carrot; loading the cart and putting out hay for the horses and different hay for the goodles; opening up the hen house and greeting each one as they dash out the door to their morning treat of a sprinkling of hen crack; doing a quick about face to shoo Shadow, who had bolted down there like an Olympic sprinter, out of the hen house so he couldn't eat their grain; filling water bowls and buckets; scooping up bad boy Ginger as he chased after my little Squirrel; greeting the sparrows and finches who live in the hay shed; and before scooping 30-40 piles of horse poop, I took advantage of an empty poop cart and head over to start raking pine needles.

The goats' hooves have been on my mind for a while.  I had been hoping I could call someone to come help me trim them.  Everything here just seemed calm and according to plan.  When that's the vibe, it is to be fully appreciated and every second is to be used up.  The goodles had been browsing for over an hour and Pippin started following me around.  We've been doing a lot of work to set a firm routine with him as routine is not in his repertoire.  He needs to do something I ask and then he gets a peanut.  There is no more random doling out of peanuts.

We were near the rails and he stuck his head through to eat the hay on the other side and I thought, this is it.  We can do it!  I filled my pocket with peanuts, I grabbed a long lead rope and the trimmers, he followed me back to the rails and I looped his horns, tied the rope well (still not in the perfect knot but he wasn't getting out), gave him praise and a peanut and picked up one of his feet.  At first he was not into the idea but he quickly relented, stood still, I trimmed, we kissied like mad and he got more peanuts.  I did all 4 of his feet, released him and continued to praise him and thank him.  That was easy.

I think it was easy for two reasons: Pippin was sick as a baby so I had to pick him up a lot, handle him, stick a thermometer up his little rump and he learned that I was never going to hurt him and, he has no fear.

We all went over to the pine trees and I resumed raking.  Ginger got a hold of Squirrel and just as I grabbed him, Bodie grabbed Squirrel.  I have learned that if you can catch a dog in the split second they are doing something they are not supposed to do, that's your only moment for teaching.  I let go of Ginger, grabbed Bodie, Squirrel ran, Ginger ensued until he ran into Big Red at which time I knew Squirrel was safe and I went on to scold Bodie.  All of this happened in a matter of 5 seconds.  Bodie was mortified that he got in trouble.  If you have never seen a dog embarrassed before, his body language and eyes were it in full definition.  It was a moment of chaos and being a herder, he jumped in to see whose heels he could nip.

Several wheel barrows full of pine needles are piled in the center of the dry lot waiting for fuel to ignite. I have the fuel, I need the torch.  Then it was time to attend to the morning chore of poop scooping.

I was hearing it--today was the day to trim Shadow's hooves too.  Now Shadow weighs a good 50 pounds more than Pippin and is quite a bit bigger.  Shadow is a good boy, cooperative, respectful and also does not like to be in trouble.  But, he's much stronger than I am.  I went into the house to use the restroom, refill my water bottle and thought, if I'm going to do this, perhaps a big bite of a power bar will help me along.

I came out to find Shadow at the yard gate waiting for me and Pippin was back in the dry lot taking advantage of his choice of hay without being bullied.  Shadow had been browsing for a couple of hours at this point and his belly was like a bowl full of jelly.  He wanted a nap, he wanted to cuddle.  Later.  I went about tying him up the same way as I did Pippin and I slowly encroached upon his limited space, giving him less room to wiggle around.

Fortunately and most serendipitously, I was dressed perfectly for hoof trimming.  Shadow could move his head enough to grab hold of my loose jacket and jeans (the one pair of loose jeans I own!) with his sharp teeth.  Anything tighter might have yielded him a bit of my skin.

This took work.  He is so strong he can pump his hind leg in my hand in such a manner it's like holding onto a jack hammer.  So, having had this experience before, I opted for a smaller win which was his front feet.  We needed to both feel good about this experience and I did not want to get hurt.  I got his feet trimmed, he got peanuts and love and then I wanted to pick up both feet again before we called it quits.  When he allowed me to hold his foot without any struggle, I released the foot, praised him like mad and gave him more peanuts.  I did the same with the other side.

So, yes, it's a lot of work to do and it's hard work at times but if I go about it with a clear head, confidence in my ability, fully focused and with a lot of love and compassion, things get done and we're all still friends.

And so can I.  This is what I tell myself every day.

Expect the Unexpected.

Paraphrasing a line from one of my all-time favorite movies, Diner, "If you don't have daydreams, you have nightmares."

And so I drove home after a full day out dreaming about an early evening of completed chores, dinner, reading, maybe indulging in one of the last two recorded episodes of Scandal, and early to bed.  Aaahhh, the luxury of a daydream!

As I was coming up alongside my property, I could see Pippin under the aspen trees.  It sounds storybook like, doesn't it?  But you see, there are no aspen trees in his fenced area.  Quick calculation: will he stay where he is long enough for me to open the gate, back the car in and close the gate again?  I must admit, he was a like deer, frozen in the trees just staring at me.  If it weren't Pippin, I'd half think he felt like a bad boy for getting out.

Success!  I got in the garage.  I realized the other part of my daydream, taking a quick catnap for 10 minutes before heading out for chores, had been dashed and now getting into ranch gear and heading out was priority #1.  The dogs felt otherwise.  Feed the dogs, then go change.

I looked out the window to see Shadow's wiggling tail as he jogged down to the hen house in his spirited caprine style.  With no time to change, I ran down to the hen house to shoo him away from the grain.  There were two eggs under the nesting boxes, so I grabbed those.  Poor calculation:  Carrying two eggs while wearing nice trousers and a pricey jacket made for a very dicey return to the house as the goodles were in "let's play!" mode.  I grabbed the nearest stick and started snapping them on the nose each time they tried one of their tricks until I got in behind the gate.  Whew.

My mom had called as I was first getting home and I told her I'd ring her right back.  Well, it was a good 25 minutes before I got to do that.  We chatted for a few minutes while I changed and checked on the three day old chicklets and once again headed outdoors.  It's always a pleasure to chat with my mother if only for a few minutes.

As I made my way out, the goats were at the gate to the yard.  Thinking it still a treat to make that daydream a reality, I put them in the dog yard to browse on the grass and stay out of my short hair for a spell.  I went on to feed the horses, empty the manure carts and give a snack to the hens who had been following me around literally asking for a snack.  I had been suspicious of Miss Honey Pot and looking at her this evening, I guessed we might be back to being egg bound.

Another quick calculation: Do I pick up Honey and a handful of hay and head straight to the kennel sitting in the dog yard?  Was I nuts!  The saner approach required going back to the dog yard, picking up the kennel and a towel, and pushing back Pippin who then wanted to play with the kennel and block my ability to move quickly.  Escaping the goodle antics, I swept out the kennel and stuffed some hay in it and headed back to set it up in the garage.

Where's Pippin?  He was nowhere to be found in the dog yard.  The gate at the top of the stairs where he got his head stuck last week was latched closed.  I know he didn't jump the fence.  He didn't? Did he?

Sure enough, I open the garage door and who is standing inside? "Ma'aaa."  There was the little one.  He got himself through the dog door and into the garage!  He weighs about 150 pounds.  And what on earth ever possessed him to go through a door he didn't even know existed and certainly had no idea of what was on the other side?!

Tick tick tick, I was feeling my daydream float further away.  Opening the door to get Pippin out and the kennel in required letting Shadow in.  If there is one thing that is an absolute must on this ranch, it is to have peanuts in my pocket at all times.  It's the only way to coax them for anything.  Except Pippin.  He found it cozy to be half in, half out and stretching his neck as far as he could to get that peanut without actually coming out the door.

Finally, I got them out and lured them back into the dry lot where I knew they could not go anywhere (at least they haven't figured anything out yet.)  Honey had gone to the hen house, so I went down to scoop her up and bring her to the garage and sit her in a warm bath.  You wouldn't think chickens like to sit in water, but they find it very relaxing.  I put the plastic cover on the dog door so Bodie and Pinkie couldn't come in and Honey and I enjoyed a quiet 15 minutes together.

The hope is the warm water relaxes her enough that she can pass the egg.  To encourage movement a bit more, I suited up with a latex glove and "personal lubricant" on my fingers and massaged her vent.  Another thing you couldn't imagine a hen sitting still for, but it's quite fascinating to observe what they will tolerate when they sense it is to help them.

So, Honey will spend the night in the garage under a blanket in her kennel with a personal serving of yogurt and banana.  Tomorrow we will do another soak and see if anything has shifted.  I do hope it does.

Still hoping for a cloud of that daydream, I cut my chores a tad short, kissed the four-legged angels goodnight and came inside.  Again, there was another plan in play for me.  It seems that the energy of the feisty goats and the insufferable curiosity of a hen in the garage had the dogs much too keyed up to be inside.

Calculation in moderation: Do I write out my electric bill and take the poodles for a walk to the mailbox so they can burn off that pent up canine juice?  Yes.  It would be in my best interest to do so.  Back on with my coat and shoes, another salutation to Honey as we passed by, and slam go the breaks!  One of my neighbors who walks her four dogs every evening was just passing by.  It's bad enough that Bodie barks and chases the dogs along the fence, I didn't think opening the gate to go walking at that moment was going to help me in attaining my quiet evening plan.

So, we waited for about 10 minutes for them to get to the end of the street and back again past our house, then we set out for a brisk jaunt of peeing, pooping, sniffing and circling.  I am fortunate that they are so good off leash on a walk.  I like to walk fast and it definitely keeps them moving.  Making our way back into the gate, I could hear the pages of my newspaper turning.

While this won't be the early evening I had envisioned, the events of the evening went along rather smoothly, all things considered.  That's the best I can hope for everyday.

Something told me this morning when I was pulling out of the garage and got out to lock the dogs in the yard and I saw Baby stand up and drop an egg right there on the gravel that this was going to be one of those days where you just have to go with the flow.  At least if you expect the unexpected, not too much will catch you by surprise.