Cutting chicken is serious business.
shadow
Good Morning From Shadow!
I know it’s not Saturday, but I got this really cute picture of Shadow this morning and thought I’d share. He’s been such a good puppy the last couple of weeks with Mike being gone. He’s used to a lot of attention and Mike normally does a lot of “rough” playing with him that I don’t do. Top that off with the fact that all weekend it’s been really smokey here so I’ve kept him inside and you’ve got a lot of built up lab energy. He has been breaking the rules and snuggling in bed with me at night… shhh…. don’t tell Mike!
Ok, so I may have said “the B word” to get him to look at the camera (biscuit). Don’t worry, I followed up with one for him. It makes me sad to see how grey he’s getting… a reminder that time passes for us all I guess. He’s also got more of the fatty tumors that labs apparently get… I’ve been told by the vet that they’re pretty normal and that they don’t like to do anything to them unless they bother the dog.
To Bee Or Not To Bee
Well, I have a new hobby and I’ll give you one guess as to what it is:
Yup, I’ve decided to become a beekeeper in my spare time. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are currently raising bees and love it. I thought it’d be good for a variety of reasons including fresh local honey (hopefully it helps with my allergies!) and pollination of my orchard (that’s where the hive is going to go). The hive was delivered today… I’m totally geeking out over it.
The hive came mostly assembled (thank goodness, because for as simple as they look, I don’t know that I would have gotten it all together). Here’s what the final product looks like:
The inside is a little more complicated – this hive contains ten frames, an inner lid, and an outer lid.
The frames have an artificial honeycomb built-in to encourage the bees to build theirs around it (and to keep them from building between the frames, making it hard to pull them out and access the honey).
Finally, there’s a very important piece of gear – the smoker. This basically makes the bees sleepy/lazy/less prone to sting when you want to either check the hive or harvest the honey.
Even Shadow got all excited about it:
I am seriously geeked out right now. I asked Mike if he thought it was as cool as I did… his reply was “It’s interesting…” At least he’s humoring me! The bees are scheduled to arrive tomorrow – between now and then I need to get the hive down to the orchard and up on cinder blocks (so it doesn’t get rot and isn’t as accessible to critters). Stay tuned for the next chapter of the Bee Chronicles!
Saturdays With Shadow: The Snake Edition
Living in the foothills has it benefits – we have land, few neighbors, lots of cool critters. Well, today I had my first run in with a snake without Mike. I have plenty of run-ins with lizards all the time and my first thought is generally “Whew, thank goodness that wasn’t a snake”.
I knew right away it wasn’t a rattle snake, so I ran inside to get my camera so that I could share with you folks. And, I knew once I got inside I would get super confused when I started Googling. Fortunately, a squirrel made a noise and Shadow ran off to chase it, so I was able to poke at the snake with a long pole. Unfortunately, that sucker turned and took off back into Shadow’s pen (not sure if it came from there to begin with). For once is his short little life, Shadow actually listened to me and came to me instead of chasing the snake. Maybe I actually sounded authoritative.
As it turns out, this is a California Striped Racer. They are known for their speed, their daytime activity, and they sometimes eat rattlesnakes. I’m kinda glad I grabbed the pole rather than the shovel I was thinking about.
Happy Saturday everyone!
If it ain’t broke…
… still get it fixed.
Last weekend I noticed a weird pain in the side/bottom of my ankle. Me being me, I continued to run, garden, etc… and by Wednesday it hurt like heck to even walk. I headed into the doctor who immediately sent me in for x-rays and “the boot”:
Nice photobomb, Shadow. Anyways, the verdict came back – no break or stress fracture, but rather a torn ligament. One that’s not bad enough for surgery, but that I need to take care of. So it’s two weeks of the boot, ice, and elevation. The last few days of the week were rough… the boot is hot, itchy, and I hate not being able to do the things I want to do. Poor Mike has put up with cranky Anna for the last couple of days.
The doctor said I could swim, as long as it didn’t cause me any pain… I may or may not test that today. In case you forgot, in about three weeks I’m slated to swim from Alcatraz back to shore at Sharkfest. Fingers crossed that this doesn’t impact my swimming too much… I may take it easy the next few days and just do pull workouts. Think healing thoughts!
Saturdays With Shadow
I love these paws!
Happy Birthday Shadow!
Eight years ago today, a sweet little black lab puppy was born. A short two years after that, Shadow wiggled his way into my life. Happy 8th birthday!
Meet Chip
Yesterday I needed to head to Petco to get some dog food and saw a really cute “indestructible” chipmunk that we named Chip. Or so the label said. We pretty much know that no toy is safe with Shadow, but I keep trying. I have visions of him snuggled up with his little *insert cute animal here*.
This was the longest one of these has lasted – it took about half an hour for him to get the stuffing (and squeaker) out. That really is some sort of record – normally it’s about 30 seconds before the stuffing is flying. Once all of the stuffing is out, he likes to move it around for a couple of days, tearing off a tail or an ear every now and then. He doesn’t eat any of it – just pulls and spits.
Today he ate Chip’s face off. So much for that sweet dream.
Saturdays with Shadow
These pictures are from a few weeks back when we had about five or six inches of snow on our property. The first, of Shadow running, makes me laugh. I somehow caught him in full flight with his ears flopping around. I love it. The second is a picture of his paw print in the snow. He’s such a great dog and it’s always so much fun to see him running around like that!
Shadow’s Adventure (A Special Saturdays With Shadow)
Today we decided that since a decent storm went through this week we’d give snowshoeing another try. At the last minute I told Mike that I wanted to take Shadow along with us. The only snow that he’s really ever seen is the couple of inches we get once or twice a year. I thought it’d be fun for him to come out and hike around a bit. We had the best time! I’m so proud of him… he hiked along with Mark, Mike, and I like he’s been doing it for years. He did get a little tired at the end, but figured out that if he walked in Mark’s tracks, it was a lot less work.
The weather was beautiful – it actually started snowing on the drive up, stopped for the beginning of the hike and then started again right at the end. We ended up hiking 3.24 miles in a couple of hours (there was some pretty good uphill chunks this week).
We are both pooped. It was a great hike and if we had our way both of us would still be napping. I can’t wait to take him on another grand adventure!
Down The Road I Go 