Adventures in housesitting 104: Quad dog

Maybe this isn't a whole post in itself but..... Same housesitting job as the last episode; different dog.

I let them out the door to go potty around 3:15pm this afternoon, just before it gets dark outside, and what happens? Only 2 of the 3 dogs come back 2 minutes later when I call for them. Okay no biggie, I wait another 60 seconds. Then I step outside And call again. Nothing. This dog happens to be hard of hearing and I know that higher pitches work better for this guy. So I whistle. Still nothing, hmm...okay this is not the first time he has wandered away from this hearing issue but he always comes back after 10 minutes.

Ten minutes later. No trace. I'm still not too worried but the neighbors down the hill are plowing and don't want him to get in their way so I slip my boots on to go look for him, wait though, the phone is ringing! Caller ID says it is my coworker? Who lives a few blocks away (but ACROSS the street) my gut is already telling me....... The collar has his name and number to the cell phone of the owner(gulp) and the house phone number.

Which I answer, it's my coworkers wife, and speak with her briefly. Sure enough he has walked himself down the 400 yard steep hill, across the icy road to visit(and get a rewardable dog cookie) at a pooch doting coworkers house.

As icy as the hill is at the moment, and so I can get down there quicker as she is waiting for me, I jump onto the 4 wheeler and boogie down to retrieve him. I look both ways, and scoot across the highway to the road where they live. He sees me and hangs his head, I reach down and pat him on the head and tell him (he cant hear of course) that is is a very naughty boy! All the while thinking, oh no, how am I going to get him back safely across the road!?!

I could get off the 4 wheeler and walk him across, only I do not have a leash to secure him on the other side and he would of course, follow me back across.  I could have her hold him for a minute so I can bring the quad over and walk back to get him! Aha, oh wait though! As I am thinking this he is already solving the issue at hand by climbing up behind me on the bike: "okay captian, ready when you are!!" He signals.

Nice, the dog not only knows how to walk himself and ride a quad(he may be better than myself at this) can he cook too?

Okay, maybe this was a longer post than I first let on. Not that I condone dogs running off in the first place(but it does happen) I am happy to have him back.

ZZZZZOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!! Happy New Year everybody!!!!!

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Adventures in housesitting, Episode: 103

Dont you hate it when you plan on a nice leisurely lunch break and you get to the house, let the dogs out to potty, and realize a few minutes later that the young black labrador you are watching has inadvertantly been chewing on a deer bone, which has splintered, lodged itself inside the dogs mouth on the upper part of the palette. The dog is frantic, which in turn is causing me to become frantic.

Deep breath. This is not an emergency. This is also not my dog. What are my current options?

1. Take to vet. Give owners vet bill which could possibly be avoided.
2. Try to remove bone splinter myself and get arm bitten off.
3. Call for a friend.

Bingo, placed call to said friend, she is on her way. The dog is now calm, with sporatic pawings at his muzzle. I get him to sit down which he responds to extremely well. The gaze in his chocolatey brown eyes seem to plead to me to get it out pleeeeeeeaaaseeee!!

He opens his mouth wide and I can see the bone crossing the span of the roof of his mouth but I cannot tell if it has punctured the gums or not. I tremble at the thought of not being able to remove it myself. This is my job though, to make sure these dogs stay out of harm and are well taken care of. What are you supposed to do with knuckle head labs though?!

I take a few deep breaths to steady myself, then brace him between my knees and tell him to open up. I gently pry my fingers between his teeth, if I get bitten at least I know I am trying to best that I can. I feel for the protrudence, I find it and play with the tension to see if I can get it to move- if even a little. The dog of course can only take so much of this at one time, so I reassure him between probings. He wags his tail and tells me its alright, just get it outta there!

So I bend forward once again, open the jaw and AHA! Got it!!! Wow, this shard looks so much smaller now that it is between my fingers and not wedged in the roof of his mouth. Emergency diverted. Will be looking for soreness and lacerations later. Was I a veternarian in another life?

I hear a car revving up the driveway. Yay, friend has arrived!! I release the dog, who goes over to greet her. Yep, everything is alright now. Time for some well deserved lunch!!!!!

nano what?

nanowrimo = national november write more month (or something along these lines)

I have not written in my blog for a bit and this is why: Here I sit. I sit here to challenge myself based on an event that occurs every November. An annual event designed to help writers on their agenda to, well- do what they love. And that is to write!

The challenge is to: in a one month period, write 50,000 words. A novel to be precise. The goal is not about the quality of the output. The goal, is quantity. But that is not precisely what I have done. Nope, altogether I have only written a smidge over: 9,200 words. But it IS a beginning!!

Realiostically I knew I would most likely not make the 50,000 words in a 30 day period.

In reality for someone to meet this outline that this website has put out, a person would need to write 1,666.667 words per day to make 50,000 by December 1. Tell me, who has this kind of time? Insane writers- thats who. I work a 40 hour work week, and have a family night once a week that will not stop just for my one of many anti social passion. I don't plan to cut my friends out as they deliver small doses of comedic sanity either... Am I supposed to forgo my minimal (as it currently is) exercise plan? And sleep, who needs it!? Um, this lady needs her sleep....All these reasonings are of course the primary reason(s) I have not yet sat down to write my story which is precariously lodged within my gray matter.

But, I have mapped out a tentative calendar with what I think I can do. This little "journal type entry" is more to draw out what I want to write, because the subject is already in my brain. This is the story of my child hood of living with Diabetes. I just need to force myself to sit. Then write. Then make it into a story I believe others will benefit from, and enjoy during reading.

So while I may not be able to write everyday, I am willing to make a goal:

1. Plan a week ahead of time, of trying to write an average 3 days a week, with about 5,000 words a week. I am not going to punish myself if I do not meet this goal! However, I DO plan on setting up a reward for writing my daily goal (a sauna is a GREAT motivational tool!) as is reading time. Books are my vice, and consume a good deal of my spare time!

2. Set up times that work for me. A Sunday morning I am not going to schedule myself to write at 6am. I will be reasonable, first walk the dog, with plan on writing later (but longer) Or if I feel the need to write more, to plan on getting up that hour earlier before work and just flat out write!

3. Write uninhibited. Write it how I remember it. Just write! Like the website says, its about the quantity- not quality, fine tuning comes later. It has to be typed/written out before your put in all those fancy schmancy words.

4. Look to the great website resource for pep talks. Or if you cannot think of the story at hand do a journal type entry, at least you are writing something!! (specifically like this one).....read through the journal and notes you have that you have already written, it really does work to get inspired about the subject matter!!

5. Do not procrastinate. Do it now. November is coming (quite literally the day after tomorrow.) Do it now, what am I waiting for?

6. Back the work up! Really, you know how upset you get after writing a 100 word email and you accidentally hit delete. Save it on the ipad, save it on blogger, save it in google documents, save it on a flash drive. Save it! Then use the handy word counter they smartly have on the website to see how many words have flowed out of those fingertips! Or, download an application for a word counting and make it EVEN EASIER! Wow, I just sat down and typed 737 words in a little under an hour!

See, thats all it takes, is the goal to sit down and DO IT! So, until tomorrow (or what has turned into the entire December hehehehehee)  I plan to write, goodnight!

Recipe for a Halloween tricky treat

Step 1:

Wash thoroughly. If you bought this at the local party store and don't know how many grimy hands haven been on this....on that note, you don't know how many faces have tried this on. Wash the inside for good measure too!!!!


Step 2:

Cover with cream cheese (or BBQ sauce if that's more your taste) it gives it a nice slimy effect! You can make and shape a cheese ball if you want to make it completely edible (but I was short on time so I opted for the mask!)





Step 3:

I hope you bought LOTS of lunchmeat!!!!! Cut into strips, cover and layer it on! I used brown sugar ham, but of course turkey or roast beef works too! Yum.


Step 4:

BE CREATIVE!! If you can imagine it you can do it!!!
So I also took it upon myself to start a small worm factory.....





But don't worry its only jello!


Sugar free too!!



Perfect for a Halloween potluck! If you can get your friends/coworkers to eat it!!

Bon appetite!!

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The nightmare before housesitting

I call myself a housesitter. I have been housesitting for over 10 years. I have and am willing to take care of sick cats, stubborn dogs, lizards that eat crispy dried pieces of crickets, goldfish who attempt to intimidate you into feeding them more with a dubious stare, and numerous personable rodents. I have only 2 rules before accepting a "job" to housesit your abode:

#1. Dont ask to leave your kids with me.

#2. Dont ask to leave your parents with me.

Except I only made up rule #2 after one of my last jobs after I had not near enough fun (and a few minor head scratches) with a little lady we are going to dub "Francine"

Francine is 73 years old. You have to expect a few senior moments, right?

A few days before the big job I go to the house to interact a bit with Francine, talk a bit about the things I needed to tend to while staying at the house. I have watched this dog in the past, so I kind of knew what to expect from him. But, this was before Francine arrived on the scene.....

The daughter told me how I just needed to stay over night there, take care of the dog(who is a bit stubborn so I would be relieving the responsibility of the mom), I was told that she was independent and would have premade meals in the fridge and freezer. Sounds well planned hey? Sigh.

The job started the day the town was experiencing rolling blackouts; power outages every other hour for about an hour at a time. Not to worry, except where Francine is concerned, every time the power went out, she could not recall why it had gone out!! Needless to say she was a little bit frazzled and was more worried about resetting the digital clock in the kitchen than thinking about it going out again the next hour.

These power outages also reset the cordless phone; every other hour. And numerous times I tried to explain to her not to worry, it would come back in an hour(She seemed to understand why the lights were out at least). But then, when the handset had battery power, she could not remember how to dial out (she was adding the area code 907 while trying to call a local number to her daughter that was "not in Alaska" currently). So I would dutifully dial, update the daughter as best I could on our current situation as Francine stood nearby awaiting her turn.

The next day she rings me up to ask me if I had fed the dogs? Yes, I fed the dogs(which I find out later she ALSO has fed the dogs) She then calls me to ask if her daughter had called me, because she had called the house to check in with her(Ok, being on the same page is not a bad thing- right?). She would call me to tell me she was locking the door now. Ok, I tell her, go ahead and lock the door I have a key.... I admit I was busier than usual this Alaska holiday weekend so im going to attempt to communicate with her better. This week should go by smoother....right? Im beginning to question whether this job is too much for me. Give me animals any day, give me people....NEWSFLASH! I am NOT a people person.

Yes, I could have communicated with her at more regular intervals, but I had family in town that I wanted to spend at least some time with. So yes I was gone for some extended periods of time (not to mention most of the night of the Alaska day ball and another unpredictable night where my relatives had a few too many smoked salmon bloody marys and a few too many bits of fun ;)

At one point I walk in and she had taken everything from the fridge and was piling it into the already too full freezer in the entry way room. "Um, Francine, what seems to be the issue?" I ask her. She calmly replies. "Oh, it seems as though the refrigerator is not working. I didnt want to bother you." I place some of the perishables outside on the porch where the temperature is about 34 degrees. "Do you think we will attract bears?" Francine asks me. "Maybe." I tell her. Though it IS October- so Im not extremely worried. The breaker box looks alright but I call the neighbors and they are able to find the problem and fix it quickly(a outlet switch just needed to be changed out in the kitchen most likely caused by the frequent blackouts)

One unforgettable night includes a panic stricken phone call where Francine breathlessly tells me that she has locked herself out of her room!! I am currently at my grandmothers house for dinner so I tell her I will be there as soon as dinner is done. She then tells me her medication is locked in the room. FRICK!! Really? How did the door get locked!!! So I rush out of dinner, all the way out the road, down the steep hill and up their winding gravel driveway. Where I fling myself out of my truck and race into the house as fast as I can. Francine is standing at the bottom of the staircase with a screwdriver and a nail in her hand. "Oh, I got it honey."

The dog water bowl goes completely missing, and so does the garbage can outside, which I had been asked to take down to the street to be collected on trash day (where can a little old lady hide such a thing?!) It was there just 2 days ago! I get a few quick little sporadic rants on religion, and why my not having any type of religion is not a good thing. Which is never a topic I ever choose to initiate into with others.

And the ever present "I cant get the phone to work" rears its head at least once per day. Including an incident on Sunday morning (of course the night of being out super late at the ball) when she could not call a friend (because, alas, she still could not get the phone to work) that was supposed to pick her up to go to church. She waits til 20 minutes before she needs to be there to ask me for a ride. So me, *cranky, sleep deprived, sarcastic, and needing some serious alone time* ask her what her friends phone number is. I call. I get her husband that does not know where this woman is. I go into the mudroom where Francine is waiting, dressed in her Sunday best. I pull on my grubby extra tuffs. As I shrug one arm into my jacket she opens the door and says "Oh, heres my ride!" And walks out, pulling the door shut gently behind her. I slump down onto the bench with a huge sigh, and clumsily kick the boots off. Where the dogs eye me wearily, "I thought we were going somewhere?"

Second to the last day of this endeavor Francine asks me if I can get her an envelope so she can mail a letter off to her friend. I dig around my house (instead of theirs) and come up with a business class envelope and deliver it to her. She then asks me why I did not bring her a different size, as the letter is in fact a card.... I start to bristle. So I tromp back to my house, dig through more envelopes and find one that I think will work for her. Back at her house she smiles angelically and takes the envelope.

The next morning (and finally the last day) she calls me while I am at work and says she needs another envelope, as the one I gave her has been written with the wrong address(in her handwriting must I point out!!!) My patience has hit its limit. At this trivial point I dont even want to go back to the house. I call a friend, and ask her if she has any card envelopes she would be willing to part with and can she please please please PLEASE drop it off for me at the house? Which this wonderful friend did for me without hesitation on her lunch break!

The count is 38. Thats right, 38 phone calls in a 5 day period. I almost did not survive I tell you!!!! Really it was not that bad (unless you start me raving about it) But this story must be told for its entertaining values (and maybe others have pulled the same amount of hair out in situations like these as well?!?!?!)

A year has gone by since this episode in my life. After 10+ years of housesitting I have established these important certain rules:

#1. Dont ask to leave your kids with me.


#2. Dont ask to leave your parents with me.

Except....by the way, apparently I cant say no.....I am housesitting here again for 3 days next month. Its only 3 days....right? We shall see how this chapter turns out.

..........

Buri

I'm ready, are YOU ready?!?



This lava caving tour starts about one hour drive from Reykjavik. Its name is Buri, and it lays in Leita hraun on the Reykjanes peninsula. With a little hike over the lava field to where the hidden cave entrance lies....



Below, a group member looking at the tiny little hole we have to squeeze our bodies through.....claustrophobic? Don't worry, I'm not!!!!











The cave goes more than 1 kilometer in, and has great diversity in the height and width. The crude path ends abruptly in a large gaping hole that our guide says can be rappelled down about 60 feet to the uneven bottom. It is VERY uneven and NOT for beginning spelunkers! Though the pamphlet states: fit for everyone with good health. Oh and good hiking shoes are essential! The company needs to reiterate this, as a lot of us(including myself) just had tennis shoes.



Time for a head count, did we all make it out alive? We all came out with a few bumps and uffdas! I fell once, but others fell more. But despite the scrapes and bruises, nothing beats the raw realness of caving in a country at a particular cave that not many have been before(the cave was opened only 2 years ago)



That was so fun I want to go again!!!!!

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Location:Reykjavik Iceland

Madonna

The Icelanic horse is special for many reasons, one being that for over a thousand years they have not changed their genetic line. In their native country they have few diseases; Icelandic law prevents horses from being imported and exported animals are not allowed back into the country.



Icelandic horses are smaller than other breeds of horses, although usually larger than ponies. The Icelandic displays two gaits in addition to the typical walk, trot, and canter/gallop commonly displayed by other breeds. Yes, they have 5 different gaits!!!!



Some horses are also raised here for slaughter.....with most of the meat being sent off to Japan, but surprisingly widely consumed here as well.



After my ride I don't think I can try this local specialty today.......My Icelandic horses name is Madonna. Though I haven't had a ton of experience on horses, Madonna was VERY responsive and I had a fantastic time, I even chose to ride back to the farm with the fast group where we got to try the special "tölt" gait(a few people decided to walk back)



My cold is doing better and only a couple of days until I head to Seattle. I hope my brain is ready for meter school.....oops I think it just went galloping off with that Icelandic horse!!!!

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Location:Laxnes, Iceland

The golden circle

I have caught a touch of a Norwegian cold so I'm taking it easy today and doing a popular tour of 3 must sees while in Iceland. Rest and water should make things better :)

First stop: Pingvellir national park. This is the volcano and fissure laden junction where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly drifting apart, about 3 mm each year(about as fast as your finger nails grow every year) Which means that in about 10,000 years, there will be a gap of about 70 meters. Another grand canyon in the making!!







Next stop: Gullfoss waterfall. In Icelandic this name means the golden waterfall. By far the most popular waterfall in Iceland, thousands of people trek to see it annually. Do you see how little the people are standing on the rock to the left? I'm going down there!!



Lots of spray this close!!



Last stop on this tour: Geysir. The one and only Geysir where all others hereafter get their common name from! I did not know that this was an Icelandic word!!



The water is about 200 degrees farenheit, a little below boiling but still HOT! This run off is a tad cooler to the touch....








But still you do not want to be standing directly underneath when it blows!!!!! I have some videos that are sideways that once i figure out how to rotate them, will try to post!







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Location:Iceland