It's October!!!! Dogs and wok..

Can you believe it's October already????? I just don't know where the summer went, but in all honesty, fall or autumn is my favorite time of the year, our rainy season has pretty much ended, there is still some greenery around, but grasses and other plants are starting to get that golden tinge around the edges. Our trees don't really change color, we have mostly pines and oaks, the pines pretty much look the same year round, the oaks keep their green leaves all winter, waiting until spring to turn color, fall off and grow nice green leaves in just a few short weeks.

The nights and mornings are getting cooler now, I have had to start breaking out my cold weather sleeping gear, it's not quite time for the down blanket, that will be next month.

The dogs have fallen into a regular routine, up at daybreak, eat around 8ish, I take them for a walk most days, I try for 2 walks a day, but I don't always get it in. They do very well on their leashes, I finally got a second retractable leash so they both have one now. They sleep most of the rest of the day, then it's dinner tine around 6ish, another walk if I'm going to walk them a second time, then they go to bed whenever we do. The little one sleeps next to me, Mr Pups is too big for getting in our bed, he has a nice soft bed at the head of my bed, all I have to tell his is to get into his bed and he does. They have their own dog door so they can come and go as they wish. At night I close them in so they can only go out if I let them out, that's mainly because of the critters that may be out and about, skunks are the biggest worry, it's no fun to wash a stinky dog in the middle of the night, ask me how I know...

Here's something I'm excited about, I finally got the wok I wanted! Last year (I can't remember exactly when) I bought an el cheapo wok from WalMart, it was $5. I just needed to know if I really wanted to cook on a wok often enough to justify buying one. 

 

Turns out I do like cooking in a wok, that began my journey hunting down a good one. It had to be small enough for me to use, that meant a 13-14 inch wok. The next thing was deciding between a carbon steel (traditional) or a stainless steel. I'm very familiar with cooking and frying in stainless, it doesn't stick if you do it right, which means heating up the pan first, pouring in some oil, wait to see the oil shimmer-almost smoking, then add the food, it generally cooks/fries without sticking. You can also get woks in non-stick and in cast iron, neither appeal to me, I don't like non-stick coatings that flakes off and smokes at high temps. The cast iron would just be too heavy to be practical.

I really couldn't decide between carbon steel and stainless steel. The carbon steel has to be treated much like cast iron, it needs to be properly seasoned and washed & dried properly. I really love my stainless steel cookware too. I had several of each kind in my Amazon cart, it turned out to be price that was the determining factor.

One of the stainless steel woks dropped in price, very significantly, it had been around $80 and dropped to $24.99, that's all I needed to see! I hit the buy it button and waited for it to arrive. It's still that price as of now.

I got it a few days ago, even though we had already eaten dinner, I really wanted to try it, so I made popcorn in it. The following day I got out my stir fry goodies and made a proper dinner. I quickly realized that my little RV stove just doesn't have enough horsepower to really get the wok up to stir fry temps. So a couple of days later, PB put together a separate high horsepower burner just for the wok. I can also use it for boiling large pots of water and other things.

That is what has been going on this week, hope your week is going fantastically!  Let me know what you are doing to get ready for winter.

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I've got a running buddy!

Well, it's more like I ride my ebike and my 4 legged buddy runs along side of me. The new additions to our family, Sweet Pea and Mr Pups have merged with us in such a perfect way, it's incredible, almost unbelievable, it's almost like they have been with us for their whole life. A few weeks ago I needed to take a run to the church, it's a couple of miles up the road from me, it was a semi-sunny day, between the rain storms we have in our monsoons, I decided to take my bike, I noticed as I got my bike out and took it down the hill to the road, Mr Pups followed beside me in such a way that I thought he just might make a good running buddy. I couldn't take him that day because I needed to get to the church to check on the water up there, it was far too far to expect him to run beside me and I didn't have time to do anything with him right then.

Fast forward to yesterday, we finally had a break in the rain that had been falling for days, the roads had dried up between the two low water crossings that frame my property and a few properties down the road. I got out my bike and asked Mr Pups if he wanted to go. He was all excited, following me down to the bridge, when I told him he could come with me and opened the gate, he hopped around like a kid!

As I began to ride, he fell in right beside me, not too close, not too far, he didn't run ahead of me, he seemed to know exactly what to do. Once we got down to the low water crossing that had water in it, I stopped and turned around, I wasn't sure if he would stay with me or continue across the water, to my delight, he turned with me and fell in right beside me again. I let him set the pace, he ran full out for the first little bit, then slowed to a nice loping pace. We proceeded down about 4 properties away, I'd say around a 10th of a mile. I didn't want to go any further because my neighbors/friends down that way have a couple of large dogs that are of unknown behavior, they are normally inside of a fence but they did get out last week, I also didn't have Mr Pups on a leash, and I also didn't want to run him too hard or far the first time we did this.

We did this circuit about 3 times, stopping on the second round to visit my next door neighbor LL for a while. On the third round, he was visibly going much slower, he is an old man of 8 or 9 years old according to what I've been told about him.

Today he seems to be in pretty good spirits, he doesn't seem stiff or sore, though I can't imagine how he isn't at least a little sore, that's the most activity he's had since moving in with us last month.

Here is my plan, the big guy runs great beside the bike, I want to get a harness for the little dog, one that I can use to strap her on me like a backpack but in front. I can get a tiny helmet for her and she can ride the bike with me as he runs alongside of us. My neighbor LL also wants to get a bike like mine, she has a little dog, she can strap her dog on too and we can ride all over, I'm thinking this will be great fun!

 

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The SkyCastle has dogs again

It's been a year and a few weeks since my baby girl Zoe had passed, she was my dog, and so much more than that. She was a rescue, and absolutely everything I didn't want in a dog, I wanted a long hair female chihuahua like I had when I came out to far west Texas. That little chihuahua Pekoe is buried next to the garden in what has become our pet cemetary. 

I knew after Zoe had passed that I would want to get another dog, but I've learned not to actively look for one, I knew the right one would drop into my lap. I wanted a chihuahua and was determined to get one this time. If you have followed my story for any time at all, you will know that I loved my Zoe, even though she wasn't a chihuahua, I also loved Casper, the other dog who decided that he wanted to move in with us about a year after we rescued Zoe, he was already an old man and lived out the rest of his life with us in comfort and love, he is buried next to Zoe and Pekoe.

I have now begun to actively look for the chihuahua I was wanting, and even had a couple of opportunities to get a couple, but each time it would get close to happening, something would happen and the deal would fall through. I am a person of faith and knew that the right one would come along, my "job" was to wait and be ready when the time came.

I wanted a chihuahua AND I have fallen in love with pit bulls, I know they have a bad reputation, but I know them as loving cuddle bugs, I figured I'd get a chihuahua first, then after a year I'd start looking for a pitty.

Last week, I found out a local resident had passed away, I knew him but was not close, he had been in bad health for some time.  He had a (wait for it!) chihuahua and pit bull/boxer mix. His family gave permission for the people who had rescued and were fostering the dogs in to find them a good home, preferably together. When I saw the photos of these 2 sweet dogs, my heart jumped, I knew these were for me.

I posted a reply stating my interest, but I would need to speak to PB about it first, if it had just been one dog, especially a chihuahua, I would have just brought it home, but since this was 2 dogs, and from "circumstances", I decided I needed to discuss it first.

PB was cautiously agreeable, his main concern was how these dogs would behave, especially in the situation they had just come from, I'll explain more in a later post, but let's just say these dogs were stuck inside their house with their deceased owner for at least a week, possibly 2 weeks, they had the potential for physical and/or behavioral issues.

I went to visit with these dogs two weeks ago Sunday after church, I spoke at length with the people who were fostering these dogs. It really only took me a few minutes to decide that they were coming home with me. The people watching them had dogs and couldn't take on any more dogs. 

The chihuahua is named Sweet Pea, she is around 5 years old, she is such wonderful dog, the bigger dog is named Mr Pups, he is an older dog, around 8 or 9 years old. They both have settled in quite nicely, they are already potty trained, they are well past the puppy stage, no chewing, in fact they have not displayed any negative behavior. 

Their first 4'ish days they ate and drank ravenously, they couldn't get enough food or water, that's understandable because of their situation. Now they are slowing down, eating and drinking normally.

We've had them for going on 3 weeks now, I want to write so much more about these two wonderful God sent dogs, but I'll cut it off here and write more about them later. 

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A Few Pix On The Way Home

I took a few pictures today on my way home from working as a caretaker...these are in my neighborhood, it was late in the evening but there was just enough light for me to snag a few pix of beauty...

The view...

Road going home...

The "plug"

The west end of my mountain

The west end of my mountain

The west end of my mountain

The sky castle

RaggMopp (aka Casper), happy to see me,
he ran down the hill to greet me,
he always has that smile on his face

He got a haircut a few days back,
mostly on the under side and legs,
he's a much happier (and cooler) dog

The sky castle

The sky castle

Up close and personal

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Dog and Tea

Little Zoe is really fitting right in, she is starting to learn that potty means outside, not inside, I thought that overnight would be the hardest, but it seems that now she comes in and wakes me up, just at day break (!) and squeaks at me, I get up, she helps me put on my shoes and robe then waits for me to open the door. She goes right out and does her business, and seems happy enough to come back in when she is done... at that point I promptly remove my shoes and robe and hop right back into bed. I suppose it isn't going to kill me to get up early from now on... sigh...

Now if I could only get her to understand that her bed isn't the alternate potty spot... we are still working on that. PB takes her bed outside in the morning so she doesn't have access to it, she only gets it at night, hopefully late enough to not have any accidents...

Tonight it's pretty windy, she doesn't understand wind caused noises, fortunately she isn't a barky dog, unless she hears something outside, then for a short period, she barks. I don't mind her barking if she thinks someone or something is outside, so I don't get on to her very much... she will just have to learn which noises are normal and which ones need barking at. :)

Yes, there are over 20 boxes of tea in that drawer...

Today, well yesterday now, I decided my tea stash wasn't much of a stash if it was stacked up on a shelf at eye level where everyone could see it, so I decided to stash it in a drawer. I had to rearrange the contents of a few drawers, but I finally got one of the bigger drawers cleared out, the tea fit perfectly inside, I can see what I have and what I'm out of.

Oh yeah, I had a helper too, Zoe inspected the job to make sure the tea stash was up to snuff, or should I say sniff? She gave it one and a half paws up, it would have been more but she decided that when I close the drawer, she can't get to it anymore, so that was the best she could give me.







All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

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Possible Puppy Name

 Quickie update, last night I took her out 3X after it got dark, she went potty each time, pooing 2 of the 3 times, this morning when PB got up (he always gets up before I do) he took her out and it would seem that she didn't potty inside the house overnight at all. I am so happy about that, it seems like she is getting it, I expect there will be a few mistakes every now and again, but I also expect those to become less and less.

This week, when I go to town, I have a list of things I need to get for her, toys, a proper pet bed, I'll look for one with cedar shavings, a brush and comb. I've seen those anti-shedding combs in our local store, they seem to work pretty well, I need to do something for her long hair... I might buy a dog grooming kit to clip her fur shorter for the summer. She also has fleas, she came with them though I didn't recognize it at first. We have been bathing her a lot more often than normal, she was extremely stinky when we first got her, now I'm trying to combat the fleas before they become a major problem, she also had a couple of ticks, not sure if those came with her or if she picked them up outside.

I'm researching natural flea remedies, I have a couple of the things I've read about, namely rosemary and orange oil. I'll try making a tea from a handful of rosemary needles, and adding a dash of orange oil, I'll put this in a spray bottle and treat the dog, and spray the area where she sleeps, it's the only carpeted place in the house too. I have some tea tree oil too, but that is so strong smelling, I'll not add that right away, I'll reserve it for a later addition.

She just peed on her bed, it's something that she has been "taught" not to do by keeping her in a cage for too long of a time. But, as soon as she did it, she looked up at me with the most pitiful look in her eyes, she knew it didn't please me, her head was down and her eyes were sad. So that is a step in the right direction, and it's entirely my fault for not keeping a good enough eye on her, I thought she might be looking for a spot, I asked her if she wanted to go outside, that was seconds after she cut loose on her bed. I wiped her bed with vinegar, I have noticed that she doesn't go back to the spots where I have wiped with vinegar, so for now I'll keep that up.

I just got the OK for the name Zoe from PB, so Zoe it is.



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Wretha,

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She's Staying

It would seem that our addition to the family has become permanent, we still don't have a name for her yet, nothing has popped up that seemed right for her, so for now we have been calling her dog or puppy. I have been trying very hard to not call her "baby girl", that is the name of my dad's dog, I used to call Pekoe baby girl, made it interesting when my dad and his dog came to visit, so I'll have to come up with another "pet name" for my new baby.

Our challenge for now is potty training, the poor thing spent so many months in a small kennel/cage with another dog, they stayed in this cage for most of the day, and probably overnight too, the previous owner worked and had to keep them caged up, that caused them to overcome the natural tendency to not potty in the place where they sleep. This dog will pee on the bed we have for her, then go right back and lay in it, that isn't even counting her peeing on anything that is laying on the floor, my dirty clothes, rugs, the socks I just took off, anything that is on the floor seems to be fair game to her. We have gone through 3 loads of towels because of having to mop up after her. We have been taking her outside 2-3 times an hour and really REALLY praising her when she "goes" outside.

Today I caught her in the process of peeing on the floor, I tapped her backside with my fingers just hard enough push/move her a bit, not hard enough to hurt her, just enough to surprise her and disrupt what she was doing right then, and said "NO", she stopped and I immediately took her outside, she finished out there, looking sheepishly at me, I praised her so much for "going" outside. It's getting better, but we still have a long way to go. I have started removing free access to water in the evening, that makes it easier to keep her from peeing on the floor overnight when we are in bed asleep.

We are also practicing a few commands, mainly "come here", that one is so important out here, I need her to stop whatever she is doing and come directly to me when I call her, and she needs to come close enough that I touch her, no use in her staying just out of reach, I need to be able to put my hands on her. The other command is "in the house", anytime we are outside, and it's time to go inside, I say "in the house" and that means just what it is, the idea is to get her going in the right direction when it's time to go inside.

She is a smart dog, and I think she is catching on pretty quickly. Now to figure out a name...

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Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Oh Know, What Now...

Well it seems that we have a new member of the family. This wasn't what either of us wanted but life had other ideas... I wanted to get a female long hair chihuahua later this spring or summer, and I still might do it.

This afternoon, PB went to one of our friend's house up the street to help him with some tires. I stayed home in anticipation of going over to my friend's house, the lady I am a caretaker for. I was talking to my friend on the phone when PB got back, as he was coming up the stairs to the front door, he was talking baby/puppy talk to something at the bottom of the steps, he was trying to get whatever this was to come up the steps into the sky castle. I hung up and went to the door to see what was going on. There were two small dogs running around at the bottom of the steps.

It turned out that the friend PB went to help had some dogs from a family member who was moving and couldn't take the dogs, they were at risk of going to a shelter and being euthanized (in another town). PB decided he would take them instead. We were told that they were both puppies, well, one of them is definitely a puppy, white with black spots and rambunctious as they come, she peed on the floor at least 5-6 times in the first hour. The other dog is supposed to be a puppy too, but I suspect she is quite a bit older than a puppy, perhaps 3-5 years old, though I could be entirely wrong, she might be younger but I doubt it, she is a lot calmer, didn't pee all over the place, I called our friend and told him we MIGHT keep the calm one, but the other one had to go. We did wash both of them, they needed it so bad, they stunk very badly, mostly of urine and dirt. I had to wash both of them 2X, and even though I've washed them and they smell so much better, they still have an odor, I'll have to wash the one we kept again in a day or two.

So now it's just the one dog, she appears to be a maltese-terrier mix, white with ginger/cinnamon on her rump and ears and a little dark area around one eye, her ears are half erect, docked tail and longish hair. She seems to be in pretty good shape, she does need to put on a little weight, but her stance is good, she walks good, has good teeth and best of all, she doesn't seem to be a barker, in fact I have only heard her growl once, and squeak a couple of times.

Both of these dogs have been kept in a kennel/cage most of their lives, they clearly have never worn a collar or used a leash, never mind being potty trained... I think this dog is a pretty good match for us, we will keep her at least until Monday and see how things go. I'm sure the white and black puppy will most likely end up in our local animal shelter, fortunately that one is a no-kill shelter. If the one we kept turns out to not be a good match, (and so far it looks like it might be), then she will have to go to the shelter with the other dog. But for now, she seems to be a pretty good fit for us, very calm, no barking, and I'm sure we can potty train her.

She has really attached herself to PB, he is taking her out with him each time he goes out, and she is already figuring out when he is about to go out. We worried that we would have to keep her on a leash, at least for a while when we take her out, she wanted to leave the first two times she was outside without a leash. When I took her out on a leash, she clearly hadn't used one before, but was much better with it than the other dog. She is a lot more calm now that the other dog is gone too. She is still a bit apprehensive, her life has taken a big turn and she still isn't sure what is going on, but she has eaten, and is drinking from a water bowl just fine, while she isn't exactly what I wanted in a dog, being a calm dog is going a long way toward making me want to keep her.

We haven't named her yet, I was thinking something like Ginger or Cinnamon because of her coloring, I even thought of Cinnabun (or Cinnabutt, or Cinnabum) because of the cinnamon color of her hind end. :)

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!