For example-garlic! Also the apple seeds from my previous post are growing, surprisingly well. I plan on picking up two dwarf apple trees so these will likely be planted in the area my husband hunts to feed and yes keep the deer population around. I have many plants started, some were lost due to my own negligence. I’m angry that the placement of one planned bed had to be scrapped due to the poison growth inhibitor the electric company put on our front trees-against our wishes mind you. I wont plant food there, and don’t want to….hey it just occurred to me that we can put the small pond Jeff wanted right there!
We welcomed a new family member on Friday. Jeff picked up a Valley Trader on Thursday evening, which is rare but he wanted to look at the available guns and happened upon a FREE listing for a Wolamute. Looking it up online we saw it was a gorgeous animal and called to see if we could meet her. The owner said she had someone coming to pick her up and a waiting list of people if the first didn’t show. Oh well, wasn’t meant to be-or was it? She called us back an hour later and said if we want her, come get her. So after work Friday we loaded up kids, and dog and headed to Timberville to see how Rosetta would react to what we would later discover is Athena. It didn’t go well at first because Rosetta is a loud mouthed little bully-all bark and no bite of course but she appears terribly aggressive. This big girl however ignored the behavior and was licking all over us. In one of the pictures below you can see both dogs on the couch and the difference in size-yes ‘tiny’ Rosetta wanted to take on the monstrosity. (Speaking of monster, she sleeps under our bed so we can say there is a monster under our bed, hehehe.) Her history is she was abused as a pup, beaten and kept in a cage and the family we got her from kept her in an outdoor pen with another of her breed. Here she is an indoor dog, going out for walks and on her lead to use the bathroom.
She is brilliant, and I get the impression she will be a very protective and loyal pet. She follows me, if I leave the room she is right behind me and stays either in the room or just outside the room I’m in. She doesn’t bark much but she is clearly aware of what’s happening around her and watches closely when people walk past the house.
As to her intelligence, I got to experience that Saturday morning. She lead me and the girls on a three hour game of chase. She was playing with us, letting us get close but when we tried to grab her she would run off and stop to look back as if saying ‘come get me’. This went on over approximately a four block area of town. Each time I would get fed up and head back we would find her following us. If we stopped to call her or try to go after her-the chase began again. Finally I got a pack of lunch meat and tore bits of it and walked home tossing them behind me-she was following! The first try at this she followed me part way into the side door and spotted Lily waiting to shut it on her; out she went. Next time Lily hid behind the door and I continued further into the house until Lily could slam the door-which had the dead bolt locked so it didn’t shut all the way!! Quick fix and it was secure. Because of that game she was ignored for a few hours-no petting no nothing, a sort of pack outcast. I have been reading more about pack mentality and how to work with a dog like this and it seems she is going to push, and test me like this on and on.
Rosetta is still being a pain about her. They get along well enough but Rosetta wants to play-a rough play that has a lot to do with proving she is the top dog. It’s hysterical to see a small dog mount such a large one. Athena tolerates it well, and plays along. She has no food aggression but will growl and bark at Rosetta if she attempts to take her bones.
What do you do when the kids get up at 5:30 in the morning? We watch old movies-such as Tank Girl.
Well that’s all for now. We’re off to watch a documentary about Bugs, Then book work, Time4Learning and this evening we will be heading to a friends house for gun shooting. I have quite the list of documentaries on my iPad that we have watched recently. I will be buying my first rifle before long, I’m very excited. Lily loves shooting her little pink .22 but Serenity seems content to focus on Archery only.
Serenity has come so far on her reading, she reads simple sentences and has begun spelling words out loud randomly. She also has paid more attention to discussions than I previously believed. There have been multiple times Lily asked a question, something we’ve already covered and Serenity will respond telling her the answer before I do
Have a fantastic day!
