Fall & Daily Dog Joy

FALL

Although I want to write about Fall it has been snowing, which means Winter.  It has been a lovely Fall, a time of year which is my favourite.  Sightings of Reginald and his relatives is unusual and the bugs are very very few - except for deer ticks as I have been finding them on the Maremmas quite regularly.

The colours have been quite nice with lots of red this year.  It is a good time to see things, really see the land, as the leaves are released from the trees.  There are really interesting rock formations under the forest covering.  And some of the older trees are mammoth in size.  I wonder what they have seen, what stories they can tell.

Out in the Middle Field with the sheep, I busied myself collecting dead fall wood for kindling.  Collecting the bits along the edge of the field allowed me to keep an eye on the flock while cleaning up things and gathering fire starter for the wood stove.  I also discovered some junk.  In days of yore farmers burned and buried their garbage.  What I have found are a few spots where galvanised and other metal has been dumped, and glass.  I have gathered up some interesting glass bottles.  In addition there are also some shiny bits of blue and red glass, broken shards from other more handsome discards.  I have also found useful bits such as concrete blocks and terra cotta tubing that will make nice garden accents.

And other times I took Dot's fleece out with me as I work my way through preparing it for carding.  Also in these times I have been present for the dogs.  Ruby has required some correction to not chase the sheep.  This has worked out well.  All in all I have enjoyed the great outdoors of Fall and tried to make effective use of my time protecting the flock.

HOMEGROWN DINNER

It was quite scrumptious.  We will not have as much lamb as originally planned.  I hadn't really planned when we would get some.  Last Saturday when I picked up lamb from the butcher I decided we should have some for dinner and so we became owners of one side.

Chops were what I selected.  They were huge.  We treated them like steak and carefully barbecued them in the same way.  Alongside I served up the last late harvest of broccoli and some homegrown red potatoes.  A lovely homegrown dinner, indeed!

DAILY DOG JOY

I'm not sure who gets more joy out of a day, me or the dogs.  I realised today that Ruby is the first puppy that I have owned.  I have always had a mature dog and advised others to do the same.  Who would want a puppy?  They are so much work.  At twelve weeks she wasn't any work to house train.  She wasn't in the house and never will be in the house.  Her toileting habits are quite good for a barn dog.

Ruby's biggest challenge is that she jumps - a lot.  It's getting better, though.  After about the third jump she sits down and waits for you to pet her.  The jumping really is for joy:  the joy of the day, the joy of the moment, just joy.  She pounces when she hunts mice.  She curls up in a ball and sleeps wherever.  In the barn I caught her sleeping upside down in the middle of her pen on the Power Rangers blanket she pulled out of the garbage pile.  It's her blanket now, always in her pen.  Slowly the stuffing has been removed from the thin pieces of material.

It seems that the best thing to happen to Millie is Ruby's arrival.  Millie runs and plays like I've never seen her do before.  And Millie smiles and beams and glows with her own joy.  Millie has been showing some symptoms of Lyme disease, despite treatment, but the joy still shines through.  I put hay out for the sheep and Millie went and burrowed in the hay.  She slept in the mound.  Millie and Ruby play around the sheep as they munch away at the mound of hay.

We can learn a great deal watching our animals experience the joy of a second, a minute, an afternoon...