Ramblings....

There is an easy way to kill old 4wheel drive trucks. And I found out today. Fortunately, it wasn’t my truck.

Today was the first day in about a week that I felt it was safe enough to try and get Big Brown Betsy, my ’96 Ford pickup truck, down off of my hill. She’s a wonderful truck and I love her dearly, but at her age her 4WD is a bit iffy. There is a small stretch on my driveway that it has to work or I could end turtling (upside down and can’t get back up). Today was also the day that I decided to get out of my mid winter funk and go do something, torn hamstrings be damned.

I have three places that I like to hike when I get tired of walking around my place. The problem is we still have 3 feet of snow on the ground and the going into the National Forest is hit or miss.I tried Slate Lick Lake first. The two track was not barricaded but there were no tire tracks, which proves that not everyone with 4WD vehicles are crazy enough to tempt fate on an unplowed National Forest road that leads to nowhere. And I wasn’t about to try and break a trail through the snow drifts. I wouldn’t have made it more than 100 yards before turning around, which would have made for some grumpy dogs that were excited about hiking more than the driveway at home. A quick turn around and we head to Paul State Park. Too many people there already. Since I had four dogs along with me, I didn’t think that would work out too well.

Famous last words: watch this!

There is an old quarry near my place, back in the National Forest that I love to hike around, but I didn’t think that would be open either. I am glad I went as it was open, barely. The road hadn’t been plowed, but there were many sets of tire tracks of some of the red necks trying out their 4WD, or stupid college students with Jeeps. So the crazy ones ended up at the quarry rather than the lake. This is where I learned how to kill a truck.

I parked at the last clear area, got the dogs out, locked up and headed out. I don’t think I’d gotten more than 100 feet before the first evidence of trouble. Someone had gotten stuck and spun their wheels so much the holes were at least 8-10 inches deep. Since the truck wasn’t there, I figured the tree bark that was plastered in the bottom of those holes had given them enough traction to get out.

A little further on was when I saw the first drops of transmission fluid. The mistake of many people when they are stuck is to gun the engine, sending the wheels flying and the transmission whining.

It looks like something had been shot

Which is the exact wrong thing to do, because slow and easy gets the job done when slipping and sliding. And it keeps the transmission from imploding. Then there was an even bigger blob. Poor thing is hemmoraging like it had been shot through an artery.

From the amount of transmission fluid I saw, I was amazed that the truck wasn’t abandoned where it got stuck. But I guess they got lucky and got out. I don’t think they are going to get much farther than home, if they get that far.

The rest of the hike was a pleasant end to a nice day. Although why the dogs thought it was good idea to go swimming the snow melt run off is a mystery to me.

Alpha Dog

I woke up this morning with my main man, Finn, not moving so well. I figured that he wrenched a lot of muscles trying to keep up with the young ones in the snow, then the irrational part of my brain kicked in, and I knew he'd actually ruptured a cervical (neck) disc and that he was about to become completely paralyzed. So he came with me to work for a full work up.

He ended up with a raging urinary tract infection with some struvite crystals thrown in for good measure. The good thing was, I was so busy at work, I didn't have time to brood on it and let my irrational side of the brain take over. I could easily have worked this into cancer of the spinal cord.

Anyway, I got home after dark and still had to go to feed the horses. Since Finn still wasn't moving very well and there is two feet of snow on the ground, I decided to leave him back at the house. The other dogs had a great walk in the snow (Deacon was able to get into the neighbors trash- had a little come to Jesus meeting over that), the horses were happy to get their hay and I was ready to go back to the house.

Walked through the door to the scene of dog food EVERYWHERE. And Finn sitting on the couch looking as innocent as a baby, with the only problem that he was the only one left in the house and had no one else to blame it on.

The moral of the story is don't leave the Alpha Dog behind even if it is for his own good. Or at least make sure the dog food is safely secured.

How to play in Snowmaggedon

Over the weekend my little hamlet was slammed with snow storm of almost biblical proportions. It wasn't as big as the blizzard of 95, where some areas of the mountains got almost 4 feet of snow, but this was close. I was trying to finish my morning appointments and get the ubiquitous milk and bread for the big snow in, and headed to WalMart for supplies. It turns out that the morning rush is when all the AARP members were out and I was able to move about three shuffling steps an hour. I eventually got home in time to avoid the worst it.

During the snow, the dogs, at least the younger ones, had it right. Run until you drop, sleep in front of the fire and repeat.

I have two young Labradors whose favorite game to play in the world when I am down feeding the horses is "stick". Basically you find a stick, poke the other in the side, take off at the speed of light and wait for the other to catch up and grab it. Then the two of them run around, grunting and coughing, twisting and tripping until the stick breaks. I think the goal is to see how long the stick holds up. I never really understand the whole reason for it, although, Deacon and Darcy will play until they both drop. However, two feet of snow can really put a damper on how much running a dog can do. Deacon makes up for the lack horizontal motion by trying to leap in the air.

If you are a horse, like my Lady, you don't play in the snow. You just endure.

And my neighbor just finished plowing me out. Right in time for the next storm!

Cora

Cora came into heat last Saturday and hopefully in 12-14 days she’ll be ready to be bred. In the mean time though this is where I’ll find Deacon and Finn.

Cora in the crate and Deacon and Finn circling her like a shark in a feeding frenzy. Fortunately, Finn and Deacon get along really well, so all they do is moan their lust to Cora. She’s quite funny in that even when she is standing heat, she won’t let them touch her.

Cora's baby daddy is a stunning dog at Belquest Kennel in Mount Airy, MD. He's BISS Gateway's Nothing But Trouble. He's got several dogs in his pedigree that have given the breed a number beautiful working dogs. Not only is he gorgeous, but he's a sweetheart and loves to play ball! Here is a link to his webpage:

http://www.belquest.com/trouble.html

What I am going to have to do over the next week or so, is figure out when it is going to be the best time to take Cora up for a visit with Trouble. I do this by measuring her progesterone levels. When it gets above 5.0 she should be ready. On her first day she was only 0.2. On her 8^th day, she was still only 0.4. By her 10^th day, she’d jumped to 2.1. Which means that a hormone called LH has started to rise and she will probably ovulate in the next couple of days. It takes a couple of days after ovulation for the eggs to mature and be ready to be fertilized.

The boys started getting really interested in her on Sunday, so I knew things were starting to progress! I drew more blood yesterday to measure her progesterone, and her level was 5.7, which means she's just ovulated. The best time to breed is about 48 hours after she ovulates. Of course, there is a massive snow storm scheduled for this weekend, so I hope to get things done before it hits.

Here's hoping for a beautiful healthy litter in 9 weeks.

Old Dogs....

This year my beautiful, smart and fearless Finn turns 10 in May. And on January 1^st he passed what is quite possibly his last recertification for wilderness search and rescue. Even at 10 years of age he can still search circles around the younger dogs on my team, and he proved it with this recert. He was required to search 40 acres in less than an hour, and find any and all subjects in that task area. It took him 10 minutes. He’s been everywhere and done everything, so that you can’t trick him. We try to do that with the older more experienced dogs when we are setting up training exercises so they don’t blow through things and actually get a decent work out, but the Finn man can’t be tricked. He worked so fast that I didn’t have time to take any pictures while he was working. All I got was him at the end with my team mate that was the subject for the test.

Finn was given to me almost 10 years ago, even before I knew that I needed a new search dog. A friend of mine realized that my first search dog was not going to be able to recover from a blown tendon that I was trying to rehabilitate him from. So she gave me the last pup in a litter of Labradors she’d just had. At nine weeks this yellow ball of fur ended up in my life. As he grew up and learned about the job of a search and rescue dog, the I never would have guessed the places his ability would take me. We were in New Orleans after Katrina and Rita to assist with body recovery. And just this past summer we were in the jungles of Guyana, South America looking for a flight crew that went down in a small airplane in November of 2008. He was the oldest dog on the mission and did better than some of the younger dogs.

I am also a state evaluator for dog teams and on the same day that I was recertifying with Finn another team mate of mine had to recertify with his dog, Jarod. Jarod is another old timer at 8 years old. He’s a Border Collie that probably has more years in front of him than Finn does. It’s fun to watch these older guys do their job. They adore being able to get out and show off their stuff. The only way that I can tell that Jarod isn’t the youngster I remember him as, is the more noticeable gray mustache on his muzzle. I don’t even think that he’s lost a step from what he was as a 3 year old.

January 1^st was what I called the geriatric day. Finn is 10, Jarod is 8. His handler, Brian Rock has been recovering from a horrible rotator cuff surgery he had way back in May, and I’ve been recovering from multiple orthopedic injuries. All I can say is, I am glad they were older and were able to get through their 40 acre recerts in record time!

Winter Tracking

Winter time tracking can be very rewarding. Especially if the weather cooperates after a big snow storm. I was lucky this past snow. We got over two feet of the frozen stuff and nothing was moving around in it. Then we got a couple of days of 40° days and a day of rain that brought the snow pack down to something easier to walk through. For both human and animal. Yesterday evening and today, the dogs and I took a hike up behind my house and into the National Forest. I have flock of wild turkeys that wander around my little hollow, but I haven’t seen them in a long time, so I wasn’t sure if there any left in that flock. Yesterday evening I got my answer, they are still around and have been closer to the house then I realized.

The other animal that I’ve got an over abundance of is deer. At one point this past summer I had over 20 does grazing in my pasture! So the hunters in the area have been thinning the herd down to a number that the land can realistically provide for. However, those does had other ideas. The man I gave permission to hunt on my property asked me more than once if I’d seen any of the deer that had been so abundant during the summer. They’d taken to hiding during hunting season and only moving around after dark. We may not be able to see them during the day, but they’ve developed their own deer highways not more than 100 yards from my back door so they can move around easily.

Today, I ventured further and went into the National Forest that my property backs up to. I am glad that I did. I was able to follow the trail of a solitary fox as he made his rounds on the ridge I was hiking along. Marking the trail as he went.

A little further down the trail, I came across a family of racoons as they were scavenging. I was tempted to follow their trail a little further, since it was obvious. But I was starting to lose the light and wasn't equipped to be out after dark.

What I was really looking for was evidence of the bear that had taken up residency in the hollow, but there was none to be seen. So I guess he was hibernating. I am actually kind of glad of that. One of my dogs, Cora, has a penchant for finding bear at the wrong times! Several times, while on a cadaver search with her, we’ve come upon a bear in its den. I am not sure I’d want to disturb a bear while he was hibernating!

Country Folk

I love where I live. It is everything I've ever wanted, secluded, on a hill, up against the National Forest with enough land for two horses. With the absolute best neighbors ever! Starting Friday night and lasting until Saturday night we got the biggest dump of snow this decade. Four of us live on a private drive so we don't get our road plowed. But that is no problem, because out here where I live, are good country folk that take care of their neighbors.

Two of the guys that live up here subscribe to the notion that the difference between men and boys is the size of their toys. They started plowing last night, with their 4 wheel drive tractors loaded with dump buckets and scrapers.

One of them, though, lives at the very top of a tall ridge, and thought he could do more than was physical possible with the 4-wheel drive tractor. Over the bank and down the hill it went. Oops!! This morning I wake to the sound of a huge piece of machinery creaking its way up the drive. I get down to the drive, and a massive lunk of an excavator is lumbering up the road to my neighbors house. In short order the tractors are out and they are back to plowing the rest of us out. In less then 10 minutes my part of the drive is clear. I love my neighbors, or as we say "they are good country folk"!