Samhain Christmas Moon
Since we just had a doggy homecoming.
Category Archives: Dogs
Good Morning, Snowshine
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
Flocked lodgepoles fill a south facing window. Black Mountain has become visible once again, lost in a whiteout all afternoon yesterday. The air is clear and cold, 8 degrees. Winter on Shadow Mountain.
More loft work over this weekend. Getting closer and closer to a finished space.
Kate and I had planned to go to services at Beth Evergree’n last night, a reggae shabbat, but snow closed I-70 from 470 to Silverthorne and made a mess of the mountain roads. So, we stayed home, concentrating instead on the chick flick series we’re watching now, Murdoch. Yes, Detective Murdoch and Dr. Ogden finally get back together. A relief.
Thanksgiving is coming with grandkids, their parents, and Barb, Jen’s mom. We’ve decided on a prime rib roast this year. Sugar cream pie, that sugar and fat dense Hoosier dessert, is on the menu, too. Some signs point to a big holiday storm. We’ll see.
Holiseason continues.
Lunch Time on Shadow Mountain
Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
Put it there, Mom.
Lunch time. Lunch time!
We wait. (back row, Vega. l-r, Rigel, Kepler, Gertie
Kuku Tihar
Samhain New Thanksgiving Moon
Again, highlighted by a friend, Paul Strickland. Kuku Tihar*. Kuku Tihar occurs during the celebration, in Nepal, of Diwali. (see below) This year Kuku Tihar, the second day of Diwali, falls on November 12th. Tomorrow. How will you celebrate your dog/dogs?
I was struck by the dignity of the dogs in the pictures I found of Kuku Tihar. The respect seems to carry its own profound message and bring out the seriousness of the dog.
*Dogs are especially important to Nepal’s Hindu practitioners. During day two of Tihar, Kukur Tihar, the role of dogs in human life and throughout history is celebrated. In theRigveda, one of Hinduism’s most ancient texts, Samara — the mother of dogs — assists Indra, the ruler of heaven, in retrieving stolen cattle. Hindu tradition holds that a dog is the guardian and messenger of Yama, the lord and judge of the dead. A dog is also said to guard the gates of the afterlife.
At the close of the Mahabharata, the king of righteousness, Yudhishthira, refuses to enter heaven without his devoted dog. The dog is revealed to represent the concept of dharma, the path of righteousness. During Tihar, each day is devoted to a honoring a different concept or entity: crows, dogs, cows, oxen, and fraternal relationships, respectively. On the second day, Kukur Tihar, all dogs are recognized, honored, and worshiped. dogster.com
Winter Has Come
Samhain Moon of the First Snow
With the moon of the first snow in its last quarter and poised next to Jupiter the early morning sky here on Shadow Mountain was crisp and lovely. Below these two hung red Mars and bright Venus. They’re gone now, hidden behind the faint gray-blue of imminent sunrise, but they’re worth seeing if you’re an insomniac or get up well before the sun.
The lodgepoles retain flocking from yesterday’s snow, our third this winter. The solar snow shovel cleared our driveway. Here on Shadow Mountain the snow comes straight down, linear bands of white falling with a certain relentlessness. Little of the northwest wind driven, parallel to the ground blizzards familiar to those who live in Minnesota. We get the romantic beauty of snowfall, white grounds and flocked pine trees, then the snow leaves. Nice.
Our dogs love the snow. Gertie puts her head down and pushes her muzzle through the snow, then rolls around in it. Vega and Rigel wander, nose to the ground in search of critters inconvenienced by the wet stuff. Kep slides on the deck, runs through the mounded snow.
Glad winter has finally come to Shadow Mountain.
Futility
Mabon Moon of the First Snow
P.T. this morning. Dana did some rotator cuff work that hurt like a summabit. Then it felt better. Learning more new exercises. Soon I will achieve that fated day when the things I do for self-care like working out, teeth, p.t. exercises, showering consume all my waking moments. Then the capacity to stay alive will meet futility. Nah. Not really. But it feels like it right now.
Gray days. Snow predicted tomorrow. More trees to cut down, but this old body isn’t up to it today. Tomorrow. In the snow. Like a real Minnesotan.
Vega, Gertie and Kepler all come up to the loft. Vega stands outside the door and gives a soft but insistent bark. Let me in. Gertie paws at the door, already scarring the metal door, scraping off the green paint. Kepler comes up and stands outside the door. If I see him, I let him in. Otherwise he waits as long as it makes sense to him, then he goes back downstairs. All three of them are up here now, snoring. Rigel will not climb the stairs.
TGIF
Mabon Moon of the First Snow
What a pragmatic, busy day. Generator installed! Yes. High fives all round. Vega groomed. She did not like having her nails cut. No big news there. Seeing the truck made her very happy. Groceries bought. Two more trees cut down. Still using the axe. Gonna get the chainsaw fueled and oiled tomorrow. I may use it. I may not.
Out late last night so we’re both knackered, to use the technical term. Oh, I forgot. The roof guys came out, too. Found a gap in the flashing around the loft’s first skylight and will repair it early next week. No more buckets under its corners.
We’re moving toward having as much work as possible done before winter, our first full winter here. That list includes a remodeled kitchen, a completed loft with walnut shelf tops installed, wire shelving up for bankers boxes, garage organized.
I will not complete the fire mitigation before winter, rather I plan on cutting down trees right through the season until I’m done.
Dog Fight
Mabon Moon of the First Snow
Dogs, the dogs who live with us now and the others, so many, are gentle with each other. Usually. Once in awhile, like Monday when I let a peanut butter container become the object of a conflict, the not yet, probably never, domesticated dog emerges, always in a frenzy.
In this case, ironically, I was making dog biscuits from eggs, peanut butter, vegetable oil and flour. One large plastic peanut butter container was empty, so I set it on the floor while I took the red plastic container of flour and began pouring it into the mixer. Working with flour for this one-time baker soothes me, so the high-pitched yelps coming from Kate’s sewing room didn’t register right away.
Soon enough, though. When I turned the corner around the refrigerator, I saw Gertie, our German shorthair, pinned to the floor as a determined and angry Kepler shook the folds of skin at her neck. He had her by the throat with the clear intention of ripping it, tearing. His closed jaws swung back and forth as he gripped her tighter and tighter.
A usual method for breaking up dog fights-this was far from our first-is to douse the combatants with cold water. None available. Not quick enough. Gertie appeared to me to be in mortal danger. My pulse began to race. Kate had hold of Kepler’s tail with her right hand, the one that had received the platelet injections only last Friday. Kepler didn’t respond.
When dogs go past a certain point, they are no longer the same creature who nuzzles you, leans against your leg, licks your face. I don’t know what that point is because when it is crossed things become bloody and deadly right away.
With a response I imagine similar to seeing a child in danger I leapt into the fight without thinking. Never intervene in a dog fight. A first rule of living with dogs. When struggling in this way, they don’t discriminate between friend and foe. They just bite.
There is, however, a prior and more primal rule than that first one: don’t let a dog die. I kicked Kepler. Didn’t work. He hung on, looking like a bull dog hanging on the nose of a bull. He would not quit. Gertie’s cry was pitiful and my heart sank with the possibility of her dying.
I’m not even sure now how I got Kepler off of her, but I did. Then Vega took hold. The fight fever can be contagious. I got Vega off of her. Again, I don’t recall how.
A year or so ago, Vega and Rigel had Gertie down and Rigel was the one with teeth on her throat. After I separated them and took Gertie to the vet, I told Roger Barr, the vet, that I thought they were going to kill her. He said they would have. When dogs go past that point, the instinctive warrior animal, the wilderness predator becomes dominate. Then the fight is to the death.
Fall
Mabon Elk Rut Moon
Life Is What Happens When You’re Making Other Plans
Lughnasa Labor Day Moon
Rigel broke her thumb and dislocated the digit next to it on her left paw. She has a cast and a medi-paw over the cast to protect it. She stumps around like a one-eyed pirate captain, whacking the floor as she goes. How did she do it? No idea. Kep has furred out again, looking like an Akita about twice his real size. Over to Award-Winning Pet Grooming in Bailey on Monday. No kidding. That’s the name. Vet recommended it.
That generator I’ve written about so often? Still not installed and this time it’s the electrician who pulled out. He claimed his crew’s work on El Rancho, an Evergreen remodel, had overwhelmed him. Feeling a bit snakebit on this one. So, sigh. Find another electrician. The amount of work for the trades up here in the mountains is so high that smaller jobs get pushed off the calendar.
On Monday Ikea delivered the last of the bookshelves, five more of the tall ones. This time I took out the tape measure and measured the remaining piles of books, divided the total inches by the length of a bookshelf. Needed five to cover what’s on the floor. With the black walnut shelving on the shorter bookcases these birch veneer units will snap to attention. Jon’s also producing a custom top for what he calls my art cart, resin over a basin filled with various smaller pieces of wood. Not gonna make Labor Day for the finish up here, but the result will be worth the wait.