Just A Bit

Busy.

Dirt and I had a great trip and visit up north with our good friends.

And we were very successful at Charley's. The plans are gelling up for the hothouse and plant shed! Fancy plans will be drawn up and we will be getting a permit, 'cause Dirt wanted to make my plant shed a bit bigger than a non-permit shed could be. Ain't he a thoughtful fella?

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I came home so well rested that I was sure I could conquer the world, and was about to proceed in that very direction Sunday morning when Janie began her labor.

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I'm going to let Anna tell the whole story, it might take her a day to get there, but all in all somewhere around noon on Sunday I lost control of the destiny of my well restedness. It all got spent on Janie. And Anna.

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Why on Anna? Two hours of middle of the night tears spilling out of a clam are very hard on a Mom-body, rested or not. Tears freak me out, they are a bodily fluid you know, a big reason why I couldn't stay working as a nurse, body fluids draw bad reactions from me. You do know that I am an economy model mother after all, don't you Dear Reader?!

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In the end, all is well, well, not Dirt's pocket book, that is so light I think it floated up over the trees and right on out to sea. But Janie has five live pups, two born Monday at three in the morning and three born at three Monday afternoon.

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Janie's career at Anna's Personal Puppy Mill is over! It was already going to be her last litter as she was about to move on to a whole different stage in life, but now it is over for sure.

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And now I am going to bed.

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Not really, I'm headed out to check on seedlings and maybe scoop out a few new pathways but I will avoid anything that takes even just one brain cell, 'cause those stopped working several hours ago, hmmm I was driving though?.

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You know what I am going to end with, don't you Dear Reader?

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God is good all the time, absolutely, in every step and turn in our lives, as He holds together absolutely everything, the wonderful restful days as well as the long long tearful nights.

Pearl Has Gone To Her Home

Yahoo, I love it when I feel like I did a good thing. And made a little money to boot. Pearl will thrive in that nice family. The oldest boy, Gabe, is thirteen and the youngest, Nathan, must not be too much younger, maybe ten, give or take a year either way.

Here is Nathan, ready to put Pearl in the car to go home!

Pearl is ready to get back in the car (we forgot to take their pic)

because the rain drops on her little head are just to much to bear.

When they came to look at Pearl yesterday the mom, Kathrine, told us that Nathan was afraid of dogs, that sure seemed to be the case on their first encounter. But by the time they were ready to go he had taken the initiative to work with her a little on a sit, stay and walked her on a leash, he was even carrying her around finally.



Kathrine said earlier today when she called that it was hard for her son to leave Pearl behind yesterday. Today when they arrived he was very bold with Pearl and ready to take over ownership.


I am thrilled that these nice boys will have the perfect dog. Rat Terriers are big dogs in small dog bodies, they are exceptional buddies for boys who want to throw sticks for their dog and teach them to play dead. But they are small enough, calm when they need to be, and smooth coated enough to be a great indoor dog. I am a big dog to little dog convert for sure. I still like big dogs they are splendid animals and certainly have their place but I used to think small dogs were just a silly waste of dog flesh, not anymore.

They will be coming back on a regular basis for Anna and Bet to show the boys how to work and continue to train their new pup.

So see you later, for now, Pearl.



Just in case you were wondering, the first and primary thing to remember when you have a dog or pup in your life is that you are in charge. They are there for you, you are not their slave. I know it is fun to joke about how pets can take over our lives but that really isn't the right thing to allow them or yourself to do. It isn't any better for them than it is for the frustrated owner and can even be very detrimental, in some cases causing neurosis in the dog. And the owner.


A dog owner must have what Caesar Milan calls a calm assertive attitude. Don't get all hyped up, that isn't calm. And don't be all nervous and afraid, that is not assertive.

Just like I tell Anne when she comes to ride horses, know what you want to do and know how to tell your horse to do it. Don't give unsure or mixed messages. It is the same thing with a dog. Cats, they're a little bit different story, so we will not talk about them.


You and the dog must be clear on the idea that you are in charge. They gain a large amount of security from that. They don't need to be the Alpha in the pack, but someone must be. They will certainly take over if you are not doing your job and stepping up to the leader plate. The trouble then comes when you or someone else would like the dog to do something other than what they are doing. This causes confusion and a struggle, which causes various bad behaviors in the dog.

So be in charge. Literally and figuratively.


One of the key illustrations for this concept is the heal position.

Too many people think that the "heal" command is just for the dog to come back into range of the person, not jerking or tugging on the lead. But it is far more than that.


When walking a dog, you are the leader and that isn't just an idea or a concept it is an actual physical position.

The dog whether on lead or not, when told to heal must do exactly that, be at your heal. In the picture above you can see that Martin is right at Anna's heal, when she strides forward Martin will actually be slightly behind her leg. If you dropped a plumb line from her elbow, it would rest on his head. That is a nice position. It tells you and the animal that you are in the lead.

Here Anna actually tries to get Martin to run ahead of her and he is clearly not liking the idea. He knows where his place is. If he were some other type of dog, hunting or pulling for his supper, you would need to train him on the difference. But when Martin is on the lead he knows it is for a polite walk and he is to be at his mistress' heal.

Have fun with your dog.

Bet said nix on the rain farming today and forbid me to don on the rain gear. I looked at Dirt's favorite weather site and sure enough the rain is suppose to stop tomorrow so tomorrow it is! Another Yahoo!

Puppy Sale

Pearl, who looks a lot like her mother, Janie, is leaving us today. We are happy that she is going to a nice home, with two respectable boys and a thoughtful mom and dad.

She is leaving us a fairly well trained seven month old female Rat Terrier. She is very good at sit and stay, fetch is a little sketchy because tennis balls are too big for her mouth and apples are edible. She doesn't mind the leash and understands heal and knows to sit when the walking stops.

The lady of the household will be picking her up in a little while after she and one of her boys shop a little for Pearl.

We hadn't advertised her any where because I was wanting her to have a little more training under her belt, Dirt however talks a lot about his home/farm life to his students and one of his students perked up when Dirt spoke about our herd of dogs. Its funny cuz the dad tried to down play the whole puppy/dog thing yesterday when he was here saying that if it were up to him they wouldn't be getting a dog right now. Why then did he go home and tell his family that his instructor had a dog for sale? Men are strange. I don't know exactly how any of the conversations went but I know that if my friends and I were standing around and talking about motorcycles and one of them mentioned that her husband had one for sale and I was not interested in having another motorcycle parked in the garage, I would not go home and mention the motorcycle to Dirt even though I don't think he wants another one.

And they (men experts) say that women talk a lot.

So soon there will be only four in my little Rat Terrier hive. We are keeping the last two female pups, but then again everything is for sale given the right price and the right day.

Well I am out of here, time to stick some contacts in my eyes, maybe exercise if Terry is around, come home and sell a pup, and then do a little rain farming.

A Draft Saved Is A Blog Earned

I was cleaning up my archives, adding, dropping, condensing labels, and I found this draft. I wonder why I didn't finish it. ? But then there are a lot of things that I could wonder exactly that about.

So now I will share that draft with you, dear reader, because someone must be the recipient of my house cleaning.

It's spring (not no more) and that means flowers, working in the dirt and kitties. Vicktory kitties are taught the farm ropes by their mommies who are experts at keeping the vermin at a tolerable level. The only mice and other rodentia that I see are dead ones, that for me is a tolerable level. I find our cats to be very good organic and natural pest control.

When they were little, our girls would stuff their pockets with kitties and then attempt to get their chores done. Those kittens grew to become famous, extraordinary cats with delightful personalities. Our girls are still often seen wearing a few kitties around the farm. There is not a kitten that isn't observed, played with, packed around and named.

This is Purr Bob

If I get out old pictures of kittens we have had before, the girls remember the kitten's name, its quircky habits and who they went to. But then again these are the same girls who can tell our Suffolk sheep apart and recognize who is whom clear across the pasture. That is like telling thirty black labs apart from the opposite end of a football field.


I am happy to report that all our kittens (except Purr Bob) went to good homes this summer. Including one my girls had intended to keep, the old fellow who called had a good story. Unfortunately all but one of our momma cats are missing. I hope that the last varmint killing instigated by Martin, and done in by Dirt, the girls and some friends will end the case of the missing cats and missing poultry. But this lose of mommas could mean the end of the famous Vick kitties.

Electric Day

7:00 Order some chickens for next year's laying and breeding program and 25 broilers. Too late to get the ones I really wanted, once again procrastination does not pay off.

9:00 The electric day really begins now with electromyography, not unlike tripping over the electric fence while wearing the dog's training collar while the dog is standing on the switch and then landing into a pile of thistles. Good news is I'm not crazy, the test shows that I have valid reason to think my toes feel numb because of the bad news that I have peripheral neuropathy. So step one is done, now for step two, hopefully finding out what is causing it, there are a slew of causes, and getting it stopped or better yet, reversed.

10:21 After the electrifying test, we, the girls and I, head up south hill for a blood draw for a thyroid follow up. I dash in, dash out and off to Costco for some quick shopping,

10:39 Costco, ah lots of carts in the parking area, not crowded, yay. I get some undershirts, jeans, dress shirt and a pair of shorts for Phil and groceries for the house.

11:35 We hustle our bustles to Stephie's, eat our sushi lunch while she finishes her dishes. Kai has a small taste of pickled ginger, thinks it is good, has a big chunk and it ends up in the sink. New experiences don't always go smoothly.

12:00 We jump in the cars head over to Michelle's get a bucket of ice for my oysters to stay cold since we forgot the ice chest at home and then head to Point Defiance.

12:30ish and we have a fun time in the fuchsia garden while someone, we won't mention who, complaines that she just wants to get to the zoo and why do we have to do the garden too.

1:00 As we head back to the car we travel through the rose garden and now someone is wandering around smelling everything, picking out the best flowers and guessing their names.

1:30 No parking in the zoo parking lot, circle, circle, circle, circle, got one! Did anyone else hear musical chairs music playing? Off to the zoo. Quick stop at the ladies room and that means a quick stop to see if they have anything on sale in the gift shop. Yahwhoo a way cool pitcher or is it vase, well it is a fish and too cool to let the 50% off sticker get overlooked. Okay now off to the animals.

The draw for the day is clearly the lemurs and the meerkats; the mole rats, pygmy owls, poison dart frogs, elephants, tigers and penguins are just extras today.

3:00 But now my achey legs (you go sit on an electric fence on high and let me know how your legs feel) are really done and so we head out to the parking lot, trade passengers, Michelle rode out with me so I get Anna back and Steph takes Chelle and head off to finish the rest of our day separately. All very much to Anna's chagrin, she would like for the day together to continue for ever.
3:39 Since we're in the "neighborhood" I stop by the downtown Tacoma's Group Health office to pick up earrings I left there back in May but not until we swing through the Proctor district to see if Auntie Gee Gee is home, she wasn't. While I am on the same floor as radiology I stop at their desk to see if I can schedule an appointment for a lumbar series that was ordered with the EMG. Well, I can't make an appointment but I can just get it done as a walk-in, how 'bout now. This is too easy, but okay! And I am still out in under 3o minutes so my stay in the parking garage is free!

4:00 Okay so we're in the "neighborhood" lets stop at the W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=21 In the door and immediately hit with the beautiful fragrance of lilies, some really cool things inside, like the pitcher plant, many different orchids, Vireya rhododendrons and other botanical treasures.

4:40 Tuling down Yakima I can not help but pull into the Dollar store that inhabits the old Elvin's store in the old Hi Ho shopping center building that I used to frequent during my late childhood. Having fun finding things like boraxo bar soap, paper doilies, a hairbrush for in the car (coulda used it today), hand lotion, a cream pot and a few other things all for a buck!

5:47 Home, Anna jumps out runs in the house and changes her clothes while I show Phil his new ones, they kiss me good by and head off to shear a couple of sheep at the bottom of Muck Creek Hill. Bet and I unload the groceries and the dollar store finds.

5:59 An old man named Jessie calls for kittens - I thought our ad was done yesterday, he wants a female, he is on limited income, I ask Bet if she is willing to sell the tabby female that she and Anna want to keep (a couple of our mom cats have gone missing (maybe with the little blue rooster Who's Poop Is This? )).

She says no and so I ask the fellow if he can't do with a male. I listen carefully to his story about how he has always had two cats at a time, three or four sets, most of them living for 13 to 15 years, always females, usually sisters, always allowed to have one litter each, indoor cats. I listen to how he can't spend much on a cat and how one of his wives spent $20 bucks on a cat back in the day when the military didn't pay much (they pay a lot now?) and that caused him to call the cat "Riches". I get sad as I listen to him tell the tale of how his latest set of sister cats are two and a half years old, and how they are strictly indoor cats and when he was gone back east to a funeral one escaped and got run over. Okay, I'm not in tears but I am close. I take his name and number and I tell him I will try and find him a black or nearly black female cat.

I hang up and go talk to Bet. Having successfully talked Bet into giving up her little kitty to this nice old man and his sad and lonely cat, I call him back tell him that my daughter is willing to sell the tabby she was keeping for herself and give him directions from his Hawks Prairie home to our house. I just hope he can get here and get out of here before Anna comes home. I can handle one crying girl but not two.

6:30something As I am watering containers and Bet has the puppies out playing with them she tells me to grab them cause "that guy" is here. As I am trying to grab them I see his car and ah yes, Phil's truck pulling in the driveway. "That Guy" gets to know the kitty while I quickly and quietly explain things to a shocked Anna, Dirt steers completely clear. Of course Jessie buys the kitten puts her in a cardboard box that he says his latest two kitty cats rode home in (I believe him).

6:46 I finish watering the plants down in my nursery beds. Anna consoles herself with a visit to Mercy (I'll have to tell you all about her soon, thanks Cindi)

7:27 I find some old frozen burger patties and go in and make dinner. Hey it works. Bet sets her trap for mystery killer or a raccoon whichever. Gee, I recall I bought a chunk of meat yesterday to put in the crock pot for today. I'm sure its got something to do with the peripheral neuropathy (why I can't remember the things I set out to do)

8:12 The girls and I join Phil in the living room for "So You Think You Can Dance" (he has been staring at the frozen face of Kat Deely for twelve minutes) and I start writing this post which seems to have taken longer than the actual day. But there it is, proof that I can get something done.

Nearly Midnight I don't believe that any of today is on my "To Do List" for July but I still feel pretty stinking good about my accomplishments today.

A Happy Customer

Hi Vicktory Farm~

Just wanted to let you know how happy we have been with the new puppy! She's so much like our older rat terrier, so I pulled some information and background on the breed, and apparently they are all very happy energetic dogs........and I thought it was only Turtle! We are very happy, and I am forwarding just a couple pictures of many that Jodi took over the weekend. The camping picture only shows 2 of the big dogs, but there is one under the table that we couldn't coax out!

Thank you again,

Marie

We are very excited for Snickerdoodle, it appears that she has a terrific
home.

But then we knew that she would when Marie and Jerry first stopped in to see
our dogs.

And check it out, clearly you can not have too many Rat Terriers or dogs for
that matter, all these dogs are theirs!

Puppies Are Ready To Go

My daughters have four great puppies for sale. All females, well socialized and tons of fun.


























They have been wormed, vaccinated, tails docked, and dewclaws removed, and they are papered.














Their parents both live here on the farm. They are very classic Rat terriers. Dad weighs 20# and is 16" at the shoulder, mom is 13# and 13".

















They are ready to go to good homes. So call 360-458-7342, e-mail vicktory@fairpoint , or post a comment to this blog if you would like to be one of those good homes.

We are asking $400.00

Puppies

Looking at my to do list for May as May is winding up and I don't feel half bad. As long as I do not look in the direction of some of my gardens or at the apple trees and lilacs that I felt I missed, I am doing okay and not the least ready to fall apart.

When we got home the puppies were not six feet tall as my imagination had them and the kittens were not the size of Bengal Tigers. Everyone is still quiet lovely in their appropriate smallness and just right for us to begin to find them suitable homes.

Here are some pictures of Daddy Martin and some of his delightful offspring. It is very hard to capture everyone in the viewfinder at the same time.