Dog Days

Hello all, Dipstick the Dog here!  Mrs. Captain is so busy these days with her job at Hy-Vee and with all the flowers and other gardening that I told her I'd take care of this today.

Things are hopping around here at the Brogan Ranch.  Captain is feeding more baby calves than he has in months.  I heard him tell Mrs. Captain, "This is almost like work!"  What did he think it was...playtime?  And he says I'M dumb?!

I know Mrs. Captain has talked about elder care and her mom.  I'm kind of worried about my mom, Dayzee, too.  She will be 14 years old next month, and she is showing her age.  I didn't think it would ever happen.  Dayzee is the one who taught me how to chase cars...my favorite sport!  But now she can't hear anymore at all, so she doesn't know when there is a car coming down the road until she sees me take off on the chase.

My worry is that she will be taking a nap in the driveway and not hear a truck or tractor start and will get run over.  I probably shouldn't worry because the Captains are very good about looking around everywhere to make certain we are all out of harm's way.

She still has all of her feistiness, though.  She got accidentally shut up in the garage last week, and she was so mad and wanted to get out so bad that she chewed through the garage door opener wire.  You go, Dayzee!

Speaking of harm's way, did any of your dogs have to deal with that awful wind a week or so ago?!  I thought we were all going to blow away.  I was lying under my favorite pine tree in the front yard and all of a sudden the wind separated the flag pole into three pieces and tossed two of them into the tree I was lying under.  Almost scared the fur right off of me!

We--Dayzee, me, and my dad, Bear--like to go with the Captains in the evening after supper to check the garden and then visit with Gammy Captain.  You ought to hear them complaining about the bugs that are out.  Fools, they should wear fur coats like we do! 

I saw a major argument between the Captains at the clothesline the other day.  Captain usually does the laundry and hangs the clothes on the line.  I think this is a nice thing to do to help out Mrs. Captain.  One day, Captain must have been really busy because Mrs. Captain brought a load of laundry out to the line.

I guess she didn't like the way Captain had put the clothes on the line because there were several pieces of clothing on each of the four lines instead of all the clothing on one line at a time like she does it.

Here's my question:  does it really matter?  The clothes are going to dry no matter where they hang on the line, right?  Again...they say I'M the dumb one here.

You should hear their philosophical discussions on the deck every night after coming back from Gammy Captain's house.  You'd think world peace depended upon their opinions.  It's rare that they agree on a viewpoint but they manage to exchange ideas without bloodshed.

Well, it's almost time for me to start the nightly patrol and barkfest.  It's been nice catching up with you all.

Mrs. Captain will be back soon, I"m sure!

Hugs,
Dipstick the Dog

The Little Red Hen

When I had the day off on Monday, Captain and I spent some time in the garden pulling weeds.  We had gotten a nice rain the day before, so the quack grass and lambs quarters came out easily.  Usually this is a job Captain ends up doing by himself as I am working.  He has compared himself to the Little Red Hen who does all the work and then has to share the bounty. 

Don't waste much sympathy on him because I do my share of the work later in the process when it's time to do the canning and preserving.  I don't get off Scot free by any stretch of the imagination!

Individual work ethics aside, our garden is doing very well this year.  We were worried about the green beans as they got spritzed with herbicide when Captain sprayed the soybeans, but it looks like they will recover from the minor damage. 

For some reason that no one is quite sure of, we have seven cabbages planted this year.  Contrary to popular belief (including mine), Captain says he is not intending to try and make sauerkraut again.  Thus, we have gotten a freezer coleslaw recipe from his mom and will try that once. 

Last year we had volunteer spaghetti squash everywhere in the garden.  This year it's a cherry tomato plant that sprouted from last year.  We also planted six or seven new tomato plants so we'll have plenty of those to make juice, chili sauce, and salsa.  I'm going to show a couple of friends how to can tomatoes this summer if our schedules all work out. 

Our little lettuce patch was overtaken by weeds this year.  I think next year we may do that in a container to keep the weeds and grass out of it.  Mike's mom is the one who uses that the most so we'll find a pretty little deck container she can have right outside her door. 

We finished off our row of radishes already.  When it gets more into August we will plant another row as they don't like the heat of mid summer. 

The beets are just starting to be ready.  We have enough for a meal tonight...greens and all.  It was an adventure picking them because our dogs decided to do their business right on top of the row of beets.  Thanks, Dipstick.  I'll remember that the next time you want a num-num. 

I am most excited because the cucumbers are starting to really ripen so I can make pickles pretty soon.  My favorite project of the summer!

Then of course there are the giant pumpkins.  We have counted 14 of them so far...9 on one vine alone.  This is bad growing policy for giant pumpkins, as the literature says to have one pumpkin per vine if you want them to get to be a half ton.  Since we don't truly want one that big, we'll leave the nine on there and get some that are several hundred pounds each instead.  This is Cubby's favorite thing to look at when she's here.  "Gramma, they are HUGE!"

On the flower front, the war I have been waging against the ditch lillies is over and I am victorious.  It was a vicious and bloody campaign, but I prevailed.  Take that, ditch lillies!  I will have to divide some of my hostas this fall as they are getting slightly out of control.  Lucky for me it's almost as hard to kill hostas as it is to kill ditch lillies. 

The mutant whiskey barrel has some volunteer pinks from last year's Old Fashioned seed mix I planted plus two others that I haven't identified yet.  There are also the zinnias I planted out there this year.  I am thinking I will never have to seed that pot again; these will just keep coming back year after year.  Nothing wrong with that. 

My dill patch didn't survive from last year.  I'm thinking it needs to be in a container rather than in amongst the quack grass along the corral.  I'm glad I have friends who have established dill gardens that I can pilfer!  Will trade pickles for dill!!

The hollyhocks (a biennial--grows every two years) two years ago got a rust infestation and only two or three of them survived.  I have a white one and a magenta one.  I have seeds to replenish the flower bed, but I can't plant them until next year as the germination time is 365 days!  Next year's hollyhock crop--which was not affected by rust last year--will be all white and pink. 

I love this time of year when the potential of everything is just beginning.  Ask me again how I feel about it when I've been on my feet canning six nights in a row!


Images used:
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Free Spirit

I am an extrovert and do not apologize for it.  If I wasn't an extrovert...I wouldn't be doing this blog, now, would I?  Riddle me that!

Captain is not an extrovert by any stretch of the imagination.  That's okay.  He is who he is and we love him for it.  However, he can be uncomfortable with my outgoing ways.  Actually, my whole family can be somewhat put out by it.

For instance, if I am driving along and I notice an interesting or unique aspect of someone's landscaping, I have been known (ask Molly) to whip into the driveway and knock on a complete stranger's door to ask what that plant is out there or where they got that statue.  Molly was mortified!

My theory is, if you don't ask the question, you will never get the answer.  Can I get an amen?!

The other trait that has dominated my life in the last year is what Captain describes as being a free spirit.  I had it come home to me hard last summer that you are not promised tomorrow in any way, shape, or form so if there is something you want to do or say, you better do it now or might not ever get the chance.

Thus the whole bucket list thing I talked about earlier and how I wanted to learn about geocaching.  You wouldn't believe the flak and ribbing I've gotten from those near and dear to me about this new pursuit.

Case in point:  yesterday Captain, Millie, and I were going to meet Captain's brother and wife for lunch in Rochetser but on the way, Captain wanted to stop at the field that used to be my Gramma's so I could take a picture of him in the corn that was more than knee high on the Fourth of July.

I was perfectly happy to do that because I like doing the crop tour drives in the summer.  An added bonus was that there was a cache just down the road across the road from where my Gramma used to live.  I thought that was pretty dang neat so I made him stop.

Captain helped search...sort of...while Millie watched.  I found the cache and was most excited about it.  Nobody else was and I detected a definite smirk on Captain's face.  Again, that's okay.  This is outside of the box where he is comfortable, and I can respect that.

When I registered for the free basic membership at geocaching.com, I was bamboozled by the sheer number of finds within minutes of my house, as depicted by the map below.  This is CRAZY, say I!!

All those green dots were way too much for my little brain, so I tried to narrow it down some.  I accidentally stumbled across a series of 100 caches all within Olmsted County that were all placed on or near road signs.  The name of the series was Everywhere A Sign and then there was a number from 1 to 100.  The number in the cache name connected to the road sign it was placed on or near.  For instance, Everywhere A Sign 14 was on a sign on County Road 14.  Everywhere A Sign 74 is on a sign on County Road 74.  Get the pattern? 

The other night, Captain had to milk and I had time on my hands, so I went on a search.  I ended up making a loop from the junction of County Road 5 NW and 75th Street NW and ending up right back there by way of Pine Island, Oronoco, and Byron.  BTW...I can drive in a straight line; I just can't draw a straight line!

That loop that I made netted me four or five finds.  The rest of them are out there, if you look at this map that the Geocaching website nicely put together for me.

I guess the geocaching thing for me is going to be like ice fishing is for Captain.  He doesn't ask me to go with him, and I won't ask him to go with me!  We'll both be happier I think.  

I hope that you let your inner free spirit out once in awhile and do what is in your heart!

Image taken from https://pics.onsizzle.com/whatever-is-good-for-your-soul-do-that-free-spirited-14525382.png