This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

There's been so many things going on lately and our computer has been so messed up that I haven't written a blog posting in ages, despite there being so very many things to report on. Therefore, I promise to compose- in rapid fire fashion- at least three updating posts. I am certain that everyone is on the edge of their seats in anticipation.
First, allow me to state that the photos are illustrations depicting just how weird life with a puppy can be. I don't really notice anymore that our furniture has taken a decidedly odd turn, but to others who visit, our living room must look very strange indeed. Upturned tables and chairs decorate the seating areas of several chairs to discourage Lil' Robin from sitting on or chewing off cushions.

You get the idea. It has probably crossed Bob's mind that we live "differently" than many of our friends (that's their problem!) but to my mind it's simply a stage we're going through. And who wants a living room that looks like everyone elses? House and Garden hasn't threatened to pay a call any time soon...
This posting is driving circuitously to the subject of Robin the Good and I successfully completing our "Family Manners" Dog Class. (Fans have been clamoring for updates!) I think this was a positive experience for both of us: Robin seems to have benefited from her canine and human interactions and I got to see her blossom. (that is, when she wasn't curled up in a pathetic heap on my feet wishing she were anywhere else.) I also got to accidentally offend several people, including the grumpy woman to whom I exclaimed, "My, that's the biggest Husky I have ever seen!" To which she snarled, "It's not a Husky!" Hey! I got asked if Robin was a Flat Coated Retriever, and I didn't bite their heads off! There were several entertaining (or embarrassing) moments as when the instructor held our dog's leashes- one at a time- and we went to the far end of the space and called our puppies. They're supposed to gallop off to their beloved master/mistress without hesitation. Robin went first and ca-roomed back to me so fast; I think I expected all the other dogs to follow suit. But the little Beagle Ulysses wandered off in the opposite direction as his hapless owner called frantically. The giant (ahem) Not Husky sat and barked at the instructor instead of coming to his crabby mistress and the decidedly challenged (or deranged depending on your viewpoint) gargantuan overbred Labrador Sassy just sat there. The instructor gently prodded this oaf with a sneakered foot but with no result. One test successfully completed!

(The dark blob to the left of center is Robin, surrounded by her bizarre collection of "toys".) I will allow that Robin was great at the coming-when-called episode, but proved less convinced by some of the training operations recommended- like touching her nose with a dog treat, then touching MY nose with the treat and saying "Watch!" to get their attention. I'm not sure what Robin thought, but I am imagining it's along the lines of, "Oh no! Rita really has lost her mind this time!" Robin was much better at practicing at home and found class sort of stressful; many distractions and loads of noise! (Including that a "correction" used on our puppies was a sound that then instructor called "EEEENNNT!!" This was described as "the sound of the buzzer on a game show when an incorrect answer was given". We therefore spent many fine minutes waltzing around the room with a constant barrage of high and low pitched "EEENNNTTTSS". To a person outside the door, it probably sounded like some sort of faulty machine turning on and off. Robin did learn how to growl, which I viewed as a major accomplishent. One of the jumbo-tron dogs thrust their giant, drooly snouts up Robin's butt and she responded with a delightful throaty, "RRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrr".)
 I also hazard an opinion that the instructor wasn't keen on Robin as she was the only mixed breed dog in the class. I know that many people are pure-breed snobs and think any dog not acknowledged by the American Kennel Club is worthless. The instructor was nice enough but he couldn't seem to remember Robin's name and he seemed to hurry over us when doing exercises. I do know that two of the dogs in class were also pursuing private lessons with the instructor, so perhaps there was the added monetary element. A lot of good it did, as those two dogs were the worst in the class.
The class also deepened my appreciation for my beloved mixed breed pooches as Robin was among the better behaved students (not firing off non-stop howls or barking at the top of her lungs or dragging me across the room like some dogs that will remain nameless!) Some of these pure bred dogs are like awful hyperactive children: zero attention span and idiotically spastic outbursts.

There she is... our little scholar. All tuckered out! But smarter! And better behaved! And good! (Don't you love that carpet? No worry of spills and leakage here!)

Perseverance Furthers

(Just one of the many inscrutable moments to be found in our gardens. And I thought it was appropriate to put up a picture of something art-like but not actually art because (and this is a good thing) many of my most recent pieces are out in shows.)
Ahem! Yes, just in time for my birthday (that would be the 20th of July in case you're contemplating sending cards or exotic gifts!) I am finally in a show at Real Art Ways. This is a major event as I have attempted to show there for a good portion of my adult life. I guess it signifies that perseverance furthers (as the I Ching would tell us) and that sometimes just plain old being alive long enough pays off. It also helps to have friends who are artists and curators and who really like your work...
So despite having fallen victim to a mildly vicious summer cold- which everyone at work thoughtfully explored before passing it along to me, I am happy to be approaching 60 with an artistic milestone to celebrate. Hell, I've been making art a long time!

Wow! That's my name. It isn't an accident or a mistake. Earlier this week, a friend sent that along. (Thanks Elly!) I guess it reinforces that I really am having a one person show. And here it is- or a sampling of it:

Hey! The installation view that David Borawski (aforementioned artist/friend/curator) sent along last night actually appeared! Now you don't have to go see the show. Only kidding! I think I'm excited...
And people have to show up as there's two other shows opening that same night so there's bound to be overlap. Even if other people get lost looking for the bathroom or buying snacks, they will eventually stumble into my show.
I trust this last picture will show up; I looked at the preview page and it appeared as an un-openable icon. Too busy to try and figure out why. And too fed up with computers to want to bother!

Wildlife

As wild as life gets! That's Lil' Robin the Good, laying blue eggs. Isn't taht what Robin's do? (It's actually Robin laying around with her football, but it looked like a big egg.)

(Unretouched photo.) But! Life has been anything but dull in the sightings (and hearings) of wild animals department. Bob and I went to a really nice backyard Fourth of July party on Sunday and saw a BOBCAT cross the road in the wilds of Beacon Falls. When we got home and let Robin out to run her yayas out, there were BATS! in the sky above; circling and devouring millions of mosquitoes. I love BATS! I hope their populations are recovering from that dreadful white nose fungus.
And then we heard coyotes that night...
And next morning, while watering the vegetable garden, Bob saw a slew (gaggle? flotilla? gobble?) of turkeys crossing the driveway, with both parents and babies in attendance. Minutes after I returned from my walk with Robin, I saw something dive across the fence line and thought it was the neighbor's pesky Siamese cat, but it was a FOX! Maggie came out from the cool of her stall to investigate, but the FOX was long gone.
Robin and I also saw a very large SNAPPING TURTLE laying her roadside eggs last week. I think it must be the same one I've seen several years running now.

Maggie's not looking too wild in this picture. Who can blame her; it's been very hot.
A close up:

Yup! She's snoozing. I think she's being to feel her age. Aren't we all? I'm due to turn 60 in a couple of weeks. I guess I still have a bit of wild life in me!

Bob Appreciation Post #2

Bob's been busy! Look what he did to the far corner of his studio... added a new window. It makes the whole space not only brighter, but look so much bigger. This was a dark and lonely-looking corner; sort of remote and Bob stored things he didn't need too often there. But now, it feels so much usable. And he has a nice view of our back swamp. Bob also relates that he has a resident chipmunk that lives beneath the window. Free entertainment!

And the grapes have been lovingly tended to. Bob saw a video that recommended placing sandwich bags over the newly forming clusters of grapes to protect them from birds and the weather. This particular vine- a white Niagara- is making something like 17 clusters! We'll have quite a harvest. People who have used this method of grape protection have mentioned that the ripen more sweetly.

And here's a shot of one corner of the vegetable kingdom. Bob has (as usual) done a bang-up job of planting, thinning, transplanting and housing the seedlings in the vegetable garden. And we're already reaping the rewards in the form of delicious tender salads.
I'm kind of behind in the garden world. I'm still planting and trying to figure out what to put into several holes that have appeared. Not to mention that I have weeds and haven't edged yet. Bb tolerates my presence in the vegetable garden where I have an unruly cut flower area... I try!

A Few Persistent Problems as Projects Accomplished

Despite extraordinary complications involving Windows 10 (and my Yahoo email!) I blog on. And I am happy to report that household projects are being resolved! F'rinstance, we had noisome, noxious, noisy European starlings (an invasive species to boot) nesting in a hole in the side of the house. The hole was in the wall next to where the computer resides and every Facebook adventure or web search was accompanied by the loud chortling of hungry baby birds. Bob and I realized we had been living with this for months; they must have delivered a multitude of litters of chicks before Bob devised a clever bird flap, that allowed the birds to exit, but not re-enter. It worked (with no birds hurt) and we can reclaim the wall. Bob has patched the hole with aluminum, visible in the picture above. We had tried the owl featured below, but he only served to scare our friends, as he was only five feet off the ground. Huzzahs to Bob!

The next project completed was skylights! Oooohhh! I am so happy. Thanks to Bob and our good friend Joe, I can now vent the hot air that collected in the ceiling and with the insulation that Bob and Joe added a few months past, the studio is an altogether nicer, cooler place to do business. (The business of art, that is!)

And here's yet another ongoing dilemma fixed: we had a quite large sink hole that formed in our yard. It had probably come from where roots were rotting from a tree removed long ago. But it kept getting deeper and was downright weird. When you went to mow the lawn, you sank waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down and when it rained, water pooled there. That's lil' Robin the Good, posing for scale.

First we added rocks (plenty of those left over from gardening!), then we added dirt and left over soil (from when we excavated to do the Mosaic Walkway), and then Bob (in an industrious burst) added sods left over from edging the vegetable garden. Watered in and !POOF! Instant level, grassed yard repair!

 

 Bob also went up on our roof and patched several areas with tar; we're ready if it ever rains again. (Sort of like California. I think we need rain!) He also cleaned the chimney. Bob's been busy and gets my appreciation and a big gold star!!

Our Little Scholar

Puppy Class didn't go off quite as planned. For one thing, poor Lil' Robin the Good hates the car- this sad fact probably due to the eight hour drive she initially took to get to us. (Not only does she associate the car with a traumatic event (separation from siblings, a life she knew etc etc), but she gets physically very sick.) So her initial response to confronting a ride in the car was "NOOO!!!!" and after a struggle, I lifted her into the back seat, where she immediately began salivating and turning green. Fortunately, the drive to the Puppy Class was only about seven minutes.
The facility is close, but I drew a rough map and was pretty sure where it was, in a mixed residential and industrial park area, over by the local airport. As we approached the approximate vicinity, I saw a sign with a large paw print and turned into the driveway, telling a very ill Robin, "Looks like we're here!" I'm glad that Lil' Robin can't read as the closer I got to the building it became apparent that the building in question was a pet crematorium. Yikes. Wrong turn!
But just one road away, there it was and there was a stream of happy puppies and owners (actually, the all looked sort of grim! Hmmm...) issuing out from Puppy Pre-school and trotting in to our "Family Manners" class. The class is quite small- only five dogs total, but what a mixed group!
There is a humongous black Lab named Sassy, who was built like a tank and had one of those metal prong pinch collars. Her owner, a slight woman in her seventies, was obviously overwhelmed by the size and strength of her charge. This "puppy" was only a bit older than Robin! The poor woman spent the hour of class trying to restrain her HumVee of a puppy by standing on her leash, with limited success.
Then there was another enormous dog, this one a Bernese Mountain Dog named Riley and at least seven members of her human family. I mean, they took up half the chairs and described various atrocities committed by Riley including eating walls. People do like their large pets!
Next up was the biggest Husky I have ever seen. He possessed prodigious fur in giant fluffy tufted tail and thigh applications, but I suspect that under all that fur, he had really was just plain big. And loud. He howled, squeaked, barked and erupted for nearly half the class, making hearing the instructor Frank very hard. (Almost told Frank that we had had a dog named Frank but thought to wait until I know him better.) Anyway, Fluffy Husky (whose name escapes me) got squirted with a squirt bottle several times to shut him up, also with mixed results. He did manage to wrap his leash around the plastic chair his owner was sitting in and knock her over, causing much havoc and consternation... class was anything but calming!*
The last participant (beside Robin) was a small (thank goodness!) beagle rescue dog named Ulysses who was bouncy, but at least of a size where that wasn't life threatening. He and Robin hit it off and touched noses but poor Robin quickly became overwhelmed and shut down, curling up in a ball at my feet, only occasionally glancing up to look at me with reproachful eyes as if to say, "Why me? What did I do?" I was wondering that myself as saintly Robin and I seemed the only manageable members of class.
 After class, several people commended me on how "good" Robin was, but I assured them she was simply in shock. Can't wait 'til next week!

*A quick footnote here: Robin was the only "exotic" in class. That is, all the other participants were definitely "pure bred", recognizable breeds. Several people asked me, "What is she?" And I could see from the assortment of breeds represented that people closely follow those "most popular lists". One wonders why. For example, the elderly woman who had that giant Black Lab? In size and strength alone- setting aside all that youthful energy- it was a bad match! She certainly would have been better off with a smaller, and probably full grown dog!

Good Fences make Good Neighbors

Bob and I spent what was a really pleasant afternoon erecting part of our ongoing fence project. While we like our neighbors, we don't always want to share driveway moments; I'm sure they feel the same way! We have been fortunate that a good pile of reusable, older stockade fencing came with the house. It was installed in peculiar places, but it was still serviceable and we moved it and used it to block off a good stretch of our property line. Bob recently purchased several new section and while the digging wasn't always easy (roots, rocks, tight spaces) we got three new post in and four sections up. At least the weather cooperated, with no humidity and nice temperatures. But there is a good deal of pollen around to prevent jobs like this from being altogether fun.

 A mix of old and new! This section of fencing goes behind Bob's "show room", where he has a bunch of garden supports and gates and arbors for sale. The new fence will allow the rusted metal work to stand out more, as will the idea of using white sand as a base. Right now the old leaves suppress grass and weeds and keep the metal work clean, but the tomato cages and peony rings do blend in.  We've been planning on doing this fence for a while, so it was good to get to it. There's another couple of panels to set up at this end, and further down the line in the opposite direction we need another four (maybe five) to complete our privacy wall. It also serves to keep the bears out and the dog in. (Yes, there was a bear and her off spring in a neighbor's yard recently. Yikes.)

And what does one eat in preparation for fence installation? Doesn't this look All-American? We've been nursing the remains of a package of (holistic, organic, free-range) turkey hot dogs from Memorial Day, and I think I'm ready to say good bye to them! Today we ran out of rolls and we had to improvise hot dogs surrounds. Bob used a tortilla wrap and I cobbled together slices of hot dog and sauerkraut on a Triscuit. Peculiar but we seemed fortified sufficiently to get the job done.