Horses in the Mist

Foggy morning. Snapped this on the way to work. Hard to resist fog photos. And yes...I said "horses". Look closely.

Duke

Watching my BIL's and SIL's dogs while they are camping in the Canadian boundary waters. This is Duke. He moves a lot. I'm glad he knows his name because I could never catch him.

First Deer

This week, the state of Kansas allowed youth hunters to go hunting for deer before the grow-ups take a crack at it when the season opens next week. Andrew went out with his Uncle Kurt last weekend but didn't have any luck. They saw a lot of turkeys, though. They gave it another shot yesterday and didn't see a thing until they climbed out of the blind and there were three deer standing there. Shucks! Because of that, they gave it another shot today, the last day. Lo and behold, those three deer came back! The first one was a large doe and he got it! He hit her in the shoulder and she ran off not too far away. When he fired that shot, a young buck came looking around wondering what all of the commotion was about. This was about 13 minutes after the first one. He collected himself, took aim and fired. Got it! That's the deer pictured above. He could have had the third deer, but he only had two tags. They brought them home, shared stories with all of us, and we broke for lunch and a rest. Later on, we all got together and skinned and butchered them up. (Kurt's dad was a butcher and learned this valuable art from him.) It was a lot of work but good family time. It was a great day of hunting! Not to mention, an awesome experience for Andrew and quality time spent with his uncle, who is a pretty cool guy.

The Funeral

I dug the grave under a bush that has lots of flowers on it. Andrew made a cross out of some sticks from the tree in our backyard and some string. Amber found a pretty gold box and lined it with some tissues. She also wrote a note that read "Rest and peace Clod. I love you." She wrote her name and drew a sad face with some tears rolling down the cheeks. Sara joined us while I put Clod in the box and helped Amber wrap it up. She placed the box gently in the hole I dug and we all said a few words before shoveling dirt back in the hole. Sonny came over to see what was going on before quickly losing interest and going back to play with his plastic bucket. Dogs.

Turtle Heaven

Tonight changed the way I look at this picture. I snapped it on the drive into work because of the way the sunlight broke through the patchy cloud structure. I didn't know it'd have a deeper meaning tonight.

I'm a softy. That's not breaking news. I always try to do the right thing, no matter what, because right is right even when nobody is doing it, and wrong is wrong even when everybody is doing it. Here's what happened.

After dinner, I put our turtle, Clod, into the small pool we have outside so he could swim around outside of the aquarium he lives in. That's something I do everyday. He swims around and hunts for pieces of dried shrimp we bought for him at the pet store. Tonight was no different. But somehow, I got distracted and simply forgot where he was. I also assumed the dog was in the house.

Well, you can put two and two together to figure out what happened next. Clod was missing and I couldn't find the dog. (I refuse to use his name because I'm still so mad at him.) A little frantic searching in the backyard and I see the dog and I know immediately what he's up to. After shooing him away, I inspected Clod and immediately noticed how serious the damage was. Without going into detail, this was serious damage to Clod's shell. I thought he was gone, but after watching him for a couple of minutes, trying to decide what to do, he started moving. The guy had to be in pain. Serious pain. Andrew was with me and we decided to carefully pick him up and put him back in his aquarium to rest, and hopefully just fall asleep and go to turtle heaven during the night.

I know it's just a small turtle I'm talking about here, but I'm just sick thinking about it, knowing that my absent-mindedness played a large role in this situation. I know that the dog was just doing what dogs do. But I'm still disappointed in him. Tonight, I failed in a big way. I have a heavy heart for the pain I caused to an innocent turtle and the sadness I brought into the house.

Pharmacy Phor Phido

Our dog has been going darn near crazy scratching and itching. It's like the Itchy & Scratchy show over here. During the day, during the night, during a walk...he's gotta be going mad. I swear his back legs are looking more buff from the workout he's been giving them. Poor guy. It's not fleas causing the problem, we know that much. It's gotta be some sort of allergy. My wife was talking to someone about the problem and heard about a possible remedy. So, I ran to the grocery store and picked up some very human medicine to hopefully relieve the irritation. We're crossing our fingers that the jingle of his dog tags are silent tonight while he gets a decent night's sleep, and a lot of relief.

Hello, Horses!

I guess after seeing me walk by their meadow on a consistent basis, they're comfortable enough to come and say "Good Morning" to me. They would just stand there and let me pet their noses and the side of their faces. They weren't spooked at all. It was a nice way to sort of commune with nature. Very peaceful.

Meadow of Horses

From the morning walk.

Waiting

Watching the commotion around him, Sonny supervises from high atop the first floor.

Water-logged Dog

We loaded up the SUV and headed north to Wildcat country for a family reunion. It was a pretty light turnout but still a great day all around. My Aunt Penny brought her dog, Gracie, with her and the kids loved playing with her. She would run around the edges of the pool and bark at them while they played in the water. This is my niece, Leah, posing with Gracie. A real life beauty and the beast.

Clod the Turtle

Andrew found this guy on the ball diamond the other night. He thought it was a dirt clod. That's why we named him (her?) Claude. How fitting. Took him out for some exercise tonight to run (walk?) around the yard...and my arm.

Heavy Chickens

Went to the farm supply store looking for turtle food. A1 found a baby turtle on the baseball diamond last night. He thought it was a dirt clod and was about to kick it when it stuck out it's head and legs. What a trip, huh? So, we have a turtle in the back yard...name Claude, of course. Anyway, all of the spring geese, turkeys and chickens were out on display. These chicks are assorted heavies. I called a farmer friend to ask what a heavy chicken was. I got the answer you'd expect I'd get after asking a question like that. It was like asking "What's a henweigh?" (It's an old joke so you surely know the answer.) So, I looked up what a heavy was on my vast and unpaid research department called the Internet. I found this. That picture above will either make you very sad, or very hungry.