Posts from the ‘Front Porch Musings’ category

Thanksgiving Recap: Thanksgiving 2018

In the twelve years I’ve lived in this house there have been some atypical Thanksgiving Days. Some years I’ve been on the road in the motorhome travelling to my folks or returning. One year I wrecked the turkey and had meatloaf. There was the year that I decided to have pumpkin stew and Portuguese cornbread instead of turkey. Last year I had sardines and black beans in an effort to speed healing of a bruised (maybe cracked) rib.

So.

Thanksgiving 2018. My plan was to work Monday and Tuesday and have Wednesday to decompress from work … play with Emmett and Auggie and get things in order for my simple Turkey dinner on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.

However, I ended up working all day Wednesday to get things in a place where I felt comfortable with a 4 day weekend. So, on Thanksgiving morning … a gray, freezing fog day … I started the woodstove, outings with Emmett, coffee … and procrastinated until I said to myself: “I think I’ll have my turkey dinner tomorrow.

So my Thanksgiving day dinner was a pizza with shredded brussels sprouts, bacon and smoked gruyere. La-di-dah-dah-dah. Wonderful. And I spent the day enjoying the fire, playing with Emmett and Auggie and reading a book.

I DID make a pumpkin pie. But I went off script with a crushed pecan crust vs a regular pie crust. I made a mini-pie to test the crust and YUM! So Friday, my turkey dinner day, I made another little pie!

And I cooked the turkey (turkey breast). And made bone broth from the bones. And that’s as far as it went.

Two days after Thanksgiving: Saturday.

Finally!

But, while I was procrastinating on my Turkey dinner, I spent some time on my blog looking at past Thanksgiving “adventures” … so a bit of reminiscing follows:

2017 Sardines for dinner (Bear’s last Thanksgiving)

2016 A leek gruyere bread pudding was a highlight

2014

2013

2012: The year we had meatloaf because I wrecked the turkey

2010 Pumpkin stew and cornbread vs Turkey (Karl’s last Thanksgiving)

2002 Pre blog days! This year we were renting a house on Flathead Lake. I’d just sold my “in town” house and had not yet bought anything else. The house was furnished … badly. But I am responsible for the somewhat garish table runner. Karl (Karelian Bear Dog 1.5 years old), Bob (Garfield look alike that came with a boyfriend and stayed although the boyfriend didn’t :) ) and Gus (Tuxedo cat and my first ever cat … 4.5 years old)

The walk down memory lane was not sad, it was happy remembering and I laughed at many of the photos I saw along the way.

My dog Zack, was pre digital camera, but I hope to dig out some photo albums and maybe do a “Christmases Past” including him, since this was so much fun.

Hope all had a good holiday. I am very much enjoying this nice break and I have some nice turkey, mashed taters, gravy and cranberry sauce to enjoy for the next few days.

Thanksgiving 2018.

Thanksgiving Day Eve

So, we progress!

XXL wire crate is now used only when I go out and about and can not take Emmett with me. Emmett does “go to crate” with no hesitancy!

Mostly, the house is now WIDE OPEN – YEA! We still have gates for some times when Emmett and/or Auggie have “the crazies”.

Crazies generally happen early morning or late afternoon.

The bedroom. The bedroom with NO “pen”. Currently, Emmett “goes to his bed” after some pre-bed snuggles. He sleeps in his bed or on the floor until about 3:00 a.m. when he wakes. I hear him shake and then pitter-patter and he comes on MY bed and settles.

Speaking of settling… this is a culmination of teaching Emmett and Auggie to settle – HOO RAH!

Light and Mountains!

Auggie.

Auggie and Emmett: Thanksgiving Eve.

First Snow 2018-2019 Fall-Winter

The photos will be a repeat for those who follow me on Instagram AND look at my stories… BUT such a fun time with Emmett that I decided to post some of those photos here.

Several days ago we had our first “real” snow. The forecast was for 2-5 inches and somewhere in that range fell, but since the ground is not frozen and the temperatures were nearing 40 when a lot of the snow fell … much melted as it fell.

BUT.

Some did not and we woke up to maybe a scant inch of snow on the ground…

Emmett had to taste a LOT of snow!

Crazy stuff, this snow :)

Bah Humbug says Auggie!

Mittens are nearly as much fun to steal as socks!!

Later, some time in front of a warm fire.

And late afternoon a beautiful sky.

Early November: entering the dark times

We did Fall back Sunday last.

We are in the “dark times” of less than 10 hours of daylight with another nearly 2 months to go until Winter Solstice.

I confess that I would not like to be any further north, but I do love the increased dark for the amount of time that we have it: cozy nights and mornings with fire and low lights.

All of the seasons and all of the light and dark – I enjoy!

Emmett came home with me just after we did Spring forward. We had a bit of snow when he was tiny. It will be fun to see what he thinks when we have snow again! The forecast is for a “warm winter” – BLECH!! We’ll see.

Meanwhile…

Unbelievable !: Emmett is 8 mths and we are closing in on the end of 2018

We are one month into Autumn!

Emmett was 8 months old on October 12!

Emmett has been part of the family Summers for over 6 months!!

Life is good here at 785 La Brant Rd. Emmett is growing into an almost dog :) … 14 months for physical maturity … 2 years for the rest, but as we are firmly into adolescence … and not too many “teen” issues … I am grateful! We are following breeder and vet advice to wait as long as possible to neuter. This is a “medium-big dog” thing of allowing time for bones and joints to mature with the normal hormones. There are plusses and minuses for various issues, but I’m going with waiting until we “need” to.

Emmett continues to be a joy to be with, to play and teach and to learn from. Auggie continues to be a CHAMP at tolerating Emmett’s lapses into “puppy brain”. I love them both with all my heart and am so grateful that they are part of my life!

Time flies when you are having fun and we are HAVING FUN!

And in addition to Auggie and Emmett fun, we are having an absolutely spectacular Autumn to date! Some cool-cold weather and in the last 10 days some warm weather and the color … it is just great to be where we are and with the time to get outside and enjoy.

From the last weeks:

Mid August: Emmett’s 6 month training progress

Today, Emmett is 6 months old by the calendar and tomorrow: 26 weeks since his birth. And just in case you don’t remember … my birthday is Thursday, August 16. I will (hopefully) celebrate 63 times around the sun :)

Mid August. While not the hottest summer in my Montana experience, this week had its heat challenges. But my window coverings and A/C won!!

That reading was Thursday when Kalispell hit 100F and set a record for the date. The previous record was 99F in 2003. And although the gauge shows 99.3, the temp did rise to 99.5 for a bit before starting to cool about 5:00 p.m. And because of the very low humidity here, plus the longer nights as we are 6 weeks past Summer Solstice … it takes all day to get to the peak and we have enough night time and lower sun angle, that it cools quickly if skies are clear. This week, the smoke prevented the 102-105 forecast but it also kept the nights warmer than forecast.

Still, compared to the mid-west, east and south … the heat here is certainly more manageable. The A/C units I have would not work as well other places. In fact, this year, I wrapped the exhaust hoses in duct wrap. AND, I added extra light/heat blocking on windows. Previous years I could maintain about 20-25 degrees cooler than outside, but WOW -31 degrees cooler = happy, happy Summers fambly!

Double coated Auggie feels the heat outside …

He does not object very much to my keeping him in when it is hot and smoky!

Emmett likes the cool of the house and the extra cool of the fan.

Summer time is the time for taking it easy with an afternoon chew. I had to laugh at Emmett taking his chew to the towel. We’d just come in from a round in the sprinkler. I’d used the towel to dry him off and then dropped it to do something else. When I came back, he was there … all the mess of the chew treat on the towel: Mr. Neat!

Some evenings, the smoke has cleared a bit and the last walk in the woods is beautiful:

And this morning, after a cool front passed through, it is clear and the forecast high is a relatively pleasant 81F.

We had a slow start to Sunday and enjoyed.

Training! We continue and the focus the last 2 weeks has been focus, as in focus on me. And also calm. Emmett is all about action and sometimes more about what he wants than what I want. Hence, working on focus and calm.

My local trainer referred me to Kikopup’s youtube channel. WOW! I have watched many of the videos and also purchased the “Weekly Puppy Insight’s” package. So much good info and ideas as well as step-by-step training.

Kikopup is Emily Larlham. The website and her business is Dogmantics . Her intro video says it all about who she is and how she trains:

One of the videos that I’ve trained from for helping Emmett calm is this “chin rest” video.

The takeaway is that Emily is PASSIONATE about positive reinforcement training aka Clicker Training. If you’ve thought that this method is a gimmick or not effective or ??? please watch at least the 2 videos above. Emily works with Karen Pryor’s philosophy as does my local trainer and also Laurie Luck (Smart Dog University whose videos have helped me also).

AND!!! If Emily and Laurie are not enough … check out this Instagram feed:

https://instagram.com/p/BgbqmYqgzb1/

Mary (17) and Secret (3), her Aussie Shepherd Service Dog for medical alert and Autism. Their relationship as well as what they do together is beyond awesome. Mary trained/trains Secret herself based on positive reinforcement/clicker training.

Mary, Emily, Laurie and my local trainer, Will are incredible resources and inspiration. Emmett and I (and Auggie) are having so much fun as we all work together.