garden and trail. and dogs.

field notes, ii-xiv-xii

2012-02-14T19:02:00.007-06:00

Valentine's Day seems early for mayflies. Everything's beginning to blossom - the dogwoods and redbuds are beautiful. Looks like early spring.

Ondine wasn't great tonight, but she wasn't her worst. Notes:

Right after work, about 5:15, before she ate.
Nice weather, cool but sneaking up on warm.
Magnificent on the trail, squirrely on the roads. (Lots of traffic.)
Very good crossing the street into the park.

Aries was good, too. He's been cranky and aggressive toward the other animals lately so I'm trying to get him out more consistently. It would be nice to walk him and Ondine together but we're not there yet. And also I'm not crazy. Oh - he got startled by a large, metallic "I love you" balloon that was trapped in a bush. He investigated by nudging it with his nose, which dislodged it, and then he stood quietly and watched as it floated away.

Do dogs form 'real' friendships? is fascinating - both the post and the comments. I'd love to go work on a master's in biology. I'd do my thesis on social relationships in feral dog packs. My hypothesis is that the process of domestication degrades canine social cohesion. As canines drew closer to our human ancestors they became less reliant on hunting and more on scavenging. Competition became more important than cooperation with each other, and cooperation with humans became more beneficial than cooperation with others of their kind. I think I'd have to seek out a wide variety of feral packs to study, representing several different stages of domestication - you know, village dogs in Afghanistan, landfill dogs in Tijuana, carrion dogs in India. I'd probably want to compare them to jackals in Africa and dingoes in Australia, too, just to round out the study. (Though I must say I wholly disagree with the premise that dogs don't form real friendships. That's ludicrous. I'd much rather say that we can't apply human standards of friendship to dogs as the standard, especially if the behaviors we would define as friendship are the behaviors we've helped nature breed out of them. We have to study them to figure out what friendship means, on their terms, first.)

ii-xii-xii-ii

2012-02-12T17:17:00.000-06:00

ii-xii-xii

2012-02-12T13:38:00.001-06:00

mantel update

2012-02-11T20:12:00.004-06:00

We put together a puzzle of Roy De Forest's "Country Dog Gentlemen" this weekend and we liked it so much that we matted and framed it and hung it over the mantle. (We got the puzzle from pomegranate.com - highly recommended.)

ii-xi-xii

2012-02-11T16:53:00.000-06:00

we have a slight chance of ice pellets and snow tomorrow

field notes, ii-ix-xii

2012-02-09T20:06:00.004-06:00

I took Aries out first this evening. He's pretty good on the leash most of the time, but sometimes he stops to sniff and it's hard to keep him moving. I brought some treats along, but he seemed to lose interest after the first few. I thought to myself, "What? Aries uninterested in food?" That was odd. He is food-possessive at home. But as I watched him ignore a treat I was waving under his nose, I realized that just being out and about is, for him, a greater reward.

I followed that train of thought back to Ondine. She never tires of treats, but I wondered whether they weren't really motivating or rewarding to her after all, or whether she's just greedy, and I wondered if I ought to try another kind of reward.

Lately Bren and Ondine have been playing with the squeaker from a gutted squeaky toy; Ondine gets excited and squirrely when Bren hides the squeaker in her hand and squeaks it quickly. When I took Ondine out this evening, I grabbed the squeaker. I kept it in my pocket for a while and then surprised her with it along the trail.

Sacre bleu, she likes that toy. A few times I kept it in my pocket and squeaked it only once, just to break her concentration from mild distractions, including a couple passing dogs. She responded to the single squeaks with a swivel-snap of her head, and then continued to check in often. We tried the rapid-squeak thing a few times when cars were passing, but the results were hit and miss. Seems like if I can get her to stop and play before she gets locked into her target, it's OK. We'll have to keep working on the timing.

Apart from all the observation and analysis and problem-solving, something light was dancing around in my head for a good part of the walk. Some of our stop-and-play sessions are as fun as fun gets down here on this planet, you know, kids and their dogs. Part of me is still nine years old and Ondine is a beautiful goofball.

snippets, 2-9-12

2012-02-09T11:58:00.009-06:00

From The Atlantic: How your cat is making you crazy.

There is a theory of mind floating around out there (not necessarily in the linked article, but bear with me) that our brains are more like radio receivers than, uh, thought factories, and that they spend most of their time tuning signals and sifting and interpreting a huge variety of inputs not only from our six or seven senses, but from all the different communities of bacteria that make us who we are. My feeling is that toxo, the bacterial subject of the article, is just one among many bacteria that influence "our" behavior. I mean, c'mon, those little dudes ruled the planet for 3.5 billion years before "we" came along. (Experienced meditators know that the deep center is a really quiet place; many of the voices we think of as ourselves, if you let them come and go, start seeming like they're coming from somewhere else. That's the little dudes talking.)

field notes, ii-viii-xii

2012-02-08T18:57:00.004-06:00

Ondine was as bad as she's ever been this evening, though she did surprise me once or twice with good behaviors, such as sitting politely as we waited to cross Liberty Walk into the park.

A later start, 5:45, after she ate
Lots of evening traffic
A little cooler than usual
A slower pace

Yeah. Oh, we watched a jogger with a spitz mix pass, and Ondine looked at me like, "Why aren't we doing that?" And just before we turned into our driveway, I looked up to catch the last pink embers of the sunset and saw the evening's first star. I wished right away, "O please help this young lady learn to behave around cars."

ii-vii-xii

2012-02-07T18:00:00.001-06:00

fergus, aries, amy & ondine

2012-02-07T17:55:00.004-06:00

snippets, 2-6-12

2012-02-06T08:12:00.002-06:00

Another terrific article: Wonder dog.

ii-iv-xii

2012-02-04T15:49:00.002-06:00

divertoonmento

2012-02-03T18:01:00.006-06:00

sunflower

2012-02-03T17:59:00.001-06:00

beneath one of the bird feeders

peaflowers and owl

2012-02-03T17:57:00.002-06:00

snippets, 2-1-12

2012-02-01T08:04:00.002-06:00

Nice article: Hospice dog.

field notes, i-xxxi-xii

2012-01-31T17:49:00.005-06:00

Nevermind me. Just puzzling out what works. Ondine behaved as well as she ever has tonight - though she still gave chase to most of the passing cars, she only barked at one. I thought if I jotted some notes it might help us over the long haul. So what did we do tonight? Two miles...

A comically fast pace
5:00 p.m., before dinner
Fine weather, 70-ish and clear

We encountered a couple unleashed but well-mannered dogs. They were no problem with a steady (fast) pace and a little distance between us and them. (She's consistently OK if the other dog behaves, but she's also always on high alert and reacts quickly to changes.)

We've been using the combination martingale/front-pull harness with the chain leash. Seems to be the best rig so far.

Oh, in other news, I figured out the whole dark energy thing. You know how when you get older time passes more quickly? It's like that. Somebody just has to do the space/time math now. But yeah, when you realize time's a sliding scale it helps square the 6,000-year-old-earth thing, you know, like when the world was just a kid, those first few decades were really really long. Time lasts longer when you're young. (How is it that I'm writing "2012" on stuff? Sheesh when did that happen?)

flipper and fawkes

2012-01-27T18:24:00.002-06:00

peas

2012-01-24T17:48:00.001-06:00

we planted these either way late or super early, but they seem to be doing well

field notes, i-xxii-mmxii

2012-01-22T17:48:00.008-06:00

Ondine and I went for a long afternoon hike at the river. She was horrible in the car on the way there and back, but I'm just going to have to inure myself to it. She's a great companion on the trail.

Another topic - field injuries. I was crouching to take a picture of some tiny flowers bespeckling an emerald patch of ground cover when I lost my balance and put my hand down to keep from toppling over. As soon as my hand touched the ground, my brain said, "Why is someone poking a red-hot screwdriver through your palm?" as another part of my brain simultaneously said, "You know better than to put your hand someplace you haven't looked first!" I lifted my hand and inspected my palm - nothing. No puncture, no splinter, no evidence of injury at all. Still hurts, though. Not sure if it was the ground cover or something hiding within it. Lesson re-learned! (Topical hydrocortisone seems to be helping.)

I also poked my foot and thigh on a prickly pear. I have to get some better field boots soon.

i-xxi-xii

2012-01-21T19:06:00.000-06:00

january spinach

2012-01-20T17:11:00.003-06:00

rocking horse leaping dog

2012-01-20T16:38:00.007-06:00

good evening

2012-01-19T18:15:00.006-06:00

snippets mmxii-i

2012-01-17T08:18:00.002-06:00

There is no Sleepy Hollow on the internet, no peaceful spot where contemplativeness can work its restorative magic.

- Nicholas Carr, "Rural > City > Cyberspace"

(That has long been one of the goals of this blog: To become the Sleepy Hollow of the Internet.)

aries d'hearth

2012-01-16T19:45:00.004-06:00

what?

2012-01-16T13:50:00.000-06:00

muggles probably shouldn't try this

2012-01-16T13:44:00.005-06:00

field notes, i-xv-mmxii

2012-01-15T15:00:00.007-06:00

...because crappy phonecams need love too.

Ondine has been backsliding with cars and bikes, but between yesterday and today we've walked ten miles. (She has also sprinted at least ten more in the backyard chasing tennis balls.) Beautiful weather this weekend - cold mornings but pleasant afternoons. Today is overcast and cool, but nice. Lots of kite fliers in the park.

blueberry leaves

2012-01-14T20:30:00.001-06:00

garden camping, mmxii-i

2012-01-14T14:04:00.005-06:00

I awoke to moonglow on the tent walls, the chilly air redolent of woodsmoke. The smell took me to a lot of places in that pre-dawn space, but as I shivered awake it struck me that the backyard wasn't one of them. I got up and went in the house. Bren was sitting at the kitchen table working on a puzzle. She hadn't been able to sleep, and had gotten up and built a fire in the hearth. And now this too will be one of the pre-dawn places to which the smell of woodsmoke takes me.

warbler

2012-01-14T13:30:00.001-06:00

januaries

2012-01-14T12:38:00.002-06:00

origami lanterns

2012-01-13T20:19:00.003-06:00

amy made these

toreo

2012-01-12T17:55:00.004-06:00

i-xi-xi

2012-01-11T17:49:00.006-06:00

"I by I by I."

happy adoptiversary!

2012-01-10T19:18:00.003-06:00

We brought Ondine home a year ago today. I've had many fine dogs in my life. Frosty was one of the noblest spirits I've ever known. Juniper, the most courageous. Nisa and Ciara, the sweetest. And now, as I approach a half century, I've been blessed with one of the best friends I've ever had, far and away the most interesting creature I've ever known.

One of the chords she strikes with me is how hard she tries to communicate - not only to listen, but to make her own thoughts heard. It's a deeper conversation than I've had with, well, anyone. She's teaching me to watch and listen.

She came along at a time when I really needed a friend, and I hope she sticks around a good long time.

amy by the fire

2012-01-10T19:16:00.002-06:00

blueberry bistro

2012-01-08T11:51:00.003-06:00

starlings

2012-01-07T17:09:00.003-06:00

eight

i-vii-xii pm

2012-01-07T17:07:00.006-06:00

Ondine got a clean bill of health on her first annual exam today.

i-vii-xii

2012-01-07T11:24:00.000-06:00

toontown

2012-01-05T17:49:00.002-06:00

jordan, lauren and ondine

2012-01-02T15:04:00.002-06:00

after an afternoon at the river

2012-01-01T18:22:00.002-06:00

a good way to start a year

2012-01-01T17:04:00.003-06:00

footprints

2012-01-01T16:55:00.003-06:00

Dash found some great dinosaur prints on our hike at the river today. I found the raccoon prints. I think it was running away from the dinosaur.

buttermilk pie

2012-01-01T10:42:00.000-06:00

happy new year!

2011-12-31T19:55:00.000-06:00

xii-xxxi-xi

2011-12-31T11:43:00.004-06:00

xii-xxx-xi

2011-12-30T18:02:00.003-06:00

Amy and Bren spent many hours over the last few days cleaning up and re-arranging the garden. (I will have to ask them whether it's possible some ancient instinct subconsciously prompted them to freshen things up for the new year. )

cardinal and mockingbird

2011-12-30T17:46:00.000-06:00

field notes, xii-xxix-xi

2011-12-29T19:28:00.005-06:00

Ondine behaved nicely on her walks these last few days. (For locals, I walked her along Liberty Walk at rush hour - a steady stream of cars going by at 35 mph or so.) She strained a lot but it was more extreme attentiveness than giving chase; she didn't dig in or go bonkers.

Also we saw a treeful of doves explode and flee as a merlin swooped past fast.

holidaries

2011-12-28T18:29:00.002-06:00

lunch

2011-12-26T12:40:00.000-06:00

snippets xi-xix

2011-12-26T09:39:00.005-06:00

...For all we know, this is year we will finally feel at home; we will sail the seas; we will find a job; we will beat a repossession, a foreclosure, an eviction; we will graduate; we will marry.

This is the year that will satisfy some large and persistent longing.

- Stacia L. Brown, "Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice."

2011 was the Year of Chaos and Turmoil. Here's hoping 2012 is calmer.

Which brings us to 2012 New Year's Resolution and Planning Time! Woot!

- New job!
- Spend 100 nights outside.
- Read, write and walk every day.
- Play the guitar. Draw.
- Eat healthy.
- Frugalify.

(Author reserves the right to edit this list at whim.)

christmas fawkes

2011-12-25T19:23:00.003-06:00

uhhh huh huh

2011-12-25T18:22:00.001-06:00

Blackberry cheesecake!

and twice more

2011-12-25T13:14:00.001-06:00

merry christmas

2011-12-25T00:01:00.004-06:00

christmas eve

2011-12-24T18:01:00.001-06:00

whatcha reading xxvi

2011-12-24T11:55:00.005-06:00

"These dishes have magical properties, little mouse. They were once served on the longest night of the year," Baba said, while peeling potatoes for the varenyky. "Each one has a story, and when you make them, you should remember the story like a prayer for your family."

"A prayer, Baba?" Like the 'Our Father'?" I asked, while playing with the hay we were going to spread under the table for dinner.

"A little bit. But these prayers are older than that. They are like the prayers of a pine tree when a bird makes a nest in her branches, or the prayers of a river when she is full of fish. These are prayers of the spirit, blessings that the mistress of the house prepares for her entire family. You must make each dish with intention. It is a special job, to be taken seriously--" Baba stooped down to tickle me "--but also with much joy. That's why it's good to cook in a house filled with laughter. Some of that joy will get passed into the food and will help the meal be happy."

- The Silence of Trees, Valya Dudycz Lupescu

field notes, xii-xxiii-xi

2011-12-23T10:57:00.003-06:00

We've been walking with a front-pull harness together with a loose martingale collar. The martingale helps keep the front strap off her shoulder. She's doing all right with the combination. She doesn't go over the top with each and every car encounter, and we're steering clear of the neighborhood's problem areas. (The four-way stop with a grumpy pit bull on one corner and a platoon of angry yappy dogs on the other always stresses her out.)

garden camping xix

2011-12-23T10:49:00.003-06:00

christmas camping

xii-xxiii-xi

2011-12-23T10:45:00.001-06:00

snippets xi-xviii

2011-12-22T07:33:00.002-06:00

Dog cam!

But how do the researchers keep the dogs from eating the glasses?

fergus and april

2011-12-19T18:20:00.001-06:00

foot bull

2011-12-17T17:18:00.000-06:00

garden camping xviii continued, still

2011-12-17T15:10:00.005-06:00

I've yet to take the tent down this month. I've also lost track of how many nights I've spent in it - I've been sneaking in a few work nights here and there, as well as weekends. It's been cool and damp most of this month. Nice change.

twice blessed

2011-12-16T18:27:00.002-06:00

xii-xvi-xi

2011-12-16T17:18:00.001-06:00

politely

2011-12-15T20:23:00.002-06:00

xii-xii-xi

2011-12-12T19:52:00.000-06:00

that's a lot of gum

2011-12-12T11:36:00.003-06:00

My periodontist told me today she'd like to schedule me for a gum graft for a couple of problem areas. I thought that sounded unpleasant, but was willing to go along with her game plan until the front desk people said it would be $1870. HAHAHAHAHA HA. And HA. (The total without insurance would have been a little over $2400. Our crappy DMO will give us a 25 percent discount, but that's it.)

I'm going to go with Plan B, which is to pretend the periodontist was just kidding.

xii-xi-xi

2011-12-11T17:05:00.000-06:00

hippo in a basket

2011-12-09T19:12:00.001-06:00

snippets xi-xvii

2011-12-09T07:47:00.002-06:00

Hi! Did you get my Evite? Did you see my event posting on Facebook for my reading at the cafe? I cross-linked it to Google+ and sent out an email blast to our friend circle, but it might have gone straight to spam, so check your BlackBerry. No? I'll re-send it. What's your email address? No, the other one. Can you text it to me? Thanks.

- Mark Morford, "Please text me your naked email URL," SFGate.com

whatcha reading xxv

2011-12-08T19:33:00.004-06:00

Matt regarded his employer with grieved disapproval.

"If you don't mind my expressin' my feelin's, Mr. Scott, I'll make free to say you're seventeen kinds of damn fool an' all of 'em different, an' then some."

- White Fang, Jack London

Sister Wendy once said of Guernica that it was more poster than great work of art. That's kind of how I feel about this book.

nothing...

2011-12-08T19:15:00.000-06:00

skinny legs and all

2011-12-07T17:48:00.002-06:00

Ondine was keeping all her weight off her leg on Monday so we took her in for a check-up. The doc didn't find anything from a physical exam and didn't think x-rays were necessary, but he told us to limit her activities for the next seven days. He said, "You're off the hook with the walks for a week."

I do not think he expected my look of dismay. Walking her is the highlight of my day. I may write too much about her car issues and not enough about her good qualities. She's a really good friend. She has helped me in ways I would never have imagined when we adopted her last January.

(Do you like her new Martha Stewart sweater? She looks like she's ready to bake a pie.)

garden camping xviii continued

2011-12-07T17:19:00.005-06:00

The tent was still all wet through Monday so I left it up. Since on Tuesday I had a conference close to home and didn't have to get up early, I camped out on Monday (night 30). It was 32 degrees when I got up. Skipped last night - the forecast was 23-27, and I had to get up early anyway. (Frost on the windshield this morning - our first.) At this point I figure I'll just leave it up and get out there when I can. The cold isn't a problem - my 55-degree travel sack works as a liner inside a heavy old Walmart bag. The limiting factor is having to get up at 4:00 a.m. and go to work. (As I'm sitting here typing this I wonder why that makes a difference. Mountaineers always get up early. Hmmm.)

found my epitaph

2011-12-05T18:21:00.001-06:00

"Well, he didn't make it worse."

(Thanks Grace!)

garden camping xviii

2011-12-04T12:50:00.004-06:00

A soggy weekend! (Nights 28-29.)

xii-iii-xi

2011-12-03T09:43:00.000-06:00

christmas tanner

2011-12-02T18:30:00.002-06:00

He's so gonna flick those balls.

snippets xi-xvi

2011-12-02T06:00:00.003-06:00

In the civilian dog world, a growing number of animal behaviorists seem to be endorsing the concept of canine PTSD, saying it also affects household pets who experience car accidents and even less traumatic events.

Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, director of the animal behavior clinic at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tuft University, said he had written about and treated dogs with PTSD-like symptoms for years — but did not call it PTSD until recently. Asked if the disorder could be cured, Dr. Dodman said probably not.

“It is more management,” he said. “Dogs never forget.”

- Anahad O'Connor, "Dogs and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," New York Times

YUP.

Speaking of which, Ondine has been doing better with passing cars - still not great, but well enough that I've felt OK about switching her out of the prong collar and back into a SENSE-ible dog harness. (We use it in conjunction with a loose martingale, which helps keep the front straps from dragging across her shoulders. The harness doesn't fit too well, though. We'll probably have to go to the next size up.) With the harness she tends to grab the leash when she gets agitated. It's manageable, but she is fast and flexible and can twist herself in unimaginable ways to get at it. It's like she's part owl. I can't have her gnawing it, of course, but it's a useful behavior since she's turning her attention away from the cars, which creates an opening to play. She's pretty good about letting it go if I engage her in something else right away. Praise, treats and good rub-downs all work well. (Also, my leash-handling skills are co-evolving with her. At this point I could probably rope a goat blindfolded.)

Maybe I'm over-anthropomorphizing, but my impression grows stronger day by day that she's trying really hard to work through this stuff. Lots of give-and-take.

canopomorphizing

2011-11-27T10:43:00.005-06:00

tanya xi-xxvi-xi

2011-11-26T13:34:00.002-06:00

garden camping xvii

2011-11-25T11:49:00.004-06:00

Nights 23-27. (Several hours of rain overnight Friday into Saturday morning, with only one small leak where I left a vent in the fly open.)

november tomatoes

2011-11-25T11:12:00.000-06:00

fawkes and aries

2011-11-25T11:11:00.002-06:00

happy thanksgiving xi

2011-11-24T19:17:00.003-06:00

Cucumbers! Broccoli! Carrots!

checkucopia

2011-11-23T21:16:00.001-06:00

xi-xxiii-xi

2011-11-23T16:27:00.000-06:00

doglegillusions

2011-11-23T16:05:00.006-06:00

whatcha reading xxiv

2011-11-22T07:17:00.002-06:00

I took Inyo running in the desert, the two of us like a couple of white dwarf stars drawing too much mass from each other and about to explode from the pressure. Gazing upward into that unpeopled sky-country, Inyo orbiting me in the dark, I saw us as specks in all that celestial acreage where she and I could never run. Along the rutted dirt track we picked up the pace...faster now, we sprinted uphill until my lungs ached and I fell on my knees. Pressing my palms into the dirt, I realized how close I'd come to having our lives figured out. But close wasn't good enough...

- Part Wild, Ceiridwen Terrill

Great book. Heartbreaking, honest, enlightening, real. Here's another favorite quote: "I don't know if there's a heaven for people, but there's definitely a heaven for dogs...No, dogs aren't perfect. They're a miracle."

field notes, xi-xx-xi

2011-11-20T17:33:00.006-06:00

Three south-bound mallards passed over the tiny pond late in the day. The two lead ducks dove but were going too fast, so they pulled up to circle around and try again. The third duck, though, lifted his wings above his head and tucked his tail beneath him, plummeting down to the pond with a mighty butt-first splash. Then he quacked, "Haw, haw haw haw haw."

xi-xx-xi

2011-11-20T17:06:00.004-06:00

garden camping xvi

2011-11-20T09:51:00.009-06:00

Nights 21 and 22.

We got an unexpected refund from our insurance company, and REI had the Kelty Coyote 80 on sale. Woot! My "get out of Dodge" plan is taking shape. Bren and I spent all day yesterday working on our 72-hour kits (items in red are not in the pack yet). This is not an ultralight set-up: it weighs in at 42 pounds, and it's packed pretty tight. I need to shed six pounds of equipment to keep it at 20 percent of my weight. The backpack is nice...I was intimidated by all the straps and zippers at first but after loading everything in it, it all seems well thought out.

snippets xi-xiv

2011-11-14T07:20:00.004-06:00

I was aware that I brought to Iran an American vision of dog ownership—the dog as loyal friend, the dog as seamless part of community, the dog as adder of happiness to a life—and that I would need to radically re-imagine what having a dog would be like.

- Azadeh Moaveni, "Dog Days in Tehran"

lol - Beware the "adder of happiness."