The weekend rains a-l-m-o-s-t flooded the creek, but not quite. It ran muddy for a day, then cleared up. By Monday it was all ready to sparkle joyously in the sun. I was standing in it to get this photo - bless my wellington boots.
It makes the loveliest noise at this stage. I checked on the silver maple I planted last spring; it has lively-looking terminal buds and seems to be all ready to go for growing season 2024.
Lady living deliciously, please appreciate that fluffy tummy.
I saw the collie avatar of @ffoxer and got overexcited, so I ran outside to take this picture of Saphira. She loves having her picture taken because she gets to Go Somewhere And Get Attention.
Tried to do research first but had trouble finding much relevant info from good sources.
My parents were talking about getting an outdoor cat to help with rodent control in their outbuildings. I talked to them a bit about the harm that free-roaming cats can do, and mentioned I've heard that a working terrier could be a better solution. However, it's not something I know much about. They're interested in that option so I said I'd try to find more info for them.
Does anyone have/know where I can find info on that? I can provide more specifics on their situation if needed.
Most of what I found was barn hunt info, or stuff from pest control providers who take their dogs with them on jobs (most of the latter was just info for their customers on how the dogs work). My parents would want a dog that would live as an outdoor working dog to keep the mouse population down. Looking for info on how to raise & train such a dog, and how to care for it as an adult/what they would need to have pup live safely and comfortably as an outdoor dog.
The inflammatory tags on that blog post about the auction prices on working Kelpies is funny considering it's difficult to find traditional driving stock-dogs in North America.
When I was looking into adopting a Kelpie or a Heeler as a thru-hiking companion, the farmers just straight up told me the driving lines are being phased out in favour of chute-dogs because trucking cattle is easier (and cheaper) than driving livestock over long distances on horseback or with quads. In large part because the lands are fragmented and one requires permissions to cross locked off parcels of land. Especially with absentee landlords sitting in big cities (eg. New York City, Toronto) and notorious for not answering emails or phone calls. And becoming more difficult every year.
Trying to tie farm-dogs into labour politics of farmhands is nonsensical here.
If you really want to critique agricultural animals being commodified by capitalism, could at least brush up a bit on David Nibert or read any of the eco-Marxist, green anarchist and social ecologist critiques of consumerist animal liberation groups being incomplete in their analyses of animal exploitations.
Better yet bring up how the enclosure of the commons and industrialization of livestock created the modern Border Collie, at the detriment of tenant farmers (eg. the crofters) and the British landrace collies (eg. Welsh collie, Old-Time Scotch Collie, Patagonian Sheepdog) and abroad (in the case of the Swedish Vallhunds and other herding breeds after WW2); or the development of gundogs, leisure class and the landed gentry.
Or even touch on settler-colonialism, displacements of Indigenous people (and Indigenous dogs), loss of knowledge in land stewardships, as well as the effects of cattle and sheep on prairie ecosystems. Or even just the landlordism aspect of big agriculture or the petite bourgeois politics of the small landowners.
Sorry, even working dogs are losing their jobs. There are just so much better anti-capitalist critiques of animal exploitation, landownership, industrial agriculture and privatization of farming operations.
The snow started around 9 am, and it has been pelting down ever since, sometimes so fine it looked like falling sand. Here is the face of a girl who is NOT done playing and does NOT want to come back inside:
She did get to stay out as long as she wanted, which wasn't really all that much longer.
Marilla hopped up on the chair, making a beeline for the BEST nap spot behind the Christmas tree. (That is a 1940s-era radio cabinet of my grandfather's that was later repurposed into a cabinet for craft supplies.)
Only to find that Baxter had already nabbed it.
She would like to speak to the manager.
The chickens made an error in judgement and decided to ride out the storm between the shrubs and the foundation of the house. I had to go out just a little bit ago and round them up. They were escorted/carried/shooed back to their coop, protesting LOUDLY, and I gave them corn. Hero has his blanket on, a rare occurrence, and he and Nutmeg will sleep inside the barn tonight.
We lost my boxer about a week before Christmas and now one of the neighbor’s St. Bernards keeps showing up. I guess he heard about the opening in the big dog department and wanted to apply????
Cause he’s mostly just sitting there on the patio. Not getting into the food we leave for the outdoor cats, not chasing the cats, being friendly-ish with our little dogs, making rounds to mark territory… it’s weird.
Worst the big guy has done is try to guilt me into letting him in, feeding him, and/or giving him attention. The neighbor has driven up our driveway like three times to come fetch him now. We only told the neighbor where he was once.
Honestly I’m just mad I can’t pet him because that’ll only encourage him to stay he’s so cute!!!