Power nap

Summer Vacation

 

 

The rabbit family that was living in our new yard seems to have gone undercover for the last couple of weeks. I hope they didn't turn into a buffet dinner for some passing hawk or fox but I wouldn't be surprised. They have to eat too I suppose. Part of the big Hackberry tree in the meadow fell down last week which was a terrible shame. On the upside, I got four more windows unstuck. Stella is no help at all. She can't even make coffee. It's bunny patrol or nothing as far as she's concerned.

Chigger Patrol

Also known as "bunny patrol" for Stella. This is a little corner of our new meadow in which I am dutifully working on a non-toxic solution for chiggers and mosquitoes. Seriously, if I'm to keep on blogging I'm afraid it'll be all gardening all the time. Regular readers say post it here but I'm not sure how a blog about carnival dogs and/or my own canine relates. Anyway, according to Google University, the organic answer (for the bugs) lies in two other critters: beneficial nematodes (250 million of them to be exact) and bats. Who knew right? Some of you may think (as I did) that Purple Martins might play a role in mosquito consumption but apparently that is a myth created by people who sell Purple Martin bird houses.

So bats it is. This leads me to wonder if my new next door neighbors wouldn't be frightfully concerned were I to show up one weekend and erect a twenty foot tall bat house in the yard. I suppose it would address their mosquito problem as well (bats eat a thousand mosquitoes an hour) but I'm just not positive they'll think of it in the same environmentally sound terms I do so for now, the plan is still in the early stages. They have big dogs too and Stella already sees it as her job to tease the three of them relentlessly through the fence whenever possible. Imagine.

New territory

Gosh, how long has it been? It seems like an entire summer's passed by us since we posted about I heart Guts! Thanks for the funny comments on that btw. Things have been happening here that prevented all recent posting. Big things. I no sooner promised you all a new adventure than the adventure turned on its heels and tried to hijack me into a whole new blog. I'm trying so hard to resist it too because as you all are aware - I have a few too many in the wings already. The original story was this: Stella and Gigi (the tail-free cat) and I went house sitting this summer. In the middle of May we moved into a house in east Nashville that was built in the late 1800's. It is a grand place and we love having all of this extra room not to mention the amenities of a top-notch bed and breakfast. I'm doing the cooking and cleaning of course but it far exceeds our former crib. When we moved here I put all of my things in storage and the plan was that I would look for a house to buy over the summer and move out when my friends return at the end of October. Thanks to my dear mom, who decided I should inherit something of hers without her having to die for it (brilliant) I'd been looking online at houses for almost a year. At the beginning of June she gave me the go ahead to look seriously and not realizing what was about to happen I called a super smart real estate guy named Roger and gave him a short list of things I wanted. It went something like this: screened-in porch, fence, lots of light and maybe a little garden I could reinvent or tend to. No knotty pine. Then I said a little prayer that made reference both to an "oasis" and the "Garden of Eden."

And you know what happened after that, right?

I bought a garden. It came with a house. 

It's a cool house but the garden is mind boggling. In fact, if I had a couple of hens and a little goat I might never have to leave there again. In the photo just above -  those are raspberries. There's an herb garden, fruit trees, a family of state-fair-sized bunnies and a Wisteria draped carport that may actually have me for dinner some dusky evening. What a way to go though. I'd die a happy woman, especially if that broad was in full bloom. 

We haven't actually moved in yet but Stella seems to love it over there. I promise we'll return shortly with some more relevant d.o.g. type stuff. Hope you all have some wild excitement in your life as well.

Newsflash

So, there's a little fox in my neighborhood.
I suspect he's the one looting my tomato plants.
Both dogs spotted him this morning on our walk
at about the same time he spotted us.
It's a wonder there's any skin left on my elbows at all.

Ride Inspector

Nobody awake on this particular midway this morning so we didn't find any (other) carny dogs to photograph. Stella's nose was getting some work out though. Hot dogs, I'm guessing.

Yesterday she walked up to a planter at LP Field, where the Titans play. Obviously there was something in it she was totally interested in. When I looked down into it sure enough, there was a whole bag of popcorn from Monday nights game. I offered her a piece but after all of that sniffing and snorting, she didn't take it.

Tomato Sandwich

Ordinarily I might have tossed out this goof ball picture but I was reminded in that instant when the shutter clicked, of how well-adjusted a dog can be, given the right amount of exercise, which these days is not so much what with the 110 degree heat index, or whatever it is. I don't check it anymore. I'm not complaining (since some of you are bearing up under considerably more) but I will be giddy happy when things begin to cool off. Typically, that's the first week after Labor Day. Typically.

This public art piece also serves as a bicycle rack. It's made of metal and although you can't tell it in the photo - there's a three-year-old kid beating on the other side of it (on Stella's left) with his fists. It sounded like an adult beating on an aluminum trash can. He and his mother came out of nowhere and I still can't believe Stella didn't jump out of her skin when he started. Mom could plainly see that I wasn't holding onto Stella's leash at ALL, but she seemed to think the whole thing was really entertaining. He did three or four different rounds of it, Stella blinked and flinched a few times but never moved. Finally when mom didn't make him stop. I picked up her leash and we moved on. That was the same day we met Ernest (on litter patrol in the park) so it was all good.

Ginger Snaps

This is Ginger on the left. Ginger is a lovely Boxer who lives down the block from us with her spirited and much younger boyfriend, Banjo. Like a lot of younger boyfriends, he keeps Ginger young and working hard to stay on her game. Very positive. Now if you happen to be a female dog and you come around batting your big old innocent puppy dog eyes at Banjo, it's a safe bet that sooner or later, Ginger is gonna' pop open a can of Whip Ass.

Enter Stella.

It was six-thirty Sunday morning and beneath the clear summer weather and the early birdsong, I knew better. Most everyone in the neighborhood was still asleep or tending to their hangovers. Stella and I took our time walking down to their house and she was really happy when we turned into the driveway instead of cruising on like we normally do. The lot of us had walked together a few times. I let the dogs out and fed them. Ginger was fine for a few minutes and then Banjo joyfully wedged himself between the two females. Everything after that went in deafening slow motion. Ginger launched herself like a rocket at Stella and Stella tried to run. There was tumbling and a lot of smack talk but very little mouth to body contact. Thank God. Banjo went along for the ride. The second I pulled Ginger off of Stella, it was over and the three of us sat there in the driveway, grass-stained and bleeding (very minor, Ginger scuffed her face on the concrete).

I imagined sleepy people in the houses all around us, getting up and plodding off to their respective bathrooms muttering curse words about a dog fight that might have been a dream.

Enter

Well, it took about fourteen seconds for Stella to remember her old garbage picking ways. Suddenly all that time she spends with her nose on the ground made sense. I've always suspected she was related to some kind of hound dog but now I think it's the midway she remembers. She happily, revisited her childhood for about four hours this afternoon; rain and all. She met carnies galore, splashed through mud puddles, ate disgusting smashed food off the ground and added yet another fancy eighteen-wheeler, perhaps the most distinguished one of all, to her collection.

Two farmers, three Mexican men and a Jamaican guy, all charming, offered to take her off my hands.
If they only knew.
(more on this little adventure later..)

Smooth ride

Apparently the girl can smell a fancy big rig from a mile away. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that said big rig is toting around a team of Clydesdales. Somehow we missed the Jack Daniels Invitational Bull Riding Competition this weekend. Too bad. I don't mean to berate Music City or anything but real cowboys in Nashville are pretty rare. We do have an abundance of hat racks though and some of them are pretty good singers but I digress. It bears mentioning that the guy who came in first place was riding a bull named: Booger Butt.. but you all probably knew that right?

Now that we're back to actually walking, the temperature has been a big factor in determining when we go. It's been topping out around ninety degrees here so I try to get us out of the house by seven a.m.
It seems cruel at first but once out the door, I somehow manage to enjoy it and unless I'm mistaken, Stella does too. A flock of Canadian Geese flew in above us this morning. I barely managed to snap a picture of them and suddenly they landed right in front of us. Stella (forgive me) lit up like a Ferris Wheel but thankfully kept her cool and didn't scare them off.
Speaking of Ferris Wheels, we're carnival bound a little later this week. Hopefully the weather will stay tolerable enough that she can get a little sawdust on her feet. We'll let you know how that goes. If I haven't said it lately, thanks for stopping by.

Check out this big rig before you go.

The Taming of the Shh..Roo

Centennial Park Bandshell, Randy Lancaster warms up the crowd.

We made it through intermission. Opening night. Shakespeare in the Park. I may not be able to move my arms tomorrow (for Stella's unrelenting attempts to make new friends) but at least we didn't get thrown out. In fact everyone was very understanding, her being "just a sweet little puppy and all" I'm told she was listed in attendance as Dog #1 for the season. Sweet.
She was really only interested in Dog #2 which came on a bun just before intermission. It was the thing that finally focused her attention on me - that anchor at the end of her leash. Poor thing. There were 562 people and ten dogs there and the wicked witch wouldn't let her play.

Once the performance started, she actually watched for a few minutes. I just knew she would start barking when the actors began running down the aisles screaming but thank God, that didn't happen. Prior to that it was a lot like wrestling a nine year old. She'd be fine for five minutes and someone with a dog the size of a Greyhound Bus would go jogging behind where we were sitting. Or a big picnic basket would sit close by and and she'd army crawl to the end of the leash while they cooed at her. She got a full rubdown by a number of different kind and tolerant dog people including prized Nashville actress/director, Denice Hicks.

We lasted about thirty minutes into the performance before I finally ducked us under the enclosure and went for the hot dog. After that we sat out by the rest rooms which turned out to be a better plan. That way people could come to her (many did) instead of just finding her rifling through their purses or batting those big eyelashes at their gourmet treats. All in all it was a really fun show and we may even try again next week, assuming they let us back in. We'll be the ones at the hot dog stand.


(Note: Follow The Nashville Shakespeare Festival on Twitter @nashvilleshakes Diva dog Stella shows off the freckles in their video (above) at around :56)

The Parthenon at Centennial Park

Mosquito hunting 101

Once back in the driver's seat, she looked at me in the rear-view mirror like maybe I was the one who was out of control.

Mosquitoes and flies make her completely crazy. Like crazy enough to slam her own head into a piece of furniture or the wall. There was one in the car with us two days ago and I thought she would flip us over. Me and her and a Chevy Malibu - murals of dog slobber painted on both back windows.

Officer:"Ms. Adcock, what made you run over the fireplug anyway? How many fingers do you see now?"

Finally I pulled into a parking lot and calmly, climbed in the backseat with her to kill the mosquito. I think my exact words were:

"Now, sit your ass down or I'm gonna' beat it with that flip-flop right there until it swells up like a beach ball."

It's hard to believe sometimes that I was raised in Ohio.

Summer treats for dogs and their people

Stella barked at a little boy on a tricycle a couple of days ago. I should say she barked at the tricycle. The little boy who was all of about three years old said: "Hush you dog" and despite my giggling, she did. We went for a ride to Percy Priest Lake where there appears to be a good place to swim a dog. At least Stella thought so even though we weren't exactly prepared for such activity. Not sure if she was trying to make up for the swimming pool debacle or not but she walked into the lake, just ankle deep (for her) and laid down in it to survey the landscape. It wasn't fifteen seconds before she got up and walked us about eight feet off to the side and had a squat pee right in the water; took two steps and got herself a drink.

"Dogs are gross," I said.

Then she walked back to where she started at the edge of the lake and again laid down in the water, presumably staking some claim on the entire panorama.

In the spirit of summer and lake water in general, here's a recipe for Lemon Shake-Ups that comes straight off the midway.

Lemon Shake-Ups

2 C sugar
1 C water
1 C fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine sugar and water in a pan and boil 5 minutes. Cool the (sugar/water) to room temperature and add lemon juice. Refrigerate any unused portion. Add 2 Tbs. of this mixture to each glass of ice water put a second glass over top and and shake it up

Here's another single-serving take on it.

1/4 C sugar
16 oz cold water
half a lemon (squeezed and dropped into the glass)

Let the sugar have a minute to dissolve, add ice and then turn a glass over the top and shake it up.
Street value: $4.00 (We're thinking of opening a stand).