More Bowser Memories

As a puppy, Bowser loved toes!

He also loved his bean bag chair.

For a short while, he loved his indestructible Kong toy. Then he destroyed it.

Hiking was fun, except for this bridge.

He always reminded me when it was feeding time.

He looked like a scary Rottweiler to some...

but really, he was just a goofball and a sweetheart!

Bye-Bye, Bow Bow

Today I said good-bye to my beloved canine companion of over ten years, Bowser. He was a sweetheart of a Rottweiler. He loved everybody but at the same time, he was a one-person dog. He was my dog. Or rather, I was his person.

One time, we tried to have my parents dog-sit him at their house while we were on vacation and even though he got walks every day and lots of love and attention, he still acted depressed and refused to eat, until they added peanut butter to his food. Then he couldn't resist. Of course, when we picked him up and brought him home, he was fine and ate like normal because "his person" was back and all was right in the world again.

I have a tendency to like stubborn and difficult critters and Bowser was no exception. He was a very smart dog who was also very stubborn. I took him to an agility class one winter and he refused to jump. Not even over the little jumps! He was very capable but he just didn't want to so...he didn't. The instructors were amused with him but they couldn't get him to jump either. Only one instructor got him to jump a couple of jumps. Once. The rest of the time, Bowser just barreled through, knocking down each and every pole.

We got him as a puppy a few months after we got married. I really wanted a Rottie and we found a litter of puppies that we went to check out. There were nine little puppies, only two that actually looked like Rotties. The other was a girl and was already spoken for so we were left with no choice but the runt of the litter since I had to have a Rottie-looking puppy. I should have seen the warning signs but I was blinded by the cuteness. There was a toy that all the puppies were fighting over and our little runt outsmarted all the other puppies and snuck away with that toy where he could chew on it in peace. A sign that he would be smart and stubborn. And I loved him for it. 

Good-bye, my sweet Bowser. You were a good dog. We will miss you.

Poison Ivy Killer

Since I have children and pets, I am reluctant to use weed killers and poisons to get rid of pesky plants. This is a problem since we have lots of poison ivy to get rid of and I really hate poison ivy! Something to do with getting severe cases of it each year, even though I try to be careful. I am hoping this is my year to escape the evil clutches of poison ivy.

Fortunately, I have discovered a homemade solution to my problem that I thought I would share with you, though (hopefully) you don't have poison ivy like we do. But if you have some other kinds of weeds, this should work for those too!

I whipped up my first batch today since I have found some new poison ivy plants popping up and they MUST DIE!!! I sprayed this solution on them this morning, and already some of them are starting to look a bit withered. Yay!

Weed Killer Recipe:

3 cups of vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1 TBS Dawn liquid dish soap

Place the vinegar and salt into a spray bottle and mix together. Then put the Dawn in and stir gently. Spray the leaves of the undesired plants thoroughly. Make sure you spray the plants during a dry period or the rain will wash off the spray (if it rains, just spray again). Wait a week and if the plants are still alive, give them another squirt. This works best on new, young plants. If you have well-established plants, they may come back again. Just spray them again until they give up and die.

Rain Day

We are still trying to get used to our "new normal" here on the farm. We are learning that "normal" means anything can happen and we never know what the day will bring. Today, we planned on going to a parade for our town and then attending the festival in the evening. We didn't plan on storing a parade float in our shop but we did. It is nice that we can use what we have to help others sometimes.

We woke up to rain. We still went to the parade, which we walked to in the rain. The rain cleared up just as the parade started so we had fun anyway. Afterwards, we discovered that there was food being served in honor of the fire department's 50th anniversary so we had lunch in a fire station. On our walk home, we had to wait for a tractor before we could cross the road. Then we almost got run over by a Fed Ex truck in our driveway.

Due to rain, the festival was cancelled, so instead we took the kids out for supper and went out for ice cream for dessert. The sun came out and we fed the critters dinner as a family and while we were outside, some friends stopped by for a visit. And the goats happened to be loose at the time (on purpose). We gave our visitors a rhubarb plant too because ours are going crazy!

We also had an incident during the day in which we discovered several spots of blood on the kitchen floor. Since we had just let the dogs in, I tried to check each dog for a wound. Nothing. Then my husband realized he had stepped on a fat, juicy tick and HE was the one tracking blood all over. Yuck! So glad I gave the dogs flea and tick medicine. Hmm...

Oh, and did I mention that we had to "ruffle a few feathers" today since we have three hens that have gone broody which really cuts into our egg production! This means we need to move them off their nest and hopefully we will eventually be more stubborn than the birds and they will stop sitting on their nests and start being active again and laying eggs. So my mantra for the (hopefully only) next few days will be, "Must out-stubborn the chickens!"

This day was actually pretty tame compared to many but for some reason, it just struck us how different life is here on the farm. And it is a good thing (well, except for the ticks!)

More Shearing Fun

Here are just a few interesting pictures from Shearing Day:

Can you find the little, black cria (baby alpaca) in this picture!?

This is Quizzy, a very friendly alpaca, just before he got sheared.

Quizzy, after shearing!

Tobi is almost able to see again!

Filing the teeth down on an alpaca.

Even the little babies got haircuts! And their fiber was sooo soft!

Smiley cria!

The kids loved petting the baby.

Being careful with the littlest one.

So tiny!

Once home, my alpacas had a great time rolling all over!

Shearing Day Part 2

Shearing Day was a bit crazy. It started out with us taking all four alpacas in the horse trailer for the first time. Once we got there, the real fun began. It went a bit like this, repeated 30-40 some times:

First, you find a fluffy alpaca.

 

Second, you tie down fluffy alpaca.

Third, the hooves are trimmed.

Teeth are cut and trimmed, if needed.

The alpaca is shaved.

Fiber is collected. Notice, two alpacas are being sheared at once!

End product: smaller, naked alpaca! Oh, and lots of bags of fiber.

Be sure to check out our Fe Fi Faux Farm Facebook page for videos and more pictures!

Shearing Day- Just Getting There Is an Adventure!

Since alpacas only get sheared once a year and we got our four alpacas back in November, this was our First Shearing Day. We brought our alpacas to J and J Alpacas, which is the farm we bought them from, in order to get their new haircuts. This was also the first time we transported the alpacas ourselves.

From the start, the alpacas knew this day was going to be different. Why, you might ask? Because I locked them in the stall at feeding time so it would be easier to catch them. I then haltered them and we began the process of loading them in the trailer. All four of them fit perfectly in a two horse trailer. It was great!

I think Tulip has a crush on Huxley so she was pretty sad he was locked up.

The boys knew something was going to happen and they were humming (yes, alpacas hum) their displeasure.

Getting Huxley loaded into the trailer

Blaze wasn't so happy about the trailer. Granite (the kitten) however, was eager to go for a ride.

All my 'pacas in the trailer! Huxley is peeking out the side door.

Once we closed up the doors, the girls wanted to make sure their buddies were safe before starting our drive.