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Post by chrysanthemum on Jan 3, 2024 20:21:39 GMT -6
Thanks for those photos, HeavyHitterOkra. That was a lot of fun to see.
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Post by macmex on Jan 4, 2024 6:35:25 GMT -6
Yes! That was great!
Our daughter, Emily has a beagle pup, I think 5 mos old. Daisy is quite entertaining too! They're really wired for hunting.
We've had beagles for the better part of 30 years, missing perhaps 6 years out of that time. I often think they're the closest thing to a feline, in the canine world.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 4, 2024 8:31:00 GMT -6
George,
That's a very good description. Ranger acts a lot more like a cat than he does a dog sometimes.
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Post by amyinowasso on Jan 4, 2024 10:40:03 GMT -6
I love beagles. We've had beagles or beagle mixes most of our 47 year marriage. I had one when I was a kid. Our first one climbed a chain link fence like a cat. The next puppy tried to walk the "fins" (old truck) to the cab while at highway speed. DH saw her rolling behind us. As far as we could tell she wasn't injured, though she was not the brightest dog we have had. She also climbed fences. The non feline thing about beagles is their devotion to their people. Cats are too independent for that, though mine may be an exception to the rule. The beagle I have now spent his puppy years in a cage and doesn't yet know he could climb, or even jump onto the couch.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 4, 2024 13:37:11 GMT -6
Amyinowasso,,
I remember those fins on the old pickup trucks well. The fins on Fords were slanted at a 45° angle to discourage people from sitting on them, but the old Chevys had a flat rolled rail, so you could bolt a camper or a stock rack down on the back. That also made it a good place to sit, or if you were so inclined, a good place to walk the rails.
I miss those days and those old trucks too. We used to sit on the tailgate of my uncle's old stepside '55 Chevy while hanging onto the tailgate chains and dragging our feet on the gravels behind us as he drove down the dirt roads. It's a wonder any of us kids survived.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jan 5, 2024 4:24:27 GMT -6
Can cnfm. Ranger has soft floppy ears. He’s gotten big!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 10, 2024 19:30:39 GMT -6
All this talk about cold weather on the way put me in a cooking mood today, so I put on a big pot of brown beans, ham hock, and whole corn. Remember that little bean-eating miniature dog that I posted about back in October? Well, I'm here to tell ya, "That little dog still loves her beans!"
I can't serve up a bowl of beans for myself without serving up one for her too. Instead of naming her Porsche, we should have named her Beanpot.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 14, 2024 7:51:55 GMT -6
The days are already 18 minutes longer than they were on December 21st, long enough that a person can tell it in the mornings. It was light enough to see before 7:00 am this morning as I was outside in the 0° weather doing my chores.
I have rain barrels (25-gallon mineral tubs) lined up along the roofline of the barn to catch water for the chickens and the rabbits. This morning, Ranger jumped up there and walked across the tops of everyone of them, sniffing around, wondering why he couldn't find a drink.
I brought him into the the house to tank up on water then took him back to the barn and topped off the dog's water bowl. They're not used to coming inside the barn to drink. They usually drink from the rain barrels that have been full all winter because of our recent heavy rains.
I don't know how those animals can take it? It was so cold this morning that my down-filled winter parka felt like a lightweight windbreaker, but the dogs, the rabbits, and the chickens all seemed to be taking it in stride.
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Post by macmex on Jan 14, 2024 8:02:48 GMT -6
No way could I afford water heaters for my animals, so, the next few days well be quite challenging. I'm only half way through watering this morning and normally, that's a 15 minute job. Today it will be several hours. (Had to come in to warm up my feet. Apparently it's 1 deg F. right now.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 14, 2024 11:47:10 GMT -6
On days like this, I take a boiling teapot full of water with me to pour into the frozen water bowls to help loosen the ice. It sure was nice to not have to do that this morning.
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Post by macmex on Jan 14, 2024 12:59:49 GMT -6
For rabbit waterers, I rotate them, keeping an extra set. I pull the frozen ones and set them in a pot of water, on top of the wood stove. That way I not only thaw them, but when I return to the rabbit shed I bring warm water, which the bunnies really like.
We lost ALL WATER this morning. This is because we have a well and the pressure tank and well pump are in a building in which rats ate a hole, right through the outer wall, leading to the water pipes, which then feed both houses on our property. Normally, it's mild enough here, that simply closing the door and keeping it shut maintains enough heat there, to keep the pipes from freezing. Well.. not today! I put a brooder lamp over the pipes after warming them with a heat gun. Then I sealed every hole, including a window with a broken pane. Just came in for lunch. Temps in there are up into the 40s now. It's awfully nice to be able to wash dishes, flush toilets and water the critters again!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 16, 2024 18:14:57 GMT -6
Dogs are made of something entirely different. Just about every morning, I find Ranger sleeping in the yard somewhere on his little dog bed. Every evening I go pick his bed up and put it back inside his doghouse. Then, if by some chance he actually ends up sleeping in his doghouse, the next morning he still takes his little dog bed back outside to sunbathe as soon as the sun starts shining.Last night it was 5° at 9:00 pm when I went to check on him; he was sleeping on his dog bed in the middle of the open barn, so I took it from him and put his bed back inside his insulated doghouse, hoping he would have enough sense to stay in there all night. This morning at 7:00 a.m. it was -4° when I went back out to check on him. I was happy to see that he spent the night inside his doghouse for once. Then, by 10:00 a.m., he and Sunny, our German Shepherd were out in the yard, lying in the snow, sunbathing together. It had warmed up to 18° by that time.
Even though Sunny doesn't seem to notice that the snow is cold, It didn't take Ranger long to decide to go dig his dog bed back out of the doghouse to go sunbath in front of the barn where it was a little warmer. When I saw that, I went to snap these photos. Ranger likes camping out in the yard way too much. He's definitely a hound.
Ranger on the dog bed that Emily gave him. I've never seen a dog so attached to a thing.Sunny, fast asleep in the snow. Sunny has a dog bed too, but he hardly ever uses it. I usually find him sleeping in the bar ditch at night on a pile of leaves that always get blown in there.
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Post by macmex on Jan 17, 2024 8:39:28 GMT -6
It's interesting, Emily's new beagle adores her bed too. She's growing like a weed. Unlike Ranger, we keep her in a crate at night. Once she's past the mischievous stage we'll start giving her more unsupervised freedom.
Emily lavishes attention on her and is very diligent in training. I'd be more liaise fare about it. Daisy is thriving. It's heart warming to hear her happy grunts and noises when she's sleeping.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jan 17, 2024 11:22:54 GMT -6
What a beautiful pup that little Daisy is!
That brings back a lot of wonderful memories. I hope Daisy grows as fond of that dog bed as Ranger grew fond of his. Ranger had outgrown his bed by the time he was 6 months old, but that didn't stop him from dragging it around everywhere he went. He reminds me Linus in the old Peanuts comic strip, with his little security blanket.
Ranger last June, already getting too big for his bed.
Here he is in July, still trying to make the best of things.
This was Ranger's campsite by the mailbox when November rolled around.
His new campsite in front of the barn when December came. (I think there was more sun here than over by the mailbox).
Ranger's January stakeout, still in front of the barn.
Ranger, staring at his dog bed inside the igloo that I built him, so he could stay warm this winter. He doesn't want to go inside the new doghouse; he's just contemplating on how to get his bed back out of there, so he can take it to the yard again.
He pulls his bed out of the doghouse every morning. I put it back in every evening.
I almost fogot about it last night though. It was -4° at 10:00 p.m. when I finally thought to go look for the dog bed. I found it frozen to the ground, right where he left it lying in the snow yesterday morning. (By that time, I think he was kind of glad that I went out there with a flashlight to move him back inside his insulated doghouse.) He was still inside there at 7:00 a.m. this morning when I went out to feed the animals. That's very unusual for him. I usually find him sleeping in the yard.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Jan 17, 2024 13:38:51 GMT -6
That is adorable, Heavyhitterokra. I loved the photojournalism there, so to speak.
I also really like that insulated shelter you made him. I’ve been toying with creating a structure for a stray/feral kitten we’ve been feeding. I’m not sure that I could coax him into it, though, as he’s quite scared of us, and he has a barn with hay in it, so he may not need it. I’m going to keep the design in mind, though.
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