Pontoon Mama's Blog

Runaway Betty

Remember when Betty "flew the coop" and was found in the neighbors backyard? That led to her getting her wings clipped so she couldn't go over the fence. We thought we had solved the Houdini Chicken problem and that she wouldn't be able to escape again.

But you have to be smarter than a chicken....

Yesterday was a beautiful day and we were all out front playing. After a few hours we came inside but left the dog tied up out front and the garage door open. The front door was also open letting sunshine and fresh air in the house.

I was inside and walked by the front door....imagine my surprise when I heard clucking in the front yard. Betty had walked from the backyard, thru the garage and out the open garage door and was HAPPILY scratching for bugs by herself in the front yard!

That chicken is fearless!

Dog Sitters Inc

If you have not already figured it out, we (ok - me and the kids) are suckers for animals and especially dogs. So last week when our neighbor asked if we would be willing to keep an eye on Toby, his yellow lab, this week while he is on a trip, we jumped at the chance. But Toby is not your normal exhuberent lab, he is a "used" dog - which means he was "rescued" by our neighbor and had clearly been abused in his previous life. So Toby is what we call "Timid Toby" - he is afraid of EVERYTHING - the hair dryer, a door opening, you getting up from a chair, a napkin dropping from your lap, etc. So I could not picture this poor dog at a kennel - he would be terrified. So since the only thing he is not afraid of is his BEST friend - Daisy Mae - we happily agreed to help!

So Monday was his first day under our care. I had to go to work that day, so I decided to leave both dogs together in our backyard. My thought process was that it would be raining and they could be in our garage together out of the rain. If I left Toby in his yard, he does not have access to the garage and I worried he would be out in the rain....what was I thinking? He is a labrador and rain does not matter and apparently neither does mud. When Jim arrived home on Monday nite, instead of being greeting at the back door by two yellow labs, he was greeted by what looked like 2 chocolate labs. YES! You guessed it - they spent the whole day wrestling in the rain and in the mud bog created by the rain in our backyard! There is literally mud splatters all over my office window and the sliding glass door. They were COVERED in mud - brought a new look to the saying "happy as a pig in mud!".

We couldn't let either of them in like that nor could we put Toby back in his house to sleep for the nite. So Jim and I donned our "foul weather gear" and began the process of washing 2 very dirty dogs in the front yard. It was easy cleaning for Daisy Mae - she just stands that and gets a bath. Toby was another story --- he wanted NOTHING to do with this. Remember how he is afraid of everything? Well...add to the list: the hose, a bucket, a bottle of shampoo and a towel! It took me 40 minutes to get him cornered and on a leash so I could drag him to the front yard to be bathed. Once we got him there, he did ok. We scrubbed him up, dried him really good and sent him home to bed. I am pretty sure he passed out after spending the whole day wrestling!

We figure he will lose 10 pounds while his owner is gone....between the excercise and the constant fretting he is doing.

At the top

This is Daisy and me at the top of the of the mountain. This is a fire lookout in the summer. We figure there was about 6 feet of snow. There were 3 other dogs up there that Daisy played with. What a dog day!

Snowshoeing Reports

We LOVED snowshoeing!!! We went 5 miles thru powder. Because it was powder, one of us had to plow the trail which was WAY more work then walking thru an existing trail. Drew took his turn plowing but Gracie did not....5 miles is a long way to go for a 6 year old. Daisy did great. Her booties came off a couple times but we found them right away. As you can see she carried her own pack which was filled with water and dog snacks.

It was 2 1/2 miles up hill and then all the way back was down hill. The weather was varied with some sun, snow, hail and fog. After we returned to the car, there was a major snow storm. We made it back in the nick of time, although we were prepared for bad weather if we got caught in it. Two other parties came up the mountain behind us so it was nice to go back down the trail they had walked over. It was nice and packed.

Comp Soccer and Piano

Last night Drew found out he made the team for competetive soccer. For those of you who don't know - this is different from "run of the mill I play soccer for fun" leagues. This is suppose to be better players and coaches and they compete against teams that are in other cities. This requires, of course, more money and time! The coach has been looking at Drew and calling him since last season. We pretty much knew he would have a spot if he wanted one. The coach wants him for his goalie skills....helps to have a 6 foot wing span at age 10! So Jim and I chatted with the team manager after Drew was told he was on the team....that is right....a team manager for 10 year olds. Jim and I are skeptical but agreed to commit for the spring season which is 8 or 10 games and not a lot of travel. It will be interesting to see Drew play with and against kids that are as good as he is. Although it might be hurtful to his ego. When it comes right down to it, we are more like a "we play for fun family" then we are a "we live and breath family". We will keep you posted and will post pics of his first big save!

In the meantime, I will continue my search for piano lessons for Gracie....she has decided out of the blue that she wants to learn the piano.

Getting ready for our next big adventure...

This weekend we are going on an adventure... we purchased snow shoes for the whole family and are going for a 4 mile snowshoe in Yosemite. We know that all the human members of our family can handle this trek but were worried about the dog. She has the endurance and fitness level to be able to make the 4 miles but we were concerned about her feet getting to cold or frostbitten from hours in the snow....so after much research, we decided she needed booties. This is a pic of us trying on her new booties! She is such a trooper and didn't fuss at all about us strapping them on her feet. But when she first started walking in them, it was hysterical -- it was like she was walking in sticky stuff and was pulling her feet up to her ears! She wore them for a couple hours around the house and sounded like a horse clopping around. I am sure we will have lots of good stories to blog next week!

Which one is real?

If you think you don't need chickens, check out this pic. This is Rowdy looking at a fake chicken on the porch. The fake chicken is looking right back at Rowdy! This left us all in fits of laughter! This is why you need chickens....they make everyone laugh!

RIP

I am sorry to say that Lucky Hairy Feathers has gone to the great bird nest in the sky. May he rest in peace.

Lucky Hairy Feathers

This past weekend was spent catching up on things around the house: paying bills, getting groceries, getting Drew new shoes, cleaning the kids closets and drawers, cleaning the chicken coop, preparing for taxes, etc. I was finally done with the "to do" list yesterday at about 4 pm....at which time the kids ran into the house screaming "animal rescue, animal rescue, mommy we need you"!

They had found a baby dove in the middle of the street. It can barely fly - gets about an inch off the ground for a few inches and can't stand up. Being the big sucker I am, we picked it up and are fostering it. I had Jim out in the street searching the nearby trees for a nest - with no luck. So I rushed out and got baby food and an eyedropper and started feeding "Lucky Hairy Feathers", named after "Lucky Hairy Legs" the tarantula that we saved walking across the road a few years ago.

We have fostered birds before but not a dove and it acts different than others I have taken care of. Luckily, a friend at work has talked to her friends that have doves and has given me some good direction. I am going home tonite to make a dove slurpy - chicken food, seeds and grains! I may even throw in some worms from my worm farm --- see those worms come in handy when you least expect it!

sports scholarship?

I know you think this is going to be a post about Drew....but it is not! We had the funniest thing happen at Drew's hockey game on Saturday.

Drew was waiting with his team to go out on the ice and Gracie was running around being her "squirrelly" self. She was leaping off the benches doing fancy "hot dog" moves, running for speed and generally hopping around. At one point she stopped to chat with Drew. After they chatted a coach we don't know went up and asked Drew if that was his sister he was talking to. When Drew confirmed that it was, he asked, where is your mom or dad. Drew pointed Jim out and the coach came and talked to him.

Apparently, he was going on and on about Gracie and her speed, strength and energy level and asked if she could skate! He was thrilled when he heard she could skate and was already playing soccer and doing gymnastics. She was flat out being recruited at age six to play ice hockey!!!!

The coach explained to Jim that any of the colleges that give hockey scholarships to boys have to give the same number to girls and since there are a lot less good girls hockey players, there are lots of scholarships to go around. He said he has 2 of his players in high school going to Yale on full scholarships and 1 going to Minnesota.

We talked to Gracie about it and she wants to start playing next year.... She should be pretty good judging from the checking she does against her brother in the family room!

Quasimodo

For those of you who have not heard about Jim's snowboarding accindent, scroll down for the details because it is important to this post.

The net of his accident is he was left with a big bump on his shoulder, which then, of course, led to his new nickname "Quasimodo". Imagine our giggling when we realized we were going to see the Notre Dame Cathedral --- Quasimodo's home! So this is a pic of Jim doing his best Quasimodo pose in front of Notre Dame.

Yep -- bunch of dorky tourists!

London and Paris

If you had not heard, Jim and I went to London and Paris last week without the kids! We were gone from Saturday to Saturday. We spent most of the week in London seeing all the sites: St Paul's Catherdral, the Golden Hinde (Sir Francis Drake's ship), the London Eye and many, many pubs. Our favorite pub was a non-smoking pub called the Black Friars. That was where we stopped after a long day of walking around the city and had a pint of "speckled hen"! Of course, we promptly nicknamed is "Betty Beer" because Betty is our speckled hen!

Probably the highlight of the London part of the trip was seeing the play The Mousetrap. It is an Agatha Christie play that has been playing for 54 years. It was great and we would highly recommend it if you go to London.

We also wandered upon an all vegetarian restarant - imagine my delight! I dragged Jim in and we had a yummy dinner. He had a beef stew type of dinner that he said his meat loving friends would never know was fake meat. I was less adventuresome and had a chicken potpie. The best part about that dinner was an appetizer that was grilled hallamiou cheese, which is a greek goats milk cheese that they actually grill without it melting into a puddle.

On the last day of our trip, we took the train thru the chunnel to Paris. It is a 2 and 1/2 hour trip each way. The train left at 7:10 am and we returned to London at 9 pm. It was a whirlwind trip in Paris but well worth it - we saw Notre Dame, the Louve and the Eiffel Tower. Or favorite part was sitting in a french bakery and having tea and pastries!

It was a great trip but it is good to be home. We missed everyone - the kids, the dog, the chickens, the whole family and all our friends. Being away sure makes us realize how lucky we are!

* This is a pic of us at the Louve - which was outstanding! We saw the Mona Lisa. Super Cool.

Worm Farm Pic

As promised here is a picture of my worm farm. I took a picture of the outside because I love that it is called a "magic worm farm"! Like there would be any other type of worm farm...maybe "only a dork would have a worm farm worm farm" or "you really are just trailer trash worm farm". Plus if I take a pic inside it just looks like dirt. Also I like the fact that Jim thinks it is a table for all his tools. What must the worms think? The bonus about this worm farm is that if I were a Kentucky Hillbilly, I would also use it to hold my beers because it is just the size of a six pack cooler. (That's a shout out to cousin Jess, my favorite Kentucky relative, the founder of the worm farm :-), and mom to 3 chickens herself!)

Long live the worms....or at least until they get eaten by Betty, Rowdy and Maverick!

New hobby

I have a new endeavor that I have been anxious to tell everyone about ...I have a worm farm! Yes! You read that right -- a worm farm!!! I know you are thinking, "what the h*ll does a business ethics director suburbanite hockey mom need with a worm farm." I actually think that myself but it seems to make perfect sense because I can grow my own worms to give as treats to my chickens. It saves me the time of having to dig up worms in the front yard....which always causes a stir because every one of the neighborhood kids wants to know what I am doing. Which then leads to having to bring the chickens into the front yard so they can see them.

The best part of the story is that I sourced my worms from a real "man's man" fishing supply store and when Jim brought me in there and the guy asked what I wanted to catch with the worms (he wanted to make sure I got the right kind), he didn't know what to say when I told him, "I want to catch chickens". Jim just shakes his head. And the kids think that all moms have chickens and worm farms.

I particulary liked when I showed the farm to my 3 and 5 year old nephews and they almost gagged! All while Gracie was digging in to find a big juicy one for Betty! Oh! The simple joys!