Hopalong & Der Kaiser

Clyde has been tripodal lately, getting around only 3 legs. April and I have both given his left rear leg the squeeze, twist and stretch work-over and he doesn't seem to be in any pain but he won't put any weight on it. This first started way back around January, but after a few hops Clyde always went back to being 4 legged. Now, he has been hopping for almost 4 days straight so I took him in for his first vet appointment today. The vet also has a blue heeler and seemed to take a shine to Clyde. The dog doctor put his leg through the same exam that April had, squeezing, twisting and stretching it but could not figure out what was going on either. We have heard patellar luxation (dislocated kneecap) is pretty common in Australian Cattle Dogs and were hoping that it would be that instead of a ACL tear or a hip problem. Lil Clyde will have to go back in this Friday to be knocked out for some X-rays and a thorough workup. He also got his rabies vaccination and weighed in at a hefty 50 lbs, Otto towers over him but only weighs 75lbs after a turkey dinner. We are a little concerned that Hopalong is having issues with his leg at only 6 months old, we want to see if we can get whatever is ailing him taken care of before it gets any worse. The title of today's post I stole from April, when she pulls in the driveway the dogs scramble to see who can greet her first. Usually Clyde wins, but today I think he may have lost by a nose to the old Kaiser.

hopalong tries to take the purple hippo from der Kaiser

On a happier note, we're getting some rain tonight which will do our trees and crops good. I built a 3rd raised bed last week and added on a potato box yesterday, so all told we have about 400 sq feet planted.

latest raised bed

We planted an entire bed of the three sisters (corn, beans & peas) last Friday to supplement our herbs, greens, tomatoes and peppers. The idea is to see if we can subsist primarily off what we are growing this summer and reduce our grocery bill down as much a possible. That will be a lot easier now that we have some staple carbohydrates in the ground and growing. I researched a bunch of different methods to grow the taters before I settled on extending the 3rd raised bed another 5 feet to give us a 25 sq foot potato box. Some of the more interesting ideas were growing the spuds in stacked tires filled with dirt or straw or building a "potato tower." After checking out some gardening forums and looking over the comments and pics, I was almost ready to do things the old fashioned way and just stick the seed potatos in a trench in the ground. But as our garden has risen, I have grown to see the benefits creating my own "super soil" with a mix of compost, peat moss and Black Kow topsoil. In this case, I added some of the Espoma organic fertilizer for acid loving plants I had leftover from our blueberry bushes since potatoes also thrive in an acidic soil. I should mention that the blueberry bushes are about the only things we have planted that hasn't really taken off, out of the 5 bushes we planted in half whiskey barrels only 2 are thriving. I think it has to do with the drainage in the whiskey barrels, blueberry bushes can't stand a damp soil and even with the extra holes I drilled in the barrels they stay way too damp.


bad bush

I think I have won the war against the eastern tent caterpillars. The defoliated trees are leafy and green again and I can't find a single tent in any of them. Love seeing little cherry, peach and apple buds forming where flowers used to be and hope some of those little guys will survive to meet our taste buds this summer.

baby cherries

Who knows what other nefarious insect army will try to steal their deliciousness from us? I really appreciate the rain more than I have ever before, each drop promises to nourish the plants and save me the the trouble of watering. Rain used to be an inconvenience, something to bring an umbrella for or wear a jacket against, now it is precious, life-giving. Although blue skies are beautiful in their own way...

if god isn't a tarheel, why is the sky carolina blue?