THREE DOG DAY(S)

It’s been lovely but cool at Gilbert – blue sky with billowy white clouds, a warm sun, and a cool breeze. We could use some rain.

We came back to the farm on Monday (June 9), bringing with us our friend Pepper, Ken’s dog. She is in our care while her master travels.

Pepper has grown into a huge Shorthair. At 71 pounds, she’s one BIG girl! She seems to have a loving nature, but gentle she is not. Just three months older than Bess, the two of them share the fun-loving exuberance of young dogs. Queen Bess and Pepper mix it up pretty good when they want to, but feisty little Bess is not cowed by the big dog. Nellie, perhaps feeling older than all of us, stays out of the fray.

 

Farmer Kyle came in Monday morning and asked Mike to mow the grass at the curved edge of the field near the pond. Not one to let grass grow under his feet, so to speak, Mike completed that assignment before lunch.

Ken said that Pepper sleeps in the laundry room at home, and somehow Mike thought that would transfer readily to the laundry room here. WRONG! Ensconced with the old clunker the first night, Pepper set to whining and barking, and Bess, thinking we had an interloper, came out from her sleeping quarters in the shed to bark in answer. Human intervention was necessary. Mike showed Bess that the “mystery dog” was just Pepper, and to my amazement, that worked. Bess went quietly back to bed. Pepper was then moved to the sun porch where she cried for two hours, but I just inserted my ear buds and let my iPod tell me stories. I was asleep in no time.

Yesterday Mike and I discussed again Pepper’s sleeping quarters. Mike decided to leave her on the back (kitchen) porch with her pillow and blanket. She was much happier with that. She barked two or three times, but Mike “suggested” from our bedroom window that she cease – and she did. For tonight, Mike added the old barrel house in case she – or one of the other dogs – would care to use it. We just aren’t sure she can get in there.

I tell you what, though – it took two days, but those dogs are tired – all three of them. While Bess and Nell have treated our guest (Pepper) with some canine deference, they still hang together like best friends.

“I really prefer you, Nellie,” says Bess. “Do you think Pepper will be here forever?”

“Hard to tell,” says Nellie. “You’re still here.”

I’ve been making doll clothes, and Mike has a leather project. My zucchini has sprouted, and tonight we’ll have a baby spinach salad from our garden. Our entrée is grilled salmon roast, a gift from Ken and for dessert marshmallow rhubarb pudding cake.

We see very little hummingbird activity this year. What’s up with that? KW