Archive for the ‘Annie’ Category

Sumthin’s out there

Friday, February 29th, 2008

   I was sitting here reading when Annie started howling and headed for the kitchen. She’s a great alarm system but I’m afraid there’s been too many sensors placed in the olfactory, hearing and imaginational departments.

   I can understand the higher olfactory senses, due to the length, but it’s not 10′ long. Every once in a while, she’ll jump down off her chair and run to the front door. There’s a spot there where there’s a draft, and she’ll jam her nose right into it. Sometimes her tail wags and she wants to go out, other times though, she gets as low to the ground as she can and hauls ass into the laundry room and cowers in the corner. If there was ever a reason not to go outside, it’s when she does that. I’ve walked around out side looking for tracks and have driven around without any results so it’s hard telling how far off this critter is, but she’s on it.

   Other times, her head will pick up with her ears perked forward and as often as not she’ll start howling and head for the dining room. She never runs to the door to fend off whatever evil is trying to get in. She protects her domain from the dining room and at times, the kitchen. I always get up right away and have a look, to make sure there isn’t anything going on but 99.9% of the time, there isn’t. I’ll call her up and pull the curtain aside, so she can have a look, but it never convinces her everything’s fine. She’ll snort at me like I’m some kind of blind, stupid fool and howl once more on her way back to her chair.

Posted in Annie | 1 Comment »

Squirrel Stew

Sunday, January 13th, 2008

   Back in September, when Doug and I were on the “Hill too high” we were fortunate enough to find a population of squirrels that hadn’t been hunted in a long time.

    It was almost like sitting in a city park with a bag of peanuts between your feet. Fluffy tailed little critters frollicking about here and there, gathering up all the peanuts you’d thrown out. It was warm and sunny with a nice breeze, the bees were butt-hole up, eating their way to oblivion when we walked by the arbors. Once we entered the woodline, the huge oaks were alive with squirrels and if I hadn’t been laughing so hard, I would have had 10 in the stew rather than 7. Even then I was thinking about the dinner I was going to make and hoped I could get a few more before starting. I went back out there four more times after that first day, and never again did I see such a populus. While this was going on, I read an article in the Free Press about this beloved activity and the guy caught all kinds of hell for it. All these city dwellers were giving the reporter crap because of his murderous activity against such a peacefull creature. “Any moron can shoot a squirrel, why don’t you go hunt something that’s hard to get?” was a common line of advice. I thought about those butt heads while I was trying to climb that damned hill to get up to where they lived. I wish they’d been there as they played hide and seek and throw stuff at you from the tree tops. I also wish they’d been here last night when I served them up in a stew.

   After parboiling them, they spent the rest of the day, and that night, soaking in a pool of wine that came from that same arbor we’d earlier walked by. Yesterday, I used one cup of the juice they boiled in, added two beef boulions, carrot’s, an onion, the squirrels, and as many ‘taters as I could get in the pot.

   No sooner had the stew started stewing, Annie started acting somewhat abnormally. It would have been normal behavoir if we had been in the middle of an oak grove, but not in a living room. The moment that first molecule passed over Annie’s receptors, she was after it. She followed me around like stink on a skunk and if I sat down, she wanted to know why. All day long there would be periods where she’d give up on me and go lay down, but if the draft changed she’d start all over.

   It cooked down for 3 hours and then I dropped spoonfulls of Bisquick into it and a half hour later, it was good to go. I had been dreading this moment since the walk back by the bees in the arbor and it turned out a hellava lot better than I figured. When I heard “This is very good Mike!”, I was thrilled. I hadn’t had squirrel since I was 10 years old and I really didn’t remember if I’d liked it or not. The other thing was, I’d never made a stew before, or dumplings either. Stew’s are a heck of a lot easier to make than I thought, and squirrel hunting is a lot harder than they thought. I wish some of those buttheads had been here for dinner last night.

  

Posted in Annie, Hunting | 8 Comments »

Habitat Observation ‘08

Friday, January 4th, 2008

01/04/08

   Mark and I took Annie out to Dougs today and helped him mount another trailcam to a spot that’ll add additional data to the study. It’s 30′ off a major thoroughfare on the creek side of his property, and within visual surveillance from his living room. The camera is orientated to aim in the general direction of the house, so every time it flash’s after dark, he’ll know it. I hope it looks like a rock concert down there for the next week. I’ll be bringing both cameras here to directly download the images and will post anything unusual, and I’ll start to identify the various subjects.

   Annie was laying in her chair, sound asleep snoring when I gently lifted her leash off the hook. One small tick, as the plastic hit that hook, and she was at my feet. She sat patiently in the back seat, watching straight out the front window until we passed Websters bridge Rd, and she was on her feet. By the time I pulled into Dougs driveway, I could feel her breathing down my neck. After hooking her leash back up, I flipped the seat forward and she jumped out my side almost pulling the handle out of my hand. Reluctantly, she came in the house but she hardly left my side. Doug and I sat there and shot the bull for a while and every four or five minutes, Annie’d get up, go to the door, come to me, walk back to the door, and then go lay down again. Half way through the second cup of coffee, Annie’d had enough and she came over and stared at me. Doug took the cups upstairs and while he was doing that, I nonchalantly started to put on my snow pants. It didn’t work. We continued to dress like we were in NO HURRY and said nothing at all to her; we both know how loud she howls. Everything was coming along fine until I laced up my boots and she let loose. I quickly hooked her up and got the hell out of there and headed for the Mule. She’d never ridden in it before so I just picked her sorry hound ass up and climbed in. She was a little jumpy until we got across the street and she recognized where she was. We stopped first to mount the camera, and I tied her up to the hitch without any problem at all. I had one hellava time getting her to get back in the cab, so I picked her up again. After getting down the trail a ways we stopped and let her off. As soon as the hook cleared her collar she was gone. Literally. It’s all physics actually..gravity I’d say, that causes a 12″ beagle to disappear into 24″ of snow. I wish I could have had a video camera going when she erupted from beneath. After that she was just a tri-colored figure running through the snow. Annie’s had it good here for the last two months and I’d hoped the deep snow would give her a workout. It gave all of us a good workout and she had no luck in finding any bunnies. We did learn however, that she enjoys chasing the Mule as much as she does squirrels, and almost as loudly.

Posted in Annie, Habitat Observation '08 | No Comments »

Annie’s introduction to A.H.T.H.

Friday, October 19th, 2007

   Up until a week or so ago, Annie had been very leanient about Mark and I heading out the door without her, and I’m pretty sure she knew why and where we were going on a couple of our exits. Yesterday though, she knew somehow that she was part of the days program, and started howling when I put my leatherman on my belt. She went bonkers as I put on my boots and when Mark grabbed her leash, she started snorting. What a sight! I’d avoided taking her to A.H.T.H. because she wouldn’t have done us much good, and frankly I was afraid she’d experience a sensory overload. I had visions of her heading up that mound with her ears flopping and howling herself into laryngitis while running around in circles.

   She was fine until we came to the base of the hill and she started to pick up the scent of all those little critters. She was pulling so hard, Mark had a hard time unsnaping her leash, but after he did, my visions came true. She immediatly ran from tree to tree to tree until she was up over the top and on her way to the other side. I headed for the top ’cause I heard her up there baying her lungs out and once there, I could hear her at the bottom again, running past Mark. After catching my breath a little, I headed back for the bottom and met up with Mark. From there, we headed around the side of the hill to see if we could catch up with her, but she was silent, and gone. Every few minutes one of us would call her name and listen for her licenses jingling and eventually we heard her howling again from the other side. I headed one way, and Mark the other, and soon she came running up wondering where in hell we went!

   I’m gonna need some help here folks, does anyone know how to teach a beagle not to run her ass off? We sure would appreciate it ’cause I can’t keep up with her. And, by the way, she doesn’t have laryngitis. Maybe next time.

Posted in Annie, Hunting | No Comments »

Music to my ears

Friday, August 24th, 2007

   In many earlier entries, I’ve written about Annie’s journey into our world, the lack of rain around here, and how much I enjoy the sound of my childrens laughter. I got all three yesterday.

   In the morning I drove out to Doug’s to let Annie run for awhile as the neighbor’s don’t appreciate a beagle howling through the neighborhood. This was the fourth time I’d had her out running and she’s improved each time. She kept a watch where I was and would continue to return to make sure everything was fine. What I’d hoped to hear, from the very first trip, was the sound of her on the trail of something. Lord knows I hear it alot around here, everytime someone she’s know’s, comes to the door. If she see’s one of those dasterdly squirrels running up the tree, she goes nuts. If she wants to come in, she howl’s or when she gets tangled up in a clump of pampas grass next to the house, she let’s loose. Today though, she found her first squirrel where she could actually get at it. I didn’t realize she could go verticle up the tree, but she did. And HOWL! Holy cow she can sing pretty.

   Even though it didn’t rain very hard yesterday, or for very long, it did rain. I sat at my computer here, talking to ‘Trina and I could hear the water dripping off the maple and off the roof. What a glorious sound. I’d checked out the deer feeding plot while I was out there and it was quickly becoming dusty again. They’d got enough rain last week (even though it didn’t rain in town) to save what we had planted earlier this summer, and the seed we’d sowed was just begining to sprout. With the rain we got yesterday and hopefully will get more before this is posted, all will be saved and venison will end up in the freezer. It wasn’t as fulfilling as I’d hoped, no thunder nor lightening, but God always puts some fertilizer in her rain.

   The laughter came while I was talking to my daughter and that was the best of all. We don’t speak much, but we get hooked up on one of the IM’s we share and that’s pleanty enough for me. As you’ve read in the previous entry, she’s got three kids at home and typing is a lot easier to do than talking, especially with them around your ankles. I’m very proud of my children, and even more so, when they speak of their own. 

Posted in Annie, My Kids | No Comments »

Habitat Observation

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

   Annie and I took a ride out to Doug’s this afternoon to check out the crop and let Annie run a little. I haven’t taken her out there ’cause Lucy (Doug’s beagle) had the same procedure Annie did and when Lucy and to stay quiet. When those two get together, it’s like old home week at the Howling family’s house. She sat in the truck real nice until I turned left onto his road and Annie was all over me. She didn’t howl like she has in the past, but she’s grown up some in the last couple of weeks and I for one, appreciate it. I try and run a very quiet and orderly life, but when Annie gets near Lucy, life changes.

   After the two of them rubbed noses, and smelled each others’ butts, we headed across the street. Lucy couldn’t go yet ’cause her stitch’s aren’t out but Annie was more than happy to cover her watch. The Chickory is rebounding very nicely and the Rape/Kale is doing even better. The new vegitation is originating from the basil and it’s still too low for the deer to eat, so we may come out on top of this. Doug’s going to overseed the areas that didn’t recover with Rape so it’ll be mixed in with the Chickory too.

   Today, the doe permits for private land hunting went on sale and we both bought one. There’s only 2000 alloted this year, so I suspect there won’t be any for sale tomorrow, but I’m sure going to try.

 

Posted in Annie, Habitat observation | No Comments »

Habitat Observation

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

   To say the crop was under stress would be as saying; sometimes it gets hot in Pergatory, Arrakis might have a worm problem, or the Lion’s are in a rebuilding year. In any case (except for the Lion’s, where there’s no hope) water would fix it and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon. The ten day forecast show’s a string of sunny, 90º days followed by more of the same.

   The irrigation system isn’t nearly as effecient as it could be and the cost is getting too high. We’ve given the plants (we hope) enough time to get their roots down to where it counts and it’ll survive all this.

   From what I could see today, the area is nuts to butts deer and they all seem to be doing it right there in that plot. I don’t think there’s 3 square inch’s without track on it, and one of them squares had a small bear track.

   I took Annie along with me today for her first outing since her spaying and she did even better than I’d hoped. We’d just got across the road when I showed her I had a bacon treat and let ’er go. She bolted straight down the tree line and dissapeared into the brush. She stopped at the line and turned around to look so I yelled “Get ‘em Annie” and she was off. I had a pretty good notion that she’d come back, but I was hoping to hear her sing to me. That sort of singing isn’t appreciated in the neighborhood here, but it puts a smile in their eyes up in the valley. She was gone about 15 minutes and walked right up to me and sat down. I gave her the rest of the treat, hooked her up and walked back. I suspect I’ll be hearing a lot of singing this fall.

Posted in Annie, Habitat observation | No Comments »

A boy and his dog.

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

Yesterday, Doug, Becky and Jerret came over to deliver a dog for Mark. Annie’s a 2 year old Beagle who’s uterius was soiled by an infidel of dubious lineage, and in so doing, was considered unfit to breed “purebreds” and her young career was soon dashed. Becky who’s heart is worn on her sleeve, was asked if she would save this young female by the mear act of giving her a home, and she did. Doug thought it would be a good idea, as she could help their dog, Lucy, to become a hunter. Lucy’s one fired up beagle, who became even more fired up when Annie showed up, so it was soon obvious that the pair weren’t going to work out.

Mark and I had stopped by a week or so ago and as we visited with them, I noticed that Annie was takin’ a real liking to the two of us. It was mentioned that Annie might be one dog too many, and would we like her? Mark and I talked it over for a week or so, and decided we could handle it. Mark had been wanting a dog for a loooong time and after talking about the pro’s and con’s, we decided to take her on. Friday we went up to Charlevoix and bought all the equipment we’d need along with a couple dog bones and a few toys.

Yesterday they brought her over and we watched her reactions to us and our resident feline, Albert. Annie immediatly checked out the house, (and the cat dish) and found her favorite place to sleep, and did so. She wasn’t there 20 minutes when I could hear her snoring. When it came time for the Frye’s to leave, we put a leash on Annie in case she wanted to go along, but didn’t put up much of a commotion. She sat on her second favorite chair and after watching them drive away, she curled up and went right back to sleep.

The whole thing went down like it was all pre-determined. I’d always wanted a beagle, and a slow quiet one at that and they’re hard to come by. She’s quite and gentle and I think she fit’s our lifestyle exactly. After she’s come to know us better, we’re going to take her to the vet and officially end her career as a breeding bitch. Now her job is going to be that of keeping our chair’s warm when we’re not using them, and our lap’s warm when we are.

It’s too soon to say how Albert’s going to adjust to all of this, and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes.

Posted in Annie | No Comments »