Author Mom with Dogs

It never ceases to amaze me how little someone can know about dogs and still wind up with a decent dog. Really, think about it. What other animal, wild or domesticated, can so readily adapt to our crazy, inconsistent, often self-centered ways?

I can hear some of you suggest that cats fit in with us just as well.  I would argue that cats are willing to put up with far less before they’ll try to avoid or escape us. Dogs hang in there through thick and thin.

To help you and your dog hang in there together in better health and happiness, here are five facts everyone living with a dog should know.

1. Dogs actually have fairly delicate digestive systems – at least when it comes to processed dog food.  If you change their dog food too quickly, they will experience gastrointestinal difficulties (including diarrhea). If you want to switch dog food brands, do so gradually, over the course of a week, by mixing small amounts of the new brand in with the old each day, until you’ve fully switched out the old brand with the new. (Click to learn which dog food brands get the highest ratings.) Bottom line: If you’re traveling with or kenneling your dog, make sure you bring along his dog food.

2. Dogs, like people, build up tartar on their teeth when not cleaned regularly. Few people bother to brush their dogs’ teeth every day. So it’s only a matter of time until the vet recommends an expensive dental cleaning that always involves anesthesia.  This procedure may often  be avoided altogether by simply giving your dog a marrow bone (found in the meats section of your grocery store where they sell soup bones) no more than once a week  Stay away from Greenies and other manufactured teeth cleaning chews, because these items can break off in large chunks and cause intestinal blockages.

3. Dogs, like people, have preferences. Not all dogs like each other, and yet many people don’t think twice about throwing different dogs together (whether in their own home or at the dog park), without testing the waters. Yes, dogs are pack animals, but most people are misinformed as to what that means. (Please read this excellent article for the most current understanding of Canine Pack Behavior.)  While being a pack animal makes them social to a point, it doesn’t make them nondiscriminatory.  Be watchful when you introduce your dog to another for any stress signs, such as yawning, licking, hackles raising (often with a wagging tail), etc.  If your dog is letting you know it has a problem with another dog, don’t force the issue or “let them work it out.”

4. ALL dogs will bite. I can’t tell you how many letters I get from sweet people in shock over their sweet dog who’s bitten someone. The question is not if your dog will bite, but what will cause it to bite. To avoid this happening to you, know your dog’s provocation limits and protect it from situations and people that could be triggers. For instance, just because my Graidy is a gentle soul and so far has bitten no one, that doesn’t mean that I’d let a little kid pull his ears or chase him, or allow another dog to bully him.

5. Not all dogs are created equal. Different breeds are bred for specific purposes. And while I know no one who reads here regularly would do this, I find it shocking how many people pick their dogs based on looks without bothering to do the breed research beforehand. Statistically, people will spend more time researching their next computer than they will researching their next dog. One only needs to see the number of dogs in rescue and shelters to know the end result of these often ill-thought out purchases. The best step you can take for you and your family when selecting a new puppy or dog is to understand the differences between breeds.  And then select a breed that fits within your family’s energy levels, property size, and interests. For example, if you’re a couch potato, your life would be made miserable by adding a herding dog, whereas it would be enriched by certain toy breeds.  If you like to keep beautiful laws and gardens, your life will be challenged by adding a terrier and enhanced by a working dog. And so on.

What all these points have in common is that they ask us to educate ourselves, to be better observers of our dogs, and to learn how to respect our dogs’ communication. If we do, we get to be rewarded with our dogs’ lifetime of unconditional love and joyful companionship. It doesn’t get any better than that!

2010. We’ve crossed the first double digit year since passing the new millennium.

Here’s Cait’s and my pressing question: How are you going to say the year?

A: Twenty ten?

or

B: Two thousand ten?

While I think A will be the spoken standard as we go forward, Cait thinks it should be B, because, as she says, “It’s not just crossing a one-hundred-year marker, we’ve crossed a thousand-year marker, so it should continue to be two thousand and…” She thinks that extra gravitas should be emphasized as we go forward.

Time. And how we mark it. Interesting to think about.

So — are you an A or a B person?

Twas the Night Before Christmas and all through the house

All the creatures were stirring

One might even say conferring

On where all the goodies were hidden

Not realizing they were forbidden…

With the flurry of holiday preparations and all the comings and goings, it’s a time when we may be more distracted than normal. And therefore a time when our dogs may find their way into any number of things that could poison or kill them.

At this time of year, I keep a printed copy of poisonous food for dogs on the fridge so that visitors are also made aware of foods that could harm or kill dogs.

All of the following foods are potentially deadly: some are deadly in small amounts.

• Alcohol
• Avocado (skin, pits, leaves, bark; possibly fruit)
• Chocolate
• Caffeine found in coffee, tea, energy drinks
• Fatty foods
• Macadamia Nuts
• Onions & Onion Family
• Raisins and Grapes
• Salt
• Yeast Dough
• Xylitol (a very common sweetener, deadly to animals, and found in sugarless
• gum & candies, toothpaste, and even in some Rescue Remedy pastille tablets).

Along with this list, I keep this number:

Poison Control Hotline

For a more complete list of  Common Poisons & Hazards click here.

Common Poisonous Plants

• Amaryllis
• Autumn Crocus
• Azalea/ Rhododendron
• Castor Bean
• Cyclamen
• Lilies
• Oleander
• Peach, Plum, Cherry, Apricot (seeds, leaves, stems)
• Sago Palm
• Tulip / Narcissus bulbs
• Yew

Click for a searchable database of Common Poisonous Plants

Animal Poison Control First Aid Kit Recommendations

• Fresh bottle of hydrogen peroxide, 3% (to induce vomiting)
• Turkey baster, bulb syringe or large medicine syringe (to give peroxide)
• Saline eye solution
• Artificial tear gel
• Mild grease-cutting dish-washing liquid (bathing after skin contamination)
• Forceps (stinger removal)
• Muzzle (to protect against fear or excitement induced biting)
• Can of favorite wet food
• Pet carrier

Web Resources from Animal Poison Control

What To Do If Your Pet Is Poisoned

Poison Control FAQ

A Poison Safe Home

People Foods To Avoid Feeding Your Pets

Top Pet Poisons

Toxic & Non-Toxic Plants (searchable data base)

Snake Bite Safety and Prevention Tips

From our family to yours–

Have a Wonderful Holiday everyone!

See you on the other side of the New Year!

I’m guessing you can tell from all the pond shots over the years, that we really love our pond.

A friend described it as sort of like a big outdoor rug,  the decorating element that anchors the room — in this case, our outdoor room.

And I’d have to agree, though I’d put it a little differently. It’s the gravitational pull of our property that draws all living things to it. For its calming, meditative effect. For it’s nourishment. And for the opportunity it provides for good old-fashioned fun. You can’t come here and spend any time outside without your eyes and body turning toward it. It’s kind of magical that way.

But back to the old-fashioned fun part. We love to skate. And sometimes Mother Nature supports that objective, but just as often she doesn’t.

You see, the first freeze is critical. Many factors have to align. It has to be below freezing for several days. It has to not snow until the ice is at least 3 inches thick. The first snow has to be dry, because if it’s wet it softens the ice as it falls, which creates a crust on the ice, which is bad.  Temperatures have to stay below freezing after it snows or we won’t be able to keep the pond shoveled. If it all doesn’t happen just right, it can doom our chances to skate on our pond for an entire winter!

So we all held our breath when we got our first snow before the ice had formed. Not typically a good beginning, because ice that forms from snow is bumpy, crusty, inconsistently thick, and therefore not really safe.

As the snow continued to fall throughout the day at not quite freezing temps, and the pond started forming a slushy crust, we all found ourselves checking the ongoing ice status– even the dogs.

Then, lo and behold, the temperature precipitously dropped. The winds blew. And the ice formed. And…

it was perfect.

For us, this is more exciting than Christmas morning!

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you know that I’ve been a long-time amateur astronomer. Going back to my early childhood, I’ve had a fascination for all things up in the sky. It’s a fascination that Cait has come to share.  We’ve spent many a night (and early morning) outside looking up at planets in conjunction and watching spectacular meteor showers. We’ve recently discovered this service that alerts us to cool stuff going on overhead.  Check it out for yourself.  It would also make a great Christmas present for that hard-to-buy-for person on your list.

Spaceweather PHONE is an astronomy alert service from the creators of Spaceweather.com. Sign up for our service –for yourself or as a gift for someone else– and we’ll phone you when things are happening in the sky. When auroras appear over your hometown, your phone will ring. When the space station is about to fly over your back yard, your phone will ring. When planets align … you get the idea. The voice you hear will be Dr. Tony Phillips telling you what to look for and when. Each phone call comes with a simultaneous email message, so if you miss part of your call or can’t remember the details–just check your email for the full story!

Spaceweather PHONE is for everyone: casual sky watchers, serious astronomers, moms, dads, students. Your account can be configured to match your interests and abilities. Spaceweather PHONE is a global service; we can phone every continent including Antarctica. Ham radio operators use Spaceweather PHONE to learn about solar flares, radio blackouts, and space station flybys. (It’s possible to listen to radio chatter from the ISS when it flies over your hometown.) Photographers use Spaceweather PHONE to catch elusive auroras and “photo ops” involving the Moon and planets. Casual sky watchers use Spaceweather PHONE to spot new comets, planetary alignments, and meteors showers. The sky is filled with sights that are easy to see with the unaided eye. Most people miss them simply because they don’t know when to look. Spaceweather PHONE solves that problem. Sons and daughters buy it for their moms and dads. Spaceweather PHONE is a great gift for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas or Hanukkah. Serious astronomers value Spaceweather PHONE because it connects them to Earth-orbiting satellites via their telephone. They instantly learn when solar flares explode, when solar wind gusts sweep past Earth, when the interplanetary magnetic field tilts south.

When my family gets together, there are a lot of us. One of the many things we’re thankful for is that we all enjoy each other. There’s always a buzz of activity and lots of laughter.

We got to share an unexpected moment of merriment when, after a long day of cooking, we finally all got to sit down to eat. My mother, tired from helping my sister and me with the day’s non-stop preparations, raised her water glass and toasted, “Happy Easter everyone!”

There was a moment of stunned silence before we all burst out laughing — my mother laughing the hardest of all.

My quick-witted sister then countered, “Mom, it only seems like it took us until Easter to get this meal on the table.”

As long as we’re mixing holidays, let me say on behalf of my tired mother and my tired dogs, “Happy Easter and To All a Good Night!”

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend with lots of laughter and love, and much to be thankful for. We sure did.

From the Mailbag: Martha writes, I found your blog after reading Dogs of Dreamtime (loved Loved LOVED it!) and have been a reader ever since (thought not a very good commenter, sorry). I’m taking a writing course now and realize how hard it is to sit down and write everyday. How do you make yourself do it? I have a great idea for a book with lots of ideas percolating, but I’m having a hard time getting myself going and seem to find every distraction to delay me. Any tips on how to buckle down?

Martha, thanks for the plug. And you’re in good company; many writers find it a challenge to get jump-started.  Sounds as if the steam’s building, but the train isn’t quite ready to pull out of the station. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never found a way to hurry that stage along. Seems things need to percolate however long they need to percolate.

I find that as long as we keep ourselves open by creating the space and time to be present to what’s percolating, we’ll eventually be able to get it down on paper. To help get ideas organized, consider carrying around a little notebook, so you can jot down ideas as they come to you. I also find that working from a loose outline helps. Often, just doing those two things is enough to get me over the initial hump of getting started.

BUT, avoidance/procrastination is a horse of a different color. If procrastination is part of your difficulty, are you creating the space (however small) and giving yourself the time (however short) to be with your thoughts and writing each and every day?  H. Jackson Brown sums it up perfectly for me: “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backward, or sideways.”

I think of sitting down to write the same way I think about sitting down to meditate. For as many years as I’ve been meditating, I still have to force myself to make a time because it seems like an interruption to my day. And after I sit down, I have to fight to get myself settled down, because I really don’t want to bother shifting gears. And then I have to switch from feeling that I’ve put  myself in a time-out to allowing myself to plug into meditation’s creative/healing flow. When I’m finally able to get past all that and get to the actual meditating, it’s then that I remember why I like to meditate so much. Writing often feels like the same process.

Even when I’m “too busy,” even when it feels more like a punishment rather than a reward to make myself sit at the computer, I do it. Because, plain and simple, that’s how you create the habit. And eventually the habit creates the groove that becomes the expressway to your creativity, and the ideas and words will start flowing. It also helps that I allow myself the flexibility to work on several projects at once, so if I’m stuck on one, I can usually find the energy or interest to work on one of the others.

In a nutshell, to overcome procrastination and develop the writing habit:

• Start with an inviting work space, free of clutter and distractions. (No music, TV, or social networking for example. )
• Pick a time that you will commit to writing every day. (First thing in the morning works best for me.) And then sit down at that time every day, even if you only stare out the window to start.
• Keep a notebook handy for new ideas, and learn how to create working outlines for works-in-progress.
• No matter what, spend a minimum of one hour a day writing. (Doesn’t matter what you write, or how many words you write–even if you have no ideas and wind up retyping another author’s writing whom you’d like to emulate.)
• If you don’t have the juice to write new pages, use that hour to edit and improve old pages.
• Consider joining a writing group for support and useful feedback.

Perhaps Nike said it best: Just do it!

Good luck, and let me know how your project goes.

Anyone else out there have any tips or suggestions to share on how to avoid procrastination?

Graidy is my early bird; he likes to start the day around 5 AM-ish. Once he gets me up, it’s rare that I can get back to sleep. So we hang out and take in the early morning sights.

Once the sun came up, this is what we saw this morning.

There are actually five, all total, though it’s hard to see the fifth one. Two families of three and two.

Pretty scene, isn’t it?

And I’m glad my bumper crop of grapes is not going to waste.

Yep, I watched as they plowed through my back fence, sauntered through the back yard, and right over to my little grape vines to help themselves to the extras.

Pretty as they are, and as bucolic a scene as they paint, they bring deer ticks with them. Deer ticks are the carriers of Lyme Disease. We don’t need any more Lyme Disease around here. And what you can’t see from these photos is that they’re only about a meter away from the dog fence.

Because Graidy is ridiculously near-sighted, and the deer were down wind, he hadn’t caught on to their presence. Time to point out that we had company.

Since these deer know they have a safe haven on our 10-acre sanctuary, they needed a little encouragement to high-tail it. As you can see — we’re still at low tails here.

After a little more encouragement, the mama turns to look to see if we mean it.

We mean it. And off they finally go.

Now I’ve got to go find where they broke through the fence and repair it. Until the next time…

Life in the country.

Over the years, many people have asked for help on how to pick the perfect dog. I’m always happy to assist when I can. I usually start by asking: How many dogs old are you?

Huh? you say.  Are you asking me how old in dog years I am?

No, it’s not a sneaky way to calculate your age. Rather, it’s a very important question in a list of questions that need to be asked to ascertain what kind of dog would make a good match for you.

Before I explain, let me first give Suzanne Clothier credit for framing the question in this way. What she means is:  How many dogs have you lived with over your life?

Why does that matter?

Because it’s a pretty good indicator of how much dog experience you’ve had, and therefore how much dog you can probably handle.

For instance, I’ve lived with 20 dogs so far. That makes me 20 dogs old. One could safely assume from that number that I’d have a fair amount of dog experience, as opposed to someone who is only two dogs old. And they’d be right. And that I’d have less experience than someone who is 200 dogs old. And they’d be right again. Perhaps.

Huh? you say again.

While knowing how many dogs old you are can tell a lot, it won’t give the full picture. In order to get that, we’d have to ask how many breeds old you are.

You see, as much as it matters how many dogs you’ve lived with, it also matters what kinds of breeds they’ve been. Because not all breeds are created equal, and not all dogs within the same breed are created equal. What that means is that while each breed type has overarching characteristics and personality traits, within each breed there can be significant variations.

For example, I’ve lived with dogs from each breed category (herding, sporting, working, toy, etc.) with the exception of the non-sporting group. I’ve also lived with a few different breeds from within each of those categories. For instance, from the herding breeds, I’ve shared my life with 4 Shelties, 2 German Shepherds, 1 Border Collie, 1 English Shepherd, and 2 Australian Shepherds.

So even though I’m 20 dogs old, I’m also 13 breeds old. If the person who’s 200 dogs old is only one breed old (say a breeder of Labs), then I would be considered older in dog experience because I’m more familiar with a larger number of breeds.

While people who are several dogs old aren’t likely to be looking for help selecting their next dog, it’s still very telling to find out how many breeds old they are, and whether they’ll be staying within those breeds.

That’s because, in truth, people are most likely to get into trouble when they switch breeds. Specifically, when they switch from a relatively easy breed to a more challenging breed with which they have no previous experience. I’m speaking from both observation and personal experience.

Even though I was 10 breeds old by the time I got Kiera, they’d all been breeds I’d had multiple experience with. When I switched to Australian Shepherds, even though they were herding dogs, they were unlike any other herding dogs I’d had before. The learning curve was steep.

To help shorten your learning curve, here are the important things to remember in selecting your next dog:

If you’re young in dog years, it’s a great idea to seek out the advice of someone more experienced to help you select your perfect partner. You’ll be glad you did.

Even if you’re old in dog years, but you’re young in breed years and you’re thinking of switching to a new breed, it’s incredibly valuable to spend time visiting with and talking to others who live with that breed. You’ll be glad you did.

And then, armed with all that insight and experience, it’s a lot easier to go find that special dog waiting for you. You’ll be glad you did.

So then, how many dogs old and breeds old are you? Which breeds have you enjoyed the most? What breeds have presented your longest learning curves?

It’s that time of year; hard frosts herald the end of my gardening year.  As I work to put my garden to bed until next spring, it’s a good time to take stock of the growing season. This year, with summer weather more typical of Ireland than upstate NY, and less time available for gardening chores than I like, my garden was more under Mother Nature’s charge than mine. The results were mixed.

As I review the different veggies that provided bounties or busts, I plan for what seeds I’ll keep and plant again, and what varieties I probably won’t add back in. In part, this decision is always aided by my annual garden experiment.

Every year, I conduct a garden experiment with all the rigors of a research scientist–sort of… (You can look here and here to read about my last couple of experiments.)

For this year’s experiment, I decided to test the difference between pole and bush beans. I’ve been reading forever that pole beans are better-tasting and easier to harvest than bush beans. Having always grown bush beans, and after having paged through my Fedco catalog to read the same review yet again, I finally decided to conduct my own growing and tasting test.

To make the experiment valid, I set about finding a pole and bush bean of the same variety. Growing different varieties would be about as worth-while as comparing cooking pumpkins with carving pumpkins — taste, texture, and size would not be comparable. Kentucky Wonder was available in both, so I went with that.

Here’s what Fedco catalog has to say about Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans:  Also known as Old Homestead. “Of all the climbing kinds, we do not believe there is a better one than Kentucky Wonder; it is an old variety with solid meaty pods, 7-9″ long, that are stringless when young, and when cooked no bean is better. It is enormously productive, the pods hanging in great clusters from top to bottom of the pole.” The nutty flavor makes them outstanding for freezing. Pick regularly to maintain quality and production.

Because of their vining habit, they need some kind of upright support. Some people make tipis out of bamboo or sticks, others set them along a fence, and still others pair them with sunflowers. I used a fence.

Kentucky Wonder Bush Beans do not require trellising. Strong bush vines hold pods off the ground. Pods are the same flattened shape as the pole, with 6-7″ long, medium green pods. They’re ready to pick in about 57 days versus the pole bean’s average of 65 days. They yield well and require the least amount of work. Unlike Pole Beans, they are determinate, which means they grow to a certain size, blossom, produce the fruit and then stop growing.  Because Bush Beans’ harvest will only last about 2 weeks, you can enjoy more if you make small individual plantings every 10 days or so.

I have to say, the pole beans were easier to harvest, produced longer, and in my side-by-side taste test, the pole beans won hands down. They were considerably more tender and flavorful. Looks like I’ll be sticking with pole beans from here on in.

What discoveries did you make in your garden this year?

Lately, I’ve had to spend more time working at my “office” office, which means that I haven’t been able to work from my home office nearly as much.

Seeing these two faces at the door as I drive by is the pits. I hate it! I don’t know how mothers who have to leave their children in daycare do it.

I’ve been growing my own garlic for about 15 years — all from my own bulbs that I harvest from year to year.  I don’t remember what possessed me to order my first bulbs from Seeds of Change way back when.

After all, garlic seems a slightly peculiar item to grow when they’re so plentiful and cheap at the grocery store. And even more peculiar to fall in love with. I’m not ashamed to admit it. I get a bigger kick out of growing my garlic than nearly all my other plants put together — and that’s saying something.

Maybe it’s because they are such strikingly graceful plants with their swan-like scapes. Maybe it’s because you throw them into the ground in early October and then you pretty much let them do their thing until you harvest them all at once in late July. How much simpler does it get?

Or maybe it’s because I grow the sweetest, most delicious garlic anyone has ever tasted. Friends and family fight over the bulbs I have to give away. (Actually, I don’t grow the sweetest garlic; my dirt does — but we’ll get to that later.)

No matter the reason, I suppose.  Joy is joy in whatever form we find it. And I’d like to share some of that joy with you.

If you think you’d like to try your hand at growing great garlic, the following tutorial should give you enough info to get started.

CHOOSING GARLIC SEED

There are two types of garlic; each offering many varieties. If you live in zone 6 or higher, you’ll want to consider one of the soft­neck artichoke types (these are the ones most often found in grocery stores). These have a higher yield and a more domesticated flavor. They can also be woven into braids. For those of us in living in zone 5 and lower, we get to select from the hardneck varieties. I’m partial to the Rocambole variety. Because Rocambole is a stiff­neck type, it can’t be braided. The bulbs may have a purplish cast and are known for their excellent flavor.

PLANTING GARLIC

While there are two ways to plant garlic: planting cloves from the bulb (one-season harvest) or planting bulbils from the scape (two-season harvest), I’m going to talk about cloves, since most people don’t want to wait two years to get their garlic. In upstate NY, we plant from end of September into mid-October (or about four weeks before you get regular ground freezes). You want to plant early enough for the roots to begin to form but not so early that the top growth will emerge. But don’t overly worry about it; garlic is a very forgiving plant.

Readying the Soil: After I harvest the summer’s garlic, I loosen the soil (with the help of Andrew), add plenty of compost, and work it in so it will have time to do its magic before I plant the bulbs for next year.

Planting cloves:   Pick your largest and most evenly shaped bulbs to save for seed. Just before planting, break apart your seed garlic bulbs into cloves.  Pick the largest and firmest cloves to plant. These will yield larger bulbs than planting with the smaller cloves. (Save the smaller cloves for cooking.)

The end of the clove attached to the bulb is the flat root end. The pointier end is the top part of the clove. You’re going to plant each clove with the root-end down.

Push each clove into the soil about two inches deep, about six inches apart, in rows about 18-inch apart. In general, the larger the clove you plant, the larger the bulb of garlic you’ll get.  Once the bulbs are planted, mulch with a thick layer of straw. This helps even out soil temperatures, protect the garlic from hard winter freezes, and helps to prevent the garlic from getting heaved out of the ground from freeze-thaw cycles.  You can remove the mulch in the spring.

STORAGE

Garlic bulbs should not be stored in the refrigerator. The cool temps and humidity cause sprouting. Garlic keeps best between 60/­70 degrees, or at room temperature, in a well­-ventilated container. Good garlic should keep for months. Bulbs that show softening of any of the cloves should be used immediately or discarded.

HARVESTING GARLIC

Once the scapes (the curly­cue tops of the garlic plants) appear in late June, you have a choice to make: to break scape or not break scape. If left to mature, they will straighten up and form heads of mini­bulbs called bulbils. You can use these as you would miniature garlic cloves, you can chop and freeze for later use, or you can save them to plant in the fall. Most people choose to break the scapes just after they form the curlycue to force all the growing energy down into the bulb. After my Garden Experiment of 2007, I always break scape, but I wait until their stems get woody. Then there’s less shock to the plant.

You’ll know when your garlic is ready to harvest by watching the leaves. Here in Upstate NY, they begin to die (turn yellow) in early July . Harvesting is done when the ratio of green to yellow leaves is about 60/40, usually by mid to end of July. Because each leave represents one layer of “paper” wrapping of the garlic, if you let too many leaves die before harvest, you’ll not have enough paper layers left for your garlic to store well.  Once pulled, your garlic plants need to be “cured” before they can be stored.

Curing and Cleaning Garlic

Leaving the garlic plants intact with roots on, carefully remove most of the dirt from the roots (garlic bruises easily so be careful). Many people tie up their garlic into bunches of five and dry from the eaves of a barn or storage shed.  Since I have neither, I dry my garlic loose on screen doors that I lay on top of sawhorses. At any rate, they need to get a couple of weeks of good air circulation out of direct light with an average temp of around 70-75 degrees.

When the wrappers are dry (very white and papery) your garlic is ready to be cleaned and stored. Cut off the stalks leaving about an inch of stem, and trim roots to about 1/4 inch. Remove any dirty outer layers of wrappers(carefully) and brush loose any remaining dirt from the roots. Store your gourmet garlic in mesh or onion bags, paper sacks, or in shallow layers on trays or boxes. Store  in a cool, dry, area, but avoid refrigerating homegrown garlic to prevent premature sprouting. Don’t store bruised or damaged bulbs with the others, instead eat them first. Your delicious and health-filled garlic should last you for several months!

Bon appetite!

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Growing Great Garlic by Ron Engeland contains all the information you’ll ever need to grow fantastic garlic!

As I mentioned last week, Cait makes sure Finn is in every night. On a recent night, the time got away from her before she realized that it was dark and Finn was not yet securely locked in the house.

So she started the nightly ritual of calling out while banging on Finn’s food can. Within minutes, he always appears.

But this night, still no Finn after several minutes of banging and calling.

Worried, Cait ran back in the house asking for help. She took the front of the house, and I took the back by the woods, both of us banging and calling. Hurrying, neither of us thought to grab a flashlight.

A few more minutes passed, when I saw the shadow of Cait start jogging down our road. I yelled out to her to see if she’d found Finn.

She called back, saying that she saw his eyes glowing in the dark and was in hot pursuit.

Great, I thought, as I started walking back to the house. That was until I felt something rubbing against my legs. I nearly jumped out of my skin! I looked down to find the wayward Finn doing figure eights around my legs.

That meant that whatever Cait was chasing was… not Finn. Not wanting to scare her, and definitely not wanting her to catch whatever she was tailing, I hurried to the road and called her back.

I saw that she’d made it to the turn in the road. I could see her trotting and stopping, trotting and stopping, as the glowing eyes trotted and stopped to look back.

Annoyed that my presence might jinx her near capture of what she thought was Finn, she shushed me and told me to stay back.

At that point, I told her I had Finn in my arms and she should return to me immediately.

Even in the dark, I could see her do a double-take. Aided by a burst of adrenalin, she seemed to cover the quarter mile between us in one gigantic leap.

As she held on to me to help steady her weak knees, she said with nervous laughter, “Yup that’s me. Just chasing any pair of random eyes down the road. My version of “Ma slapped a bear.”

What she was referring to was a scene in one of the Little House on the Prairie books. Pa is off hunting, so Ma has to tend to the evening chores by herself. She walks out to the field where they keep their cow, and slaps the cow’s rear to get it to move away from the gate so she can open it. Only what she finds out is that the cow is not the cow, but a black bear!

As we walked back to the house, she asked what I thought she might have been chasing.

Around our parts, there aren’t any bears (thankfully) but we do have plenty of coyotes, foxes, raccoons, opossums, woodchucks, and any number of other cat-sized critters that it could have been. I answered, “From the eyes and the gait, my money’s on a young coyote. They’re one of the few animals I know of that will stop and turn to look back like that.”

Cait, still nervously laughing, said, “It’d be kinda fun to have a little coyote as a pet.” Then I watched her throw a cautious glance over her shoulder to make sure the coyote wasn’t thinking the same thing.

Life in the country. Gotta love it!

It’s been a while since Finn, Cait’s Maine Coon mix, has gotten any air time. Let me remedy that. He’s almost 4 years old already! And he is well-loved by both humans and dogs alike around here.

That said, I’m not what you’d call a natural cat lover. And Finn and I have had our moments–   Yep, that’s his handiwork.

But I really do love him.  So much so, that I built this fence in part for him so he could be a “safe” outdoor cat.  Since we got him, that has been his deepest wish.  How do I know?  You’d only have to listen to him “cack” at the door for hours on end to understand.

All was well for several months.  Until he finally figured out how to deal with the floppy wire at the top of the fence line.

We’ve had to resign ourselves to the fact that his life and his destiny are his own now.  Though we do make sure that he’s always in for the night before dark.  We don’t want to tempt the fates anymore than we already are.  And with all the night-time predators around here, that would be tempting indeed. Once the sun comes up, he’s rearin’ to face a new day.

Yes, if anyone were to ask him, I’ve no doubt our Finny boy would tell you that his life is mighty fine!