spring

Don't forget our dogs for adoption. Here. We've got more of wonderful Duke here. I like him, I tell you, nice dog.

To see all the movies, go here.

This is the video of the yard with Bill wrestling and all the others of course.

Maddox, Finn, Misui and someone else out for a toot. Here.

Some notes on our current residents first: Luna still hates me. Well, she at least doesn't like me. She doesn't, apparently like men in general, but that is hardly an excuse. I have to get Ollie, my son, who she likes just fine, to take her out for a photo shoot this morning (no school) so her people can see her not looking scared, which she does when I'm around. Although she's getting better.

Misui: I didn't trust him because he's a husky but his owner swore I could let him off the leash. As you can see in the videos below I did. What you can't see is that he proceeded to run off down the driveway and disappear. I put everyone else away, jumped in the car, headed to the road, called him. I heard some ice cracking on the pond and thought he might be out there. No luck. I stood around trying to decide what to do next when he appeared in the middle of the road only a few feet from me. I don't know how he did that. He was as happy to jump in the car and as happy to join the other dogs as he had been to run off.

I think roaming a mile or two is not running off to a husky. I think they have a bigger range mapped onto their heads than most dogs and that they don't mean to run off, just establish a range suitable to their aspirations. Unfortunately for their aspirations, their brain-map includes a range with streets, cars, neighbors, horses, cows, tractors, chickens and other stuff that they are not allowed to inspect.

Breed discrimination confirmed. No more huskies off leash. There is another dog camp that I saw online that doesn't take huskies. That's for fighting I think. That hasn't been a problem for me.

You know, I never read a book about dogs. I keep getting books for Christmas and birthday and so on... but the last thing I want to read about, frankly, is a dog. And the books are either 1) about dog behavior, kind of assuming you have to deal with them one or two at at time (not 20), or 2) about the dog business. The dog business books tell me I can't do stuff I want to do (leave them together or pick them up in the car with the others and expect them to behave) or talk about a lot of things I'm not interested in (bleach, concrete, etc.). I'm doing it all wrong. I can't do what I do. So I solve the problem by not reading!

But honestly, no one seems to do what I do, at least locally (free pick up and all that). Or do they? Anyway, there are 1.5 million dogs in my pick up area and I can handle a maximum of 50 so I think I will survive the coming long and awful depression. Keep on traveling folks!

And then if the dog thing doesn't work out, there is always... what's a good business to be in during a depression? Portfollio manager? Dairy farmer? I know: mailman.

And anyway, when it comes to pack management, their is no substitute for experience. I made a lot of mistakes over the years. I will definitely make some more. But I'm better. I haven't figured out how to train someone else, which would be the next step.

But I don't really know anything. My instincts are better. And I know most of the dogs.

And I still have 10 fingers.

Okay, more on the dogs here. Duke is still for adoption. He's a real winner. I like him a lot.

Betty Lou: she's not crazy about me either. We're getting better and I'm going to try some chicken on her this morning. We'll see if that finally makes her my friend.

Maggie Blue: She repeatedly dropped her tennis ball in the hole between the wood and the chain link fence and could not get it out. So she tried to eat the offending wire. I think wire should go nicely with that sock she ate the other day. The four basic Maggie food groups: socks, wire, drywall, and plywood. She's a healthy girl.

Bill: I'm worried he'll turn nice play into a fight. But he's having a ball wrestling with Gustov, I just have to let them go. The more they do it, the less likely it'll go bad... and they're having a ball.

All fine: Finn, Daisy, Maddox... good moods. Because it's srping. Unless it's me in a good mood imagining they are.

So Spring. It's early Spring, but it's Spring. For the first time I can remember, certainly since we've lived up here, I will miss something of winter. I think it's that I've been taking pictures and thinking about taking pictures in the winter and it is DYNAMITE for that. I mean winter. It looks great. The red barn look tremendous when there is no other real color around. And people look good in the winter, they stand out of the landscape. And sound: no birds. No bugs. Austere and only occasionally harsh.

But Spring is better. Ollie was not convinced by my color and sound argument. Here.

perfect day

Scroll down and consider the dog for adoption below. Check out the skating video, which will not be available until noon EST. Schedule for dog pick up coming soon.

The full moon and eclipse were great. What a clear, beautiful night. The other day I went out to the wood shed at night, must have been a week ago, and got a load of wood, picking up some logs, when I heard, "Grrrrr..."

It was low. Kind of deep. The way it resonated, it was something bigger than a dog, or about that size.

You know what it was? No? Me either. I dropped the wood and high-tailed it back to the house and turned on the oil-furnace for the night. I don't like to send my money to Hugo Chavez or the King of Saudi Arabia to the extent I can avoid it but I also don't want to mess with some large-growling creature hiding somewhere in the wood pile.

I mean, it took 60 million years to make that oil but I only have two hands and need both of them. I picked the lesser of two evils.

Anyway, the moon. With the moon last night, I could confidently go out in the middle of the night and get some wood. It was like day, in Sweden in the winter anyway, with strong moon shadows and clear light.

And now today the birds are chirping, the sun is shining. The ice is still solid. The dogs are all in a good mood and have figured each other out and are down with the system, everything is going smoothly. The baby is sleeping in her crib now, my son seems to like math. A German magazine just bought a domain I registered in 1997 (and paid $15 a year since) for $5000.

Yikes, I'm about to jinx something.

John McCain can't keep his girlfriends out of the NYT. See, Barack can keep things quiet. He'd better, Michelle seems like a tough cookie. And they say he doesn't have experience! McCain is an amateur compaired to Barack. If he can't manage his extra-marital affairs, how can he deal with Iran?

On to the dogs.

Cedar, Boon, Daisy and Molly went skating. Here.

Bear didn't come... jumped in a car and sat there until we got back. Princess (1 and 2), Moki, Petra, Fletcher... anyone else? Here.

Here is old Dusty with the horses. Hear the birds?

Malachi: he goes for a walk every day and I might let him in general cirrculation... or not. We'll see. And he's a little skinny these days, maybe staying outside so much, as he likes to do, so he get's extra breakfast. Here.