Dog Eat Dog World

The sun's rays twinkled through the pine and the coolness of the morning lay out before me as I walked down our road with Murray, our English Mastiff. He has become my workout partner lately. I know if I am late or being lazy, he grumbles outside on our deck in an effort to wake me up and get me out there.

Mornings are so beautiful here in the foothills. This sacred time of day which is solely mine, before the girls are awake; before the day takes over and the 'do this - do that' mayhem ensues. Today, Claire, our Italian Greyhound decided to leave the warmth of her bed to join us. My gentle giant and elegant hound. I typically do a loop down our road and I get at least one good hill to climb if I take a side road and then I turn around and head back. The whole walk is about 20 minutes. I can stretch it to 30 but this morning I was just looking for a brisk escape. I especially love the downhill parts of the main road when I feel like my brain is still half asleep. I can walk on autopilot and not worry about anything. Like today.

We had a good pace going as we made it down the road and were just coming to where it flattens out and becomes a couple neighbor's adjoining pastures and properties when I heard a loud scream, "Pick up your dog! Pick up your dog! Pick up your dog!" I jumped back and grabbed at Claire, trying to get her up into my arms. In no quicker than a blink my neighbor's German Shepherd was upon us barking, growling and snarling. She started attacking Murray and biting him! Barking and baying ensued. All the while I shuffled around the mayhem trying to yell at her to leave him alone. Claire huddled in the safety of my arms. The shepherd's entourage was there as well, two chihuahuas who egged her on. She was their hero; attacking a dog Murray's size was the stuff their dreams are made of.

My neighbor finally made it down her pasture and onto the road. Her dog did not listen to her calls and would not ease up. In attack mode; she kept reaching in and taking bites at Murray's rear. Finally after one final swoop my neighbor was able to get her dog by its collar and I led my dogs away from the scene for an injury check. She asked if they were all right. I answered I guess so. It was all so sudden and parts of the incident seemed like they played out in slow motion. Murray, God bless him, was so sweet through it all. He barked, winced and scowled but only wanted her to leave him alone, he never once got a bite in. He gnashed his terrible teeth a few times. But I'm convinced now he's a lover not a fighter. I won't tell him he had his butt handed to him by a girl.

Summer First Fruits

Slowly we are reaping a summer harvest. Albeit small, our garden's first fruits have yielded a HUGE green zucchini and about 18 tomatoes (2 red plum and 16 tiny yellow grape tomatoes). It is always such a thrill to go out and see what may be ripe for the picking. Today's tomatoes were a pleasant surprise.  An even bigger thrill is the pride we feel when eating something that is grown here on our property.

This Means War

A huge black vortex is getting closer. Looking up at it, one sees nothing. Nothing but darkness. If only this freeway led somewhere. Just giant expanses as far as the eye can see. The scent is still fresh, but barely. Every few hours, food is dropped from above, seemingly out of nowhere. Vagabonds and scavengers, scouts and generals, each play their role. Working toward one unending goal; make Amber's summer a living hell.

I've declared war on the ants in my kitchen. They have been trying to get the best of me. They think they are smart with their pathways and tunnels on my hardwood floors. They scoff at the shop-vac as I drag it upstairs to help them meet their maker. They greedily drag bits of toast, a tidbit of egg, some leftover cereal, a piece of fruit. All of them, marching single file, dismembering yesterday's lunch time morsels. Their best friend is my two year old. But I laugh, as a sadistic sneer travels across my face. Sweat beads my brow. They are being zapped up one by one with my vacuum hose. I have no mercy, no sympathy to their plight. Their need to take over my kitchen. I feel smug. Clearly superior. Smarter. Definitely faster. A problem solved. Until dinner and I see one run across the table, another one darts across my floor and I know deep down the ugly truth. There are millions more of them and only one of me.

Girl Power

Today we graduated from swim lessons. My four year old jumped off the big diving board into the deep end and swam to her instructor. Two year old sister got to play in the splash pool after her big day. It was a memorable hour. My eyes were teary but alas, it was my sunscreen and makeup melting into my blurry eyeballs. But I started the day off right this morning with wild berry shortcakes & cool whip for breakfast since it was their last big day of swim. We had In-N-Out to celebrate their triumphant finales.

Finally at the end of the day, I got the chance to play, visit and laugh with a great friend of mine; and tool around with her new screen printing machine. Talk about entertainment! The hours flew by, the kids ate popcorn, watched a movie and started another when I looked at my watch and thought, WOW! I can see why guys can hang out in a garage for hours on end. The type of focused fun we girls had today should make all my mom friends proud -- Rock on!

State Fair

We grabbed lunch after swim lessons and took the girls to the California State Fair yesterday. Despite the heat, throngs of people and long lines; we had a great time. We meandered through a couple of the exhibition halls, Walt Disney's family history was on display, each State county had a display (Placer won this year!) and there were some great art & animation exhibits. Then we traveled back in time and were scared by giant dinosaurs, but T-Rex and Triceratops were too much for our littlest; she wanted to leave. The girls and I milked a Jersey cow. She was beautiful.

We saw gorgeous show cattle and amazingly groomed chickens. The largest roosters ever, we could hardly believe our eyes. When they Cock-A-Doodle-Doo'd my hubby reminded me why I'm not allowed to have one for the yard. The petting zoo was by far the biggest hit. The most time and money was spent at this petting zoo. On entry fee and on grain to feed the animals (all right, this was nothing compared to our feeding frenzy toward the end of the day). I know the best words uttered from my mouth yesterday were: "Corn Dogs. Funnel Cakes. Lemonade." As we were driving home we asked the kids what their favorite animals were. Expecting the llama or the cows, we were suprised yet laughed wholeheartedly when they answered, "The goats!"

Pampered Pets

Our hens have a heated hen house for the cold winter nights. Today they move up from pampered to plush housing accommodations. We, ok, my darling husband - installed shade screens all along their chicken run to shade them during the hottest part of the day. He also installed a misting system which is attached to our garden drip system so I was able to turn on the misters for them this morning. Yes, my chickens have a water misting system! This should keep them cool and happy all summer long -Bok Bok!!!

Metamorphosis

Recently came across what I thought was a cool picture…It's this woman sitting on this rock, the world is being destroyed by volcanoes around her and she has this butterfly landing on her hand. It's got this title Iron Butterfly. I didn’t know it was an old hippy band with a heavy ecological slant…kinda neat. Sometimes I feel like that woman up here. The world is going crazy around me. Sometimes I am the crazy world. Sometimes I feel like the butterfly - fragile - yet strong. Anyway - Going to start blogging. Typing. Writing. Thinking about MY OWN METAMORPHOSIS...

My life up here in the Sierra. I'm calling my blog Sierra Gold. From sirens down in Los Angeles to crickets and frogs up here. Some nights the frogs are so stinking loud it’s all you can hear when the windows are open. We used to hear people blasting their bass so loud it was commonplace. The other day with good girlfriend at lunch a person drove by with heavy bass and the noise jarred my memory back into the days of hearing that noise as it went pumping up and down our street. Little does my eldest know that she could have grown up listening to that beat ingrain her head - muffling her life through all her early years. There are no bass thumpers up here. At least not up in our little patch of paradise.

I’ve had some pretty close encounters with the amphibious and reptilian kind since we’ve lived here. (stepped barefoot on a frog in our living room, lizard crawled into my pants when I was in the bathroom one day, bats in the house, mouse in the yard, snakes on the back deck and front walkway). The other night I walked--barefoot, mind you, into our bedroom and bath (it’s so small I consider it all one room) Luckily I had the light on and voila! A large lizard staring right at me in our bedroom! It was, of course right at the spot where I stand to get into bed. Startled I screamed for my darling husband and he ran in and attempted to catch the damn thing. He always tries to catch things, but gives them too many chances. He misses, then misses again, then misses again, in the meantime the thing proceeds to make fools out of us and we are huffing, puffing and sweating all over the bedroom (not in a sexy way) to get this damn critter --- we finally coaxed it with a broom out from under our bed. He was waiting...hovering above it with a plastic container and I laying crazily on my side under the end of the bed trying to help but was secretly relieved that it was finally over. He released it outside. I wondered how it got into the house. If there were more. Did it have babies. Was it going to a nest?

I was glad he released it outside. Afterward, I ruminated over how when I lived in Southern California I had a lizard scare the crap out of me also when it startled me in a laundry basket in quite the same way. I wanted it dead though. Nowadays, I want it alive and out in our yard to eat bugs. Is that because I am older? Or because I am a land owner- And value the help that these small animals can provide our yard? Or is it because I’ve grown lazy? Hahahaha Yes, lazy and tired from slowly being worn and beaten down by my two busy children each and every day…. aj

Ode to Goats

We own goats. There I said it. Or typed it. Out loud. A city girl who loves to dress up, wear heels and sip wine, has a goat pen. I relish the fact that I can have animals here. I never knew just how much fun goats could be as pets. I always pictured them as dirty, useless, sort of creepy animals. But they are such the opposite - that false impression was before I had ever even met a goat.
They happen to be some of the sweetest, most intelligent, extremely communicative (aka LOUD), social and playful animals I've ever seen. Lately our youngest Nigerian Dwarf goat Hannah has been finding it fun to jump up onto our patio table. It doesn't occur to her that she is not supposed to be up there, it is a natural game to her. She stands up there, proud as can be and announces to the world that she's made it to the top! I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know both of our goats through their silly goat antics. (Yes, I caved and bought another, 'goat for our goat' and thus we have: Georgia Rose). Hannah (aka Hannah Honey Moonshine, which is her given name) is the loudest. She voices her greetings, dismay, boredom, fear, pleasure by a long baying or bleating sound. She has one tiny horn that is trying to grow. She was de-horned and it didn't take. I think she will be my unicorn.
Georgia is more quiet and reserved. Georgia still has her horns and is a little more shy - she makes almost a snorting pig sound (no joke!).

Channeling my inner farm girl, I have become quite talented in baying and bleating back to them in true goat style. The other day, I noticed that many of my potted plants in the yard were dying and I became concerned. And then I noticed on a few later trips outside more and more goat droppings and then little sticks in pots that were once strawberry plants, luscious grapevines, berry bushes - oh yes - my lovely, helpful goats have not been paying particular attention to the yard work they were intended to pursue here on the property....no, they are interested in the tastier greens and delectable vines they find all around the concreted parts of the house! I will have to tell them in my best bleating goat voice tomorrow: PlEaSe StAAAAy AwAAAAy FroMm MyyYyy PlAAAnts!!!! You have your own yard for goat's sake!

Esteemed

Where does our value and self esteem come from? Like a tattoo...is it already on us? Do we come into this world with a healthy view of ourselves already handed down from the Master Designer & Creator? Or are we handed a blank slate, so to speak, to be filled with self-images, praise, good/bad feelings, given to us by family and friends, childhood memories, negative thoughts, fears, weaknesses, the like. What gives us our esteem? When do we gain it? When do we lose it? At what point does someone slip into 'low self esteem' as society calls it. Does someone need to rack up 100,000 negative impressions more or less - on that slate and then bam! - low self esteem hits? I tend to feel that every person is a unique imprinted vessel. Given natural inclinations, gifts, tendencies, weaknesses. We are then put on this earth to demonstrate how we will use these powers - for good or for evil. We have the capacity to hold so much, value things, serve others, give and in return be filled to the brim with love and admiration.

Today my youngest was watching her big sister put on a bathing suit at the swimming pool locker room. When her sister was finished and dressed, she looked up at her and told her that she "looks pretty!" So simple. Such a compliment, a sweet exchange. Took less than two seconds. Straight from the heart of a two year old. Where does love and esteem like that come from?