My Bit of Earth

SNAG Conference in Chicago

Sweet Husband went to the Society of North American Goldsmiths conference in Chicago last week--here are the pictures.

Dominion

I usually don't do heavy reading before bed, but these last few nights I've been reading "Dominion".  Right now I'm only in the second or third chapter, but this guy makes lots of sense.  He's not out to convert us all to vegetarianism or put chickens up in satin-lined coops.  He just says that we owe it to all animals to cause them as little pain and suffering as possible.

First of all, he points out one of my big problems with the PETA-everyone-should-go-vegan-crowd, and that is--if there was no financial incentive to raise meat, the animals now farmed for meat would not exist. 

(Wait a sec!  You mean, farmers can't just afford to keep feeding domesticated animals indefinitely with no potential for eventually making money to feed their families? Well, maybe we should just release them all into the wild.  What?  You mean there aren't wide expanses of wild space left to release them to?  You mean animals that have been domesticated for hundreds of years aren't going to do so well fending for themselves and would probably die horribly of starvation?  Well, goodness, that's a problem now, isn't it?)

Secondly, I think it's interesting that he argues it all from a very Christian framework.  He points out the fact that many people read the verse that says man was given dominion over animals and think that's the end of the thought.  Yes, man was given dominion over animals, but we still need to remember that they're a gift from God and we need to treat them accordingly--with dignity and respect.

He also discusses how many people say that, because animals don't rationalize, we don't have to be considerate of their feelings.  He points out that, even if they don't know what they are or what their place in the universe is in the way that humans do, they still have the present ability to feel.  They may not know what their suffering means, but they know that they are afraid or in pain in "the now". 

It's all a bit hard to read, but the struggle has been worthwhile.

Mexican Midget

I finally made it back to Sunrise to check on the Midgets yesterday. Good thing too! They only had 3 or 4 left. I can't wait for their tiny tomato goodness....

Sweet Husband's Senior Show

This weekend was Sweet Husband's Senior Show--here are the pictures.  And he made the paper even.

This beautiful, organic, heirloom bouquet...

...is brought to you by the Saturday Lawrence Farmers Market. It smells beautiful, but not floral-shop-y. It reminds me of my Grandma Mary's house in the country when I was little.

If I should die tommorow....

....it'll be ok. Because I've grown and eaten one gorgeous...red...perfectly ripe...perfectly sweet strawberry.
Yup, it was really that good.

Shameless Advertising

If you're around Lawrence this weekend, you should come to Sweet Husband's show. I have some pictures of his work posted here, and here are the details for the show....

Attack Repelled

If the curtains hadn't been in the washer, we'd have never known. Luckily, they were being cleaned, and therefore weren't obscuring our field of view. Sweet Husband saw them first. There were three of them--perched on the fence greedily surveying my garden, their intended prize. I quickly sprang for the door. I threw it open and stared the invaders down for half a heartbeat before the dogs--valiant, fearless pups that they are--ran past me to attend to my arugula, to champion my carrots. The three rascals quickly retreated to the high ground, and I snapped this picture of one as he turned tail to run.

Moe Speaks: First Agility Class

I went to my first agility class last night. I was a little unsure at first. 

We started out doing this thing where Mom wanted me to stand on a board--at least, I think that's what she wanted. It was hard to tell.

Then we played on this thing called an A-frame. I got really excited during that part. I wanted to run to the top and then jump off, but Mom made me walk down the other side instead. 

Next we went to the tunnels. Mom said I was like a duck in water there. I was a little disappointed though, there were no rats at the end.

Last we did these jumping things. I was a little tired by then so I wasn't really into the jumping, but Mom had the bar set pretty low so I could kind of just walk over.

Overall, I'm not sure what I think about it. It's definitely not as much fun as earthdog. But Mom says if we like agility we can do it a lot more often because we wouldn't have to drive for hours to get to events. I think agility was a lot more work for her, though. At earthdog she just basically lets me go and then stands back, last night she was running almost as much as me.

Reinsch Rose Garden

I made a quick trip to the Reinsch Rose Garden in Gage Park in Topeka over lunch today. It's not quite ready yet. The climbers and shrubs were all in bloom, but the tea roses were all buds still. Nonetheless, it was great--I didn't want to go back to work!

An overall shot of the garden. As you can see they have a ton of teas all out in the middle. It's really going to be gorgeous in just a little bit.

This yellow rose was part of the border. It was a little raggedy. So much so, in fact, that I couldn't see the name plate to figure out what kind it was. It smelled lemony.

Maybe it was just what was in bloom, but it seemed like there were a ton of single blossom roses. I really love them, so it was a lot of fun to see so many different varieties. This is a Playboy Floribunda.

An Altissimo Climber--love, love, love the color.

A Flutterbye Shrub.

A Carefree Sunshine Shrub.

A Trumpeter Floribunda. Doesn't the color of this just fit the name perfectly?

A Just Joey Hybrid Tea. When I get my rose garden someday this will be one of the first roses I plant. I adore the color and smell.

This poor sweet flower somehow got the name "Fred Loads". Pretty rose, unfortunate name.

More in a few weeks . . . .

Introducing....

....My Bit of Earth the Website! Yup, that's right, I finally found some page building software that I could figure out how to use effectively (thanks Nice Google People). It's not quite as easy as blogger, but it's pretty darned close. Comments on how to improve the layout and flow (as well as comments catching my spelling mistakes and typos) will be much appreciated.

First Fruits

I haven't been so excited about something in the garden for a long time! I tried to grow strawberries last year and they failed miserably. I let out a little squeal of delight when I saw that this little guy and his friends were beginning to form. Fresh strawberries soon--yum-o!

The potato plants are also coming along really well, although I wish I had a taller container to plant them in. I read, and experienced potato growers confirm, that the secret to getting lots of potatoes is to keep adding dirt as the seedlings grow. The more of the plant you can get underground, the more room there is for potatoes to grow. The trouble is, the tallest container I had was only about three feet tall, and it's already full. But even if we only get a few it's still been fun!

Requiem for Roses

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not yet, but my roses did not survive their winter sojourn in my attic. My heart did a little nose dive when we pulled them out and they were all brown and brittle. When I cut them back almost to the ground and there wasn't even a speck of green, I knew they were past the point of rescue.

I've kind of fallen in love with my little eclectic, hippie vegetable garden, so I haven't really had time to miss the roses. But all of sudden everyone else's roses have started blooming and it's made me a little sad not to have my own. They were a lot of trouble, but they were the kind of trouble I don't really mind taking.

For a few seconds this morning I thought about getting a bush and just planting it outside of our house. It would have to be something much less fussy to be sure; something that could live without much care when we move, because you never know if the people who move in next will be gardeners or not. And it would be pushing the "no gardening" clause in our lease...but I suppose that hasn't stopped me yet!

But maybe the better answer is just to enjoy other people's roses, and wait until we're more settled to get more of my own. The Reinsch Rose Garden is about 2 miles from where I work, and is supposedly gorgeous, the Laura Conyers Smith Garden was great last year, and (although it's a bit of a drive) the Capaha Rose Garden in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, is also one I'd like to see.

I'm such a little rose junkie, right now I'd be happy with just a sniff.

Proud Parent of a Junior Earthdog

The Wee Welshman and I traveled to Iowa this weekend to attend an earthdog test. What is this earthdog-thing, you ask? Well, it goes something like this....

Most terrier breeds were originally bread to search out and kill vermin and/or to flush out foxes and other quarry when hounds chased it into its den. Earthdog tests are meant to emulate that type of work. Generally speaking an earthdog "den" is begun by digging trenches in the ground. The sides and roof are made with a plywood "liner" which is then covered over to create an underground tunnel. At one end of the tunnel--behind bars so they don't get eaten--are rats in a cage. The terrier is released at the other end and (hopefully) makes it's way to the rats. Once there the terrier has to "work" (bark, bite, or paw at) the rats for a set length of time.

There are four different levels a terrier can work up to. The first is called Introduction to Quarry, then Junior Earthdog, Senior Earthdog, and Master Earthdog. As you go up each level the tunnel gets longer, the terrier has a different length of time to get to the rats, and the terrier has to work the rats for longer. Also, for each step up the terrier has to "qualify" one extra time.

For example, this weekend Moe did Intro and Junior. For Into he had 2 minutes to get through a 10 foot tunnel to the rats and had to work them for 30 seconds once there. He only had to do this one time to qualify. For Junior he had 30 seconds to get through a 30 foot tunnel and had to work for 60 seconds once he got to the rats. He had to do this 2 times to get the title. In Senior obstacles get added to the tunnel and the dog has to do it 3 times, and for Master the dog is released a long ways away from the tunnel and actually has to find the tunnel. A Master dog has to qualify 4 times to get the title.

So now that you (hopefully) understand what earthdog is--our weekend.

We stayed in Stuart, Iowa which is West of Des Moines. It was kind of a pretty little town, but there wasn't much there--lots of corn fields, a tiny old-school downtown.

This is the Junior Earthdog den from far away. Everyone else has to stay 100 feet away while each dog is taking the test so I didn't really get any good close up pictures. But you get the idea kinda-sorta. The tunnels were literally in the middle of a sheep pasture. The Wee Welshman had a great time eating and rolling in the sheep poop.

This is me and Moe with our judge, Carol Anderson, accepting his ribbon for the 1st leg of his Junior Earthdog title on Saturday. That morning he had done ok on the Intro tunnel, but when we got to the Junior he was a little unsure about the longer tunnel and it took him 29.5 seconds to get to the rats. Phew--just under the wire!

Once the tests were over for the day (and after a shower and a nap) Moe and I did a little exploring. We found a little state park, Nations Bridge park, just up the road from our hotel so we went for a little walk along this stream there.

Purple flowers along the stream.

We found these tracks in a soft spot along the stream. I'm not good enough to tell what they were. A few were definitely dog tracks, but some had really long claws. They were almost what I thought beaver tracks would look like?

Moe sniffing new smells. I was a little worried about how he would do being in a strange place and staying in a hotel, but, other than a few middle of the night trips outside, he did very well.

Saving the best for last! Here's me and Moe with judge Jim Moore as we got the ribbon for his Junior Earthdog title. By the time we got to his last test--he did one Intro and one Junior each day--he wasn't messing around. He got to the rats in under 9 seconds, and barked and dug well for the entire 60 seconds.

As a pro-separation-of-powers girl...

...this article troubles me.

The First Farmer's Market Booty

I was grocery shopping this afternoon when I had a happy thought--it's Tuesday and the farmer's market is open.

Pictured here are chives and French Breakfast Radishes from the Guy With the Cool Tomatoes, Purple Asparagus from the Basil and Arugula Lady, and some Spun Honey from...well, from the Honey Lady, I guess.

(5/3/06 Update: I think some the early heat must have gotten to Guy With the Cool Tomatoes' radishes--the texture was wonderful but they were very spicy!)

On the Cost of Pets

Having just had to pull out the evil plastic to pay a fairly expensive veterinary bill myself, I find this discussion on veterinary costs and whether pets are luxury "items" to be interesting.

Around the time the Wee Welshman turned one, Sweet Husband and I made a rough estimate of how much money had been spent on him in the last year. Suffice to say we could have gone on a fairly nice vacation.

Of course, our pups would appear to be a little spoiled to some people. They eat high quality food, go to doggie daycare once a week, and take classes in obedience and agility. I think it's unfair to expect them to be wonderful dogs if I'm less than a wonderful dog owner, and doing all that I can to keep them physically healthy and to provide an outlet for their doggy-brains is all part of the deal. I made the choice to have dogs, so now I have the responsibility to keep them well. And, for me, the returns have been much more than worth the costs.

That's probably why we're not big questioners of vet bills. We've found a group of veterinarians that we really like and trust, and if they say the pups need it, they need it. Fortunately we have that luxury. For us a large vet bill just means we don't get to go out to eat as much for the next few weeks. We haven't yet--knock on wood--had that really huge bill to put our convictions to the test.

But I appreciate the fact that for a lot a people, taking the dog to the vet means a person has to do without necessities, and consequently their pets don't go. Should those people just not get to have pets? Is it better for a dog to be euthanized in a shelter rather than be adopted into a home where it will be loved but maybe only get minimum care? I don't think so, but I think there are a lot of people who would disagree with me.

Thoughts?