Naughty Ike Eats Iron

I came home to an empty house the other day, and although its not unusual for Hubby to not be home, it IS unusual for him to take both dogs with him!  Brix is getting older and can't get into the car himself anymore.  Car rides make him sore and he is laid up for days because of it.

And then I found this.....

What you are seeing here is a brand new cord, a chewed up washcloth, and an herbal guidebook - somewhat chewed.  I wondered what the heck the cord was from?

And then there was this!!!!!

If you look in the middle of the blankets, you will see an iron - yes an iron for fabric!  Chewed into pieces!  Literally chunks of it all over the floor!  That is where the cord came from as well.  It is a specialty iron - sharp on the front and rounded in the back - for applique and for making sharp corners in blocks.  You can also see on the floor in front of the blankets the box that I stored the iron in all the time!  Taking it out and using it, then putting it carefully back in its storage box until the next time.

I do that, you see, because 4 years ago - and the reason I have two irons - one a specialty one, is that we had an earthquake, and my iron was destroyed.  I asked for one for Christmas and I got two - Im that lucky!  One a daily driver, and this special applique and corner/edge iron.

 

There is also this..... all the contents out of my sewing box, including the box lining, and whole box of pins, and a couple of pens!

And this....

You can see the upside down sewing box, and an entire full sized quilt batting - Shredded!!

Not one bit of it useable.  I had to use a magnet to get all the pins up and it took two garbage bags to clean up all the other stuff from everywhere!

In order for him to get ANY of this stuff, he had to open the sewing room door (thank you paddle handle doorknob).  He had to get the iron (in the box) out from under the sewing cabinet, open the box (aka tear it up) and then chew the iron to bits!

So now we have this!  Not only does he have to get the door open, he has to get through the baby gate that is nailed into the door frame!  Ike still thinks he can't jump that high.  He can open a box and eat an iron but imagines himself unable to jump!?!  Unbelievable!  What kind of dog eats an iron???  Naughty Ike does that's who!

What?  Me?  I didn't do anything!  Brix knows better and he doesn't like it!  Brix does not like Naughty Ike's Adventures and the stress that it brings to the house!  Why can't we all just get along and not eat moms stuff?

May you be blessed with better dog adventures, and if you're not, may the dog only eat the stuff that belongs to the guy who brought him home!!

Blessed be and chewed up free!

Naughty Ike rides alone (Mostly)!

It has been a heck of a month here in the Burg!  We went from blazing sun early in the summer - 90 degrees every day - almost a drought even- to pouring rain nearly every day for 47+ days in a row!  It was about to make everyone in the Valley crazy from the rain - including the dogs!

Brix is allowed on the couch - he is old and has been allowed all along - Ike is not - he chews the plants and the pillows and makes a general mess as well as kicking Brix off the couch and not making room for people!

Brix and Ike are great companions and they get along great - as long as they can get outside and get some exercise daily - especially Ike!  If he don't run - he don't sleep and he is extra naughty when we have to go to work during the day.  Ike is the epitome of "I can do bad all by myself!"  They are a full on comedy team together though!

And then there is this.....what is left of a 15 year old Poinsetta and an 8 year old Greek Myrtle!

Hubby thinks he was only trying to bury a chew bone - so Brix couldn't steal it and since he couldn't be outside! I think he just wanted to dig in drier soil and play with some sticks that weren't water logged!

Almost got them cleaned up and put back together!  They seem to be recovering all right - we shall see as the time goes.

And..... I had round two of Covid at the end of August as well!  This round was worse for me than the first go round and I was pretty laid up for about a week!

Ike is not a fan of reading quietly!  

He does like to snuggle while we sleep though!

I finally put on the "Dog Show" movie - not kidding - it was like when I put on Barney (Rye) or Bob the Builder (Reed) when the boys were little and I was sick and no one could watch them.  TV babysitter!  Ike loves dog movies!  He watched the whole thing and then took a nap!  Thank Goodness!  Dog Show is his favorite so far.  Yes - I am a terrible dog mom!

This is a hole - one of many - that he dug in the yard!  Then he and Brix would take turns laying in them in the heat - presumably to cool off in the soil?

When I hollered at him for digging yet another hole, he pretended he couldn't understand what I was saying - "Huh?"  "Who Me?"

And then.... trying to make up for it by literally sitting on my lap and "helping" me weed!

"Mom!!!! Brix won't let me lay with him on the Nest!!!"  The "Nest" is a floor couch made of a futon mattress and some couch cushions that we made up when Reed shattered his elbow and couldnt "roll out" of a bed.  The kids and dogs all use it - and sometimes I do too depending on how much a wrench my back doing yard work!  Brix sometimes loses patience with Ike - Ike has no idea of his own size and when he is snuggling with people or other pets - he is so heavy that it hurts and you can't get him off of you!  Hubby had to help me the other day when he climbed up on the couch with me and I couldn't get him off of me!

Sometimes he kicks in his sleep too - and his paws hitting you are like getting punched in the face by Muhammed Ali!  No butterfly and I'd rather have a bee! 

Then he gives you a little kiss to make up for it!

And tries to "help" with whatever you are doing!  Look at the size of his head!  He is 8 months old now and weighs about 110 pounds we estimate - because we cant lift him to weigh him properly!

This is how he helps with the dirt from digging potatoes!  He's holding down the tarp that covers my winter soil storage area!  Goooood helper!!  He did help dig the potatoes, and we got about a 5 gallon bucket from our five "hills" of potatoes - I did have to chase him down because he would dig them and run off with them if I didn't get them first!

One hill of "Gold Rush" potatoes - minus the ones with Ike bites in them!

Pepper harvest and part of the potato harvest.

Helping again!

Helping harvest apples now!  We had a good apple harvest here on the farm!  Stay tuned for that post next week!

Brix knows how best to help - lay in the sun and stay out of the way of Ike and any wheeled item or shovel and flying debris!  Keeping in mind that he was a bit naughty when he was younger, and actually ate half an apple tree that I was trying to plant!  Read about it here.  He is much more mellow now and he does try to guide Ike in the ways of the dog, but Ike pretty much give him the "middle finger tongue" also!

Sometimes they are naughty together and wander (or run hells bells) to the neighbors to see what they are doing- luckily the neighbors are mostly nice people who like dogs, and it has even let us meet one of our neighbors who we have a lot in common with so it turned out to be a good thing- just like having the boys is!  

May the sun shine on you more than a bit and your dogs be more joy than naughty!

Blessed Be!

The Sixth Year - That Which Has Been My Delight!

I have started and re-started this post a hundred times now - trying to grab the fleeting moments of clarity that occur on this day - the day you were stolen from us so harshly six years ago.  

1st birthday - a wagon and lots of balloons that you loved!

I am tired of loss.  I am exhausted from keeping up the faces and facades.  I am tired to my soul. It seems that just when I get my feet under me and I am feeling like I have strength to go on, another wave of loss hits.  Or another loss is had.    We have survived 6 years without you now and sometimes it feels like yesterday still that you left.  YES  I KNOW!!!  YOU DIED!  You didn't leave, pass on , go away, go around the corner.  You died.  It still sits on my shoulders and whispers in my ear every day! 

You now have some more friends there from this side of the veil....Gramma Morgan, Ripley, Todd, "Big Mike", and the baby who came to you without a name.  I'm certain I know who it is and I am even more saddened for his parents who have to walk this path of loss now too.  Just a few of the losses we have had this year.  All so freaking hard.

The bear hat that we couldn't go anywhere without.

I always try to honor you on these days - I have talked about that before in posts, trying to honor you somehow...even just looking at pictures, doing things you liked, or doing good out in the world.  So far all I have accomplished today is keeping the dogs from fighting over a stupid bone (that Brix doesn't even really want - he just doesn't want Ike to have it), and taking a nap! And writing this I guess too.  Im counting it!

I don't fish, but I would love to go read a book while you boys fish today!  I miss Rye and Reed- brothers together - even when you run me over with a trailer and crash me in the Razr and everyone laughs. I miss Rye and Reed and the Fellas too.

I miss all of it so so much.  I miss you so so much! All of us here do, even your damn dog!  The people who always reach out to me on these days miss you and remember you with us.  I appreciate them so much for that.  Remembering that you existed.  I miss the Rye Sign.

So today, although I am once again writing my pain, I am also remembering you, remembering things we did and planned that we never got to do.  Through my tears is also delight that we got to have you at all, for any time. "When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you will see that in truth, you are weeping for that which has been your delight." - Khalil Gibran.   I am weeping, for that which has been my delight and that which has caused me such pain.  It is year 6 without you here and I weep often, but this time is really the first time that I could see that it was also my delight.  We March into year 7.....blessed be.

Brix and Naughty Ike Ride Again!

It has been an eventful summer here in the Burg and Brix and Ike have been having a heyday trying to keep up with it all!  As you may have read in my last post "Why is it so Friggin Hot here" it has been really friggin hot here! 80's almost every day and one day in the low 90's which is really too hot for the Humphreys - and their dogs!

Even though we live lakeside, when it gets this hot the dogs don't really like to go in the lake very much - and when they do they end up getting the barfers!  I think the heat lets some bacteria grow that isn't there when it is cooler! So we got a kiddie pool for the dogs - mostly Ike because Brix will swim anyway, he just wades and doesnt drink the lake water. Ike however, does not like to swim and really did not like to get his belly wet even!  He would go in  just until the water touched his tummy and then bolt out like a rocket!  

So we set up the kiddie pool and put it in the shade of the Rowan tree and we tried to get him to play in it.  He would drink from it and wander around it and paw at the water, but he would not go in!  I had to go in and water the greenhouse and when I came back out......

Kiddie pool down!!!  He was using it as his own personal frisbee and flipping it around the yard like a kite instead of a 48" round pool!  NOT COOL IKE!!

Then he was mad that it wouldn't hold water!

So we tried again.... 

Meet the 48" "Dog Proof Pool"!  Ordered from Amazon after a cousin showed her son and his dog rough housing on one just like it - she also has a big dog that may or may not have destroyed one of the plastic ones like Ike did!

Fun in the sun is so much better now that he can safely cool off without the lake touching his belly!  He will play for a bit in the water then lay down in the sun for a few minutes - back and forth, until....

Ike sleeping after a long day at the pool- yes on my pillows!  Arrgh!

His favorite sleeping spot (after my pillows) has been the space right in front of the oven!  During the fall and winter when the furnace is on, the floor there is nice and warm from the heat zones that run through that part of the floor.  In the summer, anytime I cook the whole area around the oven warms up.  Brix has much thicker fur that Ike so he is not about laying in front of the oven.  He does sometimes like the warm floor in the winter though.   Always sleeping upside down, like a two year old!

They really are handsome boys arent they?  I did a Paint Night with Sara a couple of weeks ago and it was a "Paint your Pet" event! Reeds girl Keyona got us going to it and it was super fun!  This was my photo that I sent (above) so that they could put it on the canvas for me and help me paint.  See below for the finished product!  If you get a chance - do the paint night (or day) - learning this new craft was really fun and good for me to get out of my comfort zone for a minute!

Sara did help me do the eyeballs and the whiskers on Brix.  I could not get the line on the nose right either - those are tough for a first timer!  I did finally get the brown patch on Ike's chest right finally - it full on started out looking like a uterus!  Ugh!! I have this sitting on the shelf in my office now and its so nice to be able to see the boys during work too!

Ike does not always want to listen to me, and this is mostly the look he gives me.  Since he doesnt really have a middle finger - ya know?  Brix was in this picture but he doesn't want to be associated with the middle finger tongue giver so he tries to sneak out of the photos!  It's hard to get them both looking at the camera!  We are working on manners, and on understanding our own size as well - Ike does not know he is bigger than everyone - including Brix!  

I hope your summer is just how you like it and that you have a little funny Naughty for that parts that aren't!

Blessed Be - Stay Cool!