It was 56 in denver when we got in and i cant get warm. And i get it about the age thing. A 12 yr old husky and a 10 yr old gsd are similar as far as both being in the geriatric group. Also both have bad hips.

I think we have more snow on the way wed, and i have yet to figure out how long it takes to go 100 miles to durango in 4wd

Blasted mice this spring are driving me nuts!! Talking to others around here, it seems as if this has been one of the worst years for mice invading the house. I'm trapping them and getting 2-4 mice a night ... disgusting!!

So I'm going to get really disgusting. Skinning the doesn't gain me anything, it'd take a humongous number of mice to make anything ... two mice per finger of a set of gloves and them at least a couple for the palm and back.... nope, that isn't feasible.
In theory, our mice aren't supposed to be diseased - thinking hanta virus - and since the prevalence of diseased mice seems to be small in Brewster County, so I'm not particularly worried about catching anything from them ... so, what's the best use for these disgusting little furry bodies?

Al, you need a pet snake. Or two or three I just toss them in the trash. We had a big influx late last fall. Think I've spent a couple hundred on pet safe bait stations, anticoagulant bait ( safer for dogs than the neurotoxins as vitamin k is an antidote.) As well as at least a dozen snap traps. I use the bait stations guardedly even though with the size of my dogs, one bait block would not be a huge issue. The spare bait is kept up on a high shelf in the garage which is always shut and the baited stations are in closed rooms/buildings in really inaccessible places (safer for the dogs but getting those stations in an out always leaves me bruised and/or bleeding. I use small traps at night in open areas ( along baseboard) but that's a pain because they have to be put down at night after the dogs are in their respective sleeping areas and picked up in the morning when the dogs have free roam of the house. And those snap traps are TOUCHY! Hard to set with them snapping shit and hard to move without them popping. And disgusting and a bit heartbeat to dispose. But had to be done. I have an empty dresser drawer in an upstairs bedroom that is no longer used and found it fill of insulation tufts and seeds from outside. As well as the usual disgusting detritus. Which is why I do not discourage garter snakes from around the house foundation. Though it was heartbreaking when I found one dead, stuck trying to get out from behind the house siding. I'm the designated critter remover because hubby is a great big marshmallow who, except for house fingers the death of anything living highly distressing. I have trouble with the mice thing but aside from disease, they also chew on wiring which is a big no no.

Not to mention the red squirrels in the attic... But that will be hired out as soon as I get the closet with the access door removed of 35 years of stored stuff.

I had a couple of resident snakes, one left and one was helped to leave.  Ever seen a rattler climb stairs?  It's an interesting sight but I wasn't impressed.  He was assisted and snakes don't have nine lives.

I hear people talking about walking out their back door and finding snakes ... shoot, I walk out over my 10 acres and haven't seen one yet.

I don't like glue traps, though I have used them ... to me they're "one use" and throw away.  Get's to be an expensive way to catch more than a couple of mice.  I'm using the old fashioned "snap traps" at least they don't suffer and it's an easy disposal ... hold trap over trash can and lift the snappy part, they generally just drop.  In the past week I've caught 11 of the blasted things ... last night just two so maybe I'm gradually winning this battle.

I'm not a bleeding heart like some folks - I'd never make it as a member of PETA, I don't just gratuitously kill for the sake of it but when they start invading places they shouldn't, in my book, they're fair game.

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We've had our summer it seems - several great days in the 80's.  Now we have another front going through and the weather folks (the one with NWS who should know) are saying we apt to get some snow out of the front that's on it's way through.  I'm done with this stuff!!!!!!!!

Nope! No glue traps! They're one timr and expensive. Wow. 11. When I went on rampage last month, it was, I think, 5 in 10 days. Suspect I'll be setting more upstairs - my seeds will start to germinate and last year, I lost almost all my pepper seedlings - something was biting of the cotyledon leaves, all I had were headless soldiers in their cell packs. At first I thought it was insects of some sort, sent pictures to Cornell entomology and consensus was mice. Not a happy camper. They had to be either climbing or jumping up into the shelves of my plant stand - they were on the 3rd shelf up! So far, the one tray I've started is on a table in my sunroom but it's cool in there and while bright, still not enough light for good seedling growth.

Weather today and tomorrow low 50s. Really quick snow melt for which I'm thankful. Rain tomorrow. My fence wire is supposed to arrive Saturday - so for the snow to go bye bye will be greatly appreciated. Not looking forward to laying 1800' of wire but Ami is getting really antsy to be outside - he likes to both lounge up by the garage and wander around in the woods. I just don't want him wandering over to my neighbors again. The last time was a disaster and I'm deeply grateful they didn't shoot him. They could have by all rights. But. I'm not even sure I have the stamina to go tromping through snow, slush, mud, brush in heavy boots and winter clothes, carrying rolls of wire, wire cutters, splices, surveyors tape. We shall see. May be a 2-3 day chore.

We have been relatively luck as far as the pack rats and deer mice this year. The dogs kill and eat the ones they catch but we do know something is in the loft eves and insulation. Pellet guns work really well. But mostly we use snaptraps and shoving steel wool in any gaps and plants like mint and citronella. Its going to take pulling the roof to deal with the rodent issue. Everyone has them and our area sees hantavirus regularly. BTW packrats are super cute. A few years ago some ferret looking thing got in. But im much more concerned with we had a tarantula sized black widow in squirts room and the spiders are coming out. Im extremely afraid of spiders.

Amymeme how do you deal with nasty wet sludge. It also hit us today. Its not nice dry fluffy stuff like normal it was like wet and slippery and cold and damp.

Nasty, wet, sludge?!!? The bane of my existence. Old towels. Lots and lots of old towels. Baby gates to contain the mess to one area of the house. Lopping off Ami's long leg feathers (they collect ice balls and leave the fur heavily matted so I just chop it off. He's not a show dog.) Tall boots for me. And, at present, I'm negotiating with hubby to only allow 4 scheduled blocks of outdoor time - he is completely "let them do what they want" mind set so he lets them out every single time the waft anywhere near a door. I have no problem in summer though the dogs prefer inside during the day but rain, snow, mud? Having to wipe them down every single time they come in is more than a full time job. And I'm running out of towels. And my dryer has a failing felt drum seal. (Which the repair person I called is not sure the party is available anymore on a 7.5 year old appliance!!!) As a matter of fact - I was just looking at Sam's and Walmart for a multi pack of cheap, think terry utility towels. I've found it's actual easier (and the dogs don't hide under the kitchen table) if I use a hand towel rather than a bath/beach towel. And thin works better than thick.

So yeah. Slop season is a royal pain in the butt. The party 2 days of 50⁰ weather and all day rain, while it made an unholy mess, did remove a huge amount of snow. So no more snowballs in feet and feathers but lots of mud on the underbellies. Al's desert looks awfully good at the moment

Really sad you cant repair a less then 10 yr old appliance anymore. Has me worried that we jusr redid all the appliances in 2017 and 2018. 2019 the water heater melted and started smoking and that was the original 1978 sears and roebuck one from when the house was built.

It is definitely spring. Wet sludge, dogs tracking chunks of prickly pear cacti, mid teens at night and mid 50s during the day and potato planting started.

Did I say something about yo-yo weather?  This is what I woke up to this morning.  Thursday 80+; Friday 70+; Saturday ... so far we haven't made it out of the 30's!!!  16:00 and it's made it  up to 34 with a predicted low tonight of 38 ... there's something seriously wrong with that picture!!!  (( added footnote:  I went out to scrape some snow around - moved it away from the pump-house doors so I could shut them before it gets "down to 38" tonight.
Note to self:  You really need to get something resembling SHOES, sandals are great for decent weather but wet and snowy don't make it!! ))

I tried to get the two of them in the same picture but Avalanche was having none of Zeus' "Let's PLAY!!"  Suffice it to say that at 6 months Zeus is a tad taller than Avalanche and probably weighs in at 10-15 pounds more!  Stupid puppy is gonna be a big dog when he grows up.  He still bows to Avalanche and it isn't always a play bow, sometimes it's an "Okay, you're boss!  I'll behave!!"


Avalanche was his normal self, " It's not sunny and warm and I don't wanna go out!"  His bladder eventually got the better of him so he went out for a while.  Of course when he went out Zeus decided that no matter what that white stuff was, if Avalanche wasn't worried then he wasn't either ... 'course he's been doing the "I want out! No I don't!!" all morning long.  He finally got a boot to help him out.  Playing that game for over an hour gets real old!

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The mice have been moving around and Avalanche caught himself three of them which was three four up on me.  Avalanche 4, Traps 0!!  He caught two overnight and one this morning - he's good about it but then he leaves the carcass in the middle of the living room floor!

Wow. Now I know the world is topsy turvy!

God will get ya - I was feeling all smug when I saw your snow pic, as in hah - ours is mostly melted and we're heading into a week of 50's. Welp. Let Ami out with his bone and, womp, 2" of snow out of nowhere

On other news, had the granddaughter overnight and she had multiple bouts of diarrhea through the day and miserable. I checked with my son this evening and he said she was fine. Then got an update an hour ago. Here's the screenshot, he said it so much better then I could:

I'm not sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for "the poor puppy" or maybe a bit of both? Your son certainly has a way of saying things that'll make your day.

Since we're supposed to be back in the 80's by midweek, here's the same photo as earlier - 24 hours later!  Thankfully someone brought my mountains back!

I'm gonna guess "mowing the lawn" is  a foreign concept to you.

Eighties. Nice. I'm excited about 50s next week

Yep. Even though we are not above freezing today, that 2" is mostly gone on all the sunny spots and tree root zones. Shady streets still have a smattering of snow. Not sure about the woods - the winds are wicked today and I'm staying inside!

Yes - that boy has always had a way with words. Even as a pre-schooler. Waking up from a nap, told us his arm was "buzzing like a bumblebee to describe numbness from sleeping on his arm wrong.

The best, though, was what he told his father after he had an overspeed incident on heavy city traffic - the floor mat got stuck over the accelerator (we didn't know it at the time, car just started accelerating rapidly. Car was a WRX with turbo) Though he handled the emergency beautifully at the time, he was shaking when it was over. Later, more calm, he told his father " the good news is the cat is whisper clean. Bad news is my underwear is not."  Cat being catalytic converter and the reference to interest was metaphoric!

"grass" only has one definition for most of the folks out here and I don't indulge!  I've seen a couple of 'city folks' try to put some grass in to keep the dust down and then we hit 3 months of 90° weather with no rain ... I appreciate that they put their money into something other than vapor lights (which are now outlawed down here) but they really could have asked firsts.

We've gotten into the 60's today but with the humidity it's cold!  Humidity, light breeze, less than desirable temps and I can't get warm today!!!

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Sudden acceleration when unexpected is definitely not a joking matter!  Shortly after I moved to Houston - which would make it the early 80's - there were a string of accidents caused by cars that accelerated without cause - they just decided the driver was going too slow, I guess.

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I'm not sure about my plants yet, the fig is leafing out nicely, the maple and the two oaks haven't shown any indication that they're going to bud out.  These are the same trees that weathered last winter with no problem except getting eaten - the mice<?> really like the two oaks!
I would have expected some greening of my strawberries but I'm thinking that since the got froze and didn't get any water they might be history ... too bad, too, they didn't produce much last year but the handful I got off them was sweet!
[ETA] Just went out to water them all and the trees twigs aren't brittle so maybe there's some hope for them after all.

Well, I've had better days.  Had to get up to empty my bladder at about 0530 - late for me - and decided to head back to bed.

Got woke up - if I ever really got back to sleep - to Avalanche puking his guts up.  He went out but of course Zeus decided he had to go out too.  Very short discussion between then when Zeus decided he was happier on the porch.  Since Avalanche normally has a good stomach I gave him a 1/2 can of dog food about 10:00.  Took him into town - ready to stop at a moments notice - stopped at a friends house (he's not there so I'm not visiting, trying to fix his blasted water pipe) then after about an hour of losing the pipe battle we came home.  Avalanche was crashed and then, a while later, say 17:00 I got to see that dog food again.  I am not happy - Avalanche doesn't feel good.  If I had some chicken, I'd do the chicken and rice, but since he likes rice, I think we'll just do rice for him this evening.

Hopefully he gets to feeling better and it's just a short bug he picked up somewhere.

I have no idea what it was but it lasted about 36 hours and he was back to normal. Of course, at their age (Sky and Avalanche) when they get ill all I can do is pray that it's something relatively minor.

Well, here I set ... I have one dog in the house, Avalanche. I use a gate on the front door and Zeus knocked it down and they all took off. Avalanche headed to a neighbors who held onto him for me.
As for the other two, they've been galavanting for 7 hours and it's now full dark. I go out and call Zeus - since he normally comes - but so far nothing. I've got notices up on the FB groups so I hope someone sees them and gives me a call.

SHIT!!!!!

Did they come back?

Zeus came home about midnight, he woke me up when he bounced onto the porch.
Sky was on the porch when I got up this morning, both are okay but Sky seems anxious.

I suppose whether it's city or country we all have things to worry about when the dogs are loose.

It's been really quiet around here today. Zeus isn't picking on anyone - Avalanche just grumbles "Leave me alone!" - and he hasn't even bothered Sky. Sky looks like she's showing her age, she's been out of it almost all day long - I'm thinking she might be just a bit tired.

I've got to convince her to let me take pretty big bur out of her foot. It's caught between the pads and I tried to wiggle it out and she pulled her foot back. If I don't get to it, I figure she'll work it out on her own.

Oy. Just saw this. So very happy all are back home. So worrisome when animals take off. Son 2 has a much loved kitty that disappeared just over a week ago. He and DIL are devastated - Kitty slept with them every night.

Yesterday everyone was recovering from their night gallivanting ... it was as quiet as a tomb 'most all day long.

Sky's apparently gotten the bur out of her foot 'cause she's walking normal again. I wasn't sure yesterday whether it was just the bur or that and old age from her run.

I've only had one dog that I was comfortable sleeping with. Misty, my first Sibe, would curl up into my back when it was cold out and spread her entire length along the wall when it was warm. Sky and Avalanche won't even consider it and Zeus is still to much puppy, he gets on the bed and he wants to play while I want to sleep!

Glad they are back home. Always scary when they get out. Been lucky so far at this house no escapes, though had a very close call with door darting when we first moved here. Hubby nearly pulled the skin off Kye's back dragging him back into the house when he tried to get out. Kasper has been trying to push his head under the fence here lately. The fence is concreted under the chainlink all around but they didn't install the metal stripping at the bottom of the chain that keeps the chain from flexing at the base so still trying to decide if it has enough flex for him to actually get out. The deer have been coming up into the berry patch which is what has him trying to push at the fence as he is trying to smell. I have started to pile poop along that portion of the fence which has solved the issue for now.

When Kye was gone for 3 days several years ago when he got back he was out of it for a week. He didn't really do anything but hang out with some gal's hoard of cats and try to steal their food but that was apparently very taxing.

Kenzi sleeps with us in winter some. Though it's getting harder for her to get into bed and in the summer it's warmer than she likes up there. Kasper likes to be in the bed but he doesn't sleep with us. He gets in bed for the morning and sticks around for that last hour to half-hour before I get up. I couldn't sleep with him since he likes to sleep fully on me like a blanket.

I have a problem and I think I've mentioned it before - getting Avalanche or Sky to go out is becoming a disaster.  I haven't found any new spots on the floor so they must be doing their business when they do go out.

Avalanche would not go out this evening - because every time the door is opened Zeus has to be on the other side of it.  He's been here for six months I would have figured that things would level out a little but on this issue it's just getting worse.

If I pick up the leash, Avalanche is ready to go (because Zeus is on lead at the house when I have Avalanche out)  Ditto Sky when we go walking out back except she has to put up with the little monster which she does with varying degrees of grace.

He's literally gotten the bottom of my shoe in his face when he rushes the door because I can't put a leash on one dog while he's making an ass out of himself.

Not sure how to work this out ....

ETA: No I wasn't ready for a puppy ... go ahead, you told me so!