My experience has been that a dog being picky is not hungry - maybe reduce her calories, cut all meals and treats by 10-20% and then see how she eats. Also - no free feeding, put down for for 20 minutes, remove until next feeding and no treats in between. If she is healthy, she will eat eventually.

Weather!!  Yesterday it was 81°, today our high has been 64° and it's been dropping steadily, currently it's 43° and it's gonna get colder before the night is over ... ramasfragit!  Not supposed to get into the 30's but with this weather who knows??
Of course tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 70's again. and I think I"m gonna grab a book and crawl back under the covers!

The good part of this is that we are getting some drizzle, all day long drizzle, which means it's soaking in rather than running down the road.  Supposed to (really?) rain tonight so I might get enough to fill my water tanks again.  It hasn't been bad but they been approaching the half empty mark (or is that half full?)  5 tanks at 1600 gals per tanks is still plenty of water, even at half empty ... but living where I do I'll take any rain I can get!!
It's giving my turned over garden a good slow soaking, to bad I didn't get the seed in before it got wet.

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@Amymeme I'll agree with you, in my case it's hard to let one eat when he wants and cut back on the other one ... especially when I'm not sure who's eating what.  In @Polarpup21 case, I'd agree that his Sky is just getting even ... but I never did understand cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Weather just is whatever it wants right now. Warm and wet then snow with 85mph wind gusts and wind chill 30 below zero to it was hot today.

So do i have the only dog that will starve herself rather then eat something she doesnt like? I tried to wait squirt out and she started escaping and eating the jack rabbits. But she went 9 full days without eating before i gave her spiders food.

Welp. The violent wind and precipitous temperature drop has passed. Occasional flickers on the power but nothing that lasted more than a minute. Just annoying reset the digital clocks every few hours. Finally just let the stove clock blink and the microwave stay blank. But everyone the poster would return, things everywhere would sing their dingy song. All told, the clocks lost only a minute Temperature - we lost 14⁰ in less than an hour yesterday afternoon and 40⁰ overnight. A bare inch of snow on the ground this morning, with to make everything pristine and pretty. Ami enjoyed making a rolicking snow angel this morning. So, all and all, not really an event, just need to put away all the lamps, unused, and use up the spare water for plants. And enjoy the sunshine from the big window by the kitchen table, gonna be cold today, only low 20s. But - shortlived, expected 47⁰ tomorrow, 57⁰ on Sunday and a whopping 61⁰ on Monday

Since this has somehow doubled as the weather discussion i screenshot weather underground. And no power.

Since there are so few of us still hanging in here, The Desert Pack becomes a little of anything as the conversation twists and turns.

We've been running in the 80's plus or minus 10 degrees for highs.  Bought a fig tree to replace my sticks from the one that got too thirsty.  This one is, in fact, a tree - about 6 ft tall but not much 'body' to the upright.  I noticed that there are, say, a half dozen miniature figs on it - wonder if they're going to turn into anything, I didn't expect anything till next year at the earliest.  The repotted strawberries are alive but they didn't appreciate being put into a different pot - they look a little sad but I figure they'll perk up after a little more sun.

Figs are my favorite! I hope your strawberries recover with sun care.

Sky has been eating more consistently again. I think she doesn't do well with change and I've been traveling a lot. She also gets tired of food, so this week I had to be more creative (and reduce her kibble a bit). She's so weird - her breakfast, lunch/snack, and dinner she behaves differently. Pickiest at breakfast which means doctoring the meal a lot; lunch in a snuffle mat so it's just pure kibble(I mix in some of the puppy's) - no problem, and dinner with minimal doctoring and she gobbles. I'm sure it's due to her activity but it's all the same food through the day it's like she expects to follow this mental pattern.

Back when I was a kid - let's say 13 or so (and yes, if you do the math I've been alive a LONG time) one of our neighbors had a big fig tree in their backyard in California ... but "I don't like figs." Oh, little did I know what I was missing out on.  When I lived on the farm we always had strawberries and rhubarb (so mixed together into a pie -- YUM!!!!) Grandma chased me away from them both just when they were getting ripe!

My Sky still isn't sure about eating much or often but is obviously eating enough that she's isn't apparently losing weight.  I'm really mean in that my pups get a good quality food (in this cases it's Fromm's Reduced Activity & Seniour Gold) that I don't have to buy at the local store.  Having one store 16 miles down the road means that I don't have a lot of options locally ... so I mail order a lot of food stuffs - human and canine.

I don't like social gatherings, well, I don't like groups of more than 25 people or so (and 25 is pushing it!) I was over at the Legion for a chicken dinner and there was this bee buzzing around ... don't know if it was the heat from the stove (outside) or the odor of the oil or ??? Anyway it landed on this one kid, his mom was having kittens, I told him to stand still, reached in got the bee on my hand and walked away with momma yelling "You're gonna get stung!" ... I haven't been stung in well over 20 years and that was when I wasn't looking and rested my arm on the edge of a dumpster which the bee had already staked out ... oops!

I caught Sky wolfing down Avalanches food (well, it's his bowl but they're both eating out of it) so it's obvious she's eating but I'm just not seeing her most of the time. Last night was "I want out", "I want in", doesn't want to be in the crate, doesn't want to be outside and I'm back at the point of "You're not running loose inside if I'm not awake."

I enjoy your stories.

What happens if Miss Sky isn't crated inside while you're not awake, besides potential pee accident?

Yikes 25 people. And no that wasnt sarcastic considering we have less then 700 full time residents in the zip code. Have to go to the aurora va next week. For as many veterans that bring dogs, there isnt a way out of the parking garage without a key or going through the va lobby. Someone will end up offending spider when they dont want to pet her. I put so much into socializing her that she borders on pushy. But id rather pushy then wolfy when elevators and hospital and hotels are concerned.

But back to the social gathering discussion. More people will be on the first floor of the va hospital then my zip code and if the hotel the va pays for is full they could have more people there then the town in winter. It makes me jumpy and now with the homeless issues in the denver metro, other then the hotel and va properties, i will be using uber eats or door dash or something. I felt much better when shadow was still my mean antisocial guard dog.

I have to laugh at the 25 people thing - back about 20 years ago, hubby was sort of coerced into taking an ER directorship position ( a sadly short term proposition in general as ER directors are frequently fired when they don't agree with administration. And hubby is the least politically apt person I know )

Anyway - the position require public speaking to represent the hospital - hubby had it written into his contract that he would not have to speak at any group larger then 10 people. We are the original hermits, that's for sure

PolarPup21 wrote:

I enjoy your stories.

What happens if Miss Sky isn't crated inside while you're not awake, besides potential pee accident?

Thanks, I enjoy writing and talking about my childhood - things that few people can relate to. (( Well, do you remember electric lights going in?? ))

As for Ms Sky, that's the major issue. I can understand (and tolerate) the occasional 'oops' when I've been out (figuratively - asleep or literally - in town) too long but when I'm setting watching TV or reading on the computer and she comes running out of the kitchen without even trying to let me know she wants (or needs) out that's when I get aggravated.

@Lostmaniac In town there's probably a whopping 200 people - these are the folks who cook for and guide the tourists; on Terlingua Ranch probably closer to 1,000 +/- and the Legion draws mostly from the retired folks on the ranch.

I dont even know what the number of full time residents in the actual town are any more. It was about 400. But then people died or moved for medical reasons and corporations bought the houses unseen for cash and they become short term rentals. Then alpine had about 300 full time residents, and now its closer to 90 with 80 short term rentals. The zip code Encompasses 2 counties and includes alpine,gerrard,south fork, jasper,agua ramon summitville, wolf creek ranch and wagon wheel gap. Sadly its that there isnt any long term housing so as leases expire and taxes go up people move to del norte or monte vista or alamosa or just leave colorado for new mexico and texas.

@aljones at least your tourists have services. Ours get told to go one town over if its after 6pm. And multiple people called ME crazy tonight when i told them del norte was right down the road and had a grocery store until 9pm . Technically 19 miles is farther then just up the road of your not from here. The closest real sized supermarket is 50 miles away and most people that live here do that weekly because the tourist town grocery/hunting,fishing/ hardware stores are really expensive. Like on what planet is a pre ground bag of Starbucks coffee $19.99 at safeway its $8.99. And it will probably also be expired.

@aljones i met some people from denton tx today that are convinced its colder where you live then here not counting winter. Id really like to see their reaction to snow in june. Im fairly sure that we are colder then you almost year round. But they were dressed like they were on an artic expedition and it was really nice out today. 42 sunny and the wind stopped for once.

Well, I was backtracking here a bit to see when I put the seeds in my garden and figured that if I'd said anywhere when it was it would have been here ... but obviously not.
It's been a week to 10 days since I stuck the seeds in the ground and I'm not seeing anything that looks green that isn't a weed (... hm, was *that* a weed.) Since I planted them about the time I got the fig (Mar 2 or so) I should be seeing something sprouting, no??

@lostmaniac Our tourists have services during the daytime, after about 9:00PM when they'd be rolling up the sidewalks (if we had sidewalks) there's nothing. Everything is closed! The nearest towns are Alpine 80 miles north and Presidio 75 west on a road I don't want to tackle after dark!

I've watched the temps around and it's funny when it's warmer in update New York (Ogdensburg on the St Lawrence River) than it is here. Doesn't happen often but it does occasionally.

@aljones you won't have to warm up much to be warmer than upstate NY this week. Winter has returned. High of 34⁰ today, 23⁰ tonight somewhat colors the rest of the week. Bare inch of snow on the ground which had Ami making a snow angel. This is not welcome, I've already adapted to warm weather and now I'm COLD.

@amymeme ... high of 53° low of 48° cool but I'll take it compared to 23 argh!!!!

Isn't it odd how we can feel warm when it's 50 out but then when it drops to 40 we're cold?? We've been in the 70's and 80's so this (hopefully) quick drop into the 40's is only temporary.

It's temporary, if you consider a week temporary. But it's gonna be a long week. Worried about my peach trees - their buds are swollen with itty bitty white tips, no green calyx though. Old standard said 23⁰ critical temp, new standard says 18⁰ 10% loss. But I'm gonna have to prune them - there's several branches easy above where I can reach.

amymeme wrote:

@aljones you won't have to warm up much to be warmer than upstate NY this week. Winter has returned. High of 34⁰ today, 23⁰ tonight somewhat colors the rest of the week. Bare inch of snow on the ground which had Ami making a snow angel. This is not welcome, I've already adapted to warm weather and now I'm COLD.

This is me. I'm very unhappy. The wind is no joke!

The aspens say spring the birds say spring the weather forcast is for something like 4 feet of snow this weekend and monday But ive even noticed 50 with no wind is hot 50 with 40 mph wind gusts and i grab my winter coat and hat.

Gotta love the people here from warmer places. I was warned of this incoming "blizzard" tonight and tomorrow a dozen times at work today. The bulk of the snow will be sunday night into monday. This incoming blizzard they speak of is the weather forcast calling for 2 inches of snow in the town In the next 24 hours. Last i checked we call that an annoyance not really worth mentioning. What we are worried about is there are 3 ways into the valley without going south to nm. It has been so warm that significant snow could trap us if they close passes because of avalanche danger. Last time that happened power lines snapped and if you ran out of propane, you were out for close to 2 weeks. Actually we all blame texas for the power and propane issues (sorry al), because most of the xcel crew and propane was diverted to texas because the texas power grid failed.

So a friend/coworker has been looking for an alternative to a shotgun when he goes hiking. He is worried about bears. I offered to let him take squirt. The biggest question is, will squirt bark and scare the bears off or will she chase and attack them?

We are in the Easter Squall, still have the Gooseberry and blackberry Squall to go. So at least two more cold snaps here before spring fully settles in.

My cherry trees are blooming right now. Peaches are leafed out, no blooms out of them yet, but a lot of my fruit trees leaf first and bloom second. We are only supposed to go to around 26 so I'm not all that worried about them. I put my broccoli and this will be their first good cold snap so we will see if they have managed to harden themselves off enough yet. I have frost cloth to put on them but that will have to wait until after the wind settles down.

Seems at time as if all I do is bitch but jeeze ....  I was looking at a couple of heritage seed sites (the seeds that allow you to save seeds for next year ... as opposed to most hybrids) and spent a few dollars for my "three sisters" seeds.  The folks I bought from some a decent corn, a really nice bush bean and a desert squash from Israel that looked to be worth a try.  Well, three weeks (or better) after the fact I still have nothing growing.
I've been in email exchanges with them and all they keep saying is "it was too cold when you planted them, you need to use a frost cloth."   Well, we haven't had a night for the past month that even comes close to freezing and daytime temps have all been at least 60 (or up to 90!)  I was more concerned that I had put them out, watered them and they germinated and burnt up from the sun.
My thoughts also ran something along the line of birds or mice going after the seeds but I don't see any scratching / digging anywhere.

So I bought some more seeds from the local robbers store.  I've never tried to start things like corn of bush beans inside but I'm wondering if it might not be worth the trouble.  

Sorry for the complaint ... I've never had as much trouble growing a garden as I've had down here.

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Yeah, the wind is about to get on my last nerves too.  The normal breeze (up to 25 mph) isn't too bad but we've had several weeks where we've had 3-4 days with gusts into the 50 mph range.  I keep wondering why my rain catchment roof is still on ....

So what are your ground temperatures there? We've been in the 70s nearing 80 during some days and our nights have been 40s and 50s some. We are still dropping below freezing sometimes. Our ground temperatures are 50 degrees. I would imagine that yours are higher but bush beans typically won't germinate if under 60 and they (about everything really) likes to germinate in soil around 70 degrees.

Frankly, I always have low germination rates out of beans and corn. With corn I tend to start in deep flats inside then plant them out when they are about 3 inches tall or so to ensure their spacing will work for pollination. Beans I always have to over sow drastically. My garden will hold a little moisture though and I end up with rot issues.

Wow. I'm surprised about the beans and corn. I order almost exclusively from Fedco, first then Johnny's Selected seeds from what i can't get at Fedco. Next a very rare few from Baker's rare seeds and then finally, I'll pick up a few that I may have forgotten from either the Agway in Ithaca or a local farm store in Elmira (which is usually bulk seed that they weigh out and put into a paper bag.) My germination rate from Fedco and Johnny's is superb - even several years later. Baker's has been a little less reliable but certainly acceptable. I don't plant beans or corn until early June - for both warmth and some drying out of my very wet soil. Usually we have ample moisture that time of year so I don't have to water.

I will note, a few years ago, I tried some heirloom Italian seeds (read expensive) and germination was minimal to non existent.

I just did a germination test on some 3 and 4 year old sugar snap peas and Oregon Giant snow peas - 90 and 70%. They were vigorous enough that I've put into a pot to harden off and plant by the back door now that the recent could snap is over.

@aljones here's growing info for brand from Johnny's Selected Seeds

GROWING INFORMATION
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Phaseolus vulgaris
CULTURE:
Choose well-drained soil with a pH range of 6.5–6.8. After last frost date, sow seeds about 2" apart, 1" deep, in rows 20–36" apart. Optimum soil temperature for germination is 70–90°F (21–32°C). Plant when daytime soil temperatures average at least 60°F (16°C), or risk poor germination. Inoculants can increase yields. For a continuous supply, make successive sowings every 2-3 weeks through midsummer.