Halfmoon's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
George the original one
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Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
Location: Wettest corner of Orygun

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by George the original one »

halfmoon wrote:
Mon Nov 20, 2017 9:27 am
Yeah...I don't fish either. Too slow and contemplative for me.
I do as much hiking as fishing. Cast enough to make sure I've covered the water and then move on to the next spot. Depending on the stream, the hiking part can be pretty challenging.

halfmoon
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Farm_or, are you going back to the extreme biking when you recover? Maybe it's time to retire and try hang gliding. :D

George, hike-fishing sounds like fun -- or at least better than sitting in a boat...floating. And sitting. Of course, if I were thrashing through the woods with a fishing rod, I'd undoubtedly snag every bush and branch until I ended up tied to a tree. That's how I roll. :lol:

Farm_or
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Farm_or »

I kept my MTN bike and my road bike for several years after buying the farm. I crashed the MTN bike again, can you believe it. I had really mellowed out, but that time wasn't entirely my own fault. The shock stansion snapped, the front wheel jammed and sent me over the bars. I did a somersault in mid air and landed on my right hip. I limped on that for about a month.

I enjoyed the road bike for awhile. Never did crash it. But the goat heads are way too common. And my cow dogs always wanted to go, but they could not keep up. I gave up the bike for now.

The most dangerous thing now is farm equipment and livestock. The equipment part can be managed, but livestock have a mind of their own. I especially can't afford to get hurt helping others with their livestock and invariably Hodge podge operations. I have started saying no.

Hand gliding would be a thrill. But for the expenses of equipment and experience, I think I am happy to watch.

DutchGirl
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Location: The Netherlands

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by DutchGirl »

I love the pictures of the little part of Eden that you two have created.

halfmoon
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Farm_or, I agree about learning to say no. I think about the crazy things we used to do, and I don't regret them...but that level of crazy is over.

Dutchgirl, thank you! I'd missed seeing you here, though I have no room to talk. Congratulations on your new home!

And now...back to the past.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

THE RETIREMENT YEARS

LIFE WITH DOGS:

At the time we retired and moved to the mountains, we had two dogs: a middle-aged Weimaraner (Misty) and a young Rottweiler (Joey). A year later, we acquired another male Rottweiler puppy. We named him Buddy, but DH referred to him as ‘the little a**hole’.

Buddy was a small dog as Rottweilers go, but he had a giant attitude. When he was just a baby, he found a chipmunk that had drowned in a bucket of water. :( When we tried to take it from him, he swallowed it whole, tail and all. One big gulp followed by a defiant glare. It was easy to forget how young he was, but he would remind us. When he was only a few months old, we took him with the other dogs for a walk on the mountain across from us. He made it halfway up, then sat down on the trail and refused to continue. When we pretended to keep walking, he started to cry. We took turns carrying him all the way home. He may have been young, but he wasn't light. :x

As a puppy, Buddy would climb on top of a sleeping Joey, bite one of his ears, then slide down to the floor with the ear in his teeth. He ate Joey’s food, stole his treats and toys, shoved him aside when walking by. This continued until Buddy was full-grown, and then one day Joey just snapped and beat the crap out of him. If you’ve never seen Rottweilers fighting…it’s a horrible thing. DH waded in and tried to separate them, which gained him a few stray bites of his own. Buddy finally rolled over. We took him to the vet to be patched up and assumed Joey’s dominance had been established.

Apparently Buddy didn’t get that memo, though. He continued to periodically challenge Joey over the next few years, and Joey continued to beat him up – though never as badly as the first time. We got pretty good at pulling them apart. One time we drove to another part of the forest to conduct a stream survey, and the dogs got into a fight just as we were returning to the car. We managed to separate them, and DH threw Buddy in the back seat of the car with our camera and jackets. He put Joey up front with us to and began to drive. I happened to look into the side mirror just in time to see Buddy leaning out the window with our camera in his mouth, dropping it on the road. Typical.

One of Buddy’s favorite tricks was to come running at us from behind and launch himself at the back of our knees so we’d fold and hopefully fall. This was bad enough when we were walking, but skiing? I would invariably topple into the snow, cursing the dog. He displayed this attitude toward everyone and everything. One winter night, a cougar killed a deer on the hillside above our house. The cat ate its fill and then left. Buddy discovered the carcass the following morning and spent the day guarding it. He refused to come inside, so we left him out until the cougar returned and chased him off the carcass. Buddy retreated to a position in front of the house and barked at the cougar for hours. He wouldn’t let us catch him and bring him in, and he wouldn’t stop barking. We lay in bed trying to sleep to no avail. At some point during the night, I said to DH: ‘If you’ll shoot him, I’ll bury him.’ I certainly wasn’t talking about the cougar.

Of course we didn’t shoot the dog, and we did (for some unknown reason) love him. We were truly sad when he suddenly died at the age of 5. The vet said it was a stroke, but we figured he died of being an a**hole.

Dogs need to figure out their power structure, and it’s not always done in a gentle way. When Joey was about 18 months old, he tried growling at DH. DH grabbed him by the scruff, wrestled him to the ground and held him there until he relaxed. Joey never tried that again, though they did have a battle of wills every winter. Joey did not like pooping in deep snow (can’t really blame him), so when the snow got up to his butt, he would invariably squat in our snowshoe/ski trail. This infuriated DH, and a standoff would ensue. I have a photo of DH holding his ski poles in one hand and pointing emphatically off the trail with the other…as Joey ignores him.

Misty died a few years after Buddy did, and Joey seemed lonely. We knew of an old border collie mix named Poochie who was living a terrible life in a small kennel 24/7, and we decided to try rescuing him for what we figured would be the last year or so of his life. We convinced the owners (who had numerous other dogs) to let us have him as a companion to Joey, not mentioning the obvious neglect. They graciously agreed ;) . The poor dog was filthy, infested with lice and attention-starved. We cleaned him up and took him to the vet for various issues, then brought him home to meet Joey. The joke was on us, because Joey wanted nothing to do with the new dog -- and Poochie outlived him by years.

bryan
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Location: mostly Bay Area

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by bryan »

I can picture Joey's face and body language as he gets far enough out of reach of DH to lighten the load on the ski trail.. while looking directly into DH's face.. hilarious.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Bryan, I just spent an hour trying to find that picture to no avail. It was exactly as you imagine, though. A classic photo op that (to DH's chagrin) was repeated through each winter. :lol:

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

halfmoon wrote:
Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:59 pm
he died of being an a**hole.
Finally, something for my tombstone. I was worried I'd die before settling upon something. But I'm spelling that shit out. Asterisks are for the living.

A self-propelling into the back of people's knees dog? Man, that would be all the entertainment I need in retirement.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Jason wrote:
Sat Dec 09, 2017 10:11 am
A self-propelling into the back of people's knees dog? Man, that would be all the entertainment I need in retirement.
I don't think you need the dog, Jason. Isn't that kind of what you do yourself for entertainment? :lol:

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

Think about it terms of what the seeing eye dog is for people who have lost their full use of sight, the self-propelling into the back of people's knees dog is for assholes who have lost their full ability to be assholes.

There really should be a foundation lobbying for this type of thing. Blind people shouldn't be entitled to all the dogs. Maybe I'll start one. I'll call it the "Buddy System" in honor of your dead asshole dog.

halfmoon
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Jason: this is just hilarious. :mrgreen:

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

I'm going to base the marketing on Nike's Michael Jordan advertising. Air Jordan will become Air Buddy, so instead of a basketball player, legs sprawled, palming a basketball pre-naturally high in the air, the logo will be a Rottweiler, four paws slightly off the ground, rigidly hurling itself into the back of some poor, unsuspecting blind person's knees. "Just Do It" becomes "Just Be An Asshole".

I know it sounds crazy Halfmoon, but I'm sensing Buddy's spirit working through me at this very moment.

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

I love the image, Jason....but before you get too far into channelling Buddy as your spiritual guide, keep in mind that we had him neutered after his second fight with Joey. Just saying. ;)

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

No wonder he was hurling himself into your knees.

halfmoon
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Jason wrote:
Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:31 pm
No wonder he was hurling himself into your knees.
There is that, but I prefer to think that our involvement was all a blur. He wouldn't let anyone near his toenails, so we told the vet to clip those too while he was out. In my mind, he falls asleep and wakes up with a nice pedicure but no pesky testicles. Alien abduction, maybe? I want to say that it had a positive effect on his attitude, but no.

Kriegsspiel
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Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:05 pm

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Kriegsspiel »

edit

Jason

Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Jason »

I'm not a zoologist, but I did watch Wild Kingdom as a child, and I can't recall any species in which the male did not have a primordial attachment to its own testicles. Even considering how dumb animals are, I would think instinctively they realize that the difference between cutting off toe nails as opposed to testicles, is that the former have the ability to grow back. I also had a couple of male dogs growing up and remember the exorbitant amount of time they spent cleaning them. So I'm somewhat mystified as to how you and your DH would think there would be a positive outcome to such an action, especially since your DH could, in at a least a vague, cross-species type of manner, empathize with Buddy. I mean if I had the power to castrate every living male creature that I thought was an asshole, I would pretty much be the only one left capable of procreation.

I have to admit I'm more than a little disappointed and might reevaluate how much time I spend on your blog. I really like coming here as your narrative approach to ERE with its post-modernistic disregard for a strict chronological view towards time and leniency towards subject matter, suited my sensibilities. But this is a topic than cannot be treated lightly, not to mention that I seem to be channeling your dead (and ball-less) asshole's dog spirit.

Farm_or
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by Farm_or »

I can't just walk on by.

Are you meaning to say that you are against spaying and neutering pets?

Certainly you are aware of what fate befalls most of the unwanted pets resulting from unchecked population? Especially in urban areas...

halfmoon
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Re: Halfmoon's journal

Post by halfmoon »

Jason, maybe Buddy's spirit is contacting you so he can experience once again the Joy of Testosterone. The neutering was an attempt to stop him from provoking Joey into beating him up, but it was too late. Buddy had already learned to be a jerk and no longer needed hormones to prompt that behavior. He never had contact with a female in heat, though, so nothing lost there.

Buddy was the first dog we ever neutered, but not the last. We used to be all aboard the purebred dog train with Weimaraners and Rottweilers. We bought Joey for an obscene price from a breeding operation south of Seattle, complete with AKC papers of course. Before he was a year old, he needed expensive hip surgery. We complained to the breeder, whose solution was to give us Buddy. This place had dogs everywhere in little cages, and we deeply regret having supported a breeding mill. That was the last time.

Now we're aligned with Farm_or's thinking. The US and Mexico are full of dogs who need a home, so every dog we've had since Buddy was a rescue and spayed or neutered.

I was going to continue with an explanation of my thoughts on unchecked growth in the human population also, but I've probably stirred up enough discord for now... :twisted:

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