My house, the zoo

My house is a zoo.

In a good way.

Our horse, who has lived at a boarding stable the last two years finally got to move to our new house. She’s not exactly happy with the move just yet and follows me along the fence-line and at my heals anytime I’m in the pasture. The dog, who just yesterday had an unhealthy lack of fear/respect for the horse, today, is convinced she’s going to eat him. Yesterday I nervously watched him prance about the pasture, oblivious to Stella’s size, or the fact that she was antsy and nervous. Today, I took him to the pasture on leash. Stella had calmed down since her move yesterday and came over to say hi. Spartacus went nose to nose with her, sniffing away until he pulled his nose up a bit too high and zapped himself on the fence. Oops! The poor guy incorrectly associated the shock with the horse rather than the fence, and now wants nothing to do with her…but is oblivious to the fence….sigh. He’ll get it. In the meantime, he shies away from Stella and freezes in place whenever she tries to sniff at him. Oh…and he holds his breath while she does it. Poor guy!

But the cat…SHE will conquer that horse! Oh boy.

Hubby doing the finishing touches on the new fence before Stella came home.

Welcome to your new home Stella!

Stella is not yet sure she loves this new home. Mostly because she was queen bee at the stable and now she’s by her lonesome.

Dora, our fearless house cat is just certain she will dominate that horse! Of course, this picture shows her eyeing Stella up after Dora stalked up to her bravely until Stella started walking toward her. Then she puffed up, hissed, spun around and high-tailed it out of the pasture to take up her spot in the driveway.

There’s room for everyone

It’s been a bit of a blogging hiatus…sorry!  Life back at the ranch has been a bit crazy this spring.  We’ve had an unruly amount of rain while the ground was still very frozen…it’s been a mess.  Thankfully we’ve been among the luckier ones–had water in our basement, but thankfully not a totally finished basement, and not nearly as much water as some!  At any rate, I’ll be glad when things dry out a bit!

For my return to blogging I’d like to write about something that is near and dear to my heart on a number of levels.  This one is about going the extra mile to make sure everyone gets a fair chance to live life to its fullest.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Therapeutic Recreation.  Most of you probably don’t know what that means…don’t worry, most of my family still doesn’t completely get it  Basically, TR is is a medical profession field that uses recreational activities to improve the functioning and overall quality of life of individuals with disabilities, both mental and physical.  I no longer work in the field as I’ve joined my husband in the family business, but I still love the education and skills I’ve learned from my days in TR.

It’s with that TR background, that I recently read a post on a dog showing forum from a frustrating exhibitor who’s found herself questioning whether she can continue to show her dogs and participate in an activity she’s loved for a lifetime. She has rheumatoid arthritis which severely limits her mobility and her main frustration was that many dog show sites are poorly set up to be accommodate exhibitors with disabilities. Show sites don’t have enough accessible parking (and dishonest exhibitors park in the little space that IS available), not to mention how difficult it can be to haul heavy equipment and set it up. Even if you get a close spot to the building, you likely have a long haul once inside.

While her frustration was primarily about the parking, as a member of my local kennel club’s show committee, I was convicted. In general, the show population is aging, and more exhibitors are experiencing the extra challenges of participating in recreational activities with a physical disability. Even if the facility that a show is held at provides accessible parking, it may not be enough for the number of actual exhibitors since many show sites have parking spread out on flat grass areas in addition to the regular designated parking area. This means that the number of spots provided by the facility likely isn’t enough. That in itself is an issue that show committees need to pay attention to. But then I started thinking about how cumbersome crates, crate dollies, grooming tables, and dogs can be and I realized how inaccessible dog shows really are. I’m embarrassed that as a therapeutic recreation specialist, I completely neglected to transfer my skills to my personal life until someone cried out for help. Now, I hope to work with the TR Club at my alma mater to not only provide a suitable amount of accessible parking, but also provide assistance to exhibitors with disabilities to unload their vehicle and set up their equipment if needed. I’m so excited for this opportunity to reach out and make the world of dog showing a little more friendly for everyone!

I encourage you to take a closer look at your own life for opportunities to reach out to others. For those of us who are able-bodied, it’s easy to take our free-time activities for granted. Everyone deserves the right to participate in recreational activities that enrich their lives. Please consider making your lives and activities a little more accessible for all–there’s room for everyone.

Buddy the elf, what’s your favorite color?

I have a problem. With commitment. Or something like that. I’ve rewritten this blog post no fewer than ten times, each one a completely different topic. I also have three different posts, more or less ready to publish…but I can’t bring myself to do it. What if I think of something better to write after I publish it? And now I can’t come up with a title, thus the one you got

First world problems, I know.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my driveway is an ice rink. You could honestly bring your skates and do some serious triple sow cows…or whatever they’re called. Ok…maybe not. The ice is a bit bumpy so you’d probably break your neck. But you get the point anyway. The ice is bad, really bad. I’m hoping the weather will warm up a bit so we can melt the ice and clear it off the driveway before I bust a serious move or two on my way out to the car.

The Battle…

I’m sorry to report, but the bat didn’t make it.

Well…I’m also sorry to report that I’m not really that sorry.

Shortly after posting my last post, I was sitting in the living room with the computer, a blanket, and my fur kids when a shadow moved across the wall and a bat came swooping above my head. I ducked for cover and shooed the dog out of the room and closed the doors off so it couldn’t get free in the rest of the house again. We searched high and low for it before: banging on things, checking under ledges, behind curtains…never saw it. I wasn’t going to risk it hiding again.

After finally raising that hubby out of a groggy sleep we assembled our armor and weapons. Sadly, there wasn’t time for helmets though. That would have made for a great picture! Only a racket, a box and a mesh laundry hamper. But that darn thing crawled up to the top of our chimney which is a good 15 feet up…now what??? I spotted a plastic pellet gun on the coffee table…you know, the kind that shoots the little plastic pellets that males of all ages find amusing to shoot each other with? Yeah, that was still there from New Years when some of our friends were playing “swat” in our house. It was handy…so I picked it up and shot in the general direction of the bat, thinking it would take off flying and we could catch it or whack it with the racket.

Nope…it didn’t budge.

Shoot…whelp…guess I’d need to shoot again…and maybe aim. I missed a few times before I apparently hit it. It didn’t move though…just gave an angry little scream. Hmmm…now what? I grabbed the spot-light we had, and handed the gun to hubby. I aimed the light, he took a few shots and the bat took flight. I think we both hit it, because it flew…though seemed either disoriented or injured. “Sorry bat…but I can’t go to sleep with a bat on the loose in my house. And if I can’t reach you, I have to find some way to get you down from there.” It zoomed by my head and I screamed like a girl, dove to the ground and waved my racket haphazardly in its general direction.

I caved…it dove at my head! What is a girl to do?

It landed a few times and hubby was able to catch it in the mesh laundry basket.

“Now what?”

“I don’t know”

I mean…we live in Wisconsin…it’s winter…the bat isn’t going to want to be outside. I don’t want it coming back in my house, and I don’t have time to check my entire house to figure out where it got in. Plus…those things can get in a tiny little whole! As far as I could figure, we injured it, or at least rattled it a bit…and hubby wanted to go to bed, and was in a groggy state of mind still because I gave him a cold he got a cold somewhere. Actually…I think I might actually have walking pneumonia…hope I didn’t give him walking pnuemonia he didn’t get walking pneumonia from somewhere. Anyway, I was in a much better state than he, and he really wanted to go to bed. I made the executive decision that the bat had to go. I don’t mind bats, I really don’t. They can fly around my yard and eat bugs to their hearts’ content. But they are OUTSIDE pets. No coming in my house. Period.

“Let’s throw it in the wood boiler” I said. Hubby said he wasn’t getting bundled up to go throw a bat in the boiler. (side note…a co-worker recently informed me that not everyone knows what a wood boiler is. She had never heard of it. Basically it’s a big wood stove that is generally outside your house in some kind of enclosure that you use to heat your house and hot water with. They’re big, so you can put giant logs in and they provide lovely, lovely heat! And if you keep your ears open, often times that heat is free…well…the wood comes free but it does take labor to cut it up. But it’s a lovely way to heat your house in the midwestern winter and get a little exercise and fresh air)

Anyway…the boiler is a good 50 feet from the house, and it’s cold, and hubby was in shorts and a t-shirt. I volunteered to throw it out there, and he deemed that acceptable. I’m really sorry if you think we’re bad people. Maybe we should have just let it outside. But it’s like 5 degrees outside without windchill. It was either dying a frigid death or trying to come back in my house. While we stood in the living room debating what to do with the bat, said bat began trying to crawl OUT of the hamper. This added to the sense of urgency. Hubby was having a hard time keeping that slippery little sucker in the mesh hamper and it was starting to become rather determined. I also didn’t want hubby getting bit while holding a flimsy hamper closed with a bat in it.

We took it outside and tried to put it in a cardboard box that I could just throw in “The Beast”, as I’ve now affectionately named the boiler. The bat decided that after trying to crawl out of the hamper, that it liked that better than the box. Hubby wanted to go to bed, and I decided we should probably toss the hamper out anyway now that it’s been home to a distressed bat, so I grabbed the hamper and marched it out to The Beast. The Beast was burning real hot, don’t worry…the bat didn’t suffer long. It was probably almost instantaneous. I closed the door on The Beast for a minute before opening it back up and fishing out the remains of my hamper. It’s got wire in it and I didn’t want that making its way into the ash that we might eventually spread out on the driveway to melt help melt the ice. The bat was dead. RIP hamper. RIP bat. I’m sorry you came in my house.

Please don’t hate me.

Or arrest me. A friend just told me that in Minnesota, bats are considered endangered. I think in Wisconsin some are here as well. But I’m fairly certain, based on it’s size that it was not one of the endangered bats…though I don’t know if it’s technically legal to kill a bat in your house. I guess I never thought of it that way. It’s legal for me to kill mice. Now that I think of it…is it legal to kill a squirrel in your attic? Because we think we have one of those too that we need to “rehome”. But back to the bat. I don’t know if it’s legal to kill the bat. But…it was in my house!

And so now you know the story of the great battle. And I must say, you’d probably laugh if you had been a fly on the wall to see the whole thing. But not if you were a bat on our wall…

I’m going to bed, now that I can sleep soundly.

We’ve been invaded

We have a bat.

Maybe.

We can’t really be sure.

I came home this evening from a weekend away at a dog show. Honey Bunny stayed home to rest up from the awful cold I gave him he got somewhere. That and our new house heats by an outdoor wood boiler that can’t be allowed to go out until we add antifreeze to the lines so someone had to be here to feed the beast. So I walk in the door, full of stories of friends, winnings, and the latest dog show fashion disaster, when Honey Bunny informs me he has recently spotted a bat flying in our house.

But he “lost” it.

Oh good. Our new house is a rather sprawling farmhouse…how are we going to find a bat on the loose??? I’m not afraid of bats, but I often stay up late and move through the house in semi-darkness…I don’t care to be dive-bombed in that semi-darkness by a bat. That and I worry that our animals will get bit. No, I’m not really worried about US getting bit…just the animals…go figure.

Husband says he left a door open for a few minutes near where the bat was last spotted in a room at the end of the hallway…but he didn’t actually see that bat go out the door…or stay in the house…he’s just not sure exactly where he saw it last. Great. So, I declared a bat hunt! Armed with helmets, an old tennis racket, a hand-held spotlight, and a BB gun (apparently my husband thinks he can hit a bat flying through the air with a BB gun…) we set out. Side note, these helmets have some GREAT stories to tell from the last few weeks. They’ve gone sledding down a giant hill, and pulled behind our pickup on sleds up and down our driveway while 15 27+ year olds had a giant sleepover for a few days over Christmas break. But they failed to find the bat tonight. I plan to let things lay low for a bit, and set out again to see if I can find that thing. I’m not convinced it’s gone.

Wish us luck.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

From our home to yours

It’s more than a thought

Normally I like to stick with talking dogs, random life, and well…mostly dogs. The other night I was led to take a different route, and today calls for a bit more of it. I love God, I do. He’s always in my thoughts, even if I don’t always come out and say it. I generally like to be light-hearted, joke, and just live life like the next person. But I feel God tugging at me today.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not really comfortable flat out talking about my faith. I don’t like all the negative connotations people get at the mere mention of Christianity…and I also am painfully aware, and often agree with those feelings. So I generally prefer to just live life, be as loving as I can, pray for those who are hurting, rejoice with those who are happy, and build relationships with people. If they show interest, I’m certainly open to talk, but I don’t like to be pushy. So please, receive what I write today with that in mind. I have love and sincerity on my heart.

If you’ve been watching the news today, you’ve heard about the horrific incident in Connecticut. It truly breaks my heart on so many levels. Those families who lost loved ones…most of us can’t begin to understand the deep hurt, confusion, and…words cannot describe what else they are feeling…

I’m also sad to hear some of the reactions I’ve heard from people. People who feel powerless, and people who criticize those for praying instead of doing something. Both of those things also break my heart. I don’t know enough about what actually happened today in that school. I don’t know any of the victims. I don’t know the person responsible for those deaths. I can’t really comment on that, and while I have feelings on things like mental health and gun control, I won’t be commenting on those either.

But prayer I can speak on.

The act of prayer IS in fact DOING something to address tragedy. PRAYER, not just “thoughts” but ACTIVE prayer for each person who is hurting–hurt most of us can’t understand, is DOING something. Prayer for our society that has an insensitivity to violence, a broken and ineffective mental health system, and lack of respect for human life. This IS DOING something. Prayer is more than “sending positive thoughts”. Prayer is interceding, speaking directly to your Creator. He hears us, He responds to us. There’s so much more to be said on that, but I’m neither good with words, nor do I feel led to focus on that right now. But I do feel led to encourage those who feel helpless–that they can do nothing. And to humbly challenge those that criticize those of us who desperately fall to our knees and talk to God during times like these, to consider prayer as more than empty talking. Empty talking to the air, I agree, does nothing. But I’m not just talking to the air. Active prayer calls for talking to your Father, asking for healing and understanding. The active part also indicates we need to be open, diligently listening and moved by our Creator to make differences in each of the areas we’ve prayed about, and acting on what we’ve been shown.

If you are someone who feels we are here on this planet alone, with no God, that’s fine by me. I’m not here to argue for or against the existence of a greater being.

If you find yourself simply confused, distant, or apathetic towards God, I understand. It’s complicated, all of it. But don’t let the limits of what you think prayer is distract you from the power that can be moved through it! There is MUCH to be done in light of recent events, and all of it should be clothed with thoughtful, active seeking of God through prayer. It’s not just an empty word that shows we’re powerless to do anything, or that we’re just going to move about our business feeling sad. I believe it is a tool that is directly affected by our heart for God. In James 1 we read “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord”.

So I pray. And I pray some more and ask God to help me to believe in His power. And to show me what is needed from me. And to give me the faith, strength, and tools to do it. Life stinks sometimes. Sometimes it’s flat out rotten and can be hard to see God in it. That’s a whole other discussion. Today I’ll stick with prayer. No matter who you are, God hears your sincere and earnest conversation. There’s nothing special you have to do or say…just talk.