Song of the day: “Dream a little dream” by The Beautiful South.
I’m doing better today. Life does have a way of continuing on no matter what, and even though I have my bad moments (coming home and expecting both Mosha and Touri jumping around me. Getting some dogs on the bed, and then remembering that I only need to help Chaos these days. Etc.) things are slowly getting back to normal.
This very morning was spend working with the dogs, of course. What with the tick population growing exponentially, it was time for a tick bath. Because the sibs don’t have time today, the pack was separated in two for this, meaning that we did one half (mine, big brother’s grandpa’s and tenant’s and her caretaker’s, rounding up at around 40, I think) while they do the other at some later date.
Chaos was his arrogant self, and was all dignified as he let me haul his heavy butt into the tub and dunk him. He did look at me balefully all the while, doing his best to keep his tail above water, as if that would make a difference in his “undignified” circumstances. It was almost as if he was saying: “What? You want me to get into that dirty water (ten dogs had been before him). Me? The Gorgeous? How can you expect me to go bath in that filth. Bah!”
By the time I lifted him out again and let him trot off, he ignored me for about fifteen minutes before getting over it and finding his good humor.
I couldn’t lift Knight II, (he’s finally gaining some weight) so I had to make him step into the tub, and ended up in a fit of giggles because the water didn’t even reach to his ankles. Suffice it to say that it had no use whatsoever to dunk him. Instead I used a pan to douse him in the stuff, and rubbed it all in until every single part of him was wet. He didn’t give a fig about it and just looked at me with a bored expression on his face.
Doing Dax II after him was a tremendous relief. I picked him up like the purse-size dog he is and dunked him solid before letting him go off like a bullet out of hell. *sigh* He and Sitabah (she hates the water too) ignored me for a solid two hours. Hah.
It was a bit tough for me, seeing as compared to last year’s dipping, I had half the amount of dogs. I don’t know what the heck is going on, but apparently I lost at least five dogs this year, which is…well, incredibly sad. There were Yadzia, Bommel, Touri, Mosha and Trinity (the Monster Boxer) leaving me with a personal pack of only six now. Big brother and I have been talking about me taking one of two of his twenty or so, but this will take time because we’ll have to get the dogs adjusted into the change. We’re in particular focussing on Tadaika at the moment, who has already spent several evenings at my cabin (maybe I mentioned it already?). Sure she’s scared yet, but I think that in due time we manage it somehow.
But anyway the dipping went expediciously. It took us about an hour, which followed up on my usual morning routine of laundry, naturally. After that there was a quick breakfast, (with preparations for lunch) at which time I went up to the old horse paddock where I unloaded the car from yesterday’s load…which reminds me of yesterday. I forgot to mention yesterday, didn’t I?
It was (do you see it coming? There usually is an outraged exclamation with it) grocery shopping day. We did it fast but it was a doozy once more. Lots of stores to visit, lots of carts to fill (what with the big groceries only being done once a month now) and the car to be up-and-un-loaded.
Everything got picked up, everything fit in and brought out again by the time we got home at around six in the afternoon. Another hour was spent putting everything away, which is always a joined effort, and then I was free to head outside into the yard. Yay.
We checked veggies, sprayed a bit of water, took out some onions, and then headed up to do some paper edits before leaving to get clay soil (for behind the new wall, remember?). Grandpa baked potatoes so we’d have something in our bellies (I was feeling faint most of the day, for some peculiar reason) before we headed out for the soil.
We were running a bit behind, so we loaded up in the dark, mostly. Not that it matters, but I don’t like shoveling in the dark all that much. Hah. Knight II liked the walk however, and was calm as you please for the remainder of the evening while big brother and I headed for our office and spent the remainder of the evening making changes to the manuscript.
I do admit to running on fumes by the end of the day, and was more than happy to get horizontal and catch some serious Zzzs.
Which concludes today’s blog, naturally. I’ve got water tubes to check, because the meter implies that we have sprung a leak somewhere. The challenge is finding it.
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