And Now For Something Completely Different

We had a little fun after work on Sunday.   6 cups water + 2 c. Palmolive + 1 c. corn syrup= massive bubbles.

Homemade hoop.

Mandatory equipment:  bubble popper.

"Next time add beef broth to the recipe, these balls taste awful!"

Life and death drama interrupted our games.

A hawk passed overhead and dropped its prey on the roof of the old farmhouse. 
Rescue 911 in action.  A ladder was quickly erected and a rake was used to pull the juvenile mockingbird off the hot tin roof... also before it rolled off into awaiting maws. 

Little guy says he's shaken up, but he'll be OK.

This Sharp-shinned Hawk had a case of the butter fingers.  The whole affair made my day: it was rewarding to be this mockingbird's Atticus and I spotted a raptor I'd never seen here at the farm.  Cool! 

Custom around here dictates that everything revolves around food.  Sunday night, I made sauerkraut in my new fermentation crock. 

6 cabbages will either become delicious kraut or end up feeding the worms in the compost pile in 6 weeks. 

I can't lift the lid for the entire time of fermentation--the anticipation will kill me.

My previous blog post may have some of you thinking that I'm that stuck up customer at Panera who wants organic soymilk for her coffee, wants to know if the coffee beans were shade grown...is the wheat in my pastry organic?  No fears, when I'm out, I'm thoroughly grateful someone else did the cooking.

Take that...

War had been raging against the gremlins attempting to ruin my week.  By Thursday afternoon, the enemy had been vanquished.

The air conditioner in my car died, but according to my warranty tome, I'm covered.

My awesome little car's first booboo.

A room, at my dentist's office, should be named in my honor.  After weeks of return visits, so many anesthesia laden needles jabbed into my gums that my brain began to feel numb, I was prepared on Thursday afternoon to receive the news that I needed a root canal.  Who needs money, right? 
Instead, the dentist tells me all the work done in the past month is solid, the throbbing pain in my mouth is from sensitivity at the gum line-- no root canal, no crown, no cavity...no charge!   X-rays, two tubes of fluorine treatment--free.  I staggered out of the office, incredulous.  Kapow, dental demons!

Being self-employed, lunch is what I can inhale during the commute between clients.  Running an errand had better take no more than 10 minutes.  Time when I'm not working-- I'm not earning. The evil accountant living in my head keeps tally of wasted minutes when I'm on the clock.
Since Cole's first surgery, I've spent a lot of time running back to the house for his potty breaks, taking him for appointments and recently, driving three times a week to physiotherapy.  Over an hour each day of lost income that I have to makeup in the evenings or on weekends.  My enthusiasm was waning this week.
I carved out one hour on Wednesday to watch how he had progressed in rehab =  renewed hope.

Cole's muscled up so quickly that he's now permitted long walks.

Does anyone know if there's a bottom to the pit of energy a young Lab possesses? I really would like to find it.

Sadie, docked on her charger.

To her credit, this guest dog has upped my running frequency this week.  She needs 3 miles/day to allow us to sleep at night!  But, this is what results if you ignore a sharp pain in your foot for 5 miles.

One toenail fell off and attacked the neighboring toe.  Spy vs. spy in my sock.

Another battle was fought against two local retailers.  One should never mess with my food or that of my dogs'.  My love affair with Earth Fare natural food market has soured.  They have decided to stop carrying the Working Cows Dairy products because they sell out too quickly. It's a family operation, not a factory run amalgamation of farms, they can't double production overnight!  So, if you're the only store in town carrying a sought after niche product, you should drop it like a hot potato, who's the brilliant MBA who cooked that one up?

The organic farm is only two hours away, I went there last year to meet the family and gaze upon their 48 stall carrousel milking parlor.  Food provenance is very important to me.  If I can't produce it or hunt it, I want to make sure that whoever is, is doing so in a manner that parallels my philosophy on sustainable agriculture. 
Wednesday night, I appealed to Rinske De Jong at Working Cow Dairy. In less than 24 hrs, I was picking up my 2 gallons from my new supplier, Wake Up artisanal coffee shop.  Two local coffee shops are the only places now that use the milk within a 60 mile radius. It's a special arrangement...don't spread it around and ruin it for me please.

Bonus:  I have discovered the best coffee in town.  They make each cup individually, so it takes about 5 minutes, but it's the elixir of the gods.  Wake Up is located on College St across from Samford Hall.  The big hunks of homemade pastries are also sinfully good.  Every Thursday now will be milk, coffee and pastry day!

Now for my scrimmage with the independently owned natural food store, the only local source for my dog food.  I've been their faithful supporter for over 20 years. However, over the past year, staffing problems make it impossible to shop there under 20 minutes.  I've left the queue a number of times when I've accrued $10 in lost wages.  Business is business and I've taken mine somewhere else.

Within two days from placing an order with chewy.com, I'd received all my dog food supplies, cheaper than the local store's prices and with free shipping. 

Cole and Sadie relished the Origen elk treats.

 

 

Dairy Animal Nutrition was my specialization in college.  I applied that to the feeding of my three day old calves.

 

 

My goal was to build them bigger and stronger than average, without the use of hormone implants, feed additives or antibiotics.

 

 

2,000 lbs is the average.  My boys are now almost 7 years old, strong, solid and above average in all respects.

 

 

Tommy tops the scale at 3,000 pounds. 

I'm just as overzealous with canine nutrition.

 

Mavis was a month short of her 20th birthday before she had a stroke and died.

 

 

Cocotte was 20 when we had an unfortunate incident involving my dually.

 

 

So, as for Cole and Jinx, they eat a mix of Fromm's Gold (from Wisconsin, been there, seen it), Acana (a line of Origen from Canada, best quality high protein ration), Organix (organic line of Castor and Pollux) and Evanger's 100% meat canned foods.  My conclusions, based on my research, are that a variety of balanced kibbles, with at least 5 different meat species sources, mixed with a tablespoon of canned food is the best option.  Feeding only one brand of kibble year after year can lead to food allergies.  Wouldn't you break out in hives if you had to eat chicken, chicken meal and pearl barley twice a day for 10 years?

Prepare to roll your eyes...I insist on knowing where every ingredient in the dog food originated.  A dog food maker can claim that the food was made in the USA, even if the ingredients were imported.  Technically, it's not a lie, the kibble was formed in the USA, but that's not satisfactory to me.  China has been accused repeatedly of using the same factories that make leather, to make rawhide dog treats--- enter arsenic poisoning, an ingredient used to tan hides.  Imported additives were to blame for the deaths linked to Beneful last year.  Oh yeah, there was a quiet recall on Beneful last year.  You probably didn't hear about it because dog food recall standards are not the same as for human food.  Manufacturers can quietly pull their tainted products from the shelves without having to publicize it.   

This is why I'm a member of dogfoodadvisor.com.  They monitor all the dog food manufacturers, post any changes in the product sourcing and send out alerts about possible contaminations.  Darn tootin' right I'm serious about what I put in my dogs' tummies!

 

 

 

The Kid and I have many more years of running to address!

 









Happy Mother's Day!

Today I pay tribute to all the women in my life who know that being a mother is more than biology.  The adoptive moms, the stepmoms, the sisters, the best friends, the mentors, the aunts, those who care for other species as their kin, you are the best!

Today, I also took a day off from work to play on the farm. 
First task, while imbibing in too much coffee:  refurbishing a 1960's Danish teak table lamp.  As soon as I laid eyes upon it in a friend's project pile, I coveted it.  She was sweet enough not to make me grovel.

The legs serve double duty as the stand and shade support, so minimalistic--I'm daffy about it.
By coffee #3, I possessed sufficient coordination to pick roses.

Not one of my antique roses, but a floribunda called 'Rock and Roll'.  I discovered this fragrant beauty in the Rose Garden in Tyler, Texas and coveted it until I found a nursery in Wisconsin that still bred it.

I've been a little groggy since our newest guest arrived on Friday.  Enter Sadie, a one year old Lab, who's a night owl.  Saturday night was better than the previous night, but she had us up an hour before I ordinarily rise.  REM sleep interrupted. 
She's now the ad hoc second half of Smith Racing.

Getting out the door can be a challenge.  She ran 4 miles on Saturday and 3 this Sunday...just enough to curb her enthusiasm.

With Cole benched since December, I haven't had a good running partner... I haven't had a bad fall either, but who's counting?  Sadie is a natural skijorer:  no stopping, no twisting me up in the line, steady pace, what a treat!
I finished off my 20 mile run by my lonesome.  Now that I have annexed 3 surrounding properties to my running fiefdom, I really can run all day long and never leave home.  Sure, it involves multiple loops, but the scenery is always different.

Who can beat the crowd support?  Morel, my head cheerleader.

Wildflowers, verbena in this case, are busting out everywhere.

New territory, a forty acre field I like to call The Briar and Poison Ivy Patch.

New paths to discover.

Log cabin something or other.  Quaint and full of snakes.

A new secluded pond perfect for spotting waterfowl and turtles.

At home in the woods, with the poison ivy, the snakes, all part of the package.

20 strong miles.  Not at all fast,  my GPS record shows that I had a mini-bonk between mile 16 and 17,a granny in a walker could have passed me!  Plenty of room for improvement.

Sunday night, I took all three dogs out for ice cream.  OK, I wanted ice cream and I needed co-collaborators.

All's well that ends well.

Bloom Where You're Planted

A stubborn and foolish nineteen year old immigrated to the U.S., determined to prove that she didn't need anybody's help.  She was going to make it on her own.  Baffling how stupid youth can be.







Twenty-two years old that Christmas morning and regretfully, wisdom wasn't one of my stocking stuffers... That would come much later.

I am Canadian, but my Alabama roots are two decades strong.  This is home, where friends know to lend a hand before you even ask.

My Spring trip back to Canada had been pushed back to August and then shoved into October due to Cole's surgeon's advice.  As I'm still paying off the last surgery, that future trip was in doubt.  I travel cheap: two weeks out West, 5600 miles driving, well under $1000 for everything.  Two weeks of lost wages, now that's what hurts. 

Enter Jinx's veterinarian, who also owns a bunch student rental houses, she offered me all the rollover work the first week in August.  Rollover is unique to college towns.  It's one week in between semesters where units changing tenants are vacant.  One sleepless week of resurrecting apartments desecrated by students.  It pays well.  Years ago, when I had employees, we would live out of my truck, working straight through the week, day and night, taking naps in the backseat.  I've only dabbled in it the past few years because it is so brutal; but this year, I'm going for it!  Canada, here we come, thanks Martha!!!

I get by with a little help from my friends.

All of us in the Smith clan have figured this out.

 

 

Axel was in lockup one morning, the herd had wandered away, but look who stuck with him:  his best buddy.

 

 

Cole's buddies are lending him a hand too.  His canine pals sojourning with us on the farm are helping to pay for his physiotherapy.  Three times a week, Cole spends an entire day at rehab.  One total hour of massage, work in the pool, agility work, all for $25/day.  I don't know why it's so cheap and I won't be asking that stupid question:  "Shouldn't you be charging more for this?".  The physiotherapist is insanely devoted and I'm allowed to stop by to visit--we get along great!

My Comeback Kid:

 

 

I can't wait to hit the trails with my kid again.  I'll be ready too.  I finally broke through a mental training barrier on Sunday.  It had been a while since I had run over 20 miles and I had begun to doubt if I could do it.

 

 

This is what I figured would happen.

Happily, I did my 20 miler.

 

 

 

 

Wasn't perfect though.  I started too late in the morning and by noon I was feeling heat exhaustion setting in.  I finished my last eight miles later in the evening.  Barrier broken, now moving on!

I can officially begin planning the running trip.

 

 

Maine, New Hampshire, Quebec, Ohio, state parks along the way, brace yourselves, we're coming to a trail near you!



Happy Birthday Angus!

Tomorrow will be Angus' 11th birthday.  We celebrated today, he's a horse-- what does he care!

All the equids were invited for shredded carrots, pears, oatmeal, molasses and beet pulp.

Morel invited herself.

My first video montage and it didn't cause me to have a Tourette's attack.  I'm evolving, how scary is that?

Home at Last

Instead of the old file in the cake trick, I employed the bribe them with homemade brownies trick.

With that, my oxen were released to me on Wednesday night.

Back home safe and sound.

Briefly got stuck trying to back the trailer into its parking space.  Ended up fishtailing it in...when the ground is less saturated, I'll straighten it up, wash it out, reload all the equipment back into it and be ready for the next run to the vet school.  Something tells me this tornado season will be busy.

Vindication.  It is 6 miles to the vet school on foot.  I had my GPS watch this morning when I went to collect my car that I had left there overnight.  I had believed my first run from there to be only 4 and couldn't figure why it had taken me so long.  It probably is only 4 if you drive the main roads, but (Dad don't laugh) I prefer the more scenic, less travelled road.  I'm renowned for my detours.
It's not always about getting from Point A to Point B, it's about enjoying the journey.