Thursday, October 13, 2022

THE HAPPY HEATHEN-The puppy days




 My last post was dark and depressing, and I ask your forgiveness for that.

I have finally sat down and pondered my life and realize I need to once again, live in an attitude of gratitude, in spite of my pain or circumstances.  God has been patient with me and for that I am grateful. His thoughts are higher than mine and His ways are higher than my ways. He keeps me on a need-to-know-basis as far as the "why" in my life, and apparently I don't need to know.

So the following posts will center around a critter God sent me, that has made life tolerable and kept me afloat through the dark times. 


To all of you who recommended an English Shepherd years ago, when I did the post about getting a new dog, I thank you. And to Jennifer Keuhn and Mary Peaslee, I owe you my deepest gratitude. 


When Heath (The Happy Heathen of Shepherd’s Way, named for his sunny disposition) first came home with us at 8 weeks, it was a 7 hour drive. He settled into my arms and never complained. He let us know he was very uncomfortable a few hours into the drive and we pulled over and took him out on his leash. He pee’d immediately. We were impressed. He never cried, not even that night. It was as if he instinctively knew, he was created, just for us.




I began his training right away, along with basic obedience. Using positive reinforcement and a clicker, after he learned to sit and lay down, I began teaching him to pick up his toys and give them to me. Then drop them. Then put them in his toy basket. Little did I know how helpful this would be to me in the future, as I was looking forward to having him help me with sheep and calves, not to be my service dog. He was and is, a very quick learner with a very biddable attitude. He loves to just be a good boy. At 12 weeks he was putting his toys away in the basket and learning to open and close the back door. 






Of course, during this time, he was also learning more obedience commands, and reinforcing what I had already taught him, never working more than two minutes at a time, but working several times a day. This suited him well, as herding dogs have a lot of drive and energy and need their minds kept busy. I never punished or spoke harshly to him, and he seemed to thrive on that. When he did something wrong, like biting or chewing on things, I would just tell him “you know you can’t do that” in a happy voice, hold him on my lap and let him teeth on the big knot to the shoestring I wore around my neck with the clicker on it.



The Maremmas would come in to visit and in terror of his little needle sharp teeth, would both hide on top of the ugly pink leather couch together, out of his reach. Once he was able to hop up there, they quit coming in for awhile.



 Once, Heath escaped my notice and made it to the back pasture where the sheep were. The Livestock Guardian Dogs, amazing creatures that they are, worked as a team to protect the flock and bring him back where he belonged. Mr Potamus got between Heath and the flock and Bruno sacrificed himself to deal with Heath. He engaged him and redirected him, bringing him back through the gate to me.



We had some meaty chickens that ran loose in the yard during the day. At night we had to round them all up out of the bushes, etc to put them in the shed. It wasn’t long until 3 mo old Heath was walking the chicks into the shed himself, one at a time. He enjoyed doing it and liked going out to check on them and watch them during the day.


There was one chick that had deformed legs, not unusual for the fast growing Cornish X, but not a big deal as we processed them at 8 weeks. I was surprised one day when Heath opened the back door, walked in and handed the chick to me, unharmed. Then he just sat and looked at me as if to say “fix it”. He brought the chick to me daily until we finally decided to dispatch it.


He was our chief rabbit herder as well, as many of them escaped the shelter we raised them in. He would either hold one down with his front feet, or if it was small enough, gently pick it up and bring it to me. We had a lamb born with a crooked neck that was unable to nurse. I have a disability that was beginning to manifest itself at that time so we kept the lamb diapered in the house so I didn’t have to go outside and find her, so I could bottle feed her. Heath nurtured her and slept with her.

One day when cleaning house, I heard a strange noise. I looked at Heath who was just laying in his crate. I heard it again. It was definitely not a noise a dog would make. I called him to me and the mystery was solved when he reached back, picked up a young bird he had found and brought it to me. He had carried it in himself and chose take a nap with it. For a herding breed, he is amazingly gentle.


He enjoys other animals, calves, ducks, rabbits, sheep, goats, chickens...






He has, from the very beginning, lived up to his name as a very happy, Happy Heathen!




Til next time, God bless you!

Petey & Heath





Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Feeling the Darkness



 It’s been awhile since I posted again. I know. I said I would try to be better, but I also said I have to be happy to blog. Believe me, you don’t want to be anywhere near the inside of my head when depression hits.


But today I am going to blog anyway.

Facebook has totally censored me again and I have NO ONE to talk to or listen to. If you recall we are about 4 hours from the nearest town, I have no friends here or neighbors to speak of, no phone service and now I am completely housebound with chronic pain.


I will come clean and share things no one actually knows about me. Or at least some of it.


I am an extreme introvert. I have zero self esteem. I am, to my detriment, an empath. I am unable to stand up for myself because it pains me to think about hurting someone else. Words cannot be unsaid. Actions cannot be undone. Sorry’s don’t heal you.


I thrived when I was in my element, training horses and kids. But being forced to give up my only real home, which also had my barns, arenas, etc. along with health issues took that away from me. Knowing I will never have a home again hurts a lot. The home I had was my dream home.


I don’t make friends easily. I am terrified of people and their rejection. I have lived with rejection from a parent, older siblings, a husband, a son & daughter in law, and a host of other people and that pain lives in me daily.

I have 2 sons. One does love me, the other could care less if I am dead or alive. At least that is my understanding as he hasn’t actually spoken with me in over a decade in spite of my many efforts.


My stepdaughters never much liked me and were always pretty demonstrative about it until the past few years where the relationship at least SEEMs to be better, to me..


I am lonely as hell with no hope of my circumstances ever changing.

Coming to know Christ was a big help to me 22 years ago, but since we moved here in 2007, there is no church, no bible study, no fellowship, for obvious reasons, so even that resource is gone to me. Oh, I pray but I don’t feel much relief from the agonizing loneliness.


So, I’ve been feeling pretty hopeless.


They are going to destroy the nerves in my lower back, finally, to give me some pain relief. Then we move on to seeing what they can do about my hip. My disease hasn’t given me much of a break. I’ve had both knees replaced and multiple other surgeries and have yet to have a period of time where I can actually make progress in gaining strength and gaining back the ability to do even the simplest of things I used to be able to do, but lost those abilities because of pain and weakness. Pisses me off no end.


I foolishly keep hoping because it’s what keeps me alive. That, my two biological granddaughters, their dad, and my honorary daughter/son/3 grands who shower us with love and acceptance. I’m walking a tightrope but they keep me tethered.


So, now you know why I don’t blog regularly or when I am not happy!


Best to you all,

Thanks for your time.

May God bless you richly.

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

LAST JUNE








I’ve been having problems with this site and off and on with my laptop so its been awhile. Over a year, really, and so much has happened. Somehow my page got stuck on html view so when I would work on it, it would post gobbledygook instead of what i was typing. I finally found the right button to fix it today.I have been stuck in the house, so have taken up new hobbies to keep me sane. Sewing, embroidery, and cross stitch, in addition to some of the other stuff I do, which I haven't been doing much of lately, but hope to soon. I have a stained glass project I've been wanting to start if i can find the right glass.



I had 2 of the grand-girls coming up last June. It was a long drive for them, spending 13 hours in the backseat with Heath. It looks as if it might have been a long trip for him as well 




 I  bought a new sewing machine, which I LOVE. I had given my old one to one of the older granddaughters who has been using it. We decided making the girls’ dad a BBQ apron would be a perfect gift from them.  I ordered some denim and taught them how to make the apron and they embroidered it as well.  I had spent the first couple of days here teaching them embroidery. Abby was ready to embroider everything and our new towels have very cute mushrooms embroidered on them now, as she was practicing on them.


She free hand embroidered a hamburger on his apron. I had them cut it out and taught them how to use the machine and they helped each other sew it up


I would really like to spend more time with them with the sewing machine as there is so much I want to teach them, but its hard when you live in different states and only see each other once or twice a year.



Abs helps Kinley with her stitching

During the week, they made sourdough cinnamon rolls and sourdough waffles, by request. It was so much fun cooking with them! We also made a pavlova, which is one of my favorite desserts. It's a huge meringue which is split then filled with whipped cream and berries. We have also filled with with french pastry creme in the past which is oh so good! 
Then we top it with more whipped cream and berries.
pavlova

TheMan can't help himself from licking the dasher from our homemade ice cream

Best waffles EVER


There was a lot of critter feeding and grooming. Mister developed a crush on Kinley so she held him while he had his feet done. She also groomed him several times which I know he appreciated.





 
Their Dad made it up, and there was a lot more critter feeding, they went to a branding on the ranch, and lots of quad riding and exploring. 


Cody and Fred, another story


 

They played cards and used my tumbled rocks as chips and took home a tumbler. They've been tumbling rocks ever since!

I'm hoping they will be here in the fall, if not sooner as the price of fuel has really screwed us out of visiting anyone. The drive to California and back would really set us back, but there is a deer tag here for Abby and she needs to fill it!

That's it for now, I still can't adapt to all the changes on the site and can't manipulate where my pics go anymore so I apologize for it seeming to be so long.

Hope you are all well!
Take care!

Petey (Kim)& The Happy Heathen