Big Fat Stinker

So our dog likes to eat. Well that might be an understatement. Our dog, likes to eat allot. He likes to eat so much that if he finds food he will eat as much of it that he can until he gets sick. Then he mopes around and wines for a couple of days until his body digests and passes everything he just devoured. We have learned to add locks/latches to all of our cabinets because Fatso, aka. Judah, will wait until he is home alone and then help himself to anything he can get his paws on. In one week he devoured, three loaves of bread, a couple of packs of tortillas and two bags of chips. We finally agreed we were losing this battle so we figured out how to latch the cabinets shut with a loose nail. Once he couldn't get into our pantry anymore he started to look for new options. We keep some extra kibble on hand, just in case we run out of raw food for him, and he found out how to get to that. This was a little more complicated because not only did he figure out how to open the bottom cabinet, but he also figured out how to undo two latches on the Tupperware container to get his food out. All this from a dog that doesn't know the command STAY for longer than 10 seconds. So that's all cute and annoying, especially when you have to hear him moan and groan as he embarks upon a night of having to empty his bowls twice an hour for the next 12 hours.

The other day our folks were in town visiting from Oklahoma. Now Judah and his Gammy (Lyndsey's mom) have a special relationship. He likes her so much that whenever she is in town he manages to forget everything that he has learned and turn into a Anarchist puppy, complete with wagging tale and mad slobber. It is when Gammy is in town that his skill level as an Anarchist dog goes up a couple of notches. In the past he has taken drugs by helping himself to her meds, learned the art of opening a refrigerator without a thumb, and also learned how to unpack Gammy's bag that just might have some food, treats or more drugs in it. As soon as he hears her voice his ears perk and he goes into overdrive, so needless to say it wasn't too much of a surprise that he figured out how to brake into the cabinet and managed to eat over 5 lbs of his dog food the day she got in.

Now, believe it or not, but this post isn't even really about our Anarchist dog and his neurotic relationship with his Gammy. This post is about what happened the night we had to leave the back door open so he could use the bathroom without having to wake us up. We said goodnight to the folks and then went to lay down ourselves around 10pm. At about 12am we start to hear dog crying form outside. We got up to see what it was and Judah decided to hop the gate and climb up to the roof, even though he had no way of getting down. A little adventurous for a sick dog, but whatever, we have yet to mistake him for being too smart or anything like that. After lying down for another hour we start to hear him barking around 1am. Lyndsey jumped up to see what it was then all of the sudden I heard the back door slam. He got sprayed by a skunk, and everything was starting to smell. This wasn't the first time this happened so we knew not to let him into the house. Now it was tough luck for the Puppy, he was going to spend the rest of the night outside.

Later on that night, or early the next morning, we decided to check on him. He had spent a good portion of the night trying to rub the oil off of his face, so his face was covered in Mud. He looked kind of cute but more pathetic. We walked him around the house to the hose and started washing him. Now we learned last time that tomato juice just doesn't work. So don't use it it is a waist of time. The only thing that it does is cover the smell to you. You may feel after a few hours that the skunk smell is gone, but if a friend comes over they can assure you that not only does your house reek like skunk, but it also reeks like tomato juice as well. The best thing to use we have found is a home made concoction of 1 Quart of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide (fresh and unopened). 1/4 cup of Baking Soda. 1 teaspoon of Liquid Soap. We wash him while mixture is still bubbling. Then we rinse him water and repeat if necessary. This mixture is good for around 20 minutes before the chemicals start loosing their power. We gave him a couple of baths around 10 minutes apart and the smell pretty mush dissipated that morning. Unfortunately for us he managed to find where the skunk sprayed in the yard and rubbed in it again later that afternoon, but that wasn't nearly as bad as the actual spray itself.

Horse Trough Hot Tub

It was time to put a soaking tub in the back yard. This way we can enjoy ourselves, the yard and the sun all while soaking in a tub of warm water.

We picked up a 160 gallon horse trough at the feed store last week when we picked up more food for the hens. This size is just big enough to fit two people comfortably, which is perfect since there are no dogs aloud in the tub. Once we got it home we decided that it would go best right outside of our office nook, next to the chicken coop. We then raised it off of the ground a little and added a few extra touches like bamboo fence and a step to make it look nicer. This is just the start, we want to do a little more, we will just wait for pieces to start showing up in the alleys.

To heat the water and make this a hot tub we added a pump that will push the water from the hot tub up to the roof. On the roof we have about a 30 gallon 8" PVC pipe that is 6ft long. It was an extra piece that came with the boat. We painted it black with Rustoleam to help it soak up the sun and heat the water. The pump pushes cold water from the bottom of the tub up to the roof and into one side of the tube, then gravity pulls down hot water from the the other side of the tube. To keep the water clean we use a mixture of 35% Hydrogen Peroxide. This is a h220 combination that releases an extra oxygen molecule once it mixes with he water. This kills any algae that wants to grow in the tub. We have yet to get a thermometer for the tub, but our ghetto solar heating actually makes it quite pleasant, especially after a morning of surfing in the cold California water.

A Night Out On the Town

The chicken coop is almost done, or at least 95.76% of the way there. Last week we built the doors and secured down the latches. The chicks are getting so big we decided to go ahead and move them into the coop. Last night was their first night out on their own. The only thing we have left to do with the coop is to finish off the coop house. Since the chicks will not be able to reach the coop house for another couple of weeks we decided to build them a make shift shanty with a hodge podge ceiling and card board walls. It slightly resembles some of the places the Indians lived in in Baja when I was a child. This way they can get out of the weather elements and stay warm under the light.

We didn't think that they were going to get much sleep became of the insects attracted to the light. It was actually quite entertaining for us last night watching them hunt down files, June bugs and anything else that dared enter their layer. We have learned that they are all very good hunters as they can catch a fly in mid flight. So needless to say clumsy flying beetles stand a slim chance of survival. Once one catches an insect, the games begin. They don't just sit there and eat it quietly, but actually quite the opposite. The one who catches it will start chirping and running around the coop trying to play keep away from the others. We think that they learned this game from our dog Judah, we know he likes to fancy himself as the 'King' when it comes to the game of keep away.

We checked on them a couple time last night just to make sure nothing else found it's way in the coop with them. I had read one of the most upsetting things about owning a pet chicken is if something gets to them in their coop. Owners get so attached to their hens that it becomes difficult to raise them again after finding what a cat or raccoon does to them if they get in the coop. I took every precaution I could to make sure that they are in good and safe. Since this is our first coop, I can only hope that I took it a little overboard.

I was glad to see that they were all fine the next morning.

So was Judah.

 

Garden Chronicles : Chapter 3

A Stroll Through The Garden

We started letting the chicks spend some time in our garden. We want them to get familiar being around us, as well as the plants and the insects. Up to this point each time they saw us we were lording over their box like some type of greek god having fun controlling the outcome of their day. We did not want them to get the wrong impression of us so we started hanging out with them both in the house and in the garden a few minutes a day.

In the garden they feel right at home, foraging for food or pecking at the plants.

Blanch here, The Plymouth Rock, is the most animated out of the threesome, she also gets out and explores more than the other two.

Judah continues to try to convince us that he can help keep the chicks in line while they are in the garden, here he is trying to get under the fence to assist. The first day we let them out we learned the importance of staying close by while they are so small. It's bad enough that our land shark can't seem to leave them alone, but other birds of prey can't as well. Lyndsey was sitting with Rose about a week ago in the yard, and a large bird swooped down and perched on a branch directly above her and the chick. When I say directly, I mean like three feet away. Rose stopped chirping immediately and ducked down into Lyndsey's hands. Fortunately everything was all right, but it did open our eyes as to how vulnerable they are at this age, and how important their coop will be when they get older.

He'll Have His Rare

About a month ago we decided to change around our dog Judah's diet for a number of reasons. The most pending reason was due to the fact that he was having major skin issues mainly due to allergies and flea bites. It turns out that we aren't the only ones attracted to the beaches and great weather in Southern California, but fleas as well. San Diego is supposedly the Flea Capitol of the U.S. We give Judah his flea treatment once a month with some occasional salt water swims, but this barely does anything to help. Recently he started developing hot spots from some sensitive areas he couldn't keep himself from licking and scratching. Our vet said that it a common thing for dogs, especially labs, to have skin issues. They also gave us some medicated shampoo for the hot spots. I new there had to be more we could do, so I started researching for more options.

The first thing we did was change his diet to a raw food diet. Also known as the B.A.R.F Diet. The acronym in BARF Diet stands for Biologically Appropriate Raw Food, or Bones And Raw Food. The ideology behind it is that each animal has specialized dietary requirements and if they don't receive their biologically appropriate diet the end result will be detrimental to their health. After I learned a little more about dogs and their eating habits I would almost go as far as calling this a 'common sense diet'. "The food your animal eats should provide all of the nutritional components which are necessary for all organs and systems of a healthy body to perform in harmonious unison. A properly functioning body does an amazing job at preventing disease and healing itself, and to do this it requires the energies and nutrients of a well-balanced diet." You see, since the first dogs placed their paws on this earth they have been carnivores. Hunting, scavenging and eating raw meet, not commercial pet food. Many of the commercial dog food companies would have us believe that they actually use human grade meat in the production of their food, when in fact the sources of this "meat" are not even fit for animal consumption. I learned that the most common and most visible symptoms of nutritionally caused deficiencies are allergies of one kind or another. Because many commercial foods are woefully deficient in key nutrients, the long term effect of feeding such foods makes the dog hypersensitive to its environment. I soon learned that Carnivores cannot maintain long term production of the quantity of amylase enzyme necessary to properly digest and utilize the carbohydrates. In addition, the proteins in grains are less digestive than animal proteins. As a result, the immune system becomes irritated and weakened by the invasion of foreign, non-nutritive protein and carbohydrate particles. When this happens allergies and other chronic immune problems may develop.

So for the past month instead of getting his usual kibble, we started feeding him raw meat. Now he eats fish, beef and chicken; bones and all. Bones are full of nutrients good for dogs. They also slow down their eating and clean out their teeth. The important thing is that the bones are not cooked. Poultry bones especially are dangerous cooked because they can splinter and cause internal damage to you your pup. However if they are raw they are still soft, and can be digested.

The results so far have been quite noticeable and worth mentioning. 1. He has lost weight, which is a good thing because he has had issues with his knees since he was a pup. 3 lbs on a dog makes a big difference. 2. His coat is more shiny and he is itching a lot less. 3. His Hot spots began to heal and new hair began to grow in. 4. His stinky dog odder and breath disappeared. We washed him a month ago, and he still smells clean. 5. Cleaning up after him has never been so easy as his droppings are solid and gamey. I know that is a bit gross, but if you own a dog you understand that something like that is a big change.

We will obviously keep a close eye on him and continue to moniter his eating, but so far things are looking pretty good.