Jock - The Border Collie: A Wonderful Life. A Wonderful Experience.

Jock at two soon after we first adopted him -2004

Its been six weeks.

I knew I had to write this blog, but it always seemed too soon.

I know how many fans Jock had, and he was the last part of On the Pond Farm that we had with us. I saw the immediate reaction from a Facebook post, and that just made things harder.

I posted the night he died when the whole thing hadn't hit me yet, and I think I said it then best, so I think I'll just paste that post here.

Almost a dozen years ago we acquired a hand me down pure bred Border Collie, knowing nothing about working dogs except they needed a lot of exercise.

Well tomorrow, we don't know how we will get our exercise, as our best training partner died from what appears to be a seizure or stroke, possibly from a brain tumor.

Our favorite park near our Connecticut home - October 2014

Jock took a long walk as usual this morning and still looked amazing for a 13 1/2 year old dog.

We learned so much with Jock, and he was my companion and work mate at the farm and at home, always quiet and watchful.

The sadness hasn't set in yet. We expected a couple more good years, even though he was slowing down in his "retirement". I know he made many friends with you my friends, so I hate to pass on this news, but there it is. I hope you enjoy the album of his pictures over the years.

Sylvester and Jock learning to get along in the early days

Snickers with her buddy.

Dressed for the Ando Walk to raise money for the K-9 program

The "retirement" years in Connecticut.

Teaching Jacob how to walk Jock

Jock being gentle taking his bone

In the woods at River Bend

Cabin Fever Festival, Windsor, CT/ Ice Festival, Ligonier, PA

We have four town facilities that we use for going for walks and hikes with Jock. Northwest Park is the largest, and has umpteen choices of lengths and variety. Basically, you could switch and join and combine and walk all day if you wanted to. Its mostly woods and field type trial, some going by a reservoir and some by barns and soccer fields. Depending on the weather and time, you can be in mostly shade or predominantly sun.

These days, I prefer as much solar help as possible. I don't recall the last time above freezing. Poor Jock's feet are either not as tough as they used to be, or the cold is just taking its toll. We tend to choose our destination by temperature this past month. Some days we get to the park, only to turn around minutes later because Jock begins to limp on three legs, trying to hold up one foot, then another. Its also hard to tell if its just the cold, or the product being used on the roads to melt the ice. Either way, we haven't taken too many walks past a half hour in the past month. We've tried greasing his feet with salve before we head out, but its hard to know how effective that is. Its actually too bad we didn't attend the Cabin Fever Festival yesterday as one of the features was a show with huskies from the Connecticut Valley Siberian Husky Club. Maybe they could have given us some advice.

Left over today was this ice sculpture that I imagine will be there for a while with our weather staying frigid for the rest of this week.

It was a fun reminder of the week-end Ice Festival back in Ligonier, PA, also this week-end. 

If you are passing Ligonier in the next week, I bet you can enjoy the many sculptures there - and maybe a hot drink too!

Quick and Dirty

After leaving the farm, one of the earlier messages I received on Face Book was, “What are you doing with all your spare time?”  That question should have been answered by regular postings, just to get some of the story out there. Here I’ll give you the quick and dirty.



We left the farm, and the last few miles to our new home stuck following a loaded hay wagon. How funny is that? Not much at the time!

The move in May was generally smooth. Sure a few things got dinged, but it was the insane amount of boxes that was the challenge. Now that I am in physical therapy for my back, I realize it may have started with the unpacking. Pushing all the packing paper back INTO the boxes may have been the culprit, but it’s one of those things that creep up on you and by the time you really hurt, so much time has passed, it’s hard to put a finger on it. And yes – we still have more boxes to go.

Mom at our favorite German restaurant in Glendale, AZ

While I was house hunting, my mother had a couple of falls. While she was being evaluated in the hospital she actually coded(AKA her heart stopped) as she was sitting in a chair. Her medications were adjusted and she went home, only to have more falls, and one that fractured her femur August 10th.  That left her wheelchair and walker bound at a skilled nursing facility. I helped her move to assisted living in September and while there took her to her follow up for her injury. There they determined that her hip replacement needs revision. Basically, her left hip replacement needs replacement if she is ever to be without pain and walk on her own again. That surgery should have happened October 30, but due to an "imperfect storm" of events, a test was not properly completed, and hopefully after today that has been done. That puts the surgery on November 11. What I'm leaving out is that this all takes place in Arizona and I get to rack up frequent flier miles going back and forth for a week or ten days at a time every month or two. This is SO the short and nice version of this story!

Our location puts us within two hours of my 11 month old grandson Jake and so with some warning (or not so much!) I have driven over for four different "Nanny Service" days. That usually calls for an overnight the day before or after. That's been fun. Being with Jake and helping out Kristin and Andrew has been a big bonus of this move.

I finally got back to Germany with Dave on a business trip of his and worked a visit to my cousin Nina's new place in the Alps. Timing couldn't have been more perfect as her town was having its annual "Fest" with the local beer, food and lederhosen clad band that one only sees here for October Fest. After business was taken care of in Mannheim, we took the train to Paris and manage to be there for the Final Stage of the Tour De France.  I also visited the Louvre while business was being taken care of and also went back to the Muse de Orsay. A great day was spent in Giverny seeing the estate of Claude Monet and taking umpteen photographs.

On the more domestic side, I've established a few gardens and beds to spruce up the yard, and I have lots of friends to thank for the donations of perennials to get me started. We've been removing rose brambles and a few decaying trees, while establishing a view in the back yard. We also had six trees taken down in preparation of building a two car garage and also to protect the house from future storms. Some of that wood will be burned next season in our newly purchased wood stove which we just lit up two days ago.

Only a week ago we hung up some paintings and photographs. Around the same time we brought in the plants before the freeze. We are shifting to winter and I just started cutting some squares for a quilt.

Of course Jock keeps us busy with his two or three walks a day. He is our physical trainer and without him, I wonder how much exercise we would get. We have three parks within minutes of us to choose from depending on our mood and time, and Jock has been a great source of compliments for his good behavior. We work on obedience as often as we can, but mostly we just let him have fun.

Well, that's a bit of it, and I'm going to try and get my photos in order and show you some of the pleasurable moments that I think you'll enjoy.

I have to say that one of my dilemmas is trying to find a new name for a new blog, but it hasn't come to me yet. So since the farm has a new name, and I still dream of my life at On the Pond Farm, I'll keep going here for now.

Earth Day

Today was a crisp day to be outdoors, but I got to warm myself up with three walks to enjoy my celebration of Earth Day.

What's fun at the farm is that I start with the dog, but then the cats join in.

They follow, then blast past.

Fight with each other, and then go to stalk something along the pond bank.

This is my last Earth Day on the farm.

Its been Earth Day everyday here.

Its been awesome.

 

Hurricane Sandy

Just a  quick hello from me and residents at On the Pond Farm.  Since half the country was affected by Hurricane Sandy, I am thinking about many friends in its path and worry about their lives and homes.

Sandy has passed here for the most part, and we are safe and well. Around us there is severe flooding, but we are located high enough not to suffer any water in the wrong places (although the goats have something to say about that).

Dave in full rain gear and unhappy goats in their sheds.

The goats were very happy to have a barn with hay offerings the past couple of days, as the outdoors was so wet, sleety and snowy. The springs that feed our barn and garden were MORE than flowing. One spring became quite a river along one fence line and cause the goats to have to go over or through the raging water - choices they absolutely hate. Time outside was shorter than usual and indoor recess was prescribed as the precipitation just got heavier and whiter. There were rumblings in the barn of taking the first truck to Arizona if this kept up. A few handfuls of corn treats calmed the mutiny.


Wrong door.

But its dry here!

The silly chickens kept sneaking out of the barn, and then couldn't sneak in. They spent time pecking under the bushes and firs(and the porch), but when it was time to sneak back into the barn, their feathers were too saturated to fly up onto the half barn door and get back in. We had to get them in early too, before they started suffering some sort of chicken affliction. Do chickens get colds? A little shaking and feather fluffing, much like a dog, and they all seemed back to normal.

Jock's only complaint was the severe lightning at one point, and that he didn't get out enough. The cold weather is his style, no matter that its wet. He loves diving in the raging stream that the goats hate. He tackles clumps of dirt and whips them around, and is an absolute happy mess! Rolling in the first sleet of the year was another bonus.

And what was I doing while all this was going on, aside from filling up water jugs and lining up candles. Where are more storm pictures? I was doing my colonoscopy prep(Yeah! Too much information, but...!), praying it wasn't for naught if the hospital lost power!! What timing! Then the worry was, could we get to the hospital because of the flooding. We were down to one entry/exit and we made it safely. Procedure done. All is well!

Thinking of all of you and hope you are well and safe, although I'm sure some were not so lucky. I know we all hope power and help is on the way.

Red Fox Sighting (Its Been A While)

The dog and cats and I had just come down from a nice walk, after checking on the goats by the pond.

I had my camera in hand looking for more fall loveliness, when I thought I saw a neighbor's cat on the newly mowed hill.

The gang followed me back for a better look, as I saw a bit of red, and we don't know any red cats.

Yes. Of course. It was a fox.

It watched us as we got closer, and Jock couldn't see over the remaining tall hay to think about giving chase. I said "fox", and he knows the word, and his ears went up. He scanned the hill, but the fox started to move before we got much further.

Here is the clip of him going back up the hill toward the woods.

And you are thinking I am mean to want Jock to give chase. Not true. I am protecting my hens. I don't think the fox would bother the goats unless it was kidding season. I just want the fox to stay on his half of the farm, and let me have my half.