tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58243385636839090332024-02-18T23:03:30.194-08:00The CRITTER ProjectJoin us in our adventure from city slickers to farmers on our modern day version of Little House on the Prairie. The CRITTER Project is our green living plan for a sustainable farm, featuring large-breed dog rescue, pit bulls, yaks, goats, chickens, gardening and wind farming. Since we're foodies, you'll also find recipes and information on cooking and preserving food.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-50706237244111458372013-05-07T10:24:00.002-07:002013-05-07T17:09:36.271-07:00The Little Mixer That No Longer CanThe other day CK was going through some
photos on his camera. "I found a picture of your mixer," he
told me over the phone. It made me want to cry all over again.
The mixer, a gorgeous Kitchen Aid was
an early Christmas gift from Quantum in 2009, the year before we
moved to Colorado. He has a habit of knowing exactly what kind of
gift I want more than anything. It's simple really. Give me Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-58599014277332951942012-11-01T07:42:00.004-07:002012-11-01T07:42:56.718-07:00Florida at Last
The rest of the drive was thankfully
uneventful. We couldn't wait for it to be over, as we made our way
through Orlando, taking notice of the new stores that had sprung up
since we were gone.
Our condo (which had been renovated
slightly since we'd moved) was gorgeous, but disconcerting in it's
differences. Our new roommate, J is super nice. The dogs are a bit
confused (especially whenever Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-90372281605312333892012-11-01T07:41:00.001-07:002012-11-01T07:41:32.591-07:00More 280 Hell
We reached Columbia around 2:30 or 3
and couldn't find a place to pull over and park for the rest of the
night. It took us until freaking 4:30 in the morning before we found
somewhere safe to stop. Meanwhile we'd considered the possibility
that since things tended to happen in 3's, did 3 deer in total count
as 3's, or did 3 INCIDENTS of deer count as 3's?
Turns out it was the
later, and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-39609882178820592242012-11-01T07:39:00.000-07:002012-11-01T07:39:12.676-07:00Suicidal Deer
We kept ourselves awake by imagining
blogging about our journey and then sending an email to the Shelby
County fathers. "We realize that the two adjacent roads with the
same numbers probably didn't occur during your administration.
However not correcting the situation is highly negligent. Are you
incompetent? Uncaring? Or just clueless?"
The full moon had gone behind the
clouds and the roadUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-89526630244371048832012-11-01T07:35:00.001-07:002012-11-01T07:35:31.317-07:00The Rt. 280 Doppleganger
"Okay this is more like what I
expected Birmingham to look like," Quantum said, as the city
hove in sight, a mass of twisting highways, ramps, bridges and huge,
ugly high-rises. Rt. 280 portended ill from the beginning. Although a
well-tended 4 laner, it was studded with stop lights every quarter
mile or so, for miles and miles.
"If this is going to be like that
for the whole trip, maybe Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-65513622718448177692012-11-01T07:12:00.002-07:002012-11-03T18:57:40.528-07:00Bubba's Campaign and the Missing Road Signs
Somewhere near 40 miles to Birmingham,
we crossed over the border into Alabama. While we were still informed
on an imperative and frequent basis that this was the future home of
the I-22 corridor, signs letting us know how far it was to Birmingham
(which we'd been informed of regularly back in Mississippi) seemed to
go missing.
On this trip (as on our original
journey to CO) we noted that Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-41767333419471565592012-11-01T07:09:00.005-07:002012-11-01T07:09:54.965-07:00The Horror That Is Construction Zones
The journey to just before the border
of Arkansas was long but relatively ok with the exception of tired
eyes and butts that were sore from sitting on the same part of the
seat for hours. We pulled into the parking lot of a gas station/truck
stop/casino. Q checked the fluids and noticed that there seemed to be
a major leak between where you add radiator fluid and the radiator
itself.
We Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-16659114988801935102012-11-01T07:06:00.002-07:002012-11-01T07:06:17.941-07:00All's Not OK in Oklahoma
Waking up at 5:30, we warmed up the
car. Suddenly, Quantum noticed smoke billowng up from the engine.
An hour or so later it was determined
it was the water pump. We called around and found that one guy could
order a new pump for us. We could have it Tuesday! ACK! Today was
Saturday. Fortunately another place had the pump in stock - a bit
more expensive, but we couldn't afford to wait till Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-25722112344774475722012-11-01T07:03:00.002-07:002012-11-01T07:03:16.516-07:00The Drive Begins
The first day of the journey passed
easily enough.
Quantum and I joked about the "historical
markers" (which we never did seem but which signs for appeared
every several miles or so) and the trend of some of the farmers to
purchase the same maddening color of red paint. We figured some
enterprising salesman had a huge vat of paint to sell. In Texas we
also took note of the lack of actual "Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-13661400902105169572012-11-01T07:00:00.002-07:002012-11-01T07:00:52.157-07:00Packing
Quantum arrived in Denver around 8
Tuesday night and I picked him up at the Loaf & Jug at 6:30 the
next morning. (The bus didn't get into town till nearly 4am and he
didn't want me driving in the dark.) He'd been gone an entire month,
and it occurred to me that we'd had Karma longer with him away than
with him there.
Our first job was to get the cap on
the pickup. The thing weighed a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-6619444820975410552012-11-01T06:56:00.000-07:002012-11-01T06:56:23.853-07:00Good Bye Yak Girls
After having contacted several places,
we finally found a home for the yaks. Grateful as we were to find
them a new home, and not have to feed them anymore (since we were
seriously running out of funds) it was heartbreaking letting them go.
Sean, their new owner has about 250
head of yak in Alamosa. He's a sweet guy and they should have a good
home with him. He wanted to learn their names,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-18243178573231242422012-11-01T06:52:00.001-07:002012-11-01T06:52:31.753-07:00Cursing out RY
I'm not proud of myself about this
incident, but such is life.
With little money left to feed the
yaks, we were selling everything we owned that we didn't absolutely
need to take with us. Unfortunately very little of what we had was
actually sales worthy. I managed to get $100 for the water tanks, $75
for the auger and $100 for the propane tanks. Way below what
everything was worth, but we Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-45879721094382349582012-11-01T06:47:00.002-07:002012-11-01T06:48:24.827-07:00Dogs Must Pee
After I ran out of gasoline for the
heater and internet, M (and CK) had been nice enough to put me up
"for two weeks," M said. A week into it, I was losing my
mind. Besides our spending a day and a half hiding from the landlady,
M had an enormously bad attitude
He has an elderly (14 years old) dog,
Bear, and he obviously had some fantasy that my dogs were sort of
like his - laid back, barely Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-32837090747527945522012-10-31T17:26:00.004-07:002012-10-31T17:26:34.983-07:00In the Safeway Parking Lot
As if the the incident with the dogs
wasn't enough, RY again called up CK's landlady and this time told
her about the fact that there were three cats living there. At least
we're pretty sure it was RY, since CK's cats stayed in his room, and
no one but RY knew that they even existed except me and M, the
roomie.
CK's roomie had not informed the
landlady about the cats. This didn't sit wellUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-12050995927434048352012-10-31T17:22:00.006-07:002012-10-31T17:23:16.496-07:00The Miracle of the Silver - Or Not
Back before we moved to CO, we'd had a
jewelry making business, and as part of that had purchased a few
hundred dollars worth of silver casting grain. During the fire, we
lost it (along with everything else). We often talked about where it
might be, but somehow, we had never braved the pile of ash, broken
glass and twisted metal to look for it. As broke as we were, I needed
to find the stuff. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-89173039817015344582012-10-19T13:14:00.000-07:002012-10-19T13:32:48.109-07:00Help Keep our Yaks From Being Slaughtered! Please!We thought we had found a home for the yaks. In fact it sounded so good that we let the guy lead us on for a full week. (He seemed to be having trouble with his phone.)
So I finally got ahold of him and here's what he wanted:
We give him all four of our yaks. He "takes care of them" then keeps two of them. The two he wanted were our breedable females, Yazoo and Yeti. Which would have been Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-63561142458287342412012-10-12T07:28:00.000-07:002012-10-12T08:16:21.599-07:00Puppy Pics
Left to right, here's Zen, Karma and Bushi, sacked out on the bed. The biggest danger here is being licked to death or getting sleep deprived because of Karma's snoring.
Thank you @KellyRipa for suggesting that I'm a gangster because I have three of the most wonderful, gentle and sweet dogs in creation.
Now Raz here (ignoring the evil giant pit bull, Karma) just MIGHT be considered Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-62702838375350709442012-10-12T06:40:00.001-07:002012-10-12T06:40:28.489-07:00Working Dogs at Children's hospital Working Dogs Show Off at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital
The dogs at the expo included police dogs, guide dogs for the blind and a one-eyed therapy dog who visits sick children at a hospital.
Nice to see a program that teaches kids respect and love for animals.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-24835409547858849122012-10-11T16:36:00.000-07:002012-10-11T16:36:27.950-07:00What the Heck Is RY's Motive?
This isn't the first time RY's done
wacky stuff. It's just the first time he's been caught flat out.
Last winter our yaks got loose, and
were missing for a few days. They went up to A's a rancher
acquaintance (who we met because of the first time the girls got
escaped) but in the meanwhile RY shows up saying that someone had
called him around midnight sounding drunk and saying "this is
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-61424357163385189462012-10-11T15:38:00.000-07:002012-10-11T15:38:17.369-07:00Spoof Calls Blaming Pit Bulls
Is this how some pit bulls get bad
press?
I really hadn't wanted to talk about RY
but...
Because I can't afford gas for the
generator right now, and the nights have been freezing cold, I've
been staying with CK (our former roommate) and his new roommate M at
their house in town. It's challenging being here with 3 dogs and 2
cats and I've had to go back and care for the yaks every otherUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-61088309518387254642012-10-10T09:47:00.000-07:002012-10-10T09:47:59.117-07:00Yaks Return and Dogs vs. Yaks Round 1
I haven't even had a chance to write a
post introducing our 3rd rescue pit bull, Karma. (I'' do
that soon.) She's a wonderful sweet puppy, and we adore her, but one
thing we found out...she doesn't like yaks.
Karma the instigator. *sigh*
The yaks had been on walkabout for
about a month, so Karma had never met them. The coyotes were howling
one night and we saw SOMETHING flash past in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-59041709849013292302012-10-10T08:07:00.002-07:002012-10-10T09:54:38.411-07:00Bushi's Boo-Boo
As if trying to rehome the yaks wasn't
traumatic enough, out dog Bushi developed a large hematoma (blood
blister) as a result of last week's inadvertent yak vs. dog fight.
(I'll post about THAT trauma in a future post.)
Bushi really prefers to wear hot pink.
This morning I spent my
waking-up-should-be-drinking-coffee time attempting for about the 5th
time in18 hours, to make one of CK's Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-28273825150809462472012-10-07T13:11:00.000-07:002012-10-10T09:55:39.492-07:00Help Save the Critter Project!
Ferdie
As I said in my last post, we were
trying to sell the yaks. We're devastated by this. But now it's
worse.
We'd contacted the breeder who got
Yazoo pregnant with Ferdie and hoped he could help us. He thought he
could find a home for Yeti and Yonkers and would keep Yazoo and
Ferdie himself. (And we'd hoped we could buy back at least those two
once we return to Colorado.
Yonkers Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-72452120522944954112012-10-07T12:23:00.002-07:002012-10-10T09:56:50.156-07:00A Sad Intermission for the Critter Project
Just when things were starting to go
well...
I haven't been updating this blog
because the changes have been coming too fast and we're still reeling
with the punches.
This May or so, Quantum's mom, "J"
started exhibiting the symptoms of Alzheimer's related dementia.
J lives in Florida, and since we moved
here, the plan was for her to come out and be with us. She didn't
have much keepingUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5824338563683909033.post-55258985362717111212012-09-01T12:48:00.001-07:002012-09-01T12:48:25.783-07:00A Letter to PETA - about PitbullsA correspondence between PETA and a woman who had planned (that's past tense, thank goodness) to leave her fortune to them when she passed.
A Letter to PETA is a well-put answer to PETA's (imo) despicable treatment and villification of Pit Bulls and pitbull-like breeds.
Friends don't let friends support PETA.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1