May 12, 2008

Spring is trying to happen

It keeps trying to be spring in Manitoba, but it sure hasn't made it yet. I see tiny leaflet buds on the Siberian Elms that surround the house, but no real growth of leaves yet. I see a couple trees that appear to be starting to grow leaves over by one of the sloughs but I haven't traipsed over to investigate yet. The Canada Geese are honking around in pairs like they really don't know quite what they are supposed to be doing at this time of year. That's the way I feel.

I've been building doghouses for last winter's litter of Seppala puppies, who are now fully six months old. Yesterday Tatka and Tsarko "Sharkey" spent their first full day on stakeout, having been left out the previous night. They didn't sleep in their doghouses, but they curled up beside them and were quiet all night. It takes pups awhile to learn to use our doghouses, as they are on legs with high, smallish entrances (against the winters' snows). The coats on these little guys, they don't NEED a doghouse in most kinds of weather.

That's Tatka above, not letting the situation get her down at all, though she does resent not being totally at liberty. She has investigated the rebar swivel to see if she could remove it, and has chewed a bit at the chain and the snap, enough to satisfy herself that there was no way to use her teeth to gain her freedom. So, like the smart gal she is, she has accepted the situation. These two have been virtually trouble-free in their introduction to the stakeout, other than the usual chain tangles that need to be fixed while they are learning how to manage the chain.

The weather today is nasty. Drizzling rain, with temperatures only a bit above freezing. But the two pups are just fine in the shelter of the spruce boughs; it's the two guys left in the puppy pen who are wet and muddy despite their doghouse. A few more days will see them staked out, too.

Posted by ditkoofseppala at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2008

Snow Gone

The weather changed with a rush in Manitoba a few days ago -- a southerly wind began to blow and daytime temperatures soared. Rivulets of melt-water started to flow everywhere, and for a few days it was pretty messy. The wind just kept ramping up, though, and dried things out nicely. It rained just a bit for one evening, but today was sunny and brisk. The snow isn't ALL gone yet, but the bulk of it has just disappeared in three days or so. All that remains is what's left of the big wind drifts.

So yesterday and this afternoon were spent in re-seating the T-posts of the puppy pen that was thrown up hastily in mid-winter, adding more wire ties at the bottom, and assembling a "SOME assembly required" chainlink pen kit that we bought in the late winter, thinking it was modular. NOT -- bunch of pipes, clamps, and a big heavy roll of chainlink. Only the door was pre-assembled. We could never have erected it in the cold! Well, it's erected now. But instead of the Chinook litter occupying it, as I had hoped, the big daft friendly stud dog who came down from the barn in early winter and has been driving up nuts in the house is now OUTSIDE so we can have peace and quiet in the mornings.

And Jeffrey started building doghouses this afternoon. I'll probably be building doghouses all spring and all summer, too. For starters, though, I just want to get two houses done so we can stake out Turov and Tsarko, who are all of five and a half months old. Amazing we've been able to go so long without staking them, actually. But they are giving each other a hard time now, not to mention their smaller brother and sister, so it's TIME. Tikhon and Tatka can probably stay in the pen a few more weeks.

It was a hell of a winter. And it's going to be one hell of a busy summer.

Posted by ditkoofseppala at 09:23 PM | Comments (1)