Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes..

As promised, (though not as expeditiously as previously implied..) a story about the completely new direction our lives are about to take.

First let's back up to some time last Spring.. or maybe it was Summer.  At Margaret's usual monthly trip to the auction, she met a lady from Madison, WI who happened to live near us.  As they became better aquainted, Sam (Samantha, I presume) told Margaret about a conversation she'd had with the owners of the little, used bookstore in town.  She was interested in buying the store, and wondered if we would be interested in going in on it with her.  We were intrigued, did some digging around and some research and decided that yes, we would be interested.

As our interest increased, Sam's seemed to wane.  So much so, that she left town last Summer to return to Madison, but is now residing also in Florida.  That did nothing to dampen our (Margaret's) resolve.  Roping in a family member to be a "silent partner", we set the wheels in motion to become book store owners.

The first thing we needed to do was buy the building from the person who was leasing it to the book store business owners.  We didn't want to be at the mercy of a stranger who didn't even live in New Mexico.  That was accomplished a week ago, Tuesday, when we closed the deal on the building and property.

The business owners' lease expires at the end of May.  At that time, we'll purchase the inventory, and take over the business, while the current owners retire to the house they're building in the wilderness of Datil, NM. (Look it up).

While we won't change the name of the store, we'll be doing business as Dog-Eared Enterprises, LLC.  We'll also be creating some gallery space in the store for my local landscape and nature images, so Shot On Site Photography will also be folded into Dog-Eared Enterprises.

The store features extensive titles on southwest history, New Mexico, the borderlands, plus all the other topics you'd expect to find in a bookseller's.  We expect to have an increased internet presence over what they're currently doing, including a Facebook page, which I expect everybody to "Like".

The dusty backyard visible in the pictures, will have a chain link fence installed to complete the enclosure, and will become 1) a dog yard for the daily "store dogs", and 2) a space to rent out for "events" such as weddings or receptions and such.

So with that, we are truly, once and for all, completely retired from the "traveling to dog events" business.  It was fun, but we're moving on.

Future Headlines

Posts coming up by the end of the weekend...

This happened yesterday.

This happened today.

This will happen tomorrow...

Introducing "H1LDA"

A Secret!

Beatles - Do You Want To Know A Secret
Jumping straight back into the blogosphere without so much as a by your leave, sir.. Beginning with the most recent news.. (and there is a lot!).  
Back in September, just before we went on the aforementioned train trip to New York, Ashley and Sandia had a not-so-secret assignation, which I was not quick enough to break up.  That resulted in the not-so-little bundle of joy you see here.
Born on November 17, she shares her birthday with my late mother.  I decided that called for naming her after my mother- Hilda. (This was also the name of Dutch's very first sighthound, so that made it even more apropos!)  Since she was born a singleton, some modification of the spelling was called for.  I stole the idea from a large, midwestern athletic conference logo.  I named her H1LDA.  Make sure you get it right.

Hiatus

Like the French, I'm taking the Summer off.  When the temps cool, posting will return. Apologies for the lack of advance notice.

Some Good News After All.

Peach Blossoms

As reported previously, the palms are DOA, as is the fig, and much of the cacti, and presumably the oleander. Noticed yesterday that even the large Mexican Elder is brittle, and may be dead as well. All victims of either/or the brutal February cold snap and drought. But I've been watering the pines (now that all of our piping's been repaired) and I'm happy to report they're no longer golden in color, but are now more of a rusty red with a lot of pale green starting to show through! Best of all, as illustrated by the photo above, the peach tree has survived, and is blossoming. Some of the readers of this blog may have tasted the peaches from this tree last Summer, so you know this is very, very good news. I'm betting the little pecan is probably all right as well.

Scanners!.... is moving!

I've looked at the amount of raw material I've got to work with, and decided there's more than enough to scan, modify, and install in its own blog, probably to be called: Scanners! oddly enough. Many images will be of a more, um, adult nature, so you'll have to show proof before entering. I'm sure it will be worth it. It's also another place to run the Google Ads, and hopefully increase the revenue stream.. only took two years to earn the last $100. You know what to do.

I'll let you know when the site's up and running!

Darwin's Mountaineers.

A follow up article in the local paper goes into more detail on the four "hikers" who had to be rescued from the top of the mountains last week, but it fails to make them appear any... brighter.

Take a look at this picture:

The arrow at the bottom of the mountain is the parking lot and picnic area. The arrow at the top is Florida Peak, (partially obscured by clouds in this 2009 image), some 2500' above the lot, with no trails between the two. On a day when the sun sets around 5:30, who in their right mind decides to make a climb (not a hike) at 2 O'Clock? They may be in college, but they're obviously not math majors.

Hello There.

(Please cue soundtrack, below)

Hello there..

I'm Indiana Gauss.

I'm a famed dashing and handsome blog-cheologist.  I seem to have stumbled upon this ancient and neglected blog.  It appears to have been vacated by some early race of idealistic, energetic blogger.  I've seen this before.  You would think that these indigenous writers would have vanished mysteriously from the face of the earth, but that's not so.  In true nomadic fashion, they've become part of the diaspora to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other so-called "social networking" sights.  Their laziness had gotten the better of them, and they no longer wanted to make the effort to toil at their thankless blogging tasks.

Fortunately, the final history of bloggers in general, and this blog in particular is far from being written.  Enough empirical evidence exists to predict that this blogging malaise is reversible, and that this blog will become a hive of literary activity very soon, (in blog-cheologic time, that is).

In fact, I can pretty fairly predict that soon you will here be reading about such diverse topics as:

• Geocaching

• The Pack Hunt, and Desert Hare Classic

• Driving miles and miles of desert and mountain jeep trails

• Desert wildflower reports

And probably a whole lot more.  You would be wise to monitor this location closely.  That is my professional opinion.  Now, I must be off to kill some Nazis and eat monkey brains.

Willow - Bella - Nessie - Willow

Think this would ever happen before the advent of the internet?


I received a phone call this morning.  Early.  As in, I had just gotten up and let the dogs out.  It was from a very nice gentleman in a place called Porcupine, South Dakota.  Being fairly geographically-competent, I kinda knew where this conversation was going.


It seems, this man does some coyote hunting every year around Thanksgiving near Casper, Wyoming.  This past Thanksgiving, his favorite dog.. a black and white 3/4 coyote hound x 1/4 Scottish Deerhound named "Willow", escaped from her truck box, and was last seen chasing Pronghorn.  Though they stayed in the area for 3 days looking for her, even going back at night time with spotlights, she was gone.  They made the assumption that she was dead.. either run to death by the Pronghorn, or a collision with an embankment or some other immovable object.


The scene now shifts to somewhat later.  Early in December, a stray, fitting the same description is picked up by Casper Animal Control, and at some point is adopted out under the name "Bella".  Apparently the person adopting this dog expected some drooling, happy, jump-in-your-lap-and-lick-your-face black lab-type dog.  After 6 days, she was returned to the Casper shelter.


I don't know the details of how the rest of this tale gets to the present, but I can probably construct a plausible scenario.  After a certain amount of time, with no more potential adopters, "Bella" was scheduled for euthanasia.  Which is where, apparently, Black Dog Animal Rescue, being a "no kill" shelter, comes into the picture.. , and therefore, where Margaret and I come into the picture, as recorded in the previous post.


So, back to the phone call.  The gentleman from Porcupine wasn't trying to get his dog back, as I initially feared. He "thought (I'd) like to know something about (my) new dog."  And this is her story:  She comes from some very accomplished coyote hunting stock.   Her father is a large, black coyote hound named "Tippy".  Why "Tippy"?  I'm not sure, but it might be because he has three legs, and despite this handicap, was still capable of chasing and killing coyotes.  Her mother, "Sting", is half Deerhound, half coyote hound.  Willow was his favorite dog, and he just wanted me to know he was happy that she ended up in a good home.  So just as we will with the Black Dog people, we'll be touching base periodically with this Mr Vaughn in South Dakota.  (it's kinda like your adopted kid being able to finally find his birth parents)..  I think we're going to go back to the name, Willow.  She seems to respond to it, and it's easier to call loudly.


We've been exceptionally lucky with all of the dogs who have come into our lives from varied and sundry sources.  Randir, the deerhound who outlived all his mates and contemporaries, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who had an unofficial national fan club, and her sister, Fanny.  We're still learning about the talents, practical and comedic, of little Miss Ashley.  Even Rally the broken, epeliptic coldblood greyhound had her moments  I see no reason for our luck to change now  Timing, it seems, really is everything.

Hey Strangers!

Where the hell you all been?

Oh.. I see by my visit counter you've been here all along, while I've been... what the hell have I been doing?

Well, part of the time since the last post.... what??!? over a month ago? Whatever.. part of that time we were travelling. About that time we were leaving the Scottish Deerhound specialty in Missouri, and were heading to Michigan for the Rhodesian Ridgeback specialty. Then we headed south to Lexington, KY for the Saluki specialty... (and I should note here, that had I been blogging during those events, those of you who thought the blog posts were getting too negative -Joe- would have noticed a definite uptick on attitude. Money changes everything).

We are now back home. And we're going to stay here for a long, long time. There's nothing on the schedule until the AKC National Lure Coursing Championship in December.

We've added a very cool high speed connection from Verizon.. a bitty, credit card sized "personal hot spot" device. We can both be online, without wires, at broadband speeds. Only drawback, is the 5GB limit each month, (or 2.5 for each of us). That precludes downloading long movies and such.. so not a big problem.

With all this new technology, the blog should begin to pick up steam again.. just like the old days. And I'm referring to the old days "BFB" (Before FaceBook). Yes, Facebook is my scapegoat. I knew when I joined up it was a big time sink. I just didn't realize how much of a day could be wasted on it. But, in its defense, it's just so much easier to share thoughts, links, photos, and all the other things that would normally have been posted here. So, I'm not going to leave Facebook.. and if you're interested in what I'm posting there, you should send me a friend request. If I know who you are, I'll let you in.

Meanwhile, I'll be planning on spending more time on the blog. Lots went on here while we were gone, so there will be pictures to post. Summer's started and the snakes and lizards and tarantulas have hit the yard. I would expect to post more photos than writing for the near term.

So there you have it. Tell your friends. Oh! And tell your friends that Margaret and I both have new - local - phone numbers. Now that we're not wandering from sea to shining sea, we thought it would be a good idea to establish a local presence, and ditch the Jackson and Milwaukee area codes and numbers. If you need the new numbers, you can find them at the website.

Look for the first pictures later today or tomorrow.

Damage Control

Hide the women and kids... it's blood and gore!  

I previously wrote about the jackrabbit that led our dogs astray, and into the heavy brush.  They did go into the brush, but after closer inspection of the wounds.. (shown here, Sandia's right rear leg, and left armpit and chest) it seems pretty obvious that they also flew through a barbed wire fence.
Nasty stuff.

I decided to take Sandia to the vet on Friday, just to be on the safe side.  He pronounced the injuries "superficial", and the only reason to suture the crap out of them would be to reduce scarring.  As Sandia is as likely to show up at a beauty contest as I am to sprout wings and fly, we decided to let nature take its course.  I had already started him on oral antibiotics, so all we were out was for an office call and an "examination". As of today, 3 days on, he's moving fine, and the wounds are closing nicely. He'll be ready for this week's Galgo Extravaganza! 

As an aside to our "personal groomer" in Texas, notice that we also took the opportunity to have his nails clipped while we were there, and her services will not be required next weekend as previously scheduled.

Also, the more observant of you will have noticed that, yup, there's only one.

There's Political News...

...and then there's POLITICAL NEWS:

The Obama kinder will finally be getting their White House Dog sometime in April.  The news, such as it is, is that this won't be the puppy, promised by the POTUS on election night, but a rescue dog.  And what kind of rescue dog, you might ask, if you didn't already know?  Why, it's going to be a Portuguese Water Dog... just like the two Ted Kennedy owns, and like the ones a lure coursing friend of ours in Texas owns.

It's great that the Obamas are choosing a rescue.  It's unfortunate that they are choosing a breed that has so many health problems.  They've done their homework well on so many other parts of their lives, but not this time.  I guess they didn't get the message from Pat Burns.  

Personally.. I'd suggest a Galgo-  that's just me    ;o)

UPDATE 2/26: Or maybe not.  Time will tell.