Puppies squeak. They are, but of course, I am always blaming the boy. Aren't they always the squeakiest?!!!! Yes, or so it seems. Still eating nonstop, the babies are growing.
Yes, I found the keys, right where I put them as I was doing something else, and yes, Kathleen knew where the earbuds were as she had taken them and plugged them in to charge. Why would I have looked there?!!!1
Kathleen's car has arrived on the island. I will go to Hilo tomorrow with one of my friends to pick it up. Yippeeeeee!!!
Company coming tonight. They will get to my house about 2300/11:00. I think that they will need a snack. I am going to try a new banana bread recipe with chocolate chips in it.
I will TRY to put some pictures on. It isn't easy.....
Curmudgeonville reigns!
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Blue days
Lots of rain, but we are NOT in the flash flood areas. We are probably at about 500' elevation.
The puppies are now two days old, gaining weight every day. They are all blues! Dad is a grizzle and mom is a blue and all of these are blues, the recessive color. Interesting.
The puppies are shiny and black. They don't sparkle, but they shine. Puppies are wonderful. One could watch them all day and all night, just like watching a human baby. Pure love.
I have lost my earbuds. Where the heck did I leave them? I've also lost my car keys. Is Alzheimers setting in? They both were lost yesterday. Rats!!! They will turn up.
I lost my CRV, but I know where it went. It was totaled and the insurance paid it off quite well. No, I didn't total it. I loaned it to someone who totaled it, about a month ago. Kathleen takes my Prius to work daily, so I have had no car for a month. Her car is due to come into Hilo in another week. Whew! I'll be glad of that when it happens.
Kathleen's best friend and most of her family are arriving tomorrow night and will stay for a week. Kathleen is very excited, as am I. At almost the end of their visit here, Kathleen's middle kid, Bryce, and his mate and Jack's family will come for another week. At the end of their week, Kate, Kathleen's daughter, will come for her week. Busy time. I still don't know when we will be going to Lehua Island. Things get complicated. Just the way it is.
Aloha,
Curmudgeonville
The puppies are now two days old, gaining weight every day. They are all blues! Dad is a grizzle and mom is a blue and all of these are blues, the recessive color. Interesting.
The puppies are shiny and black. They don't sparkle, but they shine. Puppies are wonderful. One could watch them all day and all night, just like watching a human baby. Pure love.
I have lost my earbuds. Where the heck did I leave them? I've also lost my car keys. Is Alzheimers setting in? They both were lost yesterday. Rats!!! They will turn up.
I lost my CRV, but I know where it went. It was totaled and the insurance paid it off quite well. No, I didn't total it. I loaned it to someone who totaled it, about a month ago. Kathleen takes my Prius to work daily, so I have had no car for a month. Her car is due to come into Hilo in another week. Whew! I'll be glad of that when it happens.
Kathleen's best friend and most of her family are arriving tomorrow night and will stay for a week. Kathleen is very excited, as am I. At almost the end of their visit here, Kathleen's middle kid, Bryce, and his mate and Jack's family will come for another week. At the end of their week, Kate, Kathleen's daughter, will come for her week. Busy time. I still don't know when we will be going to Lehua Island. Things get complicated. Just the way it is.
Aloha,
Curmudgeonville
Monday, April 16, 2018
What a day!!!
OK. After losing JD this morning, I was piddling around the house and listening to the rain and wind that have been feasting on north Kohala for a couple of weeks, so much so that we had been in a flash flood warning for days and days. I decided to go to the Post Office and so had to get the dogs into the house for while I was gone.
I started with the three dogs in the front yard. Reese, Chip and Mermaid came in right away and were happy to be out of the rain. I then went out to the back yard to bring in Myshka and Henry. Henry came right in and loved his treat that took him into his crate. Myshka didn't come in, not even with lots of calling. I examined the yard, the fence, under the house, in the house, under the house, in the house, in her crate, under the house, etc. I was just sure that someone had stolen Myshka or that she had caught a bufo toad and was dead somewhere in the horrendously thick foliage that kept me from seeing her. I HAD to go to the PO, so went quickly and came back. It was still raining, but I took out the lopper and took it out into the backyard and started pruning out a bunch of heliconia so that I could see if she was in there amongst the packed in plants. I found Myshka under the lychee tree huddled around four fat babies, three girls and one boy. I am STILL shaking from all of the adrenaline that released when I thought Myshka was GONE!!!! I brought the puppies in and Myshka followed. No more puppies have come out. Does the boy need to be named JD? When will the shaking go away?!!
So, that is today. Myshka "took" me, but she is forgiven. She is a good mama and is happy and proud. I didn't think that she was ready to have her babies yet, but she had a different take on it. There had been no panting, no nothing and no milk in her tits. Hmmmmm. She was being quite sneaky today. Fooled me.
All the puppies are fine and dandy. The heaviest, a girl, weighs 9.3 ounces and the lightest weighs 8.2 ounces. The boy weighs 9 ounces. They are all so wet that they all look like blues. We'll see what they are when they dry off a bit.
So there, a non-typical day in Kohala....
Take care, from the shaky Curmudgeon
I started with the three dogs in the front yard. Reese, Chip and Mermaid came in right away and were happy to be out of the rain. I then went out to the back yard to bring in Myshka and Henry. Henry came right in and loved his treat that took him into his crate. Myshka didn't come in, not even with lots of calling. I examined the yard, the fence, under the house, in the house, under the house, in the house, in her crate, under the house, etc. I was just sure that someone had stolen Myshka or that she had caught a bufo toad and was dead somewhere in the horrendously thick foliage that kept me from seeing her. I HAD to go to the PO, so went quickly and came back. It was still raining, but I took out the lopper and took it out into the backyard and started pruning out a bunch of heliconia so that I could see if she was in there amongst the packed in plants. I found Myshka under the lychee tree huddled around four fat babies, three girls and one boy. I am STILL shaking from all of the adrenaline that released when I thought Myshka was GONE!!!! I brought the puppies in and Myshka followed. No more puppies have come out. Does the boy need to be named JD? When will the shaking go away?!!
So, that is today. Myshka "took" me, but she is forgiven. She is a good mama and is happy and proud. I didn't think that she was ready to have her babies yet, but she had a different take on it. There had been no panting, no nothing and no milk in her tits. Hmmmmm. She was being quite sneaky today. Fooled me.
All the puppies are fine and dandy. The heaviest, a girl, weighs 9.3 ounces and the lightest weighs 8.2 ounces. The boy weighs 9 ounces. They are all so wet that they all look like blues. We'll see what they are when they dry off a bit.
So there, a non-typical day in Kohala....
Take care, from the shaky Curmudgeon
Sad Day
Elwha's JD Jye, 2/14/2004 -4/16/2018
JD, the son of Lil and Harley, went to live with Jean Rassbach. He had a wonderful life with Jean until Jean got cancer and died. Jean had asked that JD stay with his daughter, and he did until she too had medical problems that caused her to return JD to the Elwha pack. JD went to live with Kathleen, my daughter, in Bellingham, WA as I had already moved to Hawaii. We found a number of homes for him, but he stayed with Kathleen. In getting him ready to go to one of those homes, lab tests showed abnormal calcium levels. Working that up was not showing anything until one day when a bump showed up on his side. It was lymphoma, and the vet gave JD two months to live. That was well over a year ago. Kathleen moved in with me in September, 2017, and thinking that JD might go any day, he stayed in Bellingham. Kathleen's husband, Gilbert, had never much liked the Border Terriers as he is a "big" dog person, but he fell in love with JD and when he called Kathleen this morning, he was bawling as hard as Kathleen was when she called me. She was on her way to work. JD was amazing and kept on going, long past his supposed overdue date. He loved Kathleen most, but loved Kate and Gil too. We know he loved Jean. Now he is reunited with his best friend.
Jean and JD had lots of fun together and JD and Jean earned him MANY titles, CH, agility, obedience, rally, earthdog, tracking and who knows what else? He was a remarkable dog, thanks to Jean Rassbach.
We will always remember JD and remember what a tough little terrier he was. He has a brother, Harta Gold who has had a ton of fun in his life with Heather Somers and is now getting blind and deaf but still has lots of fun, a brother PepperJack, who lost his best friend, Dennis, a bit over a year ago, but who now has fun with a new friend. Sisters who live in Arlington, WA, Oregon and Florida and who are loved to heaven knows. That was an amazing litter and JD was certainly a shining light in it.
We will miss JD and his legacy, but know he is now beyond hurting.
Signing off,
The Sad Curmudgeon
JD, the son of Lil and Harley, went to live with Jean Rassbach. He had a wonderful life with Jean until Jean got cancer and died. Jean had asked that JD stay with his daughter, and he did until she too had medical problems that caused her to return JD to the Elwha pack. JD went to live with Kathleen, my daughter, in Bellingham, WA as I had already moved to Hawaii. We found a number of homes for him, but he stayed with Kathleen. In getting him ready to go to one of those homes, lab tests showed abnormal calcium levels. Working that up was not showing anything until one day when a bump showed up on his side. It was lymphoma, and the vet gave JD two months to live. That was well over a year ago. Kathleen moved in with me in September, 2017, and thinking that JD might go any day, he stayed in Bellingham. Kathleen's husband, Gilbert, had never much liked the Border Terriers as he is a "big" dog person, but he fell in love with JD and when he called Kathleen this morning, he was bawling as hard as Kathleen was when she called me. She was on her way to work. JD was amazing and kept on going, long past his supposed overdue date. He loved Kathleen most, but loved Kate and Gil too. We know he loved Jean. Now he is reunited with his best friend.
Jean and JD had lots of fun together and JD and Jean earned him MANY titles, CH, agility, obedience, rally, earthdog, tracking and who knows what else? He was a remarkable dog, thanks to Jean Rassbach.
We will always remember JD and remember what a tough little terrier he was. He has a brother, Harta Gold who has had a ton of fun in his life with Heather Somers and is now getting blind and deaf but still has lots of fun, a brother PepperJack, who lost his best friend, Dennis, a bit over a year ago, but who now has fun with a new friend. Sisters who live in Arlington, WA, Oregon and Florida and who are loved to heaven knows. That was an amazing litter and JD was certainly a shining light in it.
We will miss JD and his legacy, but know he is now beyond hurting.
Signing off,
The Sad Curmudgeon
Friday, April 6, 2018
Lehua Island
Those scenting dogs, those are Akenside Cumin, Henry, from the UK and bred by Lesley Gosling, and Reese, Elwha's Sweetness Personified (except when it comes to rats.)
This is coming up soon. Gotta go in April, before the birds start nesting.
This is what came out this morning in Kauai's Garden Island Newspaper:
Excited Curmudgeon
This is coming up soon. Gotta go in April, before the birds start nesting.
This is what came out this morning in Kauai's Garden Island Newspaper:
DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCESDAVID Y. IGE
GOVERNORSUZANNE D. CASE
CHAIRPERSONFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEApril 4, 2018RAT-DETECTING DOGS JOIN LEHUA ISLAND RESTORATION PROJECT PARTNERSHIPLocalized Treatments Continue after a few rats caught on camera(LIHUE, KAUA’I) – Monitoring teams are observing more albatross on Lehua Island than they have in a long time. There’s also no sign of rats consuming plants or seabird eggs, something that was commonplace a year ago. These are exactly the kind of early indicators project partners might hope to see – signs of a recovering island ecosystem, due to the removal of introduced, damaging (invasive) rats. But there is still work to do!The Lehua Island Restoration Project Partnership is working hard to finish the ambitious operation initiated in 2017 to rid the island of predatory rats. Recently, remote, motion-activated monitoring camera ‘traps’ picked up three images of what are believed to be two or three rats on the steep and rocky cliff areas on the West and East sides of the island. Analysis of images show definitive proof of one rat; the other two are partial images that experts confidently believe to be rats.For decades, invasive rats were having an ecosystem-wide impact on Lehua by consuming native plant seeds and preying on seabird chicks, eggs, and adults. In fall 2017, project partners applied a conservation bait to the island containing the rodenticide diphacinone to protect native species that depend on Lehua Island by removing invasive rats.The project partners’ operational plans identified and explained that aerial application of rodenticide should result in complete eradication, and that on-the-ground spot treatments may be needed if rats are detected post aerial application. Spot treatments consist of hand placed traps and/or bait stations deployed in the areas with recent sightings. The bait stations are enclosed containers that permit rat access but prevent the low risk of exposure to non-target species like the islands nesting seabirds.In their latest move to assist in removing the remaining rats, the Project Partners have recruited rat-detection dogs to join the team. The dogs will be deployed over the next two months. Similar, specially trained dogs have proven to be extremely successful in finding their targets as evidenced by their recent use to detect avian botulism at the Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge. Once the scent is identified, the handlers then help the dogs pinpoint the precise areas where rats are located. The dogs are trained and handled to minimize their interactions with native birds.Since Lehua Island is relatively easy to access, the project team has been deploying an unprecedentedly high level of post-project monitoring. Every month since the rodenticide application last fall, a team from Island Conservation and DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) and other partner organizations return to Lehua to monitor progress, retrieve photos from dozens of camera traps to search for rats, and to apply spot treatments and trapping aimed at eliminating any remaining rats. More remote projects often must wait a full year or two before more cost-prohibitive monitoring begins. Dr. Patty Baiao of Island Conversation explained, “Perhaps those hundreds of successful but more remote projects too had a few lingering rodents that, due to their inability to find each other and breed, naturally expired. Regardless, the project team is not taking any chances. We want nothing more than to document with scientific rigor the anecdotal seabird increases and benefits we have already begun to observe.”Sheri S. Mann, Kaua‘i branch manager for the DOFAW commented, “A few rats remain. Of that we are certain, and the partnership is investigating why? In the meantime, we are implementing strategies designed for this scenario. We are committed to protect and enhance the seabird colonies on Lehua Island and will not rest until we have. As we double down our efforts using the best science, methods, and now specially trained dogs to achieve a complete eradication, our hope is only rivaled by our shared commitment.”RESOURCES(All video and images courtesy: DLNR)HD video: Lehua Island Rapid Assessment Team (1-2-18)
Excited Curmudgeon
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