The Native Iowan

Friday morn in my valley. We had a cracker of a storm last eve. Dropped 50mm/2inches of rain in maybe an hour. Wind blew. A bit of hail fell.

As the hail started I rushed to check on the cars. Thats when I noticed Mendoza had left the windows in the truck down.

Today is going to be cool and calm (so the weather people predict). No blazing sun and high temps like the last few days. Means the soaked seats in the truck won’t dry quickly.

And I get to sit with the house open, absorb the soft fresh scrubbed air, and listen to the bird life whistle and sing merrily. The rain and wind shakes up the valley, and there is plenty of good food available.

Very nice morning thus far…

My dogs suffer a bit when the rains turn into a deluge… There simply aint enough dry spots in the yard. Not with horizontal rains bucketing down… Not enough dry spots. Nothing can remain dry in that much driving rain.

I’ll go out soon and pick up all the big pieces of carpet (now wet) that line the kennels. Tidy up. Dry things out.

Not a lot I can do when it rains like this. The dogs have the ability to curl up in dry kennels, but they dont. The kennels are small, the dogs prefer to be able to see what is going on. They are not fussed by the rain. Lighting and thunder does not frighten these animals. And, gratefully it’s not cold out. If it were cold I’d have big piles of straw in the kennels so they can curl up and stay dry n warm. Summer means I use carpets instead of straw.

My half wild Maremma, Bella, sleeps out in the open, rain or shine. She has a thick white coat (she is a beautiful dog) and unless I lock her in a kennel, she’s to be found, lying on the ground in a position where she can survey her domain. Her mother, Penny, was almost completely wild. She never had a bath, never groomed. Only once in her life was she put on a lead, and that wasn’t a good time. She almost killed herself (and me) struggling, being held. A beautiful amazing dog bred and raised on a sheep farm, her entire life was in the fields. She pretty much fed herself on birds and rabbits and hares. Ive tainted Bella by softening her instincts, domesticating her quite a bit. But these days dogs cant roam and be free without someone complaining. And I dont have livestock anymore.

Maremma’s need a herd or a flock to bond with. I know cattle farmers, sheep farmers, camel herders, and chicken pluckers that swear by their Maremma… No maremma means the wild dogs and dingos get cheap meals. A maremma or two (I once had 4 here) ensure an unmolested herd.

A while back, one of my neighbours was complaining about the wild dog problem. He was loosing too many chickens. For some reason he didn’t like or understand dogs. All he needed was a good maremma and his problems would be solved.

And these dogs are simply drop dead gorgeous…

Speaking of birds… My doofus dick-wearing sperm-bank, Sika, has been catching birds. He’s very quick and can leap very high. High enough to snatch a bird out of the mulberry tree. I have seen him grab two bird this week. A show-winning Cane Corso, I rescued him from castration, gave him a job in my kennels. He’s a very cool dude…

So I sit… supposedly need to take 2weeks off to let my new eye settle in. Damn! 2weeks is a long time to sit on my arse. Too long.

My new eye is GREAT! cant wait to see again through both my eyes. Why’d I wait soooo long?

I’m told I cant get anything in my eye… dust, debris, detritus… No mowing, no wood work, no vroom-fun…

So I sit…

Last week I put the final coat of resin on a new, composite stick Ive been playing with for quite some time… Took me ages to find this stick’s true inner self…

The core is made from ancient hard wood, dug from the ground, exposed by the floods. The exterior is Acacia from tree that blew down last year. The hardwood makes it stable, strong. The soft wood makes it light. I used a burled knot in the Acacia and whittled a shillelagh, a knobkerrie style stick. A bit of whipping in strategic places, lots of epoxy resin and its an all but unbreakable, very flexible, very light, very cool stick.

Ive got a nice piece of old split-rail about 3m/10foot long I want to trim and size. It’s dirty work. So won’t do it this week, or next…

Wood not War…

more later

big smiles