August Bouncy Flounce

August Bouncy Flounce

Born June 1^st, 2000

Died Monday April 6^th 2009.

August Bouncy Flounce was a Great Pyrenees and my friend for many years. I was with her yesterday, the spring morning that she died, it happened like this.

It was Monday morning and I had been up early getting things done. I had time left before work and decided I would take August and Puff (a little Chinese Crested Puff/ Poodle cross) for a walk. I had only walked the two dogs together once or twice before but August and I had walked up and down the deserted town road for years.

We hadn’t walked much lately. It had been a long winter and I lost much of the energy that I had in years past. It was time to get back in shape and I needed to start walking again for my health. My legs were beginning feel funny at the end of the day and I’m sure it was from lack of exercise so as I reviewed my voice notes from the last week I decided that exercise was one thing that I would accomplish today, but first I needed to feed and water the critters.

It was relatively warm that morning, so I was dressed in a light sweat-pant type bottom and with a light jacket. I put a leather belt around my waist and looped it through the handle of August’s retractable leash. August was a big dog, weighing around 100 lbs. When she was younger, she used to pull violently at the leash as we walked, and I found having the leash secured to a belt was easier than holding her back for the mile or two walk. It was a little dangerous I knew. I always had a fear that we would get separated and a car would come between us and drag us both down the highway.

As I started walking toward the animal’s pens, neither August nor Puff had noticed that I was outdoors. The tail of the expandable leash flopped back and forth in front of me as I walked, so I looped it back up through the handle and walked on to the shed. Puff’s leash was smaller and I had that in my pocket. Both leashes were blue.

I watered the animals and fed them hay and just as I was ready to leave the shed, August arrived. I met her at the pole shed door, patted her head, scratched her ears, and told her good morning as I reached out and clipped the leash to her collar. She began to trot off and I knew something was wrong the way the leash pulled, I had forgotten to un-loop it from the handle, she stopped and waited as I untangled the leash and hooked it back up for the last time. Twenty minutes later I would remember every detail of the morning as I reached out to unclasped the leash from her lifeless body.

August and I walked back to the house. I called for Puff but didn’t see her until we rounded the garage. Puff was on the deck. I sat down on the grass and scratched August’s ears as we watched puff descend the steps and run to us. I had a second leash in my hand, shorter and lighter than Augusts and I clipped it to puff.

We began our walk different than other days. Instead of just going down the drive and up the town road, I walked out over the mound system and down across the field. August walked behind and let Puff and I lead the way. I noticed. August’s getting old I thought.

We walked along the creek and August went down in the water and got a drink while Puff and I stopped and waited for her. We continued walking in the field along the fence next to the road and I thought about the work I needed to do to complete the fence. I worried about August going out in the road and the woven wire fence was as much to keep her away from the highway as it was to confine the other critters. The woven wire would not hold puff. Puff is small enough to squeeze through the holes. I watched her do it when the horse was chasing her a day or two before! The farm is always filled with danger and the different animals all need to learn to negotiate with each other, keeping a respectful distance is a part of it all.

We made it back to the driveway and crossed the county road to the township side road. I was watching and listening for cars and as we started, I heard a vehicle approaching from the west. We ran to the safety of the quiet township road and began walking leisurely along. The vehicle that had approached stopped behind us and then turned around to drive back the way it came toward Lime Ridge as we crossed the bridge over Narrows Creek.

Cars have always been a danger on our walks but we seldom encountered them on road we were on now. When we did, August would always go crazy and try to chase them, but I always held her in check. At first as we walked along, I had a little problem keeping the two dog’s leashes separated, this was only the second or third time I had tried to walk them together on leash. August finally took her rightful place out in front and I was able to keep Puff’s leash from tangling.

Puff’s leash would only extend out to about 10 feet but August’s could go out 15 feet or more. August kept just out of Puff’s reach as we walked along.

Puff came to us in December of 2008. I don’t know the exact day, but August wanted to kill Puff from the start! This was her farm and there were no other dogs allowed. That’s the way August was, she loved people but hated all other dogs. That included coyotes and she kept them at bay, which was a part of her job. Over the months though, she had begin to accept Puff as a member of our family. Our herd! I thought about that later as we walked along.

Occasionally one dog or the other would stop to smell something, and I would stop and wait and hold the other dog in check as well. As we came around the first corner it was my turn to stop and make the dogs wait for me. I saw an interesting bird nest in a bush beside the road. It was from the year before, old, and I think it had an acorn or something in it, but the interesting thing was that the bird had used birchbark, two or three pieces, for the initial outer construction.

I tried to take a picture with my cell phone and Puff jerked the leash just as the picture flashed and it blurred. I made the dogs wait as I took a second photo.

We started off again and all the once August was the one to stop. Her nose wasn’t down to the ground this time sniffing but she held her head high trying to see something and her ears were perked listening for sound. I followed her gaze but saw nothing. The corner of the road where we were at overlooked a steep bank that dropped down 50 feet or so into the valley below us. There was thick brush and I couldn’t see too well… what if it was a bear… or a mountain lion? Badger? Or even an angry woodchuck?

The bear and the mountain lion may be a stretch of wild imagination on an ordinary walk in the woods, but I saw the angry woodchuck a few years ago. It attacked August!

I was in the house when all at once I heard August barking. It wasn’t a ‘someone’s here’ bark, or a ‘the neighbor started his tractor’ bark, or a ‘gee I’m bored’ bark but this was ‘the fight is on!’ bark, accompanied by snarls and growls!

I ran out through the garage and out to where the commotion was at. August was on a tether that day and before her was a huge woodchuck in full attack mode. I returned to the garage and found my small rifle and bullets while outside I could here the fight continuing. I loaded the gun and returned to help August.

It was hard to get a clean shot at the critter. August was tied and couldn’t get away; the woodchuck was really mad about something and had come into the yard to take up the fight with a Great Pyrenees. That is either really brave or completely mad! As the two critters snarled, bit, and dodged each other, I took careful aim and waited until I was sure I had a clear shot at the mad groundhog without endangering August, and then I squeezed off the first round. The woodchuck was up on it’s hind feet stunned but not ready to drop and August took the opportunity back away.

I squeezed off two more rounds before the animal dropped to the ground in its death throws. I let August loose and we both wondered about what had just happened as we stared at the dead woodchuck, August kept her distance. I never liked tying August and did only when she started to roam and bother the neighbors. I liked it even less after the woodchuck attack and let her run loose as often as possible. When she was free to fight, she took on everything including coyotes. August was fearless. The mad woodchuck is the only thing that almost kicked her butt.

I always felt safe when I was with August. I think Puff did as well. Even though August had taken Puff down a few times and the attacks sounded deadly, they weren’t. It was just a part of bringing Puff into the clan, teaching her ‘her place’ and establishing the dominance chain of command. Now that Puff began to respect August as the alpha mom, August began to tolerate the new little puppy. I admired the way they walked together this morning and although I think August still would have liked to tear into Puff sometimes, a glance at me would put those feelings in check. We were a clan and all part of the herd.

I thought about ‘herd’, from the movie Ice Age, the Mammoth, the Sloth, the baby human, and the saber-toothed tiger and they had talked about what it mean to be all a part of the same herd. I remember the Mammoth saying something about how they would stick together and depend on each other, that’s what it meant to be a member of the family. I looked at August as her ears perked and she sensed something in the brush, would I fight with her if we were attacked or would I run to save myself and leave her to die in her fearless way?

We walked along some more and I though about that, about a fight, and whether I would join with August or use her to save myself if we came across a bear or something. I don’t know if I actually would have, but in my wild imagination on our walk I though I would. Puff… she would turn tail and run I was sure. Smart little dog!

As we walked along the road, I saw the neighbor in a field beside us picking up wood that he had cut. I waved but he hadn’t noticed us yet, and the dogs didn’t seem to have seen him either, August never would. As we walked, we were just about to pass out of my neighbor’s sight when I first heard the car approaching from behind, it was loud but a ways off, and I didn’t know if it would be coming up the township road or just passing out on the county road but I began to get ready.

August’s leash was extended out to nearly it’s full length and so I ran to her. I could hear the car approaching closer. It was definitely going to be coming up our road past us; I needed to get the dogs in close and off the road.

We were in front of an old abandoned homestead. When I was young, I think there used to be a part of the buildings left but now there was only a little bit of foundation rocks where the house once stood, and the great pine trees that used to stand in the front yard. My mother lived in that house once when she was young I guess and my dad lived on the farm where we had just walked from, but that was decades ago.

I had closed the gap with the leash between August and I. I reached down and locked the leash so August couldn’t extend it, and then I moved the dogs down off the road into the ditch. We were further off the road than I usually go but the car was approaching fast. It was loud, bad exhaust or something and I could sense that August was more agitated than normal. There was something wrong with the leashes. They had gotten crossed up and puff’s leach was somehow tangle in August but I didn’t have time to figure it out.

The car was getting closer. The driver saw us down in the ditch on the right side of the road and he moved over into the oncoming traffic lane as he approached. What happened next is not clear to me but I’ve seen it played over and over in my mind and even in my sleep.

August was very agitated because of the approaching car, and I think the tangled leashes may have tripped the lock on August’s leash. She went bounding up out of the ditch toward the car. I tried to find the lock and stop her.

Panic!

The belt is around my waist. August is attached to the leash and the leash is attached to the leather belt.

I watched August run into the front of the car and saw the fender crinkle, I heard the headlight shatter, and the windshield as well, but I don’t know why that happened. I never saw August hit anything except the front fender. There was screeching tires before the thud I think, and August was sliding down the road and onto the right shoulder. Puffs leash was still tangled in August and both were fully extended but I don’t think Puff was jerked or drug. The car stopped further down the road.

The neighbor that was cutting wood came over. He had watched it all unfold as well, watched us go down in the ditch and then the accident.

I walked up to August, blood was coming out her mouth and though there was no visible external wounds, I could smell the smell of the inside of her body. I reached down and unclasped the leash.

Back down the road, Puff’s leash was still entangled with August’s leash. Laying off in the ditch was my belt. It had been torn apart at the buckle but I don’t know when. Maybe that’s what happened when August ran or maybe it was when the impact sent her skidding down the road? Puff and I walked home, got the car and went back and retrieved August’s lifeless corpse.

I didn’t go to work. I called my boss and told him I felt confused. Latter on, I drove to town just to be by myself. I came home and went to sleep but had dreams about cars having wrecks and August sliding down the road. My back hurts a little tonight, but I think that was from digging August’s grave and not from the belt breaking.

Puff is running around, happy, unaware.

We walked outside for a potty break. I could hear the water running down at Narrows Creek, some dogs barking in the distance, but now we’re alone without the gentle giant that was part of our herd for most of the last decade.

Bundle of Joy

The 7th of May and my vines have arrived from Miller Nurseries. 10 Marechal Foch, 10 Leon Millot, 2 Corot Noir, and 2 Frontenac Gris. (Aren't they just the cutest things?) I haven't untangled the bundle to actually count the vines but I will wait until tomorrow when I hope I'm ready to plant them to make certain my order is complete.

The timing was perfect!

I have 6 days off work starting tomorrow and I think the weather will be good, although it is spring time and rain is always near.

I weighed my new babies also... just for fun. 5 lbs. and 45 and 1/2 inches tall, what could I name them?

What would make good names for grape vines? And could I think of 24 names?

Purple Hays, Tangle Foot, Rays Inn, Bunch-kins... that's four already!

I think I will name my babies... only 20 more names to think of...

Moby Grape, Vinny, General Cluster.. and then two sets of twins... (the Corot Noir) Nora & Nelda, (Frontenac Gris) Griswold & Gretel... and I might as well have a Hansel!

Halfway!

I'll think about the other half tomorrow and I shall have the only vineyard where all my vines have names. I think that will fun and help me get to know my vines better. Bond with them.

Latter, in the middle of the night, I awakened. For many weeks I had tried to think of a name for my vineyard. The only thing I had thought of was something to do with my little horse Cocklebur, but I wasn't really happy with that but now I had a flash of inspiration. Bundle of Joy! I had thought of it when I took the vines out of the long shipping package, it was like a birth, the birth of my vineyard. So this morning I posed for the photo holding the grapevines like a new baby, a bundle of joy.

Cold Rainy April Morning

I went outside this morning and for the second day in a row, Mr. Ed the horse had gotten out. Cocklebur, the little horse, and the sheep were still in the pen but Cocklebur was whinnying and upset because Mr. Ed had gotten out and he couldn't.

I led Cocklebur back into the pole shed with the sheep, closed the door and fed them some hay before going back out and coaxing Mr. Ed back into the coral with a bucket of feed. While closing the shed door behind Mr. Ed, the door came off the track and the east wind made it hard to try to fix, so I just propped the door and tied it shut. By the time I finished bringing water to the critters the east wind had brought a light cold misty rain; I was glad to get back into the house.

In the next few days, I will fix the fence and the shed door and let the critters back out to begin enjoying the new green growth of spring.

Bockfest 2008

The temperature on Saturday morning, Feb 23, 2008 was climbing from the overnight low, 12 below zero, but was still in the single digits when Clint and I left for Middleton, Wisconsin. Neither of us had ever been to Bockfest before; we didn't know what to expect. Earlier in the morning, I had Googled the directions and printed the map. Now I turned off Highpoint Road and passed by Capital Brewery.

There was no place to park for several blocks, but finally I noticed a place on the opposite side of the road, did a quick turn-around, and maneuvered my Volkswagen along side the ice and snow packed curb. Crowds of people already lined the sidewalks as the gates opened at 11 but the beer taps would not begin to flow for another hour.


We wandered around the brewery and gift shop then gravitated to the outdoor beer garden as people began to appear on the roof of the brewery throwing tons of bead necklaces to the crowd below. At the other side of the beer garden, Kirby Nelson, the Brewmaster, gave some kind of speech. I caught a few words and I guess it was the "blessing of the Blond's" to mark the release of Capital's Blonde doppelbock. I don't think his blessing worked very well because I never did get to try my glass of the stuff. I still have my wristband with the 'beer' tag still attached because the bar that I went to ran out while I was still 5-people-deep away!


I waited in line for over an hour for my first beer! There were lines of people everywhere throughout the day - lines at the taps, lines at the bathrooms, lines of people just trying to go to a new location in the crowd. I heard someone say that last year it was even colder and crappier and they still had about 1800 people show up. This year it was much more packed... maybe 3,000 or more people?

My beer mug empty, I got back in line again and an hour later, I was trying to get back through the crush of people without spilling my beer. I had missed the Brewmaster riding the green dinosaur out onto the roof of the brewery and they were already throwing fish down to the crowd!

Supposedly, if you catch a fish - head intact! - you get some kind of prize, but most of the fish I saw exploded in the hands of those trying to catch them. There was one guy I saw catch 4 of them in his beer mug! Amazing! Talented? Lucky? I can't say for sure.

I met Elvis while waiting in line and got his picture, and I saw alligator man talking to an Irish guy. My finger was over half the lens when I took the picture of the guy in the kilt. I met a lady dressed in black with sponge-mop-hair, and I think some one coped a feel of my butt while I was talking to her! I tell myself it must have been the loud woman not the guy standing next to her. The guy that won the costume contest had a little gift-wrapped box attached to his crotch but supposedly it wasn't 'Jack' that was in that box.

Well, that was Bockfest 2008. What else is there to do on a sunny twenty-degree day in February in Wisconsin?

Book: "First Big Crush"

Only one more week and February will be gone but winter has us locked in this year. Snow, below zero temperatures, and no mid-winter respite that I can recall! I'm dreaming of spring.

I found a great source for grape vines for my vineyard. Pam, a friend from work, gave me a catalog from Miller Nurseries out of Canandaigua, New York, and it has the best variety of wine grapes that I've found so far and the prices are very reasonable I think.

I'm also reading the book, "First Big Crush" by Eric Arnold.

This book is great fun for me but its language and talk may be too crude for you.

I work in an environment that exposes me to Arnold's type of crudeness on a daily basis so I get past that and enjoy the story he tells about working at a winery in New Zealand. I've caught myself laughing out loud more than once and I'm only starting chapter four!

It makes me anxious to begin my own vineyard and I'm sure I can produce wines that will rival the commercial producers efforts.

The way to the Vineyard

This is one way up to the vineyard it is a steep hillside . There is another way up, a grassy road shrouded in a canopy of trees as a tunnel through the woods. I'll get a picture of that later this summer.

On top of the hill is a ten acre field, about seven acres used to be farmed, but the other 3 acres contain a small abandoned lime quarry and some pasture and woods. Blackberries grow wild along the edge of the woods and are creeping into the field. Trees are beginning to take root and ants have built great mounds in the grass.

I could try to reclaim this land for farming but I think I would rather begin a vineyard. The land has a nice south to southeast exposure and the elevation will provide extended warmth when the valley has already cooled. The soil is clay, not ideal for grapes but it's what I have. I will be doing soil samples this spring to more accurately determine the composition of the soil.

It becomes dry on the hill in summer. The blackberries up there are not nearly as plump as the ones that grow down in the valley. I don't think the dryness will be a bad thing for grapes once they are established. I've always heard that a little stress is good for them.

Oh, by the way, my vineyard is only in my minds eye at this point. The idea only began last fall (2007) when I picked grapes at another vineyard. That was after I spent my spring and summer making mead, dandelion wine, and numerous berry wines. I picked over three gallons of yellow dandelion petals, over 50 pounds of wild blackberries, and many more pounds of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, and black caps.

These are all fun country wines to make and I am sure I will continue to make more but grapes are what true wines are about. I have made two grape wines from kits, German Muller Thurgau and Chocolate Raspberry Port still in the making. I have another kit waiting for me to begin - Chilean Carmenere/Cabernet Sauvignon, and a fourth one on order for April - Italian Brunello.

I hope to continue amusing myself with kits and country wines until the vineyard in my mind becomes a reality at the top of the hill, plants in 2008 with harvests by 2012 maybe?

A New Year, 2008

2 January 2008

It is Wednesday, the second day of January 2008, and I'm sitting in my office. It's a sunny morning but the outdoor temperature is only 13 degrees at 11:00 A.M.

I'm been off work since November but I should be starting back soon, Friday I hope. It's not that I'm tired of not having to go to work, I just don't feel comfortable, fearing I'll get in trouble I suppose. I should be working.

This journal is about my walk with God, and my application of His word. I expect to be joined by my niece. I've sent her my testimony with some of the background of how I became involved in following Christ. I've recomended she begin reading the gospel of John and told her about the basics of bible study. I've prayed for God's help... Now I'm waiting to hear back from her.

My walk with God is my life. It is what I do to make a living and what I do with my free time. It's stopping to pray for my children, family, and friends and saying "no" to evil, even when no one is watching.