Seasons Greetings

Wishing all the best to our friends, family and all the owners of our Schnauzers. 
May you all have time to relax and enjoy the season. 
We are anticipating the arrival of pups, due Christmas day.  It will be nice to turn my attention to a brand new litter of pups and the joy they will bring to their new families.

And with that.....Merry Christmas

New fallen snow

So very quiet

A wolf's heart

Dinsdale's Hope -- March 27th 2001 - December 13th 2013

My beautiful Hope passed yesterday, she would of been 13 years old in the Spring. 

I have so many emotions about my journey with Hope, she probably taught me more about dogs, and, well.....life in general, then any other I have owned.  Lessons about how fragile their bond to us can be, how these pets, that we think of as almost human, are only a heartbeat away from their wild ancestors.  I lost Hope at 10 months of age, she wandered out an open gate and was gone for a week in January.  We had many sightings of her, but, during that time she reverted to that feral being that is within them all, but, is seldom shown to us.  I thought I would never get her back, and when I finally did, I held on, probably too strongly.  I made mistakes, had regrets with how I handled things, but Hope, she just moved on with life.  

Hope delivered four beautiful litters to Dinsdale, she was the most sensational mom, protective, playful she always raised her pups well.  At home she was part of my Dynamic Duo, Cutter and his sister Hope.  The last couple of years she has been the one that sleeps in our bed at night, I miss her steady breath and the assortment of toys that she liked to sleep with.

There was no extended ailment with Hope, she fell ill and I said a final goodbye to her all within a week.  Seven days of worry, mixed with a couple days of feeling optimistic and then the final diagnosis of Bladder Cancer and my decision to let her go.  

I cannot believe it is time to say goodbye to my beautiful, loyal girl, Hope, my companion who possessed the heart and soul of a wolf.

Cold outside...damp inside

Last Thursday while out performing my farmyard duties Hope was inside peeing.  Now, Hope is 13 years old and on heart medication that causes her to drink a lot and pee a lot, but, even so, she has never soiled her crate, or, peed in the house.  I cleaned up, cursed myself a bit, but didn't think too much of it.  Come evening she started trotting back and forth to the door, all evening, then she squatted and strained to pee in the house before bedtime.  I called my vet first thing in the morning, took in a urine sample which showed a very bad bladder infection.  I was somewhat relieved as I was imagining all sorts of problems.  Hope was in a lot of pain, panting, pacing, hunched up and straining to urinate all day and night.  By Saturday evening, after a day and a half of meds, she looked a little brighter, tail not clamped and she was no longer hunched over in pain.  But, OH the peeing!!!  If you have ever had an adult incontinent dog in your home you can feel my pain, I tried dog diapers with a pad inside, these would overflow within minutes.  Next step, incontinence pads....EVERYWHERE.  Although this was working to keep my furniture clean, it was upsetting to see Hope soiling herself, and worse she had no idea she was peeing until she was soaked,  poor girl.
Another call to the vets yesterday to confirm that this was not normal behaviour after almost five days of meds for a bladder infection.  Last night I started her on Propalin, a medication to help dogs regain control of their bladders.

Today, Hope is feeling good, tail wagging, a little happy roll and the peeing has slowed dramatically.  Fingers crossed that we are on the way to being able to remove the pee pads from my furniture.

This is the first bladder infection I have had with one of my dogs, and other then Gussy, who lost control of her bladder during the paralysis of her rear legs, never have I dealt with a totally incontinent dog in 25 years of owning dogs.  I have been discussing with other dog owners and am completely floored by the number of dogs that have suffered from Spay incontinence starting in very young dogs.  Hope is Spayed, but, she wasn't until her last litter at about 7 years of age.  I don't believe this episode is connected to her being spayed, but, due to age and I have a haunting feeling there may be something more serious behind this sudden change in Hope and her bathroom habits.
Having a geriatric dog is difficult, they suffer from the same ailments as us humans, but, they cannot tell us what hurts, this means we are usually behind the ball in catching and correcting them.  It is my hope that this is just a bit of a hiccup for my old girl and that she will pull through and carry on happy and comfortable for some time yet.

Boys--The Lovebugs

Many ask us about the personality difference between the gender.  Although there are always those that don't subscribe to generalization, in my experience, I find the boys to be lovebugs.  With their owners they are usually very demonstrative with their affections.  Sometimes this gets them into trouble, when owners allow them to stand up into their laps for attention, this can slide over to the guarding instinct.  But, if you are the leader of your dog, and do not have issues with dominance or guarding, then a hug from the boys is one of life's pleasures.
This is Cutter, my old fellow, sweet as they come, even after many years as the reigning stud dog at Dinsdale he has never shown me any dominant behaviour, always up for play or a cuddle.  He has been intact and used at stud his entire life, never has he attempted to lift his leg in the house, never has he challenged me, wonderful, wonderful boy.
Male dogs, wonderful, give them clear and concise rules, they are boys after all, simple souls :-) especially for the first 2-3 years and you will end up with your own lovebug.

Sweet (Shaggy) Hazel

Oh yeah, we have a grooming date penciled in.  But, come on, Hazel can really pull off the sweet, scruffy look.

The other guy in my life

The extremely handsome....Archie.  Love my Rooster Boy

Gorgeous November Day

Fiddle poses in front of the fence, ears a little drawn back...if you look in the small image to the left you will see she was being photo bombed by chickens the whole time. 

Ten Little Indians

 I have been waiting (and waiting) and hoping for a puppy from Flute for....well, feels like forever.  Now, finally my puppy is born.  Our gorgeous girl Flute delivered a BIG beautiful litter of ten pups on Remembrance Day.  Two girls and EIGHT boys!!  Flute resides with my friend and Co-Owner Brooke Thomas who will be raising these gorgeous pups until they leave for their new homes.

I am really looking forward, for a change, to watching from a far by photos and videos as Brooke does all the work raises these pups.  All the pleasure and no puppy poop to clean-up!

We still have a couple of boys available and you can contact either Brooke at chimeradog@gmail.com or myself Lori at dinsdale@eagle.ca

If you just want a puppy fix be sure to follow by clicking here  Flute's Nursery Blog

 

Telepathic powers

We will not be denied...you WILL open the door

Royal Winter Fair visit

Cutter looking all rugged on my new cowhide purchased at the Royal Winter Fair yesterday.  Also a soft sheepskin for the dog bed beside him.

I went to view the poultry at the show and was overwhelmed by all the beauties and oddities

My Beautiful Boy...Beamish

Autumn Schnauzer Splendor

One of these is not like the others

Never thought I would be excited by a white egg, but....here it is our first white egg.  All our chickens have been breeds that lay brown eggs, I love that, and although they are all different shades of brown, I thought it would be fun to have the occasional white egg thrown in.  This was one of the main reasons I purchased our Silver Grey Dorking chicks this Spring and voila, our first Dorking egg arrived yesterday!  It is tiny, as all first eggs are, everything I read says they will always lay a smallish egg, but, look!! it is white, well perhaps a little beige when viewed on it's own, however, line it up with the rest and I call it white.

Don't let anyone tell you Unicorns don't exist....

...I have a secret one in my garden

Autumn days

 We have had a small vegetable garden for a few years, but, this Spring we expanded deciding to grow as much of our own healthy, chemical free food.  The only fertilizer I use is from what is produced here, rabbit and chicken manures are composted along with kitchen and garden waste.  As I feed the animals organic foods even our compost is chemical free.
We had some wonderful successes in the garden this year and made some dreadful mistakes.  It is all a learning curve and every year we should be able to make better decisions based on what grew well for us the prior year, what we like and what not to grow too much of.
I have started to clean up the garden, preparing beds to overwinter, planting next years garlic, feeding the soils with nutrient rich compost.  Next Spring I will not be digging any new beds, I hope our garden next year will be far superior to this year.  Isn't that part of being a gardener, always optimistic, always planning.

Such beauty in the dying

Never have I seen the wild apple trees bearing as much fruit as this year

 I started these Cosmos from seed, they were HUGE towering high in the garden, only problem was rain and winds would blow them over.  I was going to take them off my list for next year until I saw the bees clamouring on the many flowers yesterday.  These are one of the few flowers still blooming madly in October.  I guess next year I will plant again for the bees, just have to properly stake them to avoid them falling over.

My Fall salad planting is doing well, salads and kale daily

Seeing this yesterday makes pesticide free garden worthwhile.  Ms.Mantis is heavy with eggs and next Spring we should have a new family of Pray Mantis in the veggie patch helping us to keep those annoying insect pests under control.

We're watching you

I think I could do an entire photo blog with only photos of schnauzers in shadows. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Long weekend in Canada to celebrate our Thanksgiving. Hoping the weather is good and we get to spend it outside

Mr.Cyrus

Now that is what you call a Black Standard Schnauzer!

schnauzers, so many sizes, colours and finishing touches

 Two totally different schnauzers, both Standards, one black ears cropped, one Pepper & Salt ears natural

Starting with the Pepper & Salt as I did I knew that schnauzers came in MANY different shades of grey, but who would of thought that Black could vary so much?  Trick questions, they are not suppose to, but, believe me they do!

october contrails

Harvest 2013

I have been eating from the garden since the first week of June.  When the tomatoes were coming fast and furious I was roasting daily and freezing.  The garden is winding down now, I expect we will be getting frost in a week or two.  Today I picked what will likely be my last big tomato harvest, a good 10lbs of beautiful summer goodness that we will enjoy this winter when it will be hard to believe that we were once able to walk to the garden and put together an entire meal grown ourselves.  I have garlic, onions and potatoes stored, I imagine enough to get me through to the end of January.  I have turned peppers into amazing Sriracha Sauce, fermented hot peppers to make our own version of Tabasco, roasted sweet red ones and frozen them for winter meals.  We have corn and green beans frozen, and canned pickles of various types.

My first ever harvest of Jerusalem Artichokes was today.  An interesting tuber from the sunflower family.  I roasted a few in Walnut Oil seasoned with Rosemary & Thyme and served over a bed of lettuce & baby kale from the garden, sprinkled with roast pecans and pumpkin seeds for an amazing Autumn Salad.

I love this time of the year, the weather is amazing, warm sunny days, beautiful cool nights for sleeping.  Soon we will be starting the woodstove and moving inside for a few months, until then I will enjoy the garden and all the end of the season chores as we lead up to putting it all to bed until next Spring.

Multi-facited

The many shades and textures of Daisy

camera photos

I admit, I don't really 'get' the whole camera/texting/filming/photo thing.  I have gone to events specifically to photograph and even though I have taken a ton of photos, or, video, I miss the enjoyment of the entire event.  It astounds me to see people paying top buck to attend, say, a concert and then spending the entire evening with their cameras held up filming, really?  And what exactly do you remember from the evening?  Anyhow, guess it's just me, getting older.

Enough of my silly dated rant, the last few weeks I have been using the IPhone (it is my husbands business cast off, believe me, I wouldn't even have a cell phone if not for him) opened up an Instagram account and have been taking random photos.  Quality sucks, but every now and then you catch a moment, and it's in focus, and the little filters are fun to apply.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, weather here could not be better! Off to enjoy it, with my dogs, without a camera :-)

Autumn Dreams

Fiddle, so happy that I have placed a raised bed in front of the window again

She's back :-)

Two years ago I posted a video of the beautiful Hope with ALL her coat clipped it remains one of our most viewed posts.  Well, she's back, Hope once more shows us her...everything :-)

Coffee mornings

 

Gorgeous Summer/Fall morning here and I am taking every moment I can to get out and enjoy it.  This morning it was coffee on the deck with the schnauzers...bliss