We are adding Karl from Montana to the list. If you are sending a deposit for one of Trouble's pups please note that we will not be home in Wisconsin for a few more weeks.

Jim buying dried chilis

I am writing from the Alamogordo Library where it is possible to upload images to my blog.  Here is Jim this past week buying a sack of chili peppers from a young fellow.  The peppers are from this past seasons crop and are hot, hot, hot!

We will be traveling to Hatch this coming week to meet our friend Nancy Culley for a chat and more chili purchases :)  Nancy and Terry have Bouviers and a Wire Fox Terrier...they run agility with their dogs.

 

Yesterday we traveled to Roswell to view the wonderous treasures at the Roswell Art Museum and Goddard Space Center where there was featured the workshop of the  father of modern rocketry and his early rockets.  Fascinating!

On to things dog for a moment!  Congratulations to Lynn and Ziva on their leg in Gamblers Agility and to Susan and Noche on the first leg of their Beginner Novice and to Solo for being issued a certificate for garnering National Placement #4 in CDSP Obedience.

Pregnancy Calendar for Dogs Date: Sun 11 Mar 112 Sire: Solo Dam: Karen Breeder: Wed 15 Feb 112 First day of mating. 48 hours after the first mating the bitch should be mated again. Subsequent matings occurring over a period of time enhance the chances of fertilaziton taking place. The spermatozoa migrate up through the cervix. Thu 16 Feb 112 Sperm travel searching for a mature ripened eggs. Thu 16 Feb 112 - Fri 17 Feb 112 Spermatozoa reach the eggs in the oviducts. Fri 17 Feb 112 - Sat 18 Feb 112 Fertilisation occurs in the oviducts which lead from the ovaries to the uterus. Sat 18 Feb 112 - Mon 20 Feb 112 Fertilised eggs migrate down the oviducts and into the uterine horns. The migration continue to enable even spacing of the embryos. During this migration the eggs will grow into a blastocystes. Sun 26 Feb 112 - Tue 28 Feb 112 The blastocystes implant in the wall of the uterus. Sun 26 Feb 112 - Sun 11 Mar 112 The blastocystes will grow into an embryos. During the next two weeks the important organs will develop. Wed 29 Feb 112 - Wed 7 Mar 112 Dams nipples begin to pink enlarge. The fur on the dams belly and around the nipples may become thinner. Tue 6 Mar 112 - Tue 13 Mar 112 Morning sickness might occur due to hormonal changes or stretching and distension of the uterus. Dam may appear a bit apathetic. She may be off her feed for a while and vomit from time to time. Feeding the dam several meals spaced throughout the day might help. Your veterinarian may want to prescribe a drug to relax the uterus Thu 15 Mar 112 An experienced person (a breeder or a veterinarian) can tell by careful palpation whether the dam is pregnant. It's now the best time to do this because the embryos are walnut-sized now and easy to count. Wed 14 Mar 112 Start to increase the dams food ration. Don't overfeed, excessive weight gain should be avoided. The foetuses are now and are fully developed miniature dogs. Tue 20 Mar 112 The Dams abdomen starts to get larger. Fri 30 Mar 112 It's very easy now to feel the puppies, counting them might be a bit more difficult. Mon 2 Apr 112 - Tue 10 Apr 112 Dam begins to spend a lot more time in self-grooming. Her breasts become even more swollen. She may become a bit restlessness and begin to search for a suitable place to have her puppies. Wed 4 Apr 112 The dam might lose her appetite during this period. Her abdomen can be crowded with puppies. It is better to feed several smaller meals spaced throughout the day. You can easily detect abdominal movement now. Wed 4 Apr 112 - Thu 19 Apr 112 Nipples and vulva should be gently cleaned with warm water, you might want to trim the hairs surrounding the nipples, to allow easier access for the puppies to suck. Sat 14 Apr 112 - Tue 17 Apr 112 Milky fluid may be expressed from the nipples. Sun 15 Apr 112 You might want to start taking the dams rectal temperature each morning and evening. Wed 18 Apr 112 Twelve to 24 hours before she is due to deliver, the dams rectal temperature may drop from 101 to 98 degrees. Clear discharge from the vulva might occur. Thu 19 Apr 112 Expected date of whelp. Of course this is just an average. Whelping may take place from the 59th to the 65th day. Puppies born before the 58th day will probably be too young to survive.

A little snow overnight, about 4 inches at our place. The road was closed off due to the treacherous conditions and accidents on the mountain, coupling that with. Big otero county drug bust and we indeed felt like we weren't in Wisconsin anymore. In the meanwhile, Solo and Karen have been living at the vet's in Capitan trying to get her bred. after an ultrasound showed cysts on her ovaries. They will remain there at least until Monday which puts in doubt whether we will make the obedience trial in Lubbock on the weekend.

Here you see (if you look very closely) part of an enormous dairy..yes, those are Holstein cows...this is between El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces.  I'd guess there are somewhere in the tens of thousands of cows here, the stench was overwhelming even in the car.  No green fields with daisies here!




Driving east from Las Cruces toward Alamogordo through the St. Augustin Pass there is a place to pull off and survey the vastness of the Tularosa Basin wherein lies the White Sands Missle Range and Holloman AFB.  It's quite the sight and quite the drive across this moonscape.

The past few days have been full and fun, a trip to Capitan, n.m. Home of Smokey Bear and a great feed/mercantile/tack store where I bought a snazzy headstall and a concha belt. Then over to Ruidoso where we made our annual pilgrimage to Casa Decor for Mexican tiles and some really great cheese and onion enchiladas. This is beautiful, high desert country, bordered by the Mescalero Indian Reservation. Last night we went to the Flickinger Theater and participated in the chocolate buffet and the Sons of the Pioneers show. a few days ago we bought some gunny sacks of Hatch chilis ($13/bag) in town and are now headed south today to El Paso, Tx to have my iPad looked at and to go to the El Paso Art Museum where there is an exhibit of Diego Garcia Cubist paintings...who knew?? More to come...

A little snow flurry this morning after a great warm, dry yesterday. We are at the high rolls general store finishing up breakfast burritos and coffee. Jim is busy booking us lodging in Rome for nov 3 - nov 12....he is in his element!

We are now in High Rolls, N.M., some 7000 feet above sea level - it is clear and dry, the sun is shining and the temperatures are in the high 40F range.  In Alamogordo, where I am spending some time in the library, it is almost 60F.  We took the dogs for a walk in the canyon; Karen on a long flexi and the other dogs more or less loose depending on their interest in the range cattle who seem to be all over the place looking for something...anything, it seems...to eat.  We all pooped out fairly quickly with the altitude.

So much for the convenience of the new iPad - I am unable to use it at the house - too bad!  However, we did find a local hot spot at the High Rolls General Store where we will be spending our early morning coffee time answering emails!

We are in Guymon, Texas this morning, home to half a million head of cattle.  When we come through here on the way home each year we are amazed at the numbers and the clouds of 'dust' that they generate.  We were surprised to see snow in Des Moines on our way out but it was dry through Kansas...and even dryer into Oklahoma yesterday.  There are a LOT of cattle on dry pastures ~ we sure hope for some moisture for them.  We did see a flock of turkeys yesterday, displaying their heart out, the fields that have winter wheat are green and the water is flowing in the rivers and streams so it seems spring can't be far off down here.  The good news however is that no little towns have gone missing from tornados and the dogs are restless but coping well with their extended confinement on the trip.

It is always with renewed anticipation that we head down to the southwest each year - which little towns will have grown? will we get through Kansas City before rush hour begins? will there be big cotton bales in Kansas this year and will have any towns blown away in tornadoes since last spring? We've been taking the same route - Highway 54 - for the past dozen years now and have become attached as much as one can to those little farms and homes on the byways. We head from the cold and cloudy north through the flat and farmlands of Iowa and Kansas to the warm bursts of air that welcome us to southern Kansas and then New Mexico. Our New Mexican friends will be chilled but we'll have stripped down to shorts and shirt sleeves and sneakers and grins. We'll pull out our sunblock and hats with sunbills rather than ear warmers and will keep one eye on the weather channel so that we can bask in our good fortune down in the southern tier.

A mostly cloudy day here today making it perfect for last minute cleaning and packing for our trip south to sunny New Mexico! Karen has come in season, making me quite happy that she didn't decide to wait until we were ready for another obedience trial with Solo! He's working very well and is ready to go!

We will miss our friends both human and otherwise; there is some talk about possibly coming home early this year if the weather in Wisconsin continues to be mild. We'll see, talk is cheap when the sun is shining and that warm southwestern breeze is blowing!

Noodling around online trying to find some information brought me to a little blog I was working on when Solo was a pup. Here's a most charming picture of him as a 5 week old baby. He's still a charmer :)