Kwellen's Halloween Story

Our neighbors have a dog who stays tied up outside ... which is another post, for another day. Anyway, this dog sometimes barks in the middle of the night and sometimes that makes our kids bark too, depending on how long the barking lasts.

So, last night I hear neighbor dog barking. Then I hear Kwellen barking. Around midnight. I get up and tell her to shush and go back to bed. Five minutes later, same thing. And again. And again. After about the fifth round of barking I decide it would be easier to just bring her to bed with us to keep her quiet. When I went to go get her, I noticed that she was running into the kitchen and barking, then coming back out to the living room growling, over and over. At this point I decide to check the kitchen and see what's up.

I notice a large, long bulky thing on the floor and (I should mention I have no glasses on at this point) my first thought is, "There's a friggin' SNAKE in my kitchen!" Get my glasses, wake up Brandon frantically to tell him Kwellen is after some evil thing in the kitchen, flip on the lights and its a .........




Rope toy.

Thank you, Kwellen, for saving us from the Evil Rope of Death

Uh, where was I?

So, Marsi posted in the blog thread on BPO today and reminded me that I have TOTALLY been neglecting my blogging duties. Actually, this thought also occured to me around 2am when Kwellen decided she needed to go out to pee. I have no idea why the peeing was so important at 2am as she has been STTN (hee!) since she was a wee pup, but for whatever reason she needed to pee then. And for whatever reason, that reminded me of my blog.

I want to share a funny inside giggle with you guys. Yesterday I changed my siggy on BPO. Since then, I have been laughing quite uncontrollably when I post. The part introducing my kids now reads:

Grain-free feeding, selectively vaxing, crate training mama to Keagan, Kiden, Kwellen, Elli, Dals. And one non-shedding child, Sabine (who doesn't sleep in a crate).

See, on many of the more natural baby sites I frequent, mamas will often list different things they do in their siggys ... BFing (breast feeding), CDing (cloth diapering), AP (attachment parenting, selective vaxing, and co-sleeping are big ones. I have several of these listed in my siggies on those sites as well. It occured to me that the reason I have choosen the "natural" parenting route is because of my dogs. I switched to natural cleaners for the dogs. I feed the dogs pretty natural food (EVO). I started selectively vaxing the dogs and have done the same for Sabine.

Sooooooo ... I decided I needed something similar for BPO. Yes, I am a dork. I realize that something isn't nearly as funny if you have to explain it, but it was SO funny to me I felt I needed to explain it. If that makes any sort of sense.

Now if I could just have little icons for each of the things I listed, I'd be super happy.

Neem Oil ... in review.

So, I've been majorly researching Neem Oil to use on the dogs as a repellant. DE is fabulous, and I'm really happy with it in the "killing" aspect of insect control. However, it doesn't repel, so the dogs are still having mosquitos, flies, etc. swarm them on walks. Plus, I worry that fleas might get on them and, even though they can't live in DE swamped fur, they will bite them and my doggies will be itchtastic. :(

Anyway, Neem Oil seemed like a good way to go so I had a friend pick up some for me. The good news is, this stuff really, really works! The bad news is, this stuff stiiiiiiiiiiiinks! It smells like coffee grounds that have been left sitting in the basket all day. And I like coffee! This, however, I do not like. So, I had to offset my concotion with a few other essential oils. My dogs now smell pretty AND are bug free. Rock on!

Here is the part where I put in a plug ... I am selling this concoction on Etsy, for anyone interested. (I know, I know, I plugged my Etsy on my other blog too but I'm shameless, dammit.) Its not hard to make but for those of you not interested in making it yourself, I will make it for you! I'm cool, right!? Yeah, you know I am.

There's a link to the left and here is the direct link as well:

http://eastjenn.etsy.com

Elli's got to have her picture on the product page because she was the only dog willing to hold still long enough to test the multiple "formulas" while I was fixing the scent issue. She gets a gold star. Or a gold cookie. Or something.

If you can think of other cool things I could make, fill me in! You don't even have to buy them. Just give me something fun to do because I like mixing up junk in my kitchen and submitting my dogs to product testing torture. Like baths. MWUAHAHAHAH!

You guys have been holding out on me.

First of all, I apologize for being all slack with my blogging. Managing a house with five dogs (And a baby. Well, two, if you count Brandon) in it takes up a lot of time. Huh, imagine that!?

Second of all, I'm mad at you guys! Yeah, YOU! You dog people who have been holding out on me about microfiber mops and how fantastic they are. See, I used to use Swiffers. But, it seemed like I was always throwing away TONS of these little Swiffer pads. And buying more. Buying and tossing. Buying and tossing. It was costly and not very eco-friendly, so I just stuck with my Libmans Wonder Mop (Which is nice, but not Wonder-ful, as they would have you believe).

Anyway, I picked up one of these Microfiber suckers today and am in love. It picks up hair like a Swiffer, then I can flip it and mop. Then wash! No more tossing! No more buying! I am a changed woman!

But not changed enough to forget I am mad at all of you who did not tell me about it. Seriously ... what were you people thinking!?

Does good Dog Mom = bad People Mom?

I have been contemplating this for a while but wasn’t sure whether to post it on the dog blog or the baby blog. Maybe I will post it on both. Hmmmm …

I frequently see people on message boards and hear people in real life commenting on how their relationship with their pets has changed since they have had a baby. How “little things” the dog or cat does piss them off. And I don’t get it. Because I have never felt this way.

I have five dogs and three cats. “Woah! That’s a lot of pets!” I hear some of you say. Other’s are thinking, “You are psychotic. That’s just too many” and a few of you (Hi, BPO-ers!) are going, “I wish I had that many!” Anyway … it is a lot of animal. But, it makes me happy. Honestly, if I had a bunch of land I would start a rescue and have 20+ dogs, quit my job and roll around in the grass with them all day. And home school Sabine and bake bread from scratch. And we’d have cows and get fresh milk and a goat and a potbelly pig and I’d sew us cool tunic’s from linen. Ok, I digress …

Anyway, I really love my pets. They were and still ARE my babies. I am, admittedly, one of those annoying pet parents. If you stand still long enough, I will tell you stories about how cute/funny/smart/stupid my dog/cat is, depending on which one I feel like talking about at the moment. I have five individual picture frames with pictures of my dogs in my office and one photo collage with pet pics. Annoyed yet? I bet you are.

So, EVERYONE figured this would change when Sabine came along … but it hasn’t. Now I’m not only THAT pet parent, I am THAT kid mom. Don’t ask me how my weekend was unless you want a play-by-play of a park adventure with a five month old and five dogs. Don’t get me started on chemicals because I will tell you how they are harmful to your baby AND your pet. That’s just me.

But, does that make me a bad kid parent? Because I love my dogs and cats just as much as I did pre-baby? Because I literally love them so much I could BURST at times!? Because, when I walk through the door at the end of the day, I am THRILLED to see them all bounding towards me for kisses and head scratches? Are the two mutually exclusive?

I don’t know. I hope not. To some, it probably is though. To those who know me, I guess it just makes me Jenn.

What can DE do for me?

Lots, actually!

With summer quickly approaching its time to be thinking about those nasty little blood suckers ... fleas. I talk about DE a lot on several message boards I frequent. "What is DE?" you might ask. DE is Diatomaceous Earth, basically powdery, crushed, fossilized diatom remains (a type of algae). It can be used to kill almost any type of pest, is all natural, and chemical free. DE works because the individual "grains" are very jagged and cut into the exoskelton of bugs, and then dries them out causing them to die. You can rub it directly on your pets, use it in your house and yard, and even feed it to your pets to control worms.

One thing you want to make sure of is that you get "food grade". Other types (such as the kind used in aquariums) will not work for pest control and is dangerous to breathe or injest.

A fellow Nestie blogged recently about some great uses around the house:

http://supernaturalmomma.blogspot.com/2008/05/diatomaceous-earth.html

BPO Food Guru and all around smartest person I know (Don't tell her I said that. Her head is big enough!), Holly, also posted some great tips for treating your house with DE:

http://www.bigpawsonly.com/index.php/topic,17839.0.html

So, check it out. You can generally find it at garden or farm supply stores. Treat your dogs. Or cats. Or both. And your house. Your yard. Hell, treat your car! It can't hurt.

If life hands you lemons, polish wood!

So, I have a problem. I am addicted to polishing wood. Elli also has a problem. She is addicted to licking Old English furniture polish off of furniture. This is bad because A) It makes my polish go away and B) I'm fairly sure dogs do not need to be eating Old English.

Anyway, I decided to make my own wood polish yesterday. I wanted to use something natural ... not just so Elli could eat it but because I'm trying really hard to remove all of the nasty chemical cleaners from my house. The wood polish was one of the last to go. So, I mixed up some olive oil and lemon essential oil.

It worked fabulously! Unfortunately, Elli seems to think it is even better for snacking than Old English. While its not nearly as bad for her, I would still like to have conditioned wood, dammit!

Oh well. At least her fur while be soft and shiny. And her breath is lemony fresh!

Kiden is a Capricorn

An ode to Kiden ... alpha dog of the house. Er, world. Sorry, Kiden.

Kiden is a Capricorn
She eats Innova EVO food.
She believes in stuffies and balls
And never wears no shoes.

Black hair, pink collar, and crazy ears
And a funky pack of dogs.
Reckon she would blow a gasket
If she came to meet a hog.

Cause Kiden's gotta have somebody to go and pick on.
Who she can feel better than at any time she please.
Someone doin somethin dirty decent dogs can frown on.
If she can't find nobody else, then she will help herself to Ke(o).

Keg'n sleeping, Kwellen squealling
Kiden doesn't care.
She will laugh at, then steal toys from,
Any dog who's there.

Some dogs hate the cars
Some hate the cats, some dogs hate birds like doves.
Kiden hates most anything that
She can't be boss of.

God save us from the tree people.

Last night we had a large, half-dead pine tree cut down in our back yard. Er, side yard. Back side yard. Back corner of the house ... whatever!

Anyway, the tree was technically on our property. The roots, however, were cutting into the sewer lines of the lady next door, who wanted it out. Instead of asking us to pay for it, she just hired someone to do it. It was really a win-win situation ... it needed to come out, and we didn't have to pay. YAY! The only problem was that the people were doing it after hours (read -- under the table) so they worked from 6-9pm.

All of the dogs were fine with the chainsaws ... except Keagan. Keagan hid under the bed. He is moderately sized (about 65lbs) but quite roly-poly and VERY uncoordinated. So, having him thrash around to get under the bed was quite interesting. When they finished cutting the limbs and started feeding them into the mulcher he started to relax. Then the other shoe dropped ... or should I say, tree.

This pine was maybe, 5381950180918 ft. tall. And when it fell it was LOUD. Loud enough to make Keagan pee. In my floor.

Not only did Keagan pee everywhere, but the rest of the dogs went NUTS. Well, the rest except for Dals, who just kinda stood there like, "Uhhhh ... did something fall?" Kwellen went scampering off with the cats. Kiden and Elli slinked down and tried to get BEHIND the couch they were sleeping on. It was a mess.

Its good to know that my house contains rougly 400lbs of dogs and not a SINGLE one of them would be useful in an actual scary situation. But, they are good for snuggling after the scare is over.