Indian Summer

It is August now. Welcome to the Indian Summer... er wait. Welcome to summer part 1. Hm... well it's going to warm up some time now.

In the grande scheme of things, August was going to be my month to really step back and work on battening the hatches for winter. We were going to start on plans for a wind turbine to start cutting down on the electric. We were also planning on hooking up an old wood burner in my basement to start cutting down on heating bills. And then I was thinking about figuring a compost heating system to try to heat up the greenhouse for a bit to keep me occupied with green things in the winter as well.
That is my wish list.

Instead, August has begun with sore muscles, an -o crap I have to find a job for winter- search, and for some odd reason a rescue dog trying to find a home project came to fruition.

First off, manual labor sucks. It is fun for a bit, but then there are just some days where I wish I had an office to crawl into and hide behind a computer. I spent most of the drizzley day yesterday cleaning up my loft and trying to get my head straight amidst a whirlwind of activity. Between the park and the vineyard, my mind is constantly racing and my body is constantly in motion. As the sun dapples and the wind blows... and the turkeys cry loudly for their breakfast which is a Sunday morning kind of late, I am really trying to sink my roots in and let things happen as they may. Maybe a good yoga stretch in the back field would really start this day out right.

Second - oh crap. I have to find a winter job.
This is really starting to hit me. I think it was the football cue that really knocked me on my feet. Our fantasy draft is coming up. Usually by the time football rolls around, I am done with gardening and the heat and am ready for the snow to fly on a lazy Sunday and fall asleep to the browns getting beat mercilessly.
But the heat never came this summer. And I am not ready to give it up yet. Where was all the swimming!? Where was the water volleyball? The summer nights with friends? Camping? Fishing?! Where have I been all summer? What the hell have I been doing!!!???
Which of course brings me to a new crisis...
The vineyard is great. I could list like twenty million things that I like about it, but I will spare you all. The one bad thing about the vineyard is this winter I will be SOL for employment. It is just this year and it shouldn't be too bad, but uncertainty is something that I am uncomfortable with and this is as uncertain as it gets.
The harvest is going to happen in late September. I am traveling down with the grapes to get pressed then and watching the master vitner start to work his magic. By the time I get back, frost will be upon us and I will have nowhere to go, no CSA to divert attention, only the cooing of turkeys that need sold for Thanksgiving (but of course, their deliciousness sells itself) and the deep longing for warmer weather.
We'll see, I am looking at some ridiculous options, and some of them involve plane tickets to warmer climates...

And lastly, the dog project.
I have no idea what got into my head. Perhaps I always wanted a pound puppy. Perhaps I just wanted to add a bit more chaos to my life. Perhaps I just really love all dogs, but I have a new project and she is happily sleeping on my rug in my newly cleaned room.
She doesn't have a name yet. It annoys me that I don't know it. I found her while searching for a pound puppy for my friend Bethani. And she is ridiculously sweet. I saw her first about a month ago, happily wagging her tail and rubbing up against the chain link trying to get pet. I took home another dog who looked like a young purebred border collie with the intention of training him as a herd dog, but he turned out to be really sick and after a tearful vet visit, I returned him. This girl was still in her cage, doe-eyed and almost crying with her big ears and wagging tail.
Thinking - of course that sweet dog is going to find someone - I left her there. I went back one week later, two weeks later... still there. But the pound and the barking was getting to her. She was more reserved, scared, and getting sores from being on concrete too long. So I took her home.
She was on a leash attached to me for 3 days. She went to the vineyard with me. She slept outside. She howled to come in.
After a few days, we started calling her Daisy. She still doesn't know it. I wish I knew her former name. She was somebody's dog. Her coat is soft, the vet said she was already fixed. This is someone's dog, but they threw her away.
I cannot have another dog. Pepper is all that I need. Daisy is a sweetheart though and I still think that there is a home out there that is perfect for her. We are re-teaching her manners and she knows how to sit and answers more to "Come here" than to "Daisy." She is most certainly from herd dog blood though and once she was inside the sheep fence, she split the flock then brought them back together, drove them to one end then circled and brought them back. It was amazing to watch her, totally untrained before but just enjoying what she was meant to do.
Since then though, she's slowed down a lot and would much prefer to be an inside dog. She will still run around and put the ducks away at night, but not with the ferver that Pepper keeps the pigs in line. Seems like she is most at home in front of the TV watching movies.

Anyway, if anyone is looking for a dog, just let me know. This one is 100% sweetheart and waiting for someone to give all her love to.


Until then, we'll be wandering around on this lazy summer sunday, bathed in sun and waiting for that 90 degrees they are talking about so we can go swimming!!!