Category Archives: Life

Bring it on Spring ~ we are ready for you!

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YAY, SPRING! This lovely season brings us rebirth along with increasing daylight, warming temperatures, and ~ well, we can always hope. Regardless, I promise it will get warmer, greener and lusher, eventually (unless you are south of the equator, then it’s just the opposite and its autumn for you).

Technically speaking, spring began today with the vernal equinox at 5:58 P.M. EDT. The word equinox is Latin for “equal night” (vernal means spring). In other words, today we will have approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of nighttime everywhere on the Earth. Moreover, the Sun rises and sets due east and west. This happens because today, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun (don’t forget, the tilt of Earth is relative to its plane of orbit, called the ecliptic plane, which is always about 23.5 degrees). This is very cool.

This morning, I went out looking for some signs of spring. I had to look hard, but found a couple. The stream by our house is starting to flow again.

We don’t have any spring flowers breaking through the ground yet but the buds on the trees are starting to develop. I always know spring is here when the landscape has evolved from grayish/brown to a reddish glow with the promise of leaves.

bud

Although on other days, I have seen Redwing Black Birds around our feeders, which are another sign of spring for me. No Robins were out today either. But alas, there weren’t many birds out at all this morning.

In addition to today being the first day of spring, it is also the United Nations International Day of Happiness!  In 2011, all 193 United Nations members recognized that progress should be about increasing human happiness and well-being, not just growing the economy. That was a very profound declaration in a time of such immense greed. It is definitely a good step in the right direction. So today is a day to celebrate, rejoice and simply be happy.

Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love! ~Sitting Bull

Treats for Cayde

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Cayde

When we moved into our new home in the summer of 2017, I promised Mathew and my Mom that we would get a dog. They wanted a puppy but, honestly, I just didn’t think I had it in me to do the training; sure Mathew and Mike promised to help, but the bulk of the work would be on me. I am home more than they are. The idea of a puppy was wonderful, but the initial investment and work was far more than I was willing to add to my already overflowing plate.  So for over a year, I looked online weekly and visited shelters. As with house hunting, we had very clear requirements and weren’t going to take the first available dog; it had to measure up. Finally, we found Max (now known as Cayde) for Mathew’s 15th birthday at the local SPCA. We are still in the honeymoon stage but he is a wonderful, sweet and extremely gentle dog. Gentle is very important because my 87 year old Mom uses a walker and is a bit unsteady. When she walks, Cadye gives her room but watches her attentively. He is very smart, and with a treat available, he learned to sit, on his first day, so Mathew could put on his harness. Perhaps, we can teach him to push my Mom’s ottoman into place when she needs help. He is definitely strong enough.

We have no information about Cayde’s past life. All we know is that he came from a kill shelter in Alabama and was flown up to Ithaca the week we adopted him. The SPCA said he was around 2 years old, but our Vet thought he was more likely 4 or 5, given his teeth and his disposition. He is sooooo mellow, too mellow to be a 2 year old. We wanted to start the relationship off well with clear rules and boundaries, so we got him a crate to sleep in, at least in the beginning, and when we need to leave him unsupervised. We got him a Kong to play with and to stuff with treats. It bounces, so he can play catch with himself. As a bonus, my Mom can gently toss it so he is occupied  with trying to catch it. What a cleaver toy!

The milk bones we bought are a bit too big to stuff in a Kong, so I decided to make special treats for Cayde for that purpose. At the SPCA, they stuffed peanut butter into it, froze it, and tossed them into the rooms at night. This is they way they said goodnight to the dogs. Frankly, peanut butter seemed too messy to deal with, Cayde is not one of those vacuum cleaner dogs. He rarely licks up the crumbs from the milk bones.

I searched the internet and books in the library for examples of dog treats and then experimented with recipes. I finally adapted a recipe by Anne Jonna from book her “The Healthy Dog Cookbook”.  It contains all the elements of a great recipe – easy, limited effort, natural ingredients, and yummy.  I am able to shape the treat into balls so I can create the perfect treat plug for the Kong, plus when they sit around for a couple of days after you bake them, they bounce ~ another added bonus.

Peanut Butter Ball Treat

Mash up 1 banana

½ cup water

3 heaping tbsp. peanut butter

1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour

Mix ingredients, wet hands and roll into balls.

Bake 350° for 20-25 minutes

Makes about 24

Treat in Kong

Store in jar, keeps for about a week, but they disappears faster.