Nothing (in my book) is better than living in the country a mile off the main road. There are many advantages and things that make it the life of luxury. One being you can mow the lawn in your bathing suit and no one sees you! : ) There are many of creeks and fields to romp in. Plenty of trees to climb. Lots of space for the animals to roam. Space for a garden. And, almost as important as the bathing suit, the kids can go outside and play and I don't have to worry about them getting in the road or being kidnapped.
There is one disadvantages to go along with all the perks. Dusty cars! : ) The last 1/4 of a mile of the road is dusty gravel. Actually I really don't mind the dusty car. But every so often after a couple of good rainy days pot holes slowly begin to appear. One of the chores of 'country' life is to keep the holes filled in so that they don't become inconvenient sink holes. :)
Of course over the winter a few of the rocks around the fire ring had 'walked away' so we went in search of rocks that have worked their way up from the ground around the barn.
It was a quiet relaxing evening... until Chaucer decided that he wanted to "fire walk". Apparently dogs don't have the innate 'fire sense' that their cousin the wolf does. Chaucer wanted in on the family fun and walked right to the edge of the fire (inside the rock circle). As Mom and I lunged towards him to pull him out he started to sit! ???Fortunately, I think, just before he was able to sit in the flames he felt the heat on his back paw. In an instant he was scampering off on three feet with red embers glowing from his leg! We chased him down and swatted off the remaining embers and scurried him into the house to check out the damage. He only had a few little marks on the pad of his foot that seemed to be a little sore. But man, the smell of all of that singed hair! WOW! He's not going to need a hair cut on that foot for a while!
How do you put ice on a dog's foot? I can confidently say that putting his foot in a bowl of ice water while he is standing isn't the answer unless you have a lot of towels handy! Our second and best solution... lay him down and stick his paw in a zip-lock bag full of ice!
Lessons learned: Hard work pays off in the end.
Children aren't the only things you need to keep out of fires!
