So, that New Year's resolution? About writing every week for this blog? err, not going so well.
I do manage to micro blog just about every day over on twitter. That's the best way to keep current with my life & times, so if you care about that, join Twitter. It's fun! And hardly at all addictive! No, really. I remain hopeful, even confident (without any real basis for that confidence) that more of my loved ones will join me "over there" in my most recent addiction. But for you traditionalists, here's an attempt at a more verbose update:

Things in Pigville are more or less the same these days. We're very broke. but pretty happy, and except for money issues, i'm more or less content with my life.

I've been exercising more since my week in January on Anna Maria Island with my family became a yoga boot camp. I've actually managed to lose a bit of weight, without really trying. That's a good thing.

Jill has been living here at Hearth Hill with us for just about a year now. And finally, after a year of building out her apartment about the studio (known as the Crow's Nest) actually, it's more accurate to say that we've been intending to build out the Crow's Nest, but that intention kept falling down (or off) the priority list, things are starting to happen on that front. Jill has spent the past week moving stuff from the double wide up to the apartment, even though the Crow's Nest is nowhere near finished. Still, all three of us are happy to have a bit more space. And our remaining cat, Rigel, is ecstatic to finally have a house monkey living in a non dog infested space. He's moved into the Crow's Nest with a vengeance & he intends to stay there. Jill seems very happy to have cat company instead of dogs (she manages to say dogs with an elegant but very expressive snort) and Darrell is very excited to reclaim the room Jill was occupying in the house for his leather studio. Now, all we need to do is make lots of money this spring show season so we can finish out the Crow's Nest and pay off some other bills & have some left over for A LAPTOP for me. That's all i ask. Is it so much? (don't answer that)

OK, it's late. I'm tired, but am waiting up for the dryer to shut off. I'm doing laundry so that Darrell & i can have clean clothes for our trip up to Canada to reclaim two of our dogs.

It's like this: Jill went on a bit of a ramble this early spring: January in Seattle, bothering friends out there & February in Ontario, building a yurt with our friends Ceit & Storm. I went up to Canada to reclaim/repatriate Jill & brought Budgth & Ursa with me, cause Ashe (Ceit & Storm's dog) loves Budgth & Ceit is as much of a dog sucker as i am, so she HAD to meet Ursa.

Well, not unexpectedly, Ceit fell in love with Ursa. And she offered to keep Ursa & Budgth in Canada while the human part of our family went on our three week road trip to Florida and then Mississippi (no dogs allowed at the longer show). The gas to go to Canada & back in our little car costs less than it would to keep all 3 of our dogs in our local kennel for 2 nights. And Ursa & Budgth were having a GREAT time playing with Ceit & Ashe & Daemon & annoying Storm. So, the pups have been illegal residents of Canada since late February. D & i are heading north tomorrow to reclaim them, though i think that both Ceit and Ashe will be very, very sorry to see them go. I miss them so much! The only reason i'm not totally crazed from doggie deprivation is because i still have my Tristan dog here with me. Tristan does NOT get along with cats & therefore wasn't welcome at Ceit & Storms house- he went to lock up instead & has had a week of bachelor life afterwards, before D & i could drive up to retrieve the other two pups.
T's loving the single life & every time i remind him that this is a temporary reprieve he looks at me as if to say "but it doesn't have to be. It could be like this all the time" I suspect Ceit and Ashe are paying Tristan off. Not too hard. I'm sure T would regard rocks as an excellent payoff.

And that's really all i have to say about that. Really, that's all i have to say tonight. We've got a long drive tomorrow, so i'm going to bed.

Hope it's enough of an update for folks. I'm gonna root about for some pictures to put up with this post and call it done.
Goodnight & bright blessings to all.
As Garrison Kellior says: Be well and do good work.

& now, a groundhog story, on Groundhog Day even:

this story inspired by bowlofcheese on twitter, who was calling for groundhog recipes for groundhog day.
Let me tell you, friends, how NOT to eat a groundhog:

Many years ago, my Mom had a fantastic dog. His name was Luther, he was a husky shepherd mix with one blue eye and an amazing, social, amiable just all around fantastic dog.
There are many stories about Luther & the lives that he touched. Luther had many great qualities, but at least one not so great one.
Luther was the DeathofGroundhogs. Not in a Terry Pratchett, wearing a cowl, carrying a scythe, talking LIKE THIS sense of the term (though that might be his current job in the afterlife. And he'd be great at it). No, i mean, if Luther ever, ever got the chance, he would kill groundhogs. With malice aforethought. This was a surprising trait, because he was an otherwise peaceful, sweet, loving being. But not when it came to groundhogs.
So, it's like this: My Mom & her partner, Lee, are fitness buffs. They hike and jog & go to the gym. Their idea of a vacation is a three week slog on the AT. (that gene definitely skipped a generation in me- i'm much more of the "whenever i get the urge to exercise, i lie down till it passes" type).
Luther was a great trail and running dog. Except for that groundhog issue.
So, one fine, sunny spring day, Lee went out for a cross country run with Luther. Later that day, they came over to our house to drop Luther off for the weekend (i think they were going out of town for a mini, not dog friendly vacation). As they're leaving, Lee calls over her shoulder "Umm, you might want to watch Luther tonight. He killed and ATE a groundhog this morning."
We're like, "yah, ok, whatever. He's eaten groundhogs before, hasn't he? Go have fun kids, the dog will be fine."
(pause to add in parenthesis that this was back in the day when i was with my first husband, Keith. A fine man, but a Canadian, and Keith was prudish in that deeply white way that many Canadians have perfected. Fart jokes= NOT his idea of funny)
A few hours later, we're sitting about happily, maybe watching a movie or reading books. Luther & our two dogs laying about the living room with us. All is quiet. Perhaps too quiet. Then it starts.
Farts.
Not just any farts.
My eyes are watering at the memory of these farts and it's been 15 years at least.
I've been around freshly skunked dogs that have not smelled this foul.
Lethal, room clearing, eye watering farts.
Farts so bad that the other two dogs sat up, looked at each other in disgust and left the room.
As Keith and i are looking at each other in horror, we finally realize that the source of these foul odors is Luther, the sweet dog who is peacefully sleeping it off on the floor at our feet.
And it suddenly dawns on us:
these terrible emanations are GROUNDHOG FARTS!
And as we're shoving a confused, sleepy & cranky Luther out the door into the back yard, opening windows & looking for stinky candles (this is pre Febreze) Keith looks at me and says "I promise you that I will never, ever, ever eat a groundhog.

The end of my little cautionary tale.
If there is a moral to this story kids, it is this: Stay away from groundhog meat. Or if you must, COOK the damn thing before ingesting it. Cause if you can't resist groundhog sushi, I can promise you this: not even your dog will love you afterwards.

Hello Friends. It's been awhile since i've updated this blog. Much has happened, but as is typical, i haven't made time to sit down and post.
So, let's try to catch up:
I don't think i've mentioned it here yet, but Darrell had dreadlocks for most of the summer.
I do use the past tense, cause the dreads are gone.
It was like this. He wanted dreads cause his hair is pretty curly & knots up alot if left to it's own devices, which it is when i'm not around. So, we ordered lots of stuff from dredhead.com and followed their instructions. Bran & i invested three days (ok, really evenings) of our lives to getting the dreads in & started. They looked good. Very piratical!
But D. didn't spend anytime keeping them up. And it turns out that dreads need alot of time and attention to get started & just to not look like shite. Who knew? And we just didn't have that kind of time. And then MDRenn Fest started. And it was hot hot hot opening weekend.
That was enough for D.
The dreads went two weeks ago.
i miss them, but i don't miss cringing every time i look at my husband & wondering when i'll find the time to fuss with his hair.

Other news. hmmm.
I've got yet another new dog.
He's amazing. I'm really hoping this one will take.
He's a purebred German Shepherd. He came to us with the name of Triton. That's more or less been changed to Tristan.
It was like this:
My neighbor who is also my electrician, has this amazing German Shepherd named Bob. I've had a serious doggie crush on Bob since i met him 2 years ago, when Rick showed up with Bob in tow to put in the 220 lines for my kilns. Such a serious crush that in complete violation of all my "don't breed or buy while homeless animals die" beliefs, i told Rick repeatedly that if he ever bred Crazy (Bob's Mom) again, i wanted a "Bob dog" of my very own.
So, in June i guess it was, Rick shows up at our place with "not Bob", another beautiful German Shepherd in tow. It turns out that this is Triton, Bob's littermate.
Triton's owner was having a rough time & Rick was watching Triton for a few weeks while she (the owner) sorted stuff out.
Rick told me he was working on getting her to give Triton to me, for purely selfish reasons-- it would mean that Rick could come visit Triton/Tristan whenever he wanted, we could watch each other's dogs, all sorts of good stuff like that.
And so it came to pass. In mid July, Tristan came to stay with us. It took about a month for Tristan to figure out that he was staying, but now he's very much my dog. And an amazing being at that.
I've never had a pure bred dog. It's a very different thing from the mutts i've owned & loved in the past. I don't know if it's the breed or just this family of dogs, but Tristan is so smart and funny & loyal & neurotic. I love this guy with all my heart. I think i've become a GSD devotee after just a few weeks with one homeless, not at all housebroken, neurotic, noble, sweet, devoted, aloof & totally dependent upon me representative of the breed.
Tristan is so madding & wonderful all at once.

And that's the doggie news update. I still have my Bug-a-loo, my WVa mutt with her sweet eyes & snuggly demeanor & i wouldn't give her up anything. But i also wouldn't let Tristan go either. Our canines seems to have completed our family in a wonderful way & i'm really happy with the doggie status quo around here right now. (though i will confess that Tristan & Bug make a pretty funny looking doggie pack when they hang out together).

There's lots of other news, but i think i'll save it for another post, as i'm still stupid busy with Renn Fest-- in fact, i should be making pots RIGHT NOW.

Let me just sign off by mentioning that i've become a twitter-aholic. It's great fun & if you ever get sucked into it, let me know & we can keep in touch with that. It's just about perfect for my attention span these days. Check it out: my homepage there is: www.twitter.com/mudcelt

Hope to see you soon in the twitter-o-sphere!

Dog food Diatribe

the following is from an email i sent out to my friends and family tonight. I thought i'd share it here too, in case i forgot anyone. & because it's what i've been thinking and writing about lately....
And enjoy!
~Va

Anyone who has talked to me face to face lately knows that i've been prostelisizing about how we feed our dogs and how that needs to change. I've been on this particular soapbox even before the widespread petfood recall started a few weeks ago.

I've undergone my conversion experience because i've been listening to a pod-cast called Dog Talk. The woman who does this show is Tracie Hotchner-- she's the author of The Dog Bible, and she has very strong views on how we should feed our dogs & why.

What follows here is alot of information that you might or might not agree with, but both my mom and sister have been asking me about this & especially about what brands of dog food they can use. I'm sending it to you because i thought you might find it interesting &/or helpful, as you wonder what the hell you should feed your dog now that seemingly every brand on the planet is being recalled. Feel free to read further or delete now as you see fit.

Tracie's view is that the majority of dog kibble is basically fried corn product. It is low on protein & high on fat & carbs. We wouldn't feed our kids exclusively on Fritos and expect them to remain healthy, so why do we do this to our dogs?

Tracie has a website with some useful links about nutrition on this page, about halfway down: http://www.thedogbible.com/links.html
but the most useful information i've gotten from her was listening to a pod-cast of Dog Talk: The Radio Show where she talks to Sabine Contreras.
This is episode #14 which aired on March 10 2007 and you can download it for free here: http://www.dogtalktheradioshow.com/podcast.htm
Tracie doesn't get to Sabine till about halfway through the show, but keep with it, or fast forward to about the 30 minute mark, it's worth it, i promise.

If you are too busy to manage this, here's my very abridged version of what i've learned:
Your dog needs protein, lots of it, to be healthy.
The ideal diet for a dog is one with 60% protein or more.
Most kibble (esp. the kibble sold in grocery stores) is about 20% protein & alot of that 20% isn't in a form that's easily digestible for dogs.
As Tracie says (i'm paraphrasing here) 'When we feed kibble, we're feeding our dog as if she were a feedlot animal; a cow, pig or chicken. That type of highly processed grain based diet just doesn't work for dogs'
Kibble should be a side dish, not the main meal.
The less processed the protein source, the better.
You CAN feed your dog human food. In fact, your dog would be much healthier if you did feed her human food.
Good unprocessed protein sources include chicken, fish, beef, lamb, venison, cottage cheese, raw or cooked eggs.
I'm not going into the whole cooked vs raw debate, that's for you to decide. But never feed your dogs cooked bones of any kind & be careful when feeding them raw bones.
Avoid feeding organ meats too often-- once a week is a good rule of thumb, for people as well as dogs.

If, like me, you don't have time enough to feed yourself a healthy whole food based diet, let alone produce one for your dogs, there are brands of dog food that Tracie and Sabine recommend, though they are adamant that you should NEVER feed "lite" or diet kibble to your dog, even if one of the following companies make them.
A partial list of brands:
Flint River
Evo
Newmans Own
Wellness
Merrick (Tracie is especially excited about Merrick, who apparently have a new kibble that's 40% protein- a big leap in the right direction as far as she's concerned)

Check out Sabine's website: http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=main
She's great about teaching you how to read dog food labels. Look for whole grains, ingredients like brown rice or white rice. Avoid kibble with lots of "rice flour" (which is basically rice with the protein stripped out) or wheat gluten. Again, the less processed the food, the healthier it is for both you and your dogs.

As for me personally? Well, we're extra special "just before the start of the spring show season" broke right now, so we can't afford to switch over to a kibble free diet. These days, my dogs are getting a reduced amount of high quality kibble, one that has 26% protein, lots of chicken and brown rice in it. This is about 50% of their bowl, the rest is Merrick canned dog food (we're getting it for about $1.50 a can & we're going through 2 cans a day between 3 dogs) and supplementing with cottage cheese, eggs and occasionally cheap meat that D. finds on sale & cooks up for the gang.

In closing, i thought i'd share some quotes from a letter Tracie Hotchner sent out to her mailing list this evening regarding the whole Menu foods recall situation:

"I was particularly disturbed and distrustful of my fellow journalists, who were silent across-the-board on this story - and apparently lacking any interest in doing investigating into what was really going on. The blatant muddling of facts, switch-and-bait excuses and stories, and lack of logic about many aspects of the situation should have had all of their ears perked up to get to the bottom of it.

And then I figured it out: Procter and Gamble OWNS both Iams and Eukanuba. P&G spends an awful lot of money advertising all of its products on television and in the print media. We’d like to think that their financial support of the media empires would not put a sort of gag order on the editors and writers –we’d like to believe we have a free press, not influenced by advertising dollars. It would be so reassuring to be able to think that is the case."

snipped...

"There are still many more questions than answers in this debacle but some things seem sure. It is not just those styles of foods made on those dates that pose risk. If tainted wheat and/or wheat gluten entered the food chain at Menu Foods, then it makes more sense to assume that any of their foods – dry or wet – could have been tainted. Especially given the resounding silence and refusal to step up and take responsibility and be pro-active, you can safely bet that the cover-up, keep-your-cards-close-to-the-vest mentality is still functioning. However, now they have finally told the public to avoid all of the “cuts and slices in nasty gravy” (my addition of “nasty,” sorry, I couldn’t resist) no matter when it was made."

snipped...

"Why aren’t more people asking questions like:

"How can it be that we were subjected to more press about Anna Nicole Smith than the death of any head of state – but the media machine does not think that 90 million cat owners and 68 million dog families need to know about this? "

snipped...

"Why haven’t real numbers of the losses been ferreted out and published? Why has the press swallowed this magic “only 13 animals” number – which is the test animals who died within days? (emphasis mine ~Va) Why did the media single out only one afflicted cat, belonging to a woman who was suing the food companies with a case that sounded shaky – she had a 9 year old cat who had never been to the vet and she waited through four days of dire illness resulting in the cat’s blindness and then death. Why has the media only shown a few Yorkies feeling poorly instead of what has got to be the thousands of aggrieved and enraged citizens whose animal family members suffered fast or slow deaths that might even have been avoided?"

snipped...

"How can it be that NONE of the companies involved have yet to take responsibility… say they are sorry… explain how much we and our pets matter to them (oh yeah)… and how they will be looking at compensating losses?

"How is it conceivable that the companies involved have made no attempt to even try to reassure us that they want to revamp their system of food production to avoid such a horrific tragedy in the future? But wait – they hadn’t yet even acknowledged there was a tragedy, had they? "

This is Virginia again. Not that Tracie's angry or upset or anything!
You can see her complete letter here: http://www.dogtalktheradioshow.com/Newsletter_pdf/March_27_2007_FoodRecallThoughts.html

Now, go hug your dog & give her some better quality food. You'll both feel better!

With love and respect for all beings
~Virginia