Tag Archives: pico

Cabin Life – #31

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I was watching the sun come up over the Vermont mountains, listening to Pico splash in the lake and really appreciating the bug free morning.  The haziness of the air made for a nice sunrise, all pinks and purples.  Pico loves the water, even though I have to give him a warm-up throw or two of the ball to get him to really swim.  But once he’s in, he loves it.

Ed caught a mouse last night.  At three in the morning.  And he wouldn’t kill it.  He just walked around for half an hour with the poor thing in his mouth.  Every couple of minutes Ed would drop him just to catch him again.  He was growling at Herbie and Pico and me.  Finally I just picked Ed up and carried him outside, where he dropped the mouse and it ran off. 

I’m no fan of mice, especially in my house, but I was surprised when it ran off.  As far as I know, it’s only the second mouse Ed’s ever caught.  And he responded to my travesty of releasing his prey by knocking a glass onto the floor, shattering it.  He maintained eye contact the entire time.  Now, the next time this happens, I will be faced with the decision of letting him torment the mouse or incurring Ed’s wrath.  Well, sorry little mice, but I gotta live with that cat.

Cabin Life – #28

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I’m sure there’s been plenty of people in my life who wanted to tell me to go jump in a lake.  Well, for the last two days, I’ve had to do just that.  The temperatures have been well into the nineties, hot, hazy and humid.  It’s exactly the type of weather I left Florida to avoid.

Around ten last night, I took Pico down for a swim.  As hot as I was, I can’t imagine how hot a dog could be in weather like this.  After throwing a stick a few times, I let Pico chew on his temporary toy and just sat in the water.  The lake was calm, with no breeze to speak of.  Even though it was hazy, some stars were out and lights fromVermont were reflecting on the almost-glass surface of the lake.  The mosquitoes were bad, so I sat in water up my neck and was glad that the horseflies had at least taken the night off. 

Pico and I had chased a flock of geese off the beach a couple of weeks ago, but apparently they didn’t go far.   They swam by, twenty yards out.  There must be twenty of them, parents and little ones.  In the calm water, they looked majestic.  The slow ripples coming off their bellies and the quiet mumblings were soothing, while the reflections of silhouettes graced the water, and I thought to myself:  “I really wish those stupid geese would stop pooping on the beach.”

Cabin Life – #10

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Pico.  What a lucky mutt.  As far as anyone can tell, he is half border collie and half Australian shepherd.  Seems good to me, and he really doesn’t care what you call him.

A couple of weeks after I moved to Florida, I realized that living with my brother was the first place I had ever lived where I could have a dog.  So I went out and got a dog.  I checked the local shelters and there were no border collies, so, I went on to Petfinder.  There were border collies galore on the site.  Most people think they want a border collie until the dog starts outsmarting them and gets bored and starts destroying things. 

As I scrolled down the page looking for my new little buddy, Pico’s picture popped up.  He had a huge smile on his face and was lying contentedly on a piece of plywood.  I emailed the organization that was fostering him, and got a phone call later that day.  The woman on the phone really wanted to know about me, and she grilled me about owning a border collie.  She wanted to know about my job, my yard, my plans, if I had a girlfriend, and lots of other stuff. 

After convincing her that I knew what I was getting into, I was allowed to go see him in person.  The forty-five minute phone interview was just the first part.  My friend Brett and I drove the hour and a half to Port Orange, FL to meet the foster parents and Pico. 

He came charging out of their office on a leash that one of the women could barely hold onto.  He immediately started jumping on us and trying to chew on my shoes as we talked.  I tried to restrain him the best I could, but at about a year and a half old, he was already pretty powerful.  The women filled me in on his history:  They had taken him and two other dogs out of a shelter on the day they were due to be euthanized.  The other dogs’ names were Roscoe and Train.  Put all three names together and you get Roscoe P. Cotrain, the sheriff from The Dukes of Hazzard.  Yup, I was living in the south.

They had had Pico for a while because the people who were interested in adopting him had either been turned off by his exuberance or rejected by the organization.  I was something like the eighth or ninth person to come and see Pico.  This crazy mutt with the sob story had me from the start.  The women agreed to take him back at any point in the future, regardless of the circumstances, but I knew I was in for the long haul.

On the way back to Jacksonville, Pico started eating the seat belt in the back seat.  When we got home, him and Duff (my brother’s huge German Shepherd) took off running in our tiny yard.  Pico was explosively fast and literally had a crazy look in his eye when he was running at full bore.  You’d better watch out because when he runs like that he is not in control of his own body.  It’s hilarious and terrifying at the same time.

In addition to being really high energy, it soon became apparent that the foster moms had not taught Pico any manners, or really anything except his name.  He was not housebroken, begged for food, jumped on the furniture, and every other ridiculous behavior that you can imagine.  But, being a smart dog and completely obsessed with the treats I dispensed, he learned pretty quickly.

I also learned swiftly that Jacksonville was no place to have a dog that needed as much exercise and room to run as Pico did.  We had a few quiet city parks where I could take him off leash, and then there was the pay-to-go dog park that was nice, but I couldn’t afford it.  I took him hiking, played Frisbee and walked him regularly.  His behavior improved consistently, even with a few bad habits hanging on.

For a few years, I had tried to get my old job back up in New York, mainly because I felt bad about being so unfair to Pico.  After a few years, he was a hell of a lot better behaved, destroyed almost nothing, and was my constant companion and friend.  He deserved to run around without a leash and I became determined to provide that opportunity for him.

We had come up to New York for vacation a couple of times, and I noticed that he seemed to be right at home in the Adirondacks.  In Jacksonville, he ran all over the place, on and off trail.  In New York, he rarely ventured from the trail, and never took off after wildlife.  He was an Adirondack trail dog, no doubt about it.

When it finally came time to pack my stuff and head back north fromFlorida, the main criteria I used in finding an apartment was that they had lots of open country around the house.  I found a place outside Dannemora, NY that had a five acre field and no one cared where he ran or what he did.  (That place was nice and I would have stayed there, but there was a double murder in the house shortly before I moved in that the landlord didn’t tell me about and when I found out it kind of freaked me out). 

I’d like to say that I did all this for him, but maybe it’s something more.  Maybe he came into my life to get me back to the mountains.  Maybe we led each other here.  I don’t know, but I do know that we’re both happy to be having the cabin experience together.

Cabin Life – #24

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I’m sitting on a picnic table on the shore of Lake Champlain. Valcour Island is in front of me, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Tonight is the calm before the storm so to speak, as the campground opens tomorrow.

Paved roads, electricity and hot showers are now plentiful, as is the wildlife. There are three osprey nests within a half mile of my new cabin, and of course, the raccoons are around a lot. Pico has been marking the yard, and that’s keeping them away for now, but the cats still aren’t going outside.

Opening the campground is nice, getting the place cleaned up. Last year at this time, the entire site was under at least three feet of water. I know, because we needed kayaks and boats to get in here and check on the place. We didn’t open until the middle of July last year due to the epic flooding of the spring. And only a little over a month later, we were shut down for a week because of Hurricane Irene. In between those two events, it was a drought.

I finally found my bird book, and am really looking forward to learning the different birds. Less than forty miles away, the cabin birds are on their own for the summer. But the differences are stark. The only birds I’ve seen that I had out at the cabin are robins. But I’ve also seen the osprey, sea gulls, a bald eagle and some sparrows.

It’s good to be back to work, and the fact that I still get to be outside surrounded by wildlife (yes, I do mean campers as well as wild animals) is just superb.

Cabin Life – #18

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The afternoon sunlight slants against the birdfeeders, giving them a golden glow.  It’s hard to believe that it’s almost seven at night, when it was not that long ago that the sun was going down at about four-thirty.

During the really dark parts of the winter, it was hard not to go to sleep at six PM.  With only candles and oil lamps, night was difficult to fight off, and more often than not, I fell asleep on the couch with a book on my chest and my headlamp still on.

Now that it’s light so late in the afternoon, I am actually having a hard time filling the days.  Not that I’m just sitting around doing nothing, but I feel like I should be working until six or seven.

It is nice to take a break and realize that it’s dinner time, though.  The wood I cut over the winter is drying nicely, the deer have been coming back to the yard, and luckily there hasn’t been any sign of bears.  The chickadees have been using the feeders less and less, but the squirrels are still hitting them pretty regularly.

My focus has definitely shifted from cold weather preparation and existence to outdoor projects.  The compost bin is complete, and so is a small cold-frame I put together from scrap around the property.  The leaky porch roof now has a rather large hole in it (my fault) and is in dire need of repair, so that’s the next big project.

I’ll probably have to move a generator from Amy’s house up to the cabin to charge batteries and run a saw for the roof project.  It’s weird to think that other than charging my phone in the car, this will be the first time that I’ll have electricity at the cabin.  October to April with no power at the house seems like a long time.  But it went by pretty quickly.  I did go through a lot of 9-volt batteries powering the clock radio.  I also burned about three shoe-boxes worth of candles, as well as a gallon or so of lamp oil.

I’ve burned about four cords of wood, but the stove won’t needed much longer.  The two and a half gallons of gas I bought for the chainsaw is just about gone, and I finally added a gallon of gas to the four wheeler.  I really wish that the four wheeler would start in the cold, but now that it is running, I’ve been having a lot of fun just driving it around.  Unfortunately, Pico can’t come along on these rides, because he’s continually trying to bite the tires, and that’s no good.

The bugs are out, but nothing is biting yet.  A friend of mine saw some mosquitoes, but he said “they were too stupid to bite me.”  Let’s hope they stay that dumb all summer.

Snow Last Night

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We got a dusting of snow last night.  First time in a couple of weeks that there has been snow on the ground…  Kind of nice to hear that little crunch under my boots again.

Laying in the sun yesterday

 

 

Ed. That's it, just Ed.

 

 

Herbie coming down off the roof

 

 

 

 

 

Cabin Life – #17

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The yellow-bellied sapsucker.  My all time favorite name for an animal.  I’ve seen two of them in the last week.  This March was definitely a weird one as far as weather goes.  Record breaking high temperatures led to several shirtless days outside and a sun burn on my back.

It was about this time last year that I left Jacksonville and headed back up here.  The year didn’t turn out any where near what I had planned, but that’s alright.  Now, I am completely absorbed with the amount of birds that have been popping up around here.  I saw two grouse walk through the yard a little while ago, and there were a bunch of robins that passed through a few days ago.  I’ve even seen a few geese flying by along with a bunch of others that I can’t identify.

This year’s lunge into spring was so sudden that it felt as if we had just skipped a few months and were in the middle of summer.  But that would have meant missing the spring, and even though it’s usually more of a mud season than anything else, I love the abundance of growth and warmth after winter.

I went canoeing last week, the first time I was ever able to do that on my birthday.   The sun was warm and the water was freezing, and my buddy and I managed to stay out on the water for a while.  We didn’t go anywhere, mainly because we had no where to go, but it was a great way to end the winter.  I always love snow until the first day of spring, and then I want it gone, and this year, that was pretty much what happened.

And now the birds and animals are coming out, there are small buds and flowers on the trees, and the little stream that runs through here is flowing.  The air smells different, and not just because it’s no longer stained with the exhaust of the woodstove.  It’s lighter later in the day, and the candles and lanterns have not been in use much.

Yup, spring is one of my favorite seasons, along with the rest of them.

Cabin Life – #15

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Pico and I went snow shoeing for probably the last time today.  I wanted to get out before all the snow is gone, and I think there’ll be enough left to ski on tomorrow.  But the snow is going fast, almost as fast as it came.

In the last two weeks, I’ve gotten about two feet of snow out at the cabin.

Black Capped Chickadee

The plow guy had to come three times in four days, after having been out here only three times in the last three months.  But now it’s about fifty degrees, and the forecast calls for warm for the rest of the week.  It’s starting to look like winter might really be over.

I missed this part of the Adirondack spring last year, as I was still living in Florida.  I missed opening the windows and letting that clean-smelling breeze roll through the house.  I missed seeing people’s super white arms emerging from t-shirts for the first time in months.  I just plain missed the change in the seasons.

Jacksonville, FL is far enough north that there is kind of a “winter,” where it does get cold for a couple of months.  The palm trees stay green and you might need a hat and gloves in the morning, but that’s about all you get out of the change of seasons.  There’s really only two seasons:  Hot, and not as hot.

The lady bugs have been proliferating around and on the big window.  I keep catching glimpses of them out of the corner of my eye, and thinking that someone is coming up the driveway, but that’s not really all that likely.  Now that it’s warm, the snow is melting, and there are brown patches of dead grass peeking out, I can’t help but feel some sort of satisfaction.  Back in October, I thought that living off the grid for the winter would be a huge challenge.

It has been.  But not one that has broken or defeated me.  If anything, I am stronger, both mentally and physically, than when I moved out here.  This winter was an experiment in self-reliance.  Not that I haven’t gotten help along the way, but being way out here is something that you have to experience to truly understand.

And really, isn’t life all about the experience?

Snow’s Gone…

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Just a few shots from the record warm of the last few days…

Whiteface in the Morning

Chillin' in the Shade

Ha ha! Wasn't that long ago...