Welcome to Cranky Puppy Farm!

This blog belongs to two Gen X-er's smackdab in downtown Kansas City where we've been renovating and decorating two old Victorians built in the 1890's. Our life is filled with 3 demanding Pomeranians (1 of them cranky, of course), honking cars, noisy neighbors and the hustle and bustle of city life but we dream of the day when we can move to our 40-acre farm and hear nothing but the wind and the cows next door. Until then, we're chronicling our triumphs and mishaps here as we try to garden and preserve on 2 city lots, raise chickens, and learn all those things we should have learned from our grandparents. Welcome to our world - we hope you'll stay awhile!

No Happy Post Today

Saturday, May 04, 2013

The storm has passed but we still have cool weather in its wake.  I untarped the strawberries, tomatoes and peppers and they appear to be just fine.  The strawberries were standing up tall reaching for some light, so it was definitely time to uncover them.  We'll tarp them again tonight and then, as temps warm starting tomorrow, we'll hopefully be able to leave them uncovered permanently.

What I'm sad about...REALLY sad about right now is that I checked on Daisy Bill, the baby dove, and he didn't survive the storm despite my fashioning him a shelter and straw nest.  I think it was probably a combination of the extreme cold and mama Dove not feeding him because of the weather.  I really was pulling for the little bird and am now second-guessing myself that I should have brought him in and put him under the brooder light.  It's a grim reminder that we are all here at the whim of Mother Nature, cruel mistress that she is.

J. thinks I'm silly to care so much for a wild bird, but I've been that way all my life.  I sometimes joke that I like animals more than people, but there's probably more truth than joke in that statement.  Of course, J. has learned to put up with it.  Several Mother's Days ago, when we were rebuilding our front porch, we discovered a nest of baby sparrows.  It was hotter than tarnation and we were exhausted, but I couldn't bear to destroy those babies just because they were in our way.  And it seemed to me that we would be asking for a whole double truckload of bad karma if we killed them on Mother's Day.  So we stopped what we were doing and made a makeshift bird house out of some scrap lumber, moved the nest into it and hung it on the front of our house.  J. grumbled the whole time.  But the mama bird found her babies and fed them until they grew up and left that nest.  Then we took it down and finished our project.  Like I said, I'm a big softy - especially for baby animals.

Later today, I'll bury Daisy Bill's little body in the backyard next to the beloved dogs that we've lost.  Just seems like the right thing to do.

6 comments:

  1. Oh no! Emily will be so sad! I'm really sorry that Daisy Bill didn't make it.

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  2. Oh I am so sorry to hear that! It is so tough having to decide what to do in situations like that, and Mother Nature can be so cruel, indeed.

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  3. I'm sorry too. You did all you could. I also like animals more than people in general.

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  4. I'm sorry too. You did all you could. I also like animals more than people in general.

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  5. Thanks everyone - hearing from you does make me feel alot better. I'm not sure how I turned into such a big softy in my old age - I made J. turn off that movie "I Am Legend" last night because his dog dies in the movie. Baby birds are one thing, but the idea of losing a dog sends me straight to sobbing. *sigh* Hope you guys are having a better weekend than I am.

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  6. I might tease you about it, but clearly I'm an enabler at the very least or I wouldn't be building bird boxes and climbing up ladders to install them and move the baby birds into them...

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