So, Exactly Where Did The Design For Darth Vaders Helmet Come From!

I got the answer.....

Well a little, very liitle story first.  Last night Susan was at the Equine Vets annual dinner and presentation on "what's new in equine medicine", accupuncture, that's really true... but not this story....

It was about 7PM, I had finished my microeconomics class and just laid on the bed to watch an episode of "Dead Like Me" (look it up on the internet). kinda dozing and the phone rings. Hmmm dang... It's the guy that fostered Gnarley, so I answered.

"Clyde! do you know who this is?" Sure. Brian with Truman, the biggest dog I've ever seen. "Yes", I have a problem... uuuh ohhh!!! I love solving problems but this sounds ugly.

"We got called regarding a Black Newfoundland living in Black Forest Park. We went to get him but have no place for him to go. You had said that perhaps you could keep one even if for a short time."

OK where are you. ..... off I go, I meet them in greater Black Forest and low and behold in the back of Brian's Volvo station wagon is a monster. No, really a huge black newf, but still much smaller than Truman (30 or more pounds smaller).  We don't know if it's a male or female so Brian checks to see if "it" has any "junk". DANG does he... So of course now I have to see if he has the rest of his "junk". Dang he size of tangerines. Now what, a fully intact male newfoundland at probably 160 or so pounds. whewww...

He sits between the van seats with  his chin on the dash, looking out the windshield.

I decide I'd bring him home and let him stay in the barn in the foaling stall until I could check him out and make sure he didn't eat Gnarley, or at least try. I'm serious here!

In the morning I held Gnarley on one side of the fence and let 'em sniff noses, and all I got was waggin tails. I tied Darth (that's what I call him) to a tree on a longe line and took old Gnarf in.  WOW to Gnarf it was love at first site, someone that's finally big enough to play with me... I finally got around to letting both off the leashes and after a little butt sniffin, and tree peeing it was off to play, and play, and play.  Darth got a little tired of it but Gnarf was still going strong.

Darth is very very gentle. Really a gentle giant of a dog. HOWEVER push pull or bribe he will NOT come into the house. I'm fairly sure he's never seen the inside of a house before. He comes to the door, looks inside then leaves. In any case, no collar, no chip and not a single response to craigslist or the humane society. BTW Susan has already said NO! you can't keep him. Dang, I didn't even ask, I ain't stupid, well maybe a little.

He's in kind rough  shape, big mats on the bottom half, smelly and kinda dirty. The fact that he's not neutered is also a bit concerning, Why would someone keep a 160 pound newf intact, clearly he isn't being shown or being put on display for stud, he's in pretty bad condition for that.

In any case I did get a couple of pictures this morning....

Anyone that knows Gnarley knows how big he is but I bet Darth outweighs him by 50 or 60 pounts easy

Check out that face, whoever made the Darth Vader helmet musta known a newf, a big newf

And no, all that isn't his slobber, like any newf he has his drool but a lot of this is snow from plowing furrows.

Dang, Global Warming Strikes Again....

Ah, the main stream media, and how they love "global warming".  Pretty dang funny, yesterday set a new low of -2. Today the HIGH was -13 degrees, -19 when I fed the horses at 6AM in the dark.... Not to worry, they're all pretty good. Don't even seem to notice. *NOTE* these are NOT windchill temperatures.

We have to use 8' florecent "freezer" bulbs in the barn or they won't start when it's colder than 20 degrees.  I turned them on couple days ago when it was "relatively" warm.  Today it's so cold in the barn that the bulbs can't even stay lit.

The diesel truck was plugged in and started pretty easy this morning but it wouldn't stay running because the fuel in the lines were  turning to geletin.

We drove 45 minutes to the 7:00AM Dr. appointment and never got even close to warm. 

What REALLY amazes me is the global warming mongers aka "climate change" fear mongers now blame the chilling cold on man made CO2.  Certainly one can say the "climate" is changing it most certainly is, always has... Sure wish they'd send some of the warmth our way. I'll tell you what, we are certainly pouring out the carbon, heaters running nearly non-stop. 

Hmmm Hmm Hm homemade cream of mushroom soup for dinner....

Believe me, I've tried to be more timely with posts.......

...... but I always have to decide, sleep or post.. guess what wins.

Well as you can see my last post was shortly after Thanksgiving last year.  well Christmas came and went, we enjoyed all of the kids and grandkids, not all at one time but over the holidays.

I got hurt in Grand Junction, nothing too serious but I had to go to the urgent care facility to get some pain meds.

I still have the old job and doing a new job (same company, same boss). But I did finally get some relief, we hired a guy to help out with the old stuff.

I started a macroeconomics class early in January which is very time consuming as it's compressed into five weeks, it's really very interesting.

Gnarly is doing real well, he's going to start a refresher course (I guess a refresher) in doggie obedience next week. I'm really enjoying him, just wish he wasn't so rough when he plays, but if past Newfoundlands are any indicator, he'll turn into a rug by age four.  The funniest thing is we spend all kinds of money on doggy toys, Susan says $12.00 to $20.00 on each, they have a very short life expectancy. I don't don't know why but Susan threw an empty plastic gallon milk container out for him. He carried it around, smashed it up, chewed it and generally had a great time with it. He'll have a brand new one real soon... dang dogs. Amanda really loved them when she was his age too.

Gabriel is here without his younger siblings and it's VERY peaceful.

Talk about peaceful, Gnarly the couch potato in his favorite resting place.

Couch Potato

It's been a long time, years and years, sometime around the age of 30 I weighed in at more than 200 pounds. Got up to near 300 at one point (but not quite).  Changed my eating patterns thanks to Dr Akins, in general simply eating less processed carbs and junk.  I don't drink soda or eat very much "junk" food. Like the endo Dr. suggested I eat 2-3 eggs and plenty of bacon nearly every morning.

Finally, payoff. I vowed (to myself) that the first day I didn't see a 2 as the first digit I would take a picture for all to see.  I don't check daily and I've been stuck around 208 for MANY months, but a couple weeks ago I fired up the old scale and low and behold...

Hmmm what ugly feet, hairy

I got on the scale first thing in the morning, 5AM, thought I was seeing things the scale said 199.0, amazed I ran out got the camera and got back on, 8ozs for the camera is probably about right.

Few days later I went to the Dr. for a physical and the scale in his office said 204 fully clothed sans shoes.



Well, well.... Thanksgiving is here again....

Thanksgiving has to rank right up their as one of my favorite holidays.  THIS year however it's going to be a little different.  NOT for as long as I can remember, BUT for a long time, we've cooked a Turkey, and frequently a ham too and had anyone that wanted to join us to feel free.  Mostly we've had the family and friends and friends of friends. It's always been a fun day for, well for ME. My lovely wife usually (always) feels obligated to "clean up the mess", and it ALWAYS a huge mess, before  bed time.  This year we're taking Gnarly and driving to Loveland where our wonderful (one of two wonderful) daughter in-law is fixing dinner, I'm sure with James hindrance (I mean assistance).  Mitchman is going to feed the horses for us, and his mother, Minnesota Susie is stuck doing homework... Other than that we expect we'll see pretty much the same folks we always see, maybe some new additions from he Loveland area...

The Gnarly update.  - What a nice, nice dog... he is exceptionally easy to get along with. He really tries hard to please both of us.  He still chases the cats, but not nearly as much, it's especially funny to watch him try and get them to run when he does catch one... he's sure the hissing and swatting are  the cats wanting to play with him.  He has a few little annoyances but nothing serious. He has a VERY HEAVY paw and uses it when he wants to  play. He plays VERY ROUGH, but is EXTREMELY gentle to LITTLE children and cats.  105 pounds of Newf is quite the treat to play fetch with, well it's actually more like "I'll chase the ball, then you can try and catch me" haha... We've shredded several old t-shirts playing tug-of-war...  Hmmm he's learned that he likes people food and is a very annoying beggar. Sits there and stares Newf like, with those big brown Newf eyeballs, hard to resist.

Horses are all pretty good. The crippled "Kat" that was scheduled for execution a few months ago is doing VERY well all thing considered. All the babies are going to be a bit chilly tonight -1 to -11 degrees is forecast... No worries, horses are especially designed for the cold as long as they can get out of the wind...

Watercolor painting is going OK for me, BUT Susan has painted a beautiful "Urban Landscape" based on downtown Colorado Springs at a "famous" ice cream parlor, Josh & Johns. It features Gnarly and some scraggly old man feeding Gnarly some ice-cream.... she's almost finished....

We're going to go see the most recent "Harry Potter" movie in a little while. we rarely go  to the theater as we usually watch Netflix, or nothing but we've always enjoyed the Harry Potter books and movies... Hmmm kids books my ...

Had a power failure Monday night, a couple of hours in the dark, all of our "emergency" items, except ONE(1) flashlight failed.  The generator wouldn't start, the camping lantern was corroded and unusable etc. etc.  We went to Wal-mart (since it was to dark to do anything in the house) and replaced the stuff with new LED technology... wasn't too  long ago the camping lantern was propane or white gas and had a silk mantle, hmmm... Now it's a single very bright LED and 8 "D" cell batteries. I did get the stuff to get the generator running, if  we don't have electricity, we don't even have water....  The  generator will at least keep a few lights on and run the well pump (straining) and the heaters, if we're desperate for heat we can always light the stove...

In any case I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving...

Oh. The camera is not working at the moment, BUT I'm going to appropriate a couple of the pictures Susan took for her latest and greatest watercolor....

Gnarly meets the grand kids, well three of the grand kids

Gabriel, Molly and Connel came over for a visit and got to meet Gnarly.... It all went MUCH better than I had thought it would. Susan picked 'em up, Gnarly and I met them at the gate with Gnarly wearing his leash and collar, just to make sure there was SOME control... Face it Gnarly wants  to sniff and lick see what these guys are all about.  Problem is the littlest two look him right in the eyes and have a tongue level face perfect for licking.

Well as it should be, Gnarly behaved exactly like a newf should, he LOVED the kids, even played subservient to Molly, laying on his belly and woofing little woofs....

Of course when Connel ran, Gnarly followed .  When Connel jumped out of the way, Gnarly was invariably in Molly's face... Licking...

All in all they all settled down pretty good, none of the grand children even got knocked down (bumped into) by Gnarly.... You know what they say, "Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best"... I can't express how Gnarly has more than met my hopes and expectations, he's 99% newf (the other 1%, well he just doesn't "eat anything" like most newfs. He is expanding his taste a little).

It makes me cry to think he spent two(2) years in a "bad situation", but I'm sure glad he came to be with us...

Been a little over a week since Gnarly came to live here...... Hmmmm....

.... Well it's been just a little over a week since we "rescued" Gnarly (was Marley). He likes Gnarly better.  Gnarly chases the cats, but that's kind winding down as the cats are running less and he's getting kinda tired of them.  When he catches one he wags his tail and barks, they usually let him have it with the claws if he gets too close.

He sleeps on our bed but he's WAY TOO MUCH when we're in it.

He hasn't eaten the cat food, either before or after they eat it? He actually doesn't eat much of anything but liver snacks and dog food, potato chips...

He's VERY gentle, loves everyone he met. He does have a definite play time, about 7AM & 7PM then he's ready for bed shortly after 8PM and out like a light until morning. He is a rough player....

We've left him at home a couple of times, closed him in the bedroom and expected to come back to at least SOMETHING ripped up... nope, he's just happy to see us and ready to curl up at my feet and sleep some more....

All in all we probably couldn't have picked a better match for our family.

And he's very small as far as male newfs go

"I think I'll stay, I like it here"

AGAIN, this house goes to the dogs, or dog...

As my lovely wife pointed out a couple days ago a new (used but new to us) newf came to live with us.  He's a two year old solid black neutered male newfoundland that came with the name "Marley".  He's more than welcome to stay as he's very very nice.  HOWEVER his name has got to go.... at the very least it's kinda "feminine".

So the first order of business is to pin down a new name.  I immediately thought hmmmm Harley sounds like Marley, Susan nixed that as one of the horses is named Harley...

So we crossed several off the list - Harry (hairy), Darth, Gizmo, Buddy, and a few more...

Currently our short list is Chewie (Chubacca), Bailey, Riley - I'm leaning toward Chewie myself...

So if you have ideas, please post them  under the FB pointer to this blog, well if you're my FB friend, you can use he comment here if not, OR you can become my FB friend. If you don't have any new ideas how about telling us which of the short list you like...

He has a fabulous personality, typical newf. He weighs a little over a hundred pounds, about the same as Amanda.  He looks a lot like Amanda but with an obvious male head...

He does chase the cats so they've been hiding... When he catches them he just barks and wags his tail...

The camera has experienced a few issues.  Susan used it and somehow, who knows how she changed all the autofocus settings so all the photos she took of him playing fetch with a ball are  blurred.  It's true, a newfoundland that likes to play fetch. If he's like the others he'll outgrow it at about four(4) when he turns into a black rug.

I DID however get one OK photo that follows. That gnarly looking thing on the right is a HUGE bone he drags around.



I don't care what they call me as long as they call me for dinner!
  Newfs  aren't generally very photogenic being black and rather camera shy!

His general story is that a "service dog trainer" was looking for a newf, found him in Denver full of mats and left outside without too much contact.  While she didn't think he would be  a good "service dog" (for allergy alert & companion) for a four year old girl, she gave the $300.00 they were getting for him and turned him over to the newf rescue group. 
Well all I can say is I think he'll be happy here, actually I'm pretty darn sure he's already happy.