The Dog Park at Chesapeake City Park

As I mentioned in a previous post, my dog Elvis and I have started going to a local dog park at Chesapeake City Park. Elvis enjoyed his visit, and I plan to take him back.

Elvis the Walker Hound at the dog park

The park has several features I like. It is a large space, so dogs have room to spread out and not get too crowded. It gives Elvis plenty of room to roam around, to run, to sniff everything, and to mark the place up with urine, a favorite dog activity. Humans like their email, but dogs love their  "pee-mail."

The park has reasonable rules that are posted: no females in heat, no intact males over one year old, no food in the park, dogs must be off-leash and vaccinated, no digging, no young children, poop must be picked up, they must have special tags, etc. The rules are for the safety of the dogs and their humans and to prevent fights.

Doggy water fountain

I like how the park has a separate entrance and exit, and how there are double gates to help prevent escapes. The fencing is tight to the ground to discourage escape artists. There is shade, a picnic table and a bench for the humans, and a water fountain for the dogs. There are stations that provide waste pick-up bags and lots of trash cans, so I was disappointed to see that some owners have not been picking up after their dogs as they should. There's really no excuse.

Elvis and I met some nice other dogs: two Labrador retrievers and Buddy, an elderly miniature schnauzer.

Buddy

A chocolate Lab

I did some research when I got home from the park. Elvis had such a good time at the park, I felt a little guilty we didn't bring our other two dogs along. But there are online articles that explain that there are downsides to dog parks, that owners need to know about dog park etiquette, and that dog parks aren't good for all dogs. Dogs can learn to be bullies or aggressive at the parks if owners aren't careful. Other dogs find them annoying or even frightening. And while Elvis enjoyed his visit, I suspect our other two would have found it stressful.

Update on 11/10/12: I inadvertently upset some (human) patrons of the dog park today, when I insisted they round up their dogs and move them away from the entrance gate. After Elvis and I  entered, I explained that it's considered rude behavior to allow your dogs to crowd a dog as it's entering the park. That was news even to the folks who were regulars at the park. The reason is that dogs don't like to be crowded all at once, and the gate itself can lead to something called "barrier aggression," which is something we don't want our dogs to learn or practice.

For some other good Do's and Don'ts for dog parks, visit the Association of Pet Dog Trainers.

Low Sodium Blueberry and Summer Squash Muffins

I made my family fantastic muffins last night with summer squash from my garden and blueberries from our online food co-op. Zucchini would also work. I chopped up two small summer squash with a food processor we really like, the Cuisinart Deluxe 11-Cup Food Processor DLC-8S - Cuisinart Pro.  You may use other flours, but I am particularly fond of King Arthur. If sodium and cholesterol are not issues for your family, you can substitute one tablespoon regular baking powder for the Featherweight, and two large eggs for the egg whites. Here is the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease 12 muffin tins.

  Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• Dash of ground cloves
• Dash of lemon peel, optional
• 2 tablespoons Featherweight Baking Powder

Add-ins:

• 1 cup finely diced yellow summer squash
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained

  
Wet Ingredients:

• 4 egg whites from large eggs, beaten well
• 1/4 cup milk or soy milk (I used vanilla)
• 1/4 cup oil
• Heaping 1/4 cup packed brown sugar; more to taste

 Stir together the dry ingredients. Stir in the add-ins. Beat together the wet ingredients, fold them into the dry ingredients, and mix just until the batter is completely wet. If the batter seems too dry, add a little more milk or soy milk. Immediately ladle batter into muffin tins. Reduce oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until done.

Elvis the Walker Hound

As I mentioned in a previous post, we live with a Treeing Walker Coonhound. For why the breed is called a TREEING walker hound, watch this incredible Youtube video. We got him from the SPCA of Northeastern NC in Elizabeth City, North Carolina.

 My Walker's name is Elvis, after the old Elvis Presley song. Like the song says, he does whine a lot at times, mostly when he is bored, which is a lot of the time, despite our best efforts to exercise, socialize, and play with him.

We have purchased four high-quality, durable dog beds for Elvis and our two other dogs, but Elvis likes to spend much of his indoor time curled up in a lawn chair. How he manages to fit, or to climb in and out of it, I don't really know, but he manages.

Elvis, the Treeing Walker Coonhound, relaxing at home

I am proud of Elvis for learning how to walk nicely on a loose leash when he is wearing a buckle collar. We will often put a martingale collar on him, instead of the buckle collar, when we are out walking, though. He can and will back out of a regular collar or even a harness if he smells game nearby. Walker Hounds have no sense around cars at all when they are on a scent, so we try our best not to let him get loose. We also have him micro-chipped to aid in recovery efforts.

The difficulty with teaching him to walk on a loose leash is that Elvis pays humans almost no mind when he is outside. Around the house he is an athletic, energetic doll, but outside he is an athletic, energetic hunter. Period. All he's interested in is his environment and "sniffies" and finding potential prey. After all, he's bred to hunt.

I train my dogs using positive methods. I refuse to use prong, pinch, or choke collars for reasons that have been outlined in many places on the web. But the #1 tool in my positive-training arsenal, food, has no effect on Elvis when he's outside. So what did I do?

I used the environment itself to train Elvis. When he acts in a mannerly fashion and keeps the leash loose, he gets to move forward, sniff, and move in the direction he wants (within reason). When he pulls forward, we stop. If he pulls like mad toward a sniffy, I immediately drag him in another direction so he can't have it. I walk in tight circles with the dog on the outside, almost like lunging a horse, and then resume the walk with Elvis in the proper position when he calms down again. I also walked him a lot in the (boring) middle of the street and only let him over on the nice, sniffy grass when the leash was loose. (Just be cautious not to walk your dog on hot pavement on hot, sunny days. You'll burn the pads of his feet!)

I also used a lot of "micro-stops" to discourage him from getting into a pattern of starting up, pulling to the end of the leash, stopping, then starting over. I can't describe the micro-stops very well, but Ian Dunbar has described something similar in some of his books. The basic idea is, when I start up again, I barely do so--maybe leaning forward or taking a step of an inch or two. Elvis will tend to immediately get excited and pull to the end of the leash, causing me to stop completely. After a series of these false starts, he'll start to hesitate or wait when I lean forward. BINGO! We move forward and keep moving forward at as fast a pace as I can walk comfortably. When and if he gets to the end of the leash, we stop immediately and restart the process of micro-starts. After a while, Elvis will be very careful not to tighten the leash and stop the process of moving.

The most important thing is that I am also VERY consistent about never allowing the pulling. This required a lot of patience on both our parts at first, until Elvis, who is very smart, figured out the rules. Now I can take him anywhere on a collar.

Elvis having fun at the dog park

 Today was Elvis' first visit to the Dog Park at Chesapeake City Park. Recently, when we've been walking, Elvis has been straining to the end of his leash, barking, play-bowing, and acting like a madman (maddog?) when he sees another dog. Since he gets along with other dogs, I took him to our veterinarian for the required kennel cough vaccination, got him a city dog tag and then, with the tag and his immunization records, I got him a  tag for the dog park. I figured if he got some off-leash playtime with other dogs, it would satisfy a need, and he would be calmer around other dogs when I walked him on his leash.

The Chesapeake Arboretum

So far, it seems to work. He enjoyed the dog park, met some other dogs, ran around a lot less than I expected, and sniffed a lot. Then I took him to the nearby Chesapeake Arboretum for a walk on the trails through the woods, which he seemed to enjoy even more than the dog park.

Probably better sniffies!

Anyway, we met some other dogs on-leash on the trail, and although he was excited to see them, he acted within limits I could live with: no lunging, barking, etc. I don't have ESP, but I predict more trips to the dog park in Elvis' future!

The Chesapeake Arboretum is pretty, but the SNIFFIES are wonderful!

Virginia Beach Woman Faces Fines, Jail, Over Hens

On Tuesday, July 10, 2012, I had the chance to meet Andy Schneider, the "Chicken Whisperer." Andy hosts a nationally syndicated radio show about chickens. He is also a national spokesperson for the national backyard-chicken movement. He has been featured on CBS, CNN, and in The Economist. He's also the author, along with Brigid McCrea, of a book, The Chicken Whisperer's Guide to Keeping Chickens. The co-host of his radio show is Patricia Foreman, author of City Chicks, one of my favorite books on keeping hens.

As the founder of a local group called 4 Chesapeake Hens, I felt I had to meet Andy as soon as I learned that he was going make an appearance in nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia. Our group is trying to get the zoning laws changed in Chesapeake, Virginia, so that more city residents can keep laying hens on our property. Andy has a reputation for being extremely helpful to groups like ours.

His reputation is well deserved. Andy was down to earth, polite, thoughtful, a wealth of information,  and fun to have around. He was in town to support Tracy Gugal-Okroy, the self-proclaimed "Virginia Beach Chicken Outlaw." Tracy, a hair stylist, keeps between twenty and thirty hens on her 3/4 acre property in Virginia Beach. She claims her "girls" are clean, well housed, and very well kept. But her property is not zoned agricultural, and chickens are considered livestock in Virginia Beach, just as they are in most of Chesapeake. Tracy refuses to get rid of her backyard pets. She now faces a court appearance and possibly fines. She vows that she will not re-home her flock even if it means jail time. This is a real possibility for her if future court appearances go against her.

Tracy and Andy at City Hall

Andy had come all the way from Georgia to speak to the mayor and Virginia Beach City Council as an expert on backyard chickens, but it was not to be. There was a mix-up on the dates that the public is allowed to address the council, and the mayor would not make an exception to the rule.

It's a shame, because the council members of the City of Virginia Beach, just like those of Chesapeake, sorely need education about the potential benefits of backyard hens in our communities and how the benefits clearly outweigh any potential downside.

I did pick up some useful tips from Andy, enjoyed delightful conversation with fellow chicken enthusiasts at Croc's 19th St. Bistro, and came away with fresh appreciation for those who are willing to engage in civil disobedience when the law clearly tramples on our rights. While I have no personal desire to keep twenty-plus hens, until our communities come up with just and reasonable laws regarding the keeping of hens as pets that preserve our property rights, I see civil disobedience as possibly justified. And if Tracy has kept the hens as humanely as she claims, it is abhorrent that she could be facing jail time for her love of her birds.

Will justice prevail? Time will tell.

Horse Manure

“You can’t chemical your way out of soil infertility” 

– Joel Salatin

We finally found a source of horse manure that is definitely free of a chemical that causes toxic compost. The owners of the property keep bees, so they never spray any chemicals, and they said they don't feed hay. We found them through our local Freecycle List. Actually, we found two sources, I mean horses:

Annie the Escape Artist

It seems strange to me that property owners are willing to give up compostable manure. In my eyes, manure is valuable, and getting rid of it, the loss of a great opportunity. If I had a couple of horses, I would be eagerly harvesting their manure and mixing it with sources of carbon. The carbon both decreases the smell and helps lock in the manure's valuable nitrogen. When the compost pile cooled off, I would use it for vermicomposting. I'd sell the red wrigglers or feed them as a source of protein to my chickens . I'd compost the chicken manure, too.

Then I would use the composted manure and the worms' castings to improve the soil in my lawn and gardens. Heck, if I had more compost than I could handle, I suppose I'd sell that, too.

All this guy wants is for us to leave the gate open...

...Back to reality. Of course, I do not have horses nor am I even allowed chickens without changes to the zoning laws in Chesapeake, Virginia. So Don and I headed off yesterday evening to a local farm. We gathered the hopefully-nontoxic manure, and then we collapsed with exhaustion. Don always seems to pick the hottest days of the year (or the muddiest) to go get horse manure.

Don working in the heat

This morning I loaded about half the manure into our ComposTumbler.  I added some weeds, some yard waste from my garden, some scraps from my kitchen, some hay and shavings mixed with manure from a local guinea-pig and rabbit rescue, and some clean, non-toxic sawdust we collected from a local woodworker, again through Freecycle. Tomorrow I will start to load up one of our other composters with the rest of the horse manure combined with more sawdust. I like the tumbler better because it composts faster. The compost is so easy to turn and aerate!

On the other hand, a regular compost pile is nice, too. It is pleasant to just compile the ingredients and then let the compost slowly break down while we go about our daily lives.

The farm also has peacocks, dogs, and a mini-pig

Composting is generally a pretty easy and forgiving process. Just put the ingredients together in an appropriate bin and let mother nature take its course. There are many composters available on the market, or you can build yourself an inexpensive 4x4x4' bin out of scrap wood and chicken wire or welded fencing.

If you are new to composting, my advice is to read up a little bit, so you know what to avoid composting, and then just start. If you want to garden but don't want to turn compost or even dig a bed, make the compost right in the garden bed using the no-till lasagna layering method. Just be sure to plan at least a season ahead. It is a great feeling to keep waste out of the landfill. It also feels great to take other people's garbage-- or sanitation problem, in the case of the horses-- and turn it into something useful and good, like flowers or vegetables. For more on toxic compost, check out this article at Mother Earth News.

Mother Nature is creative; sometimes we just need to help her along!

**Update: For an overview of different composting methods, check out this website from the University of Illinois.

Update: Hens are now legal in my backyard in Chesapeake, VA, with certain restrictions.

Potted Herbs Beside the House

Thyme

We grow potted plants along a sunny wall outside our house. I probably will move the herbs to the main garden behind the house eventually. For now, it is very convenient to have them within easy reach of the kitchen, since several of the plants are herbs. We grow thyme, oregano, parsley, a little lettuce, tomatoes, and flowers. The tomatoes are from the "Little Tomato That Could," a plant that came up last fall. We nurtured it all winter long.

The mixture of herbs, tomatoes, and flowers attracts beneficial insects and predators to the garden. We haven't had problems with insect pests in this corner of the garden all summer.

Lettuce and Oregano

The Little Tomato That Could

One of the logs from a tree Don recently trimmed to give my vegetable-gardens more sun is quite pretty. I asked him to cut the log in such a way that I can move it to my garden and use it as a planter. I am thinking I will put some soil in the hollowed-out area and plant shallow-rooted crops like lettuce in the fall. It will be decorative and a little useful.

Marigolds Attract Beneficials

Carrots

Potential Container for Lettuces

Another View

Attracting Predators to the Garden

Black Swallowtail Caterpillars in my dill

I try to use eco-friendly gardening practices. This means I use lots of compost and minimize or eliminate the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, fungicides, and other "-cides"  when I garden. When I do use a chemical, I will use an organic one, and only if other options have failed. I try to attract birds, wasps, and other predators to my garden to eat caterpillars and other pests so that nature does much of my bug-killing for me. If I wanted to kill off the caterpillars in my dill,for example, I would hand pick them off and squish them. But it's the end of the season, the dill is bolting, anyway, the predators do need food, and I happen to like Black Swallowtail butterflies, so the 'pillars pictured get a break, at least from me.

It's amazing how fast caterpillars grow and how fast they eat up plants, though. They have enormous appetites. If I needed that dill, these caterpillars would be history, pretty as they are!

Sunflowers attract beneficials

The first rule to attracting predators is not to kill them. This is one reason why I use pesticides and other "-cides" very sparingly. "-Cide" is Latin for "kill." Pesticides on the vegetables I am going to cook and eat are not only bad for the health of my family, but they can easily kill off the "good bugs," birds, and other creatures I actually want to attract to my vegetable beds. If I must use a pesticide or other chemical, I use it sparingly and according to the directions on the label. I spray in the evening, after the bees and other pollinators have mostly gone to bed for the night.

Birds need water!

Birdbaths are an easy way to attract robins and other birds to your garden. Look for one that is easy to clean. It should be shallow at the edges and then gradually become deeper towards the middle. Birds need not only to drink fresh water, but they also need to take baths, too. They like to dip their feet into a birdbath and then gradually walk down to a depth that is comfortable for them before they actually start bathing.

Place your birdbath away from bushes or anything that can hide cats; birds feel vulnerable when their wings are wet. But try to put the birdbath near some low-hanging tree branches, fence posts, or other locations where the birds can shake off the excess water, look around, and preen themselves for a bit once they've finished their bath. Robins really like to visit my garden and birdbaths, and I like to see them, since they and their young have a huge appetite for caterpillars and other insects.

Speaking of insects, be sure to dump out the stale water in your birdbath every couple of days in the summer, and replace it with fresh water. This prevents mosquitoes from breeding in your birdbath. Be sure to check it frequently and replace water as it dries out, too. A dry birdbath does the birds no good! Keep the birdbath full so the birds keep their habit of stopping there frequently. Keep it clean so the birds don't get sick from the water.

Spicy Nasturtiums are not only flowers, but edible too!

Flowers will attract not only the pollinators that you need for your tomatoes, squash, and other vegetables to set fruit, but they will also feed and attract predatory insects. This year I have planted cosmos, nasturtiums, marigolds, and other flowers in and around my vegetable beds. Some, like the nasturtiums, are actually edible. So far the different kinds of flowers have been growing at different rates and blooming at different times of  year, which is great, because pollinators and predatory insects need food all season long. Marigolds and sunflowers have particularly strong reputations for being easy to grow and good at attracting beneficial insects and keeping the "bad bugs" away.

"Cottage Red" marigold

I recently read that mint plants attract beneficial wasps and predatory flies to the garden. We tend to think of wasps and flies as bad, but this isn't necessarily so. I moved my potted mint, which had started to flower, out near my vegetable beds. Every time I look I see predator flies and wasps of different sizes and colors greedily feeding at the nectar from these tiny mint flowers. I am careful to leave the wasps alone, and they don't bother to sting me.

Wasps love mint flowers

The wasps feed themselves from flower nectar, then they go hunting for caterpillars and other bugs to feed their larvae-babies. Just be sure to keep your mint in a BIG pot or contain it in some other way, because mint will take over your garden if you let it! If it goes to seed, watch for it germinating in unwanted places in the spring, and pull it up before it has a chance to establish itself. It easily becomes a weed.