Turkey Tracks: August 17, 2022
Color Combinations: Red and Green
I’m enjoying coffee and a leisurely-spent morning as I wait for the big storm that is almost here.
RAIN!
I’ve followed quilter Bonnie Hunter’s blog for years now—and made many of her quilts. This morning she posted so many, many beautiful pictures she took after visiting a local flower farm with friend Martha—who dragged Bonnie out of her normal routine yesterday. (Bonnie runs a quilting retreat Inn that takes up to 12 guests at a time for a week.)
Bonnie has had a series of accidents this past year—and the last one broke her nose, blacked her eyes, and broke her foot/ankle. A swing broke and the upper supportive wooden bar came down and hit her. Her face is healed now, and she’s now in a boot she can take off here and there, and she seems to be feeling better. But I agree with her supportive friend Martha: Bonnie needed a break and a fun outing.
I was reminded while looking at the beautiful pictures she posted, that while I LOVE color and various color combinations, I have always loved red and green together. (I’m not talking about the bright and flat greens and reds that often appear in Christmas art.) Winter brings shades of green firs and red berries. But summer holds red-green combinations too. Here’s a picture Bonne included:
Rich reds and greens AND a Swallowtail butterfly.
I spent some time this morning after reading Bonnie’s daily post ordering seeds from Fedco and included zinna seeds since I have always loved them. The Cosmos seeds I just threw into garden beds and loosely scratched into the ground came up and are starting to bloom now. I’m going to try more of that in that pesky front bed on the hill. But I’ll plant the zinnas next spring more strategically. And I ordered the winter lettuce mix that I seed into my cold frame and cover for the winter.
One task yesterday was stuffing the doggie “bongs” with mashed green banana mixed with our local small “wild” blueberries and then freezing them for when I have to leave Jackpot in his crate for short periods next week—as I attend short events that I could not cancel. He’s too young to leave in the car alone just yet—but that will happen in time. And maybe pretty quickly. That will be a learning curve for him and will depend on how much I can trust him with his potty training.
Ripe bananas contain a TON of fructose sugar, but green bananas contain resistant starches that feed a dog’s microbiome and offer “antioxidant, anticancer, and anti-inflammatory tannins, along with carotenoids that help prevent oxidative stress.” Blueberries are “an awesome source of prebiotic fiber and are chock-full of polyphenols….”. (Quotes are from THE FOREVER DOG, Dr. Karen Show Becker and Rodney Habib, page 230.) It is possible to overdue with the green banana, so use in small amounts. I froze the extra I had.
I cooked yesterday, so I’m going downstairs to sew.
Come on RAIN!
Louisa Enright's Blog 
Bonnie’s accident is shocking! Hope she heals well.❤️
Good to prepare ahead for Jackpot. Another suggestion that worked for us: Bow Wow Labs makes bully stick holders, that when well-tightened, prevents a dog from swallowing the end or choking. It keeps those teething pups’ mouths busy.
Thanks Rita P. Good to know. For chewing I use “bones” made mostly from dried yak milk. They are thicker than the bully bones and last much longer. When AC used to get the bone down to near the nub I just throw the nub away, but you can heat it in the oven as it them gets soft and chewy. I also like Gaines Family Farmsteads sweet potato bones for special treats—not too many over several days. They have recently expanded and now have some products that are mixed with meats. In warmer weather and when Jackpot gets a bit older, I’ll get bigger raw bones locally, which he can chew on outside—though there are always issues with teeth where bones are involved.
I’ll look into yak bones; that’s something new! He gets small bits of freeze-dried liver for training, which is never-ending, it seems😉 I make him, and special neighborhood dog-friends, vegetable-beef dog biscuits, cut into a variety of doggie shapes. Lastly, raw marrow bones are just the tasty treat for outside, but I need to watch him…he tries to sneak inside to hide it in a shoe or beside a pillow😱
Loved your story of your doggie trying to sneak bones into the house and to hide them there! Thanks for sharing. What’s your doggies name, how old, send PM me a pic? I’d love to see a pic of him. My email is just my name at gmail. For the last 3 dogs (2 of them rescues), I’ve fed homemade food. For Jackpot, who had a really rough start and who is a YOUNG puppy, I’ve been reading much more about what young puppies need, but what they must have to build strong bones, etc. (I got AC at 6 months so he was a bit older—and he was thriving when he hurt himself.) Anyway, one of the things I’ve realized is that liver is awesome and needed, but that it is quite easy to feed too much, which can be toxic. Dr. Becker says a good guide is to not give more than the size of a dog’s paw, from front to hairline. Many of the raw-food sites rely on a lot of other organs to feed, alongside ground meat with bones, etc. They use hearts, gizzards, and with a poultry base, necks, wings and backs, etc. Jackpot is on Purina Puppy Chow now—and I get that as the Rescue/Sanctuary is not going to make homemade foods for the many dogs they have on hand. But the first ingredient of the PPC is whole corn, followed by corn meal, and the rest is downhill and a chemical brew. Dr. Becker’s book has all kinds of strategies to use to up the ante for any kind of kibble—toppers that add needed nutrients in a healthy form. LOL. And her daily newsletter is great. Today’s was on feeding veggies, which ones are best and how much (not all that much). Now I have a freezer full of nutritional food ready for Jackpot—and once I got over the hump of finding appropriate recipes for a puppy and sourcing ingredients, making a recipe was fairly easy. Now if Jackpot is ok and coming to Maine in due course…