….”they are huge!” Seems Gus is projected to now top out at over 100 pounds and Daisy will be 80 to 90. That is 40 to 50 pounds of dog MORE than we anticipated at the outside, wildest, full-grown ‘advertised’ weight! Worst case was supposed to be 160 for both. At 7 months plus a week, Gus is 75 pounds, Daisy 65.
And our routine is still full-on puppy chaos starting around 6:00 in the am. Sal usually gets up with them and sits on the outside wicker chesterfield as they lick and jump on her for at least five minutes every morning. “It’s a puppy attack!” she shrieks every time. That was mildly amusing but Sal weighs under 130 and they now weigh a combined tonnage of just over 140.
They are progressing nicely despite their recessive Wooly Mammoth gene starting to show. Gus is actually swimming. And he has such thick and curly hair, he seems to float a few inches above the water like a dry log or maybe a basking Orca. He can really move. Daisy? Not so much. She’s been in. She gets wet. But water is not her thing. Not yet, anyway. She’s just not keen. The irony is that, despite being more athletic than Gus, she has fallen in about five times and, of course, she swam until she was hauled out. Gus has not fallen in at all but he still does a face plant every day in some activity – just on dry land instead of the dock or from a slippery rock. He is kind of a Goofy Gus, still-a-puppy-clumsy but his athleticism is improving.
Both dogs are slowly changing colour (that was predicted) with Gus getting a dull-brown effect on his mid-to-back end and around his muzzle. Daisy has a sexy silver thread thing going on with sprinkles of silver-white all over her back – kinda like a canine version of wearing diamonds. Very pretty.
They are eating a ton! And neither has an extra pound to spare. NOT fat at all. They are just growing! Having said that, Gus has loose skin……I do not know any other way to put it. If I grab some loose skin on his left side (say, mid-torso) and swivel it to the right, I get no real resistance until that handful has rotated over to the other side. His skin swivels over half his body girth! We really hope he doesn’t grow into it. If he does, he will weigh 150.
They are very gentle and Sal calls them ‘chill’. They do not bark much. They never get angry. They socialize fabulously with everyone and with all the local and visiting dogs save a couple they encountered on a walk a few weeks ago. Those two ‘bad’ dogs were just protecting their property and Gus and Daisy were chased right back all the way to the boat. One of the ‘baddies’ even jumped on the boat to drive the point home but that was an error in judgment. My daughter was on the boat and she is not afraid of dogs – even charging, barking ones. She moved to intercept and, in that move on a rocking boat, her head and the ‘bad dog’s’ head collided. In effect, my daughter head-butted the bad dog off the boat. Problem solved.
On another note, the propane fridge is flagging. Not as cold as it should be. So, we took it out and cleaned it all up and flipped it upside down a few times to ‘burp’ it and, when we put it back, it was worse! Consequently, our kitchen ceiling sooted up and cleaning it just made a mess. We needed to paint the downstairs, anyway. Sheesh.
So, Sal wanted a new fridge before this ’cause propane fridges are NOT self-defrosting. We ordered an LG 12 cu. ft unit (2 cu.ft larger than the propane one) and it is now ‘on order’. ‘On order’ means we may get it sometime in September. Maybe. An all-too-common fridge is almost 3 months away down the supply chain debacle (SCD)! I mention this only because everything, it seems, is screwed up due to the Covid/SCD. Get this: I ordered two galvanized plumbing pipes six feet long. No one had ’em in Campbell River. “We can order them in for ya but most things are taking a few weeks and that is if they are in the province!”
The SCD is manifest even when there is NO SUPPLY involved….a friend has a friend who wants to come to Canada. That effort has been stymied for closing on THREE YEARS!!! Bureaucrats in Canada are in short supply, I guess, or else they are on stress leave….whatever….. We have gone from a working economy that was annoying enough in good times to a weird, delayed, insufficient, very expensive economy in the space of those three years and there does not seem to be an end in sight.
So, my blog is primarily about dogs today. So much more pleasant than most other topics on the go (like Trump, January 6th, etc.). And I also mention the fragility of the system in matters economical. So much of the news is unpleasant. I could include the BC Ferry system, the Health system, and, of course, the airline industry…..a whole new level of schmozzle, but I’ll leave it at that. Not so interesting a blog, I suppose, but it does kinda tell you where our heads are at…..
Our Off the Grid Home 
You are not wrong!
Thanks, Dave, needed that today.
So much for globalisation, eh? Can Canada feed itself? That will be the next biggest test. It’s kinda tricky without cheap, readily accessible fertiliser.
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Well, we have legumes and wheat up the wazzoo. And Alberta has beef. And there are chickens and dairy and wine in BC. But our fish population is diminishing rapidly altho the oysters are good when they are not poisonous. By and large, Id’ say NO. We cannot feed ourselves with any kind of diversity in our diet without California and other imports. Local peeps grow vegetable gardens but that won’t be enough at the present rate. We’d have to double up at the very least and work the greenhouse much more. However, with enough scotch on hand, it doesn’t matter so much….I have lived on pizza, scotch apples and cheese for days at a time and was happy. So, I gotta stock up on scotch and Mozzarella.
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Don’t worry, we have the Peace River Valley to fall back on if times get tough! Well for a couple of years anyway.
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I thought you were looking very trim. Must be the scotch and the oysters. Definitely stock up on mozzarella.
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What kind of powerfood do you give them? What is the average weight for their breed?
World is going further to hell, we don’t seem to get anything “working”anymore….there are shortages of about evrything, although global consumption seems to be as pre-Covid level. So what is happening? Why aren’t we able any more to provide in basic needs? I think things are going to get really ugly next winter, with gas/oil/electricity going through the roof and a shortage of basic food stuff
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Bernedoodles are supposed to be around 80 pounds for the male and up to 70 (tops) for the female. Really exceptionally big males hit 90. We figured – at most -160 total at a 90 and a 70. But Gus likes his food even tho he can inhale a meal in seconds. Daisy eats slower but she eats 95% of what Gus eats in volume. They get two meals a day (7:00 am and 6:00 pm). Each meal is 2 full cups of kibble, a cup of green salad, an egg and maybe some yogurt in the morning and a chicken thigh (raw) added at the evening meal. I figure the equivalent of 7 cups of kibble a day each. They run and jump and play at least four hours a day. They poop like full grown Water Buffalo but, because there is no rice in their diet, their waste ‘disappears’ into the ground within a day or so. They say that puppy’s meals can be cut back some after they reach a year old.
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One of the economists I follow is Paul Krugman. Good writer. Good charts. But Paul has been ‘adjusting’ his projections a lot these days. He first thought that inflation was temporary – totally forgetting that greed is not and higher prices breed higher prices. Inflation is here to stay for awhile…. a long while. Paul is still adjusting. The economy is ‘manifesting’ health but it is a hollow perception. Yes, more money is changing hands but more money is required just to eat and live even at a reduced rate so the numbers climb but the REAL economy cuts back. I.e. the oil industry is considered going through boom times and we know what that means – oil companies get rich while the people tighten their belts. The Supply Chain issue also tends to concentrate business in fewer-but-larger suppliers and so small players are dropping out and big players are just jacking prices. That scenario is just getting worse. More monopolies means higher prices. I.e. one of our grocery chains (the largest) just bought another chain (the smallest). Prices go up. Service declines. Staff are cut and the big-corp system takes over. Looks good on their annual report. Does not look so good on mine. And that was just a medium sized takeover in BC.
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My God those dogs look like small bears.
I think you’re right. They’re going to top out the scales at the max weight.
The food and genetics are one thing but the daily exercise they get also contributes to the muscle mass.
I think we are heading into a 70’s inflation and early 80’s recession.
Long, long, long overdue.
A huge reset in people’s priorities when all they can afford is food and a roof over their head.
Perhaps all those “missing” workers will be forced back to work.
I’ve been stocking up on dried pasta, rice, flour and canned goods.
When it gets close to its expiry date I donate to the food bank.
I rotate enough dried and canned goods to keep me going for about 6 months.
Booze, bullets, beans, bullion, etc.
Oh, and scotch never goes bad…….
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Usually I can honestly say, “I never have scotch around long enough to know if it goes bad.” Not TRUE any more. I have a bottle of gift scotch that has been sitting in the closet for nigh on 4 years now. It went from 10 year old scotch to 16 year old on my shelf!
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geez. has it been 4 years?
:0
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I can assure you, the Scotch will NOT get bad, it won’t improve either. I have bottles that I have bought 20 years. Still taste OK, I guess you would have to stock the scotch in a barrel in order to get better.
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A BARREL of scotch is better by far than any old bottle!
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Same thing is happening here…a lot of small shops are disappearing, because they have not survived 2+ yeras of Covid and lockdowns. Most of our streets have at least 5 to 10 vacant shops. Who is benefitting from this….the Amazons of this world….and they are getting bigger and richer year after year. It is difficult as a small shop to survive against the big guys, they are having promotions like every week, a small shop can not do this, as this eats their margins. So we are not only facing shortages, but also a monopoly of a few big guys that will dictate us for decades to come
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Yeah, Amazon is getting bigger but, really, who’s gonna blow a tank of gasoline going store to store only to hear they will ‘ship it in’ next week? Reality sucks but Amazon sells for the same or less and there is no shopping trauma that consumes your day. NOT a fan of losing the locals but, if they do not carry inventory, they got nuttin’ to offer.
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one thing shops do seem to have enough stock of, is guns and ammo. Another shooting in Illinois and at a shopping mall in Denmark….Maybe it is also safer to shop at Amazon, at least you can’t get shot!
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I know. I’ve been mulling over the idea that Nature tends to have most species self-limit. When the numbers get too high, a bunch get wiped out. We humans do not think of ourselves that way but the population is nearing 8 billion and the madness, the pandemics, the wars and dysfunction is starting to create some cracks in the facade. Maybe we are just heading for the metaphorical cliff like the Lemmings?
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What runs out first, booze or kibble? – Margy
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I would have logically answered previously, “The booze just keeps disappearing!” But, to be fair, as I age the booze seems to last a bit longer and, as the dogs grow, the kibble goes faster than a box of donuts at a police station. Right now, I hate to admit it but Kibble is the faster disappearing act. Sheesh.
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Went to big smoke today for my duel axis solar tracking stand materials, one of my buys was Sadie’s kibble, 53.75. Looked it up online just now and Surprise, last time I bought it there in March 27 it was 53.75! ?? Somebody not ripping me off! Im confused. And I’m forced to admit my Scotch cupboard is awash with it, I too am not keeping up!
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Damn! We gotta get that dog food and rip THEM off before they catch up to the other rip off ops. Damn! As for the surplus of scotch in your cupboard, I have a solution………..come down with a few bottles and we can discuss it……
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Never let down a good neighbour who is in need. Even if the distance is long, I consider myself as a good neighbour and I will gladly come by and help to find a solution to this problem. I might even bring a few extra bottles to do some cross-checking!
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This problem is growing. It’s becoming a priority! Sheesh. It never rains but it pours. We’ll get all the CoL in and address that cupboard – in no time, you’ll have space. Mind you, because it is a scotch cupboard you may have buy more to fill it again.
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