It's an opps day

  My sweety came up yesterday afternoon!  I was so excited!  I just love it when he comes to the ranch.  We usually work too much but it is all good.  The dogs were all here and it always makes Al nervous because he thinks that they will just hang out around the house and I will have ruined them from doing the work they are supposed to do.  NOT!!  Yes they do hang out for a while but they always leave when there is work to be done.  I had a fire going when he got here and it was wwwaaaaayyyyyy toooo hooottt!  We had to open all the doors and windows.  It must have warmed up outside because I have been having a fire everyday and it was not that hot where you had to open the doors.  Then I started to make pizza so the oven had to be on and it just got hotter in the house.  Not to mention I had been cooking earlier in the day.  Al made a request for carrot cake and I just happen to have a really great recipe.  We had homemade pizza for dinner, ate carrot cake for desert and watched movies. We have netflix so we had recieved three movis to watch this weekend.  Last night we watched "Pitch Black" that was better than I remembered it and we finished it around 8 so we decided to watch a second movie " I am Sam".  We hit both ends of the spectrum.  Scifi suspense and then drama super mellow.  To bed by 10:30 and woke up this AM and all was good. This morning Al got up and started the coffee he always does that when he is here.  Then we went for our morning walk.  Today it was to the orange trees for some oranges to juice.  Al has been feeling a bit under the weather.  He has been exposed to someone else who has been sick and just won't stay away from the house where he is living in Half Moon Bay.  He decided that since we have orange trees here on the property that it would be a great way to get some extra vitamin C.  We picked a backpack full and came home, juiced them.  We got about a half gallon and just enough left over for breakfast.  The oranges are a little on the sour side so we juiced half an apple and some left over carrots from our garden that I had used making the carrot cake.  Yum, the juice was so good!  I had also made us some oatmeal with apples and cinnamon that was yummy too.
After breakfast we headed out to do some road work before the heavy rains hit us again.  Al has been keeping our ditches clear so that the roads don't get all rutted but inevitably the water doesn't flow where we want it to.  For the most part the ditches work great but on a ranch there is always work to be done.  Al worked on the main road and the road down to the barn for about 4 hours.  He was filling in pot holes on the road down by the barn and ditching on the main road.  Plus he had to keep cleaning as he went because as he ditched the road dirt would inevitably end up where you drive and that would have to be cleaned off otherwise there would be a big muddy mess.  I busied myself with trenching places where the water runs off into culverts.  Some of the ditches and run off spots haven't been worked on for years so there is a lot of dirt build up and grass growing where it shouldn't be.  Well we are more prepared than we were yesterday and every little bit helps. 
I came in from working a little bit earlier than Al so I could make our lunch.  On my way in I ran into Babe one of the pups who is now 14 months old and bigger than her mom and just a couple of inches shorter than the big male on the property.  Just how big are these dogs, you might ask and I will tell you they are smaller than my daughter's dogs.  Well how big are they?  Let's see Amber's dogs are both males and of the English Mastiff persuasion.  We are talking big dogs.  The dogs on the here where I live are a mix of Turkish Akbash and Great Pyrenees.  The smallest of the four dogs is approximately 90-100lbs. the largest dog is probably 100-120lbs.  To make a long story short I would say that Babe is about 100lbs. Pretty close anyway and tall.  She is a big lover dog just like Nick the male.  They both love to be brushed, touched and just plain close to humans.  They are not comfortable with just anyone but if introduced they would love to sit on your lap.  Babe was hanging out up by my house so I proceeded to pet her and check for ticks.  This poor girl was loaded with them.  I stopped counting after 15 ticks.  I usually do what ever I can to supplement caring for the dogs.  Their owner is an old school farmer.  His attitude seems to be if the animals live than fine, if they die than so be it.  Hense the dogs do not get the care they need.  At least that is my opinion.  The sheep don't either.  But what can I do?  I just live here.  If I had the money I would just buy the tick medicine and be done with it but I can't afford to treat four dogs regularly.  It can get pretty expensive.  These are the least of their problems right now because they have now gotten ear mites.  Who knows from where.  I have been researching natural remedies because they are usually the cheapest route and hey I could do something instead of just watching them suffer.  Hence why I was picking ticks off of Babe.  She loves the attention and I love having her around.  Nick let's me groom him also and Nina the mother of the two young females she too will let me check her although she is a little skitish.  The other pup whom I have named Madrigal or Maddy for short she is almost completely untouchable.  I was my favorite from the start.  She was the smallest and she still is.  She suffers because of her unwillingness to be touched.  The owner of the dogs never socialized his pups because he believes that if you do socialize them they wouldn't be good gaurd dogs for the sheep.  I disagree.  I live here on the ranch and I am the only one who observes them on a regular basis.  These dogs are like any other dog that has been bred for a specific job.  It is in their blood, their genes.  They will do their job no matter what, unless you tie them up or cage them.  They work at night.  During the day they rest, roam and just plain laze about.  They will visit with me because I live here and I am an animal person.  I have never been mean to any animal and I will not start now.  The owner wants me to shoo the dogs away and I just can't do that.  I love animals and would have a dog if I could.  I have a cat. A twenty year old cat no less.  I have owned her since she was a tiny kitten.  Rescued her and her mother with four other kittens.  I have had dogs in the past but right now I just couldn't afford to have one.  Well I have been writing for quite a while I think I had better call it quits for right now and I will see you all tomorrow.  Peace