R.I.P. Our Beloved Team Nugget Canine Mascot, Jack

Our dog Jack passed away this weekend. He's now pain free and chasing squirrels through the woods. This is a repost from 2008, a profile of the sweetest dog in the world, I thought it was a fitting memorial:

A profile of Jackson is long overdue. He is quite possibly the sweetest dog to roam the face of this planet. I thought it would be so easy to write a profile of Mr. Cup, but really what can I say other than he's just a sweet old dog. He's such a good boy! The Bug, well, he's a boy.

Like his counterpart, he goes by many names: Jacksoncup, Speedbump, Jacksonian the Presidential Dog, Mr. President, to name a few. He has the BEST theme song of all the Team Nugget Canine Mascots:

lyrics lovingly crafted by Team Nugget:

Jacksonian, the presidential dog...

He's presidential, and he's a dog!

He's got the quiet dignity of a president,

But he doesn't have thumbs and he can't give speeches.

He's strong on border control,

And he's pro-rawhides and naps!

He's Jacksonian, the presidential dog!

While he is an elder statesman, don't let his advanced age fool you. He has some spunk. When it's least expected, he will show you. Right upside the head.

Imagine if you will, a crazy scenario in which I have elected to make the cake for my own wedding. It was a wee cake, but stressful nonetheless as it would be photographed by all who were to attend. Being the OCD kind of gal I am, I made several cakes so just in case I screwed up the fondant, I would have a backup. (Note to self: you can't really screw up fondant, it's a force to be reckoned with.) So on the fateful cake assembly day, I pull the ziplock-ensconced cakes out of the fridge and put them on the counter to acclimate. They're pretty tall counters so I think nothing of it, I know that our scavenger dog, Stinkbug, can't get to them as he has legs that are only like 3 inches long (hence the Napoleon syndrome and his bad attitude). I go to the store and pick up more tulle or some other wedding nonsense, then come back to begin the frightening task at hand. Except I walk in, and there are cake crumbs all over the floor. So after I come to, I realize that my sweet, quiet, layed-back old dog ate the wedding cake!!!!! After all, he does have dog-sized limbs and could easily snatch the ziplocks off the counter. Luckily he left one package, so we had our wee wedding cake.

So when I got pregnant, Jacksoncup was by my side constantly. Like I said, he's a sweet boy. He always checked on me when I didn't feel well, and would lay beside me when I was crashed out on the couch from carrying the big load that was the Little Nugget. I never had a doubt that Jackson would do well with the baby, and he has proven me right.

I thought he would take care of her like he does me, but he keeps a little distance from the whirling dervish that is the Babygirl. I'm sure this is because of his age: we found out not too long ago that he has bone spurs on his spine and arthritis in his hips, poor guy. But that doesn't keep him from doing the occasional happy wiggle out in the yard. He loves the sun!

We love you Jacksoncup!

All for now,

Nugget

The Early Bird Gets the Worm, But Might Get Killed in a Late Season Frost...

The planting catalogues are here! Yea!!! Time to think about gardening again!!! I say that as another blizzard approaches...


I never thought I would be one of those people who 1) looks forward with great anticipation to the upcoming spring plantings in October; and 2) peruses seed and bulb catalogues with deep and meaningful purpose. Oh yeah, and I want a goat. Nobody saw that one coming.

Honestly, who could resist that cute face? I will have my pygmy goat one day, oh yes I will. But for now, I have The Bug.

So yes, I am very excited about Spring and have been thinking about upcoming projects. First off, the rock wall garden is complete. The only thing left to do is let it do it's thing. Oh sure, I am going to take the iris, ornamental grass* and some of the sedum out**, maybe move some stuff and add some goodies in the corner near the tree, but other than that (!), really all that needs to be done is to let the ground cover by the road cover the ground.

*OK, so here's the story with that. The iris was planted willy-nilly at the end of '08 because I received it as a late season gift and needed to get it in the ground. Now I have a better place for it, so it gets moved this year. And the ornamental grass, well I put it in the place it now resides simply to prevent erosion. Now that the ground cover has kicked in, the grass can move elsewhere as it looks a bit out of place.

**And the sedum. Sigh. My poor sedum. Oh it's OK, but it really could use some more sun. Some are doing well, like the angelique and blue spruce. But the others, the stonecrops, are just too leggy for my liking. Even though I love sedum, leggy sedum is just plain ugly. So leggy sedum in the front yard are heading to the back where they can bask in the sunlight, at least somewhere in the NE corner.

That leaves a little patch of ground by the front door in need of tendin' to! Wahoo! Another garden spot! Not sure what yet, probably has to be something that doesn't need much light. Maybe rocks. And another tiny tiny gnome.

In the backyard (yes I know we agreed that's Hubby Nugget's domain, but I ran out of places to plant, and I wore him down), I will continue the plantings around the Juniper, another azalea bush to be sure. And vinca. It seemed pretty happy there last year. Of course the beloved Garden of Sedummy Goodness. This will include rocks, and definitely lavender (mmmm). Oh yes, I'm excited. Again, not sure where it's going to go, but I need to be able to see it from inside the house.

On the west side, I'm going to plant the orphan Norton grape from the vineyard. This is mostly so I can practice pruning it. Probably would be a good idea to learn how to prune if one is going to be a grower of grapes and maker of fine wines.

And finally, as if there aren't enough projects already, I will embellish the newly finished rock wall that surrounds the fire pit/patio area with plants from Larry's House of Cheap Sedum (a local nursery that I was told about and am salivating at the thought of visiting this spring...big surprise there).

Come on spring!

All for now,

Nugget

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

No, really just a Bobcat:

Last weekend Hubby Nugget rented that fine piece of heavy equipment, and the backyard carnage began!

It's all part of Team Nugget's plan for Backyard World Domination. Our yard is on a diagonal slope (we live on a hill, duh), so HN wanted to level out the future patio area. In the end, it should be like a sunken fire pit space, with benches built into the side. And fabulous sedum growing out of the rock wall. Can't wait!

Go Nugget!

We (and when I say we, I mean my Nugget) jackhammered the existing useless sidewalk down to the backyard (which really was just an excuse for rain water to seep into the basement), and he filled that in with some more concrete chunks from the demo'd sidewalk in the back, and dirt from the patio is going there as well, to level it out a bit.

Jackson was very helpful:

The Bug, not so much! He's freakishly camera-shy, maybe he thinks it will steal his soul...nah, he's just a scaredy cat!

More scooping action:

Hubby Nugget was having fun!

Behold the future driveway extension! We have a bit more filling to do!

Woo-hoo! More places to plant next spring!!!

All for now,

Nugget

Top 5 Crazy Quotes from the New Next-Door Neighbor

1. Is it OK if I feed your dogs biscuits and gravy?

2. Oh don't worry, I pet your dog everyday after you leave for work, he won't bite me, (sound of the Bug mauling off her hand) oh he's not biting that hard, oh that's a little hard.

3. Oh am I standing in poison ivy?

4. Go ahead (her daughter's name), pet him! Daughter (after witnessing her mother's mauling): no, he hates me! ( at least she has some sense)

5. We may drink our beer and fight out on the deck, but we like to keep to ourselves.

Can you say "Privacy Fence?"

All for now,
Nugget

It's Like Herding a Toddler, a Deaf Dog and a Little Bastard

I just looked out the window and saw The Bug and Jacksonian the Presidential Dog roaming down the street like they were heading to the park or the store or whatever. They looked like they were finally freed from jail and out to find a good time with the friendly neighborhood she-dogs.

I wasn't so much worried about Stinkbug, he usually comes when you call him, surprisingly he is a scaredy dog and won't venture too far, despite his "reputation" as a bastard. The dogs stay downstairs (Jack can't make it up and down the stairs to go outside, so there you go) which makes it REAL easy to get the Bug in...he's so nosy, he jumps at the chance to come upstairs and find random food crumbs on the floor, etc.

Jackson is another story. He is an elderly statesman to be sure, but his get up and go can kick in when you least expect it. So I was a tad concerned when I saw him continue on down the road. First of all, he's going deaf. So there's that. But even if he could hear me, he wouldn't listen anyway because he's a ramblin' man. He could run away in a second given the chance. And he's surprisingly fast. So I ran after him (entertainment for the neighbors) and finally got his attention, he actually fell for the same line about going into the house. The novelty of hanging out upstairs was far greater than his desire to roam free. This time.

The hard part was getting them all coordinated. I had to get two curious dogs and an amused toddler downstairs, all the while making sure that the dog(s) don't get down there before I do and get back out the blown open gate before I can secure the premises. It was a bit like The Three Stooges (perhaps I'm the 4th Stooge in this scenario) trying to wrangle this motley group into doing the same thing at the same time.

And bless his heart, Jack's kinda dumb, too, so this complicated matters in that the simple instructions of "Let's go downstairs!" kept getting confused in his mind as "Let's go back outside!" and he kept running to all the doors: the front door, the kitchen door, garage door, the door to the deck that no longer exists...you get the point. And it never occured to him to go to the basement door. Sigh....

In the meantime, the Bug was already headed downstairs with the Little Nugget (God help us all when these two get together) and he is the escape artiste extraordinaire. So I had to go check on the ornery twins downstairs, then run back up to check on Jack's progress, and of course he was distracted from the task at hand by the trash can, recycling, unpacked boxes, dirty laundry and anything else along the way in the garage. Danged bassett hound sniffer. Several futile attempts later, I finally convinced him it would be awesome to go downstairs, and strangely enough, he followed me.

What an ordeal! I'll spare you from how many times I stepped in dog crap while securing the gate.

You're welcome.

Nugget

Tricky Treats

Halloween is a massive affair at Chez Nugget. It is a week-long celebration. First off, we have the Little Nugget's birthday party (held the weekend before her bday, so far), which given to the proximity to Hallow's Eve, is generally spooky-themed, as mentioned earlier. Costumes are involved. Then there's the birthday itself, which is a bit more subdued. Then there's Halloween. We live midway between our families, so that means we travel north and south for multiple trick-or-treatings.

We have streamlined a bit, and split the north and south into two days. So our first outing was last Thursday, the day before Halloween. We went to see Great-Grandpa & M, which was a bit dicey as Little Nugget is not too used to seeing them, and Grandpa has a deep voice which always freaks her out. She did pretty good at first, sort of showed off her fairy costume:

But things went downhill very quickly:

So we had to cut short our visit, and went to see Papa & G.G. She was cool with that, but preferred not to wear her costume (No want).

Little Nugget was in better spirits Halloween day, and before fairy-ing up and heading out, she took some time to show the extent to which she is full of beandip:

She also thought that Elmo needed to wear Mommy's shades, and he looked pretty sharp:

It was a good call. Saddled up, we headed over to Neighbor B's house to say hi!

Such a big girl!!! Once inside, Little Nugget made herself at home on the couch and settled in to watch a movie and check out the various knick-knacks.

Monkey scored big at Neighbor B's house, peanut butter cups and Winnie-the-Pooh dvds that her grand-daughter had outgrown: sweet!!!

Then we headed south to Dapaw and Gammy's where Little Nugget went trick-or-treating with my sweet Babydog, Sophie Louise. Sophie had the Halloween spirit as well, and was dressed as Wonder Woman for the occasion. Below, she pauses to give the Sweet Babygirl a kiss!

Back in the dark days before Team Nugget coalesced, I had resigned that I would probably never meet Mr. Right Nugget and had accepted my life as a fur-mommy. You never know what life has in store for you, and even though I became a mommy for real, Topie is still my Babydog!

Together, they got more chocolate, some fruit chews, and dog biscuits--yum!!!

That's good stuff!

Nugget

Canine Mascot Profile: Jacksonian the Presidential Dog

A profile of Jackson is long overdue. He is quite possibly the sweetest dog to roam the face of this planet. I thought it would be so easy to write a profile of Mr. Cup, but really what can I say other than he's just a sweet old dog. He's such a good boy! The Bug, well, he's a boy.

Like his counterpart, he goes by many names: Jacksoncup, Speedbump, Jacksonian the Presidential Dog, Mr. President, to name a few. He has the BEST theme song of all the Team Nugget Canine Mascots:

lyrics lovingly crafted by Team Nugget:

Jacksonian, the presidential dog...

He's presidential, and he's a dog!

He's got the quiet dignity of a president,

But he doesn't have thumbs and he can't give speeches.

He's strong on border control,

And he's pro-rawhides and naps!

He's Jacksonian, the presidential dog!

While he is an elder statesman, don't let his advanced age fool you. He has some spunk. When it's least expected, he will show you. Right upside the head.

Imagine if you will, a crazy scenario in which I have elected to make the cake for my own wedding. It was a wee cake, but stressful nonetheless as it would be photographed by all who were to attend. Being the OCD kind of gal I am, I made several cakes so just in case I screwed up the fondant, I would have a backup. (Note to self: you can't really screw up fondant, it's a force to be reckoned with.) So on the fateful cake assembly day, I pull the ziplock-ensconced cakes out of the fridge and put them on the counter to acclimate. They're pretty tall counters so I think nothing of it, I know that our scavenger dog, Stinkbug, can't get to them as he has legs that are only like 3 inches long (hence the Napoleon syndrome and his bad attitude). I go to the store and pick up more tulle or some other wedding nonsense, then come back to begin the frightening task at hand. Except I walk in, and there are cake crumbs all over the floor. So after I come to, I realize that my sweet, quiet, layed-back old dog ate the wedding cake!!!!! After all, he does have dog-sized limbs and could easily snatch the ziplocks off the counter. Luckily he left one package, so we had our wee wedding cake.

So when I got pregnant, Jacksoncup was by my side constantly. Like I said, he's a sweet boy. He always checked on me when I didn't feel well, and would lay beside me when I was crashed out on the couch from carrying the big load that was the Little Nugget. I never had a doubt that Jackson would do well with the baby, and he has proven me right.

I thought he would take care of her like he does me, but he keeps a little distance from the whirling dervish that is the Babygirl. I'm sure this is because of his age: we found out not too long ago that he has bone spurs on his spine and arthritis in his hips, poor guy. But that doesn't keep him from doing the occasional happy wiggle out in the yard. He loves the sun!

We love you Jacksoncup!

All for now,

Nugget

Oh No She Di-int!

Oh yes she did! In this photo op extraordinaire, Little Nugget showed this worm some love and planted a big one right on his little earthwormy self. Yuck!

Since some unscrupulous squirrel saw fit to rip out my fabulous moss, I replaced it with lovely Scottish Moss, conveniently on sale at my local nursery--sweet!!! Baby girl helped out:


Later, she hung with the Bug, no doubt the two were conspiring to secure Team Nugget's plans for world domination:

Watch out!

All for now,

Nugget

Canine Mascot Profile: Stinkbug (a.k.a. "The Bug")

Let me now take some time away from my busy day of scanning to share with you the wonder that is The Bug. This is, of course, not his real name, as that is being withheld to protect his identity. Behold:

I think that picture best captures his true essence. He answers to many names...Butt Sniffer, Butt Nugget, der Wiener Licker, Humper, Little Bastard, The Bug, and of course, Beelzebug. I think you're gettin the point here. He's not called Stinkbug for nothing. Of all the Team Nugget mascots (including the aquarium goo), he's the most likely candidate to be prescribed puppy prozac (OH how I wish our vet would let us medicate). People, he's not right in the head.

I met Stinkbug early in 2005, when the courtship of Team Nugget was in full swing. Now I'm a dog person, and the four-legged furballs usually catch on to this right away. Not the Bug. He growled at me and bit at my ankles! It took him awhile to get used to hugs and kisses, I'll tell ya! I'm proud to say that after three years of hard work and mutual love and understanding, he only bites me occassionally.

I tend to make up theme songs for some unknown reason, so just humor me on this: it is an ode to the bug (just the lyrics): "Butt Nugget, you're the one / You're the one who gets things done / Barking at the mailman and knocking over trash / Eating moldy couscous and licking Jackson's ass..."

He seems to like it, he comes over for lovin when I sing it :-)

What with the neediness, jealousy, biting, OCD licking and generally unpleasant behavioral problems, it would be an understatement to say that Team Nugget was a little worried how the Bug would react to a new Little Nugget. Afterall, he was, we suspect, abandoned by his previous owners when they had a new addition to their family. He was very skittish when he saw all of the baby gear and required lots of assurance. To our astonishment, he loves, loves LOVES the baby girl!!! Who knew he was a little softy in an asshole suit.

We love the little bastard.

All for now,

Nugget

Bug-cident

Stinkbug (our dog) breached the baby gate and greeted me at the top of the stairs--when I held him back (perhaps a little too enthusiastically, but he started it) anyway, the bug went tumbling down the stairs and went "splat" at the bottom.

Oh no, little one just repeated "butt sniffer" in reference to the bug in question. Must watch what I say around her now...

The bug seems unaffected by it all, except for the strange sweetness he is exhibiting now. Maybe the fall rattled something good in his head.

:-) or maybe not.

P.S. No canine mascots were harmed during this incident

All for now,
Nugget