The Follies of Dog Ownership – Not for weak stomachs

Alright, well you know we have 3 dogs. They really are pretty good but stubborn dogs. They are all three basically siblings, they get into their fights and we have to separate them every now and then. Seriously, think of the sitcom Modern Family, the Dunphy kids are always arguing, well, that’s what these 3 dogs of ours do….

One of our dogs, as gross as it is, enjoys cleaning up after the other dogs….yes I mean she likes to snack on their turds. I know this is totally gross, it has never been encouraged by us, we try to stop her, by telling her NO, who wants to put their hands in her mouth to remove the turd? It is just one of the things she “enjoys” doing. I guess maybe she thinks she is doing her part in keeping the yard free of turds, which doesn’t help, because hers are huge!

Well…….apparently she feels the same way about the manure that we placed in the garden lasagna. Ick, nasty, disgusting, my eyes are still burning! We kept the dogs in the house all day Saturday and Sunday, with supervised potty breaks. We already had an idea that she would be totally into snacking on any clumps of manure, and boy were we right. She does her business, looks back at you to see if you are looking and then she tries to go and “sneak” some snacks. It would be different if she wasn’t the most stubborn of the 3 dogs that we have. She is 50+ pounds of Basset Hound (and a mix of something else) and well she seems to think when you reprimand her that you are playing and that this is her clue to start playing, it’s pretty funny but also frustrating. (slump and eyeroll)

I bet you’re wondering well, if they work what do they do with the dogs if they can’t be in the backyard? Well, we lock them in the house. The hubs worked a half day yesterday so he was home to let them have their potty breaks and today he went home at lunch to let them out to do their business. They do have accidents in the house, but for some reason if one of them does their “business” in the house the Basset Hound has no interest….no clue why she has no interest in these turds, I wish she would so I’m not gagging picking it up…. AND thankfully she isn’t one of those dogs that give kisses.

She is pretty mellow, for the most part, she reminds me of Eeyore, but she sounds like a Wookie from Star Wars...she moves slowly and makes up her mind slowly. She definitely has her way of making up for her dim wittedness though, she is sneaky…OH BOY is she sneaky, she likes to put her paws on the counter and help herself to food that we’ve prepared or is waiting to be put away. (imagine the dog on the table eating the Thanksgiving dinner, it’s not that bad, but I wouldn’t put it past her) I guess she figures, well, they shouldn’t have put it in my reach. We’ve since learned that anything on the counter has to be at least a foot from the edge of it. It goes beyond turds and food though; it’s clothes, shoes and garbage….

It’s like having a 2 year old all over again for us, always getting into something she knows she shouldn’t be getting into but then she looks at you with those huge puppy dog eyes and you can’t help but love her!

Who We Are

We've been married for over 20 years.  We live in the Valley of the Sun (Phoenix Metro – Glendale, AZ). We love living in the Valley of the Sun, we love the heat, we don’t cope well in the winter or cold.

We have two boys who are our world. Our oldest, Dude, is studying to become a mechanic, he has been working towards this since he was in high school. Our youngest, Doodles, is still in high school, he is active in student council and the art/ceramics club. They both keep us on our toes!

We have 3 dogs that think they are humans. They like to hog the bed, the chair, the floor right in front of where you need to go and always hover when you are in the kitchen chopping up veggies. They are all three stubborn and pretty much always get their way.

We both work full-time, but within a short distance from our home. This makes it nice because we really have no commute, and we are both home by a decent time so we have time in the evening to work in the garden and improve our little grange.

We did have 8 chickens which we were required by the city of Glendale to remove them from our property. Click on the Chicken tab for our chicken story. Check back for updates on making backyard chickens legal in the city of Glendale for residential developments.

The hubs and I have always enjoyed gardening. Here recently though we’ve become more aware of where our food is coming from and we aren’t okay with that. We are making a concerted effort to grow as much of our own food as possible. We grow our vegetables from seeds whenever possible and they are GMO free. We are not okay with big businesses creating GMO foods and pretending that they are safe to eat. Our goal is to grow and preserve as much of our own food as possible so that we can be as self-sufficient as possible. We want to know where our food is coming from and how it was prepared. It’s amazing the different types of fruits and veggies you can grow in the Valley of the Sun.

This year the hubs and Dude have been drawn for elk, we are hoping to have our freezer’s full of fresh harvested elk meat. This will go a long way in helping us to be a bit more self-sufficient. I dream of the different cuts of elk meat we will have….NOW no pressure on them but they have to get one.

That’s us in a nutshell, aside from having two awesome sons, gardening, raising backyard chickens we also enjoy camping, cooking, DIY, using essential oils, crafts and scrapbooking. We aren’t perfect; we love pizza, ice cream, fries and other food that isn’t good for you. We have the same every day struggles most people have we are your average family but we are trying to live as self-sufficiently as possible on our little grange.