|
|
|
Ramona swims at the Secret Spot
Thursday, June 21 2012
On this, the second day of the ongoing solstice heat wave, Gretchen and I drove with the dogs out to the Secret Spot on the Esopus (which is off Tongore somewhere between Hurley Mountain Road and Route 213). This would be Ramona's first visit to the Secret Spot and, owing to her age, it was one of Sally's last. Last time we'd come here last summer, Sally had been able to walk from the car to the Creek and had even been able to ford the creek to the other side. This time, I had to carry Sally both to and from the creek.
Tropical Storm Irene had profoundly reshuffled the landscape and vegetation since our last visit. There were enormous new piles of driftwood and other debris caught in the floodplain trees, and a whole rank of large trees had vanished from the high stony bank of the creek's northeast bank. As for the creek itself, it seemed shallower than it had in the past, and one didn't have to wade into water any deeper than mid-thigh to ford it. But, owing to Sally's age-related limitations, we didn't explore the creek further upstream (as we normally do).
When we first arrived, I plunked Sally down in water that, for her, was elbow deep, and then used my hands as cups to pour water on her. She stood there for a long while until she cooled down, at which point she returned to shore and shuffled about with her usual arthritic gait, which looked especially uncomfortably whenever she wandered out among watermelon-sized boulders.
Meanwhile Eleanor and Ramona romped about both in and out of the water. Ramona, who may not have any real experience with swimmable water at all, seemed most intrigued by it. At one point she even waded into water so deep that she was forced to swim. One might think doggy paddling would come naturally to dogs, and it does. Evidently what they have to learn is to keep their noses up above the surface, something Ramona has yet to master.
For some reason Eleanor got bored with the Secret Spot well before the others did. When we were leaving, we called for her, but she didn't come. We found her waiting for us somewhat impatiently back at the car.
In greenhouse news, I spent much of the day framing out the apertures for the two holes in the custom door I am building. Since doors are mechanically fussy, I was forced to measure and cut more precisely than usual. Despite all of that, it turned out that the door's frame itself was somewhat out of square. But I was able to force it square as I applied the outside plywood sheathing (which I'd been sure to cut square).
I'd made the pet door aperture the exact same size as the pet door aperture on our house's front door. Its overall design will be generally similar, consisting of some sort of hard material hanging from (and pivoting on) a stout steel axis. I'd salvaged a perfect axis from an old Brother laser printer toner cartridge (which contains a number of such rods, any one of which might make a good axis for a three dimensional printer or other robotic mechanism).
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?120621 feedback
previous | next |
