I know I've been rather remiss in posting lately, and I would love to tell you it's because there have been loads of really exciting things happening. I would love to fill pages and pages of this blog with stories about our beautiful autumn weather, my bumper crop of fall greens, poultry antics, adorable pictures of the goats...but I can't.
I'm afraid that sometimes...nothing happens. Oh, it's not that nothing at all happens, just nothing worth telling about. Every day I do chores, I work, I do laundry and cook dinner, I run errands. It rains. It rains some more. The dogs sleep. And that's all. I don't even have any earth-shatteringly deep musings. It just is what it is. We ruralites, living the dream as it were, have our share of ho-hum, ordinary, run-of-the-mill days too. And there's simply no way I can blog about vacuuming and make it sound interesting. I'm just not that good.
Please be patient. Exciting times are always just around the corner here. Only this time, it's a very broad, sweeping curve, and not so much a hairpin turn.
P. S. Did you know that dogs can suffer from tonsillitis? It's true. No, it does not mean they get to eat ice cream. It does mean, however, that crunchy kibble is painful to swallow, so I get to cook TWO dinners every night for awhile.
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I have one word for you and the doggie diet thing: crockpot.
ReplyDeleteI work my crockpot out pretty regularly feeding dogs. Back when I had four big dogs, I used it every day because it made feeding so much less costly. You can get ten pound bags of chicken quarters for cheap. Cook up some beans until they are softening up to about 1/2 done, add some veggies and maybe a potato or two and cook until beans are done (the rest will be too). Then you can throw some chicken and dry rice and put on low until the rice is cooked - the chicken doesn't have to be all done (and no, in 20 years I've never had a dog harmed by eating chicken bones, athough you may want to avoid that for the tonsil episode). The rice will be sufficient to absorb most all of the liquid - at least once you have gotten the hang of how much of each ingredient to put in - leaving a nice, soft and nutritious meal. A few loving scraps too meaty to be wisely composted and you have a good dog buffet without having to attend it too much.
On the easier side, I sometimes just add some hot water and whatever liquid remains in the pan when I have made a chicken for myself to dry food and wait for it too absorb before feeding. A favorite and easy way to get plenty of this liqour for both you and doggies is to split and pour equal parts vinegar and "soy sauce" (I prefer Maggi seasoning strongly as it is less salty and soy is not good for the portion that winds up as dog food) over it and then dust it with garlic powder or crushed garlic if I have fresh around. The liquor that remains from this is just great over rice. Me and the dogs have been eating this stuff for years and I never tire of it any more than they do.
One thing I think people seldom think of is how dogs eat around the world and how they ate back in our grandparents' hey days. We've all been marketed to death that we'll hurt the animals if we don't get the $40 sack of fashionable dog food. What crap. I have had people exclaim that I am nuts for feeding raw beef and chicken to my dogs. Ummm, hello! What exactly do you think they are evolutionarily engineered to eat? It ain't Eukanuba, consumertards.
That said, I recommend pure meals of raw chicken -only- for dogs who live outdoors in windy areas or to those who wish to "organically" cause their wallpaper to peel, if ya know what I mean...
Cheers,
- Rusty
I normally give them the chicken raw, bones and all, but am cooking it for him right now per the vet's instructions (and like you say, bones not so good for sore tonsils). I did employ the rice cooker to make a big batch of rice, and cooked a bunch of chicken which is now in a ziploc, so he gets rice, some canned pumpkin (which the dogs LOVE) and chicken OR raw eggs. We do "real" food and/or kibble for the dogs. It sort of depends on the day, and what I have on hand.
ReplyDeleteI love Rusty's comment about "consumertards"! It's so true! :)
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