Fall in the sticks

I live in a town with one stoplight and one restaurant: a Dairy Queen that, until two months ago, had a Port-o-potty as its only bathroom.



I live in a town that, if you were driving on the interstate, has only one thing to offer a road-weary traveler: gas...to keep going, at the sole gas station.



I live in one of the few places in northeast Ohio without a reliable cell signal, where livestock outnumber humans 2:1. Farm equipment stands in fields, aging and rusty, like the stiff bones of some old dinosaur.



Sandwiched between three state parks is this little piece of paradise I now call home. Life at home circulates around the seasons and animals. Fall means stacking the wood pile and stocking up on meat...for the dogs.

Even though they're only nine months old, the puppies know what they smell!


Kerouac says, "Is that meat you have for me?"

I was super fortunate to find a gentleman about three miles from the Ranch who processes deer meat for hunters. I bought his old meat scale from a tiny mom-and-pop thrift store the next town over, and when I asked where they got it, they told me he brought it in. I left my kennel card at the thrift shop, and he eventually called me. He gave me an entire 50 gallon black trash bag full of deer meat this past weekend!

And this was after my good friend, Amanda and I had already gone on a road trip for dog-quality raw meat in Youngstown!

In the end, I filled a freezer and a half full of turkey, beef chunks, tripe and venison for the dogs. And there was a small dog party at the Ranch!


Lucy invaded the bag of venison. She said, "Leave the venison to me!"

One of our newest kennel residents, Tak, smelled the meat!


Tak says, "where's the beef?!"

We're having a kennel open house this coming Saturday, October 16, 2010. Stay tuned!