Figgered we'd not make it to summer without a flake or two of snow. This little ol' spring snow event dumped some mighty wet flakes down the pdog hole. Mama Pdog was just like a pup, skitterin' up and scooterin' down all excited like. You'd think she'd never seen the white stuff before. Just makes me smile.
I've heard tell through the old boys that we've got a bit of rain comin' too. Don't that just set us up fine? I've been mighty worried about the crops this year. We foraged pretty hard last year and never did get a belly full. Nothing stays the same long around these parts, and I guess we can all be thankful for that. Nice cold moisture seepin' down through the earth makes this ol' boy drowsy, don't you know? Feel like I might put in a few winks before the sun takes over and cooks us all alive.
Still holdin' to what I said before, howsomever. This ain't winter, folks. I've seen winter, and this ain't it.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Drought
Times are bad down the Pdog hole, let me tell you. This dern drought has us in mighty tight straits. Not enough moisture in the green goodies for Mom Pdog to make milk for the babies. No babies at all this spring. Can't feed 'em. Old dogs givin' it up, goin' off to that great prairie dog town in the sky. It's bad. Bad as I've ever seen it.
We packed it in early last year, burrowed down deep and tried to sleep through it all. Too hot to cuss. Haven't had much to say for a time. Not feelin' very sociable, don't you know. I don't know where this weather is going, but I can tell you that I'd just as soon not be taking this ride.
I know you two legged critters are troubled about your wheat and your pastures and we're just worried along with you. Everybody down the Pdog hole is up early and out lookin' for green and watchin' for rain. Don't take much to make us happy. A nice spring storm would be a start. Leastwise, if we could get her without a blow.
I can feel it in my poor old bedraggled fur though, we've got bad storms comin' this year, maybe all the way to June. Mrs. Pdog tells me I'm just a pestiferous pessimist, but you mark my words, down deep, the earth is feelin' mighty strange.
We packed it in early last year, burrowed down deep and tried to sleep through it all. Too hot to cuss. Haven't had much to say for a time. Not feelin' very sociable, don't you know. I don't know where this weather is going, but I can tell you that I'd just as soon not be taking this ride.
I know you two legged critters are troubled about your wheat and your pastures and we're just worried along with you. Everybody down the Pdog hole is up early and out lookin' for green and watchin' for rain. Don't take much to make us happy. A nice spring storm would be a start. Leastwise, if we could get her without a blow.
I can feel it in my poor old bedraggled fur though, we've got bad storms comin' this year, maybe all the way to June. Mrs. Pdog tells me I'm just a pestiferous pessimist, but you mark my words, down deep, the earth is feelin' mighty strange.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Brrrrrrrrrr!. . .
Frizzle me whiskers! It's cold!
What kind of deal is this? Warm days and those infernal doves wake me up early, and then this! Snow down the Pdog hole. Temperatures dropping so low that the thermo-thingys are all bustin'. Wind whistlin' over our heads like some kind of banshee. Pups tryin' to check out all that white stuff. Can't feel my toes, they's so froze. I tell you, livin' in Oklahoma is just a powerful trial.
I'm tellin' you, though, this here's just some kind of a-bearation, not natural, some kind of out-of-fur experience, don't you know? Throws us prairie prognosticators all into a tizzy tryin' to keep up. But I still hold to my word. This ol' winter's going to stay with us a bit, but we won't have much of this kind of foolishness--just your normal Okie up and down 'til we get a late spring start on the twisters.
Not much of a way to start life in a new burrow, though. Heck of a deal...
What kind of deal is this? Warm days and those infernal doves wake me up early, and then this! Snow down the Pdog hole. Temperatures dropping so low that the thermo-thingys are all bustin'. Wind whistlin' over our heads like some kind of banshee. Pups tryin' to check out all that white stuff. Can't feel my toes, they's so froze. I tell you, livin' in Oklahoma is just a powerful trial.
I'm tellin' you, though, this here's just some kind of a-bearation, not natural, some kind of out-of-fur experience, don't you know? Throws us prairie prognosticators all into a tizzy tryin' to keep up. But I still hold to my word. This ol' winter's going to stay with us a bit, but we won't have much of this kind of foolishness--just your normal Okie up and down 'til we get a late spring start on the twisters.
Not much of a way to start life in a new burrow, though. Heck of a deal...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Tough Year
We hear tell how you two-footed folks have been having a rough time topside what with the economy and all. Well, let me tell you; it's been no picnic around the Pdog town this year either. I give it up in early October and put in for early hibernation. Glad to see that ol' year gone.
First off, you know there's no prairie dogs in Kingfisher County. Well, not official-like, anyhow. Ol' Mr. Farmer K and my buddies, we've got us this agreement. He don't tell folks we're underfoot and, well, we just don't get underfoot. Keep the burrows at fair to middlin', don't get greedy for forage, that kinda thing. Stay outta his hair.
It works out good for us, too, don't you know? Most ol' boys got three or four Pdog Mamas keepin' 'em in line. Me, I just got the one and all the pups. But, you see, it's them pups that got us into hot water. We've had us some good size litters these last two years, got powerful crowded below ground. I'm digging and tunnelin' and doin' my dead level best to keep the hills few and far between and all the time it's gettin' more and more crowded. Them older pups growed like turnips in the rain and they's startin' to get downright snarly. It were pert obvious somethin' had to change.
Long about May or there'bouts, by your kinda reckonin', I get up one morning and, lo and behold, no pups. No big 'uns anyhow. It's dern quiet down below. Those boys had took off in the night and gone out to the edge of town and dug up ol' Farmer K's back pasture for a prairie dog town. Now there's several things wrong with that move. First off, it puts Farmer K in mind of us when we'd just as soon lay low. Second, those boys built in his canola field and he was gettin' mighty close to harvest. First year for him to try it, canola, and he was pretty touchy about interference.
We knew we was in trouble but figured that those boys'd come on back to town when the machinery started runnin' in that field. They know what machinery'll do to a Pdog. But we never figured on the deer. You see, deer seem to dearly love that canola, come in the night and chow down by the dark of the moon, but they hadn't made much headway in that field, hadn't got Farmer K's dander up none, though he sure didn't like 'em out there.
Those young pups came out curious one of them nights, wanted to see what those big bucks were up to. Derned if they weren't up to chasin' prairie dogs. I tell you it t'were awful, the slippin' and sliding, the squeals and snortin', the downright devastation. Looked like a war zone before it was over. Bent stalks, tore up dirt. You just wouldn't believe what a few Pdogs and a deer or two or three can do.
I thought we were done for fer sure. Farmer K was boilin', got out his tractor and plow and came after our town. Just tore it up bad and him a'swearin' all along. Nobody hurt but we was refugees. I can tell you it were a sad sight to see, all these little Pdogs with their belongings tied in bundles on their backs hitch-hikin' down the road. Didn't know where we was goin' and weren't sure where we was when we got there. Ain't about to tell you where we ended up. Life's just that way.
Anyhow, we's settled now and I 'spect them young 'uns'll never do nothin' that foolish again, but there's a whole new crop of pups comin' up behind them and, you know, it's just out there to be done over again. You can tell 'em the tale as many times as you please, but they always gotta learn it for theirselves.
First off, you know there's no prairie dogs in Kingfisher County. Well, not official-like, anyhow. Ol' Mr. Farmer K and my buddies, we've got us this agreement. He don't tell folks we're underfoot and, well, we just don't get underfoot. Keep the burrows at fair to middlin', don't get greedy for forage, that kinda thing. Stay outta his hair.
It works out good for us, too, don't you know? Most ol' boys got three or four Pdog Mamas keepin' 'em in line. Me, I just got the one and all the pups. But, you see, it's them pups that got us into hot water. We've had us some good size litters these last two years, got powerful crowded below ground. I'm digging and tunnelin' and doin' my dead level best to keep the hills few and far between and all the time it's gettin' more and more crowded. Them older pups growed like turnips in the rain and they's startin' to get downright snarly. It were pert obvious somethin' had to change.
Long about May or there'bouts, by your kinda reckonin', I get up one morning and, lo and behold, no pups. No big 'uns anyhow. It's dern quiet down below. Those boys had took off in the night and gone out to the edge of town and dug up ol' Farmer K's back pasture for a prairie dog town. Now there's several things wrong with that move. First off, it puts Farmer K in mind of us when we'd just as soon lay low. Second, those boys built in his canola field and he was gettin' mighty close to harvest. First year for him to try it, canola, and he was pretty touchy about interference.
We knew we was in trouble but figured that those boys'd come on back to town when the machinery started runnin' in that field. They know what machinery'll do to a Pdog. But we never figured on the deer. You see, deer seem to dearly love that canola, come in the night and chow down by the dark of the moon, but they hadn't made much headway in that field, hadn't got Farmer K's dander up none, though he sure didn't like 'em out there.
Those young pups came out curious one of them nights, wanted to see what those big bucks were up to. Derned if they weren't up to chasin' prairie dogs. I tell you it t'were awful, the slippin' and sliding, the squeals and snortin', the downright devastation. Looked like a war zone before it was over. Bent stalks, tore up dirt. You just wouldn't believe what a few Pdogs and a deer or two or three can do.
I thought we were done for fer sure. Farmer K was boilin', got out his tractor and plow and came after our town. Just tore it up bad and him a'swearin' all along. Nobody hurt but we was refugees. I can tell you it were a sad sight to see, all these little Pdogs with their belongings tied in bundles on their backs hitch-hikin' down the road. Didn't know where we was goin' and weren't sure where we was when we got there. Ain't about to tell you where we ended up. Life's just that way.
Anyhow, we's settled now and I 'spect them young 'uns'll never do nothin' that foolish again, but there's a whole new crop of pups comin' up behind them and, you know, it's just out there to be done over again. You can tell 'em the tale as many times as you please, but they always gotta learn it for theirselves.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Crow Pie
Well now, consarn it, can't a feller be wrong ever now and then? I mean, this ol' Pdog is just a regular critter like the rest of y'all, you know? I guess that extra long fall threw me off my form just a bit, confused me like, maybe. Mama Pdog is just makin' me miserable over it. Didn't even hibernate this year. Just stayed up and played with the pups 'til the snow hit and then had to wake me up to point out just how wrong I could be. Danged females anyway.
This Okie weather is one for the books. First, that derned Christmas Eve snow and now this dagnabbit Spring Blizzard. Makes me just feel foolish, don't you know? And I didn't get much shut-eye this winter neither. Pups tumblin' over one another, Mama Pdog off in a huff, last year's babies anxious to get out on their own--makes for one crowded Pdog hole, I can tell you.
But, I gotta say that the crocus was bloomin' in January and the birds was all come back from down south, so I weren't the only one to get it wrong. I tol' Ma that spring really did come early, it was just those cold snaps I predicted all got together to make me look bad.
She just asked me how I'd like my slice of crow pie.
This Okie weather is one for the books. First, that derned Christmas Eve snow and now this dagnabbit Spring Blizzard. Makes me just feel foolish, don't you know? And I didn't get much shut-eye this winter neither. Pups tumblin' over one another, Mama Pdog off in a huff, last year's babies anxious to get out on their own--makes for one crowded Pdog hole, I can tell you.
But, I gotta say that the crocus was bloomin' in January and the birds was all come back from down south, so I weren't the only one to get it wrong. I tol' Ma that spring really did come early, it was just those cold snaps I predicted all got together to make me look bad.
She just asked me how I'd like my slice of crow pie.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Brrrrr....
Oh, man! This is just what happens when you don't get down to the business of hibernating early on. It has been just double-dog cold down the pdog hole. That extra long warm fall caught us all unawares, you know? Sunny days and warm nights. Couldn't pass up those extra seeds and grasses. Got plum fat. Mama Pdog had got all soft and round and I'll be darned if I wasn't feelin' pretty mellow, then Ouch! Down went them temps like a deflated balloon and here I sit wide-awake and freezin'. Shoulda sacked out when I had the chance.
Mrs. Pdog has taken a notion that she wants a Christmas tree like those two-legged critters up topside. Where does she get such foolish ideas, I wonder? She's drug in some sticks of red cedar and stuck some berries or something all over. Just makes me itchy. Think I've got me one of them prairie doggone allergies. Dang rash just under the fur. Makes me powerful testy.
Tol' the missus that she could stay up all winter if she had a mind to, but, me? I'm burnin' daylight and gotta hit the sack.
Y'all stay warm this winter, now. Drive careful when the ice hits. Always does, you know. I'll be up before that Punxsutawney fellow and tell you just what I think about next year's spring, but right now I'm takin' my itchy little body down deep and chasin' me a nap!
Mrs. Pdog has taken a notion that she wants a Christmas tree like those two-legged critters up topside. Where does she get such foolish ideas, I wonder? She's drug in some sticks of red cedar and stuck some berries or something all over. Just makes me itchy. Think I've got me one of them prairie doggone allergies. Dang rash just under the fur. Makes me powerful testy.
Tol' the missus that she could stay up all winter if she had a mind to, but, me? I'm burnin' daylight and gotta hit the sack.
Y'all stay warm this winter, now. Drive careful when the ice hits. Always does, you know. I'll be up before that Punxsutawney fellow and tell you just what I think about next year's spring, but right now I'm takin' my itchy little body down deep and chasin' me a nap!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Uh oh--Where'd the Summer Go?
Gotta tell you, it's been a quiet summer down the pdog hole. Dern hot to start with. Just laid around and cooked for days. For sure, you could smell simmering pdog all round the town. Even the hawks headed for shade and we weren't too sure but the end was on its way.
'Course I told folks they didn't have to worry. All things pass, even scorchers under the sun. And sure enough, we've got them autumn rains freshenin' up everything now. Roses are puttin' on their last flashes of bloom and the grasses are growin' tall and sweet. It's a good time, time for takin' stock, you know? Totin' up the summer and checkin' the storerooms.
I'm telling you, this ol' boy didn't get a whole lot done this year. Gotta get after it now to make it through the winter. All of us workin' together. You gotta keep together if you want to make it through the tough times, you know. Watch those skies and look out for one another.
You never know what the weather's going to do.
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