Guide to busy dogs: Part II - Snow Sweater

Wow - there must be a lot of people out there with busy dogs - we were inundated with congratulatory thanks at putting together such useful instructions, with great interest in the video. Some of you were surprised at the size of the stick used in USF. This is unavoidable. The stick must be bigger than the dog to really wear him down. Remember, dear Reader, that your dog never tires. When you arrive home from a long day of work and look forward to putting your feet up for the day, your dog comes to greet you and laughs as he sees you reforming your butt mark in your sofa. He laughs because he knows he has you for a few hours before he actually gets tired as well, and your attempt at a little R&R is laughable.

However, with a little help, you can learn to wear you dog out in no time. Now that winter has welcomed itself into our lives, let's move onto some tactics that utilize snow. Here's what you need to do:

1. Fresh snowfall - while old snow would work okay, fresh snow is probably better. It also gives you the chance to shovel out your driveway while wearing out the dog at the same time.

2. Shovel - the bigger the better - if your dog is going to wear a snow sweater, you need to make sure he is fully covered in snow

3. When you get your shovel full is full of snow, give it a HUGE toss in the air. Try to make sure the snow stays close together so that it is falling back to earth in one big pile. Your dog will love that.

Again, here's a video to help you get the technique down. Notice how quickly the dog returns for more - you're going to have to be quick to wear him down!




Now, dear Reader, did you happen to see a common theme between the two videos? Yes, that's right: beard. It really helps with the throwing techniques (for those of you who know Lynden, he had a huge beard when he was a hammer thrower).

So, how do you know when you've given your dog a snow sweater and that he's probably starting to wear down? Well, he should look like this:










Notice how the snow covers his entire head except for his eye sockets. The spookier your dog looks, the better. Also notice how the snow weighs down his whiskers - this is an important clue to whether or not you've created a heavy enough snow sweater. Good luck!

Guide to busy dogs: Part I - USF

Have a busy dog? Does he never seem to run out of energy? If you see yourself saying "yes" to both these questions, this guide is for you! We've got multiple solutions that will wear you dog to the bone! This first part of the series will take you through Ultra Stick Fetching ("USF").

1. Go to the dog park. And when we say dog park, we actually mean the wilderness. Our best suggestion would be the "dog park" at Minnehaha falls in Minneapolis - you have free reign to a large chunk of the Snelling State Park. Your hyper dog can frolic freely through the woods.

2. Find the biggest stick possible. Your dog really only wants to fetch sticks that are bigger than him. So the bigger the better. This is also a psychological technique - by playing to your dog's ego now, he will feel more satisfied and will not bother you as much when you get home.

3. Have someone with a beard do the throwing. The big sticks are hard to throw - you know a man with a beard can give it a good hurl.

Here's a video so you can get the technique down. Notice that the dog has some difficulty in fetching the stick because it's so large. If he's having trouble, you know you've got the right size stick, and you have mastered USF.

Vote Day 2010

HENRY VOTED.... Did you?

In other Henry shenanigans we have exhibit A...Henry learning that he can be a much more effective watch dog if he stands on the table.

AND exhibit B...Henry finding out that the big bad bag of food will in fact not eat him- to his delight.
Keep your eyes out, I have lots of pictures so a few more posts are in order for this week. :)

Summer in Review

This summer has been very busy for Casey and I. As you've probably noticed we've been "Walking with the Incans" for a very long time because there hasn't been any time to sit and write!

Here is our summer in review:

1. We participated in many birthday and wedding celebrations this summer. Congratulations to Jenny and Jeff Erickson and Betsy and Blake McKibbin! I apologize but there is only one picture I can share of one of those events. (See below)
2. Team SherPlante participated in our first sprint relay triathlon. Unfortunately we did not beat Adam even though he ran the whole thing himself. Our next event will be our own Turkey Day 5kish run.
3. The Sherwood clan rendezvoused in McHenry, Ill to see Uncle Bill and Aunt Adele for the weekend. We had a great time relaxing and watching the fireworks shows from the dock. (As well as having our own fun)
4. Casey and I spent a week driving out to Montana to see his Aunt Pam and Uncle Dave. I spent much of the time holding on to bear pepper spray but I had a blast hiking in the Badlands, Black Hills and Yellowstone. Thanks Pam and Dave for such a great trip!
5. Near the end of the summer we went with our friends to a cabin in St. Croix State Park. It was another relaxing weekend with good company, canoe floating, group runs and delicious food.

Much more happened but those are some of the highlights. We hope you all were able to enjoy the 2010 summer months as much as we did. Now it's time to get ready for fall!

Our love to you all- Casey and Megan

Walking with the Incans

Here are a fraction of the pictures taken on our recent trip to Peru. Bottom line is that it's good to be home but we miss the fresh air and adventure. Enjoy the sample of pictures!

My Little Garden

I took the day off and my Dad came over to make a little planting space for me in the back yard. It was a really fun day. We went to Home Depot together and got all of the ingredients (or I suppose you would call them supplies). Then I hauled bags of soil and dug the trench while my dad cut and connected all of the pieces to make the box. Then we went to Bachmanns together to pick out some great things to try to plant, followed by a trip to Dairy Queen in recognition of a hard days work. ;)

This year will be tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, peppers, cilantro, garlic chives and curry. We never gardened much growing up so this will definitely be an experiment (especially the whole idea of growing something from seed- it's hard for me to believe something as little as a seed can get to grow into a nice plant). Wish me luck. And if there are any tips out there I'll definitely take them!!!

By the way, wasn't it gorgeous out today?

Happy 1st Birthday Leah!

It was Leah's first birthday yesterday. The whole family got together, all grandparents as well as her aunties and uncles were there to celebrate. She had fun being passed from family member to family member and walking around exploring the front yard. The adults had a fun time catching up-- especially my parents! Yup, they're back in town for a bit. It's really nice to have them around.

We had burgers, beans and salad for dinner. For dessert, cake. I found out that you can get a free birthday cake from either Lunds/Kowalskis/Byerlys for your child's first birthday as long as you bring in their birth certificate to prove it. Neat huh?!

Leah thoroughly enjoyed her cake, immediately had a bath and was back out in her pjs by the end of the night.

Scott is 30!

These are a few pictures from Scott's birthday celebration. The guys went to brew some beer at the Vine Park brewery and the gals went down the street to share a bottle of wine and have some appetizers. Kim did an awesome job planning a fun afternoon together.

Da Fence

Dear Henry,
For your 5 month birthday we are giving you a fence so that you may run free in our back yard. Mind you, this gift could've easily been:

• A back packing trip to New Zealand. (For your parents)

OR...

• A lifetime of dog food. (Your lifetime Henry)

But we decided to give you a fence because of your sad puppy eyes and adorable ways. Here is the transition for you to look back on...

BEFORE:
The the buried concrete wall that must've been fashionable at one time (otherwise why do it?)

AFTER:


And look at how much fun you have playing fetch with the hanger that you stole off our bed! It must be really nice not having to run with a rope attached around your neck.

HAPPY FIVE MONTHS HENRY!
Love, Casey and Megan

PS You're a lucky dog.

Casey is 32

We celebrated Casey's Birthday this weekend....and last weekend. We did quite a few activities in honor of Casey turning the big 3-2. The festivities began on April 17th with the family. Casey's parents, Katie, Adam, Annie, Marceah as well as my brother, Angie and Leah came to celebrate! Casey made some amazing chipotle burritos and we had some yummy banana cake for dessert.

Here Annie and I are sorta helping Casey blow out the candles.
(Credit goes to Annie for doing a fabulous job putting the candles on the cake--we put the whole box on! Also, notice the plume of smoke in the lower right hand corner. We had to open up the windows after the candles were blown out!)

Leah really liked the cake, she was taking fistfuls!


Day two of the birthday celebration we enjoyed one of Casey's favorite activities-baseball. I was mostly excited to have one of the famed Kramarczuk brats. YUM! It was worth every penny. Casey had a steak sandwich and then round 2 of food was empanadas and chicken fingers with french fries. The Twins unfortunately lost (boo! :( ) but we did enjoy seeing our first game in the new stadium! I surprisingly got pretty into the game too!

Yesterday was the final birthday celebration. We celebrated Casey and Britta's birthday with all of our friends. It was a great afternoon with friends, babies and puppies. I unfortunately didn't get any pictures at this event but there are some good one's on Britta and Kim's blog. It was really great to see everyone and am looking forward to the next time we can all hang out.

And of course it wouldn't be a blog post without an update on Henry's antics. Henry helped me clean the fridge on Saturday. I think he enjoyed the experience thoroughly.

Daycare for Dogs? That's Silly!

But it's true and it's amazing! We have never seen Henry so pooped out by the end of the day. He barely responded to us the whole night and often looked like the picture below. (In that picture he was trying desperately to keep his eyes open to watch us but failed). Today we are planning on spending the day getting the house cleaned up and preparing food to celebrate Casey's birthday. So I brought him in for the day so he could get some good playtime in before all of the kiddos come over. He was so excited when we walked into the daycare, his whole body was wagging when the handlers greeted him and brought him in the play area. It made me laugh. He's such a good dog.


Oh and the second picture was while Casey was using the blender. Henry was trying to hide behind me so I picked him up and had him just hang out on my lap to watch. Such a scardy cat! The vacuum is even worse, when I roll it out of the closet he disappears. His "safe spot" is the first step going down to the basement. He peeks out around the corner to supervise the "chaos" from there. Lol!

Bon Voyage

Today we had a going away party for Aunt Pam & Dave as well as Katie. Katie will be deployed in May for about 3 months. Pam and Dave are picking up and moving out West to Montana. We wish them all safe travels and lots of love.

Here is Pam, Katie and Annie playing with the balloons.

Here is a cute video of Annie counting with me by the garden.

Synchronized Dog Training

Sadie came to stay with us Thursday night this week. It was a lot of fun having her around.

Spaghetti Squash-- What's that?

So, the past month and a half have been spent without beef/chicken/pork/turkey in our diet at home. Many of our staple meals (such as Gorditas!) require the use of those key ingredients so at times we were at a loss (we had a week where we ate Mac N Cheese two nights in a row :) ) However, Casey and I really stepped up to the challenge. I, in particular had a lot of fun developing my expertise in the kitchen using ingredients never used before!

I thought it would be fun to share a few of the yummy recipes we tried out that are definite repeaters!!! (I do have some pictures that I may try to add later, otherwise click on the link to see the recipe)

• Vegetarian Korma: We have made this recipe almost every week. SOOOOO good - even with those darn peas! (I hate peas) If you haven't had curry before this may be a tasty place to start.



• Asparagus & Mushroom Quiche: This recipe called for bacon which sadly we could not add. I'm excited to try it again!
  
  


• Portobello Mushroom sandwiches: Thanks to Casey's Dad for this idea! We marinated the mushroom caps in teriyaki sauce. Then we grilled up some onion, red pepper and the caps. We topped the caps with the fixings, some feta cheese and served on a ciabatta roll. YUM!
  
  


• Grilled Veggie Deluxe Pizza: Papa Murphy's Gourmet Veggie Pizza (without the artichokes/zucchini yuck) on the grill. The grill made the crust nice and crisp. (Though I do think I burnt it --- Casey was a trooper).
  
  


• Vegetarian Tortilla Soup: The avocados on top of this made it delicious.
  
  


• Potato Leek Soup: For this recipe I substituted the heavy cream with skim milk/butter. We also opted for vegetable broth over the chicken broth. This was my first time having leeks. They're really good...almost like a green onion.
  

Well that about does it for now! We still have a spaghetti squash to figure out before Sunday...maybe Friday's dinner???? Should be an adventure.

March Madness Sherplante Style

I'm not going to pretend I watch basketball but I thought that the title fit for this post. We had two concerts this month for the Northern Symphony Orchestra (actually the second is this Sunday). We continue to go to puppy playtime at the Humane Society every Saturday morning. Otherwise our free evenings are spent exploring fun parks to go for walks in.

For Henry he had a few milestones. His first Valentine (okay that was in February), his first bath, and his first stick of celery (mmmmmmmmmm!!!!).

Okay - so maybe he didn't actually eat the celery. Shredding it would be a better description. We will be starting up level 1 obedience in a couple of weeks. Overall he listens very well and will do what we tell him to do. However, if he has lots of energy or is not getting the attention he thinks he should get, he becomes a herding machine. We are eager to have this stage end! Although it is teaching us patience (it gets on our nerves as well as getting in our skin!).

Casey has decided to bike to work once the weather becomes nice on a more regular basis. To get him to work and back faster, we went and purchased new shoes and pedals (that he can clip in to). Here he is taking it for a test ride. He said he is very speedy now.

The Puppy Function

If Henry were a program and he had a Biting function, it would look something like this...(Disclaimer: This is not meant to follow any programming best practices or language.)

puppy=yes

Biting(puppy)
{
body_part_list=[fingers,fingers,forearm,toes,calf,fingers,hair,fingers,forearm,forearm]

while puppy
{
chosen_body_part= random(body_part_list)
call biteBiteBite(chosen_body_part)
}

biteBiteBite(body_part)
{
open mouth over body_part
close down mouth with body_part in it
}

}

Yup maybe in a few months I'll add in a way to get out of that loop but right now it feels infinite. :D

Thank you Casey for your contribution by providing the probability of Henry choosing a certain body part.

One Month With Henry

We've had Henry for one month now and he has changed quite a bit! The first row of pictures are from our first weekend with him and the second row is from just last week!

Puppy Antics

Henry has taken on some attributes that remind me a lot of Sadie :) in that I think he would love to live in the dishwasher if he could. (Granted I only know about two dogs) Casey was loading the dishwasher and by the time he turned around Henry had climbed in! Here is a picture of a similar day when I was loading the washer. Notice how one paw is even on the rack...

Also, some of his favorite activities that don't threaten the safety of our hands (we're still working on this) is chasing plastic toys on the ground. We found a frisbee that has proven to be entertaining for both us and Henry - A win/win situation yay!!!

Babies, Puppies, Road Trips Oh My!

I had a mini vacation this weekend while Casey and Henry had a guys weekend. My friend Kari and I drove down to Des Moines. I wish I had taken pictures...but sadly I forgot. Friday night I spent with my good friend from college, Jessica and her husband Derek. Saturday I spent with my friend Betsy and her fiance Blake. It was fun weekend filled with wedding planning and LOTS of much needed catching up!!!! I'm so glad I was able to make the short trip.

Sunday we had my brother and Angie over for a pre-Super Bowl lunch of sloppy joes, chips & dip, spinach puffs, bbq meatballs AND grapes/apples (we thought it would be good to throw something healthy in the mix). Henry was spoiled with a nice bone and fun lion chew toy from Uncle Matt and Aunt Angie :) He loves them both! Here are few pics from the afternoon. Leah is moving around so much these days! Soon enough I'm sure it will be hard for us to keep up.







Matt and Henry also had a good romp and soon enough Henry went into his "den" (aka under the couch). Thanks Matt for wearing him out!


All in all it was a busy but fun weekend. Tonight (Monday) has been spent catching up but I was able to get a small video to show off some of Henry's skills.
He's only been with us for two weeks but has gained about 6 lbs! (He came to us at 9 lbs) We both agree that having a puppy is a lot more work than we expected but we can't deny that he has a big spot in our hearts already. Anyways...he's pretty calm in this video - which is pretty unheard of but enjoy the show!

Good Job Casey!

Approximately 240 hours of studying and 6 hours of test taking later...

Casey has successfully passed his first CFA exam!!!!! Great Job Casey!!! Henry and I are very proud of you.

For those of you like me out there that don't know a whole lot about financial stuff, CFA is a designation that stands for Chartered Financial Analyst. To get this designation you have to pass 3 REALLY hard tests (typically only 40% of the people pass). So now that Casey has successfully completed the first one he will probably be moving on to the next.

Just wanted to share the good news!

MMMM Bone!

It's only been a day and Henry has learned so much! He plays fetch now (he even runs back with the ball...after pouncing on it) and he learned how to run up and down the stairs --- looks like a gate is in order. He also got this super sweet bone. Thanks Lynden and Britta! It is definitely his favorite.

O Henry!

The Plante household has a new member - Henry! Henry is a lab/Australian shepherd mix, and has been having tons of fun at the Plante house. Here's a few of his favorite things to do:


Being a puppy, he loves to sleep. Usually it's in two hour increments. Sometimes he just lays down where he's playing and falls asleep. Here Megan is taking advantage of his warmth as she takes a nap herself (she ran the Securian 5k this morning - nice job!). He also likes to lay on the couch to take a nap - here's a not so normal position:


His favorite places to play are usually under furniture - the couch is fun, but so is the bed. If he's downstairs, his favorite place is under the coffee table:







He's had lots of new experiences - it's been a packed first two days. Megan and I picked him up from the Humane Society of Barron County, Wisconsin on Friday afternoon. He sat very peacefully in Megan's lap the whole ride home and got a good nap in. He's found a couple fun chew toys to play with - being a puppy, he likes to nip with his very sharp puppy teeth - he also likes to try to herd us around the house - very bossy! If you've been to our house, you know that our bedroom closets have mirrors on them - which sure makes it seem like there is another puppy in the house - at least to Henry. His first experience with Henry 2 was to give him a big, tackling hug! Even though there has been rain the last couple of days, Henry has had lots of fun in the snow. Being a 10 pound puppy, he can dive into the snow and have a great time.

He's doing pretty well with learning that puppies should go to the bathroom outside. I'd say we're at 75%. He sleeps in his crate at night, and his first night was a successful one - only once did he whine, which was for a bathroom break.

That's all for now! We'll leave you with one last cute picture and video - no one can resist his studly looks!