Tato is One!

 It's been a busy 24 hours at my one and only trailcam. Wow. If I ever loved having a trailcam** that sends alerts and thumbnails to my phone, I love it during the fall, when the deer are rutting and all the citizens of the woods are wandering about, flocking, mating, fighting, everything.

**It's a Moultrie Edge, and it is subscription based, charging a fixed amount per camera to store images on its server and send them to my phone as they're being taken. It's pretty awesome, but expensive, which is why I have only one. 

The fun started at 9 yesterday morning. Normally we'd be taking our walk around then, but I was seized by the urge to clean out a large kitchen cabinet full of pots and pans, cookie cutters, light bulbs, sets of vintage drinking glasses, keepswarm coffee cups nobody's using, and two-to four-year-old crackers and rock-hard marshmallows. I was sick of having to aim a jacklight into the pot sections of that cabinet to find a freakin' frying pan. So while I was clattering around in the kitchen, Tato was taking the sun on the picnic table (good thing, that!)

and this gorgeous beast slunk by the camera. What a beautiful coat he's grown for the winter! 9:01 AM, huh? That's...bracing. By the sound of it, this coyote pair had a successful breeding season; the pups are yipping in the north border most every night. 

A few does went by in the night, then this slender-tined fellow came through at 6:36 this morning.

Followed by this long-tined beauty at 7:19 AM.

At 8:37, a lone turkey hen.

I figure she was headed to meet the gals for a shopping trip. 8:50 AM. 

And then, oh look! It's Tato!! And his protector. 

I can't tell you how right it feels to have a shiny little inkblot in the yard again.

Coming along to pick beans and beg for his share. Posing with the Salvia patens (my favorite blue flower of them all!)

and the spectacularly fabulous lone larkspur that came up and bloomed in fall instead of spring! Of all the colors it could have been, it's my favorite: blue! I'm letting them all set seeds, if there's time. Not sure about this larkspur's chances, but they're very cold hardy plants.

Tato is my constant companion, overseeing my woodcutting and hauling from the seat of our Kubota.

The woodpiles have grown huge this windy and rainy season. I'm cutting and piling all the time.

In only a few months, Tato has learned ever so much about how to be around a tractor. He understands that it's dangerous because I've told him so, and I've yelled at him when he does something risky. He knows

he can't be up in the seat with me when the mower blades are engaged; he'll go watch from the front porch when I'm mowing. But the minute he hears me cut the throttle back and disengage the mowing deck, he comes streaking out and asks if he can leap up in the seat with me. We take a couple laps around the yard then, just because this little boy loves to ride.

My, but he takes up the whole seat now. There was a time when it was much easier to hold him on my lap. But we have a system figured it out. I wouldn't know what to do without my woodcutting buddy,  my ride-or-die.

He knows if I put the trailer on first thing, he can ride, because we're not going to mow--we're going out to cut wood. He knows to stay clear of the chainsaw, and he'll chew a stick or relax in the seat while I work, keeping a watchful eye on me.

Tato is a lotta dog.  His last weigh-in was 21.3 pounds. Pretty much the perfect size, and solid muscle.

What I didn't figure on was how searingly bright this dog would be. How he doesn't miss a thing. How he connects cause and effect, and plays me like a violin, every time. He's incredibly good at recruiting me for fun and games. Even as I try to finish this post, I hear his soft little "ummmmmhmmm?" from the foyer that means, "It's time for you to chuck GlowBall for me. Truly it is."

That's good for him. Gets his cardio pumping. And it's good for me, too. No backaches here. Feet and legs are working pretty well again, too, because motion is lotion. It feels so good to have him trotting beside me on our daily walks. I don't want to walk without him.

He's running the place, no doubt about it. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy birthday, you freaky-smart little Scorpio, Tato! My Tato.

Tato's Home-made Dog Food

 Yesterday, I posted about a sweetly reflective Sunday afternoon, spent putting together a month's worth of food for Tato. Luscious photos of the ingredients, the cooking. Of course lots of people commented, asking for the recipe. Which I just couldn't do on Facebook, much less Instagram. There's too much to it. It's not a hard recipe to follow; it's just that it's HUGE, and getting everything done to perfection has been a challenge. 

I'll preface this by saying that I've been feeding Tato this food since April 1, 2026. He was five months old when we switched from puppy kibble to home-cooked food. Of course, I'd been told by various parties to keep him on puppy kibble for the first year. I'd had enough of kibble in all its forms, I had researched it, and I disobeyed, and started my five-month-old on home-cooked food anyway. I was emboldened by my friend Stephen Andrew Jones, who started feeding his beautiful Barbie, a border collie x Labrador, home-cooked food when she was quite small. He was nervous enough about it that he had her blood panels done for awhile to make sure she was getting everything she needed. And she certainly was. Barbie is now a healthy, vibrant 13, slender, active and going strong. Honestly, seeing her shiny coat and clear, bright eyes in Stephen's Barbie birthday posts on Instagram was all I needed to decide to go this route with Tato. 

Remember, kibble was an innovation of the 1950's and 60's, the era of modern food convenience, that brought us yummy canned and frozen vegetables and processed meats, when we'd been eating tedious, tiresome FRESH vegetables and meats before. Our dogs had, too! Kibble is cooked at high temperatures, high enough to destroy much of the food value of its ingredients. Then vitamins and minerals are sprayed onto it. Yes, it's convenient to store it at room temperature, dump dry kibble in a bowl and walk away. But is it what our dogs and cats should be eating? I think it's pretty clear that kibble-fed cats fight dehydration and have all kinds of urinary tract issues as a result. I've little doubt that dogs run a moisture deficit as well. And that's not even talking about the nutritional quality of the food. (Sorry, I have no cat recipe, but I bet the Google will help). 

The first thing I noticed after the switch was that Tato virtually stopped farting. Which, for a Boston terrier, is saying something. You'll hear all kinds of stuff about brachycephalic dogs just farting more because they can't chew their food as well...hmmm. OK, but Bostons fed on kibble fart pretty much continously. I doubt it has anything to do with the length of their muzzle. Oh, Tato can still let loose, but I can do a daylong road trip with this dog and not have to roll down the windows but once or twice. With kibble-fed Chet, I kept the windows cracked all the time. Moonroof too.

Second, he loves it. Chases his bowl around the kitchen floor, trying to get every bit of kale and carrot. As a result of eating a lot of vegetables, he is very open to good raw and cooked foods. Loves carrots, apples, sweet raw peppers, melon, all berries, raw green beans and snap peas...he just eats what's good. Dogs evolved to be omnivores, to follow people around and eat whatever they are eating. On the flip side, if you hand Tato a typical dog biscuit or high-end treat or cookie made for dogs, he will look at you like, "And what am I supposed to do with this?" Same goes for strange dried animal part chew treats. He recoils. My delicate little flower.

Third, making his food myself is economically and environmentally sustainable. Do I need to order a frozen food subscription and be left with a ton of packaging (cold packs, Styrofoam) to deal with? Nope. Do I need to pay around $8/day, or $240/month, for fresh food for my 23 pound dog? Nope.  (Pricing can be as low as $2.31/day or as high as $26.77/day, depending on the size of your dog!) I'll price the ingredients I'm about to list here so you can see for yourself. 

Stephen advises that the original recipe came from his friend Connie (@hartwoodroses on Instagram). Credit where credit is due.

Note that I supplement this homemade food with Nutri-Complete, a freeze dried cubed dog food that incorporates muscle and organ meats, to the tune of about $90/month for the subscription. I feed Tato about 1.5 cups of freeze-dried food per day, mixed into his homemade food. Even with that expensive addition, I'm still under $150/month for the highest quality food possible. That's half what I'd be spending with a fresh food subscription plus my freeze-dried subscription. 

Also note that I've waited to share this recipe until I was sure I had figured out the best way for me to cook such a huge amount of food. My first three attempts at this were messy, burnt, partially uncooked, and just BAD. I was trying to cook everything together in a foil covered turkey roasting pans, and the rice never got even close to done, nor did the carrots. I just couldn't make it happen in the oven. The method I'll describe is what works for me. You may have the equipment and capacity to do it better, and differently. Let me know what works for you! But I've found that in order to control the outcome, I have to do it in the way I'll describe.

And I use turkey because it turns out a lot of dogs are sensitive or allergic to chicken. I'm not sure chicken agrees with Tato, so turkey it is. Tato gets an egg fried over easy most mornings for breakfast along with his food. Eggs are a great source of protein.

4.5 cups brown rice  $1.72 cooked with

9 cups water

Two 3-lb. packages ground turkey, 85% lean @ $11.96/pack  ($24) OK to use beef for part. For this recipe I threw in an additional pound of ground turkey for a total of about $28. I think that 7 lb of meat gives the ideal ratio to shoot for. 

One 5 lb. bag of whole carrots  $4.77

Four large sweet potatoes (about 4 lb worth) $3.82

3-4 bunches kale   $4.84

2 red bell peppers (about $2) (I grew mine)

1 12-oz bag frozen sweet peas $1.50

2-4 T olive oil

4 T kosher salt, distributed evenly between pots of ingredients.

1 T finely ground baked eggshell for calcium, sprinkled over the meat and stirred in. I always have baked eggshell around for my birds; I just keep a tin pan in the oven and toss my rinsed eggshells in there. Then the next time I bake, they get baked. Take them out before the edges turn brown. 

This comes to about $47/month for ingredients. As opposed to $240/month for a fresh food subscription for a 23 lb. dog. 

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Start brown rice and water in a heavy covered pot over low flame and cook until all water is absorbed.

2. While rice is cooking, chop 5 lb of carrots, 4.5 lb of sweet potatoes (you don't have to peel or pare them) and the red bell peppers and put them in a big turkey roaster, covered, with a few cups of water (VERY IMPORTANT) in the bottom to steam over medium flame. My turkey roaster spans two burners on the stove, and those ten pounds of vegetables get done pretty darn fast with two burners going under them! Steam, covered, until fork tender and easily mashable. I use a potato masher because putting it through the food processor is a pain in the butt. Easy peasy.

While this is cooking, put the olive oil and all the meat in another large covered roaster and cook slowly, covered, over a medium flame, stirring and turning it over to make sure it cooks evenly. 

This is all ground 85% lean turkey. You can also add a 4" filet of salmon, skin on, if you wish. 

When the meat is nearly done, add and steam the frozen peas on top of it.

Chop the kale coarsely and steam separately until wilted and tender. I run it through a small handy chopper to grind up the tough stems and leaves. 

Now spread the rice across the bottom of two large foil turkey roasting pans, and top with the orange vegetables and the kale. This is how I make sure the food is evenly mixed.

Next, layer the cooked turkey and peas on top of that. Don't forget the 4 T kosher salt. I sprinkle it on each layer. 

So from the bottom, you've got a layer of rice, orange vegetables, kale, turkey, and peas. Layering it like this helps me make sure each freezer container has the right proportion of each ingredient. You're done cooking--I put it in these big pans is just to make the packing and freezing easier. 

At this point I was tasting the food...and tasting it again...and it occurred to me that I could easily eat this for dinner, it's that nice. You should be able to eat your dog's food, don't you think?

One 1.4 pound container like this is 2.5 days of food for Tato. I feed him three times a day.

Hard to see the stack in back, but this is three stacks of containers ready for freezing. Red topped container is 1.4 lb food; black containers hold about a pound each, for around 25 lb of food in this batch.  Yes, I'm aware that black food storage containers have a bad rap, so I let the food cool completely before loading them,  freeze immediately, and never reheat food in plastic. They fit in my little downstairs freezer, and that's a big plus. 

I know it's easy for a one-year-old dog to look good, sleek, muscular and shiny. The true test will be how Tato ages, and I think he's going to do very well going forward.

I know this seems like a lot of work, but Tato is well worth four hours of kitchening, once a month. Feeding him right is an investment in our future.

I Sing of Vireos

Glam birding season is here! Oh my gosh, sitting on the deck on a crisp September morning with my two best friends (Shila, who took this portrait) and Tato (who doesn't like to miss anything I do)...it doesn't get any better than that. We have had some incredible mornings of birding. Cool, crisp star-strewn nights and sunny mornings combine to make the recipe for Birdapalooza.  Birds don't like to fly on warm nights, and that really shows in the species counts. Migrating is hard, hot work, and they love a crisp night for flying. Needless to say seeing the moon and stars helps them navigate as well.

Any day I can see 40 or more species (best day so far was September 28, with 49!) while sitting in  comfort on my new deck is a WONDERFUL day. 

I wanted to walk you through a common bird identification challenge that really isn't so challenging at all when you get enough data in front of you.

Philadelphia vireo is a tolerably common fall migrant here, though it's quite rare in spring. I think I've had a singing Philly here in spring twice in 34 years. But oh, do they come through in the fall. 

The rare vireo here is warbling! Maybe that's because they prefer watercourses and we are on the driest of dry ridges. But for some reason, I've had a good bunch of warbling vireos come through this fall of 2026.

Let's start our journey with warbling vireo. These photos were all taken here in Washington County Ohio, in the southeast corner of the state, in the last four days. We'll start with a drab one to kick things off with a "huh." Note the almost total lack of color on this bird. Just whispers of yellow tones on the underparts.

This warbling vireo is regurgitating a seed! It's a tad brighter than the first. But look how plain the face is. Blank. Nothing much going on around the eye, and the underparts are more or less colorless.

 Warbling is a medium-sized vireo with a tolerably long tail. Remember how blank its face looks, how blank its underside looks.

And here's a lucky shot of a warbling vireo in flight. 

All right. Let's bring on the Philadelphia vireo, and our hearts might beat a little faster. 

What do you notice about the Philadelphia vireo right off? Do you notice the yellowish underparts? The color concentrating on throat and upper breast? Subtle stuff: You might notice that the Philly is a chunkier, shorter-tailed bird than the warbling. Its head is also rounder and the bill looks smaller and finer.

Look at the eye. See that black line going through it? Most importantly, there's black in front of the eye, in an area called the lores. Combine that feature with the more colorful underparts, and you have two strong identifying characteristics of the Philadelphia vireo. 

So who's this bird, below? 

Did you guess warbling vireo?

And who's this? 

Plain face, no black in front of eye, blank, colorless underparts. Both the last two birds are warbling vireos.

And who's this? Tricky angle, but the more intense coloration and the black through the eye say Philadelphia.

Now for some fun. It's been a wet summer and fall, but it's finally drying out, and the WarblerFall is coming into its own. It's been quiet for months, because there have been puddles everywhere. But today I two new species for the WarblerFall year list. 

A sweet little eastern phoebe perched right next to the WarblerFall for much of the day, watching the drips fall. I could tell it was thirsty. Finally it approached, and I got a shot of it landing on the power cord to the pump! That counts! # 25!!

While that was going on, a Philadelphia vireo swooped in and got down to business! #26 for 2026!

It would hit the water ever so briefly, then zoom back up into the birch above.

This made for some very cute shots. Plus a nice one of the underwing!

Saucy little thing. Philadelphia vireos are not bland. 

If warbling vireos are generic cream cheese, 

Philadelphia vireos are Pineapple Whipped Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese.

Look at this little Philly taking off! Yes, it has black in the lores! I feel so blessed to be on their autumn flyway.

You can find out more about the DIY bird spa, the WarblerFall, at warblerfall.com