Beer

I like beer, in fact I like good beer ! I like it so much I brew my own.

Along with my two best buddies we started brewing our own beer, just to try it out. At our surprise the first batch was pretty decent. Not excellent but a lot better then any beer you can buy in boxes of 24. So we decide to get more equipement, more bottles and to try brewing different types of beers. Over time, we optimized our process and made surprisingly good beers.

When ever I give one of "my beer" to someone for the first time, those three questions always come up : Did you really made it ? is it complicated to make ? Is it cheaper ? So yes, of course I really made it. No its not that complicated but you have to be really carefull when washing the equipment and it's quite time consuming. Cheaper, I don't really know, maybe in the long run, once you have spread the cost of the equipment and bottles overs ten or twenty batches of beers. I wouldn't really know, I'm the one keeping track of fermentation time and the type of beer we are brewing, not the one in charge of the finances !

But the real reasons why we are still doing it after several years. Is because it gives us the opportunity to spend time together. Three friends gathering on a Tuesday night or Saturday morning every once in a while to make beer and joke around... That's priceless. And also, when ever you give somebody a beer and he likes it, you get to brag about the fact that you made it :)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

wordless Wednesday

My Greyhound part #3 Dog food and poop expert

The basic principal is simple what comes in must come out at some point !!

When we first got Bentley we thought food was going to be quite easy. Buy a big bag of descent quality kibbles, feed it to dog, dogs is happy, then dog poops. In our head, that was pretty much the whole story. Pretty simple, no big deal. Shirley, from Greyhound rescue Quebec even gave us a bag of food that most greyhounds like and do well on. So we were good right? But She did tell us that greyhounds are known for their sensitive stomach, we just didn't know how much.

The first few days were pretty straight forward, 2 cups of kibbles twice a day and don't let the dog run before and after his meal, no worries. But the picking-up after your dog thing didn't go all that good. Not that we didn't carry bags or that we didn't want to pick it up... The stools were just way too soft to be picked up. But we were told that it might take a week or two to stabilize the dog to it's new retirement diet. After a week, he was indeed making progress on the firmness side, so it was looking good. It was also time to put Bentley on the scale to see how he was doing. We knew his racing weight was 80 pounds, so we had figure that 2 pounds over or under should be a pretty nice weight for him. But, big surprise, he weighted in at 73.9 pounds, he needed to put some pounds on. So we thought," No problem, we will just feed him more kibbles..." WRONG !!! We then learned that there is such a thing as feeding to much kibbles. We quickly realize that the extra kibbles were going almost right through :(

That's when we determined, after some phone calls and research on the web, that we needed to give our greyhound something else then his usual food for him to put on the extra pounds. So I needed to cook for the dog ! Don't get me wrong, I love to be in the kitchen but I did not imagine one minute that I would be cooking (it's really more overcooking then cooking) rice, pasta and mash potatoes for my dog ! And since they have sensitive stomach, I tried one thing at a time. We started with some well overcooked mushy rice, although Bentley did put some weight on, it did not have a very good effect on his digestive system. Then, after a week or two, came the pasta still very overcooked thank you very much !! We tried several kinds, but they did not help to put some weight nor firmed up the mushy poop. Then we gave the mash potatoes a try and we finally started to see some positive effects. We then added some boiled ground beef and voilà, he started to put on some pounds and kept it ! So finally after almost two months, he is now up to 78 pounds and we can pick-up after him without leaving a trace !!

Although it takes a bit more time and caring then a normal dog for a retired greyhound to become fully comfortable in a house,it is well worth it. They make really "greyt" loving, quiet, gentle house pet and once settled they will be greytfull to you for saving their live.

On a final note. I have been ask so many times what happens to racing greyhound when they are done running. If you watch this video, you will have a general idea of the industry. Beware that some of the footage can be tough to watch, especially if you have a retired greyhound sleeping on the coach next to you....

Cheers :-)

My Greyhound part #2: The first week

The first week you bring a retired greyhound into a house is when you realise you will have to teach, a fully grown dog, stuff you would not even think a "normal" puppy would need to be teached !! When we first got home with the dog, we went for a little walk around the block, Bentley was walking very nice on leash, so far all is good... Then we got back home....

First : The four steps from the driveway to the front door. It seems that during his 4 years of racing (70+ races and about 30 wins) our retired Greyhound (Bentley) never had to go up (or down) any stairs. But after a few minutes, and a bit of cheering, Bentley did manage to go up those steps in a very unelegant fashion !! We then knew that it will be a big challenge for him if he wants to get to the house second story through those 14 hard wood steps !!

Second : It also appears that at the kennels where he spend all his live up to now, they don't have any windows or mirrors. So the first thing Bentley does once inside is to try to get right back out through the full size window beside the door... Bang !! Yep my boy that's glass, hard and transparent ! It didn't take long for him to get use to windows, but the mirrors ... You just can tell what he's thinking, Oh cool! another greyhound, he looks just like me and he wants to play too !! Still to this day we are not certain he understand what he's seeing in the mirrors ...

Third : Food, you have to teach this dog that not all food in the house is for him. And that is pretty easy with a small or medium size dog. But with a very tall dog that's another story. See the back of Bentley is about 31 inches from the ground, taking into consideration that your standard dining table is around 30 inches tall. This dog has to look down on what's on the table and he does not have to stretch very high to see what's on the kitchen counter !! So the first few days you really have to re-think where you put anything containing food.

Four : Sleeping at night. Let me put you in context. Our bedroom is upstairs, the dog's crate is downstairs, he can't go up or down the stairway yet and this is a dog that never spent any time, especially at night, alone. So guess what.... The first few nights either my girlfriend or I slept on the coach !! But it didn't take long for Bentley to settle in and master the stairs and before we knew it he was sleeping on the floor, on a pile of pillows in our bedroom !

But on the other hand, within a couple days he was settled in. He was eating good, releaving himself outside, was getting pet by children on walks, we took him to friends houses to meet people and other dogs. He was so easy going that it felt like almost like he had been living with us for years ! He was really enjoying the begining of his retirement and we were very happy to have such a good calm dog that gets along with everybody !

Stay tune for part #3, when we become dog food and poop experts !!

Wordless Wednesday