Responsibilities

Penny & Sal are fed twice a day, usually around 6:00 am (or when you get up) and 4:00pm. Treats are o.k. but not too many, because Sally tends to gain weight, especially when it's not hunting season. Brushes are in the green cabinet in living room. If it's muddy outside, you can pop them in the dog shower by the back door. It has a spray hose to get just the legs, or belly, or do the whole body spa. Towels for them are worn-looking & mixed in with the others in cabinet above stairwell. Daily exercise is key for these two characters! At a minimum, 2 hours outside with you each day! Sally especially tends to wait to poop until you take her out, so if you can get them out around 8 or 8:30, that would be ideal. I will provide options for places to go in the area so you'll be able to experience the beauty of the Black Hills every day! Our yard has an underground fence with collars. When out in the forest, they will stay close, but should they wander out of your view, they also come to four short blasts of the whistle. As a rule, we don't let either of them eat bones, which they are very good at finding when out hiking in the forest. They are both very social beings and love to play with people. At night, Penny approaches Greg with a stuffed bear and nudges him, then goes into a crouch, expecting a chase to begin. So around they go, and then Sal gets a teddy and joins in. Sal mostly will want you to play tug with her and rumble with Sal when she streaks by, but eventually Sally rolls over on her back and wants you to rub her belly while trying to grab her teddy bear every so often. And so it goes.... They love Happy Hour and they sit down and pay attention, because they know they get hor d'oeuvres! For them, that's usually crackers split in fourths or pieces of tortilla chips. It's our thing, though, so if you enjoy a beer before dinner, do plan on having some extra chips nearby! They also love watching TV in the basement with us during the evening. Penny usually settles in between us on the double recliner. We do have multiple gardens growing in the summer. The big one has a hail screen, drip hoses on a timer and an electric fence. The others are watered with a regular hose, which can be positioned and left to spray for 15 minutes in the various parts of the gardens. We have an energy efficient wood burning fireplace and we heat with it all winter. We invite you to do the same. Additional heating options are installed: the basement has thermostats in each bedroom and a single unit on a remote control, just like the ones in the master bedroom and living room. Bathrooms have floor heat. We also have three units for cooling. With a log home and the basement cooling system, we don't use it much. The basement is always cool. On the main floor, we find that if we open up the windows in the evening, we awaken to a comfortably cool home that stays that way throughout the day. We encourage energy conservation by hanging laundry on the deck rails and/or clothes line all year-round here. We rarely use our electric dryer and find that folding laundry out on deck as the sky changes colors at night to be a very enjoyable experience!