Duelin’ Deals Blog by Marlaine

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh spring is here.
The birds are singing….
The grass is growing….
The air is fresher….
And Gypsy is dropping fur like a buffalo!
Sigh………… time to brush her out.

But here’s a tip. I try to brush her outside. Not only does it save me house work in the long run, the creatures outside use at least some of it, too! Rabbits and birds use it for nests. The rest of it ends up breaking down into the ground, fertilizing the grass.

When I used to live out in the country and we raised German Shepherds for show, the comb out jobs were a regular event and with quite a few dogs. We usually had two dogs in the house at a time, so those dogs were always the flag dogs that let us know when all the rest of the dogs would be shedding. Most of the top show dogs usually dropped the extra fur from the regular grooming they got. Giving a dog a bath triggers the shed response and regular baths keep them from building up so much at once. Unfortunately, Gypsy is a coated German Shepherd – meaning she has longer and thicker fur that the normal fur type of Shepherd. Even though my arms get exhausted from brushing her, I have gotten to like that fluffy fur and I wouldn’t give up my fur ball dog for anything!

We had 10 acres out there so it was no big deal to leave a mound of fur on the lawn. It is amazing how fast that mound of fur disappears though, even when there is no wind! More proof that nature is taking advantage of what it finds. After all – one person’s trash is another person’s …. what? (Talk about the times changing, I just though Identity Theft instead of Treasure!) I will admit to slinking out of sight now when I see our neighbors (who even sweep their glass clippings off their driveway to make things look perfect) outside, and I know it looks like a dead thing is laying out there – snicker!

But……
Why bag the hair up in a plastic bag so it can not decompose, can not be used by anything else and will be preserved for 50 years in a land fill? It will quickly blow away and be spread naturally. Yes, even if the mound of hair actually looks big enough to be a deer laying there. If you spread it around a little yourself, it will disappear even faster. If you cut the grass and run the lawn mover over it, it will get into the ground even faster and help improve the grass.

I have to add a warning here though, do not leave long hair out there for nests. I used to think that brushing my hair outside and then pulling the hair from the brush for the yard creatures was great for nest building. Noooooooooo! One of my indoor baby finches almost choke to death on one of my hair…… The mama bird used some of the comb out I put in the bottom of their cage. The poor baby was trying to fly but had that long hair around it’s neck. Good thing I watch my creatures all the time! The mama raised the alarm and I went to see what was wrong immediately and untangled the baby.

Even though I have a vacuum cleaner, I often sweep the house – and sweep the dirt and hair right out the side door. That’s another thing that can be better used outside rather than in a plastic garbage bag in a land fill for eternity! Yes, I pick out the pieces of whatevers that are not organic and put them in a garbage bag – but geezzzzzzz………. I also have cats that are shedding and the birds drop feathers… why not sweep that all outside? AND, of course, they say most of the dirt in our houses are sloughed off skin cells. What could be more organic?

So sweep it out into the open and let it blow away!
I wish you a breezy day!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 2:14 am and filed under Animal Care, Gypsy Stuff, Tips and Tweeks. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.