My iPhone is in a bag of rice.

[Bonnie and Kona]

My husband is in Ethiopia. He has been instrumental in getting a well drilled in a small village about four hours south of Addis Ababa. I encouraged him to go on this trip with me six years ago, and he has gone back every year since. He has the expertise to help this group of villagers. They live in small round dung and straw huts. They had to walk 3 hours a day to get water. Now they have a well and a large garden watered by drip irrigation at the school that an Ethiopian charitable organization built. This year he is hoping to get some of the villagers to put gardens next to their huts using a bucket-fed drip irrigation system.

Since DH is the major dog exerciser here, running them to the park for a romp and back home every morning, my DD and I are in big trouble. Both dogs require lots of exercise. Since they are 85 and 70 pounds, a little bit of fetch in our back yard doesn't do it. Owen is only one year old and a ball of rocket-fueled energy. In my DH's absence, DD and I have taken the boys to a school field a few evenings and to a dog park that is open from 8-10 am. It's hardly scratching the surface of their exercise needs. Last night my big boy just stood and stared at me over and over. When I told him "No, Kona" he moved over to my DD and stared at her. The little one was just bouncing off the walls doing everything from zoomies to biting on Kona.

In a moment of desperation, my DD and I loaded the doodles into the car and headed to an unlit elementary school with a huge field. To exercise the dogs my DD stands at one end of the field, and I run to the other end yelling, "Let's go! Come on, let's go!" They race past me. Then my DD calls them (with treats in her hand) and they race back to her. I have no treats so I then run again calling them and they race to me. This works pretty well until you factor in that in a different area of the field is an unfriendly group of dog owners with their dogs. I think if it were lights around the field they might be friendlier but in the pitch dark, not so much. Owen hears a dog bark and high-tails it over to the group of dogs and owners. If someone is barking it must be a party, right? This happens several times. Grumbling from the cranky dog owner convinces me we should corrale the doods and head for home. When we get settled in the car, I discover that I have dropped my iPhone somewhere in this giant field. We lock the doors of the car and my DD and I head back to the field. She calls my phone repeatedly. I am positive it is on silent. We search and search.  The other dogs have all gone home. We decide it is hopeless.

This morning, at what we thought would be the crack of dawn, we get up, feed the dogs and wait for first light. Dawn is no longer at 6:30, who knew? We decide to get coffee to kill time until dawn shows up. When we get to the field I have a plan to cover every square inch of the field, systematically walking back and forth until we find the phone. I spent much of my sleepless night devising this incredible and full-proof system. After walking the width of the field one time, we turn to head the other direction. There is the Phone! I immediately plunge it into a bag of rice to dry out since it was sitting in a thick layer of dew. Ecstatic we head home, load the doodles into the car and drive to the dog park to celebrate. Owen gets completely exhausted chasing after any dog that will play, and Kona has a pleasant saunter around the field. By the time we leave Owen is a chocolate colored doodle instead of cream but relaxed (we think). We get home, go inside and look out the window to see that Owen has black dirt up to his elbows from digging to China in the back corner of the yard.

I will find out at the crack of dawn if my phone still works giving it a full 24 hours in the bag of rice.

Good thing my DH returns tomorrow.

 

The rice worked perfectly. The phone is saved, and so is my bacon. (as in, You saved my bacon!)

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Yes, I could. My dogs are perfectly behaved ( cough cough )

[Bonnie and Kona]

I would call you Joanne if I had your phone number. I am sure you would have excellent advice on how to handle my MONSTER dood. My DH called this morning from Washington DC. He's back in the states! Yea!

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

YIPPIE!~  CALL ME.  LOL

Hoping your husband has a safe trip home also

[Bonnie and Kona]

UPDATE: The phone works! Oh happy day!

[Pat and Traveler]

Challenging times for all of you!  Hope your phone will be okay.  Loved the description of adventures with the doods--very vivid!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

OH>>>I didn't know the bag of rice trick when I dropped my phone out of my back pocket into the toilet! I wonder if that would have worked? I probably wouldn't have used it after that anyway.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Wow how exciting!!!! DH is going to leave it up to you and DD from now on! I bet that's much more happening than when he goes! LOL! Glad you found the phone-does it work???

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

What an adventure!  I sure hope that the bag of rice works.  We had a guest drop one into our pool and even though we got it right out - did the whole rice thin it never worked again.  Yours should though as it was not a total drenching.  Glad to hear that dh will be home soon!

[Nancie & Gracie Doodle]

I bet your phone will be just fine.  My daughter lost hers in a field in the mountains last Christmas when she had to get out of the car to relieve herself.  She didn't go far off the road and since I was driving I remembered where I had stopped.  We got home later and no iPhone.  It had slipped out of her back pocket of her jeans when she pulled them down.  During the night it had rained and she thought DH and I were crazy the next morning when we hopped in the car and headed back up to the mountains to look for her phone.  Amazingly enough I pulled up exactly where I parked, got out of the car and started walking toward the area where she had squatted.  There it was with the sun shining on the case.  It was upside down and wet.  It was also dead so I plugged it in when I got in the car and charged it for a while and it is still working a year later!!!  I'm sure yours will be just fine!

[Bonnie and Kona]

Thank you, F.