Author: Soda Mountain Enterprises

I'm back! Working toward an online presence and local appointments. Still a great selection of just about everything you need and didn't know you need :)

Categories
collars, leads, & harnesses dogs

College Collars

Uh-oh. Did I say three months for collegiate collars? Apparently I meant seven months. Well, maybe five. I ordered them in May, they arrived in June, and I think I got them hung up before the Fourth of July Flea Market.

I have 1″ wide, 4′ long leads in each of the three colleges (U of Oregon, Oregon State, and Boise State). The collars are adjustable, with small and medium 3/4″ wide, large and extra large 1″ wide, and extra extra large 1-1/2″ wide. Smalls are 8-1/2 to 12-1/2″, mediums 11-1/2 to 17-1/2″, larges 13 to 21″, extra larges 16 to 27″, and xxl 20-1/2 to 35″. Unfortunately for Duck fans with small dogs, they didn’t send Duck smalls. More uh-oh.

These collars are made right here in Oregon.

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Categories
collars, leads, & harnesses dogs

Collar the Culprit!

January 2016

Collars are probably the most basic cat or dog accessory. I’m doing year-end inventory, and am realizing that if you came to visit, oh, the collars you’d see.

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Just in the dog section of collars, there’s nylon, leather, metal, and neoprene.

In the nylon collars, Soda Mountain carries single-ply and double-thick solid colors with metal buckles in orange, red, green, purple, pink, blue, black, and a smattering of others; adjustable-length collars in patterns (more than a dozen patterns) with side-release plastic buckles and solid colors (mostly orange, red, and hot pink at this time) with metal buckles; jeweled, and spiked (black or pink). The smallest the nylon collars are able to go is 6″. The largest, 36″.

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Reflex leads

In leather, we have flat, rolled, and spiked, all in basic black with metal buckles. The flat latigo range from a small of 8″ to a large of 24″. The rolled leather collars are 24″ or 26″. Spiked leather comes in 8″ to 30″.

Of course, the metal tend to be choke collars. Those range from 10″ long in fine weight to 30″ long in extra-heavy weight. Also in metal are the pinch, or training, collars. They look brutal, but they’re actually safer for a dog’s windpipe than a choke chain. Soda Mountain recently added easy-on training collars. These have side-release buckles to make it easier to slide the collar over a dog’s head.

Other types of choke collars are a soft nylon cord (below, on left with metal chokes and easy-on training collar), or a check-choke, also known as a martingale. A dog’s martingale is very different from a horse’s (below, right).

Finally, the neoprene. These we carry in red, black, blue, pink camo, and green camo. The small adjusts from 13.5-15.5″ and the extra-large from 21-24.5″.

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I’ve recently found a supplier with collegiate licenses, so we’ll be adding Ducks, Beavers, and Broncos to the mix within the next three months.

Go, Team! Collar those Culprits!

Categories
pet products

Winterizing Your Best Friend

Raise of hands here – how many of you go for winter walks without shoes? How many would agree that ice and snow are not good on bare feet?

Now, have you ever considered that your dog – ever ready as they might be to go for a walk with you – has to walk on freezing snow in their bare feet while you are wearing your warm, dry, comfortable snow boots?

We don’t intend to lay a guilt trip on you here – but we would like to let you know that we have something that would probably make you a hero in your dog’s eyes – not that you aren’t their favorite hero already!  :)

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We have four different brands of dog shoes in sizes that range from extra-extra small to extra large.

Also for your dog’s feet – paw oil. We have a selection of special oils that you can rub into your dog’s feet for extra protection against snow and ice.

Now that we’ve got you thinking about protecting your dog’s feet – why stop there?

We just happen to have a wide variety of products that will keep your dog comfortable all winter ~ here are just a few ideas – stop in the store to see the wide selection of dog clothes we have!

For those of you who might be looking for a Christmas present for your special friend – we offer free gift wrapping in the store!

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If your dog or cat is at the top of your Christmas list, then we suggest you stop at Soda Mountain Pet Supplies while in Sumpter this Christmas season ~

Don’t forget – your furry friend gets a free treat when they bring their owners with them to the store! 🙂

Fur Fun Dog Show at Soda Mountain Pet Supplies in Sumpter Oregon

Soda Mountain Pet Supplies

 

 

Categories
dogs Sumpter Flea Markets

Furry Friends and Wagging Tails

One of the things we like most about the Flea Markets in Sumpter….is the relaxed nature of such a large event in such a small town. How many flea markets have you been to where atvs and dogs are allowed?

It’s all smiles when the dogs come to town and bring their owners with them!

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Here are a few of our favorite furry photos from the

2013 Labor Day Sumpter Flea Market for you to enjoy……

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The flea markets are over for the season….but don’t forget that your four legged friend gets a free treat when they come into the store (we like it when they bring a human friend with them of course)  🙂

Here are the 2014 Flea Market dates…..

Memorial Day ~ May 23rd – 26th

Independence Day ~ July 4th – 7th

Labor Day ~ Aug 29th – Sept 1st

Learn more about the Sumpter Flea Markets here.

Categories
non-fiction wild plants

Wild Plants: Currants & Locoweed

On the drive into Baker City last Tues (7 May 2013), I noticed the yellow-flowering currant were starting to bloom in the gorge. On the way back, the patch of locoweed at the base of the dam hill caught my eye. As I neared Sumpter, I saw squaw currant blooming. On Fri the 10th, it was the serviceberry blooms in the gorge that were new. I think SPRING has hit Hwy 7!

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This yellow-flowering currant (Ribes aureum) lives at The Grounds in Sumpter, OR. Yellow-flowering’s ripe fruit is purple. As with most currants, the fruits are great autumn food for birds and mammals. People can use the fruits for jams, jellies, and pemmican. Currants are part of the currant family.

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There is a wide variety of locoweed across the sagebrush steppe of eastern Oregon and southern Idaho. This coiled locoweed (Astragalus curvicarpus) is one of the medium-sized locoweeds, which are part of the pea family. The specific species was determined once the seed pods appeared.

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This squaw currant (Ribes cereum) lives in my back yard in Sumpter, OR. Squaw currant can be found all over Sumpter and along all the roads leading in and out of Sumpter. Squaw currant’s ripe fruit is red and too seedy to be of as much use to people as the fruit of other currants. On the USDA database, you find it listed as wax currant.

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This serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) shrub is near the entrance to McCully’s Fork Campground on the highway from Sumpter to Granite. Serviceberry is also known as juneberry and shadbush. It is part of the rose family, making it a cousin to the currants, as both the rose and currant families belong to the rose order. Native Americans had a wide number of uses for serviceberry fruit, bark, and wood.

Categories
non-fiction wild plants

Wildflower: Glacier Lily

Glacier lily (Erythronium grandiflorum), also sometimes identified as deer tongue, is a member of the lily family. As the widow grass at Sumpter’s corner of Climax and Auburn was finishing up in the third week of April (2013), the deer tongue were showing up. That corner’s a bit sunny and dry, though, and the flower does better in a shadier, cooler meadow setting.

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Categories
pet products

Dog Toy: Bottle Buddies

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An oft-requested product is “that toy you can put your own water bottle in.” Here at Soda Mountain, those are represented by Bottle Buddies, made by Kyjen. Facial features are applied to the plush fabric with satin stitching. As long as the fabric holds up, you keep putting in an empty water bottle for renewed crinkling and crackling.

Categories
non-fiction wild plants

Wildflower: Widow Grass

April 8, 2013

Today’s wildflower is widow grass, also known as grass widow, Latin name Sisyrinchium angustifolium. It is a member of the Iris family and is closely related to prairie blue-eyed grass. One glance at the photo below and you can see why “grass” appears in the flower’s name. This specimen was photographed right in Sumpter, OR, April 2012. It is one of Sumpter’s first spring wildflowers.

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Categories
store history

The Birth of a Store

Once upon a time there was a single mom looking for a way to get out of the house. Her favorite pet store was looking for a part-time worker to clean cages. All right!

But she was too competent for her own good. She put away stock, then she moved up to pricing stock, then she moved up to ordering stock. In order to help her boss lose less money, she became operating partner and bought half the store. Her former boss adopted a child then got pregnant. Now the women had to decide whether or not to lock the children in a closet so the store could become all they wanted it to be.

They sold the store, each ending up with about a third of the inventory after the new owner sorted out what it wanted to keep. At that time, the woman’s parents were in charge of Flea Market vendors in her hometown of Sumpter, OR. What could be easier than renting some sales space to get rid of pet supplies while mooching room and board off of Mom and Dad?

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This worked well for a while, but sales slowed. The woman’s dad said, “You’d probably be able to sell this boutiquey stuff if you added some regular stuff around it.” So she did.

The tent got bigger and fancier. The woman’s daughter grew and got older. The woman really wanted to move back to her hometown, and eventually the day came when she could. She purchased her grandmother’s home from her estate and a building to put all the pet supplies in. Real walls! No more unpacking and packing. The business that was registered in 2001 and came out of storage three times a year found a permanent home; the official opening of the new space was March 18, 2010.

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May 22, 2011