Why sharing your life with dogs makes you smarter.

(Or, the alternate heading:  Why sharing your life with dogs can drive you to distraction and adult beverages.)

All of my dogs in my adult life have also been adults - or downright oldsters.  I LOVE me my oldster dogs.  Now I have a youngster - Lovey - and it is such a joy.  Until she shreds things.  And then.  Then there is Pepperoni.  NOT a youngster by any stretch of the imagination at age 13.  Minus 22 teeth.  But those remaining five teeth in his tiny noggin can do more damage than any puppy I've been up against.

Case in point - the Mouse Obsession Period.  That period when he ripped off (or gummed off, it was plenty soggy) a portion of the back of the couch skirting and chewed a lamp cord to bits.  He was a very lucky dog, in that it was plugged into the timer, so there was no juice with which to toast those five teeth.  Bugger.

I am sure it will come as no surprise to most of you that I was not inclined to replace my lamp, but to fix it.  I mean, how hard could it be?  I have numerous reference books on home repairs.  There is YouTube.  There is How-to-whatever.  I trotted off to Home Depot and bought a replacement cord.  It was over six bucks!  Really?

I then sat down to deconstruct the lamp.  I do have to admit that deconstructing stuff is way more fun than constructing it.  I have taken things apart gleefully since I was a kid.  Even the exploding golf ball didn't dampen my obsession.

A half hour later, I had managed to work my way through the lamp, using every screwdriver and wrench in my tool box.  I was following the cord, hoping to find the end where I could easily (cough) detach the chewed cord and attach the new one.  It was not easy.  This was because the lamp had been made in China for the new THROWITAWAY generation of Americans.  Pfft.  I had to cut the cord at the screw-on-thingy part (more tech-talk) and then go searching around for a replacement - I was determined not to spend another cent on this project.  I did finally find a replacement (of sorts) at my neighbor's.  He never throws anything away, thank goodness. 

I spent another hour, threading the new cord through the disassembled lamp, reassembling it as I went.  Paging carefully through my Readers Digest Home Repair Manual (thanks Mom and Dad), I was happy that the attachment looked easy.  Except for the fact that my replacement cord had no definition between silver and bronze (ground and live).  Sigh.  I looked at the package.  Made in China.  I took a technical leap (eeny, meeny, miney, moe....) and connected them.  Then I screwed in the bulb and plugged it in.  It lit!  So I finished my Jerry-rigged job and put the shade on and plugged it in.  It did NOT turn on.  I put it in the guest room to haul out for another day when I was feeling smarter.....

Oh, yum.

Excuse the pan - it's my most useful size
and I won't get rid of it.

Sometimes, being gluten free is not onerous.  Such as when I discovered these Blueberry Millet Muffins.  I used the last of the 2013 blueberries, the last two of my own eggs, my own raw milk yogurt and my new favorite grain: millet.  Or birdseed, as my neighbor pointed out.

These were the leftover batter muffins - it made about a dozen and a half, but these are large - and a chance to use an impulse purchase (fancy paper muffin cups).  For the rest, I used my can't-live-without silicone muffin cups.  I love them - easy to use, easy to clean, nothing heads to the landfill.

You can find the recipe here.   I used frozen blueberries, so my muffins have a lovely, sort of indigo undertone.  And indigo is my favorite color - next to any shade of green.  At first I thought having the raw millet interspersed in the muffin would be ... odd.  But I found that they lend a nice, satisfying, toothsome crunch.  (I love that word - toothsome - something that Pepper can only dream about.  I would think that "gumsome" would be more appropriate in his case.)

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Yesterday I spent driving my parents around.  My mother had her eye treatment for macular degeneration in the city, so we have a tradition (my family is BIG on traditions) of going to eat at their favorite Chinese restaurant, ordering the same thing for lunch each time, then off to the medical center we go.  Unfortunately, we are always WAY early.  This means the wait is longer than the usual long wait.  There is nothing that tries the patience (of me) more than to sit for over an hour with two people who look at their watches and comment about the wait every five seconds.  I brought knitting to create some Zen vibes for me.  Speaking of which, I have now completed all of the small-fry knitting with the exception of some embroidery work on the bonnet.  I will take a pic of what I have not already mailed.  And I am hoping that the recipients will turn a kind eye on the imperfections (....Wes....xoxo).

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I also squeezed in a much-needed haircut before picking up my parents.  And listened to the horrific account of her battle with a psycho husband over custody of their sons.  Good, goD.  The man is pure evil.  It made me appreciate even more, coming home to my dogs and cats.  At least there is no evil involved there, just the occasional cause-me-to-lose-my-mind thing.  Which, lately, has Pepper's little paw mark on it.

A few minutes after I got home (dark at 5:15), I got a call about joining friends at a book signing/reading in a nearby town.  Had I not been gone all day, I would have considered it, but I will not leave the dogs alone that long.  Plus, it was not an author who would make me consider an exception, as I find him to be one of those whiny types.  I almost reconsidered when I learned that he was bringing his dog, however.  You can see where my priorities lie.

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The weekend holds a crummy weather forecast, lots of outside chores (funny how the two seem to always go together...), dinner with my parents at their favorite restaurant, a long over-due Girls' Night get together (I'm bringing Pink Lemonade Vodka Jello Shots - I'm bad...), a hay delivery (hallelujah - let's hope it happens), and I finally tackle the beets.  Speaking of which - do any of you have suggestions on how to tackle a vole problem?  I have tried a few things, to no avail.  I am considering poisoning the buggers, but am leery about poison in the garden, even though it will be used sparingly and in tunnels, and a full six months before planting season.  I figure there is a wealth of knowledge and experience out there....

Switching Modes.

Before there is any of the "thank goodness for winter now I can sit and do all those fun things I've been dreaming of since the onset of spring" stuff, there is Autumn.  I think that, although it IS my favoritest season of all, Fall is the most stressful of them all.  The day shrinks, the weather stinks (hey!  I'm a poet and don't know it!  But my feet show it - they's longfellows...heehee) things ramp up at the office, and the Universe picks up on my angst and whaps me. 

If I let my guard down even for a teensy, weensy second, I pay for it.  Case in point:  As soon as August nears it's end, I start to winterize my car.  This involves strewing peppermint-infused cloth bits from head to tail light.  Mice look for winter lodgings early, I have found.  I did not do this.  So...one crawled up into somewhere (most likely involving the heating unit) and died.  It has taken weeks to get to the point where I don't have to drive with my windows down while breathing through my mouth.  I did discover a nice, cozy mouse nest in the spare tire well.  I over-pepperminted and now have to crack the windows so my nose doesn't burn. 

The chickens are winterized because they have not laid ONE SINGLE EGG in over 13 days.  I figured a light in the coop might help.  And while I was lighting their residence, I decided to hook up their waterer heater.  And put more shavings inside.  And feed them more.  Ingrates.

Next up are the sheep and llama-by-default.  I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning out the hay storage part of their barn and setting up a higher barrier so that Apria cannot get her three teeth on a hay bale and haul it down so they can all gorge (and get squashed in the process).  My attempts were met by eight hairy eyeballs and only time will tell if it will work.  It was good to get things organized, though, and the set up is much better.  I should be getting a load of hay next Saturday - we are ready!

The cover over my fuel oil tank needs replacing.  The sheep need more space for winter, which entails emptying and moving the double composter, removing the sheathing from that side of the barn, framing out another 10x8 foot space and getting it enclosed.  I need to finish cleaning out the garden.  I need to clean up the peonies, bee balm and hostas.  I need a new snow shovel.  I need to move the sheep feeder through three paddocks, all uphill.  I need another three months and someone else's bank account.

Since this is the season of stocking up and I am not one to be able to walk away from a bargain, no matter how insane it might be, I had stopped a a local farm and was getting some winter squash since I had none (and none of my neighbors had any, either), when I happened to see a sign for 50# of small cull winter potatoes for $12.  With a free pie pumpkin thrown in.  Did I need 50# of potatoes?  Why even ask.  They were in the back of my car before you could say "Bob's my uncle".  I portioned them out amongst friends and then took about 20 pounds to a food pantry just south of me.  It was such an educational visit.  The people sitting in the church kitchen waiting for their bags to be put together were exhausted.  Exhausted from poverty; exhausted from life.  I realized that I live in an area where people are very lucky if they can find employment or, even better, get out of Dodge and find more opportunities for a better life.  I am darn lucky to have the wherewithal to grow my own food or, for that matter, to be able to own a car to drive to somewhere and buy local.  As you know, I am very big on buying/eating local.  I figured it was high time to put my money where my mouth is, so I drove back up to the farm and got another 50# of potatoes.  It's the best I can do because, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I have way more mouth than money....

My Favorite Yarn.

I finally got my act together and took a quick snap of three of the 7 (8?) skeins I got from my DS, Melanie.  Her business is called "Dyenamics Yarn" and it is all hand-dyed.  In the MOST luscious colors.  I am very lucky in that I can text her and ask when the yarn store is open.  Then I zip over and fall upon the tubs of glorious colors.  I am hoping that, by opening nagging her, I will move her along towards getting her Etsy shop up so that everyone can partake of this yarny goodness.
(I am done now, Mel...for now...)

These skeins are all superwash merino.  She also has lovely natural wool from her Shetland sheep, some beautiful white Cormo yarn (worsted?) and tons of wonderful self-striping sock yarn. 

L to R - Starry Starry Night, Ivy and Iris

Since I am trying to be disciplined (never an easy task) and check off at least one item a day from the dreaded List, I will try to take a pic of my pile 'o knitting projects. before I send them all off.  Three went out in the post last week and I am hoping to get the last two mailings out this next week.  I have a mighty Chilly Dog waiting for his sweater....

Got Quirks?

Hoo boy, do I!  This weekend proved a disaster to my pre-winter outside prep work, thanks to cold drizzle or downright rain all weekend.  I did manage to knock a few things off the list, but very few.  Instead, I focused on inside work.  As I was out of granola again, that moved to the top of my list.  And, in the process, I managed to sort through, rearrange, toss out, and organize my dried stuff.  I found a small jar of dried strawberries and tons of dried apples.  Into the granola they went.

The quirky part of all this blah-blah-blah, is that I hate mixing the granola.  HATE it.  Because the only way I can make it the way I like it (with clumpy little bits of peanut butter), is to mix it with my hands.  I suffer from some kind of hand-phobia-thingy.  If I have to mix anything with my hands that may stick to my hands, I end up - after about one minute - running to the sink, holding my hands up, crying "ACK! ACK! ACK!" or something similar.  I cannot wait to get whatever it is off my hands.  You can imagine how long it takes me to mix up a meatloaf.  It's weird.  But, what is even weirder is that I discovered that I do not have the same reaction if I only mix whatever with one hand.  If one hand stays coating-free, I am fine.  Call the "head" doctor!

Mostly yesterday, though, I played hooky from my list and I knitted.  And knitted.  I have, so far, finished two pixie hats, a baby bonnet, a pair of fingerless mitts, and am zeroing in on another tot hat with earflaps and ties.  To go - another bonnet and another earflap hat.  I am a knitting fool.  This is abetted by my new stash of my favorite yarn - "Dye-namics" - from my DS Melanie!  I am going to take a picture of the remaining skeins and post them - her colorways are wonderful and she has the most wonderful sock-weight yarn that is between sport and fingering.  My mother (91 and still an avid sock-knitter) will only knit with Melanie's yarn.  I was very excited to hear that she is (finally) putting up an Etsy site.  Which I will plug mercilessly because A) she is my DS and I love her; B) her yarn is the BEST; and C) her colors and self-stripers are amazing.  And it's all hand-dyed and reasonably priced.  Who could ask for more?  No one.

A Sorry State of Affairs.

I awoke yesterday morning without a voice.  This shouldn't be much of a problem, except for my Alvin and the Chipmunks routine.  The dogs stared in disbelief when I let out my breathy squeaks.  Then they ignored me.  I took a sick day and managed to slog around, downing cups of sick tea, Emergen-C, and water.  I also managed to finish knitting a toddler pixie hat, planted my winter peas, albeit not as many as I had hoped, since I pooped out quickly, and dry canned beans.  

That last little item is such a lifesaver! I had thought that I had to pre-soak the beans before I canned them and never remembered to.  Then my friend Jane from the late and lamented blog, Hard Work Homestead, clued me in.  These little pints of beans will be so useful!

I woke up this morning with a little more basso in my breathy squeak, but whatever reserves I had were used up within the first hour at work.  I am back to silence.  The dogs are still happy.  Especially Pepper, who now feels he has a reason for not responding....

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Another sad state of affairs is the total lack of basic living skills had by many young people.  The young fellow with whom I work draggled in to show me his new winter coat (made in China) that he had purchased five days ago.  The buttons were already working themselves loose.  And he had no idea how to fix them.  None.  Nor, apparently, did his girlfriend.  Sigh.  I battened them down and told him that I was going to make him (and his girlfriend) a sewing kit and would teach him how to use it.  I mean....really.

Close Encounters of the Wild Kind.

Now that the days contain three hours of light...our morning constitutional is taken in the very early dawn.  Lovey is not fond of the darkish.  We totter down the steps from the front deck to the path, scattering rabbits in every direction.  Scrappy is not interested in wildlife.  Lovey is too spooked to care and I have a firm grip on "Killer's" leash.  All 10 lbs of him.

The road is nice and quiet and the sheep - for a change - just stare at us without bleating.  Our first encounter this morning involved a good-sized black and white 'kitty'.  Not.  Pepe le Pew was about 30 feet in front of us, waddling across the road.  Knowing that I did not have to fear some lunacy from Scrappy or Lovey, I scooped up "Jaws" and waited politely until PleP was well out of sight.  Down went "Snapper" and off we went, Lovey glued to my ankles.  The rest of the walk was uneventful, until we turned to head back home.

A very, very large coyote came out of the field and stopped in the middle of the road and stared at us.  Once again, I scooped up the "Morsel on a Leash", this time with Lovey AND Scrappy stuck to my side, and waited politely.  For a long time.  I swear he was waiting for me to blink.  I didn't.  He finally ambled across the road and up the hill into the woods.  We waited for another long moment before we started off.  I did not put the morsel down until we were on our driveway.

Wow.

*You will notice that Pepper/Pepperoni/Killer/Snapper/Jaws/Stinky/HeyYou has many aliases.