Hello, My name is…

My name is Jeanie, and I am a procrastinator. For the last six to eight weeks I have THOUGHT about blog posts, but obviously have not written and posted one. We have had a lot going on at the place hub calls ‘Rancho Babbage’.

There was a cougar siting.

I was in the family room, and saw this creature through the window. I grabbed my camera and shot some pictures through the window, but since he was not in a hurry to leave, I went outside and shot some more. It wasn’t as foolhardy as it sounds as there was a fence and a creek between us. I just wasn’t sure anyone would believe me without pictures!

We celebrated the boys’ birthdays the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Younger son brought remote control cars to play with.

Granddaughter showed off her walking skills.

She has almost outgrown the sweater I made for her!

We put in a driveway from the house to the barn. Next comes more fencing.

We got ready for Christmas with a small tree

I didn’t get too carried away with decorating this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there was the injured Ike. Tina had broken a casserole dish she was trying to take outside. She carried pieces out instead. Ike stepped on a large piece and slashed his toe. Trying to keep his dressing clean and dry has been a real challenge in our rainy part of the world.

 

And of course there has been knitting.

There was a dress for Tesla…

 

 

And gifts for her parents that I never photographed.

There was the hat that she seems to love. She has put it on by herself most everyday since she got it. It is Cat Bordhi’s ‘Anemone Hat’. There were several gift items that I never managed to get pictures of before they went away. Other than that, life has been pretty routine around here. It is nice that life is fairly calm as I really could use a quiet time!

Saying Good-bye to Lucy

Lucy joined our family in 2001. She was a stray, hanging around the shop where hub worked. But there was a big problem. The company was moving, and soon. A lot of the employees had been feeding her and no one wanted to abandon her. So she spent time with several different households, but for one reason or another she was denied a forever home.

When hub talked about a trial at our house, I insisted that she be given a fair chance. I found out that at all the other homes she had only had a night or two. I told hub that she got a month to prove to our resident dogs that she would fit. At the time, we had Scruffy and Jethro. Scruffy was a 10 pound wonder of mixed breed, who was about 13 years old. Jethro was a Rottweiler/ German Shepard mix at about 4 years old. He weighed about 90 pounds and Scruffy had raised him from a pup. They got along very well, and we weren’t sure how a middle sized adult dog would fit in. But we shouldn’t have worried. After a few days, it was hard to remember a time without Lucy.

Fast forward to 2010, and Lucy is the only dog in the house.  Scruffy had lived to be 18, and Jethro had made it to 13. When we got Lucy, the vet had estimated her age at 4 to 5 years old, so she was about 14 and showing it. She also seemed lonely without Jethro. So that summer we were going to get her a puppy. It had worked for Scruffy, after all. Plus I knew it would be easier on me if I already had a dog in the house when Lucy’s time came.  So entered Ike and Tina.

And Lucy helped teach them good puppy manners. Although she was getting slow and grumpy, she handled the pups very well.

She also started taking meds for her aches and pains and seemed to be doing fine.

But now the pain meds aren’t working, and Lucy is crying a lot. She wakes up yelping when she moves, and has a lot of trouble going outside. She’s not eating much, and just seems miserable. Hub insists that it is time. I guess I agree, because she doesn’t seem to have good days any more. We are down to good minutes. But it is hard to say good-bye…

 

I try

I try to post, but life keeps getting in the way. While that is no excuse, (I know plenty of bloggers post through floods and hurricanes) it is what it is.

We attended Tesla’s first birthday party at her other grandmother’s house. People were fun, food was good and the baby was ADORABLE! She doesn’t crawl, she uses one leg to scoot her bum over to where she wants to be. So funny to watch. She had her very own cake.

And she often has a serious look on her face. She does smile and laugh, but when she is pondering the world…

Then I saved my energy for Sock Summit 2011. That was held here in Portland over the weekend of my 59th birthday. I met so many wonderful people. I attended a few classes and learned a lot! I also got thoroughly exhausted. At least the weather was nice and I didn’t melt. (I also bought more yarn, but don’t tell anybody).

August was all about the house. Since the MS troubles got worse a couple of years ago, the housework has gotten away from me. I did what I could, and then I called a local service and they came in and did a deep clean. The kitchen and baths sparkle. The rest of the house is better. They will be back to do the carpets and some other things I need done.

Through it all, I have been knitting. There was a pair of socks for Tesla.

And a pair for me.

I am also working on a baby sweater

And a shawl!

All in all, I’VE BEEN BUSY THIS SUMMER!

I’ve finally realized that life doesn’t slow down when you get older, it whizzes by, and if you aren’t careful you can miss a lot!

 

Time flies when…

I know it has been quite a while. I promised myself that this was not going to be the place where I whine. Since that’s all I wanted to do for a few months, I have been quiet.
But now I’m back!
What I was afraid might be more MS problems turned out to be a bulging disc in my neck. I’m not sure how that will work out. The problem with my eyes might be glaucoma. More testing is scheduled. We will see.
Now for the good news. Tesla will have her 1st birthday tomorrow.

C and H have been able to take her to work with them and all has been working well so far.
The pups are also a year old. They still keep us very busy.

In June I went to Arizona for the first time. I attended a family reunion, and saw people I hadn’t seen in 40-50 years. I also met many for the first time.  Despite the 100° F temperatures a good time was had by all. I didn’t even get sunburned!

There were many who couldn’t attend. I look forward to meeting them at the next reunion.

At the end of this month is another large gathering. This time it is Sock Summit 2011. Knitters from all over will be descending on Portland Oregon for classes, lectures and just plain fun. Oh, and YARN! Vendors from all over will be here. I have been saving my pennies.

It has been a year!!!

Whe I started this one year ago, I had no idea where it would lead. I was posting for myself and not sure anyone else would be interested. It was a pleasant surprise to find out others cared what I had to say.

It took a whole month for these buds that I mentioned on February 18th

to blossom into these blooms on March 18th.

The whole month of March was cool and wet.  We had one day without measurable rain. Our soil is mostly clay so everything is a muddy mess.

Tina is spending a lot of days looking out the window.

She has figured out she can jump the front fence and visit the dogs across the road. As it is a very busy road, this is unacceptable behavior and she is only allowed outside on leash until the problem is solved. That means their play inside is rowdier but we are coping.

I will have pictures as soon as I get a new cord for my camera. There will be pictures of knitting then as well.  The cord died on March 18th and I still haven’t replaced it. Soon, I promise!

What a difference six

What a difference six months makes.  When Ike and Tina joined us I knew they would grow, of course. I had no idea just how beautiful they would become.

Tina weighed about 5 pounds when she joined us. She is now a beautiful young lady at 30 pounds. She has such a regal bearing, it is hard to realize she is such a brat  Tina is the one who climbs on cars…

I’m glad it is an older car. Hub isn’t pleased, but he’s not ready to kill her! (yet!)

Then we have Ike! He, too, was about five pounds we he came home. He is now over 40 pounds and all muscle.

Ike must be part hound dog, with that hangdog look. He always seems so pitiful But he is so cuddly and sweet.

This one is all about the dogs. The next post will be the knitting.

…but we didn’t get winter!!!

We had a few days of below freezing weather, but honestly, we didn’t really have winter yet and the plants think it is spring.

The daffodils and narcissus want to open up!

It won’t be long!  The tulips are trying to get my attention, as well!

Even the roses think spring has arrived!

Usually when all this happens the fruit trees bud and then we have a very hard freeze. There have been recent years where we haven’t had any apples, pears or grapes to speak of.

Lets hope nature is kind this year.

There must be a warp…

in the space/time continuum. It seems like just last week I posted about…

Oh well, it is what it is. I have been plagued with either one heck of a virus that never completely goes away, or I have encountered every single one out there this year.  I don’t remember a winter so bad, and it’s not over yet.

I have been knitting a bit. I am halfway on this gift.

I really do need to learn how to do the color corrections. The brown is much darker and richer than shows up here.

I only need to sew on the buttons on this cute cardigan for Tesla.

The Ella Funt pattern is so cute. The color work is in Angora.

There are socks, as usual. These were just finished as part of a KAL.

A lot of the people in the group decided they hated the twisted stitch pattern. I rather enjoyed it, but I am perverse that way.

There are several other things going that are either secret or I don’t have pictures yet.

The puppies are growing fast and keeping me busy. They are 7 months old now.  Ike was neutered last month (Tina was done before Christmas) and the are licensed and legal. They are busy excavating the back yard.  They seem to be after our huge population of voles, but they have yet to catch one.

Lucy is fairly tolerant of the kids.

Is it really 2011?

It is hard to believe that I haven’t been here for over a month.  I am amazed at how easy it is to put things off.   I have no excuses.

2010 brought many new things to my life.  For one thing, this blog was born in March.  I had no idea where I wanted to go with it, or if anyone would read my musings.  But I figured that even if I was the only one to read it I would enjoy it.

April and June were spent getting my crafts room in order.  The flood damage was repaired, flooring and paint applied, and with help from a friend the room was put back together.

I was surprised to find things that had been missing for years.

The most important change was the birth of our first grandchild.  Tesla was born on the fourth of  July (have I heard that somewhere before?) and she is delightful!

She is growing so fast! Her parents are doing a wonderful job with her.

I went to my 40 year high school reunion in August.  I made contact with a lot of wonderful friends, and hope to keep in touch with them.

Among the costliest changes of 2010 was the addition of two more family members.  At the suggestion of a very good friend (xoxoxo Thanks Susan!) I went to look at a litter of Border Collie puppies.  I had mentioned to her that I was looking for a pup, she knew someone who had pups!  Perfect, right!

I fell in love so Ike and Tina came home with me.

They are busy, smart, lovable and growing too fast.  They were 5 lbs apiece when I got them and they are now 30 and 36 lbs.  They also eat chairs!

I’m learning a lot pups and boundaries!

There has also been an amazing amount of knitting this past year.  From baby clothes to test knits, my needles were rarely idle.

I’m not much for resolutions, but I plan on having a very productive 2011!  Come along on my journey!

No knitting here today

You may or may not remember that I had a virus a while back.  Well either it is back with a vengeance, or I have a new one.  You know the drill; runny nose, sore throat, body aches, sleep problems.  I just want to curl up and be pampered.  But this is real life. It’s just not going to happen.  For one thing, Hub doesn’t feel any better than I do.  And, as he is very quick to remind me, HE still goes to work everyday.

I haven’t been able to convince him that sometimes it is better to just hide and let your body work at getting over what ever bug you are dealing with.  I don’t even try to talk to him about the poor etiquette involved in sharing said bug.

The puppies seem to know what I’m talking about.  I was cold.  I was curled up with an old crocheted afghan.  Tina joined me.  WARM!

I spent the morning reading other people’s blogs and twitter feeds.

I did NOT wash dishes!

I did NOT do laundry!

I did NOT clean the very dirty, puppy-slimed floors!

I sat.  It is now almost time for hub to come home from spreading  his version of this virus, and still I sit.  I think I will open a can of soup for dinner !

I did go outside for a while today.  There has been digging going on.  The pups come in with muddy feet and noses.  I needed to investigate.

They are digging to CHINA!!!!

Each hole is 12 to 18 inches deep!  They are in a cluster in the side yard.

I know these are the holes the pups have dug.

Then there are these.

These are mounds left by some other enterprising mammal.  Maybe the pups aren’t trying to dig to China after all.  I have not seen these other mammals (and they really must be mammals, right?) but it could be that Ike and Tina smell them and hear them and just want to play!

While I was out I discover that we also have fungi.

There are several clusters all around the house.  I picked this one to dry because it was huge and pretty.