Dog Feathers

Back in 1967 Russ and I bought a Great Dane puppy.  Her name was Bridget.  She was a really big puppy too.  When we brought her home at six weeks old she was already bigger than my miniature poodle, Pierre.  Bridget grew so fast you could almost see her getting taller by the minute.  


As most puppies are, Bridget was quite the chewer.  Anything left on the floor was fair game to her.  We learned to put our shoes, socks, clothes, toys and anything else up high enough so she couldn't reach it.  We did lose a few things along the way though.


Once when I was getting dinner I put the food on the table and went to get Russ and the kids to eat.  Kristin was only two and Jeff was four.  We sat down at the table and I started to fill plates when I noticed the roast was gone.  I knew I put it on the table because the plate was there.  Oh, cripe! Bridget!  I went into the living room and there she was enjoying our roast. We ate vegetarian that night.


We had a faux leather swivel rocker that was my favorite chair.  While we were gone to I don't remember where Bridget had a good time with my chair.  I came home to find the arm of the chair completely un-upholstered. 
Right down to the wood frame.  I did get the chair reupholstered and Bridget was restricted from it's presence.  


Another time we were at a holiday gathering at my sister's house.  Since we had cows to feed in the late afternoon Russ came home to do that.  He came in the house to change into his coveralls to go to the barn.  Bridget had been in the family room while we were gone.  We had a huge, oversized, overstuffed pillow that my mom had given me.  This pillow was heavy and stuffed with real feathers and was old.  You can see this coming, right?  Russ walked in the door and was greeted by feathers everywhere.  It was like a snowstorm in there.  Feathers were even sticking to the rough plaster of the ceiling.  They were on pictures and anything else they could cling to.  It was so bad that Russ got a 55 gallon steel drum to put them when he cleaned them up.  And he filled it up, pressed it down as much as possible and the drum was still filled to capacity.  My brother-in-law had come with Russ so at least he had some help containing the feathers.  You know how it is when you try to sweep feathers.  They just want to fly everywhere.  The two of them got most of the feathers swept up and the rest went into the vacuum cleaner when I got home.  Too bad I didn't get to see the feather storm.  But I did find feathers for many months afterward.


After that Bridget we made sure Bridget was where there wasn't anything to really destroy.  But that's the way dogs are.  They just want to have fun!  We still talk about the feather storm.

RE-ELECTION TIME

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN.  TIME TO GO AND VOTE. NOVEMBER 8 IS THE BIG DAY!!    RUSS IS RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION SO HE WOULD BE VERY APPRECIATIVE OF YOUR VOTE.  HE HAS DONE AN AMAZING JOB FOR THE TOWNSHIP FOR OVER 23 YEARS AND HAS SERVED AS A VERY DEDICATED TRUSTEE.  WITH RUSS REED YOU CAN'T GO WRONG! AND ALSO--EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER.  WE ALL KNOW THAT! 


PLEASE VISIT RUSS' WEBSITE AT

https://sites.google.com/site/electrussreed/   
copy and paste this URL

Just Thinking: Cow In The Water Trough, What'll I Do?

Just Thinking: Cow In The Water Trough, What'll I Do?: You never know what surprises await you on a farm when you have livestock. Sometimes you just can't believe your eyes. One beautiful, wa...

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

It's another beautiful day here on Mt. Zion Rd. and over Ohio.  How lucky can we be?!
I would love to have this weather year round but God and Mother Nature do not see it that way.  That isn't the way Ohio is supposed to be!   I love the way the air smells with the scent of autumn leaves and drying plants.  


The stitches came out of my foot today and I was looking forward to being able to walk more.  The doctor said he didn't want me putting to much stress on "that foot" so don't go plan on walking anywhere!  So much for that.  I ask him did he know how many craft shows were this weekend??  Like the Prairie Peddler and a big show in Hartville.  Of course he didn't know about them him being a man and all.   So much for that too!  Well, that's one way of saving some money by not buying stuff I don't need anyway!   I just recycle my crafty items.  Put them away for a while and then find them again like they were something new.


Maybe I'll vacuum out my car.  It really needs it because it's a mess in there.  I don't know how we accumulate all that dirt with only two people using the car.  And I also need to organize the maps and CD's.  I suddenly have a lot of CD cases with no CD's and wonder where they have all gone. I think someone doesn't care for all my gospel tapes and has hidden them somewhere.   


Well, I'm off to enjoy the sunshine and let the dogs have their run of the yard.  They have to be kept in the pen most of the time since they are small and I don't trust the coyotes around here.  They aren't usually around in the daytime, but then, you never know..........


Have a Blessed Day!

Perfect

The sun is shining.  It's warm.  Everything is so beautiful today.  What more could anyone want?  We are blessed.

WONDERFUL DAY

This was a wonderful day.  The kind of day I would love to have every day of the year.  OK, maybe a little rain thrown in now and then because we need it. I have been so tired of being housebound with my bum foot that my dear husband took me for a drive today.  First we zigzagged our way east to Brewster to stop at Shearer's snack outlet store.  We HAD to stock up on their potato chips that we just love.  And also some Shapers and butter braid pretzels.  You can buy seconds and thirds for a lot less than the grocery stores.  And lots of times we can't find that brand in our stores.  We get them in three pound plastic bags and put them in the freezer to use as needed.  Then we went to The Amish Door for lunch.  They have raised their prices a lot!  But the food is still great.  I had a one trip to the salad bar and some of their pumpkin roll.  Russ had a trail bologna sandwich and peach pie.  That was very good and we certainly didn't leave hungry!   I really, really wanted to go to the bakery and get some of their heavenly apple fritters and some other pastries to bring home but I talked myself out of that since my jeans are a little tight to snap!!  And so are Russ'. No pastries needed here.  And we did get those potato chips......


Next we went to Trail to Troyer's Meats for sandwich size trail bologna and a little hot pepper cheese for Russ.  Years ago we used to take cattle there to be made into trail bologna which we then sold.  We always did it in January and February when it was pretty certain that the weather would be cold enough to keep the meat very cold in our garage because a whole bull gives you a LOT of trail bologna!!  Russ worked at the steel mill at the time so he sold the meat quickly and we didn't have to worry about it spoiling. 


Then we meandered on some back roads, ended up in Berlin and found that the flea market was open on Wednesday in September and October.  Knowing full well that it probably wasn't a good idea to walk around much I went into the flea market anyway and walked around very slowly for about an hour.  I can't believe I didn't buy anything!!  Not even books!   


After all that we were tired and I thought I should be getting off my foot since it was starting to get really uncomfortable.  But it was so wonderful to get out of the house and enjoy this lovely, perfect day.  Thank you Lord for your blessings!

Another Day

Here it is, another day with no sunshine yet this morning.  I am so looking forward to the beautiful, sunshiny, crisp fall days.  Hopefully, I will be able to walk through the crunchy leaves.  We don't have any in our yard since we don't have enough trees yet but the woods offer plenty.  I know Harley would enjoy a romp in the leaves.  He enjoys any kind of romp!


I'm hoping to get the stitches out of my foot this Friday.  They are getting very annoying.  If you have had surgery you know how those stitches get tight and burn and itch and pull your skin.  It's not painful, just uncomfortable.  And, of course, I can't go out and just walk around anywhere I want because I'm not supposed to be on my foot too much. And another thing, I will be so glad to wear a nice shoe.  I have been wearing my Crocs-which I do like- but I'm getting tired of them.  They are the only thing that is near the same height as the cast boot I'm wearing.  Oh well, what can you expect when you have bunion surgery?  


All this sitting around has given me some time to play around with my photos on the laptop and try to get some of them organized.  About a year ago our computer crashed and we thought we lost everything.  But my daughter-in-law's brother was able to retrieve it all from the hard drive.  Somehow I have multiple copies of all my photos and they were all scrambled into different albums.  I can never find what I want when I want to upload a picture.  And I had a chance to add some new ones as well.  


Being chairbound after a surgery isn't fun but I guess it's not such a bad thing either.  I don't get out of fixing meals though.  That just doesn't happen!!


Have a wonderful day!

Harley's Chew Toy

 This is my just one year old Dachshund, Harley.  He's such a lovable stinker.   Harley is a wire haired doxie and has a different personality than other Dachshunds.  He's a clown,an imp, an instigator and a few other similar adjectives would describe him.  He does love his chew toys, especially the tuggy ones.  And he loves to fetch.  Trouble is this doxie pup has lots more energy than his mom.  He is also my shadow causing me to trip over him on lots of occasions.  Or step on him.  Why he doesn't get out of the way I don't understand.  But I don't know what I'd do without my little guy.  Chewy or not.

Mom likes me best this way.  Look down and you'll see why.

Aha, I love this peepee pad lots more than those other chew toys Mom gets for me.

Boy, I can really shred this!  And make lots of 

little pieces.

HUH?   What shredded paper?  You think I did this?

No one's looking.  Here I go again. 

Oops.  I think Mom's looking again.  Shhh......

 

 

Uhoh,  here comes Mom.  Am I in trouble or what??

   

 

Sunday Morning

Today started out so pretty.  The sun was shining and the clouds were puffy and sky-blue pink.  My dogs were on the back deck enjoying the sunshine while I made some beef barley stew.  Actually, I browned a half pound of hamburger and opened some cans of onion soup, stewed tomatoes, mixed vegetables and added a little quick cooking barley.  So all of that is in the little crock pot cooking up for lunch.  

I also changed the sheets on my bed and put all new litter in the cat box.  Now I know I should be in church this morning.  I didn't want to go with my foot all booted up and achy.  However, I think I have been on my foot too long in just the 45 minutes it took me to make the stew and do the other things.  Yesterday I stayed off my foot most of the day.  That is to say I slept most of the day.  That's the only way I just can't do something.  I sit here and look at all the stuff that needs doing and get myself in a dither.  But all that stuff will just have to wait.  It's not life threatening.  Or health threatening for that matter!  And it isn't anything I can have my kids do since it would require too many questions about what should I do with this and that and all of that drives me batty.  I'm getting to old to deal with all that.  If I knew what to do with "it" I would have probably already done it!

The Amish have work frolics and help each other get needed work done.  I'm thinking of doing that with my family and inviting them all to clean up outside.  The Native Plants have grown to mammoth proportions.  Next spring I'm sure there will be lots more little native plants that have reproduced.   IF I have a work frolic maybe I can lure the kids with food and have them clean up the flower beds.  If they would all show up it would take them a couple of hours at most.  That is something to think about!

Last night I started the Jerry Eicher series The Adams County Trilogy.  I was fortunate to find all three at a used book shop at the Hartville Flea Market.  There is a Christian book store vendor that is there permanently and I always stop and see what he has to offer.  I should sell some of my books to him but I hate to part with them!  There are some new books out of series I've started but they will have to wait until I have a little more ready cash to buy them.  I have quite a few books stashed to read about half of which are not Amish fiction.  I Do read other things too.  But right now I'm going to play a computer game and then,  well,  I don't know what I'll do.  Sleep??