Ouch, Ouch, Ouch

And I do mean OUCH.... Sunday evening after supper, I was out feeding the dogs... I had just feed Mackie,(he lives in his kennel in the barn yard), and i was heading over to the chicken house to gather eggs and give them their evening scraps... Larry had put the sprinkler on the compost pile, and i was trying to get around it without getting soaked, and stepped into one of Mackie's holes(he digs them to sleep in), and down I went... with a crash..and OMG did i hurt...i just laid there and howled for Larry, who was in the shop, and of course he is as deaf as a post, so i hollered and howled until he finally heard me... and came to my rescue... I couldn't stand up, or actually i hadn't even tried to stand up, as i wasn't sure my ankle wasn't broken..first thing he did was go shut off the sprinkler as i was laying in the ooze from the compost pile, and then laugh at me as i was covered with chicken scraps which was potatoes salad..and mud.... I was sick to my stomach with pain.... and of course with my elephant weight he couldn't have lifted me up if he tried... by that time I decided it wasn't  broken, so i rolled over on to my knees and stood up, but i was in a 12 inch deep hole, now how do i get out of the hole... one way was to step up with my good foot and put all my weight on my sore foot, or step up with the sore foot, and put all my weight on it... i have no idea which foot i used to get out of there...so Larry helped me hobble over to the house... I was just shaking with shock... I didn't go to emergency as the last time I was there, i was there for 4 hours for 4 stitches, and it was Sunday night... phone the family MD Monday morning and he was over booked for Monday, so got in there Tuesday morning, and he sent me for x rays, so it isn't broken, just badly sprained... i am fine walking on flat surfaces although it does hurt, but walking outside on uneven ground is very hard... and putting the foot on the floor first thing in the morning is un bearable..not too much pain today, but it is very tight with the swelling... so that takes care of my agility classes for a while... poor Levi, he will miss it..I am going to the food bank tomorrow as a lot of the volunteers are away on holidays... i will be fine as it is only two hours and i sit most of the time...better go and put it up...starting to throb a bit.... hope ya all are feeling sorry for me...I am really surprised that i didn't break it, especially at my age, but at my last bone density test, my Dr told me that i had the bone density of a 22 year old... my dad had good strong bones, he fell a lot the last year of his life, but didn't break a thing..so i guess i take after him....   S...

Broken heart

Woke up to a beautiful sunny day, Levi and I were off to Agility this morning... we had a great day, and he is getting better... slow but is doing all i ask... did some quick shopping, left the truck running with AC going just for his highness, would hate to be arrested for dog abuse...

Came home to very sad news, my old Red border collie "Meg" has passed away... or as many doggy people say, "Crossed over the rainbow bridge..." She was 13 years old and had been in really good shape, she had lost some weight, she was feeling good, acting goofy... and ate all her supper last night...Larry found her beside her dog house... she was a silly old girl, never much of a sheep dog, just a good dog..it was funny the other day one of Joe's friends was here helping him work on his shack, and she came at him, "grinning, sneezing, and clacking her teeth" and he jumped into the horse trailer terrified that she was attacking him...she had never bitten a soul in her life..we are still laughing over that one...  We had one litter of pups from her, and that was a hassle, she won't stand to be bred, she would rip off the face of any male dog that come near her..so we artificially inseminated her, and she had a nice litter of 5 red pups.. she was a good mom, but the hormones never did kick in, she still won't be bred... so we had her spayed..never much of a people dog, just a good family dog... her buddy Mackie will be lonely as they shared the barn yard... I am always glad when the dogs choose their own time, then I don't have to make the decision...
Really hot today, love my Swamp Cooler, I sure don't know why they don't sell them in Canada, they are so much better than an air conditioner.. Swamp cooler doesn't keep the house as cold as a AC, but it is about 8 degrees cooler than the outside..and so much better for your health and the environment as they just use cold water.... stay cool          

Willy the old pussy cat

Just changed my blog picture.... forgot to change it beginning of July... this is Willy our very old cat... he is about 13-14 years old....  Willy came into our lives with a big fat lie (by me)... I told the family that i found him on the drive way... actually i had been visiting a friend and she didn't like him as he beat up their other house cat... he was all of 8 weeks old...so we only  had two cats at the time, and my plan was he was suppose to be the barn cat... yupp that lasted about a month....Matt used to pack him  around in his winter jacket, and of course as soon as it got cold, Matt moved him into the house... he has been a good old cat, a good mouser, and affectionate... now that he is really old.. he stays in the house,(hate cat litter boxes).. and has turned very noisy..even the parrot gets annoyed at him... Willie howls, and I yell at him and tell him to shut up... now the parrot yells at him as soon as he howls.. just too funny..
Finally got the chickens butchered... they are a bit smaller than last year, but just big enough for us  3.5 pounds to 5 pounds... just big enough... I had bought some Lotto Max tickets and Larry wanted me to check them before we started doing chickens on Saturday, i told him, nope... if i won, i would never pluck another chicken in my life..well of course i didn't win..
My baby boy called last night and i gave him a rough time about not phoning me more often... he told me if i kept up on my blog, he would know what was going on and never phone me..brat...but i love ya....
We had a pot luck up at Andrea's last week..it was a great sunny day and we spent the whole time outside... good food as usually, one of the girls made balaclava, and my god was it good... best i have ever tried..going to get the recipe from her... Clara also made a peanut butter chocolate pie and it was really good, I made one, but didn't turn out as good as hers..oh well, will try again..
I have been picking currants this week, got half a water bucket today, and hardly made a dint in the patch..I  have to go into the middle of the patch and find the red currants, they make such good jelly... think i will ribbon the bushes and get Larry to dig them out and move them..so they are easier to find... they so much softer than the black ones... think i will check out to see who wants to pick some berries... also got the first raspberries, and they are so tasty... and i ate all the cherries all 9 of them... too cold a spring, but my peach tree is loaded... hopefully they will ripen..

Levi had a good agility class on Tuesday, he does have his moments of brilliance, and i must dwell on them... he sure has taught me patience...we had a semi private class on Tuesday, and it is so much more fun... and we get to work on the dogs problems and don't feel guilty taking up more than our share of the instructor's time..  several of the group are going to the Agility Nationals in Calgary beginning of August, i sure hope they do well.. Denise and I are starting to think about the next trial.. one the end of August, one the beginning of Sept, and one in October in Armstrong and one in Cloverdale then too..so we have to decide... her little Pip is a fair weather dog, he hates heat and rain...  Down loaded this picture of perennial fuchsia, but the program won't let me move it... oh well...  I have started another shawl..not sure if the intended reciepent reads my blog, so won't say who it is for..of course i had to "frog" it...just wasn't big enough and i was two stitches out oh well... it is an easy pattern, and is easy to follow..so am just ready to start the pattern rows today...nice and calming before i go to bed....  take care and i will try to write soon.................   S..........

Too much excitement for this old brain

Hi... We had way too much excitement last night...good friend and neighbour down the road called about 10:30 last night... there was a fire up behind their house... they have 17 acres that borders on the Reserve...and they(the reserve residents) haven't done anything with the bug killed trees, anyway... there is an old log house just up behind their place, apparently the young local residents go up there to smoke their pot... and must have started the fire.... John and Peg had been smelling smoke for a couple of hours, but no sign of smoke or fire... one of the other neighbours spotted it, and called Peg and John.... and they called us looking for help...there are several young fire fighters in the area... on the reserve and a neighbour boy (young man now)so they started fighting  the fire, then the local firefighters from the Native Firehall showed up, and told everyone to back up as it was a structure fire and everyone had to back up 100 feet, and they just let it burn...it was pretty scary for us locals, as the ground is covered in dead dry pine needles.  Then the rest of the Fire fighters from the fire fighter camp showed up..and all they did was take pictures and write in their note book... anyway Larry went back down to Peg and John's this morning and the fire was out... sure hope so as we have had wind all day... good thing it was yesterday and not today...I am sure the whole reserve would have gone up in smoke... the wind usually blows from the west, which means the fire would have gone away from us...just too scary for us.... we won't have had time to get anything out if it had gotten away... the bird, the dogs and the cats... and my spinning wheel... one of them anyway...  just way to scary for this old broad... that has been as close as we have gotten to losing this place... and of course we don't have any insurance...cuz, they didn't like our heating system (very safe, not in the house system that burns wood), the cost of stove oil and the insurance was way too expensive for us.. Got 10 chickens butchered yesterday, but we slept in this morning, went to bed way after midnight...so tomorrow we get at it again.......... have a great one......

I forgot

Morning... i just remember I forgot something really important happened when I was in Lavington..I was sitting waiting for my turn to run, and a lady came up to me and asked me if I had noticed that she had been looking at my dog... I, of course, hadn't paid any attention to her as there are always people looking at dogs..my first thought was that Levi was her dog and that she had lost him and she wanted him back... . I said no, she asked me how long i had owned him, again my radar perked up, I said i had him for a year and that his name was Levi, she dropped to her knees and threw her arms around her neck, and said "Levi, it is you"... apparently she had been his foster mom for 6 months when he had been at the SPCA in Vernon... he did recognize her, and her dog (apparently Levi and her pooch were best buds while he lived with her)... she said he had been the 'Dog from Hell'... no manners, he got on the counter, and the kitchen table... won't come when called, she said that she usually put her new foster dogs into kennels at night, she said he was like a cat, all 4 feet against the kennel, and that her and her hubby couldn't get him into the kennel, and that he was the original escape artist (which he still is, he finds a hole under the fence, we block it and he finds another one).. so Dee was another home that we didn't know about...so that makes us his 5th home by the time he was 18 months old... we figure that we have been the longest home he has had in his short 2.5 years...it was very interesting learning about her trials with him... he does have better manners these days... although he does love to love to sleep on the sofa... and he did get into the other dogs' feed the other night, and did he fart up a storm..he just can't handle any grains in his feed...   so of course he gets the most expensive feed in town....
Off to town to pay the property taxes today... and the water license..  have a great weekend......... S

my goodness it has been 5 weeks

1 week ago
Where does time go.... hard to believe it has been  3 weeks since i sat down to write... lets see if i can remember what has happened.... well I turned 63  on the 7th of June... Joe bought me a new dishwasher for Mother's day and my birthday..works good... better than the other one i had... a whirl pool, this one is a GE, dishes get well washed . and it is much easier to load...I have some very fine glasses,(beer glasses from Lee Valley) they are very thin and  small, and they are very hard to clean by hand, but this dishwasher cleans them  to sparkling
Finally got the garden planted, and of course the dogs run thru it every day... Joe is on holidays and Matt had a week off, so i had both of them at home, plus Joe's girlfriend..what a crowd..Joe, Matt and Larry took a couple of days and headed up to Bella Coola... so I actually had half a day on Wednesday and half a day on Thursday by myself... Teresa stayed until noon on Wednesday, and I had to go to the food bank on Thursday... so i actually had time for me... I knitted on Toni's shawl (6 rows left), ate supper when i wanted too, watched a movie, and just enjoyed my quiet time.... wish i had more days like that...  They enjoyed their trip... just up and back... Matt left his little dog with me... she was so happy as she had her own personal dog park here....playing with all the dogs, sleeping and playing so more... Matt says she is still sleeping..
We had our International knit in Public day... and we only had 3 guests, but it was okay... we got to spin under the huge tree in Baillie house yard... the weather was warm, lots of mosquitoes , but we had a good time..
Levi and I are off to another trial in Lavington (near Vernon) this weekend... my instructor and a bunch of her students went to "Regionals" in Abbottsford this past week... they had a great time, and 5 of  7 of them qualified for Nationals in Calgary in August... not sure if they will go, but qualifying is a good thing... the next class we had after the Regionals, Maureen (instructor) laid out the Masters course that she ran in Abbottsford... and Levi did a good job, ran a clean run... but I am not expecting much from him in Lavington... we will donate again... but it is good practice for him... we are off to class tomorrow, so we should do okay...
Tuesday the 30th of June
Never did get this blog finished last week... sure don't know where time goes these days.... Actually i was sicker than a dog last week.. started on Tuesday, was dizzy and really out of sorts..vertigo.. i think... didn't start feeling human until Thursday... so wasn't sure i could go to the trial in Lavington, but by Thursday I was feeling much better so was able to go, and lucky for me, I felt good all weekend... We had a good weekend.. weather in Lavington(Vernon) was wonderful... warm but had a nice breeze all weekend...Levi did okay the first two runs of the day on Saturday... last trial he went and visited all 4 of the ring crew and the Judge, but these two runs he only visited one of the ring crew... ran clean runs, but was way over time...he actually had about a total of 30 seconds of extreme brilliance in our 8 runs of about a minute each... the last run of the day I decided that i would run the course with or without him... he did well the first 5 obstacles, then went and visited the judge, i got him focused and away i went...without him... Denise said he had the most puzzled look on his face, like 'where the Hell is she going with out me...' I didn't even look back to see where he was... I just kept say... 'i am not waiting, i am tired of waiting for you'...Denise said he did take some jumps on his own...of course everyone was laughing at us... and Denise and some friends were yelling, "go sheila go..." but i think it must have done some good for in our class yesterday he stuck with me really well, the best he has ever run... he slowed down and i told him i wasn't waiting and they said he sped up to catch up to me..... it was a very good class the very best he has done... I was going to purchase some pictures from the photographer who was there, downloaded pictures, but her prices were out of sight...
I FINALLY FINISHED "TONI" SHAWL.... and breathed a sigh of relief... it looks great, but i can't put a picture up as she sometimes reads this mess of a blog.... I can't block it until Joe moves out as i use that bed..... but I have until October, sure glad i didn't have to be in a rush to finish it... have started another one, again it is a surprise, but it is a simpler pattern for dear friend... and then i have another one that will be wild colours that i have to have done by December...spent a couple of nights not knitting just about drove me nuts with nothing to do.... I only knit at night when Larry is out in the shop....
Well we will be butchering chickens in the next week or so... will be glad to have them finished.... check one of the turkeys today, she had over 30 eggs under her... wonder if they are fertile...
Weather has been terrible... we haven't even had our swamp cooler on yet... i see the neighbour had a fire going this morning.... we have also had some thievery going on in the valley, neighbour lost some tools and his electric bike... sure glad we have Jackson on guard duty around here...some boys on a motorbike drove by and he hates motorbikes, so he stood up on the gate and gave them shit...don't think they will be back...i promise i will try and write more... helps settle me down.... have a great weekend... we are off to a 50th birthday party on Saturday.... hope the weather is good... i am taking our shade tent in case it is very sunny or rains...  and i bought him a whole pile of "sparklers" to help him celebrate.... have a good one......... hugs

June already

Oh my goodness, it is June already... where does time go...weather has been so rotten that i don't even have my garden in... but it has been so cold... had cuke plants on the deck and they were too cold and look awful..  

Well Levi and I went to another trial, again we donated our entry fee... I know he can do it, but he gets so distracted and wants to go visit the ring crew and the judge... but then a lot of dogs do that... I am begining to think it might be me...as Dixie wasn't the least bit interested in agility either... well I have decided that i will give him another year, and if it isn't working by then we will quit... no sense flogging a dead horse...

Went to Kamloops for two appointments yesterday... my first Mammogram since the boob reduction..and oh my god, it didn't hurt... first time in 23 years it didn't hurt... I go every year as there is history of breast cancer in my family.. my grandmother, her two sisters, her brother's 3 daughters, and my Mom..we did have the genetic screening and Mom was clear of that gene, so they didn't even test my blood.. and then i went to the Rheumatologist  and she just renewed my prescriptions... I have been feeling crappy but it has to be the cold weather as i had been feeling good..

Meat birds are growing well... Larry is building a screen door for the chick house... it was way too hot in there for them... Still have one turkey sitting on eggs, but they are no good as she has been on them for over 28 days... 2nd hen is sitting on eggs in the shed, so lets hope these ones are fertile..  

We gave Jackson his yearly hair cut last week, he sure looks good, but we have to trim up the edges... he loves to be short coated... loves to be scratched now.... now Dixie and Levi have nothing to grab on too... no long coat..

Spinning  retreat is almost full... can't believe how fast it books up for the fall one...  we have such a good time... 

well had better go make Larry his lunch... and get back out to the garden.... Still working on Toni's shawl for her 60th birthday in November... 450 stitches now... only 50 rows left to do... 25 are pattern rows... can hardly wait to get it off the sticks,I need to see what it looks like... have two more planned by December... these ones will be a lot easier...... have a great day......... sheila