Twenty-Eleven

A year of roses blooming wildly, sweet kisses, wagging dog tales, an empty nest 2.0, painted furniture, blackboard paint, to-do lists, green leaves and blue skies, walks with friends, a camping trip, birthday parties, family reunions, fresh eggs, compost, sun-dried towels, smoothies, new sheets, health worries, visits, high school, inspiration, tweets, Facebook, airport runs, smiles, crazy weather, fireworks, fires, fresh starts and sad endings, quilt fabrics, new art, daydreams, nightmares, holding hands, disappointments, welcome surprises, fun, laughter. 

The best of 2011? A tie between reconnecting with my cousins and knowing my BIL was going to recover. 


The worst?  Let's just say there are challenges ahead and we have our fingers crossed.  But then, all of us are facing problems either large or small, all of the time.  Some things I did right.  Some times I dropped the ball.  Next year I'll do better.  I'm making plans already; I love a fresh slate!

Clink your glass to the year that's passing,
Cheers!

Sneak Peeks

I have lots of projects in the process of Becoming.

Clockwise from the upper left: 

• Kharma (do dogs qualify as projects?);
• R-Y-E  (Would it help if I told you I also have another M and an E still to be painted?) and a wooden candlestick awaiting more paint; 
• new hammock fabric; 
• future valance in laundry room; 
• and newly painted robin's eggs (previously tan speckled).

Not shown:  a How-To post on How I Paint My Signs (it turns out I have some good tips) as well as one on Editing in Picasa.

The best part is when several projects get finished almost simultaneously and you feel like You've Really Accomplished Something!

Progressively,

The Bare Truth

My mind is saying, "Spring!"  I'm looking at vegetable seeds that I can't possibly plant for month yet.  I'm drooling over the bareroot offerings of dahlias and peonies, but I'm too chilly to go outdoors and do a lick of gardening.  I'm guilty of posting photos of fruit trees in bloom without mentioning they were actually Spring 2009.

So unfair to those of us who live between the Sierra Nevada and the Atlantic.

Don't despair--my fruit trees actually look like this.

Buds are just beginning to swell on the Black Tartarian cherry.

The peach is just plain naked against the grey cloudy sky.

Good for pruning, I guess.

The three-in-one apple can't lay claim to any signs of new growth.

Which isn't discouraging Kharma from climbing the apple tree in search of mummified fruit.

 

Sheesh, you'd think we never fed her.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled seed catalogs.

Flowers and Flakes

Last week we happily said goodbye to cold temperatures and snow and hello to robins, blue skies and temperatures that were positively balmy at sixty degrees. The flowers were certainly ready for springtime. The race to be the first to bloom was on!

The pink primrose was a surprise entry:

The blue violets were small but colorful:

The yellow crocus are a perennial contender (forgive the pun):

The title of First Flower of the Year goes to...all of them! We had a three way tie.

Of course, anyone who's lived in the Truckee Meadows for any time at all knew we were going to pay a price for all that lovely spring-like warmth, knew that winter had not had his final say.  Sure enough--it began to snow late Saturday night.  It snowed all night long and we woke up to twelve inches of powdery delight (we expected maybe four inches) and it continued snowing all day Sunday. 

Result:  Winter wonderland.  It's beyond beautiful.  I guess we could think of it as a tribute to the Winter Olympics.  Seems a little unfair that we got Vancouver's snow though.

Not a flower in sight anymore, but Kharma got a new look--snowpants. 

To a gardener living in the High Desert the words "above-average snowpack" are music.  Spring can wait!

Guideposts - Week Five

I like a bit of a mongrel myself, whether it’s a man or a dog; they’re the best for every day.
--George Bernard Shaw

Four years ago, a little border collie whelped ten little puppies east of the Marysville Buttes in California. While seven of the puppies were black and white like their mother, three of them were inexplicably golden. The rancher was not pleased to see that his little helper had been secretly courted by the neighboring lab/golden/aussie mongrel and decreed that the entire litter would be taken to the pound as soon as they were weaned. So at seven weeks of age, they were placed in a large cardboard box and surrendered to the Yuba County Animal Care facility.  The folks there were nice, but the clock was ticking and a week later the unadopted puppies found a temporary harbor in the kennels at Sutter Buttes Canine Rescue.

Meanwhile, I'd been haunting Petfinder on a daily basis for over four months, Spring Break had just started and I was checking the Petfinder site one last time before we left on a dog-finding trip in the Sacramento area.  I discovered a new litter of puppies had been listed in the Gridley area and told my husband that I was positive there was some Golden Retriever blood in these little border collie x aussies (besides the typical border collie pup there was a stocky golden male puppy shown) and that they might be worth a look.

Nine hours and seven shelters later, we were sadly empty-handed.  Should we head towards the Bay Area, stay with family and continue our search there?  Or should we call the Gridley rescue people and see if they still had the tan puppies?  Well, we chose the second option and headed two hours north.  It may have been the best decision we ever made or it may have been destiny guiding us.  The little gold and white puppy I'd been dreaming about was there waiting to fill our lives with joy and laughter. Now we always have good Kharma as our house.

Happy Birthday, Kharma/FreckleFace/Pookie/Chica/GirlyGirl!

Busy Bee Saturday

Kharma modeling the finished vinyl dogwash apron.

The linen/cotton napkins were finished well before dinnertime. I lovelovelove the plates that Santa brought me.

This is one time when the flash improved the photo by showing the true blue color of the napkins. They feel divinely crisp and heavy. I became a cloth napkin convert a long time ago and can't stand the feel of paper napkins now! We'll see how they hold up in the laundry--if they impress me I'll be going back for a neutral in the same fabric.

Snowy Tails

There were dog tails, of course, as we took care of the "wildlife" after our snow storm.

Kharma obviously thinks that a cooking pot equals food, but under this Revere Ware pot, filled over and over with boiling water, is our pond and in the pond are five very cold goldfish without a breathing hole. There was a nice opening created by one of our soccer balls floating on the pond. (Yes, intentionally.) But sub-zero temperatures and twenty inches of snow kinda ended that good idea. Today I bailed out the extra water under the pan so I could try melting an opening again. Then I realized I was bailing out the pond! I can imagine those fish tails swishing happily right now as they can breathe again through their little skylight.
The dogs and I refilled all the thistle socks too. Not five minutes after rehanging them in our cherry tree, we had visitors. I can count fourteen goldfinches in this photo. The snow below is peppered with black seeds which some cute little black-headed birds clean up for us.Kharma, who's had a bird fixation since she was a teensy puppy, has left the wild canaries alone. Amazing! And Zelda, who usually slurps up excess seeds until they irritate her throat and reappear magically (to put it delicately), hasn't touched a one. If I didn't know better, I'd think our pups know that the birds are treading a fine line between survival and a wintery demise.

Kharma 1 - Family 0

What's for dinner when the cupboard's bare? It's cold and blustery out as the storm front moves closer--how about some nice chicken noodle soup? Yummy!

Take three cans of soup, open them up, dump them in the big pot and add water. Listen to the wind howl outside.

Get another big pot, fill it with water, turn the burner on high until it boils. Add some nice whole wheat noodles (because we like lots of noodles in our soup) and cook them until done.

While the two pots are cooking, defrost the very last chicken breast (because you can never have too much chicken in chicken noodle soup). Decide that you'll strain out the cooked noodles when they're done and reuse that nice hot water to boil the poultry. Think about adding chicken to the Costco list. Cut the chicken into five smaller pieces so it will cook faster.

Check the timer--the noodles still have five minutes before they're al dente--that's plenty of time to go upstairs and check email before the bell starts dinging.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Go downstairs and transfer the cooked noodles into the simmering canned soup. Turn around to get the chicken. Look blankly at the cutting board. Why is there just a wet juicy circle on the board? Wonder outloud where the chicken went.

Notice that Kharma suddenly has a very guilty look while Zelda just looks hopeful. Put the K-dog in timeout.

Add some curry powder to the soup instead and call the guys for dinner. Try to wipe that half-exasperated, half-proud dogmom smile off your face before they ask why you're grinning.

Naughty dog! (Grin.)

Always Good Kharma At Last

I'm a dog lover. No surprise to anyone, I guess, given how many times Kharma has appeared here. I've owned six dogs as an adult and each one has taught me valuable lessons that I've built on.

Then too, I've gotten so many ideas about training and possible tricks from websites and blogs and YouTube. Other dog lovers and their best friends have inspired me. There is no limit to what can be achieved between dog and human when the human contributes as much trust and devotion as the dog does. The 'Net has been the key to a magical place filled with possibilities.

Long story short--I think of Kharma as a partner rather than a possession, family rather than pet. She makes me feel like the luckiest person in the world to have her for a best friend. So 2009 is going to be a year when I challenge myself to provide opportunities for Kharma.

And rather than bore anyone with 365 posts about our journey into Dog Agility and Canine Freestyle and daily trips to the pasture to play Frisbee, I created a dog blog for Kharma. It's up and running. You're invited to visit us there (along with the dogmoms who belong to Johann and Gracie and Xsara and Guinness and Bi and Phoebe)if you're interested! The link is at the left under Blog Friends. And I've added some of your wonderful blogs that I should have long since (you know who you are!).

I now return you from Dog to Food. Behold Mount Krumpet!


It's truly amazing how many apples we can get into a pie. Especially when my sweetie cuts them up like matchsticks instead of slicing them. And festooned with mini cutouts of Christmas trees and stars on the crust, sprinkled with turbinado sugar (my secret ingredient) on top...yum, very yum. Even the Grinch would have approved.

Agility Blooper Reel

I've thought many times that Kharma would do well in agility and that we both would have fun, although I've worried I'd make a fool out of myself. This clip has set my mind to rest. It would be impossible (I hope) for Kharma and I to be any funnier than these competitors!



Maybe I've watch Monty Python too many times but it seems to be that bloopers are even funnier when narrated with an English accent.

Pond Progress

Look! My pond is no longer just a big hole. Here is the underlayment cut to size and laid in place. Looks pretty cushy doesn't it? It's a great way to recycle old carpeting instead of taking it to the dump.

***
Let's get the liner in place. You can't believe how heavy a ten-by-fifteen piece of rubber liner was! I started smoothing the bottom first; then I gradually worked my way up, smoothing and folding carefully as I went, occasionally placing a rock to hold the folds in place. It was trial and error but when I was finished, it was smooth everywhere. It's almost time to fill it with water!

***

But first Kharma had to check out her mysterious new watering bowl.

***
Oh my gosh! There is actually water in the pond!

Just right for a dog swimming hole! We never actually saw Zelda get in the pond, but she was very damp and the pond quite muddy.

Sylvia's New Puppy Bi

It's no secret in the dog-loving section of the Blogsphere that my favorite dog trainer, Sylvia Trkman, has a new puppy.

Presenting Bi:


For more fun with Sylvia and her pack, featuring tricks that have to be seen to be believed, try her channel on YouTube "yolle555" .

Then if you're completely inspired by her relationship with Lo, La and Bu and want to know how-does-she-do-that, she also has a website at http://www.silvia.trkman.net/

Kharma and I love tricks. Freestyle is our niche. We haven't tried agility (yet), but I'd love to just so I could take a training session when Sylvia comes to this side of the Atlantic!

Self Esteem

There is nothing better for a child's self-esteem than a well-trained dog.



Don't ya love the smile on California Girl's face after she rewards Kharma?

Starring Kharma as The Best Dog In The Universe.
And introducing California Girl (don't tell her parents I put her out there in the blogosphere.)
Garden set courtesy of the Queen Mother.
Weather courtesy of Northern Nevada (our motto: we have two kinds of weather--sunny and oh, shit that's cold.)
Dog Trainer--Pogonip

Tripodless

Kharma is multi-talented (too bad I'm so objective about her!) and has a nice trick repetoire. These are some old tricks from last Spring that I posted on YouTube recently.

I've gotta dig out our old tripod so I don't get carsick next time I watch this.

p.s. Is it just me or can you feel a hint of September in the August heat too?

Our Day At The Lake

This is Quincy (now four months old) and his mom. Isn't he gorgeous? He's a very blonde golden retriever pup. They invited us--"us" being the K-dog and I--up to their lake cabin. It's become a much-loved summer tradition.

It's Kharma's favorite place. She enjoys swimming by the dock, chasing the ducks, geese and seagulls that hang around. She loves swimming as much as any kid and will spend as much time in the lake as allowed. Conservatively, she probably spent six hours in the water.
Quincy's mom gave her a new nickname--Air Kharma--because she pogos off the dock to get onto the beach. Any normal dog would use the ramp. Doesn't Air Kharma sound like a great name for an airline? Just imagine the commercials--"Fly Air Kharma and get your just desserts"--showing a girl and her dog lolling on a tropical beach. Okay, maybe I'm a little old for the girl designation, it's a granite shore, and Kharma's legs are filthy--but the delight and relaxation were primo.

Kharma's never been in a kayak before; I wish I had some photos of our struggles.

• Plan A was just have her jump in with me;
• Plan B was just to get her to sit;
• Plan C was to let her jump overboard and swim;
• Plan D was hauling her out of the lake and letting her stand on the kayak's stern;
• Plan E was letting her walk all over the kayak's deck until she fell off;
• Plan F was to give up and put her in her crate;
• Plan G was to give up kayaking and return to a howling dog;
• Plan H is to have her get completely comfortable jumping in and out of and sitting in the kayak on shore before repeating the same steps in the shallows before ever letting her in with me again.

This kayaking afficianado is determined to succeed in getting her on-board and calm!

The K-dog was much happier hiking around the lake--pushing through ferns, leaping creeks, dashing down into the lake, meeting other vacationing pups, keeping our beach free from marauding ducks, playing with Quincy and occasionally checking to see if I was napping or awake.

I had a very pooped puppy dog; she napped in her crate during the two hour trip and nothing, but nothing, that Zelda did could get her to play when we got home.

As usual, Kharma has let me know that if Quincy's mom wants to adopt another dog she'll happily change homes. (It's just her way of telling me she had a good time.) She'll have to settle for me, the frisbee in the pasture and hikes up the creek until next summer rolls around and another trip to the lake is on the calendar!

Puppy Playdate

Kharma's made a new friend. We walked up the switchbacks to his house one morning for a playdate. Quincy and Kharma played for hours!

Kharma definitely approved of his huge backyard. It has a waterfall and pond and lots of bushes and good places for birds to hide. Kharma taught Quincy how to cool off in his pond. She tried to teach him how to chase mama quail, but I'm hoping that's one lesson he ignored.

Quincy is just getting the merest suggestion of feathers on his hocks and tail. His mom was a little sad to discover his first adult fur coming in on his back. He's going to be very blond and very fluffy when he grows up. He's probably the creamiest golden retriever that we've ever seen--we call him the polar bear cub.

Quincy invited Kharma to come visit him at his lake cabin this week. He's already learned to jump off the dock and swim even though he's just four months old. It's where Kharma learned to swim too. I can hardly wait to see the two of them together romping freely on the shoreline, chasing waves thrown up by the boats or swimming out to grab the frisbee. It's what summer is all about--water and sun, friends and fun!

Doing the Turkey Jerky Tango

Hi, Kharma here. It's been awhile so I thought I'd blog a little while Mom is making dinner.

I'm learning a new trick: Mom's been teaching me to "dance". I can stand up on my hind legs now for a long time compared to a couple of weeks ago. I love to dance because the treats are super yummy--usually REAL MEAT!!! (I'd do just about anything for real meat!)

Mom must have wanted me to practice on my own though, because she left a whole cutting board(!!!) of turkey slices that were almost-but-not-quite-dried turkey jerky sitting out on the edge of the kitchen counter.

I'm proud of myself because she didn't even have to ask me. I practiced a lot and the turkey snacks were delicious.

Uhhh, please don't tell my mom that I kinda rested my paws on the counter a couple times. 'Cause she doesn't allow my front paws to touch anything for balance when I dance. I think she might suspect 'cause she keeps giving me funny looks.

I like practicing my new trick on my own. I'm such a smart dog, BOL!

They're YOURS Now

Parents, I feel your pain.

School is out and tomorrow morning when you wake up, YOU get to figure out what to do to keep them busy and out of mischief. When they have little hissy fits with their siblings, they're YOURS. When playdates go south with tears and/or words, YOU get to take to them about using nice words with their friends. When they have activated their selective listening skills, YOU get to figure out how to get their attention.

Okay, I'll help you with that last one. Because I'm nice like that. Just whisper "do you want some ice cream?" in your softest voice, preferably a whole room away. Then, when all eyes are fastened eagerly in your direction, you can ask them to clean their rooms.

I love them all. I cried when I got my fifty-seven little hugs and said goodbye. I especially cried over my little guy that is moving back to California because I won't see him next year like the other almost-first-graders. How do teachers with high transient rates handle it? Because we lost two kindergartners this year. (Okay, we didn't actually lose them, because that wouldn't be very professional. It's more like we unwillingly allowed their parents to move them to another school. It was hard for us, but we figured that it would be even harder for their families to live in a different state than their kids. The sacrifices we teachers make sometimes.) And our two little transfers are still in our hearts. But they are YOURS now.

And tomorrow morning, there will be no alarm clock blaring in my ear. I'll lie in bed and plan a day of things that do not include teaching. I'll garden if it's nice and sew if it isn't. I'll use the Furminator on Kharma. I'll cook something time-consuming. I'll go for a walk with my summer walking companions (hurray!) and I'll start lifting weights again. I'll wear short or jeans and a Roxy shirt. I'll pull my hair back into a ponytail and find some hippie earrings to wear. I'll take photos and play with Movie Maker. I'll waste time reading a silly novel outside in the sun. It sounds good. It sounds relaxing.

I love summer's slower pace of life.

Kharma's Lament

First of all, Mom let the wind blow the fence down and I loved having twice the space. Especially since our very nice neighbor has two Bichon Frisees to play with. Happy is pretty carefree, but it took a little time to convince Cooky that I was a nice dog. We all had a good time. I wish my mom would just leave the back door open for me like the very nice neighbor; it was so nice to just be able to walk into her house and see what Happy and Cooky were eating or watching on TV (personally I like the "Dog Whisperer" because there's nothing like Bad Boy to spice up a Friday evening).

Mom knows how much I love to jump, because she put up some short wire fencing for me. It was even more fun to go visit the Bichons then!

Dad took down all but two of the fence panels for me and I loved seeing everything that Happy and Cooky were doing and I could also practice my ferocious bark on the workmen putting in cobbles for the very nice neighbor's front yard. Heh, heh, they didn't know I was teasing them. It was very fun and I don't know why Mom got so upset.

BTW,the grass IS greener on the other side of the fence; it's also longer and much more exciting to pee on!

Just when I didn't think things could get much better, Dad and Erkie ripped out another fence!!! Wow, having a yard three times as big was super-cool. My favorite little girls live next door and they would play with me all the time. We played chase a lot. I even do tricks for them when they don't have any treats for me, just to be nice. It was nice to sit on their back step and watch them eat dinner. I helped them barbecue on their back patio too.

Dad, Mom and Erkie dug up cement blobs for me to play on. I loved jumping over them and racing around them, but playing king-of-the-hill was best of all. They kept on digging up more and more of those cement things. I would have helped them if they'd asked, 'cause I know it was hard word for them,vbut they did it all themselves and told me to go away.

Then they had some workers come and grind up a stump. I didn't get to go out and bark at them, but once Mom cleaned up all the loose shredded stuff, I had a great hole to lie in. I looked so cool sunning myself there. I know the Bichons were jealous of me.

I didn't mind when my family started putting up the fence again, because there were lots of panels missing. When they put all the panels up, they must have known how much I enjoyed visiting the neighbors because they left nice holes to crawl through. I loved teasing Mom. She'd be working in the yard and get distracted and I'd crawl into the neighbor's yard and wait until Mom would miss me. She couldn't figure out how I disappeared at first! I was laughing my head off. When she called me, she was pretty surprised to see me come under the fence.

She made it even more fun by packing some nice soft dirt in the holes then. Wow! Digging through the dirt to go visit felt just super. I think Mom must have felt a little guilty about all those walks we've been missing. Hey, it works for me!

Then I must have done something wrong.

They took away all my cement blogs. All the fence wire got rolled up. They put rocks on top of all that soft dirt and yelled at me when I tried to dig. I know the neighbors are missing my visits. Mom is even wrecking my nice sunning hole. She's adding dirt and plants and keeping me away from it. Our yard was so much fun and they wrecked it all. I'm feeling really sad.

Maybe Zelda will come over with Erkie and we'll jump over Mom's new plants and roll around in the nice dirt.

One Weekend and a Bottle of Motrin

From this:

To this:

It's a miracle.