Misc Update

Not a whole lot happening these days. My cousins wife had their baby. I think this is the sweetest pic. Big sister has been waiting patiently for little sister to arrive. She came a day early.

Here's the quilt top I made for the baby:

Before quilting & binding

Was headed to the country a few weeks ago & as I was leaving our city house something caught my eye in the front yard.

Yes, this was a turkey in the city. He was still hanging around when I got back but Nelly chased him/her any chance she got & I haven't seen him/her again.

Been busy tying up legal stuff for my mother. My sister & I sat at the SS office for over 2 hours only to be told (by an unhelpful agent) that the paperwork we had received didn't contain the right information & we needed to supply different documentation. Got that taken care of the next week, with an agent that was very knowledgeable & had us in & out within an hour. Part of her estate will go into probate so we'll have to deal with that soon enough. It's a huge run around with government agencies & banks & patience isn't my best feature.

Unfortunately, some of my country friends lost their Dad a few weeks ago. I had the baby shower to attend later in the week so I went up early for the funeral & was able to spend some restful reflective time in the country.

While there, I made arrangements for the counter tops for the barn kitchen to be delivered & installed.

Detail shot.

It's a quartz material which we love. You can set hot pots directly on it & it doesn't require any maintenance. Unfortunately the island measurements were wrong. The guy that measured only measured the width, not the length & presumed it was square instead of rectangular. There is supposed to be a 10" overhang by the sink side (to hide trash can) & 18" on the dining room side to be able to have counter seating. Hope to get replacement in a few weeks. It's aways something!

28" too short & needs trim out done, along w/stove vent.

I mowed grass & then relaxed the next few days while watching birds in & around the pond.

And fought off wasps.

Why do they always build their nests at door entrances?

My peach tree.

The other one, had 1/2 as many as this one & the wasps & birds had bitten into most of the fruit. I harvested about 10 or so over the course of a few days. They were very sweet & juicy. Had one for breakfast each day & brought back a couple to have w/my yogurt & granola for breakfast.

On the last day, Nelly & I were sitting on the back porch when I noticed this pack of dogs down by the pond.

There were actually 5 of them. They splashed around in the water & tried to see if they could get the fish feeder to give them some food. They didn't stay long.

Love the look of a mowed lawn.

Overall it was a nice visit & love the sunsets this time of year.

I'm staying indoors as much as possible these days. The heat is hard enough to deal with but this humidity is overwhelming! I'm going to work on a two separate lap quilts for the baby's brother & sister. One top is done but still cutting fabric for the other one. Will post pics when done.

Oh Nelly

I spent most of the end of January at the Country House. We are having some work done on the barn apartment so I needed to be there while the sheet rock, gas guy, carpenter, etc. came & went.

The 2nd weekend I was there  I was sitting on the back porch around dusk on Sunday (1/24). I happened to look up & saw what I thought was a cat walking near the gas tank by the barn. I would love to have a cat up there to help with any mice problems so I ran inside & grabbed a small baggy of cat food that I keep on hand & went back out & called to it.

It was almost dark by this time & when the poor thing came up to me it wasn't a cat at all but a small Chihuahua. She was skin & bones & could barely use her back legs. Plus, it looked like she had had puppies recently.

She looked at the food & then back at me & whined a bit. She finally ate the food & just sat at my feet. I picked her up because she was shivering. I brought her in on the porch & tucked her under my jacket at my side. She was having a really hard time breathing & I thought that she might be on her way over the rainbow bridge. Since it was going down in the 20s that night I couldn't let her stay out so I put newspaper down in the bathroom & brought her in for the night. The next morning she ate a little more but it was obvious that she just wanted to be held & loved. It also became obvious that she wasn't house broken, oh joy.

Don't know if she ran away or was dumped. This will be the 5th dog that has shown up at the house (a lab, 2 lab mix puppies & a border collie mix). We found good owners for all of them.

I bought her some food & since it was warmer the next few day/nights I got some rugs, towels & a box & made her a bed on the carport. The sheet rock guys finished on Tuesday & I needed to get started priming the walls. The barn is right by the house & faces the carport so I was back & forth all day for the next few days & she got a little stronger each day. I posted her pic on FB but no one came forth. By the end of the week she was still skinny but much more lively & of course I had named her by then. Nelly as in nervous. Greg came in on Friday night & she barked at him like she owned the place.

We agreed that it would be best if she could find a new home. I have a cousin in-law that works for animal control & she offered to take her to work w/her. She came by on Monday morning to pick her up. Nelly was shocked when I handed her off & I surprised myself by tearing up a bit. As I continued with my painting I found that I was missing her more & more as the day went on. While talking with Greg that night I told him I felt bad that I had helped her get better just to give her away. And, I missed having her around. After we hung up I started tearing up again. Unexpectedly, Greg texted me a little while later to tell me to go get her, that we would make it work somehow.

So, long story short I went to get her the next morning & we are now the proud owners of a yipper dog as we have always called that breed. She is the sweetest thing & smart as well. The Vet wants her to gain a pound or two & then she will be spayed at the end of the month. I am in the process of crate training her. She hasn't had an accident in the house since Saturday morning. We've never had an inside dog or a dog this small before & the responsibility is quite different.

Wish me luck in getting her house trained.

Officially Retired! My first day ...

Started out with me getting up at 6:30a, stretching for 20 minutes, then going for a 1 mile mini walk.

As I was leaving I decided to grab my house key which detaches from my car key. Locked door, put garage door down & realized I had grabbed my car key instead of the house key. Locked out! Oh well, I'll grab the hidden house key to let myself in when I get back. Walked .5 miles & then turned around to come home.

About 1/2 way home one of the neighbors door opens & out rushes their very unfriendly dog which came right at me. It's a medium sized dog & just stood their growling & barking at me but never lunged. Neighbor comes out to road to get dog which is sniffing me & decided I wasn't such a threat after all. Gave him a pat & continued on home.

The next house down, another very large black dog comes out barking but never left their driveway. I knew about the 1st house & their dog but the dog at the 2nd house is new. Will have to investigate if he is a permanent resident or just visiting.

Made it home, retrieved key & tried unlocking the door. It wouldn't work in the door I had left from. Go around to back patio to see if it will work on that door. Yep it did but because I came in a different door than I had left from the alarm goes off. Jeez, what a way to start the first day of the rest of my life.

Now it's on to technology world. New laptop wouldn't connect to internet. Tried a couple of things & it finally connects. Sign in to email to thank all my wonderful friends for the retirement presents & keep getting kicked offline. The connection is hit or miss.  It's disconnected twice while I'm typing this post. Will have to get on the phone with HP. My old laptop doesn't have this problem.

Now on to the new TVs we had to buy because we got hit by lightening a couple of weeks ago. Note: Several neighbors also lost TVs in the same storm - 10 in all. Got both connected but they aren't even half as clear as they were in the store. Called carrier & they said that my eqipment is old & they will have to send new boxes in order to get HD service. At least it wasn't something we did when installing them.

All in all a pretty rough start but I think it will only go uphill from here. Gotta go, I've got boxes to unpack.