My buddy Ben and Ipad App coolness.

  
Danes are just a different level of dog all together, I’m convinced.  They really do think they are exactly whatever we are… (that would be human)… and should live accordingly.  Ben will sit on the couch just as we do, he would just as soon eat at the table right next to us.  Maybe it’s because they are so big…. The expressions on a Dane’s face are remarkable.  You can tell when he’s worried.. when he’s afraid, when he’s curious, when he is SOOO happy to see you –  his whole forhead scrunches up and ears pin back and he SMILES, I tell ya.  And when you hurt his feelings?….oh, the wounded look.     He doesn’t like having his picture taken and if you are trying, he  will do his best to STAY, but he’s not really cooperating.

 This is the “I’m not looking at that camera”  look.
Nope, uh-uh.
  *sigh*
picture a doglike heavy sigh and eye roll, if he could.
And my no-makeup on a Sunday evening look,
because who am I trying to fool anyway 🙂

No drooling on the table, Ben!
This is the wounded look. Scolded for begging with face on table.
Because he can.

Since both chicks were in the nest last night…
we played with Ipad apps.  Heat Sensor camera. Pretty cool.

If you have apple products (ipad, iphone) have you discovered
Words with Friends yet?  it’s basically Scrabble, and you can
play it against anyone you are friends with on Facebook or Twitter .

I don’t do Twitter.  Am I the only one who thinks it’s a little narcissistic and silly?

No offense if YOU do Twitter, I’m just sayin.

So back to Words. You also don’t have to spend a lot of time doing it…

You can make your move..and your friend can take their turn a day later,
or whenever it’s convenient.
If the kids are gonna be on their “equipment”…
atleast they are learning something valuable, right?

I’m dreaming….

… of a white Christmas.  But so far, it ain’t happen’n.  

 Now that College girl has graduated, what do I call her here for you… grown up girl?  Sounds silly.  Hmmm…   anyway… Daughter is out for a walk with Ben this morning (HIGH PRAISE to the manufacturer of the Easy walker harness.  It’s a miracle item for those of us who have dogs who pull when you walk them.)     Back to the weather … It’s downright balmy out.  Weird weather for Christmas time.  How do you people do it in Florida??… it just isn’t the SAME,  I tell ya! ….

Today, the manchild will clear out the old ashes and restock the fireplaces for
the company we’ll have on Christmas day…
 but I fear it will be too warm outside to have the fires all aglow.  
I’m continuing the holiday baking with Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes…
Why I torture myself so, it’s beyond me.
I lost 20 lbs. this year, and that’s a wonderful thing.
This holiday baking could throw it all to hell, ya know.
*sigh*, what I do for my family.

Mike loved George’s picture, and I love the topiaries I found to help the mantle balance out.
We’re also amazed at how the filtering light through the woods in this print
is visible even in the dark.  Now that’s some talented painter.
And this is just a copy!  I hope to see the original some day.

I am LOVING all your entries for my Christmas Day post.  If you haven’t done so yet
and you’d like to join us, send me a photo that represents the season  in some way to you…
Write a caption for the pic, and send me your blog link as well.

More about Chip & How to get your dog to stop pulling.

  Thanks to your generous donations, Chip went back to the vet for much needed Xrays of chest and Hip.  Turns out the hip looks fine and is just sore from being in a small metal crate while he was in Florida Kill Shelter and then vet down south.  *sigh?!*…. His lungs do not show signs of pneumonia… perhaps asthma from poor living conditions.  The meds that have to be applied to his skin appear to sting him when applied.. but they are necessary. He’s already been in Lorin’s whirlpool for Epsom salt and oil bath.   Here he is this morning, chewing on a donated nylabone.  She has beds in each room because he is still so emaciated he cannot comfortably lie on a hard floor.

So… How to get your dog to stop pulling when you go for a walk?    As you all know, Ben is a dane, which translates to BIG FREIGHT TRAIN pulling on little old me when we go for walks.  I hate choke collars, especially on a dane with very little coat hair.  Traditional harnesses tend to make them pull against it, hence more strain on the walker.  But THIS harness.. the Easy Walker… works like a charm.  I mean, there is NO pulling. None.  And.. it’s extremely humane. Nothing tugs at or pulls on the dog.  Something about the way it’s designed (actually clipped to the leash on the front chest portion of the rig) gives the dog the feeling that he CAN’T pull, so he doesn’t. Or something like that.   Ben has not pulled on me once since I started using this harness and it doesn’t seem to phase him at all to have it on.  It’s not tight, fully adjustable, and comes in different sizes. I got it at a feed & grain store.  ( I am not being paid to advertise this… it’s just a really good product so I don’t mind spreading the word. )

I think this might be upside down. 

Snaps at the front…
  No pulling. It’s amazing how it works.
This is the Parmelee Trail at Parmelee Farm.

  

All photos today brought to you by my iPhone
Steve Jobs, you were an amazing man. The World will miss you.  

Come sit on the porch….

 

One of my favorite  pleasures in life is the simple act of porch sitting, especially on a rainy day like today. It’s as if the porch beckons you to just sit for a while, stop the whirlwind that is life, and just observe, breathe, be still.   How often do we give ourselves permission to do so. 

 We had a little porch with a slate floor at the front of my childhood home. I fondly remember sitting on the porch with a coloring book and crayons or cookies and milk, watching the rain come down.  In the early years, the smell of my dad’s tobacco pipe, my mother’s music…usually Kris Krisofferson and Rita Coolidge, or Peter, Paul & Mary… Simon & Garfunkel.. playing inside on the record player. Those songs stay with me today… Who’s to Bless and Who’s to blame…. Silver Tongued Devil and I…  Homeward bound… Bridge over troubled water.. 

 Sometimes we’d have no choice but to watch the neighbors across the way as they sat on their porch… arguing… Joe and Virginia… an old Italian couple who kept a very tidy little house and garden.  They couldn’t stand each other but oh, could they grow a mean tomato.

    So while we’re sitting on my porch, let’s talk.  Thank you all for your very conscientious and insightful  comments left on my blog regarding goods made in the USA.  We’re in a real predicament, we Americans.  I truly believe this is one way we can answer our own problems. The government  and big corporations arent’  going to do it for us, we need to take our own stand, send the message ourselves. Buy American whenever possible, buy local produce, frequent mom & pop shops and restaurants and forgo the chains… let’s just do it. I went to Bob’s yesterday to look for sneakers for my son.  I saw lots of tops I’d like to buy for myself, all MADE IN CHINA.  *sigh*   It’s not going to be easy, but we can do it more often than not. It starts with just one simple act.

  Plans for the next Dog Days Adoption Event at Parmelee Farm are under way. Three weeks to go, lots of funds to raise, plans to make, and things to bake for our Bid, Barter and Bake sale.  The last one held in Essex was a big success.. $2,000 raised in one day, all paid for the Mystic Valley event last weekend, where ALL dogs were adopted. Amen.  Thank you to my blog friends who donated to the cause. You rock! … For those of you who are local and reading my blog, if you’re a baker, or if you have a household item we can add to our Bid Barter Bake sale on August 20th,  contact me at karenthisoldhouse@hotmail.com  and I’ll be more than happy to pick up the baked item or household item the day before the sale. (August 19th).

 I hope you’re all getting some respite from the heat and dry spells across the country… we’re seeing steady rain since last night around midnight and it is so refreshing, even for the horses.

             This is what my kitchen looks like since the farm stand can’t open due to the weather.

  The husband’s office…

 Happy Sunday, all….thanks for sitting here with me for a spell.  

 

Moving Right Along….

 Thank you all for your kind words regarding our book project.  What the book represents to me is an acknowledgement of  just how far my relationship with my mother has come since the days of my rebel teen existence and her school-teacher/careful-as-you-go way of living life.  A bull and a china shop, Mount St. Helen and a tiki hut, Niagra Falls and a folded newspaper boat. You get the picture, I’m sure. 

 Anyway… to answer a question I get frequently, yes, my GIANT dog Ben and my smallest dog Rudi get along very well.  Ben is an amazing animal, his size does not give him the impression that he should dominate. As a matter of fact, he still believes he can fit on your lap, and demonstrates this regularly.  Ben now weighs approx. 195. lbs.   Rudi weights 9 lbs.  I do love my boyz, although Rudi still marks his territory, pissing on various things if I don’t catch him, the little sh*t. Ben has NEVER done this in the house.  Ever.  That would create a floodplain.

   Big plans for the garden. BIG. Besides tripling the vegetable garden, we have ordered 10 blueberry bushes and 10 raspberry.  My back porch has been transformed into a mini greenhouse, complete with heater.  These are his babies, you see.  I was given the task of watering the other day, and you’de think there were human embryos in there with the set of instructions I got.   We are also going to build a roadside stand, so by mid summer we should have a nice selection of produce and cut flowers for passers by.  We just filled out paperwork for the farm bureau, hoping to be accepted.  

   I’m excited for This Old House to become a working farm once again…

  This is not my photo… but I love this farmstand, would like to have something like it…
  See the heater on the floor?  He’s nutz.