So much change

Hello there! I'm not going to make any promises to be more consistent. Life is just too wild, and changing faster than I can keep up with. 2023 ended up being a hard year with much loss. We lost 2 of Frank's Aunts and one of his cousins. Then in May, out of the blue we lost Jasper. The details of that are hard to relive, but to put it simple he had a stroke and there was no bringing him back. Then one day shy of 3 months in August we lost Sam. He couldn't walk,and wouldn't eat or drink. Mishka was not doing well as an only dog, and Frank and I were struggling with those blows. We decided it was time for a hound puppy. So in September we brought home Amber...an 11 week old hound mix who has been a complete joy, and has brought an entertaining amount of energy into this house. Now...here's where it gets good...on January 14th we brought home not 1 but 2 husky puppies. 8 week old littermates. One boy, and one girl. They are both black and white with blue eyes, but are patterned very different. His name is Barley and her name is Maple. So yes we have 3 puppies under a year old right now. (Amber is 7 months) In April I had Gastric Bypass surgery and am down 114 pounds. I had lost a bunch of weight several years ago with the help of prescription medications. It all came back. I don't believe I took the easy way out, because there was nothing easy about the process. I feel much better, and most days depending on what they puppies put me through I can get more done. Now!!! coming up in the next month, I'm getting a new right hip..so that's fun. I'm still fooling around with pattern writing and different recipes. Hopefully when life slows back down I can share all of these things with you all. For now though I'll close this up and hope I still have a few followers left.

2023

I no longer make excuses for the gaps between posts. I always want to blog, but unfortunately things just get weird or crazy. Kind of like the I last couple of months. In mid November we had Covid, then Thanksgiving was here, and then boom Christmas. A few days after Christmas I had to go to Urgent Care...I had strep. Then we had the family New Years Day Dinner. I started getting congested and sick that night. I thought it was just the cold Frank had...nope I have Covid again. So I'm sitting here in the recliner snuggled up in a few blankets watching my favorite movie and waiting for my meds to kick in so that this current bit of fever goes away. see...that's how it's been going. I have the Lemon Tree's in the house for the winter. The one is still tiny and scraggly, but still growing. They almost look like 2 completely different trees. I'm going to fertilize them with fruit tree stuff in the spring, and I'm going to give that little one a good pruning. I'm not sure, but it might be time to get them in the biggest size pot they will need to be in. I'm still quilting and crocheting. I've been working on a few things for this blog, and then am going to make a go at writing a book. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now. The dogs all seem to be doing well. Sam and Jasper will be 12 on Friday!!! I can hardly believe that. Mishka's seizures seem to be well under control. I'm hoping they stay that way. Well, for now thats it here. I hope to post again soon!!@

Lemon Trees

Good Morning!!! its a beautiful and comfortably cool July 4th morning, so I'm. sitting on the front deck having some coffee. Mishka is hanging out here with me. She's watching the woods and the road under the bottom deck rails. We never seem to know what exciting things we will see here in our own little slice of the world...anything from deer, turkeys, bicyclists who have veered off the bike path, to the neighbors walking their adorable little dog named Jordan. Sam and Jasper don't always enjoy hanging out here with us girls. I think they prefer the comfort of inside. I thought I would go ahead and take some pictures of my lemon trees to share with you all, since it's been about a year since my last photos of them. The one has always looked much better than the other. I honestly didn't think the smaller of the two was going to make it when I brought them home. They had been left outside in heavy rains, and their dirt was basically soup. I got them drained, and after a bit of research learned that I couldn't transplant them until they were able to get completely dry, and showed signs of survival. I waited about 2 months to replant them. Once I was ready those poor things were completely root bound. But they survived and I've had them for more than a year.

Moving along

I'm sitting on the deck drinking coffee and listening to the sounds of nature, the goats and roosters down the road, and the sounds of the holiday traffic on the interstate. We aren't close to the interstate at all, but when traffic is heavy, there's no escaping it. We will be going to closing here in a couple of weeks on this house. It will officially be ours, which feels oddly intense. I mean, we've owned houses before, but this just feels different. I've been researching new platforms for selling handmade items on. I've found a couple that I like, but I'm still researching. I'll post my decisions once I finish looking into them all. I decided that I want to start selling some baby quilts and rag dolls, and things like that. (I've started making rag dolls and they are the cutest thing ever! I actually have an order for one) I just don't want to keep dealing with Etsy, I can't get the numbers into my shop to make paying for listings worth it. I don't remember if I told you in my last blog, but Mishka is now on seizure medicine. They said that because of the age it started at (3) it's genetic. They did run a bunch of bloodwork, and tests, and took urine samples, but nothing came up. I still have the lemon trees, and they seem to be growing rather well. I don't think I'll need to repot them this summer, but next summer for sure. They haven't flowered out for me, so that means I won't be getting lemons this year. According to the research I've done it will be when they hit 6 or 7 years old before I see fruit. That means I have 5-6 more years before we see anything. That's about everything from here for now. Hopefully I will have more to share soon.

Hello again

Once again, I've been a bit neglectful. I really do miss writing my blog on a regular basis. Things are still getting sorted and settled and figured out, and of course new things continue to pop up. Mishka my youngest Siberian Husky has started having seizures. she's on medication, and has only had 1 break through seizure so far. I'm hoping that they stay far and few in between. I keep a daily log book, writing down her medication and anything else that seems significant. She has an appointment at the end of the month for a follow up. We have finally been able to get through paperwork started to buy this house. I will be glad when that's sorted out. It kind of leaves you with an odd sensation living in what feels like limbo. My sewing room is starting to have the feel that I want. It's taken some work, and some rearranging, but it feels rather nice. I've been managing to get quite a bit of quilting and sewing done. My sewing room is easily twice the size of my old one. We haven't done a veggie garden or taken the steps to get a rabbitry up and going yet. We've had quite a lot of clearing out to do before we could even think about starting anything like that. We'll get there though. Well now that you're all caught up for now, I'll stop rambling!!! I hope once again to become more active.

Settling in

Hello out there, I know I've been insanely sporadic these last few years with my posts. I wish I could apologize, but you can't really apologize for life. Frank and I are finally finding our feet here without his parents. We had quite a bit of grief to work through, between losing them and our hound Bella all in less than a year. We made it through all of the major first Holidays. We had a house full of family and love. Truly the fact that Frank's sisters and their families have stuck close has helped the healing. I now have a fully functional sewing room. I'm hoping to up my quilting game. I've been working on making some quilts to donate to Project Linus. So far I have 2 baby quilt tops made, and am over half done making the blocks for a teenage size quilt top. I'm not setting a number on how many tops I want to get made, but I'm going to work on them until July. Then I'll get my supplies to get them quilted and bound, and donated. This summer our garden will mostly be containers. We want to do a bigger garden, but that will wait until next summer. We have plans to set up a rabbitry here, and get that going again. I'm not sure if we will get back into chickens, but we are thinking about quail. Having a small farm is a nice dream I think.

November already?

so much has happened this year that I just can't seem to wrap my head around any of it. We moved in May, lost our Bella in August, then on September 19, at 6AM my sweet mother in law passed away. Loosing Jeanette has been one of the hardest things I've been through. I have lost people before, but this was just on an entirely different level. I have been wanting to do more blogging, but there has been so much to sort through and get done. Things are slowing down to a tolerable pace. I have been gathering new recipes and learning some new cooking skills. I'm hoping to be able to share many new recipes with you all. In the meantime, how about a picture or two of the dogs???