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???

Aldi lemon pound cake

I discovered the joys of shopping at Aldi last year before the pandemic hit. I love that store. There are only one or 2 things they sell that I don't love, one of them being the cream cheese. as you all know, every now and then I'll review different boxed mixes, because even a housewife can't always make from scratch. I love making treats to send to work with Frank for his guys, this time I found lemon pound cake mix, and decided that it would be perfect.... Of course its also a great way to try out stuff to find out how good it is. Obviously I had to taste test it, and it was fantastic. I believe that I would make it for a church gathering, or a family reunion. I was going to share pictures, however I need a new tablet. This thing is refusing to connect to my photos now. I'll be getting a new one in a couple of weeks.

Grief

Things here have been rough. On Thursday August 11th Bella our Walker Hound passed away. She got sick very suddenly. We went to the vet and found she was filling with fluid. Lots of bloodwork, and we scheduled to come back. By the time we got there for her return trip for xrays and further investigation she was rappidly going down. After an X-Ray we found that there was a growth on her heart and survival chances were minimal. We had to make that choice that nobody ever wants to make. The other three dogs are hanging in there. This isn't the first sibling loss for Sam and Jasper. It is for Mishka though. She's still looking for Bella though. Its going to take some time, but we will all be ok. I've been asked if we plan on getting a puppy anytime soon. No, not for a while. A puppy just isnt a good idea right now. We moved in with Frank's mom to help her, and she uses a walker and has bad balance. Then we have Sam, whose autoimmune meds are a bit expensive, and Mishka has young husky energy. I know I've been bad about not posting regularly, and I love posting on here. I plan on trying to share something once a month.

Patio Lemon Trees

 A few weeks ago, I bought these patio lemon trees. They were 50% off because there was a chance they weren't going to survive. I got them from Tractor Supply, and when I got them, I had to set them in a bag because they were so full of water. (yeah TSC is really bad about how they care for their live plants) Anyways I got them home, and set them in some sun, and tried to drain as much of the water out as I could. They are looking a whole lot better now. My plan is to go ahead and get them the biggest size pot I'm going to end up needing for them in the long run. I don't want to have to do a bunch of re-planting. 

I did the research using my pal Google and found that I'm going to need a fairly big pot that's at least 18 inches deep, and fairly wide as they will get kind of top-heavy.  Of course, I'm going to have to learn how to prune a tree, and also learned that it's going to take up to 6 years to get my first fruit.  I'm going to get those cool pot roller things that you set the giant pots in to move them around. There is an awesome sun porch here that I'll have them winter over in so that they get the continued sunlight they need without freezing. Right now.....this all sounds like a good deal of fun. However give it a year or two and I'm sure I'll start getting weary.

good morning

 Life here at my husband's home place can be rather busy. There is quite a bit of property to keep up with. On top of keeping up with the potted plants, and keeping the weeds and clinging vines at bay that seems to want to grow up on everything!!!! I know the other day as I was weed-eating I pulled about 4 of them off of the house. Apparently living at the foot of the mountain is much different than living in the woods. I guess mother nature has different ideas about what's going to grow where. I have a feeling living out here is going to help us keep in shape!!! 

I've been on a journey for a few years now to get my weight down to where it needs to be. It's been up and down while I've been on this journey, but I have a feeling that this time I'm going to make it. Fingers crossed!!!!