Back to Basic Living

My parents were here visiting us last week. We had a wonderful time, and it was unbelievably difficult to watch them leave yesterday. *sigh* But, rather than focus on how much I miss them, I’m going to show you something my father and Bernie did for me last week. They built this for me:

An outside sink! How incredibly cool is that??? It’s attached to the back of my garden shed so I can work in the shade, and it’s hooked up to my rain barrel. Now I can work with my potted plants in comfort and I have a place to clean up the garden veggies before bringing them in the house. I can’t tell you how much I love that little sink. And the coolest part of all is that they used leftover lumber and an old sink that was laying in the cabin shed. Bernie and I started painting it yesterday, and I’ll put up pictures of how it looks once we are finished.

Bernie had hooked my rain barrel to a small pump a couple of weeks ago so that we could attach a garden hose and pump water up hill to my garden and greenhouse. Here’s the little pump:

It’s inside my garden shed, under the work bench Bernie built for me. He attached a piece of garden hose to the drain valve at the bottom of the rain barrel, ran the hose through a small hole in the garden shed, and attached the other end of it to the pump. He installed a spigot outside my garden shed so that I can hook up a garden hose and the pump will pump the water through it.

Daddy and Bernie added another spigot above the sink. It splits off of the pump and they ran it through the wall to my sink:

I am tickled beyond words with the results. Thank you, Bernie and Daddy! Bernie is now excited to add two or three more rain barrels around the property. He’s keeping his eyes open for small pumps that go on sale.

My parents brought their small dachshund, Oliver, with them for the visit. Oliver is a cutie. He’s a couple of months older than Diesel and Dolly, but he’s MUCH smaller. Oliver has attitude, and he didn’t let his size hold him back. When he wanted something, he went for it.

Those puppies played and played while Oliver was here.

And they chewed up lots of sticks.

And, when Oliver left, Diesel pouted a little.

We had a great time visiting with my parents and Oliver. The week went by entirely too fast. I’m extremely blessed to have such wonderful parents.

I love you mom and dad.

Bee Free,
Penny

Diesel and Dolly are home. Bernie and I are over joyed. The cats are pouting. We are back to normal on the homestead.

When we went to pick the pups up this morning, the receptionist went on and on about how adorable Diesel and Dolly are. She said that when Dolly was in the recovery room and they brought Diesel in, he was still out and Dolly could barely move. Not only did Dolly wag her tail, but within a few minutes she tried to stand up and couldn’t. So she belly crawled over to Diesel and laid her head on him and went to sleep. The receptionist said the vet assistant called them all in to see it and they took pictures. They said they have never seen two sweeter puppies or two puppies that were so in love with each other. Naturally, we agree. And we whisked those puppies out of there so fast it left their heads spinning at that vet’s office.

The only thing they told us was to watch the incisions for infection, and to keep Diesel and Dolly calm. I’m not even going to comment on how ridiculous the whole “keep them calm” thing is.

When we got the pups home, they ate like they had never seen food before and then they took a nice long nap. When they woke up, they told me it was time to get the mail. I hesitated, but I knew if they missed their evening mail run, they would be impossible to live with. So we walked down to get the mail, and other than keeping them from getting in the creeks, I let them romp and play as usual. When we got home, Bernie grabbed his camera and said “Let’s walk around the yard a bit.” The puppies were all about that.

I took the egg basket out with the intent of collecting eggs and cleaning the chicken coop. Dolly had other ideas. She became completely obsessed with the egg basket.

I finally gave it to her.

She even posed for a picture.

And then, in complete disregard of the vet’s advice, Diesel and Dolly started running, jumping, chasing, and in general, NOT remaining calm.

They are not supposed to be doing this.

They are not supposed to be doing this either.

And they are definitely not supposed to be doing this.

After playing for a good long while, Diesel took a break to watch the chickens.

They’re inside resting now. And they are smiling while they sleep. It’s good to have these puppies home. It just didn’t feel right without them.

Oh, and here’s a picture of a raised bed and the green house.

That’s horseradish in the tire. Our potatoes, radishes, lettuce and spinach are growing like crazy. This week we’ll get the tomatoes, peppers, melons, etc. in. Lucky we didn’t do that this past weekend, when we had planned. It was 28 degrees this morning! But it’s looking like the week will warm up nicely.

Things are back to normal on the homestead. Well, as normal as it gets around here, anyway.

Bee Free,
Penny

Thanks to all who have commented on the blog, emailed, and called about Diesel and Dolly. We talked to the vet this afternoon and both came through their surgeries just fine. They spayed Dolly first, and she was just waking up as Diesel was being brought into the recovery room after being neutered. The vet said Dolly couldn’t even lift her head, but when her eyes saw Diesel her tail started wagging. I don’t need to tell you I started crying when I heard that. We’re thankful they are fine, and now we just can’t wait to get them back home.

As we dropped them off this morning, I asked if they would be weighed right away. The receptionist said “Well, we do weigh them before surgery. But if you’d like them to be weighed while you’re here, we can do that.” So we took the pups back to the scale.

Dolly weighed in at 41.5 pounds. Diesel weighed in at 48.5 pounds! That boy has been working hard at getting bigger, and it’s paid off. He never did like that whole “runt” label thing.

They’re not quite six months old yet, and they are really big. But I have to say, every ounce of it is nothing but sweetness. Well, maybe a few ounces of ornery, but mostly it’s sweetness. Between Dolly’s heart melting marble eyes and Diesel’s breath taking smiles, well, it’s pretty easy to over look the moments of orneriness.

And they know it. Boy oh boy, do they ever know it.

Bee Free,

Penny

Tomorrow we will drop Diesel and Dolly off at the vet’s office at 8:30AM. They are getting “fixed”. And we are just dreading it. We’re not dreading the “fixed” part of it. We’re big advocates of spaying/neutering pets.  We’re dreading the part where Diesel and Dolly have to stay over night at the vet’s office.

That’s 24 hours without Dolly crawling up in our laps - even though Dolly is WAY to big to be a lap dog.

It’s 24 hours without seeing Diesel smile at us - and Diesel has the best smile ever.

24 hours without watching these puppies run with wreckless abandon.

24 hours without puppy kisses.

24 hours without our sweet Diesel and Dolly.

It seems like a lifetime.

We miss them already.

I’m sure Diesel and Dolly will be just fine.

I’m not so sure about Bernie and me.

24 hours can seem like a lifetime.

Bee Free,

Penny