Thankful for Kerosene and Generators

Yesterday afternoon, a storm front blew through, bringing winds up to 70 miles per hour and driving rain. It was a rather short blast, only lasting about an hour, but it knocked power out to thousands of homes in the area.

We lost power around 3 yesterday afternoon, and it wasn't restored until 6 am. There are still many in our county that are without power as I type this.

It wouldn't have been much of a deal for us on a normal night. We have wood heat and a small collection of old footed glass oil lamps that are always ready to light. But this time around, there are puppies to keep warm too. They are still young enough that they need a steady 80 degree environment. So my in-laws came to the rescue with a generator that kept the kennel warm all night, and also gave us a chance to watch part of our favorite Sunday evening show with the kids (AFV, of course!).

If you click on the second photo, you will get a larger version that I custom sized to fit your flat screen as wallpaper. Feel free to take a copy, but only for personal use, please!

Speaking of puppies, last week was a tough one, with five struggling puppies that we were feeding with a dropper. We lost four of them. We know that we did everything we could to keep them alive, but it would seem that they had issues in the womb that they weren't able to overcome. Being our first litter (Maggie's), it was a shock to our systems. I don't cry very often, but I did shed tears for the families that were hoping to take them home, and for the injustice of puppies born only to suffer and die. We have so many wonderful customers; more customers than puppies, and losing four made the ratio of pups to homes even lower. The good news is that the fifth puppy seems to finally be winning the battle, gaining a few ounces this weekend, and showing signs of being able to nurse on her own.

And even more good news... on Wednesday, in the midst of a visit from my Parents and Grandma, and feeding sick puppies, Jazzi had a litter of NINE puppies. We won't call their colors officially until they are pretty close to time to go to their new homes, as they can develop pigment in that time, but we are pretty confident that the majority of them will be able to claim a rare color: white.

Picture of the Week

(My Grandma and Parents with the kids... we're a Canon family).

This Quiet Moment Brought to You by...

...Deb! Thank you for the surprise package of Labrador books for the kids.

Our little Mister is really proud to be reading a big-kid book (no pictures!). There are lots of big words that he stumbles over, but for a person who hasn't had a lick of schooling, I think he's doing exceedingly well.

Now if only they will stay put for awhile...

Picking Up the Pace

Over the weekend, I got a chance to get away with a friend to the quarterly antique show at the Expo Center. We kept finding ourselves, limited time window and all, meandering along, taking it in... sauntering. Then we would look at the clock, see that we had WAY too many rows of vendors to see before closing and pick up the pace... until we reached the next Vendor of Perfection and got lost in shopping.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

It was nice.

No kids to console/feed/protect/usher. Just us girls and a kazillion old things to entertain and admire.

I didn't come home with many purchases (I regretfully left 3 lovely samplers behind) because our resources are tied up in the Labradors right now, but had a wonderfully relaxing time.

I was admiring these Johnson Bros. dishes, thinking that they were just about the perfect shade of my happy color, but didn't even bother looking at the price tag. A few minutes later, from across the space, I heard my friend say, "So this price is for all of them?" and the nice vendor lady said, "Yes, and they are half off today, so they would be nine dollars." To which my lovely friend called out, "Beth, I am buying these for you!"

So now I have the beginning of a collection, it would seem.

I also succumbed to two pair of little old scissors and a pressed pansy arrangement surrounded by tattered velvet.

Who wouldn't?

My only disappointment was not finding one single pincushion. Someone out there is hogging them up. It had better not be you!

Speaking of Picking Up the Pace...

We now have another litter of 8 puppies... Sierra's this time, including 6 Chocolates and 2 Yellows. We weren't expecting her to be the next, so we weren't watching her as closely.

Two nights ago, we were concerned for a few of Maggie's pups who are getting pushed aside by their much fatter siblings, so Matt had walked out for one last peek before bed. As soon as he stepped into the kennel, he heard a puppy from the other side of the row. How's that for timing?

He was able to get some heat lamps in Sierra's box, and spent much of the rest of the night keeping an eye on things and moving the pellet stove from his shop to the kennel.

Jazzi should be having her litter any day now. If I don't pick up my pace, I'm going to be swimming in dishes, toys, and dog food!

Frosty

An original name, yes? But that is what they insisted on calling the snowman their Daddy built for them.

I placed the hat and scarf, Daddy put in the stick arms, but all of the buttons and face elements were entirely the creation of our 5 year old.

And all throughout the day, he would run to replace carrot nose, button or eye, as the wet melting snow let them drop.

Finally, a mere 30 minutes after a tear-filled realization that, just as we had told him, Frosty would melt, we found him happily destroying his snowman, saying with a tough-kid growl in his voice, and an ear-to-ear grin, "Mama! I knocked Frosty's head off!" And one of our sweet weekend visitors (we had an open house for our Labrador customers) piped up, "I'm throwing his body at him!" as she scooped a snowball from his side and threw it at his belly.

Kids.

Picture of the Week

Pushing Back

I did something this week that I have rarely done in my life.

I bought flowers for myself.

Daffodils.

They are sitting on my kitchen windowsill so that they are the first thing I see, distracting me from the continual cycle of rain-snow-rain-snow-rain-snow that has turned my landscape into a gloomy mess of perpetually melting and sagging snow and mud.

I also bought strawberries. Not-organic, out-of-season, overgrown and barely-sweet strawberries. Yet they somehow still tasted good.

I am trying to push back Winter with all my might.

Someone else in this house has Spring Fever...


And here is another of my treasuries, which nicely fits the theme of this post. Its called "Craving Curry and Blue Skies"...

What a Day!

Back and forth, back and forth... kids and puppies... puppies and kids. Being pulled between the two and their needs. Eating nothing but toast and coffee because that's what's quick and easy.

Now I'm ravenous (my Dearest is coming to the rescue with a Giant Pizza for dinner), and there is a trench blazed from house to kennel, through the snow.

But mama Maggie is doing well, and seems to finally be done with her birthing. And we have 4 yellow, 2 chocolate, and 2 black bundles of (noisy!) cuteness.

My in-laws came up at the end, and the Mama who raised these 6 breeding dogs of ours got to be there for the last puppy's birth. Too bad she had to scramble out through the dog door and rescue it from the snow! She saved a puppy and saved the day. The outer kennel gates are shut fast because of the snow, and my taller frame would have never fit out through that dog door.

I am planting myself on the couch tonight, and won't be lifting a finger except to put my needle and thread through linen.

In Like a Lion

We got 14 inches of snow yesterday in a 10 hour time span.

This morning its raining, turning all of that snow into slippery goo, and there are puppies being born (that's the Mama Maggie, reaching out to grab my camera).

I'll pop back in here this afternoon to give you a more detailed update.