T is for Three Dogs




If you're an animal lover, don't go to Petfinder unless you want to end up with another pet and/or get depressed.

I try to stay away, but over the weekend I was there for a few minutes to find an email address for Sunny's foster mom. What sad stories. So many dogs (and other animals, but I didn't look at them) needing a good home with someone willing to spend the time and money to make their life better.

I'd like to share the stories of our three dogs today. Apologies to the few long time readers who have heard these stories before.

Glory is a 10 year old, 70 pound lab mix.

When she was a cute little puppy, some young man without a clue adopted her to live with him in his apartment. By the time she was a large six month old energetic puppy, she was taking up way too much room in the apartment and demanding too much of the young man's attention.

DH was in town one day and overheard the young man say he had a dog that was too big and he was going to drop her off in the country. DH said he lived in the country and he would take the dog. And he did.

That day while I was peacefully working at home, DH drove up the drive with a big, bouncy, black puppy in the front seat. He opened the car door and Glory jumped out to inspect her new property. She ran and ran and ran, seeming to know where the property boundaries are. When she was tired, she came in the house, met me, and has been part of the family ever since.


Sunny is a five year old small dog mix. There are many different opinions on what that mix is. She is unique and wonderful.

We found her on Petfinder in a foster home about 100 miles north of us. She was a two pound puppy who had been dumped alongside the road with her mother and two siblings. Her adult weight is sixteen pounds.

Her blurb on Petfinder said she was Terrier/Papillon, but they were just guessing. She did look like a Papillon puppy with curly hair. One of her sisters looked like a Jack Russell and the other looked like a white poodle. Her mother looked very similar to Sunny.


Pappy, an eight year old Papillon, also came from Petfinder. We got him four years ago when he was four years old.

We had no intention of getting a third dog. We had never heard of Papillons before getting Sunny and becoming interested in the breed.

I emailed Pappy's Petfinder link to DH for the purpose of showing him what a Papillon looked like. Then I promptly forgot about sending it.

Later, I was sitting on the sofa and heard DH say, "We need to get that poor boy."

Huh?

Turns out DH was right. Pappy was a total physical and emotional basket case when we adopted him. It was obvious that he'd been abused and his health issues ignored.

The first month we nursed him back to health and let him adjust to his new home as much as possible. The second month he started doggy school. One of his first exercises was to be fed pieces of turkey dog while being held so he would learn that being held was a good thing.

After two years, he trusted us enough to sleep tummy up. After four years, he is healthy, normal, loving, and loves running the agility course at doggy school.


For anyone thinking of adopting from Petfinder, there are some wonderful dogs there - BUT be prepared. Most of the dogs have "issues". Some are basic personality issues, and some are issues acquired from having a bad experience in their previous home. All "issues" require time, patience, love, and effort to resolve. It's not as simple as the Dog Whisperer leads you believe.

And please remember that cute little lab puppies quickly grow into large dogs that need room to run and play. Especially if you live in an apartment.

Saturday Sky and Message to Readers
Another rainy weekend, the perfect excuse to sit and knit instead of working outdoors.

I do feel sorry for all the employed people who looked forward to a beautiful fall weekend and got this instead.


Did you know that this blog is a subset of my knitting blog Stitches of Violet?

Since I have a few family members who don't want to read through the knitting stuff, I copy and paste most of the non-knitting content of Stitches of Violet here just for them.

At this time in my blogging history, there is nothing being written for this blog. That could change, but I have no plans at this time to expand Seasons of Violet with original content.

Stitches of Violet has many more readers than Seasons of Violet. If I ever do begin to write posts for Seasons that are not on Stitches, I'll be sure to mention it on Stitches.

I usually blog on Stitches of Violet four or five times a week. When there is heavy knitting content, there may be nothing to post here for many days at a time. If you have any interest in knitting at all, I recommend you read Stitches of Violet and not this blog.

Saturday Sky and Super Surgilator
An old wife's tale claims lots of rain this time of year results in beautiful autumn colors when the trees turn.

I'm looking forward to that.


I've owned this Whirlpool washer since we moved here in 1991 and I'm sure I've washed thousands of loads of laundry in it.**

Last week for the very first time I noticed that there are raised letters (they don't show in this picture) on top of the agitator spelling out

SUPER SURGILATOR.

Imagine a conference room full of marketing types brainstorming names for their agitator and coming up with that. Hear the laughter?

As evidenced by the fact that Whirlpool washers are still being sold with Super Surgilators today, 15 years later (Yes really. I Googled it.), the name must be a marketing success story.

I give the Super Surgilator an A+. It gets the clothes clean in hard water, has an impressive repair record, and now that I've finally seen the writing on the agitator it's good for a chuckle every time I do a load of wash.

**Doubt the thousands? I thought it sounded a bit much, so I did the math.

15 years X 52 weeks = 780 weeks
780 weeks X 5 loads a week (average) = 3,900 loads of laundry

Fall in the Field
We beat the average by a week!

Average first frost date for the Kalamazoo area is September 29. We had our first frost this morning, September 21.

On the first dog walk of this chilly morning, I was blundering around the field just long enough for everyone to pee. As I thought about going inside and drinking my coffee, my bleary eyes spotted the white stuff on the ground.

We turned the heat on for the first time today. It's that time of year.


This is usually the last loop of one of our dog walks.

At the end of the path are two nest boxes, but not for much longer. They're too close to the trees in the background making them unattractive to the bluebirds I'm trying to attract.

For the last several years the tree swallows have used one of the boxes, so I've been slow to move them. This year they both housed wrens.


This is a wren nest.

The wrens fill the house so full with sticks that I don't dare raise the door and monitor the nest during nesting season.

Even when I think the wrenlings have fledged, I can never be sure there aren't eggs or new little wrens in the box. After the wrens build their pile of sticks, the box is out of service for the rest of the year.

The wrens won't like the boxes once they're move to a more open location. The bluebirds and swallows can have the boxes back in the spring.

S is for Solidago



Solidago: genus for the many species of goldenrod. In Latin, Solidago means "to make whole" because it was/is believed that goldenrod has healing properties.

In September the goldenrod grows above all the other numerous wildflowers and weeds in our back three acres and boldly pronounces itself ruler of the field with waves of bright yellow.


The tallest is about five feet high. I aimed the camera straight forward at my eye level for this picture.

Because Solidago is so showy, it is often blamed for autumn allergies actually caused by the green, unobvious ragweed.

According to botanists, Solidago pollen is too heavy to go airborne and be an allergen. They claim the only way to get goldenrod pollen on the nasal passages is to stick the flower up one's nose.


The late summer Solidago pollen is important winter food for many species of bees, hornets, and wasps. It is high quality, protein rich, sticky, and easy to collect.

The field is one big buzzing. There are so many bees, I had no problem getting this nice picture of one with bulging pollen sacs. (The pollen sacs are the orange things just behind and under the wings.)

R is for Red Juice
Oops, I'm late with the Letter R.


This is going to sound like an ad, but I have no affiliation other than being a very satisfied Red Juice user for the last five years.

I found the Clean Team while doing an internet search for something to help my pathetic housekeeping skills.

Red Juice is a powerful all purpose cleaner made from all natural ingredients such as soybean extract, palm kernels, seaweed, and palm oil. It is pH neutral, non-toxic, odor-free, and completely biodegradable. Safe for use around food.

Spray it on, wipe it off, no rinsing.

We use it for almost everything including muddy pawprints, floors, walls, woodwork, laundry pre-treating, greasy stove tops, and killing ants.

Red Juice comes in a 32 ounce bottle of concentrate which makes 20 bottles of heavy duty spray cleaner. The spray bottle has lines on it for measuring the ten to one dilution of the concentrate.

When I have a big job like wiping down cupboard doors or washing a wall, I mix up a batch of Red Juice in a bucket and throw in a wad of cheap, thin, white terry washcloths to moisten them with the Red Juice. After using each washcloth until it is too dirty to use anymore, I toss it in a pile and take the next washcloth from the bucket. I use a separate, dry rag to dry where I've washed. When done, I admire the cleanliness and throw the rags in the washer.

If you go to the Clean Team web site and are tempted to order more than the Red Juice, you won't be sorry. I especially love:

• Blue Juice, the concentrate to replace your window cleaner.
  
  
• Sh-Mop, rather like a Swiffer only the handle is longer, the pad is much larger, and you wash and reuse the pads over and over again. Before putting a pad on, I soak it in Red Juice for a greasy, very dirty job or Blue juice for a quick wet mop.
  
  
• Toothbrush, so extra heavy bristled that you would never use it in your mouth but perfect for around faucets and any other place you have little groves to clean.
  
  
• Heavy Duty Scraper, looks like a putty knife but is made of plastic so it doesn't scratch. I keep one in each room. Especially handy in the kitchen for removing baked on food. I keep the kitchen scraper handy in the dish drainer.

Stay Away Kitty Kitty
In recent years there have been cougar sightings in Michigan, some with DNA species verification of hair or scat.

Since a few of these sightings have been in my county/township, I'm very interested in following the ongoing battle between honest, credible citizens who are reporting the sightings and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) who are reluctant to admit such thing is possible.

When the MDNR says "Though the information indicates the presence of a cougar it still does not confirm the presence of a breeding population in Michigan.", do they think the public is so stupid they think the cougars just roam here and don't mate here?

Mom's Cast Is Off


We celebrated with lunch out.

Mom celebrated with a nice wet shower.




This morning we arrived at the orthopedic surgeon's office very anxious to get the blue cast removed and move on to the next step in returning to normal.

First the Fiberglas was cut top and bottom with a sound wave saw. Then pried open with a special pliers and gently removed. Once again she could see her arm.

The doctor was happy with the x-rays. The arm is mending and no surgery is required. The break that he suspected might be a problem is looking better than he expected. All good news.




For the next month, she has a removable splint.

Check out the finger swelling. They hurt, but not as much now that the cast is off. I'm hoping the swelling goes down this weekend and the pain decreases enough so she can get a good night's sleep.

The hand is not functional, but she'll be working on that problem.

Monday is her first appointment with Holly at "Hand Therapy". This should be interesting. Or, as Mom says on her blog,

"I look upon life as an ongoing adventure."

I think this is one adventure she doesn't want to repeat.

End of Summer Lament
It's a busy but boring week. My brain seems to be in shut down mode and only thinks about what needs to be done instead of thinking of stimulating blog topics.

In a few minutes, I need to jump in the shower, get in the car, drive to Kalamazoo, go through the Wendy's drivethru at noon, pick up Mom and take her for a shampoo after we eat chicken sandwichs and Frostys.




I owe Granddaughter Kimmy and friend a day at Full Blast before school starts. School starts next week, so tomorrow is the day. How's that for cutting it short?

So tomorrow I will be driving about 100 miles round trip and spending the day listening to the screams of happy/unhappy/thrilled children and paying outrageous prices for everything with a smile on my face. Just call me Grandma ATM.

Where did the summer go?

Monday Musings
Saturday Sky
This was the sky on Saturday, and Sunday. All weekend it looked like it was going to rain any minute. A couple of times it managed just enough drops to wet the surface and keep the humidity at a steamy level. Never enough to give the plants a good drink.

Today, Monday, it is finally raining a decent amount, coming down slow and steady.


Sweet
Just because one can never have too many pictures of loved ones who live far away, here's a recent shot of Son John and Granddaughter Sydney Anne. They're loving each other just like I used to love John when he was a sweet baby.

Now I love him differently, but not any less. With the pride and respect I have for the man/father/husband he has become, I think I love him even more.

Mom Report
(Previous Mom posts here and here for anyone who needs to catch up on what happened.)

We're in the doldrums of broken arm limbo. Mom patiently ices her fingers, elevates her arm, takes painkillers, and occasionally has a bad night and complains.

I fetch food, do laundry, pay bills, chauffeur, and whatever else needs to be done to get through this time. Her apartment is a booby trap of containers with unsecured lids so she can get into them when I'm not there.

Eleven days until the cast comes off. We don't expect life to immediately return to normal, but we do expect a wonderful, long, hot shower for Mom and the beginning of the end of this experience.

Q is for Quatrefoil


From Wikipedia:

The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.

In July, 2004, I looked down and found these two, almost perfect four-leaf clovers.

Although not usually superstitious, I took this as a good sign and almost immediately received some great news. Son John and daughter-in-law Anne were coming to visit the middle of August, 2004. They live across the country in Idaho and it would be their first visit to Michigan in six years.

The big day arrived.

After we greeted each other and settled in for a chat, John asked what good luck I got from the second clover. A rather strange question. I couldn't think of anything better than his and Anne's visit from Idaho, so I told him I didn't know.

That was the right answer! He told me the second clover worth of good luck was due to make me a grandmother around April 4, 2005 in Idaho.


So now, August 2006, two years later, I fondly remember that second four leaf clover. Here's a recent picture of the joy it brought.

Doggy News

Glory, our big, black lab mix, loves the blackberries in the back field. She has been known to eat them right off the bush, but she likes it best when someone picks them for her.

Everytime we go for a walk I feed her a few. She's going to be disappointed when the season is over.

The little white spots on her are seeds. She's been banging around in the brush and weeds trying to find a rabbit.


Yesterday the dogs went to the groomer and, for the last time this summer, Pappy had a haircut.

Last spring after Pappy's first haircut of the year, a woman at doggy school who takes breed standards way too serious (my opinion) took me to task. According to Miss Doggy Police, Papillons are NOT supposed to have their beautiful long hair cut and people who get haircuts for their Papillons shouldn't be allowed to own them.

She also informed me that Pappy was certainly embarrassed to be sheared like that.

I found her lecture so ridiculous that I couldn't even get mad. It was all I could do not to laugh in her face.

If anyone reading this is inclined to agree with her, let me defend Pappy's haircut.

Pappy is an eight year old rescue dog. He's not a show dog, he's a family dog. Several times a day he goes for walks in the weeds where he is likely to pick up ticks, sticky seeds, and burdocks. He delights in diving into brush piles in search of rabbits and other rodents.

He loves to go to the groomer and I've seen no sign that he's ashamed of losing his long fur for the summer. Short hair is more comfortable for Pappy and much easier for me.


Sunny has lost four pounds since April. Last night at doggy school, Gail the trainer checked Sunny over and declared her thin.

Tonight, for the first time, she got a maintenance serving of Canidae dog food - a third of a cup instead of her diet portion of a fourth of a cup.

We will continue measuring her food and watching her weight very carefully to make sure she doesn't gain the weight back.


All three bluebirds are thriving. Today is the last day I will open the nest box before they fledge.

Once they get to a certain size, there is a danger they will jump out if the box is open. This little guy might be ready to jump out now if he wasn't so tired.

Yesterday I saw their mom bring them a baby garter snake. Yum yum.

Sky and Pain
It gently rained all last night. The morning was cloudy and misty, but by this afternoon when I took this picture the sun was shining and the sky was blue with fluffy white clouds.

That yellow tinged vegetation on the bottom of the shot is goldenrod just starting to bloom, a sure sign that autumn is not far away.

Pain
Last week was a painful week.

Sunny's spondylosis flared up so we visited the vet on Monday for pain meds. She's better now and we have an adequate supply of painkiller on hand for next time.

Mom's broken arm decided to swell and be painful. We spent Friday morning in the orthopedic doctor's office getting her cast cut off and a new one plastered on. Mom also received an adequate supply of painkiller.

P is for Pileated Woodpecker


Today, for the very first time in my entire life, I saw a Pileated Woodpecker.

Their usual habitat is tall trees in deep, mature woods. Since part of our yard is the extension of a deep woods, there was always the possibility one might fly into our trees.

They have an extremely loud, distinctive call. Not easy to miss. Therefore, I didn't think there was much hope of seeing one since I never heard one.

Coming back toward the house after our dog walk this morning, I heard it. That in itself was a thrill. I looked up thinking I would never see it in all the leaves, and there it was in a break in the leaves of a tall oak tree! Big. Impressive. Awesome.

Note: I did not take this picture. Even if my camera had been with me, I would have been too busy gawking to take a picture.


Meanwhile, back in the field, the late season bluebird nest has three hatchlings.

Feed me! Feed me!

Time Out for a New Laptop
Yesterday DH Bob took some great pictures of a sweater I just finished knitting. When I went to upload them for posting, Internet Explorer wouldn't come up. Then many other funky things happened with my laptop that you really don't want to hear about.

Last October I got a new motherboard and a new harddrive. My laptop was acting like it had a bad motherboard again. I had a nervous fit and then spent two hours at Best Buy picking out a new laptop.

This morning I picked up my new 17" HP Pavilion. Now I need to load software, drivers, files, configure, and do all those little things that need to be done to a new computer that usually result in some kind of frustration and phone calls to a foreign help desk before they're over.

So, time out from everything that I thought was important to do yesterday and today while enjoy setting up my new toy.

Mom
Thank you so much for all the sympathy, kind wishes, and helpful comments on Mom's accident.

Her face looks better every day and we're hoping for a much lighter, shorter, maybe even waterproof cast when we visit the cute orthopedic doctor on Friday.

22
I've always considered 22 to be my special number, so I was surprised to see it when I entered my date into this Lifepath Number generator.

Your Life Path Number is 22

Your purpose in life is to use your power for good Of all the life paths, yours has the most innate power. Your power lies in your vision, and you must recruit others to help you in this vision. You are able to be a great idealist, but you still have the practicality to get things done. In love, you tend to be a big romantic - but you also tend to keep your distance. You have a lot of potential, and it's sometimes hard to live up to. Sometimes you just feel like slipping into obscurity and doing nothing. You tend to be prone to dramatic emotions, until you step back and look at things honestly.

What Is Your Life Path Number?

Changing Saturday Sky
In Michigan we say if you don't like the weather, wait ten minutes. In actuality, sometimes it takes a few days for the weather to change. But there are many times the weather does change in a few hours or less.

No one who has lived here long puts great stock in the weather forecasts. Sometimes they're right, and sometimes they're not. Many of them say things like "40% chance of rain" or "thunderstorms possible". I could write those forecasts without any expensive equipment or satellite images and be just as accurate.

This morning the sky was clear and blue. The weather forecast was for a 90 degree hot day.


By this afternoon, the clouds had moved in. The high was 83 degrees, and there is a 30% chance of thunderstorms this evening. Much nicer than the hot, humid days we had earlier in the week.

Where Have I Been?
Sunday the predictable routine of normal life was interrupted by a call from my mother in the emergency room. She tripped and fell onto the pavement outside her apartment.

Her arm is broken in three places. We haven't been able to figure out how she fell on the left side of her head while breaking her right arm. So far there have been no offers to reenact the fall, so we may never know.

The breaks are all in position to heal properly. No surgery needed unless something unexpected happens.

For those of you squinting at the tee shirt trying to read it, Maxine is saying:

I couldn't care less. . . But I'm working on it.

The swelling has gone down in her face and she looks much better than she did a few days ago. Yes, really.

See that dreamy look in her eye? She's dreaming of a long shower and being able to drive again.

It's going to be a while.

O is for Out


Stepping out the door for an early morning dogwalk, I find this beautiful moth on the step with a yellow leaf from the nearby tulip tree.

We leave a flood light on all night. The insect eating birds, especially the Phoebes, have learned to come get breakfast from the bugs the light attracts. This moth was probably injured by a bird, but it's not dead and I gently move it to the front yard before the dogs run out the door.

Later in the day I find wing pieces. The moth did not escape being a bird's breakfast.


After walking out to the back three acres, I aim the camera to the east for a sunrise shot.

Another hot, humid day is predicted. The sunrise is not spectacular and there are no clouds in the hazy sky.


Aiming the camera to the west, the mist is still visible against the trees.


We head down the path with the nest boxes used by bluebirds. Mama bluebird is sitting on her nest and peeks out at us through the hole.

She's hoping we walk by without bothering her because she's in the middle of laying her fourth egg. We click a quick picture and move on.


See the rabbit? It's right in the center of this picture.

Rabbits freeze in place when they see us coming. They are so well camouflaged that the dogs usually don't spot them as long as the rabbits don't move.


The dogs know the field is full of rabbits. Glory and Pappy delight in trying to find them.

They find a rabbit and head into the tall vegetation after it. The rabbit scoots out the other side and is long gone to safety while Glory and Pappy spend the next ten minutes darting around in the weeds looking for it.

I'd love to know what little Pappy thinks he is going to do with a rabbit should he ever catch one. Or maybe I wouldn't.

Friday Flowers and Berries
My Friday morning walk to cut wildflowers in the field without the dogs is becoming a favorite part of my summer week.

This morning's hike had a double purpose. Some of the blackberries have ripened and I wanted to pick enough to make my favorite, yummy Blackberry Bars for breakfast.

Most people consider blackberry bushes to be noxious, invasive weeds. I can understand their point. Blackberry thorns are numerous, long, and sharp. Walking into a patch with exposed skin almost always results in blood, either from a scratch or puncture.

On the other hand, blackberries can hardly be beat for encouraging wildlife and birds. I've even seen a box turtle standing under a berry branch chowing down on their sweet goodness.


Only one of my three dogs enjoys the blackberries. Glory has figured out how to be careful and not get her nose punctured while she eats them right off the bush.

She selects the very ripe, sweet ones and leaves the rest.


The bluebirds have been busy building a new nest for a late summer brood.

This is the messiest bluebird nest I've seen in the nest boxes. Either they are tired from the two previous broods or this is a different bluebird pair. Or maybe the dead grass is different this time of year and this is the best they can manage.

Summertime Sky
Weather forecast is for a hot, humid, miserable week. Since we don't have air-conditioning, DH and I have gone into take it easy and sit in front of the fan mode.

So far - but it's only Monday morning - it's not as hot as was predicted. Living in the woods, we are cooler than those who live in asphalt land. There is even a nice 15 to 20 mph breeze to help evaporate the sweat.

The dogs are getting abbreviated walks in the hot, sunny field. Usually we walk the path three to five times around. For the past few hot days, we've been walking around once and then heading back to the house.

That little spot on the electric wire is a hummingbird. They look so cute when they perch up there just like the big birds.