Home sweet home

Picture post....


I visited family this past weekend and stopped by to check out my Mother's impressive summer garden. It was larger this year than I have ever seen it before. I think now that I'm an adult I can appreciate the slow pace and the simple pleasures of country life.

The house where I spent most of my life has been a work in progress for as long as I can remember. No matter how many improvements are made to it the house still looks and feels a hundred years old.



The Garden!

20 tomato plants, 5 types. Eggplant. Cucumbers. 4 types of squash and zucchini, 4 types of hot peppers. Green bell peppers. Red bell peppers. Pumpkins. Sunflowers.



My mom is not big on pesticides or damage control. She lets the plants do their thing and it usually works for her. This dill plant lost the fight to these parsley worms.



This week I gave my coworker the blanket I made for her baby, who will be here in a few short weeks. Here is the finished blanket.






Finally, my current project. A "wave scarf" with Plymouth Trabajos Del Peru Merino wool. A gift for an old friend.

Deck restoration week 1

Restoring a 20 year old weathered deck is hard work.
This deck had never been sealed, stained, or treated in any way. It has withstood the elements for 20 years completley unprotected. This project is a testament to why things should be maintained rather than restored after years of abuse.

So, here is progress after week one. I haven't stripped the rails yet and hope to do more of that during the week if I have enough daylight and energy.



I hope we can get it done in 3 weekends max, but that timeframe is really dependent on the weather. There is so much surface area to cover and I'm not even trying to do the steps off the deck. Maybe next summer.

Closer!

We finally purchased some pieces of furniture for the living room upstairs and the time has come to accessorize! This is my favorite part.

I've got my eye on a few things. Today I am obsessed with one item in particular. A lamp. I need this lamp to live. It is not in my budget to buy this lamp, though I could buy it with a credit card. I never splurge on anything and I certainly never use my credit card for such things. Oh! I don't know what to do.

This is the lamp. My lamp. I love lamp.



Brian likes the lamp but is adamantly opposed to buying it because it is made by a company owned by Donald Trump. To him, giving money to Trump would be "like buying something from Mel Gibson!"
It is beneath him to buy home accessories from people that he thinks are annoying celebrity whores. However, we're not buying a lamp from a murderous dictator so it is easier for me to ignore the name. *sigh* what to do....

Finished project

Here it is!







He seems to really like the hidey spot in the corner.

The plant will be transferred to a vivarium false rock planter when I get some organic dirt for it. The sand may come later. It's only sold in 50lb bags and I can't commit to that much sand yet. It's hard to tell if he likes it since reptiles aren't expressive, but I think he does, he has been running all over it and is more active than he was before.

Very scary

On Friday afternoon Brian called me to ask if Otto was acting normal that morning. I was immediatley alarmed as I knew he wouldn't be calling unless something was really off. He told me that Otto couldn't stand up, wouldn't walk, and when tempted with peperoni showed interest but couldn't manage to move at all to get to the treat.

He had been fine that morning and crated for 6 hours. We had no idea how he could have injured himself when he was likely sleeping all day.

By the time I got home the truck was gone, and he had taken Otto to the vet. When they came home he carried him in, and stood him on the ground where he promptly crumpled down. My usually vibrant and hyperactive dog seemed paralyzed. It was terrifying for me. All I could do was hug him. The vet couldn't find anything wrong, though she did mention that on the xray two of his vertebrae were oddly close together. She gave him a cortisone shot in his back, and a prescription for pain medication, and told us to come back if he didn't improve.



Friday evening he laid next to me on the couch and wouldn't move. By 6 pm it had been a full 12 hours since he had relieved himself. He couldn't stand enough to do so when Brian came home but I managed to coax him into going. He couldn't lift his leg, and just peed while hunched over on the ground. He slept on the couch next to me for the rest of the evening, and ate dinner on the couch. He couldn't manage to do anything more than pulling himself up with his front legs. If he tried to get up the back legs would shake and he'd fall down within 10 seconds.



The whole time I was thinking about what we would do if this was permanent. Could they fix him? What if they couldn't fix whatever it was and we had to put him down? What if he gets better and it happens again? Is it neurological? Is it just a sprain?

We gave him the pain medicine and set up a bed for him on the floor. In the morning he was gone! He had moved himself to his normal sleeping spot. I heard him shake off and he came running out from under the bed like nothing had happened. The whole thing was so bizarre, and we're really not sure what to make of it. I just hope it doesn't happen again....
He seems perfectly fine today. He was a little slow on Saturday and Sunday, but able to walk, and run, and even jump, though we were not encouraging any of that and had to take all of his toys away. If he ever does that again we'll have to find a better vet...Hopefully one that can identify the problem and treat it

Ugh. What an awful weekend.