Our Great New Lawn Service

So, last Thursday, our new lawn guy showed up at the back door.  Of course, he wanted to be paid for the fall cleanup work he'd been doing, which is absolutely phenomenal.

How phenomenal, you ask?

Well, Tank was here for 5 days, romping about our 10 acre lawn.  And Mr. Lawn Guy was returning Tank's tags, which he found somewhere on said 10 acres.  That's some phenomenal work.

On that note, I thought you'd all enjoy one of the tags Tank usually wears; I hadn't seen this before.

Happy Friday, everyone!  Christmas preparation is about to get serious!

Dog Sewing

Yes, dog sewing.

Jeff went off to Joann's and bought a few pieces of fabric that he could ostensibly fold for festive bandanas for Tank, but then suckered me into sewing them.

First up: I made all the dogs bow ties from a piece of flannel Jeff bought that was just 1/3 yard.  I attached plastic snaps to hold them on their collars, and everyone was instantly festive.

Just look how festive Tank is with his bow tie and jingle bells!

At a later point (like last weekend), I made bibs for Nora and Little V.  I will wrap them for Tank to give to his human cousins.

Jeff bought this stripe for his girlfriend's dog, but he didn't like it, so no stripe for Tank.  Quincy didn't care - something about dogs being colorblind - and he was happy being elevated above the crowd.

Bebop models the turkey bandana.  Only he and Tank got these.

Just finished, and ready to send to Jeff: Merry Christmas and Santa Dog bandanas.  These are relatively small, because I put snaps on the turkey bandanas since that was all the fabric there was, and Jeff liked that a lot better than tying them and giving his dog tails to drool water all over.

 I made 5 of each of these, so Jeff can share them with all of the family dogs.  Lily got a Merry Christmas rosette, with jingle bell hidden inside.  I don't think it came out very well, but for my first attempt to make a fabric flower, it isn't awful.  I might take it apart and remake it, though.

So....dog sewing.  Silly, but easy and kind of amusing.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Introducing Thatcher Formally

So, I mentioned that Patrick came home for an extended time; he and Thatcher drove from Arizona (and hopefully won't ever go back).  So, this is Thatcher.  He's a cute little guy.

He likes children and larger humans, too.

He would not jump up to take the specks of food Maddie was trying to share; she had to drop them on the floor for him.  I thought that was really polite of him.

The only problem with Thatcher is that he doesn't like other dogs.  Hence, we had him muzzled for Thanksgiving weekend.  It made me sad.

Anyone have any suggestions as to how we can get Thatcher to be nicer to dogs?  He was growling at Tank, which hurt poor Tank's feelings.  By and large he ignored Bebop, maybe because Bebop had a hurt leg and was just laying around or hobbling when he was up.  It's a shame, because he could have lots of friends.  And since I expect people with dogs to start arriving on Thursday the 21st (only 10 days, folks; time to get that Christmas organization into high gear), it's going to be a problem.

Anyway, I just wanted everyone to meet Thatcher!  Happy Monday!

61 Pounds

I know, I'm 2 weeks late.  Sorry about that.

61.5 pounds.  That's how much turkey I cooked.  And I got Thanksgiving, plus dinner Friday night for 14, plus the following Monday for only 5, plus sandwiches and the usual free-range grazing!  Good deal, I'd say!

Our oldest son wasn't here; he went to South Carolina to visit his in-laws, hence my practice Thanksgiving.  And poor Shannon arrived sick as a dog on Wednesday afternoon, and went to sleep after eating some chicken soup I made for her.  It wasn't a problem, really, because she had an aunt, a grandma and half a dozen uncles eager to steal her baby from her.  When Cass arrived Thursday morning, however, she dragged Shannon off to the ER for a diagnosis of pneumonia. (Who ever said life around here was dull?)  They pumped her full of IV antibiotics (Quoth Shannon, "Miracle of Witchcraft? You decide!") and she made an appearance for dinner.

And she even looked human, holding Nora!

Tank dressed up for the occasion.  Dapper guy, that Tank.

A little preparation fun.  Kellie and Cass came up with a snazzy new napkin fold; kids these days, googling up all kinds of crazy things!

 This is Simon, whose baby shower was in September.

The table, which is really what you all came to see.

 Half of the turkey; we always make sure there's plenty at each end of the table.

And Nora sat next to me.  I fed her my sweet potatoes, while she played with a nice broccoli and an excellent turkey.  She's absolutely certain she's big.  Of course, I forgot to put her turkey bib on her.

And what's Thanksgiving without some dessert?  These aren't all of the desserts, just the ones I cut.  There were backups of the pumpkin and apple pies.

So that was Thanksgiving in our little corner of the world!  Happy Thursday, everyone!