ARE YOU AMONG THE AVERAGE ..

Are you among the Average American Dog or Cat Owner who spends lot's of money on toys for their pets?

I imagine many of you are, so I know I am also a member of that elite club myself.

We enjoy purchasing play things for the dogs to keep them entertained in the house plus while they are in the backyard.  I must admit that often the purchases are intended to help ward off the desire to chew the rugs, furniture, walls, shoes, etc.

And we buy things for the same reason while they are out in the backyard.  My rose bushes seem to attract Maggie for some reason.  I often wondered if one particular vintage red rose bush scratched her as she ran by because the bush is now void of any leaves on the limb that hangs out over the walkway.

And she is so sure that when we dig a flower bed to plant something new in the flower garden, that all that soft dirt is there for her to practice digging that elusive Fox out of his foxhole.  Believe me, she seems to think that they all lived very deep in the ground!!

As  you can see in the above photo, there is a play ball for Maggie about 4 inches from her cute little nose.

But do you see this cute little dog playing with the toy that we spent money on???

No, she is not spending time playing with the toy we spent money on.

She is very happily playing and chewing on an old roofing shingle that was turned up in the dirt while we were preparing to turn some yard area for our veggie garden.

I waited until she discovered something else in the yard that required her immediate attention and then quietly removed the shingle from the premises.

Yes, of course we will continue to purchase toys for our pets.
They may not really care,

but you all know it makes us Humans feel better

Lucky Dog....

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky.' Lucky was a real character.

Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.

Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease......in fact; she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her....what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary's dog through and through.

If I die, Lucky will be abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him! The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.

The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable.

Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home, Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap..

Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed.

When Mary woke for a second she couldn't understand what was wrong. She couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem. She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned!

While she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life.

He had covered her with his love.

Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky. He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.

A MIRACLE IN MY GARDEN

Gardeners are a strange lot, I know.  Sometimes the littlest things get us so excited.

And I am no different.

Before leaving our home in Montana I spent some time digging up many of my bulb plants with the intention of replanting them at our new home by the sea in the spring. 

There was a variety of colors and types but many were lilies.

I placed them in a burlap bag with sawdust as filler to keep them safe. They seemed to rest comfortably in the bag as we did all our travels and they spent the 'winter' inside the bag in the shop to be away from the new elements.

At some point this early spring I placed them in the bag into a half whiskey barrel that was out in the yard. I covered the barrel with a tarp to keep all the rain water out until it was time to plant all the bulbs.

A few days ago I decided that it was time to cut open the burlap bag to find some bulbs to set into the flower bed.

As I lifted the tarp from the barrel I was so shocked to see that the whiskey barrel was completely filled with rain water. Apparently I had used a tarp that had small holes in it that I hadn't spotted earlier.

I didn't get a photo of the drowned bulb sack..I was just to upset about the whole thing.

I did turn the barrel on it's side to drain out all the water so I could dispose of the ruined bulbs and sack.  It took several days of sun and a light breeze to dry out everything.

As I picked up the bag to place it in the garbage can the bottom of the bag fell out of it. So I shook out the rest of the contents into the barrel and decided I would spread it on the garden to be worked in when we tilled it.

This is what the contents of my bulb bag looked like after it was removed from the burlap bag...

Of course I was heart broken to see that nothing had survived this terrible incident of all that rain water.

As I place my hands into the mixture to prepare it for the garden I felt something against my fingers.  I gently pulled and to my joy and amazement I brought up a plant!

I was so surprised and excited to see that something had actually survived a near drowning in the whiskey barrel.

Of course I have great hopes that is survivor could be one of my precious Tiger Lilies.

I carefully placed my little treasure into a pot and placed it back in the shop to protect it from the rain and cold evenings we are having for a few days.

We have named this little plant "Miracle" because it has to be one considering everything this little plant has been through.

I am hoping that this plant will be one of my Tiger Lilies because I have had this plant since I planted a seed in 1985 in my garden.  I had dug it up and replanted it every where I have lived ever since.

But considering the journey this little bulb has made, I will welcome any Lily into the garden and tend it well. And hopefully she will stay with us for many years to come.

I will post a photo of "Miracle" the moment she shows her true 'colors' to us!

Oh my, A miracle has happened in my garden!

WE ARE SAD THAT HALLOWEEN IS GONE

M.O.M. was a bit nervous about the fact that she didn't see any little kids out on our street doing the Trick or Treat thing about 6:00 last night.  She was excited about doing the Halloween thing for the first time living in a city.  She didn't know if anyone would show up.

Well, she shouldn't have worried....about 6:15 the doorbell started ringing and didn't stop till about 8:30.

It had been raining most of the day and suddenly the rain stopped and didn't rain again until about 10 O'clock that evening.

There were so many cute costumed little kids that we all had so much fun.  There was a parent with each group of Trick or Treaters that came to my door.  M.O.M. said some of the little kids seemed a bit afraid of me when I came running to the door to greet them.  So she had me jump up on the window bench and watch them from our front window.  Many of them did see me in my Bunny costume and waved and smiled at me.  That was fun!

So our first Halloween in our new home by the sea was wonderful and we are already making plans for a bigger and better Halloween next year.  I heard M.O.D. talking about some kind of skeleton things and spooky things out front yard on Halloween next year.  This sounds like it could be a lot of fun again!!!

The little yellow rose is growing in M.O.M.'s garden and there are still lot's of pretty blooms on it.  She loves taking pictures of all her pretty flowers and loves the idea that all the blooms last so much longer here.

 We hope all of you had a wonderful Halloween and got lot's of treats in your trick or treat bags!!

THE GARDEN WORK IS PROGRESSING

We have been working often in the garden area of our back yard.  It has been neglected for about 5 years so the Blackberry bush that was there had decided that it would take over the entire garden area..... all by it's self.

And I must say it was being quite successful at it...until we arrived on the scene! 

The above photo was taken in November of last year.  So as you can imagine, the bush has grown quite a bit since I took this picture.

We spent many afternoons out in the garden cutting away parts of this giant bush.  We have more than enough scares to prove our work.  But the area is starting to look like a garden area again and I am excited to get the area plotted out for our spring garden.

Below is a photo of a few stalks that we chopped from the wild run away plant.

Okay the photo after this one can give you a better idea of the real size of the stalks from this crazy plant...

Yes, that's a dime to help show the actual size of the plant we have been fighting.  But we have finally won the battle!!!

The ugly, prickly plant is GONE!!!

Of course, Mistaya is very excited about all the new smells that are in the areas of the garden that she couldn't get to while the giant Blackberry bush was ruling the entire garden area.

There is nothing like Puppy Happiness!

NEWS FLASH!! GREENHOUSE GONE WILD!!!!

M.O.M.. and I found this site on our walk today.  There was not a pane of glass anywhere.  There was not even a shred of old plastic sheeting in sight. 

Mother Nature is doing her best to make good use of this greenhouse before she reclaims it back into her world of Nature.

Fresh Black Berries anyone??