living with dogs

Who can relate to that?

Ours don't sleep on our bed... not for lack of trying...

I would love to allow the poodles on the bed with us. Except for two things: I hate dirty footprints on the doona cover and they're just so big. With two of them on the bed, and me and Wayne there's just not enough room to move.

My favourite thing though remains late weekend mornings in bed, coffee and books, poodles cuddle up with us...

When I'm alone I always let the poodles sleep with me. I love the feeling of them next to me. Its kind of a safe feeling. Comforting. Numbing.

'Cause you see, Montana is content to sleep on Wayne's side of the bed, her back to mine, keeping me warm... Romeo prefers to sleep on my legs, pinning me down. Between that and their weight on either side holding the covers down, I can't move at all.

Meanwhile, there's been a bad development in the canine behaviour department.

I blame Wayne.

Ok, ok, I don't blame Wayne, that was just habit.

I blame the pills Montana was on for her skin infection. That's cleared up thankfully, but while she was on them she was ravenous all the time. She took to following anyone with food, staring at them with that hypnotic gaze she has which says "you. don't. want. to. eat. all. that... you. want. to. give. it.to. me..."

She'd also started going through the rubbish bag. And taking things off the kitchen bench.

Now, you have to understand. My dogs have NEVER done things like that.

I've left food on benches their entire lives. I've left things on the table....

I don't leave things on the coffee table unattended. Turns out the temptation defeated them on that one. But generally, they've been such good kids that when the bambi incident happened I was taken by surprise.

Last week Wayne took some roast venison out of the fridge, put it on the bench and carved it up. He did what any dog slave owning person does and doled out scraps to the dogs. Then he then made himself a sandwich, sat at the table and ate it while reading his book.

I was in the office when I heard the blood curdling scream.

Montana had eaten all the venison on the chopping block!

Wayne hadn't seen it and apparently hadn't heard a thing!

Wouldn't have happened to me. I have ultrasonic hearing when it comes to dogs chewing on something they shouldn't.

Wayne's taken to calling her a "bambi thieving bitch" since then.

She's in his bad books. I still love her though. I don't really like venison.

z

blue felt teddy

I did it again.

I got bored and I created something.

Maybe I should be bored more often.

 This little blue teddy is something I whipped up this afternoon. I've done needle felting before but this time I worked with a single needle and smaller.

 Blue Teddy is going to be a little gift for one of my nieces in Greece who's just had her first child. Not as a baby toy but as something to keep.

I hope she likes him!

Now I'm all inspired and want to make more felt animals. Of course its 9pm and I'm tired. Maybe another time.

Its like this cartoon I saw on Facebook the other day:

After all, avoiding work never killed anyone.

z

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the molasses fiasco of 2013

While I remember, I thought I might share our misadventure with the new truck. You may remember we traded my poor tired little Lancer Wagon in for a newer dual cab ute with canopy a few weeks ago.

It was spotless. All shiny and clean.

Of course that was never going to last. We live up a dirt road and car washes and I have a natural aversion to eachother. However I blame Wayne for the following debacle.

Here are the facts:

We mix molasses into the horse feed cause we own pampered nags.

Molasses is sweet, thick and very sticky.

We were out of molasses and the horses were taking it as a personal insult to be given unflavoured feed.

I stopped in at the feed store after work and picked up a 25 kilo bucket of molasses.

I put it in the back of the ute with 2 bags of horse pellets.

I told Wayne.

Wayne fed the horses that night and the next morning.

I looked into the back of the ute before heading off to work, didn't see the bucket and presumed he'd taken it out.

That was my first mistake.

I mean, he'd FED the horses. 

TWICE. 

There was a new bucket of molasses in the truck! I think I can be excused for presuming he'd removed the bucked to add molasses to their feed.

At the end of that day some poor guy chased us on the freeway, hooting his horn and waving madly about something leaking out the back of our car. I guess we were lucky it wasn't the cops presuming it was blood from a badly wrapped body.

Can you guess?

Yep. 2/3rds of a bucket of molasses. All over the tray and horse feed bags.

And it was dark.

We got home, I got the high pressure water cleaner thingy, connected it to the hot tap and started blasting it out. Every now and then I'd stop and use a portable spotlight to check... 'Yep, still got molasses in that corner'... 'oh look, its on the ceiling!'... Needless to say we were both soaked with diluted molasses and the grass got a good long drink of it. Come spring we'll know if its good fertilizer.

Even the horses were laughing at us. 

Or they would have been if they weren't crying over the waste of so much molasses. If we'd allowed them to they'd have happily licked it clean for us.

Object lessons:

Never leave a bucket of molasses in the back without securing it. It might be sealed but it opens easily!

Never presume ANYTHING.

Well, at least you can't say life's boring round here!

z

lamby - what happens when you get bored and have access to steel wool

 

Meet Lamby. 

The grey sheep of the family.

This is what happens when I'm bored and have access to some wire, steel wool, couple of beads and a rudimentary wire working tool.

Lamby was made using some medium thickness wire to create a frame and legs (and a stubby tail). I then moulded the steel wool around the frame to create the shape. Steel wool works almost like felt - you can mould and shape it and join it relatively easily... but it leaves nasty tiny wire fibres everywhere.

I used bits of very fine wire to wire in Lamby's eyes and nose and then I finished him off by giving him some extra curls of fine wire in silver and purple highlights. Lamby is nothing if not trendy.

The curly wire bits were threaded through Lamby's body and act as added strength and support.

No gain without pain though - I stuck a fine bit of wire through my thumb which swelled up and ached for two days. No permanent damage!

I'm pretty pleased with Lamby, even if I do say so myself.

z

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