Car

 
We drove a couple of hours each way to look at this Honda Insight, and came home with it.  It is in very good shape, and we hope to keep it that way.  It is a hybrid, meaning it has a gasoline engine and an electric battery that combine for really good gas mileage.  It is also about sixteen years old... but it is really hard to tell that because it was kept so well.

It is a two seater.. with a hatchback.  We had told ourselves we were looking for a four door... but this was a good deal and the specifics of the car really interested Mark more and more as he looked deeper and deeper into it.

Esme got some extra allowance today giving the new car a good wash down.

bits

I've been a bit absent.  We got the home loan and have begun lots of projects.  The tractor went into the shop  - we worried briefly that the pole garden would get torn up bringing it out of its storage place but the man who came to get it was some sort of genius and made a very complicated maneuver look easy.

So, tractor fixed and we can get gravel and fix the road.  Have to call the insulation guys, they said they would be out here Wednesday to estimate and they did not call.  Mark has been looking at used cars.  I ordered the panel for the bathtub to fix the disintegrating wall.  We plan on remaking the chicken pen for winter this weekend.  I've been looking into airfare and such for the trip to South Carolina we want to do in November.  So, very busy.

I've been doing my Welsh every morning, since I close every night at work.  I've been putting a podcast on my to-do list every day so that I will actually take some time out for it.  I've done a little Japanese and some Spanish, too.  I really dislike Spanish - how it rolls through my brain.. but I'm trying with a new app that has good reviews.  It feels weird that even Japanese can find root in my memory quickly and the Spanish rolls around instead.. and it is quite a bit like French so why can I listen to French and it comes back out correctly but not Spanish?  Probably just a wall I need to break down.  I secretly think it is because of the different versions of Spanish between learning apps and my brain knows they are not the same 'slot' but can't sort between them without lots and lots of input..and I don't do enough ever to get that sorted so Spanish just feels 'hard' when in fact it is two or three languages.

And I've been listening to the audio book Willa of the Wood... audiobooks take up so much time.. I couldn't get my hands on the paper copy and I really wanted to read this story after liking the Serafina series so much.

There is a drawing I want to make - a couple, but haven't gotten myself the photographs that I should in order to make progress there.

Esme's friend wants to take her to a zoo and museum next weekend.
The weekend after that we have a birthday party to go to that I already promised.

I feel a little bit of overwhelm on some of that coming .. but baby steps and don't let the full calendar loom at me I guess.

I've given away what.. ten pumpkins now?  And we still have about ten on the table.  One of them weighs in at forty pounds.

 Rex is growing, he is twice as big as when we found him.

Freckles and Lucy were the last to really warm up to him - they were the puppies before he came along .. and now they are playing with him in the yard and rubbing him in the dirt.  Also, since he is bigger, they aren't as likely to make him squeak, which they were probably worried about.

 a little bit of the wildflower 'material' photos I need to collect in order to make a nice drawing

 Rex

 Freckles and Rex in the classic 'your whole nose still fits inside my mouth so there puppy' pose we have seen time and time before...

soba

My soba noodles came in on the special order.

Take about one to two fingers-width of noodles and put them in boiling water for a minute to two minutes, drain, splash with cold water, drain again.  Toss with soy sauce and extra virgin olive oil until well mixed (about a tablespoon of oil and a little less of soy sauce).  Grind black pepper on top, mix, grind again, mix. 

I used to eat this combination nearly daily in college, because it required so little to put together - you could even use soy sauce packets instead of the refrigerated bottle.

This is one of my favorite meals, along with a few sesame crackers or other dark grain.
Carrots and/or green onions or broccoli go really well with this.
The pulled pork was from Mark's roast the other day - and it goes really well, too.

bit

We've had Rex for a week now, he's a very good puppy - has the idea of going outside with people every time he gets up for a nap ingrained in him (although sometimes it is hard to get all the way to the door quick enough if we don't have our shoes on)...

I've been studying the Japanese and the Welsh together.. interesting parallels there especially in the time area. 

Reading a series of books found from a book review.. waiting on my soba noodles to arrive.  We're going to the bank tomorrow to secure our loan for doing the insulation and the barn.

Finding Rex

On Monday morning we got a surprise - our dogs were making a commotion and we thought they had a turtle by the fence, like the last time.  But instead, they showed us there was a puppy outside our fence in a thicket in the woods.  We coaxed him along the fence until we could get him near the gate, and Mark went around and got him.  We estimated his age to be about 5 weeks old, based on his teeth.  He looks like a shepherd mix, and he will likely be a dog at least as big as ours.  He was covered in seed ticks - Mark got the worst off his eyelids and from in between his toes and armpits etc.. we're still combing and washing them off of him, three days later. 

We have no idea how he got out here in the middle of nowhere so young - we probably don't want to know - but it is good we found him when we did.  Esme had just gotten on the school bus, and Mark and I were out looking at the garden after watering chickens etc..

 

 some of our 'superhero' dogs who ended up being rescuers

from left, Sweetie, Freckles, Spud, Nova and Lucy

 Freckles, Lucy and Sweetie

Minerva was trying to help us wash him up today, and he kept nipping at her ears.  We gave him another soak and another comb down.  Minerva is very mothering - being Freckles and Lucy's mom... she is happy to have a 'baby' around again, you can tell by her expressions and how she tolerates him attempting to pounce on her tail.. she lets him have some leeway but not as much as if he was truly her own.

He is an extremely good puppy - knows how to go outside with us and comes back in (except when he wanted to eat the chicken's food, then he was hardheaded).. and our dogs are tolerating him but not quite to the point of wanting to be chewed on yet.  He was a bit afraid of us (and of Esme when he first saw her) but then he became overjoyed that we were nice to him and helped him find food and water and etc etc... 

He found an abandoned tennis ball under our couch and drug it up the stairs to put in Mark's slipper.  He also greeted our cats with a very familiar jump and play stance - so wherever he was before, he knew food and water dishes, tennis balls and other dogs and cats.  It makes it even more mysterious that he ended up here, ten miles from anywhere, and got lucky enough to find a house with dogs who would go and tell their people to help him.  If our dogs hadn't done their 'alert bark'.. we definitely wouldn't have looked that hard by the fence - and he is all brown and black, so it would have been hard to see him in the forest shadows unless he was right by the fence making noise.  It truly is a subtropical jungle out there on that side of the fence.

So, this is Rex.  And it looks like he is staying for good.  We did call two shelters and ask, but neither had any reports of anyone losing a young puppy - all adults.  So, he was likely dropped off / abandoned on the county road, but I guess we will never really know.

Welcome to your new home Rex.

hibiscus in a vase

Hibiscus from our garden.  The vase is a vinegar bottle I finally took the label off and put paint and sealer to - I've been meaning to dress it up for years. 

There is a pumpkin outside nearing 30 lbs or more.

The moonflowers have a beautiful smell to them.