Still Iced In 2024

 

 

 

Still frozen in on our little farm - that freezing rain over all of it made it so difficult.  We are low on dog food, and propane - and really no way to get out or for anyone to get in.  Hopefully we have a break tomorrow - it is supposed to get up to 31 degrees.. and they still think they have me scheduled for early in the morning on Monday.  That is yet to be seen.

 

Anyway, working on my French language.  DuoLingo says I have now gotten to B1 level - so I went and found an hour long plus French detective movie (with Lea Thompson, Miss Detective, it was good!) and watched it with just the French subtitles on for clarification of what I was hearing.  I understood a lot - not all, but a lot.  I can think of French translations for most, but not all, of the sentences I am thinking in English. It gives me a good idea what I need to learn still (besides spelling, which I am still not great at).  

I finished the crochet rug for in front of the stove, and started another one as the original one I took for the sink side of the kitchen had been in the bathroom where I put on my shoes.

Mark wants to make dog cookies with pumpkin, flour, eggs and bacon grease for the dogs to tide them over.  They're not out of dog food yet, but they can see the bin emptying and they all have expressed concern.  That is what you get with Catahoulas - they are such conversationalists.  They've been talking with the cats about being in front of the propane heater and etc etc.. as well.  I can just sit in that room and watch the air currents from the heat sources and the lights and watch the animals communicate and almost feel like I'm relating to some ancient yurt scene of ancient times.  All while I take yarn and form it into cloth, and drink hot fluids.

I asked Esme if she wanted to go sledding out there in this - the hills are perfectly slick, and she sounded just like Mark and I combined: 'I'd rather not.  Let's just say we stay in here and be warm, ok?'  Ha. I'm still remembering her swearing when she heard I had just walked home from where I abandoned the truck the other day - and then she gave me a big teenager hug, and said she was glad I was safe.  She doesn't want out in this : and I understand.  She has been feeding and watering the chickens, though, and getting their eggs - which is no small task when they are all in the house together.  We use the empty water pitcher to ford the way to the nest, and then grab the eggs and put them in the collector basket.  

 

We do have plenty of chicken feed to make us to the warm spell -- and I need to remind myself to stock up on feeds if at all possible in case we get a repeat of this for February.  I don't want one.  But I want to be even better prepared for one.  I thought I was fairly well prepared for this one, but then it lasted longer than expected, AND I was asked to go out to town more often than originally scheduled BUT did not feel safe enough or have enough money to bring much more resources home in between it all.  I could have bought more propane one of those days, but I was already worried about going in the ditch and in the ditch with a full canister of propane in the back of the vehicle is just 500% more No-Fun-At-All, enough to make me not even try.  Gah.  At least if I had bought more dog food though, I could have went back to the truck with the sled and brought it home.  Things to Think About.  Things I wish we didn't have to think about.

I do think Esme will help us bake, if we choose to do that in a bit.

She tried to boil some eggs last night to go with her dinner - she didn't like the freezer meals we were using up and she wanted to make something of her own.  But she didn't boil them long enough in this cold temperature.  I do that sometimes, too.

crochet rug, 27 by 16, scrap yarns and stash yarn (the blue-grey stuff) that was leftover from making my huge shawl a few years back - still using that to keep warm, as it wraps all the way around me and ties in the back or at the side.  Minion cat has said the shawl is wonderful, because she can lay on my lap and rub her chin against the fuzzy part and feel like she is being held by a mama cat.

Blue Shawl, from 2018, with two kinds of yarn

Going through part of my yarn ends and scraps to make sure I have enough to finish the second kitchen rug I'm working on.  I do.  I only got halfway through my collection and started sneezing and said 'yep, there's enough, put this all away and go make tomato sauce'.

Making tomato sauce with garden tomatoes in the freezer, and black olives, and frozen meatballs from a few weeks ago - and Esme and I are having that for dinner tonight.  Mark is also making more Brazil Nut cookies... every year he gets on a habit for Brazil Nuts, and the last two years I've asked him to watch the House episode where the guy gets Selenium poisoning from 'chestnuts of peru' (brazil nuts) just because it reminds me of that.  Ha. 

Life with Catahoulas web comic #2

Life with Catahoulas can be exhausting! 

  

Rex, our German Shepherd puppy, wants to play with all the toys. 

 Everyone else says its time to sleep.

Help support our dog crew by investing in some of their favorite toys for yours!

The Kong toys are the best thing ever, they bounce and you can put treats inside to keep your dog occupied.  You can even put frozen ice cubes in them in the summer for a very special treat!

Rex and his adopted mom and aunt

Can you tell that Minerva is his adopted Mom?  They have been chewing up the blankets this winter and Rex seems to think that all the toys belong right next to Mom's butt.  I have a cartoon almost ready for Monday for the comic strip - tune back then and see it :)

Rex loves! He ate several of the pretzels as a puppy and now carries his dumb-bell toy everywhere as his 'happy thing'. The Kongs are the very best - they bounce and can be carried and dropped down the stairs to great effect. If you have an aggressive nervous chewer the Kongs are really the best thing ever!

chickens moving on up

T

The chickens are moving on up to the bigger cage - the one that Esme and Mark built for the rat and the hamster.  They will be warm and safe here until they feather out and we can build something better for them outside.  For posterity : they are 'Cinnamon Queen' variety.

I've been busy today.  I went through Esme's old clothes again (because she just tends to hide them or stack them when they don't fit or are torn) and also moved up her bookshelf in her room with all of the new 'older' books we've been getting.  It fell once - and I had to pound the supports down into the standards on the wall and lighten the load.

Where the shelf was before was exactly at 'sit down on the couch and smack yourself on it' level.. and we needed it a little higher.  She has been sitting there tucking up with me to watch Welsh cartoons at night, and I hope we might get to reading again.

Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly was excellent - I read it on my Kindle today.  I'm reading her Wolves of the Beyond 'Lone Wolf' book by Kathryn Lasky, too - before she does.. and it seems like it will be a really good match for her.   I have 'The Hazel Wood' by Melissa Albert on my Kindle now, it was highly reviewed.

I need to get her 'The Mage' by Inbali Iserles and a copy of the Hello Universe but both of them are a bit high right now as they are new releases.  Have them on lists and alerts if one gets cheap.

Our plants arrive on Friday!  We had ordered hosta and day lilies and some other ornamentals from Gilbert H. Wild and sons.   And it is supposed to be nice this weekend.  yay!

Lucy thinks the chickens are hers to look after.  She has been sitting here with Esme and watching them.  She had to sniff every other one as Mark put them from one cage to the other.  She said they didn't smell right on the tail end.  *ha*  People raise strange puppies, apparently.

bits

Esme was a bit upset this morning about how the other kids are at school - as in, they don't seem to care or try as much as she does on some things, and when she tries to help or point things out of course they don't appreciate it.  They gave her a nickname she doesn't like - it isn't terrible, but yes she doesn't like it.  I explained to her that both of her parents have been through this, it is part of our personalities that we really can't just 'blend in' and be like everyone else and we never really wanted to, either  - well, not really.. but I get where she is coming from that it hurts to not be like them but it would hurt to be LIKE them, too..

I get some of this pedanticness and process-following and overanalyzing from my dad.  I asked that question of my stepmom a few days ago and she told me that is his 'Modus Operandi'... he analyzes and decides the best way for him to do something (that sometimes is off the wall compared to the usual person's method) and then he does it that way even if it exasperates someone else.  But, he gets it done.  Like my stitching something by hand, or digging the garden with a hand trowel and watering with a bucket.  It might not be the most efficient 'normal' way to do something but it feels best to US so we do it the most 'comfortable' way for us, which has nothing to do sometimes with actual comfort - but with mental processes and 'fit'.

Esme and I did discuss some tactful ways to point out things to her classmates (like not setting your ipad on the floor in front of your locker where it could get stepped on in the meantime, which one girl does and it gives Esme anxiety but the girl does not appreciate being told so) or keeping some things to yourself because you know how you feel about it but maybe the other person just has to learn for themselves if they aren't the type to listen (oh, so often at work, this one).

Mark and I have this trait in common and in opposite - we point things out to each other and if we feel that the added clarity is helpful, we will do it that way, but if it still makes sense to do what we are doing the way we are doing it, we will continue on.  It is nice that we rarely actually argue about things unless they are huge, and that we also often see that 'clarity' in what the other person sees at the moment, and will be 'expanded' by their observations into doing something more accurately, efficiently or with less effort.  It is an amazing quality - kind of like my eating his green Skittles.  *heh* because otherwise he would just throw them out and I actually like lime flavored things where he would go out of his way to avoid them.  Like that 'Same' yet opposite, complementary colors.

I'm on to reading 'Spindlers' today. by Lauren Oliver.

  

 Just before she realized I had the camera.  Sweetie is consoling Lucy because Esme is at school and she is sad.  And, Sweetie kind of likes her anyway, its nice to have a puppy. (Actually Sweetie is Lucy's aunt)

 

And an attempt at dignity after I have the camera *heh*

Esme and I have been building this house in Minecraft - it is really fancy and tall :)

twin catahoulas

Sweetie on left, Spud on the right.  We call them our 'twins'.

and just the opposite, here...

Our Catahoula Schedule Keepers : Lucy

click this link below to read on Niume
Niume Post : Lucy and her schedule keeping 

Article:

Living with Catahoulas, you quickly learn they are timekeepers without watches.  They know your schedule better than you do, and many of them are apt to keep you to it.  This story is mostly about Lucy, one of our youngest Catahoulas.  We have six Catahoulas (and a bluetick coonhound), and each person in the household has their own personal timekeeper (my husband has two!).  

This is a wonderful trait for herding dogs that were meant to bring in the cows and pigs at night, and bring them back out to the fields in the morning.  They understand when something is 'wrong', and alert their people to things that are not following schedule.  When things break tradition or schedule, they are genuinely worried and show their distress by nudging, whining and trying to tug or push their people into understanding what needs to happen that hasn't yet.

This is Lucy, one of our youngest pair of Catahoulas, sitting at storytime with our daughter.

But, in a household environment, large or small, a Catahoula timekeeper will be just as insistent.  This is something to be highly aware of when you are training them - or else, they will 'train' you.  There may be no 'livestock' to tend - but they will still insist that their people be up at a regular time, to bed at a regular time and if mealtimes stop happening at a regular time, they will make their thoughts known.  Their aim is to keep everything running smoothly, as much as possible.

Lucy is my daughter's dog.  She assigned herself to that a young age, knowing that our poor Loula (who was hit by a car) had vacated the position and none of the elder dogs had filled the place.  Catahoulas do this, too - in our experience.  They fill niches and assign themselves responsibilities if their trainer has not laid out a specific set for them to learn.  A Catahoula should not be left without guidance, either by an aware and observant trainer or at the very least, a stable environment and an elder dog that has been trained well.

Once a Catahoula thinks you need something (which you may not), getting that out of their mind can be difficult!  Best to train them up well and be aware that you are setting an example and training habits much like you would if a human toddler was watching your every move.  Catahoulas are pretty high on the dog intelligence scale - they learn by watching us, and show great surprise when something goes against the habits they have learned.

Lucy on her way to growing up.  She has two blue eyes and a white with blue merle pattern.  She is one of the more naturally shy Catahoulas we have, although she has had more success to leash training and dog park visits than her sister Freckles has.

Lucy's self-assignment was endearing and simple.  She would make sure our daughter went to bed on time, by escorting her every night along her routine and seeing her to her door.  At that point she was not yet sleeping at her bedside.  We encouraged this by making a large fluffy dog bed for her to sleep on in the bedroom.  Esme, our daughter, encouraged this by reading a short bedtime story to Lucy every night after the rest of the routine, with her invited to sleep upon the pillow.  And now, Lucy goes to sleep there at night, and rises with her every morning. 

Two sisters and a niece.  Lucy is in the middle here, a puppy learning how to do things from her aunts.

Lucy LOVES bedtime.  That is said often in our house.  She will come upstairs to us parents and poke our knees with her nose and turn in a circle - indicating something must be done.  She will do this with increasing frequency as the actual hour of bedtime approaches (daylight savings time messed her up, as she is sort of sunset-based).  She will continue to pace and bob between our daughter and us every fifteen minutes or so.  When ignored she will sigh and curl up in a ball or place her nose on her paws at the exact place between us, ready to spring to action when we do.  She puts on a very good 'depressed' attitude when bedtime is being later than she thinks, like on school breaks.  When the routine does begin she guides our daughter through each step, pointing to the next thing and sitting in the hallway outside the bathroom.

But Catahoulas follow our habits, as well as our schedule.

This morning, even I was surprised.

It is Pajama Day at school today.  And our daughter was wearing her Pajama outfit to go to her class party.  Lucy was confused.  Normally Lucy has a morning routine she follows to the letter.  She will get up, wait for our daughter to get dressed, and then she will be let outside the room and collect her sister to stand together and ask to go outside the house to the yard.  Then they both return to the house and go upstairs to curl up with their mother on the couch.  It happens this way so much I barely notice it anymore.

But this morning, Lucy saw something that made her wonder, and she did not return upstairs.  Instead, she came back and sat outside the bathroom in the hallway pointing at our daughter's room.  Our daughter had eaten her breakfast and was brushing her teeth.  Lucy walked up to her and traced her nose on the back of her knee, inspecting the pajama outfit.  She then returned to her place in the hallway and sat.  After a few moments I realized there were gears turning in that furry head.

Lucy thought our daughter was going back to bed, and she was waiting for her duty.  In her mind, she was still needed.  

I tried not to laugh when it dawned on me. (Catahoulas get quite embarrassed when they are laughed at, a little like cats.)

Lucy (right) and her sister Freckles (above) with their brother Hunter.  Freckles has assigned herself as 'Timekeeper in training for house activities' to my husband, understudy to her uncle Spud.

Even funnier, was when I told her that no, in fact, she was not going 'bedtime', but to the school bus.  Lucy pointed again - nose to girl - nose to bed, sit square on her haunches.  I said it again, so she was certain, and asked my daughter to tell her as well.  No Bedtime, School Bus.  Lucy whined and turned in a circle.  Then she went upstairs, but not to lay down.  A moment later two noses poked around the bathroom door edge.  She had gotten her sister Freckles to come see.  I told them both - with more whining and doubletakes.  Finally, they both went upstairs.  I'm sure they were shaking their heads in dog language.

We all had a good laugh about it - except the dogs, of course.

So, Catahoulas are the timekeepers.  But sometimes, humans do the strangest things, and even they don't know what to make of it at all.  It's another reason I am so enamored of these dogs we have bred and come to know over the many years here in Tennessee.

If you haven't had a pair of Catahoulas - (and one just isn't enough to see it all) - it really is a whole different kind of experience.

Daphne, a Niume post

Our Daphne deserves some love, too - I wrote a Niume post about her heroism :)

Da[hne, our Catahoula leopard dog

Article:

I realized, in my post about Sweetie, that I really don't give Daphne as much credit as she deserves.  She has a different kind of quiet intelligence and a deep loyalty above all else.  She is always happy and sweet, but not always understanding the breadth of the situation.  Several times, though, when it got down to brass tacks, our Daphne has helped save the day.

She was born in the Summer of 2012.  She was so beautiful - with more white on her than we thought was possible in a Catahoula Leopard Dog.  In fact, we read up on it and found that we should worry about her hearing, as part of her ears were white.  In Catahoulas, the merle gene (blue eyes, 'blue' spotted coat) can cause deafness in some dogs.  We knew we were going to keep Daphne, because we worried she might have a hearing problem and/or pass it on in her genes.

Also, she was incredibly sweet.  A ball of chunky puppy with one blue eye and one brown.

She was 'White Ears' for about a month, until her name struck me.  She was a little like Daphne, from the Scooby Doo gang.  So, she has been Daphne or 'Daffy' (to my husband) ever since.

Here she is one of several puppies playing tug of war with a rope with our daughter.  The light just shined on her in this picture and she was looking at our daughter with adoration.  One of our cats, a Manx calico, tried to adopt her at this time.  She would stomp around with the puppy at her side leading her up and down our road.  We called 'Mouse' the general and she was training Daphne up to follow her.

She grew, and became longer and lankier, as Catahoulas do.  This picture is her at about a year old, snuggled up against the cold weather on a beanbag.  We were glad to find out she did not have a hearing problem, she just had a different personality than many of our other dogs.  She likes to sit back and watch, and ask the other dogs what she should do next.  She was Loula's right-hand dog, for the longest time.  Sweetie and Spud were born about this time, and she was a loving big sister to them.

I'll relate the tale of the goat again - because Daphne showed her true colors that day.  We had a goat that had died of old age.  We went to our local family that raises goats with Pyrennes and they recommended one to us that knew dogs and would live with them.  'Kitty' was well taken-care of by the elderly lady and adapted to our pack quite well, dancing and trotting along with the dogs up and down our road.  For several months they treated her like a younger dog, taking her a bit further the longer she kept with them.  We tried to keep her to a leash, but she often found a way out of it.  Chewed collars and busted carabiner clips were a usual sight.  One day, she went running up the road with the dogs and out of sight.

Our daughter and the 'kitty' goat, a Nubian dwarf cross

Several of our dogs came back without the goat, but Daphne and her sister Loula stayed with her.  We called and waited and even went through the woods, not sure where on our property they might be.  Then, about eight o clock that night, as the sun was starting to set... here comes Daphne and Loula, one on either side of a seriously muddy goat, herding her along the road until we could come out and click a leash on her.  She had obviously been stuck in mud up to her armpits, and they had somehow (we'll never know) lead her out and forced her to come home.  It was quite a sight.  And we were so relieved.  They were both heroes that day - and the goat went on a lead after that when she wasn't in her pen.

Daphne in the back, Lucy in the middle, Sweetie at the front.

(oh, and a cat)

In the Fall of 2015, Daphne and Sweetie and Spud all chased the UPS truck.  They escaped through the door before I could stop them - and they were off running.  Spud came back that night.. but Sweetie and Daphne did not.  We were very worried.  We sent out calls to all of our neighbors and Facebook trying to see if anyone had seen them.  We called the shelters and the sheriff, too.  Sweetie came back on her own two days later - much to my relief.  Daphne, though, was still missing.  I gave up hope, until one day after Christmas - a very very cold day, a thin Daphne appeared on our road.

 Everyone was so happy to see her, they crowded around her, licking her face and welcoming her 

back.   She had been being kept on a leash somewhere - and her neck was a bit raw from straining against it to escape.  My husband was very angry at this but we didn't know where she had been.  We never found exactly who had tried to keep her ... she is a very pretty dog but they must have known someone was looking for her!  We were so happy to have her home.  I am so glad she didn't give up and found her way home.

There's still one more 'hero' episode about our sweet Daphne - but I'll save that for when I tell about her younger sister Minerva, as she was the one saved.  As I said, Daphne shows great loyalty and perseverance, and doesn't give up on her family.  She definitely is a treasure.

Sweetie - a Niume post

Meet Sweetie : Our Catahoula Leopard Dogs

I found this cute picture of Sweetie as a baby when I was looking for when they were born :)  

Sweetie is one of our set of 'twin' Catahoula leopard dogs, from the line we bred for four generations.  Sweetie and Spud were born in the early Spring of 2013, so they are now coming on four years old. 

Catahoulas are pack animals, herding dogs meant for controlling cattle and pigs in the swampy woods of Louisiana.  You might find them listed in some places as 'Louisiana Leopard Dog', or 'Catahoula Cur.'  And they are a registered working class breed with the American Kennel Club.

Having just one Catahoula you would miss out.  They build on each other and cooperate in a way I have seen from no other dog breed.    They are protective especially of other animals and children, and ours are only aggressive when they believe there is really a threat.  It saddens me to see their aggression listed on the higher end of breeds... perhaps due more to their crowding of people and pushing them.  

Perhaps, being 'pushy' scares some people?  Ours are very 'pushy.'  Our newly moved-in neighbor once complained because four of our dogs surrounded their out-of-state relative and 'herded' them all the way back to their property line, then took off for home!

In our experience each new member of the pack is trained by the elders and finds their 'niche' to living with their people.  If not given one, they will find their own "job"and take their self-assigned tasks seriously.  It would be hard to keep one in an apartment, especially alone.  They are exuberant, and need lots of space, exercise and time with their people.

This was Sweetie, as a baby.  She has one blue eye, and one brown.  Besides looking the most like her brother, she was also the smallest in the litter of ten puppies.  She had a very sweet and 'dainty' nature, right from the start.  She was 'the sweet one'.  I couldn't think of any better name for her.  It just stuck.

.Puppies and the goat.  We used to let the goat run free with all the  dogs, but we had to put her on a long kennel run.  There was an incident where Daphne and Loula had to bring her back from the swamp, where she had been mired for hours with mud up to her armpits.  I was so proud of my girls that day, as we had no idea where she was and were growing worried as darkness fell.  They were gone so long with her - we knew they were staying by her side.  To this day, the goat has a cord she can travel along the entire length of our driveway as well as a small pen she spends the rest of her time in.  And, she still thinks she is a dog, laying on the porch with the other dogs and running back and forth with them.  The dogs know, but they don't tell her the truth.

Sweetie and Spud as babies, at about six weeks of age.  (see above and below)  Sweetie was a bit more cautious.  But together, they were brave enough to meet the goat.  Being herding dogs, it is important they grow up with livestock from a young age.  Spud (the brother)  actually got close enough to lick the goat's nose.

Sweetie and her brother, Spud, sharing secrets.

All grown up, she is still the dainty one.  One of the very 'Sweetie' things is to see her sitting somewhere, front paws crossed at the ankles, and surveying the other dogs with an air of dignified amusement.  She believes she is 'in charge'  and keeps our other dogs in line.  She is the first to groom an ear, chide a barking puppy (her young nieces who are one year old, our last generation, which included the dog our daughter is training), or raise the alarm that someone or something NEW has arrived and must be barked at.

She had decided, early on, that she was MY dog - or I was her human... either way.  She greets me on my way in from work.  She expects (with head on my knee and eyes closed) to be fed a morsel from my plate at the end of family meals.  She gets jealous of the other dogs if they think they can get in line before her for a pet or a treat.  She sleeps closest my bed curled up on my bedside rug or a small cushion in the corner of the bedroom.  

She thinks she knows what is best for me, and tries to keep me to a schedule.  Often, she pokes her cold nose under my elbow if I am sleeping in late.  Late at night when I haven't come to bed yet, and am up typing at the computer, she comes and bunts her long pointed nose under my knees to see how I am.  If I don't pay attention sometimes, she tries to get herself under my knees and roll my chair to make sure I know she means business.

Sweetie on 'alert'.  On an excursion out to our west field, she was keeping her eye on her younger sister and our daughter at the same time.

Sweetie really doesn't like the leash.  She will walk on one, but only with her head hung low.  Her brother is the 'town' dog who likes other people and being on display.  Of the nieces, we have the same thing going on - one loves to follow people and do what they do, and the other would rather stay back and rule the pack and wait for the people to settle down to the homefires. Sweetie is okay with other people, especially children, but she is going to sit right by her people and keep an eye on everything for a while, just to make sure.  She takes after her great-grandmother in that.

Both sides of the Catahoula nature are interesting to see repeated through the generations.  At times, we say the pairs we have kept are two halves of each other's brain - one outgoing and people-focused, and the other seemingly introverted, but actually the brains behind the entire operation.

Although all of our dogs are now altered and there will be no more puppies we cherish each of the ones we have gotten to meet like they are family. And our daughter has a Catahoula to raise now that is well-matched to her. That was important to us.

I'll try to introduce you to Spud, Minerva, Daphne (and her sister Loula, who was killed by a car), Lucy and Freckles as the time goes on.  Their great-grandmother was Misha, who we recently lost at the ripe age of seventeen.  They represent the last twelve years of our lives here in Tennessee, in a way.  They all have their own distinct personalities and stories.

Catahoula Leopard Dogs at Shepard Lane Farm (KnitOwl)

By request, gratuitous puppy pictures.  And pictures of our adult pack at the bottom.
Questions please email at lamb190@gmail.com

  Hunter is spoken for, and will go to his family about 9/20/2015

 Chunks looks just like his Daddy, Spud.  See below in the adult pictures.

 Cutie has one black ear (see below) 

   Pearl on the left, Cutie on the right

 Lazy and Pearl are nearly twins, and sometimes seem to share the same brain.

Lazy has a longer line over one eyebrow and a larger black spot on her back.

 Turbo is a fat and happy puppy and enjoys cuddling up to an ankle.

 Freckles is excited about everything.

 Minnie looks a lot like her mom, Minerva, seen below.  She deeply wants to be someone's dog and is eager and observant.

 Nibbler is sweet. We are keeping him with the pack.

 Story time!

Despite best efforts, none have yet learned to read.

 Aunt Daphne with Columbus' sister from an earlier litter, Rosa.
She looked a lot like Turbo does now.

 Snooze

 Minerva, the pups mother.

 Columbus, a brother from Minerva's first litter.

 Columbus and Hunter

Spud, the pups' father.

Spud and his sister, Sweetie, when they were puppies.

Sweetie, grown up as an adult.

Thursday scuttle

I said I wouldn't post time lists as much this year, but today is one to record. I had this feeling through the day 'will we ever get it all done', and even after we finished...it felt like the day was a bit hodpodge and incomplete.  It was rainy though, and I think the weather was affecting me.  Esme said she learned a lot and retained quite a bit when I asked her questions later.

She woke up super early, found a worksheet I had printed out -and was off and roaring.  I was scrambling to find other things for her to do to continue the math streak.  The pirate ship measuring task was trying...but she did persevere and came out with a good project.  We'll come back to a task like that in another week or so and see how much she has absorbed.

7:20 am - Math worksheets, mental math and calculator
7:40 am - break
8 am -  measuring and cutting pirate ship shapes
8:30am - Pet City
9am - reading: Silver Rain Brown by M.C.Helldorfer
9:15am - break
9:45am - 'People Together' family tree unit
10:15am - break for town
12:00 - Sci video: The Day the Mesozoic died
-----Excellent video!
12:30 - reaading: The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli
12:45 - duolingo Spanish BASICS 3 sections+practice (She did a few typing parts but mostly she listened and answered...she paid attention to the accents better than I did when she did spell)
1:30 - Minecraft
2:30 - dinosaur 'dig' and paste-up skeleton
------I printed and de-articulated a paper skeleton, placed it on her wooden tray and covered it in beans.  She used a paintbrush to find the pieces, then reassembled them by gluing them onto a sheet of paper.
3:00 - done

We did some P.E. as Frisbee and she helped me cook grilled cheese sandwiches.  We watched the movie Space Camp, and she paid closer attention than she does to many movies.

Mark wanted to take pictures of Minerva's litter of Catahoula puppies.  There are nine, but apparently two of them look so close to each other we weren't sure which was missed!

Chunk

Cutie

Dr.Whiteface

Freckles

Lazy

Minnie

Nibbler

Turbo

Columbus and Esme looking over the entire litter.