Things A Puppy Must Learn

   We started the day out bright and early this morning...before 6am...with Zoey(the puppy)'s 1st frantic run thru the house scoring a direct hit on the 1st pee pad in my room and near misses on all the others in the living room, kitchen and TV room. After breakfast (dog biscuits and peanut butter) the dogs started their usual wild wrestling but it got a little out of hand and Zoey let out a bone-rattling scream as she wrenched away from Fanny and ran crying to me. I couldn't see any blood or open wounds but she continued to cry until Jeff picked her up and checked her out: legs (nothing broken), sides (no bites) and ears (no rips). By then she had calmed down a little but still wanted comfort from the humans. Fanny seemed dazed and tried to check Zoey out,  too, licking her all over. Definitely not sure what had happened.  Eventually all was quiet and the dogs were friends again. Later in the morning when we were all outside I spotted a little dark mark on Zoey's nose...a small scrape, maybe dried blood. The area around it seemed a little tender to the touch but it wasn't bleeding. We think Zoey had her head in Fanny's mouth and pulled away allowing Fanny to scratch her head with some teeth. If Fanny had bitten Zoey's head the spot would have been bigger and the hole deeper and there would have been much more blood. Maybe Zoey learned something...don't put your head into the big dog's mouth...she sure doesn't remember what 'stay in the yard' means because later she ran down to Wally's with Jeff right behind her!  She didn't like the paddling she got, or being led back to 'the yard' or, most of all, being tied up and not being allowed to roam around.

Fixing a Refrigeator And Other Happenings

   If you've visited our house you know that we don't have a full size refrigerator.  I replaced the last one I had several years ago with an 'under the counter' model but put it up on a cupboard base.  It's big enough for 1 or 2 people...especially when you have a chest freezer in another room.  When the 1st one I bought 'died' after a few years, I replaced it with another one and eventually with this one, a Kenmore.  Well, that one decided it's time had come but Jeff thought it might have something to do with needing more coolant...maybe even a leak in the coolant line...so he started looking for a replacement hose, taps and eventually found what we needed at Robinson's in Mohawk.  He bought a can of coolant at the auto parts store and today while I was at a doctor's appointment, he played doctor with the refrigerator.  

  There was no way to tell if he had put enough...or too much...coolant in the hose so most of the morning after the refrigerator started to try to cycle it's way back into service, he's been releasing some of the coolant. By late afternoon, the refrigerator was running the way it was suppose to...acting like a refrigerator!  That gray hose on the left in the photo is actually covered with frost...like it's suppose to be!  Jeff learned how to do this from his Uncle George who was really a jack-of-all-trades. Total cost for this repair job was $45-50.  Since we kept the 2nd refrigerator when we bought this one, Jeff's going to refurbish it so we can use it on the porch for soda and veggies...and probably worms and fish in season. 
   While Jeff kept busy playing Refrigerator Doctor, I visited my regular nurse practitioner for my annual check-up. My Bp is fantastic (112/70)...and that's with a 3 1/2 month old puppy who's not learning why there are pee pads all over the house! Next week I have to visit the Vampire for a round of blood tests including a full thyroid scan. Mr. McCue tends to agree with me that what's left of my cyst-filled thyroid has slowed down on hormone production. It may be time to start Synthroid.  The usual visits for a mammo and with the GYN and Cardiologist are next.  

Always Something To Do

   My house looks like we had a ticker tape parade INSIDE!  I'm cleaning and re-arranging bedroom furniture to make it easier for the guys from Pace Windows to measure the windows tomorrow.  Unfortunately, it makes it easier for Zoey, the puppy, to get into mischief!  Now she can reach my dresser and has decided the Eyeore bopplehead is perfect for her.  NO WAY!  I've chased her thru the house a couple of times to rescues it.  Had to put it up above her reach...I hope...to keep it safe.  Now I'm worried about some of the stuffed animals...the Wedding Gown bear I had made from my mom's wedding gown last winter especially and some of the ones Jeff had given Mom and me over the years...as well as some books and photos. And she's shredded most of the  newspapers and catalogues she's found in my room, as well as a dry pee pad(a new habit), thru the house!  I've got to sweep the living room and my bedroom before I do anything else!
  Tim sent some 'after Irma' photos of his house in S. Florida but I can't cut and paste them here like I want to without some help.  If I do, they will disappear in a couple of days.  I'm going to ask for 'help' at the library the next time I go to town and maybe someone there can figure out how to make the photos stay.
  Jeff worked outside yesterday clearing away more weeds and overgrown shrubs on the west side of the house.  He's got the area clear almost to the property line...something I was never able to do with just a 'walk behind' mower, a weedwacker and a pair of clippers!  What a difference it makes!!  Once the grass grows back it will really make this place look like something...not just a little house in a little clearing in the woods!!  Now with all the lawn we'll have next year I can see the need for the Cub Cadet rider!!  (As long as I don't have to drive it.)

A Bright Sunny Day

    A bright sunny day but our refrigerator has a small problem...needs a refill of coolant.  It's an under counter model, small but big enough for us especially since we do have a separate freezer.  Jeff finally found the parts for it yesterday and will attempt to change the line today.  Glad it's not a 90+ day outside so things are holding on pretty good.
   Friends who live in Florida made it thru Irma without major damage.  Those that evacuated are headed home to check out the damage (mainly lost roof tiles and water around the house) and those who stayed are living on temporary 'islands'.  I hope somebody sends some photos so I can post them here.  (Here that, Tim?)  Glad they made it OK. A friend in South Carolina also got hit, with trees down and water damage.  All these lucky folks have great Guardian Angels around them protecting them from harm, don't they?  But I'll still stick with the snow.  At least you can move it!
    With summer over, sweaters have started selling in the shop again.  My red, white and blue V-neck cardigan(Braves or Red Sox, depending on where you live)  got a lot of compliments before selling so I've got another one growing on the needles.  And most of the Flowers and Lace cardigans have sold so one of them will have to be next.  I finally finished a Pin-stripe V-neck cardigan (Yankee) with lots of 'help' from the puppy, Zoey.  Seems she loves the yarn and needles that it was on.  She tried to chew the tips of the US7's but the Rainbow wood interchangeable needles (from KnitPicks) were too hard for her to damage.  Unfortunately, the tips of the bamboo US5's got chewed up pretty badly.  I had to sand them down before I could finish the sweater.  I've also got a project bag on bamboo US 11's with cotton Sugar and Crème yarn that Zoey seems to have a crush on.  She's stolen the yarn a couple of times and since it's worked with 2 skeins at a time and she only takes 1, she's managed to make a mess!  Took a lot of time yesterday to detangle the yarn.  I was not happy!  Jeff just caught her with my old 6" wooden ruler!  She managed to pick it up off of the end-table.  Luckily, she just got started chewing one end...and she started at the beginning of it!
  Time to get back to knitting!

Zoey, Irma and a Little Knitting, too!

   Yesterday must have been a boring day for the puppy although she certainly tried to keep herself busy!  I've gotten into the habit of hanging my knitting bag on the back of the parlor chair I usually sit in.  It's a wingback and that keeps...or kept the bag above Zoey's head.  Well, yesterday she figured out that if she climbed into the seat of the chair and onto the arm she could reach into the bag and pull the WIP...the sweater on the needles...out.  And she did!  Then she reached in and grabbed the skein of yarn, white of course, and took off thru the house!  That's when Jeff noticed her and saved my yarn and sweater.  She tried to 'alter' the tips of the Rainbow Wood interchangeable circular needles I was using, too, but they turned out to be harder than she expected and she only scratched them (although she did bite the soft circular cable but not badly.) {Sat., 9/9/17:  Zoey decided to try bamboo circular needles

today.  She didn't even bother to take the WIP out of the project bag...just chewed the end of the needle!  Bamboo may be a strong wood but a puppy's teeth can chew it up easily!}  Then last night she was burrowing in the closet by my pc (I thought for a bone Fanny had hide there)and came out with another WIP, this time a project bag that was being worked with double yarn!  She dropped one skein and ran with the other one in her mouth!  It took a couple of minutes but we cornered her and again rescued the yarn and knitting project.  It seemed every I sat at the computer to track a friend's progress in his family's evacuation from Hurricane Irma in Florida, Zoey did something she shouldn't have!  I don't know if she was hiding  

or retrieving something from the bowels of the couch in this shot!   I got up once to answer the phone and she tore 2 pages from the notebook that the pattern I was using was in!  Jeff took both dogs outside to run around during the sunny times and they napped when they came back in, but Zoey definitely has more energy than all 3 of us (Jeff, Fanny and me) put together!Jeff's calling her  the Energized Beagle!
   As for my friends' evacuations from Florida and Hurricane Irma, Tim and his family (dog, son and girl friend, daughter and fiancé) left their homes near Bocca Rotan) yesterday morning heading north.  Initially, they were headed to Atlanta but in-route changed destinations and turned west.  They made it to Panama City by midnight last night and checked into their reserved hotel rooms.  They were planning to stay there a couple of nights (until  Irma makes landfall) and reassess their next move.  I got a Message from him this morning letting me know that there had been a change in their travel plans.  They had decided to head a little further northwest and were on the way to Nashville.  Irma may follow them but the storm surge won't!  It will just be rain and wind.  Lucretia and her family planned to leave their home near Cocoa Beach with their daughter, granddaughter, aunt and uncle and head with their camper to Charleston, SC.  Her sister and brothers and their families planned to ride out the storm in their homes near Cocoa Beach. Their mother is in assisted living  nearby and evacuation is up to the management.  Praying that guardian angels are surrounding all of these people.  Everyone is trying to make lemonade out of the lemons Mother Nature is handing out!!
   I finally managed to finish knitting that sweater Zoey kept stealing the yarn for last night.  It's a navy and white raglan v-neck cardigan and just needs the pin-stripes to finish.  That should be today.  Then it will be ready to take to the shop on Sunday.  I sold my red and white baseball sweater yesterday...some called it a Red Sox sweater but I'm calling it a Braves sweater.  Anyway, it sold!  Got to do a Black Sheep sweater next since I sold one last week when I worked.  I don't mind knitting them when they sell!

New Windows

   We have decided to contract with Pace Windows of Victor, NY for new windows for both bedrooms.  All four are surrounded pretty much by dry rot and the outside window sills are in bad condition.  The windows can only be opened from the top at the moment because something snapped inside them and if you open them from the bottom the window won't stay up.  I had all the windows (except the one over the kitchen sink and the one in the laundry room) replaced a couple of years before I retired.  The rest of the windows are holding up fine...it's just the bedroom windows that don't or won't stay up.  Anyway, we looked at replacing them ourselves (or more properly, Jeff replacing them) but we're not sure what we'll find when the existing windows are taken out.  This way Pace will place and correct anything that needs fixing.  We've had other problems with these bedroom windows...moisture collects on the inside sill, etc...so it's just time to fix the problem. Since Pace will cover the outside frames with vinyl it will also satisfy our insurance company's complaint about the dry rot.   Hope this is the right move 'coz it's not cheap!  I'll post photos as soon as they start work. 
   Pace just called.  We've been approved for credit and the official measurements will be done on 9/14. Photos of that will follow!

Labor Day

   Last night around 9:15pm our neighbors down the road set off a fireworks display. Fanny, Zoey and I were comfy in bed...I was reading... while Jeff was reading at his computer when the 1st bomb went off. Fanny leaped off the bed and ran to Jeff and dove under his bed. Zoey squirmed and shimmied until I put her on the floor and then she followed...with me bringing up the rear! By the time I got to the window, all that could be seen of Fanny was her rear end and tail sticking out from beneath the bed while Jeff had picked Zoey up and placed her on the bed. She was busy working her way under the covers. I stayed at the window and was treated to a pretty colorful fireworks display...bursts of color and patterns...that lasted about 10-15 minutes. (They must have saved the fireworks from the Fourth of July because I haven't seen any for sale lately.) After the display was finished Zoey and I went back to the other room but Fanny stayed next to Jeff...all night! She wasn't taking any chances, I guess! Since yesterday was a pretty dismissal end to summer...it rained off and on most of the day and the temperature never got above 55, the fireworks were a nice treat. Thanks, neighbors!
   Today the weed-busting moved to the back of the house...or the side that faces south.  Jeff had already mowed the lawn...what there was...and today he tackled the overgrown forsythia bushes. Actually the original bush is under the west facing window of the TV room and the rest of the jungle formed because the runners traveled underground.  It looked 

beautiful in the spring but all those branches covering the windows could be a real hazard in the winter.  Just think if  they were covered with
ice or snow?!?   The damage they could do to

the windows!  Now that area under the windows is completely clear of the forsythia branches.  I just hope it grows enough to flower again

next year. 
   Zoey was willing to explore the backyard but kept going off into the woods or down the old trolley path.  Definitely not following orders to 'stay in the yard'.  Fanny didn't feel like playing...those fireworks last night interrupted her sleep so Zoey was on her own.  I sat there with a book and Fanny snoozing next to me while Zoey tried to do some exploring without getting into too much trouble.  A guy on a big 4-wheeler came down the path and Jeff had to stop him and tell him to turn around because the trail was blocked ahead. The driver seemed surprised.  When we first moved into the little house in the little woods I could ride my bike down the trolley path thru East Herkimer, across the old bridge and go to the Herkimer swimming pool without ever going on Rte 5.  The ride back home was a little difficult because the hill going into E. Herkimer was tough but once that was tackled it was a flat ride home.  Now, our end of the path is blocked by Massaro's, who own it, because of liability insurance, and the middle is cut by Gros Blvd. What a difference 50 years makes!
   Jeff has got 3/4 of the way around the house cleared of weeds.  He just has the south-east corner where the big deck is and where he stacks wood waiting to be cut into the right size for the wood stove.  The deck is getting rotten in places and since we don't use it much I think it will probably be next to be taken down and burnt.  I'd like a small stoop...like the one by the back door with a slanted roof like it has...to replace the deck.  Because of the shape and slope of the metal roof on the TV room snow doesn't stay on that roof but ends up on the deck...in front of the door to the TV room making it useless.  A small stoop with a slanted roof would make the door usable in winter.  And since there is a woodstove in that room, not a bad idea, either.  Whether or not we get to it this year remains to be seen, but it is on our 'to do' list.

  Well, Jeff put in his time on the Cub Cadet this afternoon and decided to go fishing.  It's suppose to rain off and on for the rest of the week so this may be his only opportunity this week!  Fanny is trying to catch up on the sleep she missed last night but Zoey

wants her to wake up and play.  I think Zoey and I will go into the TV room and leave Fanny to her nap.  Actually, Zoey hasn't had a nap this afternoon so I might get her to sleep and then I can read in peace for a little while.  We had a big lunch so no supper to cook tonight! YEAH!!  Well, it is Labor Day!