Ann’s Weblog

It has been installed for a couple of weeks now, and we were in possession of it for awhile before that. Gary chose and applied the lovely stain. Here is our new door:

It gives a facelift to the rest of the house. The house needs more work, but isn’t it always an ongoing thing? This solid fir door was created by a local artisan/carpenter, and if anyone wants to know more about it, please send a comment to this blog. Lady, my “prop”, dislikes the camera and looks rather put-upon.

We’ve been well, and we manage to keep occupied. There are months of winter left. Gary has gone to Sun Peaks for skiing, with our friend Rob. Though that resort is the one developed by Nancy Green Raine, she is now in Ottawa as a B.C. Senator, and not available as a skiing partner as she usually is.

It was very cold yesterday when Gary left, and warmed as the day went on. Now it is only -6˚ Celcius. The wind blew all night long while snow fell, so I awoke to drifts and a few more inches of the white stuff everywhere. Damn it, I will have to plow snow again.

Here is another picture of the little dog Murphy, who stayed with us a little while ago:

That’s Murphy asleep, and when disturbed by the sound of the camera. This is the “kennel” experience for many pets!

Most dogs who come here do not seem too traumatized. Although we’re aware that it is heart-rending to leave one’s pet behind anywhere, we treat the cats and dogs as if their stay with us is NOT punishment but a positive experience. However, just as with children and babysitters and daycare, if the primary caregiver apologizes and projects all their anxiety, it is hard for the pet (or child) NOT to feel anxious. When Gary and I act friendly and matter-of-fact around our “charges”, most adopt an attitude of ease and patience, simply waiting for their beloved family members to return. Most owners are happy to know that their pet did not suffer or sulk.

One little “feather in my cap” was the incident over Christmas holidays whereby a Belgian Shepherd who had survived a terrible car wreck was brought to us. We kept Sasha until some family members came to pick her up, which was just a matter of a few days. When the Coroner dropped the dog off, she explained that Sasha had stayed in the demolished vehicle for hours with her two deceased owners, finally extracted safely, and then had been placed in the Coroner’s van for quite some time, then driven about an hour to our home. When we met the dog, she looked like a wild animal, her eyes as big as saucers, looking from one face to the other with bewilderment and fright.

I placed a large dog bed in a corner of the kitchen (not isolated, but out of the way), and looped Sasha’s long leash loosely around a table leg… I didn’t want her to feel too confined but also didn’t want her to “make a break for it” when a door was opened. We didn’t know the dog’s name at that point, but kept talking to her, telling her that things would be okay, that she should eat and drink. I can’t recall now if we were able to make her eat anything but some beef from my hands, but she DID drink water and homemade broth, and that’s even more important.

My point to all this story is that, if we could put THAT dog at ease, we can “connect” with almost any. Some dogs clearly just prefer their personal space, and we can accomodate those as well. And even the occasional pet who mopes does survive our care, only to warm up to us, usually, on future visits. I accept it, and I don’t bother lying to owners whose pets take time to adjust.

I finally composed an order for trees and shrubs last week. According to the deadlines set by the wholesale nurseries, I am MONTHS overdue. In other years I have not done much better, and sometimes have taken even longer to make a list and fax it; this late ordering is not ideal, but usually leads to some very interesting substitutions in my order! Since I got that order sent away, two other wholesalers have phoned to ask if I need anything from them… it’s nice to be remembered, but I can only spend so much on our little “mom & pop” garden centre. I get excited for Spring once these orders are sent out… I still have perennial roots to order, for potting up and selling.

In our area, it’s the freight which destroys the potential profits. Last Spring I travelled to Kelowna to pick up my order of trees, and plan to do that again. This resulted in a huge savings in trucking costs, and since I made a marathon trip out of it, I didn’t have to stay overnight anywhere.

I guess I need to get on with my day. I want to catch up to some turns at “Lexulous”, which is a Facebook version of Scrabble. I’ve started many games at once so that I can play steadily for um, hours. However, it looks like I’ll have to plow the driveway, as I mentioned earlier; I’ve plugged the tractor in but am not very enthused. It’s still snowing!

Take care, all. ~ Ann

My friend Jennette snapped a much more indicative photo of the driving conditions near McBride yesterday:

It WAS treacherous.

Makes us daydream about winter vacations in warmer climes.

~ Ann

After my glib comments about winter in the earlier blog post today, it was decided that we needed to go into town after all. The highway is just awful, the wind blowing the drifted snow and the falling snow into a moonscape. It’s hard to see, turn safely or stop. I worry about customers and others who have to brave the conditions on a day like this.

Gary bought diesel for the tractor and has gone back out to plough; the driveway had drifted back in so much it just looked like a luge track.

Well, okay.. it doesn’t look so bad in this photo. There is blowing snow on the highway, but that’s not very visible. Gary on the tractor is just a dot in the “distant” bottom of the driveway. The sun is shining and that makes the weather seem not so nasty, and besides, it is WARM… barely freezing.

Gary’s truck is “in the shop”, so we went to get my older truck out of the parkade of the garage where some work was done on it. Perhaps if Gary is driving my truck around the valley for a day or so, people will see how cute and handy it is… and someone might BUY it!

We are babysitting the little dog Murphy for a few days:

We are also boarding the other dog in the family, Louie, who is a handsome border collie. I’ll add a picture when I can. Our friend Sharon is travelling to Regina to be a “Writer in Residence” at the university for the rest of the school year, and her husband Zev is helping her get there.

A friend who has been intensely involved with the Renshaw horse rescue has shared an article and an editorial, this time from the Jasper newspaper:

Renshaw Horse article

Editorial…

I have my own opinion about the “owner” of the horses who almost died on the remote Renshaw mountainside. Although some articles describe public opinion as “divided”,  I don’t believe there are many who sympathize with the owner. His attitude speaks of a unique brand of “class”.

Okay, on with my day. ~ Ann

I’m relieved that blog.com is working today; yesterday it wasn’t. I always worry that it’s something I’ve done wrong…

Millard came over with the mirror on Tuesday night. It is our “old” bathroom mirror which was purchased from Canadian Tire about 15 years ago when I bought this house. Some of the silvering was deteriorating on the edges, so we asked Millard to add a frame which would coordinate with the cabinetry:

Now we’ll wait until the new window arrives and Art will install that. We’re hoping that some wood can be found to finish the frame of the window to look nice with what Millard used, though I think I understood Millard to say that he had used every bit of the material he had there (for this project).

Gary was in Jasper skiing yesterday and Tuesday, and I took over the ploughing of snow in the driveway. It’s a bit of a learning curve… at the farm I used a John Deere with a blade on the back and so far, at this place, we have a tractor with only the bucket for snow removal. I used a lot of diesel and quite a few hours pushing snow around, sometimes very inefficiently, but it felt like fun. The temperature has not been too low.

I’m waiting for a dog whose toenails I’ll trim, and then a little shih tzu who needs a haircut. Today is our 8th wedding anniversary, so later we’ll go to the local Pub for dinner.

There has been some interest in adoption for the little dog I took in on New Year’s Day, including friends of the family who left him behind. I hope for a better life for the animal. There is some potential for conflict… how long do I keep such a dog before I can adopt it out? On whose authority do I go ahead with this proceeding? In this case and a few others in my years of business, there has been no opportunity for official “surrender” of an animal.

I just got a note through Facebook that one of my “old” favourite customers had to be euthanized in December. She had a great, long life with loving family. Rest well, Maggie, dear gal.

I received an email about some other dogs needing adoption*, and included in the message was a link to continuing updates about the abandoned horses which I wrote about in December:

Horse Rescue

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*If anyone wants to know about the other dogs which need homes:

3.5 year spayed female lab/ boxer/ pit cross

3 Month old Chesapeake Bay Ret. Female. Vet checked, vaccines up to date, needs to be spayed

the phone number for these adoptions: 250-566-0166 (leave msg)
or email mountain-me@hotmail.com
contact: Chris

Normally my blog wouldn’t be a forum for pet adoptions, but that’s the way it is today.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here’s a picture of my lovely daughters, and me of course. I’m not aging well, but then I’ve whined about that before. This is from November ‘08, when they were in the Valley for the occasion of their paternal grandmother’s birthday.

Gary was wanting to upload a photo to Facebook this morning, and it occurred to me that I have never put even one picture except a profile pic, onto Facebook. THEN it occurred to me that our “iPhoto” Application on our Mac computer is a morass of uncategorized photographs which even includes pictures that have been downloaded from other peoples’ cameras (which is fine, but adds to the great numbers). And then it also came to my attention that the file handling on our Mac is in an appalling state… files and pictures and even applications “saved” in the most unlikely albums and folders and even in NO folders.

Sometimes it doesn’t seem like the winter (hibernation time) is even long enough to catch up to the bookwork, deskwork, website upgrading, file handling, sewing, crafting, reading and all other indoor projects. We have “weathered” more winter this year than usual, or maybe I don’t remember well, but I still appreciate the time to rest and regroup. Gary does almost all the work of the actual heating of the house and also snow removal, making life a lot easier in the last winters.

I’m going to go back to sorting on this computer. Take care everyone! ~ Ann

New Year started out just fine… dinner with friends at their home, and water supply restored to our house. The problem was a broken fitting within the well.

Sunday morning brunch with several close friends was fun too. However, after stopping at the bank and then the grocery store, Gary’s truck wouldn’t start. It had caused a problem a few days ago when we had the hassle with the water, but then seemed to be without issues after all. It explained itself by quitting at the IGA parking lot… we physically pushed the truck to a place which was out-of-the-way, and called a friend.

The “boys” switched out the battery, and then it was determined that the alternator was the more likely cause of the problem. We hoped that we could get home, but ended up stranded, briefly, on the highway. Our friend was following, so we didn’t have to walk or wait in the bitter cold wind, and now the truck has been towed to a service station for repair… whenever.

We still have a friendly house-and-yard full of dogs. You might remember Colleen, who stays indoors with us no matter what the weather:

And this is her partner in the same household, Wally; we haven’t known Wally as long as we have Colleen, but they are a GREAT pair, honest in spirit and well behaved.

On the night after New Year’s Day, we had Zev and Sharon over for an “Indian-style” feast… that is, I did the best I could to serve some good ethnic food. We had Butter Chicken, Dry Spiced Pork Curry, vegetables in coconut milk and dhana jeera, some chick-pea dish that I forget the title of, raita, pappadum, saffron basmati rice, and mango chutney. Gary had actually found a white Okanagan wine which was labelled, “Great with mild Indian curry.”. Our friends brought a red wine which was also lovely with the meal. We just had vanilla ice cream for dessert, as we were all quite full.

Sharon has inherited her dear late mother’s dog, who is more teddy bear than canine. Murphy is about as angelic as a dog can be, and is very attached to both Sharon and Zev:

All of our dinner parties are overseen by Lady, and she gets to watch us from her “own chair” unless we run out of seating for humans:

Thanks for checking in… ~ Ann

We wish all of you a good year ahead in 2009. We know so many who have suffered in the past year that it is our hope that things will be brighter.

We made a new friend this week… “Casino” came to stay with us just for two nights. He is gentle and easy to love, and spent his “boarding” time in our home, along with our own dog and a couple of other quiet boarders. At first he was quite anxious and furtive (most dogs are suspicious around the camera), but soon settled down and snoozed. He played “musical beds” with our dog Lady, and the two enjoyed each other.

Duke and Duchess, Ryder and Raina went home. Beowulf and Chester, and the cat named Pasha arrived.

The water supply to the house quit yesterday afternoon. Gary had just finished grouting the tiles on the backsplash in the bathroom when the pump lost its prime and ran continuously. Thank goodness we were home, or the pump would have burned out, necessitating a trip to Prince George, 150 miles away.

So, to bring in the New Year, the mood was dampened, pardon the pun. We didn’t even feel like venturing into McBride for takeout, much less to dine out; we had bacon, eggs and toast on paper plates. However, the situation improved today as our friend Dale came over and helped Gary impliment a plan and carry it out. We have water running at the taps again: oh the joys of living in the country with a well, etc.. The problem was a broken pipe at the point that it goes from the well to the underground line; so much more solvable than if the pipe was broken where it’s buried, or any of a number of other troubles we could have had to deal with.

The dog Sasha was picked up by family members. The family has lost both mother & father, who were also grandparents, only the dog survived. It was hard not to burst into tears when daughters came to get Sasha, but Gary was able to verbalize our condolences.

I just got a phonecall from someone in our town, about a small dog, thin and cold, who is trying to get into the house. Normally I do NOT take in “strays” or unwanted animals, but there seems no decent solution than to allow the people to bring that poor creature here. Perhaps I can figure out “who” it is when it arrives.

Here’s another couple of shots of the bathroom reno:

The first two pics are the view of the vanity (from standing in the bathtub). Gary has since added grout to the tiles. The last photo is of the “overjohn” cabinet.

We’re going out to dinner at the home of friends tonight, so it is a belated celebration of New Year’s Eve AND of getting water restored to the house. I’ve spent a couple of days trying to achieve “order” in my grooming shop, which has become a schmozzle of storage and craft-and-repair stations; the dogs and cats don’t mind, but it is not very presentable for new customers of the human type. I am TIRED and am going to enjoy a drink or two.

Thanks for visiting, my dear readers. Love, Ann