Dear Friends,
I’m sad to announce that Anneliese’s baby girl did not make it this morning. She was taken via c-section, was big and beautiful and seemed to be doing well, and then just faded away.
Anneliese is doing okay, sleeping next to me right now. I have cried many tears. I don’t understand….but then I tell myself that God is with me and with Anneliese and I have to have faith.
Love,
Maribeth
Here at The Dackel Princess Home, we are still awaiting the birth of Anneliese’s pup. Saturday saw her changing her usual personality and becoming more of a recluse. At one point she had climbed under our bed, and I managed to get her out. Now we’ve closed off the doors to any rooms with beds, and tried our best to encourage her to go into the whelping box.
But I can see her laugh at us because she doesn’t want the whelping box, but perhaps the softness of my bed to give birth on! That’s not going to happen!
While Anneliese follows her internal clock, I have kept busy canning more pickles and vacuuming the family room and kitchen, as I like to have a quiet house the first week the puppies are born. Even if there is just one this time.
I’ve been watching the Owls on The Owl Box. Their first egg hatched this morning and I was able to get this screen shot of Molly and her new Owlet, Ashley.
You can see Molly feeding her 45 minute old baby. I was so thrilled to get this shot! I had attempted two others and didn’t get the one I wanted and then, BAM! I got this!!!
I also had a weird thing happen to me. Last night I picked up an old newspaper to read in the tub and when I opened it up, there I WAS!!!
Now call me surprised! I came out to the family room and told Hubby I’d found some strange woman in the news paper! He laughed and joked about it for a while. The two newspapers were several days old (see how often I actually read a newspaper these days?), and I probably would have missed this if I hadn’t had the urge to bring them with me into the tub!
I guess some days it pays to read the local news!
I was rereading some of my recent entries on Dackel Princess and I realized that I have been slightly stressed and actually haven’t written too much about the happenings around me. It’s been more like reading CNN Headline News. Abbreviated and with no meat at all. Bad me! I need to get my fingers flying and actually use my brain for more than holding my ears apart!
Life with my dogs continues to be full of life’s ups and downs. Fritz is mending quite nicely and my hope is, that tomorrow when they remove his cast, he will not need another cast and can once again walk normally. He seems to be doing well, and is anxious to be back walking our property with my husband.
Fritz is just the best little patient ever. He has not once attempted to remove the cast, or chew on it. He lies by the back door watching Hubby outside and I can see the longing in his face to be right out there with his daddy, but he is patient, and is waiting to be completely healed.
Due to Fritz being house bound, Hubby has taken Greta along with him when he does his rounds, checking our fruit trees. Greta is fun to watch. She is built like a little tank, and has the persona of a much larger dog. She prances in such a way, that you swear you are watching a Rottweiler! Needless to say, she is having a great time!
Arnie continues to delight us both. He will come up to us when we are hugging and demand to be picked up. We then snuggle him in what we call a “family hug”! Arnie is the one of our pups who is really into public displays of affection! Need a kiss or hug? Arnie is your man!
Anneliese is very much attached to me right now. She follows me all around the house, and when I sit down she is right by my side. Her belly is getting round and I wonder when I will start to feel the babies move? She is such a loving little girl. I’ll be setting up her puppy room this week, getting everything ready for her. The other day I bought a great blanket for her bed, as I found it on a clearance rack for an amazing $3.99!
Hubby went out and picked more vegetables in our garden and brought them in. Today I peeled, and chopped 3 quarts of cucumbers to make my Moonglow Pickles with. I diced up a red pepper and a green pepper and 2 beautiful onions. Now it sits overnight and tomorrow I will cook them up and process them.
I think that pickles are the most fun I have when I preserve food. They are so easy to make, and when I open them up in the middle of winter, I am reminded of the lush green garden and the fresh cucumbers that I enjoyed from my garden. Knowing I grew them from seed, makes me feel proud and happy with the end result!
Soon the peaches will be ripe and we will be picking them and making jam. Peach Jam is rather labor intensive, but worth it in the end. Also our plums are full and plentiful this year and I want to make jam with those as well.
What do I do with all of these canned items? I give them away. Yep, you read that right. Not only do we eat them, but I give them as gifts all year long.
On Friday night I made Rock Cornish Game Hens for dinner. It was the first time EVER that I had cooked these little mini ‘chickens’! I was a bit nervous, and read about them on the Internet. I stuffed them and seasoned them and baked them. Serving them with a fresh ear of local corn and mashed potatoes for Hubby. He went crazy! He said it was one of the nicest meals that I had cooked in a while! It was good, but better than Lobster or Swordfish? I think not! Of course these mini chickens were on sale for a dollar a piece, so I was willing to take a chance in my cooking endeavors!
So, life is going along pretty well here as we await the birth of the next litter of pups. Then the fun begins! I can hardly wait!
• I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
• I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
• I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
• I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
• I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
• I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
• I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final goodbye.
Author Unknown
Monday found me playing catch up. You know, even if you just go away overnight, when you get home there is always stuff to do that you must catch up with.
One of the first things was paying our taxes.
You know what Benjamin Franklin said, “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
So true. So off to the Town Hall I went with checkbook in hand. After signing away our savings, I headed to the Post Office to mail a package to my friend in Delaware. There is a certain German food that I can get up here that they simply do not sell down there. So, off it went.
I finished weeding the beets in the garden, and picked two summer squash, which I sautéed up for our dinner, and made another fruit salad.
Sheets and blankets were washed, meals cooked and cleaned up, and by the end of the day, I was feeling quite happily tired.
Just a few more days until we learn if Anneliese is expecting her puppies. I am going a little crazy, as I wait! She is sure acting like she is, but…
Fritz is doing well.
His neck is looking good and on Friday he gets his stitches out. He is a happy, healthy dog once again, and I am thrilled!
Hubby is picking our cherries now.
This is a full two weeks ahead of schedule! A local farm stand is buying some of them and reselling them to the public. I’ll tell you, these are some of the best cherries that we have ever had!
We have plenty of cherries so I can make cherry jam! Here is one of my baskets, full of cherries just waiting for me to make them into jam!
Happy Memorial Day weekend to all who celebrate it 🙂
And…here we go!
1. Deviled Eggs — the best food to take on a picnic.
2. Summer barbecues.
3. I never wear flip flops.
4. To love someone is to know the greatest joy as well as the greatest pain.
5. Climbing Mount Washington is a long hike.
6. When I crave food, it’s usually dark chocolate.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to relaxing with Hubby, tomorrow my plans include spending time with my cousin and her boyfriend and Sunday, I want to work at Wienie Weekend with Altrusa. For those that don’t know, my ladies club sells grilled hot-dogs at the Craft Festival to raise money for our outreach programs !
I almost never wear shorts here at home. On a cruise, or a vacation, yes, I will wear them. However, today the thermometer topped out at 94 degrees (F), so I broke out the shorts and donned a tank top.
I watered my garden twice, turned two of our air conditioners on early and made sure that I filled the dogs water dish three times with ice cold water.
Hubby went to work, I went to Weight Watchers, and then on to get my hair done, before returning home, in the sweltering heat.
I wasn’t home long, when Hubby arrived home, earlier than usual. I was so glad to see him walk up the steps. No one should be out pounding the pavement in this heat!
After getting a cold drink, we set about putting the window air conditioners in the kitchen, office and guest room. With those in place, we can now cool down the house and keep it at a comfy level during this heat wave!
On Tuesday I thought Anneliese had gone into heat, but overnight the telltale signs disappeared, confusing me. I called the Veterinarian and learned that she is probably close, and that this can happen. She encouraged me to wait on having her Health Exam for the trip until her symptoms were nice and strong.
So I tried to chill out and not worry about whether or not Anneliese is in heat and just went about my day. When I arrived home, after I got my hair done, I checked her and there it was again. Just enough to drive me crazy, but not enough to make me sure.
Arnie has been very attentive to his sister, so I am thinking that her heat is just around the corner, and I have decided to not worry about it tonight and wait and see what Thursday brings.
This weekend is our town’s Arts & Crafts Festival! Janet and Dave are coming up to enjoy the day with us. I can hardly wait!!!
I had another long drive Saturday. Long drives always give me time to think, and to ponder life. Which I have been doing a lot lately. So, the drives just afford me the time to do this. There are times I wish I didn’t have to think at all, but life is life, and my mind tends to wander off on all sort of things when I am driving.
So the trip down to my cousin’s went quickly as my mind was racing. There was almost no traffic, and except for one really funny incident, I made great time.
As I was coming into a known “speed control” area, a man flashed his headlights at me, indicating that a speed trap was ahead. I slowed down, and just then my radar detector sang to me, telling me that a laser gun was being used to check the speed. It lasted a moment and then stopped and then started again.
In the car directly behind me, there was an irate man. He flipped me the finger and was just so obnoxious because he wanted to get going faster. I just smiled and kept my speed.
Then suddenly, on the side of the road we all could see a State Police Motorcycle Cop with the laser gun. I smiled again, and I looked in my rear view mirror. The irate man, was waving at me and saying “SORRY”!
Oh how I laughed!
So, I spent the day with my cousin and it was a warm and wonderful visit with her. Warm as in Loving, and Warm as in 80+ degree temperatures! The flowers are all out, the lilacs blooming and there was a pair of Canadian Geese raising their goslings! They were the cutest things, but I had forgotten my camera and couldn’t get a picture.
After I’d helped Janet with a few things I headed back home. Now this too was interesting. As I was driving through Manchester, there was an old bright yellow car following me with a couple of teens in it. They were talking a lot and whoever was driving was not doing a very good job.
Anyway we got to the tolls and they used another lane and roared off. I got stuck after that in a traffic jam and about 15 minutes later I see police cars and two ambulances pull up to the side of the road. I slowed down, looked over and there was the yellow car, in the ditch, smashed into a tree!
I got home, safe and sound, in time to watch the Kentucky Derby. I just knew that “Super Saver” would win, because he was being ridden by my favorite jockey, Calvin Borel! That man knows how to ride a horse and it was a joy to watch him again this year!
Our apple blossoms are out and I plan to spend Sunday taking a lot of pictures. Right now, my back yard is the most beautiful place int he world!
Happy Sunday, Everyone!
And…here we go!
1. I was __happy and busy today___________.
2. My eyes failed me___ and I left my book ___on the bedside table.
3. Why __doesn’t Anneliese go into heat?
4. Janet__ was in my thoughts today.
5. One of my father’s favorite sayings was _”Be on time”_.
6. Love_–I know that feeling!
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _Relaxing over a nice dinner_, tomorrow my plans include _baking some Fiber One Muffins_and watching the Kentucky Derby_and Sunday, I want to _finish up my correspondence!
Janet. At Friday Fill Ins.