My Life – Page 129 – The Dackel Princess

Passages Through Time

Thursday proved to be a very long and very busy day. Some of it was restful, like when I was getting my hair and nails done, but then I came back home and was consumed with puppy laundry, and cooking. Right now we have tomatoes coming in and we have far more than we can possibly eat, so I am making home-made spaghetti sauce with it. I’ve frozen some of the sauce to enjoy in the middle of a snowstorm this winter, and the rest I am using to make things like Eggplant Parmesan, and Lasagna.

The entire sauce making from beginning to end (including dinner), lasted from 1:30 until 7 pm! During this time I was letting dogs in and out, feeding Greta, who is constantly hungry, and checking on the puppies.

I actually didn’t take any pictures of them on Thursday. I will tell you though that their eyes are just starting to open. There are now lines where the eye lids meet, instead of the way the puppies are born, with the eyes tightly fused together. I wonder which puppy will have their eyes open first?

Arnie continues to be my special little guy. He follows me everywhere and sits by my feet when I am working in the kitchen. If I call to him he runs to me and leaps into my arms! What a guy!

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Today is September 11, 2009. Eight years have now passed since that terrible morning. So many innocent people died, and our safe little world forever changed. I have never understood how anyone could do such an evil thing. It still boggles my mind, and there are times I still hear the voices of those who were on those planes, in the World Trade Center, or in the Pentagon, cry out from their fiery graves.

The victims came from more than 90 countries around the world.
The following are the number of people who died at each site:

World Trade Center 2,823 (includes airline passengers)
Pentagon 125 (not including plane victims)
Flight 11 – 92 people on board
Flight 175 – 64 people on board
Flight 77 – 64 people on board
Flight 93 – 44 people on board

May we never forget…..

The Blog Thieves Got Me!

I wrote a long post last night about the puppies. It was beautiful. Eloquent! One of my very best! I had it all saved and set up and this morning when I checked….It had disappeared!

Granted, I was tired. I’d also taken something for a headache, but still, the post should have been there!

I will try to recreate my masterpiece, but frankly, since the blog thieves got it, I’m not sure that this is possible!

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On Monday we had Greta the the Vet to get out her IV. She is doing remarkably well and we are all thrilled. She lost 4 1/2 pounds and is back to eating and drinking as she normally does.

Each puppy was examined and they are doing well also. That is a real blessing!

I started to think on the drive back, how my life is really quite amazing. You see, when I was young I knew I wanted to get married, have children and be a Mommy. I could see that as clear as day. What I had no clue about was, what did I want to do as a career.

I’m a nurturer by heart, yet I’m also pretty emotional, so being a nurse, or something like that wouldn’t really work for me. I’d be destroyed if I ever lost a patient, even though I know that this is the cycle of life.

Then in 1996 I met the most wonderful little doggy named Shubi and my life changed. She showed me many things, but after losing my youngest daughter, and many years of depression after that, Shubi showed me how to love again and how to live!

And she never said a word! (Just an occasional bark!)

Shubi showed me how to make my own kind of music.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So now, here I am a Granny to 14 puppies total, with the prospect of Anneliese giving me more little miracles to love and then move along to their forever friends.

You see, for me, that is the joy. I am able to bring these little creatures into the world, love them, teach them all that that they need to know about being little doggies, and then send them on to their new forever homes.

I found my music in the midst of this crazy world. The music is of mewling newborn puppies, barking growing puppies, and the laughter of the people who come to get their new baby from me.

And to think, it all started with a little puppy from Landshut, (in Bavaria) Germany.

Quick Post

As it is late on Thursday night and I am pretty tired this will be a brief accounting of today’s events. Most all of it revolves around getting ready for Greta’s babies.

We had a quick Chinese lunch, and then set about shopping for dog food, people food and I bought some puppy formula.

We had the dogs out in the yard, Hubby picked Castleton Plums, which he sold to a farm stand, and somehow I still managed to get the mail.

We had dinner plans with friends of ours tonight. Wonderful steak tips and salad. Delicious! As the sun went down and the sky got dark, the temperatures dropped and I am sitting here, next to Greta, feeling the cold, and drinking some hot tea.

Greta just gets bigger, and is showing the first signs that she will multiply in the next few days. I can hardly wait!

What To Do….

Okay, what do you do when you are waiting for your dog to multiply? Well, if you are like me and like to keep busy so that you don’t have to think about the impending birth of your grand-puppies, you cook.

On today’s agenda was grape juice. I had about 2 gallons of juice, made from our own Concord Grapes, and today I put together 4 batches of Grape Jelly. That’s 28 jars of jelly!

I love to can jelly and jams, as they make great gifts for people who do not have the time or the fruit in their yard, to make such things. Plus, I think it is very rewarding to actually produce something.

I think the next thing on my list of jams and jellies will be plum jam. It'[s one of my favorites and it appears we will have a good crop of those in about a week. I just hope I have the time and energy with the puppies due to arrive so soon.

Speaking of the puppies, I also decided to get my birthing kit out and ready. You just never know when Greta might pop these babies out and I want to be all prepared. I’ll move the bed into the puppy room on Saturday and then it’s just a matter of time.

Greta was sitting with me today and I had my hand on her belly and I could feel these guys just kicking her like crazy! It make me recall being pregnant and how it felt when the two girls had been kicking me.

I keep saying that what I really need is some rest, but I am starting to think that my nerves about Greta’s impending birth, are making me extremely productive. She better have these puppies soon or my husband will wonder who has kidnapped his real wife, and dropped her double into his house!

What I Did To Relax…Ha!

On Sunday I decided to spend the day just relaxing. The last week has been so busy, and I really wanted to take the day and do nothing but watch some TV or perhaps read. However, I went to the fridge for something and noticed an abundance of cucumbers, and since they weren’t getting any fresher, I knew that today was the day to do something wonderful with them.

But what?

I was tidying up some newspapers and I saw an article on the front page of the Lifestyle section. “Pickles”! It read. Eureka! That’s it!

I found a recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles and decided on that. I needed a gallon of sliced cucumbers. So I washed the cucumbers and got out my food processor and started to slice the cucumbers, and the onion and then made layers. Cucumbers, onion, canning salt and ice, repeat. I did that until I had the gallon of cucumbers done, then I set a full gallon jug of vinegar on a plate on top of it and let it set for 3 hours.

Then we cooked it down and canned the pickles.

And here is one of the 9 jars that we made.

While we did this Greta stretched out near us. She just gets bigger and bigger.

I also had Greta out to play ball in between rain drops. Then she would come back inside and collapse!

So my day was far from relaxing and restful. In fact I didn’t get done with cleaning up until well after 7:30 PM. I’m not too upset about it though because we now have all those wonderful pickles!

A Rainy, But Productive Day

Saturday saw us up early before the fog had lifted. I’d heard that we were going to be getting some rain, but I was able to walk the dachshunds before the sky opened, and rain began to fall.

Our total rainfall on Saturday was 2 and 3/4 inches and it is still raining as I write! Okay, Mother Nature, enough!

Greta spent the day picking various spots to lay down and spread herself out. She tended to stay by me, and since I was cooking in the kitchen most of the day, she lay down by my feet.

What was I cooking, you might ask. Heavenly Jam (again). We now have a total of 28 jars to keep our toast covered!

I think I will take the grape juice I froze last season out and make some jelly with that. Our plums will also be coming in soon and we will be making plum jam!

Later in the day Greta found Hubby’s chair and lay down on her back and got comfortable there.

You know it’s quite funny to think about my life now. When I was a teenager I never even imagined that I would be living the life that I am. I knew I wanted to get married and have children, but I never realized how tied to nature I would become. With my great love for my dogs, my pleasure in gardening, and of course canning what I grow, my life is fuller than I ever could have imagined. Yes, I am blessed, and life is good.

A Busy Wednesday!

Wednesday was a strange day. It started early with Greta getting me up for a visit to the great out doors. I had toyed with the thought of going back to bed, but then I knew I had Weight Watchers and so I decided to catch up on my email and shower before leaving at 8 o’clock for class.

Class went well, with me shedding one and a half pounds this week. I think I can safely say that I am back in the groove after losing it shortly after my father died. It’s not that I completely fell off the wagon, but I just wasn’t able to do the things I needed to do to be successful. Over the last week, I felt like I was doing what I was supposed to and it felt good and easy.

Coming home I found my little mother waddling around. I decided that today would be a good day to set up the puppy room. I placed the little baby pool in the room, placed a nice blanket in there, and two waterproofed pads. Anneliese and Arnie immediately came to see what the fuss was all about, and eventually Greta did too.

Later in the day Hubby brought in some peaches from our trees. There is enough to make a few batches of Heavenly Jam (peach jam). So late this afternoon we peeled and pitted the peaches and added all the ingredients. Now it must set overnight before we cook it all down and actually make the jam.

I had a dental visit today to repair a broken tooth and filling. All I can say is that after the Novocaine wore off it was painful. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

Just one more day until we find out how many babies Greta has in there! I sure am excited!

Okay, It Works, But…

I went in today and got my eyes examined for glasses. Wow, my left eye is worse than I thought. Once the Optician finished prescribing the lenses I went out and selected frames for them.

It works. I mean, I will be able to see and once again, everything from the standpoint of my vision, will be good. But, gosh darn it, I detest glasses. I guess these will look okay, but I really do prefer myself without them.

However, I really like being able to see, so once they arrive (in about a week), I know I will be happily wearing them. Until then I will brood and make faces and torment myself knowing I will be in these glasses for a while, perhaps forever.

But, at least I can see!

Puppies, Kickers and Eyes

Monday was the first day I really could feel the puppies inside of Greta moving. There is one pup on the left side who is just kicking the heck out of her! A few days ago I could feel butterfly wings when I touched her. Today I felt a football kicker!

It’s the most amazing thing ever. I am so excited, but with Greta there is also a little bit of nervousness. You see, her last litter she had to have a cesarean birth and although it all went well, it also scared me. I love Greta more than anything, and I worry.

We will be having x-rays done on the 21st of August to be sure that all is well with her, that there are many puppies and not just one big one, and that she can deliver them naturally. Perhaps I will relax a little bit more after that.

Greta is so big and getting bigger by the moment! I almost look forward to waking up with her in the morning just so I can check out her expanding belly!

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Meanwhile, I will be going tomorrow to be fit for glasses. Since my second cataract surgery I have not had to wear glasses. This was so wonderful for me after a lifetime of glasses and/or contact lenses. However, with the advancing problem of scar tissue on my left eye, the doctor feels that I should get glasses to assist my right eye. You see, the left one has been losing vision and the right one is doing all the work. By using glasses I will ease the burden on the right eye.

I freely admit that I am just vain enough to not want to wear glasses. But I am “pulling up my boot straps”, (now there’s an idiom for you) and going in tomorrow for the exam and the fitting. I will post once I actually have the glasses in about a week or so.

It is Hot, Humid & Hazy here today. I have had the air conditioners on all day and Greta is most comfortable inside stretched out on the floor or my chair. It will be like this most of the week.

Excitement!

Excitement!!!

Today the pedigrees for Anneliese’s litter arrived from Germany! Now I need to sign them over and send them to all my buyers and then my paper work for that litter will be done. I actually will see Bogey tomorrow and so I can bring his pedigree with me and give it to his Daddy! (I promise to take pictures!)

I saw my retinal surgeon today and things have stabilized for now and I can wait a bit longer until I need to have surgery. Good thing. Greta is due in three and a half weeks and then I’ll be busy for a couple of months!

It was quite a lovely day today and just perfect for driving across the state for my appointment. The drive across was great, but driving back, with dilated eyes proved to be a bit of a challenge. But I stopped and got a Latte and I was good to go.

Saturday is the Workshop I’ve mentioned before. I will learn more about training puppies to track and also meet new people from my area of the country who use dogs to find wounded game. This should be lots of fun and very interesting.