Category: Life

Fruits & Vegetables

We went for a ride today in search of another fruit tree for Hubby’s small orchard. Well, it once was a small orchard, but since he has expanded, it is now a medium sized, back yard orchard. Although not all of the trees are productive yet, many are, and in a few years we will be functioning as a small fruit enterprise. I can see Hubby packing up his fruit for the town’s farmer’s market and all of this done with the biggest of smiles on his face. He really loves the care of the trees and the harvest of the fruit.

flowers

Our Orchard now has:

3 MacIntosh
2 Cortlands
3 Empire
3 Macouns
2 Golden Delicious
1 Gala
1 Spy Gold
2 Winesap
1 Cox’s Orange Pippin
1 Red Stayman
1 Enterprise (A surprisingly good Apple that has a long shelf life)

1 Stanley Plum (I love to make jam with these!)
1 Castleton Plum
1 Mount Royal Plum

1 Moonglow Pear
1 Clapps Favorite Pear
2 Red Bartlett Pear

1 Lapins Cherry
1 Stella Cherry
2 Bing Cherry
1 Black Tartarian Cherry

2 Reliance Peach (My favorite)
2 Finger Lakes Super Hardy Peach
1 Elberta Peach
1 Richhaven Peach

Wild Concord Grapes (The best for Grape Jelly!)
Seedless Concord Grapes
New Hampshire Reliance (A hardy canadice type) Grapes

In any case, we didn’t find another fruit tree. My man knows what he wants to see in his fruit trees and apparently he didn’t see anything that made him happy, but we did see two flats of tomato plants for the garden, so we got those and brought them happily home.

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The tomato plants

These tomatoes will join my cucumber, eggplant, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash and corn plants in my garden. Currently they are all sprouting in the green house until we are sure that we’ve had our last frost. Usually that is Memorial Day Weekend, then we will be replanting everything outside except the tomatoes, which I will continue to raise in the green house.

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My seedlings

We were out longer than we anticipated and so we stopped at a small restaurant and we got two orders of fried “whole bellied clams”, coleslaw and fries. The lunch was so good and we enjoyed the brief stop. Then we headed back to the house where our puppies, all four of them awaited us.

We walked them in the yard, I watered my vegetable plants and Hubby watered his fruit trees and then he headed off to the store to get the weeks groceries. Although I am doing really well, I was feeling a bit tired, so he volunteered to do this without me. I have no worries at all, as he is one of the few men in this world who can do this job as well as I can.

Yes, I’m a lucky girl!

A Day

There are some days that are more beautiful than others, but today was a particularly lovely one. The skies were pure baby blue without one cloud, and the sun shone warmly on me when I went out to walk the pups or water my plants.

Most of the day found me being quiet with the doggies all around me. Only occasionally did Anneliese bark loudly and then, I believe it was only to wish her own Mama, Greta a Happy Mother’s Day.

Hubby took me to lunch, mowed the lawn and worked at his computer, the last done while listening to a ball game and the final rounds of a golf match.

I switched off the TV in the late afternoon and just enjoyed the quiet around me. So many days life is full of noise. Perhaps it is the TV or radio, at other times a brain that simply will not shut off. Tonight, right now, blessedly I am finding the silence, I so long for, soothing.

The wind has picked up. A sign that a cold front moved through yesterday, and I can just hear the light whine as the wind whips down the lake. The sun is setting and the icy blue sky foretells a cold night ahead.

The doggies are fed and are stretched out on the carpet chewing their bones. Soon they will slip off into a golden slumber where they can dream of chasing rabbits and toy balls.

I will get my warm pajamas on and curl up once again with my puppies to perhaps watch a little TV, a cup of tea in my hand. Before you know it, tomorrow will be here…

…and there is no telling what tomorrow will bring.

21 Weeks

Our puppies are growing so quickly. Twenty-one weeks old today! Arnie at 14 3/4 pounds, is growing faster than 11 3/4 pound Anneliese, but she is more mature than her bigger brother. Greta is a bit jealous of all the attention that the puppies are getting and so I have spent a lot of extra time with her showing her love and affection.

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Greta’s photo courtesy of my cousin, Janet

I am noticing that their little noses are getting longer and they look more and more like grown up dachshunds. Anneliese really takes after Greta, and I think Arnie resembles his Dad. One thing is for sure, they are best friends.

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Fritz works very hard staying on everyone’s good side. He is a good boy. Tonight when I was taking a hot bath he came in and lay down on the bath rug next to the tub and kept me company.

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In so many ways, he is so wonderful that it makes me wonder why, he is such a monster when we try to take him in the car. This is the first dog that we have had with “car anxiety”.

I finished all the cleaning, laundry and packed my suitcase for the surgery. I spent most of the day doing this, but as I went about the house I couldn’t have thought of a better place to come back to after my right eye is fixed.

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Just think. Hubby, Fritz, Greta, Arnie and Anneliese will be waiting for me and I will be able to enjoy the beauty of spring in Central New Hampshire.

The Rain Came Tumbling Down And Other Things

Our big snow storm of Sunday night, turned into rain while I slept. 3 or 4 or 5 inches of rain! It has washed away all of the snow and created giant puddles in our yard. Puddles so deep that Anneliese and Arnie hate to go outside as the rain water touches their bellies!

I was listening to the news and heard that a mud slide had happened in the southern part of the state, very near my daughter’s condo. My daughter’s home is on a HILL! I called her to make sure she was fine and also her home. She is, and so is her home, although there will be a detour for her to use to get home for a while.

Meanwhile, it rained here all day. The wind blew, the rains poured down and each time I took Anneliese and Arnie out I got soaked. I actually changed my clothes three times before finally giving up on staying dry.

My flu returned and I started to run a fever just as Hubby’s fever broke. I have warned him to stay away from me so we do not keep passing this thing back and forth. We did have a little appetite tonight and had french toast for dinner. (**A short note here, we never eat breakfast for dinner. It’s against Hubby’s religion or something, so this was a first. Me? I could eat breakfast at every meal. I LOVE breakfast!**)

Our little Anneliese is feeling the pains of being the smallest member of our family. I’m not letting her dwell on it and I am encouraging her to see herself as a big dog!

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Of course she will, always be, my little baby girl!

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This And That Sunday

I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. I got the leashes and walked the pups, who were having so much fun in the snow that they didn’t want to think about why we were there. I finally got them to “concentrate”, and then we came in to play.

I now have my morning routine down. I set up the coffee maker the night before, so when I am on the way out the door with the puppies, I flip on the coffee maker. When I come back in the coffee is made. Ahhhhhh!

So back to today. I sat down, turned on my computer and let it boot up. Once I downloaded my email I realized that I hadn’t written anything for today’s entry! Oh no! How could that be? Call it exhaustion from my never ending cold. It is my only excuse. That, and now that I am the mother of two 15 week old puppies, I am busy from morning until night!

For those of you who have asked how “Uncle” Fritz is doing with the two babies, I thought I would end today’s post with three pictures of him playing with Arnie.

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Life At The Dackel Princess House

Amazing things are happing at the Dackel Princess house. Old Uncle Fritz is warming up to Anneliese and Arnie and he is actually starting to gently “play” with them. In a rare moment I was able to reach the movie camera and capture this event this morning. Usually as soon as I pick up the video camera, Fritz jumps down, but today, he stayed and played!

I have been trying to increase my drinking of water. I believe in the past I have spoken of my general dislike for water. Yes, it is good to bathe in, and yes it is good to cook in and wash in, but to drink? Not so much. However, I discovered “flavored” water. I love the lemon and cherry and the tropical flavors! I have been known to down 4 or 5 bottles in a day.
Recently I discovered that I am not the only designer water lover.

Saturday Stuff

Hubby is down and out with a bad cough. It started in the night and was so bad and hard it woke me out of a sound sleep. I got up and gave Hubby some cough syrup and told Hubby the guest room bed was made up. (hint, hint!) So off he went to the guest room where is is currently residing. I simply must have my sleep, seeing as I am a new puppy mother and all.

The day began a few hours later, when the sun rose and I surveyed the 10 inches of snow that had fallen overnight. While still in my pajamas, I slipped on my boots, hat, coat and gloves and got the two puppies and off we went for our first morning walk. The snow was up over their little bodies and they were not quite sure they liked this at all, but off we went in the yard. The next thing I knew the dog from next door came running over and went for Arnie. I smacked at the dog, and grabbed both Arnie and Anneliese and picked them up. Since the other dog was not on a leash (Arnie and Anneliese were) I had no choice but to turn around and take them in.

The rest of the day I was able to get them out on their little leashes and they did pretty well. Hubby got out and used the snow blower to clear a path for the puppies and the drive, but once he came in I put him right back to bed.

We enjoyed a traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal, and now I simply want to relax and watch a bunch of mindless television, which is not hard to do on a Saturday night.

Don’t forget to stop over at Mrs Lifecruiser’s site for updates on the First Cybercruise!