Nesting

"BITE THE BULLET"...

Accept the inevitable impending hardship and endure the resulting pain with fortitude.

TENNESSEE LIFE
PETS
RV
BOOK REVIEW

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TENNESSEE LIFE:

My Father sent me an email...

"Your Mom & I miss your "Blog" since October 29; what's up?  Love you, Dad" 
I was going to title this blog "Bite the Bullet". The blog is on my mind often, but I just find myself and my life not very interesting anymore. I have to keep reminding myself, that this blog is for me as much as it is for friends and family.
And really, the blog is not a hardship, but it is not as enjoyable as it once was.
It seems every time I post now, I'm trying to explain myself. I'm sorry.

While I was outside on "poop patrol" (cleaning the yard of poop), and Scott was laying stonework, we heard an unusual sound. I went to investigate. As I got closer, I recognized the sound. It was something burning! Oh crap! Then I heard voices. I walked a little closer to the sound and a Pit Bull came after me, I mean greeted me. Yep, even a dog lover like me is cautious around certain dogs. Ends up the Pitty was a sweety. So I've now met another neighbor. He was burning the edge of the corn field to get rid of the overgrowth. Yep, part of living in the country. Nice guy. His Father built our house.

I'm in nesting mode. Last year I was somewhat depressed, because the weather was so frigid and I don't enjoy cold weather RV'ing. I DO look forward to RV'ing again. I just don't know how we'll do it with so many dogs!!!!

I've found myself purchasing for two households. It really bothers me to buy duplicates of items. I still have a clear memory of purging 22 years of stuff out of our house in NJ to prepare for full time RV'ing. I purchased two alarm clocks. We've been using the one from the RV in our bedroom. Well, when we do take the RV out, I don't want to have a long list of items to remember. I want the RV to be occupant ready so we can hitch up and go. So 1 alarm clock is for the master bedroom and the original itty bitty alarm clock can be returned to the RV. The 2nd alarm clock is for the guest bedroom since I've been spending so much time there and have actually had to use the alarm clock. Huh??? There is a comfy king sized bed in the master bedroom and why would I need an alarm clock when I'm retired?
Puppies, that's why!
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PETS:
Anyone following my blog knows I volunteer for A&B English Setter Rescue. A good chunk of my day is dedicated to keeping info organized for the rescue. Well, now that we have a house, I've adopted two English Setters, posted earlier. But, I've somehow had the opportunity to foster one puppy after another.
1st puppy at 8 weeks arrived and stayed about 2 weeks before she was adopted to a family in PA.

She was only an itty bitty thing at 9 pounds, while our Gordon Setter puppy who is only one month older, was 33 pounds.
Because I'm the one fostering and Scott doesn't want to lose sleep with another puppy, I was sent to the guest room for the duration of fostering this pup. Our Irish/English Setter mix, Devin was the only one to join me during my banishment to the guest room. We went through a lot of paper towels and enzyme spray. Neither puppy was fully housebroken yet.

Puppy's new Mom & Dad

The above photos is the good and bad part of fostering. The good in that I was able to save this dog from living in a shelter, or being adopted by someone who doesn't know the breed. The bad, it is so difficult to give them up. She got along beautifully with our dogs, she was a great cuddler too.

No sooner does the 1st foster pup get adopted, I was made aware of a Setter puppy on a site similar to Craig's list. Puppies are highly adoptable, so they are good for our Rescue.  The dog was 3 hours from me, so off I went.
2nd Puppy was one day older than our own puppy. But he had been an outside dog, so no potty training, but luckily our Ryan, has finally become 100% potty trained and uses the doggie door.

1/2 Gordon Setter & 1/2 English Setter

Our pup on left, foster pup on right, recent adopted dog in center.

So I had a few night's sleep in our wonderful Master bedroom and then wham! Back to the guest room on the air mattress.We were very close to keeping this 2nd pup. But we really don't want 6 dogs. We really don't even want 5 dogs, well, we really don't want 4 dogs. I think 3 dogs is the perfect # for us.

Can you picture dinner time with 6 dogs? Even the normal 5 is quite a production.

We go through 30 pounds of food in 2 weeks.

All the dishes are put on the counter. The dogs begin to get excited. Luckily, we have taken the time to train them to hold their excitement. Our puppy Ryan, used to jump up against me to try to get the food. We put an end to that. Now he quietly lays by my feet while I fill the dishes with their food.
I then stack the dishes according to the order they will be served. I need to get the dishes from the kitchen into the mud room where they eat. I don't care if the floor in the mud room gets messy.

Can you find the SIX dogs eating their dinner?

And finally, I put the food bowls down in order. I'm sorry to say the most behaved dogs are fed last. That is because, they are so behaved, they will wait for their bowl to be placed down and not go to the other's bowls beforehand.
Training is the key to a enjoying a dog.
And why did I need an alarm clock? Because I had to get up very early for each of these puppies to go the their new homes. The first pup was adopted by a family in PA. They drove 7 hours and met me in KY, which was a 2.5 hour drive for me. The 2nd pup was going to another foster home (didn't I say I didn't want 6 dogs???) in upstate NY. We have a wonderful volunteer who coordinates a volunteer transport system where many, many volunteers tag team. I drove 2 hours to Nashville, and dropped the pup off to a driver who was then going to drive an hour or two and pass the pup on to the next driver and so on. It takes many volunteers to make dog rescue work.
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RV:
Last year at this time we were in Deming, NM. We were trying to avoid the cold. Yea, right. Here's a link to photos of what we experienced. I believe this may have been the start of the end of RV'ing. We thought we had planned things out nicely. We were to stay in NM only about 30 miles from Mexico, for 2 months through the Holidays. Good company, decent weather....well at least the company was good.

I wonder if this would have been useful during our winter RV'ing. Yes, there ARE wood stoves made for RV's and boats. Oh, how cozy warm I would have been last Winter...
Here are links to a couple of resources.
Kimberly Wood Stove
Marine Stove
And here is a you tube link of a DIY installation.

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BOOK REVIEW: 
24 Hours by Greg Iles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book catches your attention from the start and just keeps going.
A kidnapping that last "only" 24 hours, but so much happens in those 24 hours. A climax, then fails and leads to another climax. Suspense, likeable and annoying characters, all which meld together to make a great read.

Big Trouble by Dave Barry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Starts out very confusing. Multiple story lines going on at once. I had a difficult time keeping track of which character was with which storyline. By the middle of the book, I started getting the hang of it and by the end, the book was great. Very much like Carl Hiaasen, with the odd characters, and stupid actions.
I believe this is Dave Barry's first adventure into novel writing. I will look into other books of his hoping that they get better. He's definitely got the knack, just needs some tweaking.
Born to Be Wild by Patti Berg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes, I am red faced and have a silly smirk on my face as I give this free Kindle book FIVE stars. Very sweet Romance about a couple from two different walks of life. Can they make it work? Is she too snooty? Will he be accepted?
Easy reading..."take me away, Calgon" book.
The 5 stars given because it was such an easy read. I enjoyed a few hours cuddled under an afghan with some coffee and this book.