Sad Days

If you have been following this blog for any length of time, you are aware of my baby girl Pekoe, my long hair chihuahua. I have had her since she was weaned, she was always a good dog, quiet, never a barkey or nippy dog, well maybe she was a nippy dog, especially to strangers (we just kept her at a safe distance, I was more worried about her hurting herself than hurting other people)... but she was still my sweet little baby,  I could go on but I won't.

About a month ago, she got pretty sick, I hoped she would spring back, but at 12+ years old, she just didn't bounce back like she used to. I took her to the vet and he said she had a heart murmur, by that time she had gotten pretty sick, the vet gave her a long acting antibiotic shot and said let's see how she does.

I took her home and watched as she got sicker and sicker each day, I took her back to the vet, he gave her another antibiotic shot and a cortisone shot. He prescribed a heart medicine for her and sent us home.

By this time, she had gotten so much sicker, she coughed constantly and had little strength, she wouldn't eat and had lost a half a pound over a long weekend, that's a lot for a little dog, I had always kept her weight around 5-6 pounds most of her life. When I took her to the vet the first time (on this illness) she was at 7.5, in the following week, she went down to 7.

She then started bloating, mainly her stomach, it really affected the way she walked and stood, so I called the vet again and he prescribed a diuretic. So now, on a heart pill and a diuretic, she still wasn't getting any better, in fact she was going downhill pretty fast. I had been debating if it was time to put her to sleep.

On Wednesday of last week, I was supposed to be going to town (3 hours away) with the lady I work for, but the day before, Pekoe's back legs swelled up 2x the normal size. That wasn't a good sign at all. She couldn't walk more than a few steps before falling down in exhaustion, I called my friend to tell her I wouldn't be going to town with her. I knew that I would be taking her to the vet for the final time. I spent the night in tears, praying to God, asking that He take her instead of letting her suffer. The following day, I spend the entire morning with Pekoe in my bed for the last time, we cuddled and napped together.

I'll not write out the rest of what happened in any detail, it's too sad, let's just say that I took her to the vet, what clenched it for me is when I let her on the ground outside the vet's office to let her take her last squat, she couldn't get back up. She passed peacefully, looking into my eyes while I talked to her, the vet and his staff were gentle and compassionate.

I am so glad I didn't have to drive either way, a good friend took me in and talked to me all the way home, it worked out the best way it could.

When I got home with Pekoe, PB had made her a proper casket, with little handles. We picked out a spot to bury her and PB dug the hole, he made it pretty deep, he was standing up to his waist in the hole. We put Pekoe in the casket, along with some food and water so she will never be hungry or thirsty, I also put in some Cheerios cereal, that was her favorite morning snack. I included a toy that PB's mom sent last Christmas. She is buried near the garden, under a stand of trees. PB is making a headstone for her.

This is very sad for me, for anyone who doesn't understand why or how someone can be so hurt by losing a pet, my reply is I feel sorry for you as it's clear that you never had a deep relationship with a pet, they have unconditional love, they are so trusting, to me she was part of my family and the pain I feel is a direct reflection of the love I felt for her, and she for me.

If you want to see the pictures of the casket, click on the "read more" below, if you do not wish to see the casket (with Pekoe in it, then don't click on it).

Family Visit, Dogs and Yarn Stashes

It's been quite the month, my Dad has been here since the middle of last month, he left just this morning, driving the 500 mile trip back to the DFW area ( I spoke to him a little while ago and he made it home just fine). I am so proud of him, he's 82 years, he just had knee replacement surgery and he is doing so well! During his rehab, his therapist was amazed at how quickly he was healing and bouncing back, he had lots of motivation though, he wanted to be able to walk up our mountain to get to the sky castle, and he did it with flying colors! We placed a few chairs on the trail going up to the house, at first he did have to sit in each one to rest, but as I expected, by the end of his visit, he used the chairs less and less.

Our little dog Pekoe, a 11 year old long hair chihuahua, usually doesn't like other animals, but she tolerates my Dad's dog who is half chihuahua and half pomeranian, her name is Baby Girl. It's funny, because I call my dog baby girl too, when I tried walking them both down the hill, my dog would go rather slow, my Dad's dog would race around, she's quite a bit younger and way more rambunctious... so I would call out "Baby Girl wait!" and like a good dog, she would stop, but so would my dog, so I would say "Pekoe, let's go", slowly she would start walking and Dad's dog would start running, I would say "Baby Girl, wait!" and they both would stop... it was like herding cats, eventually I would get them both down the hill, more or less at the same time...

I've noticed the weather changing, getting cooler at night, I have been itching to get into my yarn stash and start working again. Last year I learned how to loom knit, this season I decided that I wanted to do more crochet, learn more stitches so I have been pouring over YouTube and have found a wealth of how-to videos on crochet stitches. I wanted to learn some new stitches and make hand or wrist warmers, also known as fingerless gloves, though they are more like fingerless mitts.

I stitch I wanted to learn is called the larksfoot stitch, it looked easy and pretty enough, my mistake was not watching the video AS I crocheted, I watched it a couple of times then tried working it by memory. Oh, did I mention I hate trying to follow a written pattern? I learn much better from visual sources, watching it on video, then if I have a written pattern, I "get it". Well, my pattern doesn't exactly match the original pattern, but I'm happy enough with it, now I have a pair of wrist warmers to help keep my hands warm this winter when I'm sitting at the computer in the middle of the night in the frigid cold.

I also added a little ruffled edge on the bottom of the wrist warmers, it adds a bit of fun and interest and it lets me know which side goes where. The whole thing is very easy to make, I just crocheted a chain stitch using 4 chains per section until I had it long enough to comfortably go around my hand and wrist. I used 2 different yarn colors to make the pattern, I crocheted the (modified) larksfoot stitch until I had a rectangle long enough to go from my knuckles to just below my wrist, I could have made it longer if I had wished. Then I sewed up the sides leaving a space for my thumb. After I had it stitched together, I added the ruffled edge on the wrist side of the wrist warmers.

I might make some more wrist warmers, this time following the pattern a little more closely. I'll post more pictures of whatever I make.




All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Pictures

You can see all of my pix here:
http://offgridonthecheap.shutterfly.com/

This is an agave that began to bloom, it sent up a huge stalk, some of the pictures look like a giant asparagus! It grew about 6-8 inches per day, we took pictures most days. We estimate it is over 20 feet tall. Unfortunately, when these bloom, they die right after, the plant is slowly dying now, but there are lots of pups (babies) around it.

Click here to view the rest of the agave pix

Here are some current pictures of the Sky Castle. Enjoy!
Click here to view the rest of the Sky Castle pix

These are various scenery pictures of the high desert mountains, PB took some and I took some.
Click here to view the rest of the high desert mountain pix

This is the prototype roller wringer that PB is making for me.
Click here to view the rest of the roller wringer pix

This is Pekoe and PB, enjoying the view.
Click here to view the rest of the Pekoe and PB pix

This is what you don't want to find under the box you just picked up. It's a black tailed rattle snake, also known as a velvet tail rattle snake. This one was about 2 feet long. PB had been moving boxes out of the shed, the snake was under one box, the only reason PB didn't get bit was because the snake was still cold, it didn't even rattle. Unfortunately PB had to dispatch it, we had no good (safe) way of moving it, there was too much of a chance of it slithering away under other boxes in the shed. CraftyCountryMomma, you might want to skip this set of pix. :)
Click here to view the rest of the snake pix


You can see more pix here
http://offgridonthecheap.shutterfly.com/


All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message. Wretha, properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader), Thanks for visiting!

West Texas Winter Wonderland

Words cannot describe how beautiful this place is when it's dusted with ice. It truly is a west Texas winter wonderland.

A couple of days ago, the temps dropped down into the low 20s F, the highs during the day were in the mid 30s F, it was cooooold. It got cold enough inside the skycastle that our water pump froze and cracked the upper housing. Fortunately it's relatively cheap to replace that part, only $30 vs the cost of the whole pump at $130. We are still using the pump as it is, it's not leaking right now, but it could start any time. The part should come in next Tuesday, catastrophe averted.

Here are some pictures I took today. The snow had mostly melted away yesterday when the sun came out for a few hours. This morning everything was shrouded in mist, it stayed that way all day. Everything has this interesting layer of ice crystals, not icicles hanging down, these ice crystals grew sideways and up, in the most delicate formations I have ever seen. Many of these pictures show the mist, fog that is all around, ordinarily you would see mountains in the background, but today, we are surrounded by an almost ethereal mist. Enjoy

Click here to view these pictures larger

All written text and audio podcast from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment., but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission.

Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha (included for the text reader),

Thanks for visiting!

Updates

It's been very nice since my Dad has been here, we have been falling into a comfortable routine of eating, resting, enjoying nature and the views. My Dad brought his little dog, her name is Baby Girl, she is half pomeranian and half chihuahua, unfortunately she started going into heat the day she got here, so things have been a bit of a mess... fortunately she is good at staying put on a towel, so it's not too bad. We do have to watch her like a hawk when she goes out, there are other dogs that run wild around here, I'm sure they know about her by now.

We had a good cookout, Dad brought steaks, big baking potatoes and a smoker with him, I sliced up some summer squash and roasted them after the steaks & potatoes were done. Wow, it was soooo good! We can't get good steaks from any of the local stores out here, so this was a real treat. :)

Pekoe is doing so much better, her breath smells sweet, her remaining teeth look good, white and healthy, she is still coughing and sneezing quite a bit, but that is getting better too.

I wanted to let you know about a free long distance service I found on line, I have used it both for local and long distance calls, it works great, it even works with my internet phone, the way it works is you sign up (it's 100% free), you need to give them your phone number, you go to their site, you enter the phone number you wish to call on their website, your phone will ring a few second later and you will be connected to your call, it has worked great for me. I don't get anything for promoting this, I am doing this because this works, it's free and you can call long distance free.
http://labs.jaduka.com/dukadial
They have other free products & services on their site too, check them out.

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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Update on Pekoe

My Dad and I took Pekoe to the vet this morning, I had to have her there between 8 and 8:30 am. Once we got there, and got her checked in, I carried Pekoe back to a little room full of cages, I placed her in one, kissed her on top of the head, and left, it was hard to do, but I knew it would be for the best. They told me to come back around 4:30 to pick her up.

We drove back home and waited. Around 3:45 we left to go back and pick her up. One of the assistants carried her back to me, Pekoe looked so pitiful, she was droopy eyed, well just droopy all over. But she was glad to be back with me. We paid the bill, that one came to about $107, so all total the bill was around $200, again I want to thank everyone who donated, it came in very handy and is very much appreciated.

On the way back to the truck, I set Pekoe on the ground to see if she would want to potty, she couldn't even stand up yet, so I set her on a towel in my lap and came on home. It's been a few hours and she is still droopy looking, but she wagged her tail at me so that is a good sign that she is OK. I know the next few days will be difficult for her, they pulled 6 teeth, an assortment of molars and other teeth, I'll wait for a few days (or longer) to look in her mouth to see exactly which ones are gone. The lady at the front desk said Pekoe could eat as early as tonight if she wanted to, I expect it will be tomorrow before she will want to eat. Right now Pekoe is curled up on our bed resting.

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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Miscellanous Stuff

My garden looks like it's been frosted, I just finished "fogging" the garden with diatomaceous earth, I try to do it about once a week. I haven't had much chance to do it lately because of all the rain, it does no good to try to dust when it's raining or about to rain, it would just be washed off. I have noticed a lot of grasshoppers, though they aren't doing very much damage, I can see where they are eating the leaves more an more. Today was a fairly sunny day so I decided it was time to do something about the grasshoppers.

Bob has been gone most of the day, out with one of our friends, helping him. I became adventurous and decided to climb up on the roof to change the angle of the solar panels. They are adjustable to face the sun, I thought it would be in the morning position, I was close, once I climbed up there, I could see that it was in a horizontal position, flat. The sun had passed high noon and was heading toward the west, so I undid the bungie cord and tilted the panels toward the west and redid the bungie cord. I looked around, enjoying the view from the roof, I couldn't tell you exactly how high it is, but suffice it to say it's around 3 stories tall. That's all for my adventures today. I spoke to my Dad and he is planning on coming out on Thursday or Friday, it's been very rainy in the Fort Worth area, so he hasn't been able to pack the truck, once he is able to do that, he will leave out the following day, I'm hoping he will get a break in the rain in th coming days.

I spoke to my DIL today, she and the baby are doing great, one glitch though, the baby is in a breech position, butt down, so we hope the baby will turn in the next couple of weeks. Her doctor says the baby might come early, not a big surprise, I'll just have to be ready when the time comes.

Pekoe is doing much better, she has had 4 doses of the antibiotics, Monday night she got a dose, Tuesday she got her morning and night doses, and this morning, she got one dose, today she jumped up on me and got in my face, before now, her breath was horrible, you could smell the infection and it was very stinky, it was miserable if she got under the blanket with one of us and started coughing, you would have to come up for air! This time all I smelled was regular doggie breath, it's funny to think that doggie breath would be an improvement, but believe me, it is! I had to take a second sniff to make sure, yep, her mouth is doing much, M U C H better.

That's about all for now, I'm just waiting for Bob to come home, I'll cook dinner, we will listen to the radio or the internet radio and then we will go to bed. Tomorrow, we have to get the bedroom finished for my Dad, it's nearly there, we just need to get a few more miscellaneous things out of there, clear off both decks so he can safely walk around out there.

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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Pekoe and Pasta

Hello everyone, Pekoe is doing just fine, she is getting 2 daily doses of a liquid antibiotic, she doesn't fight me about taking it though I suspect it's not her favorite thing in the world...

Now on to more fun stuff, I am always looking for easy ways to make foods from scratch, one of my favorite foods is noodles, yes, they are cheap and easy enough to buy from the store, but what if you want to make something that calls for noodles, and you are out of noodles? What if going to the store is out of the question? Well, I ran across an easy recipe for egg noodles, they are made with just a few ingredients that most of us will have around the house, who doesn't have regular flour, eggs, salt and water??? The best part is you do not need any fancy equipment. I do own (and use) a pasta machine, one of those little gadgets that you clamp to the table and crank, crank, crank your pasta dough through, I love mine! I use it for other things besides pasta, I have been known to make tortillas with it too...

This is the one I have and use.




The pasta machine is NOT necessary to make this recipe. Here is where I got the recipe from and a copy of the recipe:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/470394/how_to_make_homemade_egg_noodles.html?cat=22

If you like this recipe, take the time to click on the link above and visit starrgirl's page, she gets credit/money for each page view she gets, it's not much but every little bit adds up, show your appreciation for the time she took to put this together for everyone.

It has been brought to my attention that the article that I copied and pasted here, might not actually be copyrighted by the author who wrote it, when she published it to Associated Content, it became their content, and even through I gave a complete link to the site and a prompt to visit it, in order to be ethical, I will have to remove the majority of this message, I will leave the recipe (re-written to avoid any copyright issues), please visit the link to see the entire message, it's worth reading.

Homemade Egg Noodles

4 eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 cup of water

You will need a cutting board, a deep mixing bowl, a fork, a large serrated knife and a rolling pin. Get some newspapers or brown paper bags for drying the noodles.

These measurements are approximate, with any dough, you will need to go by the feel of the dough.

Break the eggs into a bowl, whip them with your fork, add the water and salt, mix well. Add 1 cup flour and stir until blended. Stir in the rest of the flour a little at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. You may not use all of the flour.

Work the dough with your hands, in the bowl or on a floured surface, add flour as needed. The dough should be firm and elastic, not wet. When the dough is no longer sticking to your hands, it's ready.

(My edit, I would let the dough sit for a while, in the bowl, covered with a damp towel, at least 30 minutes, it will be much easier to roll out)

Pinch off an egg sized piece of dough, dip it in flour, roll out the dough on a well floured surface, pick it up, flip it over and re-dust with flour when it begins to stick. Roll it out as thin as you can get it, then place it on some newspaper or brown paper bag, the paper absorbes moisture. Continue rolling out the rest of the dough placing each circle of rolled dough on a fresh piece of paper.

Wait a half an hour, the flattened dough should be drying on top, flip them over on the paper to dry on the other side. Wait another 30 minutes to an hour.

When the dough is dry but still soft enough to roll up, take 2 dough rounds, dust flour between the layers, roll up like a jelly roll, slice the rolls into thin strips using your serrated knife. Place the cut rings back on the paper, fluff out with your fingers to separate the noodles into a single layer, continue cutting and fluffing the remaining dough rounds.

Leave them to dry for several hours or overnight. Then gather into a bowl to get ready to cook them. You can freeze them at this stage, place in a freezer safe package, use within a few months.

Cook homemade egg noodles for 20-30 minutes in beef or chicken broth, add shreds of meat to the pot, serve over mashed potatoes.

Serves 8 (+/-)

I haven't tried this YET, I will be, a couple of things I might consider while cooking these noodles, I know that fresh pasta (not dried) usually cooks in minutes, dried pasta usually cooks up in 6-10 minutes (+/-) depending on the thickness of the pasta, I don't know if I would leave mine to cook (fresh or dried) for 20-30 minutes, but as I said, I haven't tried this yet, it may be hearty enough to stand for that much cooking time, if anyone tries it before I get a chance to, let me know how it turns out. :)

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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Pekoe's Trip To The Vet

Got up early today to take Pekoe to the vet, my friend played taxi service and drove us out there, good thing, I'm still not that familiar with the area and it's a heck of a drive! We got there late, nearly everything that could happen, did happen... I got over to my friend's house in plenty of time, she thought the appointment was at 10, (it was really at 10:30), she wasn't completely ready to go yet, but quickly got that way, when we got into her truck, the gas gauge was on empty, we wouldn't have made it out to the mailboxes, fortunately I have a key to the country store (we sell fuel there), even though it's closed on Mondays, we got there, I opened the store, turned on the pumps, pumped the gas into her truck, on the way back in, another truck pulled up, I could hear my friend telling them the store was closed, it was the electric service coming to turn off the power to the store! Somewhere there had been a mistake and they believed the bill hadn't been paid, I know it had, I called the store owner to let her know what was happening, she wanted to talk to him, I took the cordless phone out to him, I had to leave so I locked the door and asked him to set the phone on the porch when he was through.

We finally got going, we made it to the vet, late, but we made it. I took Pekoe inside, we did some paperwork and got right in. Talk about a countryfied doctor! His granddaughter was there, she was cute as a button! I'd say she was around 5 or 6, and sporting a bright pink cast on her arm, apparently fell off the swings at school... anyhoo, we weighed Pekoe, she weighs in at 6.8 pounds, I have always tried to keep her at or under 5 pounds, but with her age and everything, I think she is doing pretty good, she is NOT a fat dog.

Next we took her into the examination room, once on the table, Pekoe started getting nervous, the vet came in and with the help of his assistant, and me holding Pekoe by the scruff of her neck, she got all of her shots and something that was squirted into her nose (rabies, parvo, and kennel cough), the vet wanted to see her teeth, but Pekoe wouldn't cooperate, I managed to pull one side of her lip up, but once the vet began to give her the shots, he got a good look at her teeth! She bared all of them. Next came the bloodwork, they needed to draw blood, being a long haired chihuahua, the vet had to shave a spot on her neck, the assistant held Pekoe's head and neck from behind, by this time, Pekoe was about to go nuts, she peed on the table (I'm glad she went before we got there otherwise it would have been a real mess), I tried to calm her as best I could, but nothing was going to make her feel any better until we were out of there. The vet shaved a spot on her neck, then managed to draw some blood. The vet's granddaughter sat in a chair just outside the door watching the whole thing, it was very cute, she is a very inquisitive and smart little girl, I have to wonder if she will want to grow up to be a vet too.

That all done, I leashed Pekoe up and went to the front desk to pay up, set the next appointment and get her antibiotics. By then, Pekoe was prancing around like nothing in the world was wrong. That trip ended up costing just under $100, we have to go back next Monday between 8 an 8:30am for the teeth cleaning part, I know once we get there and Pekoe sees the building, she isn't going to be very happy, but at least I'll get to take her home the same day, no overnight stay.

Right now Pekoe is sleeping on the end of the bed, she seems to be happy, the vet said she had a good strong heartbeat for a 9 year old dog. I felt like she was a healthy dog, with the exception of her teeth, and once we get that taken care of, she will have lots of years left in her. :)

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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Good News! Pekoe Pix

Good news! I went to another vet in another town, it's farther away, but the quote I got from them will be quite a bit easier on the old pocketbook! It should be $200 or less, and she wouldn't have to spend the night at the vet, I will have to take her in 2x, , the first time will be to get her vaccinations (dernit!) and start a round of antibiotics, the next appt will be for the teeth cleaning, extractions and such. I'm going to call them tomorrow and set her first appt for next Monday, a friend that lives out here is taking me, she takes her dogs there and is very happy with this vet.

WOOT!!!

Here are some pix of Pekoe, much the same way we consider our children, I think she is the cutest dog in the whole world, but that is how it's supposed to be :) I took these pix today, she is a very happy and fairly healthy dog, she just needs her teeth taken care of and she will have lots of years left in her.

Wretha

Thanks for visiting, I love comments (but not spam), you may leave anonymous comments (you do not need to sign up or sign in). I do moderate/approve each comment, if your comment doesn't show up within a day or so, try to leave it again, if you still have trouble, email me.
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