Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Our puddy, Matilda, crossed over the rainbow bridge this afternoon.  My heart is hurting.  She was my first furry friend when I came to Missouri.  She had been going downhill for a long while, I hadn't actually noticed it until a few days ago.  It makes me sad that I didn't notice sooner and take her in.  But maybe they couldn't have done anything anyway.  I will never know.  Anyway, she'd been eating less and less every day this past weekend.  But she kept going out to widdle or whatever, and then coming back to the house.  It looked like she was having trouble with her back hips/legs.  This past Monday (today is Thurs) she slept inside from about 4 AM, drank a bit of water, and only lapped up a smidge of tuna juice.  She laid back down for a bit but wanted outside that afternoon.  That was the last I saw of her until today.  Gary and I had looked all over; in the tractor shed where she liked to hang out, under the house,...

 What winter here is complete without a walk to the creek and a picture of Ellen down there?  None that I know of.    I love how clear the water is this time of year.  There is still a thin layer of algae on the rocks, which gives it that gold/brown color.  Following in Ellen's footsteps as we waded in the water I could track her because everywhere she had stepped the rocks were gray; her boots had cleaned the algae off of the rocks. 

 Ah ha!  About a week ago, Anne Shirley finally had her calf.  Now she is in the milking herd.  Her udder isn't much punk, as Gary would say, but maybe she will come on and do better next time. Unfortunately her calf was a bull, so he is already gone on down the road.  He was, as you can see, black and white...a full Holstein.  I was hoping he would be a half beef heifer; but no luck. 

 Today, as our after Thanksgiving activity tradition, Ellen and I went Christmas tree hunting. We were unsuccessful in finding one that we needed.  To avoid allergy issues we try to find a female cedar tree; one that has the berries on it.  The males tend to give off pollen.  You might say I am crazy to believe this; but every year...EVERY FREAKING Y EAR prior to two years ago we have had just any tree and Ellen had had extreme allergy issues in the month of December.   Two years ago we managed to choose a tree that had berries on it and; wonder of wonders, she didn't have severe winter allergies.  So we found another berry laden bush last year and the same lack of allergies happened. This year we went looking for the same and were unsuccessful.  So we decided to try our fake tree this year.  I told Ellen that if we did the fake one we could set it up earlier, in early December instead of waiting until in the 20s of December to put up a real ...

When I moved here to Missouri I was, and still remain, enchanted with the little terrapins, or box turtles that live here.  In spring and summer to mid-fall, depending on the temperature, they roam around at will.  They live their lives; generally up to 25-30 years, within a one mile radius of where they hatch.    They die for any number of reasons and their shells litter the forests floors all over.   In my first few years here I'd collect the shells and use them to decorate garden beds or whatever.  It is actually illegal to possess to many of them, or to sell them, or transport them out of the state.   At some point in the last few years I ceased collecting them, but just let them lay.  I have been tracking the above shell for the past year or so.  It is where I take Bella for longer walks.  At one point it was under a mossy log.  Then a month or so later it was under a small cedar tree.  That is where it has been for a...

 Here is a selfie from Ellen.  Isn't she cute?!  She is very talented.  I think this is from Fall 2019.

Last fall our ladies group at church started a project making hats on looms...loom knitting. For some reason this enchanted me.  I did a few hats, here is one of my first ones: Then I started getting adventurous with it and tried out a baby Yoda hat:  Then I tried an infant set: Then I tried an easy drawstring bag: Here is a fuzzy dot with a mini hat! This is one of my latest hats using two colors.  It looks complicated, but is actually pretty easy.     I am working on a headband now, but I don't really like it.  It resembles some sort of huge slug.  Haha...