Oscar's Knitted Bed

If you can't tell by the picture, Oscar is happy with his bed that I recently knit him. That's his happy face. Actually that's his "Why are you making me look at the camera? Don't you know I'm an emotional Chihuahua" face. He loves his bed. Unfortunately for him, so do the cats. They fill the bed a bit more then he does. I need to make more beds so that every pet has their own but I have trouble with knitting the same pattern more then one time. It's boring. I have to let a month or two go by before I'm ready to reknit most patterns and even then I like to change up the yarn or pattern slightly.

I used leftover Lion Brand "Homespun" yarn. For the record, I hate this yarn. It's hard to knit with because it catches on everything, it unravels as soon as you snip an end, and it shows wear pretty fast. I used it because I didn't want to use anything nicer for a dog bed. The pets seem fine with this yarn though.

I used the Snug Harbor Knit Snuggle pattern. I used size 13 needles. I didn't follow the patterns advice on when to use the contrasting colors. I decided to just knit with the blue until I ran out and then switch to purple.

So, Gracie and Lucky, you need to share this bed with Oscar until I can face knitting another one of these beds. You guys will just have to suffer with sleeping on the couch pillows, the afghans, and the laundry until then.

How To Make Your Cat Angry

Give her a bath.... her first in almost 12 years .

Sorry, Gracie. It was for your own good.

I promise I'm not strangling her. I was massaging shampoo into her face fur while trying to keep her from bolting out of the sink and over the halfwall.

Gracie has let me know that she plans to wait another 12 years before getting her next bath.

A Taste Of Spring

This year has been colder the average. We've only hit average temperatures a few times this winter. This past weekend was a real treat. Saturday's high was close to 60* and Sunday's high was 68*! I opened all the windows and we all enjoyed a weekend outside in the sunshine.

Well, Lucky and Oscar decided to sunbathe from inside the house. Is it weird that my cat outweighs my dog by about 3 times?

Yesterday we all ate lunch outside.

Evan took a quick rest with Oscar.

Later that afternoon, I took advantage of the thawed soil by digging the last of our potatoes. I had given up on my garden this year but I wondered if the potatoes were still okay.

Digging up the potato patch had me excited for spring gardening. Jon helped dig after a while.

The kids shouted each time they saw a potato. Do we know how to have fun or what?

We got quite a few potatoes from our neglected row. Most were pretty tiny. I'll have to look up ways to fertilize potatoes this year. Some potatoes were munched on by...whatever lives under my garden beds. There were a few rotten potatoes too. Considering that I abandoned them, I was happy with what we ended up with.

I roasted half last night for dinner. I slightly undercooked them and I had too much oil in the pan so they weren't great. I'm going to try for better results with the other half soon.

Today we're back to a high of 40*. I'm glad for the fresh air and sunshine we enjoyed over the weekend. That might have to hold us for the next couple months.

Our Visit to Katie's House

The kids and I traveled to Maryland during the first week of August to stay with my sister and her family. Jon was going to be working 12+ hours a day since it was the first week of marching band camp so he stayed home.

My sister, Katie, also blogged about our visit.


I helped Katie bring some of her homemade crafts to her local fair grounds to enter them.

I loved her picture of her turkey. Unfortunately she didn't place with this picture but she did really well otherwise.

Doesn't everyone have turkey's on their roof??

Evan liked playing in Elmer's crate. See... you can give kids all kinds of fancy toys and what do they play with?.... animal crates!

Charlotte had a great time playing with her cousins, Kylee and Devin.




On Saturday, Katie, Evan and I went to their local farmer's market. There were some beautiful booths set up by the vendors. Our local farmers don't worry so much about aesthetics. I enjoyed seeing their displays.

I love the bell tower in the background.

This bakery stand had the most beautiful breads. I bought a loaf of sourdough. It was beautiful.

Evan enjoyed checking out the canon.

Katie has a few guineas and boy do they make a crazy amount of noise! They have such beautiful feathers though. I love the soft gray of this guinea.

Evan made Katie beautiful. Devin is playing cards with David in the back and if you look carefully, you can see Charlotte in the doorway wearing her tutu.

Broiler chickens, laying chickens, turkeys, and guineas.... who ALL run at you if they think it's time to eat. It was a sight to behold!

I helped Katie can some venison steaks. She got a new pressure canner for Christmas and this was it's maiden canning voyage.

My job was to stuff the jars full of the meat and broth and get the air bubbles out. (I love the way that Elmer sits with his bottom tucked under)

We had a great week. It made me really sad that we don't live closer.... maybe one day.

My Hairy Siblings Come For A Visit

My mom and Mark got the chance to get away for the weekend two weeks ago so my three hairy siblings came for a visit. Oscar spent the weekend cowering and barking defensively even though Mom's dogs never gave him a second thought. I guess if I were 5 pounds, I'd be nervous too. Fern (black and white) and Phoebe (auburn) are greyhounds rescued many years ago after they retired from racing. They are so sweet and gentle. They ran a few laps around the yard then slept the rest of the time.

Mia is a jack russell/poodle mix. She's getting ready to bump that ball with her nose and then go chase it. The kids loved having her around because she's always ready to play fetch and run around the yard with them. She reminds me a lot of our old dog Penny when she was younger.

They all climbed up with me on the big couch while I knitted during naptime.

They're welcome anytime, Mom.

Mother's Day - Nana Edition

We celebrated Mother's Day with my mom a week early. The gift she requested was help planting annuals in her many pots and planters. So, since Jon was away for the day with the middle school band, the kids and I headed over for a day at Nana and Grandpa's house. The chicken coop is done and it looks great! The 4 hens and 1 rooster are so happy with their new digs.

It's a beautiful coop and it's designed to keep them well protected against predators.

Soon we'll be able to help check for eggs when we visit Nana. They haven't started laying yet but it shouldn't be too long.

Charlotte and Evan wanted to go over and look at the lake. What a gorgeous lake to have right across the street! My mom and Mark plan to get a paddle boat soon so we can take little trips around the lake.

On the overflow side of the lake, little water birds swooped by to grab insects. Nana and the kids had a good time waiting for them to swoop by.

This columbine is one of the MANY gorgeous flowers in my mom's yard. (It is columbine, right Mom?)

Look at all those beautiful plants waiting to be planted.

We set up under the shade of their deck and worked fast since it was a hot, muggy day. We did most of our planting while the kids took their naps but Evan joined us for a snack after he woke up.

Then the kids helped me fill the last few pots.

Dirt sure is fun, isn't it?

This is only a small portion of the probably 30? pots we planted that day. I'm going to take more pictures the next time I'm over to show you how pretty they turned out.

I had such fun helping mom plant like we used to do when I still lived at home. She has a true gift for gardening and plants thrive under her care. I can't wait to watch her deck transform into a garden paradise!

Better Late Then Never, Right?

This past weekend, I finally got my spring veggie garden planted. I should have gotten it done a few weeks ago but to tell you the truth, I just didn't feel like it yet. I really just felt like sitting inside and knitting while watching a good movie.

Luckily this past weekend, I was excited to get the garden planted.
Oscar was no help. He's not much of a nature loving dog so I was surprised to find him laying in the grass soaking up the sun.

While I finished pulling weeds from the beds, Jon shoveled compost onto the beds and mixed it in by turning the beds under a bit. It wasn't an easy job but I sure appreciate when he helps me in the garden.

Once I got the beds smoothed and weed-free, I started planting seeds. I don't start any seeds indoors.

The kids helped me plant some pea seeds since they're nice and big. I planted the rest. I tried soaking the pea seeds for a few hours before planting to hopefully give them a head start with germination.

Here is the main garden fully seeded. I planted a few new things and I planted some seeds that I had leftover from last year.

See the stripes down the rows? I am trying a trick I learned from The Victory Garden vegetable video (circa mid '80's). They suggested that with many seeds, you cover them with potting soil instead of garden soil so that the seedlings have an easier time pushing through the dirt. My clay soil tends to form a crust on the top so I'm hoping the soft potting soil helps insure better germination.

The next day, Evan and I went to the feed & seed and picked up some onion sets and slips. I bought way too many.

I planted the sets between my broccoli seeds and planted some slips between some lettuce seeds. I made another row just for onions but I still have over half of the slips left.

I also bought 3 different types of seed potatoes at the store that are waiting to be planted. I'm working on getting the back garden ready to go so the potatoes can be in the ground by this weekend. I'm so glad to be happy with my hands in the dirt again. It took me longer to want to garden this year but I'm glad I haven't lost the garden love.

Check out Lori's awesome garden sign in this post. What a perfect garden sign!