Feel Like Complaining

October has been my biggest month yet. One would think the summer months would be, with vacations and such. I guess there are other reasons people need sitting for. We met an older tripod recently and her owner has booked 3 separate stays so she can go out of town to take continuing education courses. It will be our first 3-legged dog! This past week we still had Bella up until Thursday, then a new dog just for the weekend. This is big Scotch; I just love his name. I didn't get to see him much but did go home to walk him. Maybe he'll come back sometime for a longer stay; I think Faith and Tony enjoyed him. I spent the entire week away to look after repeats, Pippin and Chloe. Chloe Pippin Now that the weather is cooler, I took them up on their offer to use the outdoor hot tub. I had to get a suit at a thrift store; no nekkidness outside! Every night before bed, I soaked in the dark, cold, night. I could really get used to this life. Whenever I stay somewhere,...

I few weeks ago I had drop-ins for two dogs and was asked to feed the chickens too. No problem I thought, easy peasy. One day I was supposed to go three times but was at my Mom's that day so I got permission to have Faith go. When she got there, she called me and said one of the chickens was out of the coop in the yard. The yard was fenced but I wasn't sure if there may have been a way to escape there too. The coop is just a separate fenced area with a makeshift door, it must have squeezed through or flew high enough to clear it. Faith was smart enough to put some feed down in front of the gate so it wouldn't wander the yard but I still had to leave my Mom's to go and help her wrangle a chicken. They're pretty tame so it wasn't hard at all. It started walking the perimeter of the coop so I just kept following it a couple times around and when it approached the door, Faith opened it and in it went! They are such beautiful little chickies; I would have felt terrib...

We haven't had any problems with having things stolen out of our yard for a couple of years, but still I know trouble is all around us. I'm on Nextdoor and there is stuff going on all the time in our own neighborhood. I've been wanting to get some type of security camera but the expense of a full wired system is crazy. The ring spotlight camera (battery operated) fit every need I wanted. It was very easy to hook up to our WiFi and then we found a spot that would cover the entire backyard. You are able to adjust the parameters so it doesn't pick up every car driving by. I like the features of an alarm, motion-activated spotlight, and two way audio. If I get an alert, I can open up the app and see what's going on in real time. If I want to scare the crap out of someone, I just turn the alarm on or start yelling. It doesn't even matter where I am; as long as I have a cell phone signal, I'm on duty! The video is HD color and night vision is decent too when t...

Although our tomatoes got off to a late start, we ended up with a great crop and have made use of them. We dehydrated several batches and made some tomato sauce. For the first time we made some tomato soup. I'm not a big tomato soup fan but this was really good, so I've got 2 more batches in the freezer ready to go. There are plenty of green ones left too, to make our favorite fried green tomatoes. To make further use of our garden, I made Garlic Cheese Zucchini bread to go with the soup this weekend. It was mighty tasty. Oh and yes, I was a good wifey and made Tony popcorn Friday night. I actually made his favorite--onion popcorn. It sounds gross but it's really good. Pour plenty of butter on popcorn and sprinkle with Lipton Onion soup mix and mix well. Now that the weather is cooler I love cooking and firing up the slow/pressure cooker. Next week will be homemade chicken and dumplings. Oh man, I'm making myself hungry.

This week we had Cooper and Ava. They were with us over a year ago but it was only for one night. Ava (English Coonhound) is a rescue and very shy and jumpy. But she's doing a lot better than last time. Cooper, being a Catahoula Cur, is obsessed with playing with balls. Walking them is hard and I can't do it alone, so Faith has to help me. They're a good pair of pups though and it's been fun getting to know them better. Unless we get a new dog, we will have all repeats until the end of the year. Crazy! OK, here's a good one for ya. Every Friday I make popcorn for dinner. Tony doesn't always have it though and is happy with cereal. This past Friday he wanted some and asked if I would make it the kettle. I made it for all of us and as soon as we sat down, his bowl fell off of his lap onto the floor. Cussing and Laughing ensued; you can figure out who was doing what. He asked if I would make some more just for him and I said no. He said he would if I had...