It's Been A Tough Week

It's been a tough week since Finnegan left us.  Binney is missing him, and clinging to us more than ever.  She was never a "lap dog" before, but now she is on my lap or by my side constantly.  I am glad she is taking comfort by being close to us, and not withdrawing or becoming depressed.  

She eats well, and cuddles a lot.  She is right now looking at me to move this laptop from my lap so she can jump up to take her rightful place.  In a bit, little girl, in a bit.  Give me time to finish writing the blog, okay? 

The Big Brown Doggies (deer) have been entertaining her nightly.  She waits patiently for them to appear, and keeps looking at us, plaintively, asking if they are coming or not???

watching watching watching

waiting waiting waiting

Oh joy! Oh bliss! 

Oh her wonderful big brown doggies have appeared!  

They nibble and lick on the dropped seeds under the bird feeders, and scamper around the yard a bit.  Binney barks her fool head off at them, but they don't really care. They also ate the needles off our newly planted little white pines!  I had to go out and spray them with a concoction of cayenne pepper and chili powder and water in a spritzer bottle to freeze on the remaining needles. I also coated my hydrangea bushes! 

Binney dashes from the big ottoman to the smaller ottomans in front of our chairs. Dashing back and forth and back and forth, barking furiously at the deer.  They look up at her, shrug their shoulders and go back to what they were doing.  LOL

They only hang around for 5 or 10 minutes, and then go on their way. There isn't much to eat, but they check out our yard nightly, just in case there is something more substantial.  But Binney gets her exercise, and enjoys the distraction. 

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Today we ventured out for a bit.  We did that terrible twice a year task today, paying the property taxes. Ugh! But it's something that has to be done.   We also renewed Binney's dog license.  Sadly, the clerk asked us about Finnegan, because he shows up on the computer screen as a pet registered to our address.  We had to inform her about his passing, and she nicely commiserated about her own dog that passed away a few months ago.  Sweet small town atmosphere, where we could bond for a few minutes about our lost furry family members. 

Afterwards, we took a little ride in the car, with Binney along, of course. We have been getting a little bit of Cabin Fever, so it was nice to get out. Lately it's been so icy cold and frigid down in the single digits. We haven't been doing many dog walks. So it was nice to take a ride. We drove out to the Breakwater Harbor at the waters of the Green Bay and Lake Michigan, near Oconto.  Here is an aerial view I borrowed from the internet about how the causeway is formed along the harbor breakwater wall.  It has a road built onto it so we can drive out our vehicles to the end.  One time, we took our older Coachman motorhome out there to sit at the end and cook dinner and watch the fishermen! 

We drove out to the end 

and snapped this pic of a 

cloudy winter sky....

In the old days, ice fishermen used to build big heavy ice shacks out of wood on skis or skids to drag out behind snowmobiles or four-wheelers or even pickup trucks. Now these guys just pop up these modern shelters that flip open with ease and still protect them from the cold wind. I would imagine inside they're pretty cozy with a little heater and their ice fishing gear on the inside of the little portable shack.  They are positioned over the open hole, and from the comfort of inside, they can fish to their heart's content. 

One of them even had a great big fish flopping around on the outside of his ice shanty. Talk about fresh frozen fish?

Earlier in the month it had been unusually warm, so sections of the ice had warmed up and blew into shore a little bit and made some pretty crystal pieces with crunchy edges. Out further the ice is way too thin to do any ice fishing so the guys are hanging close to the edge of the Breakwater Causeway.

If the winds kick up, the neat phenomenon of "Ice Shoves" happens on the breakwater causeway. The pressure of the ice mashing against each other makes the blue colors... amazing!  This is a pic from other years: 

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I know all of the Bernie Mitten memes have been all over the Internet. This one just spoke to me because the Sheltie actually matches the colors in the mittens!

We did get about 3 to 4 inches of snow the other day. Steve had out the snowblower and took care of the driveway. When he was standing there, I looked out to see him just waiting for the plow to come by. Of course they come by and fill up the end of the driveway right where Steve had already snow blowed. So he was just in time to take care of it and get rid of the big drift that the plow left there.

Inside, we've been cozy and warm and I've been playing with my fiber toys in the she shed. I finished one rug and started another one on the newest loom.   

On my sewing machine, I've been working on this beautiful quilt called Winter Solstice. A bunch of the gals in my online facebook group are working on the same quilt at the same time.  The pattern is by Patty Carey and I bought it here:   https://www.quiltwoman.com/patterns/winter-solstice-quilt-pattern

The Fabrics are from Northcott Stonehenge and are called Essence. I ordered them from here:  https://sewingetcinyorkville.com/  I absolutely love their natural look and each one has either wood grain or pebbles or leaves. I'm going to make this into a wall hanging to keep in the she shed. Next it needs to be put on the big quilting frame and I need to do the actual quilting and then add a binding around the edges.

Well, this little girl is pouting and wanting to come up on my lap now.  It's time to finish this blog and get it posted.  And let her get back into her comfort zone. 

And life goes on.