Autumn is Here

    The fields are being hayed . . .
 

    The goldenrod is in full bloom . . .

   . . . and my pasture was bushhogged yesterday.  

   Just some tidying up and we will be ready for winter!

   This is Joee, the one year old I fostered for a week from an abuse situation. What a wonderful, sweet chow.  If I hadn't committed to my boy in Miami, I would have adopted this guy!

                        Had to get him neutered before he went to his new home.  Wearing the cone of shame!

                     This week started out with a bang.  Early Monday morning I had a service for the car in another town at 8:30 am.  Lots of chores in between.  Joee's new mom and sister were on their way from Chicago.  She was to arrive at 4 pm., then it turned into 8, 9:30, and she finally arrived at 10:30.  No way she could turn around and drive another 12 hours, so I invited her to stay at the farmhouse, but it was a total MESS!  I rushed home and cleaned four hours straight to get things ready for her.

                   This is Gabrielle with Joee and Ziggy the next morning.  Dogs seem to be getting along.  She was going to leave at 6 in the morning, then it turned to 8 and the bushhogger was coming at 8, came at 7:15, my neighbor who is working on my bamboo forest trail showed up early, it was just a crazy couple of days. Seems no one can tell time!

                     Labor Day weekend while Bob was in Knoxville delivering furniture that I sold and going to bookstores, I started prepping my potting shed for painting.  Took the whole weekend to clean it out, organize and get rid of things.

                            I hate to paint pretty wood, but this was such a dark room it needed cheering up.

                     I've been painting in bits and pieces for the past couple of weeks, taking lots of breaks to do other things in between, but one wall is now completed, half the ceiling and the door.  I'm getting there slowly, but surely.

  I thought when you retired, things got slower?  I never get to sit down! Once finished, I will do a post to show you all that I did to make this a prettier potting shed.

                     One of the "in between" projects was to move the ferns from this area that were not doing well at all.  Took me a while to decide what to plant here, but I ended up buying three Soft Caress Mahonias that love shade and bloom in the winter.

      I'm sure hoping they like this area because they fill the space nicely.

  In the garden, the coleus are still going strong.

   Poke berry is in bloom.  I love this plant.  A native.

   Beauty berry is bursting with fruit.

                               Mexican hydrangea still blooming.

                        Loving my fence line of morning glories down the driveway.

                     Toad lily blooms in fall.

   Finally getting photos for you to see mom of the beautiful grapevine afghan that I found.  This is an unusual find.

Old Schoolhouse Inn     MOM, CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE THE INN

Sunday I will be making my way to Florida.  I am spending the night on Amelia Island at this wonderful inn I found.  I looked for a week for a place to stay, everything was booked or two night minimum. When I found this inn, I wrote them and they told me the Annual Shrimp Festival was going on this weekend up and down the coast, so that was the reason I couldn't find a room.  So I changed my night from Thursday to Sunday and they could accommodate me. My next post will be about my trip and introducing Geisha's new little brother!

That Time of Year

  Minding my own business at 2:00 in the afternoon, washing dishes at the kitchen sink, I look up and there he is smiling at me!

  The trash can that contains my birdseed had been knocked over a few nights in a row, seed all over, but all the peanuts still there, so Bob thought is was raccoons, BIG raccoons, but then I found the pile of scat.

 Come to find out Bob was putting the suet in the bin at night, that's what he wanted.  The bin is now in my potting shed, which I'm still painting, so having to work around it.  

                    And another kind of bear came to my home last night, staying till Tuesday. It was an emergency, it was an abuse case where one of the kids in the home punched Joee in the face multiple times and the dog attacked causing the kid to get stitches. This chow is so sweet, he didn't deserve that.  

            This is Ziggy and Joee will be her new brother in Illinois. He will be neutered tomorrow and transport person will pick him up from me on Tuesday.  They both will be going on camping trips. I think they'll make a nice pair!

Roman & Princess Together Again

                            Last Tuesday, Sept. 14, we said goodbye to Princess.  Her battle with liver cancer had won, it was time for her to meet Roman at the Rainbow Bridge.  The loss of three chows in five months has been a tough one, especially on Geisha who is 11 and now the only chow left.  We haven't had only one chow in 13 years.  The stress affected her in a way that we ended up at the ER on Friday night at 8:30, only one vet on duty, didn't get seen until 1 am and got home at 2:30 am.  Thankfully my friend Catrina who is a vet tech was there, and I was getting texts as to what was going on since you are not allowed in due to covid.  This photo is when we first got Roman and Princess to foster.  They had been separated for two months and put in kennels and Roman was not a happy boy.  He looks pretty intense in this photo, but Princess always had a smile. 
 

This photo was the last time they were together under Roman's bush. I can't tell you how much I miss Roman, he was "my" dog and no one else's.  His nickname was the Beast as he weighed 96 pounds and my back is recovering from lifting him.

    The next photos are in happier, younger and healthier times.  We miss you Princess.  Only consolation is you are with Roman again.

           This photo is my all-time favorite.  A traffic jam at the doggy door, and the look on Roman's face is priceless.  He always deferred to Princess as she was the alpha.  The females usually are, but isn't that the way it's supposed to be? lol

             This little guy, and I mean little, only 42 lbs. , will be Geisha's new little brother!  We saw him a few months ago, he was a stray and they were trying to find his home.  He was a backyard breeding dog, and they did not want him back.  Redlands Rescue in Miami took him in.  I inquired about him, but we could not adopt until Princess passed, I did not feel that would be right.  So in the meantime he was adopted.  When they went to neuter him, they found out he had a very bad bacterial infection, an STD, which I didn't even know dogs got, and he had surgery last week.  He will be on two weeks of antibiotics and rechecked by vet.  The other adopters dropped out and Junior of the rescue contacted me. He wanted me to adopt him initially and seems all that happened in the meantime was meant to be as Princess had passed when I got the call.

    I'm making arrangements to go to Florida Oct. 2.  Going to leave on Friday and spend the night in Savannah in the garden district, hopefully go to the beach for a few hours, then drive the next morning to my friend Valerie's house to see her new place and dogs, and my friend Brooke will bring this little guy to Jacksonville.  Right now they call him Chewbacca, but we will give him a proper name once we meet him.  I just hope Geisha likes him.  The videos below are Junior, who is a professional groomer, showing me how sweet Chew is.  Junior is from Brazil, so when we talk on the phone it's hard to understand most of what he's saying, so the videos helped. Chew is only two years old, so he should bring a lot of energy to this quiet house.

A Break From The Routine

 Spent Labor Day weekend finally working on the potting shed, took two days just to completely clean it out and organize, then started painting, so took today off to go meet some friends in Hendersonville.  The roadsides were bursting with bright, thick zinnias.

  Hard to take photos driving 70 mph, but you get the gist!

  I had a few minutes to spare, so I wanted to see if a house whose renovation I have been following for years was completed, but looks like not much more has been done.

     Right down the street is a Thursday Thrift Store, so I thought I'd swing by, and good thing I did! I hadn't been in such a long time, and they had so many goodies I had to take home!

   This is hilarious. A mother-in-law had to be the one that made this!

    We met at the Black Bear Coffee Shop and talked for hours.  Lindy just moved here from Utah and is building a home in Asheville, and Dana is here looking for a home and moving from Arizona. Lindy is also from PA and Dana from NJ originally.  We are all chow lovers and that's how we met.  It was nice to have a day off and socialize!

                                                          Dana and Lindy.