Family photo

Christmas in Elmshorn, Germany

Dana and her doll


I have little biological family alive, and they mostly live in Germany.  Though I used to travel over there about every three years, I have trouble walking, and also have trouble sitting for long periods now.  Therefore I haven't been travelling to see them.

I try to call my sister in law each week or two, because she doesn't use computers or smart phones.  However, due to the time difference and the small children involved, I use a texting program called What's APP to send and receive texts and pictures to the younger family.  These are the pictures I got on Christmas.  Aren't they beautiful?

Coat for Power

I've been relearning to crochet and knit, and I downloaded an easy pattern for a crocheted coat for a greyhound.

This pattern was from Bernat, and was a free pattern.  I had a very hard time understanding what it was telling me to do, and I stopped after a few days of "mystery needlework".



So I decided to search further and found a website on ETSY which has lovely greyhound patterns!  I chose this one:

KNIT LOOK GREYHOUND SWEATER

A Dog Sweater Pattern for Crochet

Photo of finished  sweater on the Etsy website.

https://www.etsy.com/people/AerieDesigns

I decided to use a different pattern, this one a purchased pattern in Etsy.  This pattern I found much easier to understand, and happily crocheted away for a week!  I used teal colored yarn and thought I had plenty, but ran out and after a week finally found a Walmart that had a skein of the same color.

See how much butt is showing when the sweater is on Power!

After I got it about 90% done, I looked at it really well but realized that I had made one side to face the opposite way from the other side!  I was a bit dismayed to realize that my hard work had to be redone, at least half of it.
I pulled the yarn out and rolled it into a ball, and started the bad side of the sweater again, but was soon having problems again.  I had a suggestion from a friend about fixing it without a pattern, and finally decided to do it that way.  I " mixed and matched" the crocheted stitches to get the look like the first (correct) side,  and was finally able to go on to the neckline ribbing. 

You can see the difference in the crocheting halfway up on the body, and the multicolored ribbing!

If you look closely, you can see the crazy crochet stitches I put in to make the sweater go around the chest.

See the multicolored trim around the edges of the sweater, and lots of Power's butt showing!

I think I have to redo the whole thing???

As I get it unraveled, and recrocheted, I will give you progress reports!

Those luxuriously lovely Quail!

I am always so very happy whenever I get to see these beautiful birds!

When I arrive in a location, I put out bird seed and water, and a hummingbird feeder.  I've been here about three weeks and just yesterday I began to see these birds eating the seed I put out.  They might have been eating it before but I didn't see them.

Gambel's Quail

These quail live under the palo verde trees about 40 feet from my motorhome
and I often hear them calling to each other with the"covey call", like saying "I'm here, where are you?

Gambel's quail

I think that the very bold coloring, the feather topknot, the very sharp differentiation between the different colors, , and the voice are so wonderful and pretty much indescribable (by me).

I feel that picking a campsite (near enough to the quail to enjoy feeding, watering, photoing and listening)  is important to me, and will be the main deciding factor in the location!

                            I hope you enjoy this brief glimpse.

Pageviews are over 25000!

Thanks to you all who check in to read the posts.  The page views meter is not an important fact, but without it I would not know if people were looking in.  I especially enjoy the comments received, and those comments help me to know you as best as possible.  I love reading all your blogs as well, and getting to know your hounds and your lives.

Christmas is coming on the 25th, and we celebrate the Christ Child that day, and the 25th date has nothing to do with the 25000 pageviews, but the numbers are related so I decided to comment on the pageviews at this time.

Amaryillis, beautiful for Christmas!

Fleur and Power have been giving Chica the baleful staring eye, thinking that she's the one who told Santa to leave them (Fleur and Power) off the reindeer list of stops on christmas Eve.

Chica is hiding from the dogs!

Hairy, a campimg kitty who says, Let those greyhounds get near me and I'll teach them a lesson!

Is this old guy Santa?

Hazel and friends looking for the North Pole!

Is this the North Pole?

Are these the reindeer from Santa's sleigh?

Is this guy a reindeer, like Rudolph?

Were these guys headed to the Manger in Bethlehem?

Fleur says"  I'll take over Mom.  You're not doing good job!  I'll  find Santa using my superior nose"!

Power says that his nose is a better nose!

Is this pronghorn one of Santa's reindeer?  

Maybe we are getting closer to finding Santa, mom.I think we'll find him in time to make sure we are on his "nice" list, and not his "naughty" list!

Christmas Blessings to all!

Memorial at Poston, Arizona

As is know to be true, in times of peril, sometimes we humans are not at our very best.  In the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation, at Poston Az, an internment camp was built to contain Japanese Americans during WWII.

Many of the men joined the Armed Forces during that time, and the prisoners had school for their children.  Some years ago, a very meaningful memorial was organized and built to commemorate the camp.

Center momument at Poston Memorial

To find this memorial, one can go north off of I-10 at Ehrenburg AZ, which is exit 1.

Windblown palm trees outline the memorial

Poston is the small town in the Colorado River Indian Reservation where the camp was located.  The memorial is on the east side of the highway, and it is very well laid out and has a lot of information that is very interesting.

Plaque about CRIT location

Information about the camp

I hope that someday you will have an opportunity to visit this memorial.  It's very moving.

1942-1945

These pictures are fixed in the metal surfaces and showed the buildings at the camp.

Jammies for my hounds

I ordered new jammies for the dogs instead of making them myself, because I read on some site that flannel dosen't attrack the dog hair like fleece does.  Since I'd tried fleece twice before, and was always frustrated by the constant dog fur imbedded in the fleece fabric, and it didn't come out with laundering.

Fleur's new jammies

Fleur's jammies has fleece on the outside and flannel on the inside.  The fleece is a light colored plaid, so if her light colored fur gets in the fleece, it won't be so very obvious.

Fleur's jammies is fleece on outside, and flannel on inside

Fleur likes to dig around with her front feet on the sleeping bag that covers the sofa.  When she gets the  sleeping bag pulled loose, then she is ready to settle down.  If I leave a jacket hanging on a hook at the end of the sofa, she will pull it down and then sleep on it, thus giving it a nice greyhound fragrance!

Power had flannel on inside and outside

Power is not such a "digger"  as Fleur is.  But he is a male, and with the male anatomy I was concerned that the strap that goes around the abdomen to hold the  jammie in position was goin to be getting wet when Power went outside to pee.  I was quite uncomfortable thinking about the extra work that that would cause for me, and that I would have a urine smell in the motorhome.

It seemed strange to me that the cloth section that covers the chest is so long that it reaches almost to the real legs.  The strap is on the rearward end of the chest section, and with the strap being so far rearward, the material on the front half of the dog wants to shift around the body and leave the dog uncovered and cold.

Power in his jammies

For Power, I've been rolling the chest piece up till it leaves the abdomen free, and then fastening the strap, around the chest, as you can see if you look closely in this picture.  I think I will end up resewing the chest and strap to suit Power's size and shape.

Weather woes

The wind has been blowing since yesterday, making it feel like winter, here in southwestern Arizona.  The temperature is not terribly cold, but the wind chill is "cold".  Yesterday I realized that I had been neglecting to look at the gauge for propane level and for water tank level.  I looked and they were both on "empty".  I made it through the night, and in the morning I closed the slides, and drove to the dump station (three miles) where I emptied the black tank,

"Blue Boy" sewage tank

Blue boy pulled to dump station by ATV

then on to the water station where I waited and waited and waited for the water tank to fill.  It was a rare thing for my water tank to be completely empty, so it to a long, long, long, long time to fill.  I was walking around standing in the sunshine part of the time, but with the wind blowing, it wasn't really warm.  So I walked around on the leeward side of the motorhome ( but shady), and was still cold.  I bent over to check for the tank overflow (no luck), stood in the sun, looked for the tank overflow on the sunny side (no luck), went back to the leeward side, checked the faucet (I did turn the faucet on, didn't I?)  So, on and on and on I went back and forth  trying to survive the session of  windy cold water tank filling.

Small vehicle with portable water tanks, and motorhome with on board water tanks, both taking on water

From this location, it's back to town, and into the propane filling station, where I had to evacuate the motorhome in order to get the propane filled.  I had to make sure that everything was turned off in the motorhome to prevent fire hazards, and then grabbed the dog leashes, put the cat into a carrier, and outside we went (again in the wind).  In true RVer fashion, the other folks at the propane station were wanting to meet the Queen (Fleur) and the wild Prince (Power).  They fawned over them ( as they expected), and gave compliments to the breed, their beauty, their intelligence, their gentleness, etc.  Whenever they started to run low on adjectives , Fleur would give me the "look" and tell me to fill in the blanks!!!  She seemed to think that adjectives of her superlativeness should be ongoing.

Next stop was the gas station, to fill the gas tank so that the generator could run when it was needed.  One of the main considerations in picking the gas station is the entrance and egress routes available for a large vehicle like a motorhome or trailer.  The price is very important as well, but if one cannot get into or out of the station, the price doesn't matter.  So I use a smart phone app called Gas Buddy which tells me the best prices.  I have to decide on the access myself.  I've never seen an app for access.  When all this is accomplished, it's back to my desert boondocking site!

Back at the campsite, I park and make sure I am level, put the slides out, and reposition the dog's fence.
Then it's time for the La-Z-boy !  A little rest is deserved!

Dog yard ready for play again.

I'm resting here!  Why are you disturbing me for a photo shoot?

The pink beaded collar

Perhaps you remember the pink beaded collar I made for Fleur?

Yesterday, I finally got it finished.  I had not been using it on Fleur due to the weight (remember her neck had been injured) and the edge needed something.....but I was not sure what.



A few days ago, while enjoying time with other RVers, I asked the ladies for ideas on finishing the edge of the collar...we looked at round silver beads, round black beads, delica seed beads in different colors, and the after trying these ideas, Jan said that she had something that would work.  She got out a packet of black metallic cylindrical shaped beads, and said "try these".  The following pictures are showing the results.

Black cylindrical beads sewed to the edge of pink beaded collar

Collar with ribbon connection for Martingale type collar

Picture showing Fleur's beauty alongside the beautiful collar!

Special leash I made to go with the collar

So for all you who think pink is great on female greyhounds, what do you think?

Old friends

I was looking at the list of followers today, and noticed the number had gone up to 35, so I had to investigate who was new.  After working through the list and finding names I am familiar with I saw one of those "no picture" names, and saw with joy that it was Sandy Keller, who was my next door neighbor for about 25 years!  So glad to have you following, Sandy!

Friends are like dogs in one particular way...they are all different, and add to our lives in  different ways.  Some friends are spiritual, some are athletic, some are good with money management, some are neat housekeepers, some are animal lovers, some are travelers, some are intellectuals, , etc.  I have come to realize and appreciate  the qualities that people have, both those who are similar and those who are dissimilar to me.

Sandy not only was a great neighbor, but she has a wonderful son who enriched my life while he was growing up!  Sandy and I liked yard work,
travel, dogs, and beauty. 

Today I was working on the blog, and all of a sudden I heard a movement on my sofa, looked over, and there was Fleur roaching!

I'm getting ready to try on Mom's sun hat!

Then there was a knock at the door, and of course the two guard dogs ran the 3 feet to the motorhome door to see what peril waited!  It was Cari, who shares a mailbox with me.  She was bringing mail.  When she sat on the sofa, Fleur jumped up on the sofa( her usual seat), and Cari told her to" get off the sofa"!  Fleur got down, but then I told Cari that I had changed the house rules to allow the dogs onto the sofa.  So I took Fleur onto the sofa, and Power laid on the dog bed.  Then he jumped onto the sofa. on the same spot that Fleur was lying.  I did wait a minute and he saw that Cari was in his spot so he got down.  To me it was quite funny.  It's been many months since Cari was in my motorhome so she was not in the know about the dogs.

Business type cards

Today I finally got my courage up and ordered cards with my blog heading on them and my name and address on the back.  Barbara, of Me and my Dog and my RV had helped me by designing the nice heading of my blog a few months ago, and I liked the design she used.  So I reused it on the front of my "business" cards. 

 On the back side I used my regular name and address, email and phone. 

New card

 I had made cards for myself years ago, but the software I used was not compatible with the newer computer operating systems.  Due to that I had not been able to make my own any more, and once when I tried, the ink ran when the weather was damp or rainy.  Not liking the result, I decided to order some made by a professional company.  I had a hard time getting my courage up to figure out what to put on the cards and figure out how to order the cards online, but today was a very slow day at the office and so I utilized the time and got them ordered. I felt like a superhero when I got finished, because I had been afraid to order them for over a year!

Card holder

While feeling brave, I also ordered some key chains to give away, a card holder, and a utility bag

Tote bag


 

Keychain

 So Barbara, thank you so much for the lovely heading you designed for my blog, and all the other uses it is seeing!

THANKS TO EVERYONE

Today is the day before thanksgiving in the USA, and though other countries often have thanksgiving on other dates, we all understand the concept of having a special day to be thankful.

So besides being thankful to God for all lifes blessings, I want to say thanks to all of you for being so friendly and helpful throughout the last year since I started my blog.  I've learned from each of you, been sad when you lost a loved one, laughed my head off at some of the antics of our dogs, and in general had my life enhanced by all of you.

I especially want everyone to know how much I appreciate the advice from everyone who commented on Power's night craziness!  I used all the advice, and things are much better.  I've been leaving a night light on, and taking him outside on a leash at bedtime.  I've been trying to make sure he is really tired at bedtime.

Evening exercise

For the last week I was in transit between Bluewater Lake state Park, and my winter camping in Arizona.

I travelled south along the Rio Grande river, stopping at Elephant 'Butte Lake state Park for a couple of days.  My purpose there was to purchase an Apple Ipad Mini from my friend Andy.  He was getting a new one and was selling the older one.  Andy spent a couple hours teaching me how to use it, and he's a good teacher.

Then I traveled on furthur south and westward over to Deming, where I had doctor's appointments.  After a couple days there, I was ready to travel on into Arizona.  I stopped in Yuma for a few days, to visit friends, and during that time it rained on and on, and on.  But I did get to see my friends, except for one couple who I missed due to rain.  

Mountain behind our campsite.

One night at bedtime, Power got away from me when I was taking the hounds out for a potty stop.  He ( being a genuine greyhound) was happy to play " you can't catch me", and took off down the RV park roads!  I knew that I couldn't catch him on foot, so got the car, and drove around in the rv park till I saw him.  He looked like he was lost.  When He saw us he came running and he was unharmed, thank GOD!  He was full of energy and mischief probably due to being cooped up during the heavy rains.  So I was glad to try to wear him out before we went back into the motorhome.

So, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Night craziness

Power giving me " the look" when he yips to get me out of bed

Night before last, we went to bed at the usual time with the usual routine.  I read for a while then turned out my light.  Just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a "yip" and Power was making his request known.  This has lately become a habit for this boy. He's perfectly happy when I am in the same room or even if my bedroom reading light is on.  But when the light is turned off, he seems to think that he needs to wake me, and he will continue to do it every two hours at the bare minimum.  I have tried to make him settle without a trip outdoors, but it doesn't work. I've tried taking the water bowl up at 8 pm--it did no good, so I took it up at 7 pm--that didn't work either, so now I'm taking it up at 6 pm.  I will report on the results as I know them.  

Twice, I was so desperate, that I went to the living room and slept on the Laz-e-boy recliner.  Power was very content with that!  Fleur has never had a problem with my being in the bedroom, thank God!

When I capitulate and let him outside, he goes through a routine of 1: a long slow pee  2:sniffing around the yard.  3: standing in the pool, and drinking if there's any water in it. 4: wanting inside. 5: standing in the doorway for a long, long time and letting heat out, cold in, rain in, flies in, etc.  6: when I go out to urge him inside, he does a whirling dervish dance and smiles so very big, more dervish dancing, and faking entering the doorway. 7: If I reach for his collar to help him come inside, he plays "keep away". 8: I try bribing him with a treat, but he's too smart for that!  He's having fun, and he's got my attention, which seems to be what he wants.

This  is a daytime picture of the same happy craziness Power does at night!

If any of you have suggestions, please share them!