She meant....?

While at the blog fest on the weekend, I had a lady come up to me and make the following comment: "She's training you".  I remember feeling confused by this comment, and also thinking that she was referring to Hera.

I wonder if any of you who are reading this post are the lady who made this comment, and if so, would you please chime in and help me understand what you were saying to me.

The blog fest had so many people there whom I had not met before that I could not keep very many straight in my mind. 

We had a great time and I hope we do it again!

New followers are amazing

Karen Pfundter of Karenunthewoods, and Charliedownunder are listed as two new followers on my followers list.  I really enjoy reading Karen's blog, which includes weaving, knitting, RVing, and Sheltie Rescue.  So very interesting! I amazed at her great talent in all these arts, and she even makes socks with an antique sock knitting machine.
I've been following her blog for years, and she following mine, so we sort of know each other and hope to meet someday!

RVING: THE USA IS OUR BIG BACKYARD

A BLOG WITH A LOT OF MOTORHOME MODIFICATIONS, WITH A SPRINKLE OF STUFF ABOUT OUR GRANDTOTS AND MY FIBER ARTS

Charlie down under in OZ is about a  greyhound in Australia, who likes to tell us what he's up to!  He is funny and cheery!

Life line screening

Last week I had an email from high school alums who were telling about the death from stroke of one of our high school grads from 1964.  In the email, they were recommending that we all take good care of ourselfed and get screened for illness, and they mentioned Life Line Screening. 

I had not heard an ad for Life Line Screening for years so had forgot all about it. However, after this reminder I googled it and found it was coming to a nearby town the next week.  So I signed up. 

I spent a couple of hours in the church social hall where they were installed to do the screening.

I was quite surprised by how organized they were to do the various jobs.  They called two days ahead to ask if I needed help getting there, or had any questions. They reminded me not to eat  for 4 hours prior to my ultrasounds.  Also I was to not eat or drink for 8 hours prior to the blood work.

They emailed me three times to remind me, and when I went, I used Google Maps to find my way.  

I sure am glad that I used Maps because the location was completely foreign to me and I would have NEVER found it on my own.  I am also glad that I allowed extra time to get there because the traffic was terrible in Quartzsite and all the way north to Parker.

If you've never been to Quartzsite in Late January, the RV show is the cause of the heavy traffic.  For those of us who have been here multiple winters, we consider the heavy traffic to be a laughing matter during this time and then it's easier to tolerate it when we need to travel throughout the area.

Blogger Fest

This lady, is Sandy, one of the organizers of this blogger fest.

Some wonderful person had the idea to have a get together in the Quartzsite area!  They call it a blogger Fest.  I am very excited to be getting to meet a lot of bloggers and perhaps meet the authors of the blogs I read.

This lovely lady likes greyhounds a lot, and made over Power and Hera.

We are supposed to bring our chair, our beverage, our business cards, and a snack to share, but I am hoping that everyone who writes a pet blog brings their pets.  I am bringing mine and if the sun is too much for them I will put them in the car for a while with the windows down.  It stays cool in my car with the very dark tinted glass.  I plan to bring cool jackets for them as well.  I bought hats for them last week, but I think they are useless with the shape of their heads.  I'm going to have to modify the heck out of them to get any use from them!

I am planning to take my camera and hope for great snapshots!

This is Dawn, a very friendly Lady who reads my blog!

I am going to take some Little Debbie snack cakes for my contribution to the food table.  I don't want to be bothered with cooking today.  (I ended up taking small candy bars of 3 different brands!)

I tried to get this shirt for my plaid quilt!

We had a wonderful time!

Thanks to everyone who organized it and attended it!

A good idea!

A good idea!  What could this possibly be!?

If you have dogs, you might possibly have an idea...

You might have "perfect" dogs who this would not apply to...

Or you might have a much better solution to the situation...

What could I be referring to???

I am referring to the fact that my dogs have to do their nightly "duties" while it's dark outside.  I don't know if they mind going outside in the dark, but I mind letting them outside in the dark into our fenced area, or going outside with them in the darkness.

I have a "porch" light just above and to one side of the door of the motorhome, and it is wonderful to light up the yard.  If I remember to turn the light off after the dogs come back inside, then the light bulb doesn't run the batteries down. IF ...  it's the operative word!  Sometimes I am so involved in getting the two dogs to come inside and therefore quit letting the cold inside and the warmth outside, that I forget to turn off the porch light!

A few days ago, I learned that the industry of RVing has come up with a newbie...it's a porch light which is motion activated and LED, and daylight shutoff!  I bought one yesterday, so am installing it and hoping that it will turn on when the dogs go outside, light up the yard nicely and shut itself off after the dogs come back inside.  It's quite easy to install and then done!

A good idea!

Quilting in Quartzsite

A few days ago, I met these two quilts (and also the quiltmakers!). The quilters are two retired ladies who are the managers of one of the BLM offices in Quartzsite.  They park their RV's right behind the office, and thus, they were able to bring their quilts out to show me in between their customers.

The quilt below was called a crazy quilt, and she made it of the scraps from other quilts!

I am discovering how many ladies bring their sewing along with them in their RVs.  It's a wonder!

Quartzsite hazard!

While driving through a business district in Quartzsite yesterday, I saw a very large tow truck.  This truck was backed into a brushy ravine.  Very curious...what was he doing?

The RV below was sunk up to the rear axle in the gravel.

This is why the tow truck was located on the edge of the large arroyo that runs through the center of Quartzsite.  I could hardly believe that ANYONE was foolish enough to drive an RV into the arroyo which is a chasm of unstable round gravel.

That man in the center hooked a cable from the tow truck to pull the motorhome out!

The tow truck pulled the RV free of the gravel so that the RV could get back to the road!

A Quartzsite Miracle

As you know, I have had a lot of difficulty in training Hera in certain acts.  She is a very smart girl and a very sweet girl, but her language is different from mine.  

I didn't need anyone to teach me how to do this!

One thing that I was determined to teach was her getting into the car with being lifted.

I tried waiting by the back door and letting her stand there for a long time thinking that she would make up her mind to jump inside.  She never budged.

I had tried standing behind her and pushing on her hind quarters.  She never budged.

I tried letting Power get in the car first to show her how to do it.  She never budged.

I tried lifting her front legs to the car seat thinking she would leap up on her own.  .She never budged.

I tried saying commands like "inside".  She never budged.

I tried the command "jump".  She never budged.

I tried standing on the front driver's seat on my knees and holding her leash and pulling her upwards.  She made no effort, but would eventually get herself into the car by my efforts.

I tried tying a piece of rope to the passenger side for handle, and crossing it over to Hera's leash.  Then I tried to stand behind her and pull on the rope which would then pull Hera's collar to urge her inside the car.  She never budged.

I put on my detective hat and reviewed all the efforts that I had made, and realized that the only one which had worked at all was me pulling on her leash from over the back of the driver's seat.  Though I had had some minimal success with this method, it too had drawbacks.  For instance it was difficult to keep her by the back door, while I walked to the driver's seat (holding her leash in my hand), then transferring the leash over the back of the driver's seat.

My detective hat thinking told me that I needed to be in front of Hera in order to get her to enter the car, and that I had to improve the method.

I decided to try the rope again, and to kneel on the front seat while using the rope.  So I tied the rope to the leash, and walked to the driver's seat, but the knot came loose when I put tension on the rope.

Next I tied a double knot, and it stayed tied, but when I pulled on it, Hera acted like she didn't know what to do with her hind feet.  So I took her back to the motorhome, while I thought of other ideas.

My next try was slightly different.  I did all the same things, but when she put her front feet on the car seat, I kept slight tension on the leash to signal her that she needed to keep moving.  She fumbled a little bit but was successful!

The third attempt with this method, she came on up into the car with almost no hesitation.  I think she's got it!

I always knew how, but liked watching you figure it out!

Beautiful and fancy at a reasonable price!

One of the

Quartzsite dealers that I especially like is Sandy's Apparel.

She makes jackets, blouses, tee shirts etc, all of high quality and wonderful beauty.  I have several of them and really love them!

They all have different kinds of lace, embroidery, beading, beds, etc to make each very unique!

One new one even has fur.

I wonder which I will buy!

Hot water heater no longer a puzzle!

I took my RV to Quality RV repair in Quartzsite. Monty is the owner and the repair guy. He got his tools out and removed the burner tube, examined it.

The burner tube was obstructed by spider webs and dead spiders.

He used compressed air to blow out the burner tube and the extension burner tubes!

NOW it works fine!

thanks, Monty!

Puzzling happenings

I recently told you about the car battery, so now I will tell you that I have had a couple of other curious happenings!  First the battery charger was not working!  I didn't know that could be!  In the past I had a battery charger for 40 years and it was still working when I replaced it!

Then the hot heater would not work on propane!  I thought I would turn on the generator and put the hot water heater on electric, but the electric blew the circuit breaker on the generator.  So no hot water.  That day was a very warm day, so I showered in cool water.  Not too bad!

This is the hot water heater with the for removed!

I called a repairman, but he was not accepting messages (mail box full), so now I am looking for another repairman!

Today I drove to an RV park that had a repairman working there.  It was deserted!

After that, I drove to a stationary repair shop and talked to the owner of the shop.  He agreed that he fixes hot water heaters and we made an appointment for Tomorrow at 10 am.  So tomorrow, I hope to have that problem solved!

A Quilting girl

I have been spending a bit of time each day in the restoration of my antique heritage quilt.  My hands get somewhat painful if I work more than about an hour in all the hand stitching.  I really love doing it and am making progress!

The plaid shirts that I have been  buying at thrift shops have been cut into strips to go into this new quilt, called Dad's Plaids.  Yesterday, I finally got out the sewing machine, set it up on the tiny table, and turned the driver's seat around, and got to work sewing the strips together for this new quilt.  I was a bit worried that I would not get the strips sewn into a good pattern, but the pattern designer said to do a rotating pattern of light strips and dark strips.  She said to use the spread of the hand, stretched out widely to determine the rotation of the colors.  

The strips are sewn with a 1/4 inch seam allowance, so I set to work on the sewing.

I draped the sewn strips over the sewing machine for this photo, and in the photo you will be able to see that the strips are all different lengths and widths.

My dogs are lying on the sofa just adjacent to the sewing machine and the situation doesn't seem to scaring them at all!

They are enjoying a nap!

Maintenance duty

Yesterday I was ready to take trash to the dumpster, and found that my car battery was DEAD!  That is always a frustrating circumstance for me, because it means that I have to go through the struggle of getting out the battery charger, 

an extension cord, 

hook them up to my solar system

hook them up to the battery

 and WAIT.

Wait until the charger makes the battery something less than DEAD.  Wait until I can go to the dumpster with my trash bags, wait, wait, wait.  

All the items needed to wait until today because it was already late yesterday, and the sun was low in the sky, and would not be able to keep up with the electrical needs for the battery charger, so I decided to wait until today, so I would not be having to use my generator for hours to keep the battery charger working.

So this morning the above photos were taken as I got the battery charger out of my storage compartment, and then the extension cord out of another compartment, hooked them up and got the battery charging.  I'm hoping that later the car will start, I can go to the trash dumpster, and then to to a grocery store to get supplies.

The tempo

I have heard it said that we all have our own sense of timing.  I have always tried to respect that idea, and to be aware of others' timing.  I have also read that there are some people who feel that they should always be "fashionably late" and consider that to be "on time".  Then, I have read that actual human royalty consider that they are on their own time schedule!

Since I have had Power in my family, I have had the joy of watching his bubbly personality and having him be both eager to join into my life and my schedule, and terrifically patient when he is not invited to be with me.

Previous greyhounds have been either overly anxious when they couldn't be with me, or even a bit of counter surfers and either eaten any food on the kitchen counters, or diving into the cat's litter boxes to eat kitty snacks!  The anxious ones would sometimes jump on my dinette table to see out the window and then break it with their weight, or jump onto the dash of the motorhome to watch me, and thus cause havoc with the potted plants on the dash!  The rebellious ones would eat the loaf of bread on the counter, or the leftover pizza, etc.  One hound was a paper shredder whenever I was in the next room from the hound!  I realized that the more I left these particular hounds home when I was gone, that the mess when I returned would be upsetting to me, unless I crated the hounds.  So I did that but they were also very afraid of being left in the crates!  One male hound was very destructive to the crate and himself when left in his crate..several times he tore the crate apart in order to escape the confines.  All these hounds were basically perfect except for being left!

Fleur and Val with their bassett hound friend.

Now to talk about a new development:  Hera.  She is very different from all my previous hounds, and doesn't mind being left, she is not destructive in any way, shape or form!  She does not get anxious when I am out of sight or gone from the motorhome.  HOWEVER, she is very interesting in one aspect.  The royal reputation of being "royally late" is so very solidly embedded in her DNA that it is ludicrous!  She totally enjoys standing for looong periods of time before an open door before she deigns to pass through that portal!  No matter if she is letting rain in, heat out, wind break the door, or getting Mom ill with rain wetness, frigid wind, etc.  She will not be bribed, urged, scolded, pushed, pulled, or any other ...ed!

I have figured out that if I leave the doorway and go to the bedroom in the rear of the motorhome, that I MIGHT have success in getting her to walk on up the motorhome steps and come inside.  I think maybe she wants to see where I went, or maybe she thinks that I was in her space when I was standing in the doorway holding the door open and urging her to "come on, it's too cold to keep this door open!"  Sometimes after ten minutes or more I have to step outside and grab her collar and help her get started up the steps.

Hera's tempo is the royal tempo.