A transplanted Southern Californian living in North Dakota Idaho, with some insights on life with deaf dogs, a gluten free spouse, and the occasional mischievous garden gnome. Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy.





Saturday, January 30, 2016

Nap Under a Rocking Chair

Shadowfax has a half-dozen comfy dog beds in the living room to choose from, but she'd rather take a little nap with her head underneath this rocking chair.  Go figure. 
Does this look comfortable to you?  It sure doesn't to me.  But who am I to argue? 

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Shadowfax Asleep

Shadowfax the deaf pittie mix snuggling hard against the North Dakota winter. 
She spends a decent amount of time here in her cozy slumber ball and warming blanket.  I you want to check out the slumber ball bed or reflective warming blanket for your four legged friend there are links.  In many respects Shadowfax is a stereotypical pittie (or pittie mix) - lazy as all get-out.  If you want to know what a pit bull dog is like, here it is. 
That is the happy face of a dog that shall always have the finest things in life. 

Monday, January 18, 2016

Indoor Gardening and Pruning

It's been cold here in North Dakota, the third consecutive day where the temps haven't reached above 0. We're not complaining (much), that's winter in North Dakota.  Winter has some enjoyable activities, but it leaves a big gaping hole in our gardening yearnings. Some indoor gardening is in order.   
This is a ficus (ficus benjamina) tree that Alycia's parents had in their house for a number of years.  It belonged to Alycia's grandparents and is probably 20-30+ years old. It's been around for a long while. We've had it in our entryway for a few years and (as you can see above), it slowly grew to take over the East facing window in the entryway and leaving it looking really unbalanced.  Some pruning is in order!
I trimmed a bunch of unruly branches and rotated it. I don't rotate it very often as ficus trees can be finicky about being moved. They're prone to sulking and dropping their leaves if they get drafty or jostled around too frequently. After the trimming, you can finally see the nice window in the entryway with the leaded glass and tulip designs, I knew there was cool window behind all that foliage. 

Indoor gardening isn't as much fun as outdoor gardening, but it's a reasonable substitute for the next few months until the weather warms up and Spring arrives.  

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Merry Belated Christmas

I didn't get you anything for Christmas.  Heck, we didn't even send out or post or usual Holiday Newsletter.  We feel guilty.  You feel slighted.  But we're gonna make it all up to you (and then some) with this...
This magnificent photo is our annual family Santa Paws photo, held every Fall and a fundraiser for the Circle of Friends Humane Society here in Grand Forks.  Alycia's Mom knitted (proof here and here) the whole family matching outfits - sweaters for Shaak Ti and Shadowfax, hats for Alycia and I, and a cowl for Tito.  Why not a sweater for Tito?  Well, any fool who tries to put a sweater on Tito will leave with fewer fingers than they started with, that's for certain.

Hopefully your laughter helps soothe the disappointment of our not sending out a Holiday Newsletter, or even posting more frequently here on the blog.  We hope you had a very merry Holiday season and are on the path of having a happy and healthy 2016!