2015 December | The Road Home

Snow!

We got snow – about 4 inches, but a beautiful start. Auggie and Bear are having big fun running and playing in the snow. I have high hopes for snowshoeing next week.

Snow!

Auggie started the day in my bed. Actually, he spent all night in my bed. Yesterday afternoon/evening something happened. At 5:30 P.M. which is full dark, he’d been out for 2 hours without checking in. Bear and I were out about every 30 minutes walking around and calling. At 7:30, I phoned my neighbors and they had a look around. Nothing. I took another perimeter walk and just as I was getting back to the house, there was Auggie. He wasn’t injured but he had a bunch of loose fur on his shoulder that came out when I brushed him. He came straight in, ate an entire can (small can, but still) of food and went to bed.

This morning, when I got up – late! – he stayed in bed. He finally arose and seemed himself. I checked again and didn’t find any hurts but except for a brief time in the morning and then a walk with Bear and I in the afternoon, he stayed in the house. But he played with toys and ran around so something happened outside. Another mystery in the life of Auggie!

Oh, look! The dog is in the dog bed – a rare occurrence!

At the same time, Auggie is in the chair in the kitchen. He’s sleeping on the cushion of the chair for the island as I moved him cushion and all so that I as in ME – could have my supper sitting at the island. Not a bed, but the island is MY spot for meals.

At least Bear was on his own bed.

Projects

After a long time under the low clouds of inversion, we had two days with a LOT of rain.

During a sun break … the grass looked better and greener than it did all summer! In fact, that photo looks more like a summer day than most summer days did. There really should be snow on the ground.

Oh, we had some wind. The chairs typically tumble around, but I guess the first whoosh convinced them to just lie back and let the wind pass. Which it did. The trees around my house, thankfully stayed put. One large tree on the state land did not. I heard the crack and boom shortly after the whooshing started as Bear and I ran for the house.

Other spots around the valley had worse, but all in all, this part of Montana fared better than Washington and Oregon and we ended the week with a Winter Advisory in place which so far has turned out to be mostly more rain.

The weather is what it is. I had a good work week ending with being caught up from the previous light week. Saturday, there was a bit of sun and I enjoyed that outside with Bear and Auggie and had another round of “pick up sticks”. I made peppermint ice cream and mixed dough for sugar cookies. Bear and I made a quick run to Bigfork for just a few supplies needed. We got out of town before Santa’s arrival but did note see that the elf manning the Salvation Army station was equipped with a smartphone. I asked if he was texting Santa. He said no but he did at least laugh.

Today’s projects were a new curtain rod and cutting out and baking the sugar cookies. I attempted to multi-task…

I don’t know what it is about curtain rods.

I always have a bit of trouble.

I can hear step-Dad Bill and neighbor Mike wondering why I need a vice-grips to install a curtain rod???

The answer is because I had a bit of trouble with the first screw and when I wanted to remove it and start fresh, I needed the vice-grips because I had destroyed the Phillips head of the screw.