Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Just Life

There has been nothing earth shattering going on here in my little Home Sweet Apartment lately.  Just the usual Suzy Homemaker stuff.  I seriously doubt anyone cares to hear about my dish washing, floor scrubbing, toilet cleaning efforts.  I don't even care to hear about them.

The lady who takes my grocery order called yesterday.  Boneless chuck roast is on sale so I ordered 15 lbs.  I will cut this into pieces to fit into pint jars and can them.  Then whenever I want a roast beef dinner, I just dump the beef into a pan, add a jar of canned potato and carrot chunks, some onion and seasonings and bake it until it is heated through.

Strawberries at the Farmer's Market are done, but the store has them on sale so I ordered 12 lbs.  I haven't decided whether to freeze or can them, but am leaning more toward freezing.  I am down to maybe 3 packages of frozen strawberries in the freezer now, so that's probably where these will wind up.  I really like having frozen berries on hand, especially over the winter.  They seem to taste better somehow when summer is a long way off.

Granddaughter Boston called me last evening.  She knows that I worked at a dog grooming shop and that I have had a love of animals my whole life, so she wanted to ask me about a particular breed of dog.  Their family dog, Charlie the Beagle, died of old age earlier this year and the family is ready for a new dog in their lives.  Boston wanted to know about Golden Doodles, which are a cross breed of Golden Retriever and Standard Poodle.  The ones I worked with at the grooming shop were nice dogs with good personalities, especially the large ones.  There are some that have been bred down for a smaller size, and I can't say I was much impressed by those.  I found that downsizing the breed also seemed to downsize their intelligence.  That may have been just the individual dogs I saw, but the large Doodles seemed to be a much more well rounded dog and were more mellow.  I kind of hope they get one for I liked those I worked with.

Thinking about Boston's questions reminded me of another dog that was in my neighborhood.  Henry was a Labradoodle (Lab and Standard Poodle).  He was huge and looked like an Irish Wolfhound.  Henry was one of the best behaved dogs I have seen.  His owner walked Henry every day past my building.  Henry wore a leash because of the city ordinance requiring dogs to be leashed, but Henry carried the end of the leash in his mouth.  He walked himself.  Henry stayed next to his owner and always stopped and looked both ways before crossing a street.  But if he saw me a half a block away, he would look up at his owner who would give him permission, and then he would run toward me, full tilt.  To his credit, he always stopped short of knocking me down.  Henry loved to have his ears scratched and his head petted.  He would sit on the sidewalk next to me, reveling in the attention, until his owner caught up with him.  I think Henry must have moved away for I haven't seen him in a while.  I think I will call Boston and tell her about Labradoodles.

Yesterday afternoon I napped in my recliner.  Earlier I had checked the weather radar and there was no rain in sight.  I woke an hour or so later to the sounds of wind and rain and hail.  Looking out the window I found the rain coming down so hard that I could barely see across the street.  Sounded like someone was throwing pebbles against the front of my building.  Aparently a small storm cell developed right overhead.  I didn't know something that small could produce so much fury.  It was over as quikly as it appeared and left without doing any obvious damage.

And that is quite enough rambling for one morning.  After another cup of coffee, I believe today will be one of those dedicated to just puttering about.  Maybe a little sewing.  Maybe a little reading.  I have a recipe for soft ginger cookies I have been wanting to try and today seems like a good day for it.  The temperature is somewhat cooler than it has been so I don't mind having the oven on.  I like puttering days.  :)

8 comments:

  1. We had a little weather here yesterday evening. We finally got enough rain to help out a bit.

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  2. I thought about you last night while watching Kare 11 They said Scott Country had 2" in 40 min. We had some sprinkles as it was south of us. Winter is spouse to be bitter cold. That has me planning already.

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  3. You have had a bit of a dry spell there, haven't you, Gorges. Glad to hear you got some rain.

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  4. Rob...That mini storm just came up out of nowhere. I don't doubt we got that much rain in that short a time. It was like the sky just opened up and dumped on us. I hadn't heard any winter predictions, but getting ready for it is always a good thing. I've got a couple of things to do to get ready as well.

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  5. I stopped by yesterday and was hoping you were just enjoying life. Nice to see today's post. I don't have a very noteworthy life by some standards but I am happy and content. I enjoyed the day by swimming, walking the dog and then gardening for two hours. I'm tired, but in a good way!

    If your grands aren't set on getting a puppy, they might look into rescue groups. I know the Golden Retriever rescue society is quite active here. Some times people have to give up a good dog. I'm partial to goldens, as I'm on my 3rd one. I've met some of the bigger sized goldendoodles and would agree with your assessment. IMO, a lot of a dog's manners have more to do with their training by us humans then anything else. Cheers, SJ in Vancouver BC

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  6. One of the Farmers Almanacs is saying bitter cold...-40, and not Alaska.

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  7. SJ...Sometimes it is difficult to find anything remotely interesting to write about. Like you, I have the happy and content part, but little drama or excitement! Sounds like you had a lovely day. Mine has been spent just puttering, with a nap thrown in for good measure.

    My grands, I think, have their hearts set on a puppy. It is possible that a rescue group may have one. They are just in the looking and deciding stages right now and will get one later this fall.

    I think you are right about a dog's manners. I found when I worked at the dog grooming shop that crabby owners tended to have crabby dogs, hyperactive owners had dogs that barked at anything and everything and calm owners had equally calm dogs. I think about Henry's owner. He was calm, sort of quiet, but firm in what he expected in the behavior of Henry. I never heard him raise his voice to the dog, but corrected him in a way that left no doubt as to what his expectations were. As a result, Henry was one of the most trustworthy and happiest dogs I have known. :)

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  8. Swell, Rob...I could have gone all day without knowing that. :)
    Well, we Minnesotans love to complain about the weather, so if the Farmer's Almanac is correct, we should be happy to have something to grouse about.

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