How The West Was Spun

Summertime - And the Living Is Easy

I don't really have much to report here.  Getting prepared for our race this weekend, and trying to stay ahead of work and chores, with some knitting thrown in.  My office-mates have decided it's definitely summertime (maybe not the dog days yet, but close), and summer equals napping, right?

Rowan really likes to be comfortable when she sleeps.  (This pose is accompanied by a lot of snoring, tho.)  You will also notice the backup blanket in the foreground.  On the rare occasion Syd leaves the cool tile floor to visit with us, we've gotta have equal napping opportunities in the office for all.

 

Not to be outdone, Emma has take over her absolute favorite piece of wool-wear - my bunny shawl that Cathy crocheted for me several years ago.  It's a little too warm for me for the summer, but she found it draped over my UFO bin, and has claimed it for herself for the summer months.

 

And while they are snoozing, I've added a few more rows to the Aphrodite shawl, because that damn thing is like pistachios.

 

All for now.....

Fuzzy Face Friday

Wednesday, before the wind got really bad here (like 45 mph winds), I took a walk out on North Mesa from the equestrian park with Rowan and Sydney.  We are definitely high desert topography up here.  This is the trail facing east, towards the Sangre de Cristos mountains.   You can see houses off to the left in the picture (north in the real world).  Those are actually on the other side of the canyon, on Barranca Mesa.

The footing on this trail is great for horse-riding, although unfortunately, it's only about a 5-mile loop to go out and back before run out of real estate.  Barely enough time for the horses to work up a sweat. 

 

After I got the dog-girls walked, I headed back to our horse lots to spend some time with these handsome fellows.  I leave you with a little Friday eye-candy.

 

Digger.

 

Sam

 

And Bhen.

Have a great weekend!  All for now.......

All Is Right With The World

After a couple of days of having two nice, pet-able yarn cakes of the hand-dyed merino/alpaca/silk DK yarn sitting on my desk, I succumbed to their siren song and worked up a gauge swatch for the Coraline cardigan.   Couldn't have been easier.  Size 4 US needles, which the pattern calls for, with 6 sts per inch, and 7 stitches per inch for row-gauge.  Now I just have to paddle myself off sleeve island and I am ready to move ahead to Coraline.

 

This, needless to say, has made all the project helpers around the house very happy.  Rowan's been finally able to relax and really get that nap she's been wanting for a while (having reclaimed her bed from the cat, at least for the moment).

 

All for now.....

Good News/Bad News

Today (Monday) wound up being one of those days where you hit the ground running and just keep on going.

So, first the good news.  I really like our new small-animal vets.  They are a two-vet practice right here in town, both women.  Very outgoing, extremely compassionate and friendly.  They have great hours too - 8 to 5:30 Monday thru Friday PLUS Saturdays, and they run a kennel facility, so the dogs could stay there when we have reason to go out of town.  Nice!

Now the bad news.  We wound up needing to find all this information out emergently this morning.  D had taken Rowan out to the horse park, like he always does, to feed and let her run around a little, while Syd and Emma and I stay home, make the coffee and tea, and pack lunches.  D came home at about his usual time and yelled "I need some help here".  He was carrying Rowan.  Turned out, while she was locked on the barn cat (she is FIXATED on cats), she got stepped on by Bhen while he was backing up to take a different perspective on his morning food selection.  She had a small abrasion of about a quarter-sized area where the fur had been scraped off, but she wouldn't put any weight on her leg. 

Now, this is a dog who came ricocheting out of a pile of sagebrush with a 2-inch long gash in her back leg down to the muscle and never ever broke stride.  She has an incredibly high level of pain tolerance, but she had been yelping in agony at the park, until D strode over and picked her up.  (She's only about 30 pounds.)  He had brought her home so we could assess and thought maybe she'd walk it off, but when she still wasn't putting any weight on it, we knew she needed to be seen.

So, I was at the vet clinic at 7:59, and they got me in immediately - no waiting.  The vet did a really complete exam on her.  Palpated the front leg, moved the joint, felt for swelling, rotated the leg.  Rowan just sat there and tried to lick the vet's face.  The vet sunnily assured me she really didn't think it was going to be anything to worry about, but they'd get x-rays.  She was back in under 5 minutes, surprised as hell, with the films, which showed a clean break of the radius at a 45-degree angle.  The ulna (the other "arm" bone) wasn't injured and nothing was displaced. 

Since they were having a pretty quiet morning, they just put Rowan into the surgery schedule, sedated her and got a cast put on.  I went and picked her up after work and barn chores, and she's now at home convalescening with her super-duper cast on.

 

The vet techs apparently enjoyed having her stay with them.  (She really is a good-hearted little thing.  Just...um.... kind of kamikaze!) They decorated her cast with a little heart.

 

The reverse side (I didn't want to bother the sleeping dog, as the proverb recommends) has a small horseshoe on it..... for luck. 

We'll keep our fingers crossed she's learned her lesson to pay a bit more attention to the 900 (or, in Sam's case, 1250) pound creatures at the barn from here on out.

All for now.....