I finally got a photo of Miss Piggy. I have not gotten one of Grumpy as she sees me with the camera and takes off and all I get is a blur and Sam is so black it is hard to get one of him. I made some little catnip bags for all the cats. Miss Piggy loves hers.

My computer has been down for a few days after doing many things to it I finally got it working again.

I have been making socks, dog sweaters and now I am fixing a sweater I made for Jonah last winter the sleeves were to long so I am shortening them and the neck just did not look right so I cut it of and am redoing it. The photo does not look so good (bad camera) but the sweater is a good looking sweater in real life.

Here is the biggest puppy.

What a cute face.

Finally after all these years I learned to wind a ball of yarn so that it can be taken from the middle. I wound it around my cane. I had to attach something to the end so I could find the end again but it worked very good.

I have been busy making socks, I made these 5 for me and have yarn for 2 more pair.

The first pair is from some old 1960's yarn I found.

I made Willona 4 pair, Hannah 2 pair and Isaac 2 pair. They are going much faster once I figured out the pattern. The weather has been warmer than usual 52 degrees today.

Strange after the storm we had last month.

I found out today that the head gasket is cracked on my Van for the third time in the last 7 years.

There may be more damage once it thaws out and we can look at it more.

I hope it does not cost to much and I was saving my money for a new camera, so much for that.

The History of APRONS

I don't think our kids know what an apron is. The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, because she only had a few, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will; replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know, and love, the story about Grandma's aprons. Or it can be a good history lesson for those that have no idea how the apron played a part in our lives.

REMEMBER:Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron.

Things have not been going well around here lately. Yesterday Lizzy gave us a big scare she started shaking and sweating. At first we thought she was having a low blood sugar attack, as these small dogs need to eat to keep up their sugar levels and with the puppies we worried she was not eating enough. A trip to the Vet showed her calcium levels had dropped.
They gave her an IV and she came home an hour later looking very good and running around. But now the puppies need to be bottle feed so Liz does not have another episode. The little girl who has been using a bottle and nursing took to it good, she is so tiny, the others are doing better today. Willona feeds them every 2 hours with 5 puppies she says it takes 45 minutes to feed them all. She lets Liz in with them after to clean them up and cuddle with them. Liz gets very angry when she is separated from the puppies and they are feed and she barks the whole time.
During the day Willona gets the kids the help and it goes much faster but a night it is all up to her.
Baby Josiah had his shots yesterday also so he is fussy and wants Mom all the time. I am sure by the end of a week Willona will be very tired.
I will try to get photo's of the puppies soon.

I finally got some items posted for sale here. I only have the baby sweaters list now but will add more when I can. I have over 50 items to list.

Now that I got the sock thing down I have been making many socks. I finally learn to work with out the little stoppers on the ends of my needles. I have to get the pattern into my long term memory and we all need socks.

Lizzy had her babies on Jan 2 no white ones, we have 4 boys and 1 very little girl who is to weak to nurse so Willona is feeding her with a eye dropper.

Willona reminds me of my mom she does all she can until the animal either lives or dies. Mom many times had a box by her bed with some animal someone brought to her to save. Many of the animals lived some died and we buried them in the pet grave yard in the back.

I remember sitting in front of the oven, with Mom, with a bunch of baby rabbits that their mother rejected. The oven to keep them warm in their cotton beds and us to feed them and hold them to keep them alive.

I got a photo of

Cactus who is almost 15 and still plays like a kitten. He is my pal he thinks he has to take care of me and stays by me most of the time.

Larry, Gary, Love, Martin I call him Love. He is Isaac's cat and Isaac could not make up his mind what he wanted to call him. Love answers to all his names. We got him because Cactus was our only cat at the time and he could not keep up with the mice that we had in our new farm house that had stayed empty for several years and the mice thought it was theirs.

Jennifer who moved in with us after someone tossed her out. She is a very good mouser. With her we finally got our mouse population down.

Willona cleaned my carpet yesterday and I just love it. My room is one of the few rooms with carpet. It gets dirty fast because 5 out of the 7 cats hang out in here. And I am visited by several dogs a day. I am lucky they have to go a long way from the door to my room so I don't get a lot of mud. All the photo's of the cats I can find are of Gir, I will have to take some of

Cactus, Jennifer, Grumpy, Sam, Miss Piggy, and Love.

Gir I call him baby Gir, because we got him when he was a very little baby, with a hair cut and tail dyed, he loves the attention.

When Willona laid down for a nap Jazzy and Gir used her for a bed.

Lizzy

Lizzy is going to have her puppies any day now and the entire house is on edge waiting. All births are attended by all of us, taking turns to keep an eye on how things are going with Willona as Mid Wife. Lizzy was bread by a white Yorkie so we are hopping to get white puppies but you never know. You can see more here

It finally warmed up enough to rain. We did alright with the heavy snow. Paul worked most days up in the hills from us and got stuck a few times in his work van. Most times Willona and Jonah were able to pull him out with the 4 wheel drive van. One time he really got stuck and even the tow truck refused to come pull him out so he and Jonah worked at it until they got the van out.

I finally got my computer to working also.

Willona makes such good lasagna that she has to cook it in a large turkey roaster and then it was gone in 24 hours.

I wish these photos were not so bad but OK for a $19.00 camera.

This sock making has been a real challenge to me.

After making 3 very funny looking socks and 3 others getting the size correct I finally got a pair that looks like sock. They are really hunter green but came out lighter here.

Everyone else spent the day making pies. Since Paul can't work today he helped the kids make pumpkin and apple pies. It was still snowing today.

It is still snowing. The news says we have not had a winter event like this since 1968 so are calling it a 40 year storm.

I84 the Oregon side and SR14 the Washington side to the Portland have been closed for days. The finally got a bit of SR14 open tonight. SR14 is a 2 lane highway.

Everyone but me went to drop of a dog and pick up another one Sunday morning.

Jazzy being one.

They went through Yakima WA and they had to spend the night near Randal WA.

I used to be a Janitor and had to work in the snow all winter long driving around at night to get the the different jobs. And clearing the sidewalks in the morning before people started walking on them. I am so glad I don't have to go out in it now.

Snow and more snow.

Many power outages.

These were taken out the window as I am not going out in this unless I have to.

But the kids and deer love it.

My van and out in the front

Willona's van and the drive way.


Our wood that still needs to be chopped and garage

These are taken out my bedroom windows

We finally got our first snow.

My poor car!

My Mom sent me this email and it is so true.

My forgetter's getting better, But my rememberer is broke To you that may seem funny But, to me, that is no joke

For when I'm 'here' I'm wondering If I really should be 'there' And, when I try to think it through, I haven't got a prayer!

Of t times I walk into a room, Say 'what am I here for?' I wrack my brain, but all in vain! A zero, is my score.

At times I put something away Where it is safe, but, Gee! The person it is safest from Is, generally, me!

When shopping I may see someone, Say 'Hi' and have a chat, Then, when the person walks away I ask myself, 'who the hell was that?'

Yes, my forgetter's getting better While my rememberer is broke, And it's driving me plumb crazy And that isn't any joke.

Went to Randall WA today to drop off a dog. Took some photo's of some the the land between here and Yakima WA. Nothing lives here but some wild horses and I only seen one bunch and we drove by so fast I could not get a photo.

A snow storm is coming and you can see by the sky when it starts to get near.

This is Mount Raineer hiding behind the tree. It never fails something comes between me and what I want to take a photo of. It is covered in snow.