Freezing Fog

I learned the name of the phenomenon I mentioned on Saturday's blog. Not so oddly, it is called a "freezing fog". We had a good one today. We took a little walk around the property after getting the mail and I brought my camera.

This is a single twig. Look how the fog has "grown".

This is the same twig. I knocked the frost off. You'll notice the background is the same.

I had the dogs pose for a portrait amongst the frosted weeds.
We saw this tree. Something wasn't quite right so we took a closer look.

Maybe a pack rat nest? They do live in this area. Fortunately it was vacant at the time I took the picture.

And finally on this chilly day I decided to get started with the wallpapering. I got two strips up and it looks ok. I'll have to do a little paint touch up at the top because I was having trouble cutting it even. So it's not a totally professional job, but it'll do.

I just hope I don't walk into the room tomorrow and find the strips curled up at the bottom of the wall!

Speaking Of Fences...

Quite some time ago we finally got a hold of the fence guy who actually came out and gave us an estimate for our dog fence. Even though it was not inexpensive we went ahead and agreed to have it built. We dropped off the deposit (which was half the cost) and waited for him to call us to set a time to get the fence built.

And we waited.

And we waited.

Finally hubby called him and guess what? He was just about to call us!!

Yesterday they got started. Here are the two worker guys measuring and marking.

Digging the post holes. This is the only way to dig a post hole!

Oops. Hit an unmarked sewage pipe. No biggie, though. This was from the mobile home pad which hasn't been used in many years so it was totally dry. It did have to be repaired so dirt wouldn't get into the connecting house line. It was quickly repaired without any other problems.

The posts go in...
...and are cemented.

The next day (today) the guys returned. Here they are putting the top rails in.

The cyclone fencing and gates are attached.
The fence is done.
Looks good!
Finally, something went right!

The horse fence was repaired but the electric charger is still not right. I think we'll be bringing it back to the store tomorrow to see what they have to say about it.

Fingers are crossed...

New Dog Collars

Our latest big news item: The dogs got fancy new light-up collars!

We figured since we didn't have a fence yet and there's no telling when that might happen we might as well get the dogs these fancy flashy light-up collars. Besides they were on sale!

I had a hard time getting a picture with the collars turned on. With the camera in the regular mode it flashed and you couldn't see the lights. When I turned the flash on the camera off the camera still took in too much light and you couldn't see the collar lights. So this picture was the best I could do where you could still see the flashy lights on their collars. Sorry for the blurriness.

While I was "working" on this post my husband asked if I couldn't take a picture with my I-phone. And while I don't have an unlimited data plan and I have to pay extra for every picture I send I figured it was certainly worth a try and here are the results!

This is the same view as the above picture only with my i-phone. You can see the collar lights in the darkness. (Gus is on the left, Clyde is on the right.)

A "close up" of Gus's collar.
And with the lights on you can kind of still see the lights on their collars!

If you are interested in a collar for your dog I got it from www.keepdoggiesafe.com. Maybe you can even see the collar a little better. The collar has three modes: flashes on and off; steady on; or off. When I let the dogs out tonight I could really see where they were in the darkness. It's kind of cool!

Hail

Friday was the first nice day we've had in a while. Then Saturday the temperature dropped and it got rainy again. We also had a little surprise. Saturday afternoon we got quite a little hail storm. It hailed for at least 10 minutes.

This is the front porch right after the hail started up.

Here is the same view just a few minutes later!
Of course we had to let the dogs experience the hail. Gus wasn't too thrilled.
Notice the hail bouncing off his back!

Clyde is slowly but surely getting acclimated to the weather here. He doesn't seem too bothered by the hail.

I was trying to get a shot of the hail bouncing off his back too. That's why he's looking at me like "why do you keep sending me out?"

The front yard. It almost looks like sticking snow!

Today the sun is shining brightly, but the temperature is still kind of low. I think warmer weather is supposed to be on the way. In about another week or so?

Cat In The Box

Clyde occasionally gets fixated on Ollie for some reason. Earlier today I cleared out a box that had a bunch of older bills and miscellaneous papers and I left the box on the floor. Ollie thought it would be a good place to park her big behind in.

Maybe Clyde can't figure out what she is doing in the box.

She seems to be aware of his presence and is mildly annoyed.
Now she is just pretending he isn't there at all.
Silly creatures!

In other news we had a big storm come through here last week. It knocked out the power in a bunch of areas, including ours. We weren't as lucky as some, and were luckier than others. Our power was out from about 3:30 in the afternoon until 8:15 the next morning.

The bad news for us is that our big tv appears to be fried now. It just won't turn on. We've managed to attach the cable to our little 16" tv and that's what we're watching now. How I miss our big tv. :-(

****************************************************************

We got a cost estimate from the bank for the property and construction loan.

Yikes! If the construction costs are as high as they are estimating (and she did say they are estimating on the high side), then we will NOT be able to move forward.

As it is written now it will take every single bit of cash we have. That wouldn't be so bad except then they want an additional four months worth of "reserves" in the bank. That basically means four months worth of mortgage payments. Which will not be there after the 20% down payment and closing costs.

We met with the transport guy yesterday. We figured it would cost a little bit extra to get the house parts up to the property because of the bit of hill they would have to travel. Fortunately it was not as much as we had anticipated.

Today we met the contractor at the site. Though specific costs were not discussed I felt a little better about everything. I had the impression that the construction cost estimates that the bank had were very much on the high side.

I am praying every day that if this was meant to be then God will provide the means for us to make it happen. I also ask that if it's not to be then we will know and it will just fall apart. So far it seems to be happening.

Though it is hard to let go of control I am leaving it in His hands; like the Carrie Underwood song says, "Jesus, take the wheel!"

Dirty Dogs = Dirty Tub

I haven't given the dogs a proper soapy sudsy bath since we've been here. We have hosed the mud off their legs and rubbed them with a towel but that's just not the same. I decided to give them a real bath after we got back from our walk at the BLM's North Bank Ranch.

I went with the hardest to wash first, which was Gus. It was really bad. I cleaned it out before I gave Clyde his bath. To be honest by the time I finished with Clyde my back was kind of sore and I decided to clean the tub later.

That's when I realized I could take a picture and at least I'd have a little bit of blog fodder for those in my family that start writing nasty emails when I haven't posted for more than two or three days! (Just kidding!)

So here is the tub after washing Clyde. I realize it's a little hard to see but in real life it's pretty bad.

Now imagine it about three times worse than this. That's what it looked like with Gus, the Golden Retriever.

I used my scrubbie on them and consequently it's become a "dogs only" scrubbie.

In the house search front we have a meeting tomorrow morning with our realtor. I'm beginning to reevaluate my wants list. I'm thinking maybe I won't get the property I want and I'll just have to make do with something smaller, acreage wise. We'll see what she has to say tomorrow.

See You At The Rainbow Bridge

Chester, our Chesapeake Bay Retriever, passed away early Sunday. Without going into a lot of painful details, basically he bloated again and didn't make it through the night. The vet said she had left him at 12:30 Sunday morning and when she returned at around 8:30am he was gone. She assured me he had not been in any pain.

We'll see you later, buddy!

December 17, 1998 to February 6, 2011

Icky Ticky

We found a tick on Gus.

I'm guessing he picked it up from the last time we went for a walk at the North Bank Ranch. I first noticed it as a swelling above his left eye. Upon closer examination I found what looked like a wart.

I know it sounds kind of silly but there are warts that will grow really fast and I thought that's what it was. But in the back of my mind there was a suspicion...

I even went so far as to Google warts and found something that sounded like what Gus's new addition looked like.

But a few days later the swelling over his eye didn't go away (which I thought might have been from the dogs playing together in a rough manner like they sometimes do). At least the "wart" seemed to have stopped growing.

Then I did what I should have done in the first place: I put my reading glasses on, got a flashlight and took a good look at the thing. That's when I noticed the little black strings at the skin line. And then the little black strings moved!

AAACCKK! A tick! Another Google search and I found a site that showed how to remove ticks from dogs using a special tool. You can use tweezers if you don't have the tick removal tool. The thing about the site was the tick it showed looked exactly like the one over Gus's eye.

So lacking the special tick removal tool I got my tweezers and tried to carefully remove the tick.

As you can see I was successful.

It left a nice little hole over Gus's eye.

Lacking any rubbing alcohol I swabbed the hole with my Sea Breeze cleanser.

I am happy to say that today except for the little hole left behind the swelling is all down and everything is back to normal.

Looks like I'm going to have to invest in that special tick removal tool.

North Bank Ranch Walk With The Dogs

We took the dogs out to the North Bank Ranch today for a walk. Good for them and good for us. This is at the beginning of the Jackson Ranch entrance ("D" on this map).

Looks like the makings of a new bridge.

The natural order of things: Gus staying close, Chester mid-range, and Clyde scouting way ahead.

Clyde leaping through the brush.
All yield to the horses. I like that.

I'd say Chasm Creek is aptly named.

These little signs everywhere make it easy to know the boundaries. The other side of this fence is the Jackson Ranch.

A nice walk on a beautiful day.