Virus!

Song of the day: “Forever” by Chris Brown and “Islands in the stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. I know, weird combo, but there you have it. Hah.

Disease headcount (turns out it is another intestine virus, so there is nothing we can do except wait and see if the “herd” immunity is strong enough) 3 dogs sick, 1 dead. Ancient Mango (we had the crossbreed for ten years, and he’d been an adult dog when we adopted him; the vet guessed him at fourteen three years ago) passed away yesterday afternoon, lying in his favorite spot on big brother’s room. For all the ways to die, this was definitely not the worst.

Six hours prior to his death, he was fine, cheery, and had just finished eating a special treat, settled on his pillow and then started to drift away…the end. I can only hope, that when the time comes, (and it will, I have no illusions about that) my Bobtail Bommel will go that way. No stretched out suffering in a useless attempt to fight the inevitable, just a quiet falling asleep, never to wake up again. Can’t ask for a better one than that…save immortality that is. Hah.

Well, as for the other dogs: so far so good. We’ll just have to wait and see.


I’ve been keeping an eagle eye on my personal pack, of course, and try not to let worry gnaw at me until there is actually something to worry about. There were times when worries could have paralyzed me from doing anything, and I won’t let it get that far again. I kinda like being healthy, thank you very much. Let’s move on to less depressing matters, I refuse to worry about things that I cannot change, and will just continue to do my very best and see where that leads me.

Okay, edits have been going slowly, but not bad. Big brother calls them quality edits rather than quantity, and that is as good a term as any. The changes that are being made are minor, really, but good. They improve the story, make the whole more comprehensive and…well, they’re making the story better for sure.

There has been yard work, of course. Ate our first iceberg slaw yesterday, by the way, and yes, it was friggin’ delicious. I’d forgotten that lettuce can actually have fibre…that is, they can when they’re grown on more than just five elements, the way those in the store are. Hah. It was a huge lettuce, a solid three pounds, I’m thinking and it was more than enough for nine people to eat from, with the serving of baked potatoes on the side.

We have watered plants, sowed more seeds, turned more earth and on the overall just kept pretty busy. At the moment, we’re experimenting with sowing real raspberries. Since we can only get the Tayberry variety around here, grandpa bought some fresh raspberries at the fresh produce shop, of which half went into the ground yesterday afternoon. Now it remains to be seen whether or not the seeds were ripe enough for them to sprout.

The sugar peas are sprouting at the moment, (underground of course, but the dogs dug one spot up yesterday) so they’ll become visible soon, yay. Tomorrow, or the day after the second lettuce will be harvested for dinner and the rest…well, their time will come, won’t it?

Right, what else? There were three rock-hauling trips with the car these past couple of days. What with all the projects still in process, we’re going to need them, which means that we’re going to have to resume the fetching trips. I took the opportunity to run up the mountain twice, which felt good. Apparently, I’ve had more than enough rest after being sick for a bit.

The weather has been pretty darn pleasant again. A fresh wind, bright sunshine, it makes being outside rather wonderful, if you must know. It is also, why I seriously dislike spending this particular morning (big brother needed an extra hour of sleep before we started on work because Ambah, a sick cocker spaniel, kept him up for three hours during the night) inside writing this particular blog. Hah.

I wonder how long it will be before I start looking forward to going inside again. The summer is likely to be bloody hot, and the cool house will then certainly be appreciated.

As for my day today, and the schedule for it…I don’t know yet. Laundry’s over and done with at least, but otherwise I’m guessing more yard work, unloading the car, maybe giving our tenant a hair trim and of course dodging dogs throughout. I do know that the dog food shipment is arriving again today, so I see some serious hauling in my near future. Hah.

Time to get cracking.