Good Bye Norbert 9/26/2001 to 8/16/2016

I just posted this over on Facebook, so if you're one of those friends, you'll see this in two places.

I have been beating myself up because we came home Tuesday night to find that Norbert had died while we were out. He had coughed a few times earlier in the day and some panting but then would go back to breathing normally. I made an appointment for him to be seen early Wednesday morning. I knew things were possibly nearing the end. But at the time we left, his breathing was back to normal. He didn't want to take a treat I tried giving him, that concerned me, but I really didn't think this was it. Gave him scritches and left with Brandon to see his aunt who was in town and his mom's birthday.

Dawn-Marie had stopped by with potato salad supplies shortly after we had left. She said that Norbert got up to say hi, tail wagging and was up on the couch and got pets from her and didn't seem to be having any problems breathing. Just seemed happy to see her along with the other dogs.

We found him on the couch a couple hours later. The dogs were quiet when we got home. They usually start barking once they here the car door closing and I had a few things to get out, so slow to get to the front door. Looks like he had been on a pillow and just left.

Greta had told me that he may have just been waiting to be alone. I was feeling awful that he was alone. But the other dogs were with him. He had been laying where I sit, so he had my scent close to him. We had almost 15 years with the silly boo bear. He's with his Nessa girl who left us six years ago, all too early. Kieran and Leeloo seem to be sleeping more. Kieran cried with William Tuesday night. Leeloo also tried to console William. The humans, we're struggling too.

William went back and forth on what to do, bury or cremate. We went with cremate, and now need to find a special tree to plant in the yard with his ashes, when they come back. We'll also go do a memorial thing at one of the Dove Lewis events for Norbert and Nessa the Scocker Crew gone now.

For those who didn't know Norbert. He was half Scottie and have Cocker Spaniel. The lady from Eugene we got him from called him a Scocker. He was William's dog. He got me into clicker training and SPT - Start Puppy Training, that I would eventually help co-moderate for a few years. He taught me about dog nutrition and holistic medicine. I thought I had a second Scocker with Nessa as a puppy, until she clearly showed her Schnauzer dna at the APDT Conference and everyone was complimenting me on the cute Schnauzer puppy. Norbert got to take puppy agility classes and if his structure had been more sound would have had fun doing that. Dwarfism and a sports doc said that it would put too much strain on his knees and back. I like to credit getting Heather Christensen started in teaching training as I asked her to take on Norbert and William as students when they were both acting in their teen ways. He got to meet famous people like Melissa Alexander the author, who also had a puppy the same time he was in SPT. Linda Tellington-Jones used him in a T-Touch class. She also cleared a raging ear infection with that. Norbert did enjoy Tracking. He was protective of Nessa and a Rule Keeper. It was hard explaining to lab owners that yes, your big black baby might be friendly, but its rude and not listening to Nessa freaking out and Norbert is going to take its face off because its in her face. So more training experiences for all of us, but not nearly enough tracking I think. The Scocker Crew went to a couple of Barn Hunt trainings. Norbert didn't have problems going into the tunnels, but wouldn't bark when he found the rats. This did not stop him from killing a rat that tried coming into the house. He was quick and quiet and in short order it was dead.

Norbert mourned for six months the loss of his Nessa girl. I still miss my girl. He was already a middle aged man, set in his ways when I got Leeloo. His hearing was starting to go. It took us a few years to figure out that he had a chicken-turkey-duck (I gave up and didn't try pheasant) allergy. With his cocker ears, he was prone to ear infections showing his allergy reactions. He did not like have his Cone of Doom for each of his ear surgeries. He enjoyed going for walks and treated Leeloo like Nessa who needed to be protected from other dogs. The last few years, going the full loop around the neighborhood was much harder for him, so a shorter route was his. He still longed to go when I took Kieran and Leeloo for their walks, just not up to their pace. We would find him sitting and waiting near the front door on our return.

*New from FB**In grabbing a pic to add to this post, I realized I forgot to say how much he loved balls. Taking him out to a field to chase after a ball. Getting the mini tennis balls in the house. We could keep him busy running after those. We knew he had slowed down in the last couple years when he would only go once or twice and then go lay down. Leeloo and Kieran aren't as interested in balls.

He loved his backyard, and would amble around with the other two. There was less sunbathing this summer. He would lay on the vent and let the cool air blow on him. He loved the cold days and would always perk up for those and loved playing in the snow. He was always a picky eater, but with Kieran he learned that if I sit at the kitchen door, I too may get a special treat when mom is cooking in the kitchen, so not so old to learn new tricks. Nessa knew this one. Kieran had kind of moved Norbert off the bed. The "hey old man, you can't warn about danger, cause you can't hear it, I should sleep at mom's feet." So Norbert moved off the bed that was harder for him to get up on and got good sleep without being kicked by mom. He had a pillow pile in the closet that he picked to sleep on. It was his man cave because it was dark during the day, if he wanted to stay in there, instead of out with us in the living room. Kieran would alert us if Norbert went to the back door to be let out if we hadn't noticed Norbert up and out of the kitchen (he started doing loops in there trying to find any dropped goodies). With Leeloo, Norbert had relaxed and would come and check out people who came to the house. He had his preference of people who he liked seeing and who he would wanted pets from. He loved his boy and missed not seeing him every day. I know that William probably has guilt about that now, but wasn't able to have Norbert live with him. Norbert would have been lonely even though living with his boy.

Norbert, you'll be missed, you were loved by all of us.

Norbert and Nessa on a walk at Dawson Creek Park. They loved this park and chasing the birds. Together again.

Two months

Today it has been two months since I lost Nessa. She's still in my thoughts almost daily. There are fewer tears and I can laugh at memories. We sometimes mistakenly call Leeloo, Nessa, but its in a good way.

Nessa is with us in spirit and I think parts of her have come to stay in Norbert and Leeloo. Nessa loved her rawhide chew sticks and didn't mind my leaving the house so long as I left her with one of them. Norbert would also get one, but he was usually more interested in returning to his nap than chewing on it. This allowed Nessa to often steal his chewie stick.

These days its Norbert and Leeloo taking turns stealing the chewie sticks from each other. Norbert comes up on the bed looking for Leeloo's, so while he's up on the bed, she's down on the floor checking out his hidey-hole in the bedroom (in the closet, behind the rocking chair) looking for his. I have to pay attention that they each have their own or that they seem fine with the switch.

They take turns channeling Nessa in regards to food. If Norbert is eating it, and Leeloo wasn't sure about it, she'll eat it after watching him eat it. Norbert was this way and had to see Nessa eat it before he would trust it was good to eat. He sometimes still decided she was crazy and would spit things back out. There have been a few times that Leeloo has been able to get him to try a food.

Before we lost Nessa, it took Norbert almost eight years to figure out the whole food-kitchen thing. Nessa would hang out in the doorway ready to scoop up anything that fell on the floor, or I would toss her way. Norbert had finally started to show an interest in food and was hanging out with her. He's still doing that and now Leeloo is joining him there.

Now if only they would both channel Nessa in eating when I put their food bowls down. They both have a tendency to be picky eaters of their own food. Norbert is more than willing to eat puppy food, but it has chicken/turkey in it and shouldn't be eating it. Thus far it doesn't seem to have triggered an ear infection. Leeloo will eat her food, but if given a choice she'll eat Norbert's first. So I'm back to feeding separately and having to watch both.

Miss you baby.

Norbert does Earthdog (pic heavy)

This morning we as a family headed over to Canby and a paintball place to let Norbert experience the terrier sport of Earthdog the local Dachsund Club was putting on for people. $25 for an hour, one on one help and six out of eight stations.

Here's Norbert getting to see the rat in the cage. The cage is then moved and he's supposed to follow it. He did but after a few times, he's like - is that it? The lady commented that the 'smart' dogs are the hardest to do these with. Um, yeah. Okay.

From there we moved on to follow a rat track along the ditch. Find the three tubes along the way. Two of them empty (but stuff inside like rat bedding) and one with a rat inside. We found all those:

Leeloo was along also. She ended up having the best seat and the best viewing - from William's jacket:

Next up was tunnel introduction. They had wooden three sided tunnels that the dogs could practice going through. They were pretty short, unless you're a tiny puppy or a dachsund. Norbert was less than thrilled with the idea of these tunnels. This from a dog who had fun in puppy agility going through the chute?! So we moved on to the short wood tunnels underground. This was a two person job and the cameraman (AKA Brandon) had to change jobs and help with this process. With some persuasion to enter, he zipped across and out - some nudging and cheese/dried liver were involved with that. (So no pics here with these two.) He did very well with the little mini-tunnel with the rat in the end (of course he found it above ground first, little snot.)

They had a bunch of cardboard boxes piled up with a rat in another tube (all of these other rats by the way other than the store bought one in the cage were wild.) There was even supposed to be a rat trail to it. He found the trail, found the previous dog's p-mail and said - "yeah, there's a rat in there. what? you want me to go in there? don' think so"

With one last area that we could go to, the Junior/Senior course - opening and three 45 degree turns to get to the rat with a rat trail laid in, all under ground of course, with a rat at the end. He found the entrance to the tunnel then went around the area and found where the rat was  - all above ground again. Tried to get him to go through the tunnel and he got to the first turn and said "don' think so" again and backed back out. 

All this 'rat stuff' was hard work, as evidenced by the tongue hanging out. He has an incredibly long tongue too.

There was cheese involved with this picture of absolute attention:

Norbert says he doesn't feel like an 'earthdog' right now, he's more of an 'urbandog' with a rat kill already to his credit. He's willing to give it a go if there's another one like this.

William and Leeloo hanging out in the chair waiting for us to finish up, then her running to come join back up with us:

Leeloo still wasn't too thrilled with the car ride on the way over, but did much better on the way home. It was a long hour with lot to see/smell/hear with all the dogs and people, so she was tired out. Leeloo enjoyed the sunny weather and showed more interest in playing in the backyard this afternoon. She's terrorized the little blackberry starts that 'were' growing as well as some Hazelnut starts (the birds bring them over the fence and crack them in the maple tree, we get starts from the shells that Nessa missed foraging through the winter) and some grass taller than her. She also tried carrying around some sticks and did a pretty good 'shake-kill' with one branch almost as long as her. Its funny to watch her play bounces, that are kind of like little twisty circles. Confidence is growing and making some leaps, will have to watch that none are from the furniture or the bed!

ETA: Missed the Spinning Bee today and found out that because of Mother's day there won't be one in May. Looks like June will be the next one, if we're home. We have hopes of using the stepparents cabin up by Steven's Pass for that week. We'd like to hang out by the Foss Creek, take walks in the woods and go into Leavenworth.

Meet LeeLoo

I drove back and forth to Centralia Friday night to meet some puppies and came home with one. This was after setting up an appointment to possibly adopt a 2 year old Yorkie girl, Opal.

I spent the drive crying up there thinking of Nessa and longing for her and knowing that a new puppy wasn't going to be replacing her, just a next step. It was still terribly painful. There were also tears on the drive back but less of them today.

I did get to see and meet mom and dad. Mom was terribly excited to see me and Dad was a little shy. Mom is a half Yorkie - half Silkie Terrier and weighed in at nine pounds. Dad is full Yorkie and weighs five pounds. (If you didn't go check out the link above.)

While meeting the puppies, I went with the express purpose of picking one of the girls, both boys spent most of the time flirting with me. Every time I thought I had a puppy picked out, turns out it was a boy. Then one of the girls kept coming back to me and finally stayed. I was picked.

Other than a few minutes of crying after we left she settled down and slept through the drive. Made it easier to make the drive. Nessa cried the entire trip, she never did learn to like car rides.

Looks like she's about twelve inches long and currently weighing in at two pounds six ounces. I'm hoping that she'll end up in the five or six pound range, but we'll just have to wait and see. We've had more crying today as she adjusts to no siblings or mom to suck on. She's been eating kibble since five weeks but still allowed to nurse. She's also a little snuggle bug that I've been missing.

Norbert has been pretty good with her. Thinks she's interesting, protective of her but that did snark once when she got near William's feet. We'll be keeping an eye on their interactions of course! We have Nickel and Cedi here for the weekend and Norbert is also keeping Nickel away from her. Norbert doesn't challenge Cedi in any way and defers to her. Sometimes he's frustrated because she's laying across the hallway and he can't get around her. Kind of funny to see.

Bounced around names all day and Carissa commented that she reminds her of her dog Lola and suggested Lulu. Which triggered the Fifth Element character Leeloo name. It's one of our family favorite movies. So here's Leeloo:

I need to clip some nose hairs that are causing her eyes to tear because they poke her in the eye. We have a vet appointment for Monday afternoon, earliest I could get a particular vet, she's popular. I'm remembering what its like to have a baby in the house. Lots of sleeping, some eating, going outside (its a little intimidating) and playing.

Dyeing Naturally

Trtgrl and family took me along for a ride to Pico-Accuardi Dyeworks headquarters in North Portland. Debby and Stevanie along with Michelle were doing a day of mini-classes. You could learn how to spin on a drop spindle, do some natural dyeing and how to do entrelac in the round. We were interested in the natural dyeing so that's what we headed over for in the afternoon.

Arriving early, we of course pulled out our knitting and chatted with Debby and Michelle. We couldn't help adding in our spinning tidbits and we all learned. A few rows on our shawls were knitted and then it was our turn with Stevanie.

Stevanie had some pots with black walnut, cochineal, logwood, pomegranate (forgot to try), logwood-grey (forgot to try), madder, onion skins - yellow and red in separate pots and indigo. We also ended up mixing up a batch of madder-walnut and baking soda for a nice dark red. We were given mini-skeins of cream colored sock yarn and a light grey columbia wool. Both had been pre-mordanted, and dry so we were ready to go.

Our work area:

Sock yarn: logwood-baking soda| cochineal-logwood-baking soda| walnut-cochineal| walnut-madder-baking soda| cochineal-indigo|indigo:

Columbia wool: yellow onion| cochineal-logwood-indigo| indigo| madder-red onion-indigo| indigo

I have need to do some natural dyeing of some cotton fabric for SCA garb for Brandon and I. I have a source that I can try out woad and a kit that has madder, cochineal, walnut and a couple of others. 

Nessa came home on Friday. We are definitely going to replace the tin her ashes are in. They clipped a nice amount and a variety of her hair for me and did a nice casting of her paws. Brandon is going to build a nice box with a picture frame front for her and has some wood in mind. 

Bleeding Hearts

I vaguely noticed that there was pink in the garden when we came home Sunday afternoon. It was when Nessa had gone outside and sat down out in her backyard. I think she would have also have gone to check on her fish, but didn't have the energy for it. If I had known it would be the last time in one of her favorite places, I would have taken over to the pond to also see her fish.

I think its supposed to cloud up tomorrow, so this morning was the best time to go out into the backyard and take pictures of the Bleeding Hearts putting on their show. For me appropriate because I still feel as if my heart is bleeding.

Thank you to all who have written condolences here. Many of you have also lost a beloved pet and know the heartache. Some have even met Nessa and remember her. Norbert is grieving too. We were able to get him to play ball a bit last night, he goes with me every night to pick up Brandon from work. Norbert is sleeping a lot, me not so much. Neither one of us is really eating like we should. We'll work on that. Next week after Spring Break is over and kids are back in school, I'm going to make sure that we both get out every day for walks in parks, Nessa's favorites of course.

Tuesday I went through all my photos of her and picked out a lot to be printed into photos at Walgreens, they after all had sent me a coupon. I'll pick one for a special frame to go on my desk so that I'll be able to see her little smiling face everyday. The place we took her to be cremated offered to clip some of her hair for me and to also do a casting of her paw prints. I'd trimmed her nails, but one paw, of course one of the front paws. Hopefully they trim it before doing the casting.

I'm going to take the time to write her life story down. I think it might help my grieving process and I'll have it later. I know she won't be forgotten by her family, but memories do dim with time.

I have also put out the call for a good breeder of Miniature Schnauzers, preferably one that is local so that friend Greta can come with me and be my voice of reason. I love those Schnauzer faces and while it won't be Nessa's, I think it will help. I've promised that I won't bring home a puppy for two weeks. It wouldn't be fair to either of us to bring a puppy immediately in the house.

Nessa April 26, 2002 to March 22, 2010

Nessa died tonight at 1:34am. That's so stark, but I've been crying for over an hour since she's gone. She had thrown up her breakfast Wednesday and Thursday but ate her dinners. Friday she was willing to eat beef broth, nibbling some corned beef and drinking and still active. So we thought she was up to the trip to the beach to the beach house. While there she refused to eat but was still drinking. She was keeping down the pedialyte and baby food that we got her on Saturday. It wasn't until we got home this afternoon and I realized that I hadn't seen her drink today. So we were using the syringe (minus needle) to try to keep her hydrated with the pedialyte. I had her on the bed with me so I could keep an eye on her through the night and Brandon volunteered to sleep on the couch. At 1:30am she sat up, threw up what was in her stomach and then leaned over. I moved her to a different position and realized that was her last breath. My baby was gone.

I've been out of the bedroom for an hour and a half and she hasn't come out to check on me and go flop down on the couch to wait for me to tell we were going back to bed. Brandon's come out though. No more happy wiggly butt happy to see that I'm back home. No more snoring warm body leaning against me butt to butt in bed. Yes, I know Brandon will still be there, but it won't be her. He won't have to complain because she's laying in the bed between us. No little girl excited that its sunny and going outside to check her fish, or sun bathing on the patio.

Nessa would have turned eight next month. She picked me out when I went to visit her litter. She was advertised as a scottie-cocker. She was born in Molalla to a backyard breeder of Cocker Spaniels who mis-identified her neighbor's dog as a Scottie instead of a Schnauzer. I was still new to the world of dogs, so it wasn't until at a Rally-Obedience trial at APDT and all the ladies were cooing over the cute little Schnauzer puppy that I realized that there may have been a mistake made.

There were all these little puppies crawling all over but she was the one that came and sat on my shoe and tried to climb up. It was my birthday and she was one of the best presents I've ever received on a birthday. She just wanted to be with me whenever she could, Brandon has said that she would sit and look for me out the window when I was gone for very long. I was the only resource she guarded and she did it benevolently. 

Nessa also knew how to 'kiss'. Kiss meant bump mouths, not lick. Kisses though meant tongue licks and only a few, no need to get sloppy about it. Unfortunately, she really didn't like the car so that kind of hindered things. She loved the activities at the end of the ride once she was there. The many trips: beaches, camping, parks, hikes, fields, friends. She was a people dog, not a dog dog. Meaning, if she had a choice of who she was going to interact with, she was going to pick the people not the other dogs. People after all were good for scritches, other dogs couldn't give her that.

Training with Nessa was pretty easy. After all she was getting to spend time one-on-one with me and getting food at the same time. Bonus-Bonus for her. I knew she wasn't an agility dog, but she did have fun learning the stuff for Rally Obedience. Competition wasn't something important to do with her though, so no fancy titles from it. She and Norbert also had lots of fun with Tracking, but with Nessa I think it was all about the hot dogs and 'find it' became a good way for her to find dropped food.

I wasn't ready to lose her at such a young age. I thought I had at least another eight years with her. I'm really going to miss her and I don't know what its going to be like with just Norbert. He's had Nessa since he was nine months old, they were truly companions. Things will not be the same, they'll go forward without her, she'll always be remembered and loved. There may be another dog in my future, they won't be a replacement because she really can't be replaced, like you can't replace a human that has been lost. Her loss is just something that is so hard for me to believe right now. I'm just devastated. I love you babycakes and you'll always have a big spot in my heart.

Still no puppy check of where I am. Nessa where are you?

ETA: 5:00am Correction, Norbert was up in the corner of the couch watching over me this whole time. Letting me do the laundry and wash dishes and cry. I'm going to take him to bed and try for a little sleep before taking Nessa away. I want to have her cremated rather than buried here. I also apparently can't read a calendar.

Let's not count the days......

As usual I'm juggling the items that I'll have completed for Christmas. I had planned to do several items, but they've been changed to other things. I've also postponed receipt for a couple people until January. I may get them done in time, but I don't need the pressure. 

I did complete both of the reindeer socks for my BIL:

 

I was finally able to get over to JoAnn's to look through their button selection. Found some shell buttons in a pack that work perfectly. They are a mother of pearl, but I put the outer shell out. Sewed them onto Cole's Cardigan:

Last Friday it took a couple of attempts but I was successful in making a batch of Divinity before the humidity came back to our area. Divinity fails this time of the year usually, so this was a first attempt in twenty years. I forgot to tell William though that he couldn't just eat all he wanted so I have half of what I hoped to have for dividing up for family. ;-)

(sorry about the flash, but the only way to get the picture to come out.)

I've started the Thorpe hat series. Keefe's is done and I've started Garrett's, his will be the stranded version. I'll do ones for Adam and Logan that will be the 'plain' version - possible stripes like Keefe's. I also have yarn for one for William's friend Luke. He may have to wait until after Christmas to get his though. ;-)

Keefe's minus the braids:

Last week we the really cold weather and Friday morning I was able to get a rare picture of Norbert and Nessa sleeping close together. They sleep on the same couch, on the same bed, but rarely next to each other without a body part of mine between. 
(The hair on Norbert's left ear is slowly growing back out, but makes him look lopsided.)

More hats in my future for the next couple days, cookie baking at Judy's on Saturday. How is your race for the holidays coming along? Have you negotiated mentally gifts to be given? Putting in late hours to get the ones planned done? Are we all insane? ;-)

Squirrel, Progress, New Stuff

This morning one of the local grey squirrel's decided to risk life and limb by going through our yard. If its the same squirrel, it should *know* that there are dogs in this yard. Norbert in his enthusiasm to get out there knocked over a full water bowl. I needed to mop the floor anyway - right?

 

Can you see where its perched? With all the barking both dogs were doing, it was chewing them out just as loudly. Good thing we don't speak squirrel, I'm sure there were a number of four letter words being thrown down at the dogs. Nessa was out there, she was even trying to get closer by standing on the bench and barking.

Cole's baby cardigan is currently at the point of the body is done and so is the right sleeve. I've picked up the sleeves of the left sleeve and started it. Due to the time, won't be done until tomorrow. This is what the body looked like earlier today while the sun was still shining:

I didn't do button holes, but I'm thinking I'll find a cute button for the top and do a crochet loop for the button. Do babies need more than one button?

Remember I traded that Jacob with Brenda for some of her llama? It wasn't quite the 3/4 of pound that she sent me and she was embarrassed by that mistake. She sent me a note last week that she was sending out a package with the llama and a surprise. She sent me about the same amount of llama, so I now have a pound of it. The surprise? A little over two ounces of some 'washed' Finn. Okay, the Finn *is* washed, just still full of vm. Thankfully, I have Gail's hand carders on loan, so I can practice with this stuff too. It really was nice of her to send this along. It will be fun to see how it spins up compared to the nice commercial stuff I bought from Klaus. The Finn:

A couple of the pretty jars of Cranberry Chutney, with air bubbles even!

That's sunlight shining on them, not flash.

Dogs & Fleece

The advantage of doing the Goodie Bags was getting to see the samples as they came in. Carissa donated fluffs of alpaca fleece that she has gotten from a church member. She has a garage full of fleeces that she's selling. She had taken samples from a pretty black fleece and I knew what she was selling them for, but didn't want a whole fleece to clean and process. So I asked her if I could get a pound from the partial that was leftover from taking samples.

I now have a little over a pound of alpaca fleece from Magnolia. Taking pictures of it in the sunlight washes out the black making it look a muddy grey-brown. Bringing it inside and with four dogs in the house, some pointy noses and not so pointy ones just had to investigate this new interesting smell. I'd love to know what was going through Nickel and Cedi's minds while they had their faces buried in this new to them experience. Norbert's an old pro now and while he did shove his face in, didn't have to do as thorough of a job at smelling the whole thing.

Cedi buried up to her eyes in the fleece.

If I thought taking pictures of a black fleece was difficult, a black dog with his nose in it was such that I had to pull back so you could see there was a body! ;-)

Norbert also with his face up to his eyes in the fleece.

Nessa getting her chance to smell it, but not so interested.

Nessa would rather be here, talking to her fish. They come up and give her fishy kisses. I had filled the pond this morning so accidentally got the level a little full. She didn't have to bend over as far to get her kisses.

The early sounds of fall were in the air I noticed while I was out filling the pond and taking pictures. The local blue jays/birds (we have both) could be heard in the Hazelnut/Filbert orchard behind us as they were attempting to liberate nuts from their shells. Tap tap tap tap. Means also Nessa will be cruising the backyard for the nut bundles the birds drop. She loves her hazelnuts!

The long weekend

Friday we loaded up the dogs and headed to Cannon Beach. Brandon ideally would have preferred leaving the dogs at home and walking the shops, but I had wanted a beach trip with the dogs "on" the beach. ;-) Cannon Beach by Haystack Rock had a lot of people, less than I'm sure there would be later in the weekend. We did walk from one end to the other though. We then headed south to Manzanita and after Brandon showed me were as a kid the family would stay we headed to their beach. Another long hike down the beach to rock where Brandon remembered during low tide there would be tidal pools to look through. Once we were past the majority of people and dogs we were able to let both dogs romp off leash. Nessa gets scared by big dogs, so Norbert protects her, often when not needed.

Beach pics, if you're curious:

Beach Trip Labor Day Weekend 2009

Saturday was, what and how much did I spin for "Summer of Spinning"? So a spreadsheet was created and I went back through the photo album and refreshed my memory of all that I had spun. Thankfully Tour de Fleece was also in there or I think I probably would have less to show for my summer. ;-) As it is for finished spun yarns I have 2744 yards(math error had a previous 2800) and I think what I have will fit into the "If It's Furry, Spin It" with sixteen different fibers spun up.

Sunday I was offered apricots from Lavendarknits. She'd bought a box and made a couple batches of apricot jam and didn't want them to go to waste. So a trip over to her house with some Peach-Pepper Jam, Fig Jam and a small jar of Salsa in exchange. Brandon really enjoys apricots but when asked if he wanted regular or pepper, he went with the pepper jam. So, that's how I spent part of my afternoon, making Apricot-Pepper Jam:

This is trying to show the difference between the Peach-Pepper and the Apricot-Pepper jams, can you tell which is which?


Monday was the last day for Summer of Spinning and I had already started some Stitchjones BFL (Blue Faced Leicester) in red-orange, yellow, cream, and purple. Here's the finished singles:

I decided that I would try to keep the color stripes that were going on, so that meant chain plying. My right thumb is really unhappy with me today from repetitive stress. The yarn was unwound from the stuffed bobbin and the twist set in a hot water bath. The finished yarn was a little damp still when I took photos but I wanted them before it got dark. Here's the finished yarn, 383.5 yards of 3 ply, newly named Sunset (the colors just reminded me of some of the sunsets I've seen), since it had a name of 'Untitled' from Sharon.




This morning I took the rest of the apricots that needed another day to ripen up and cut them up for the food dehydrator. We'll have dried apricots for the winter. I might even dip them in chocolate and give them at Christmas. A neighbor dehydrates pineapple and chocolate dips them and gives them along with mini cherry cheesecakes.

Used up the last of the peaches by making a coffee cake that came from Emerile Legasse. It's been cut, but I haven't eaten it yet, but it smelled fabulous.