Thankful Thursday

I guess there's no better way to re-start the blog than with a Thankful Thursday post huh? So....it's been over 3 years since I've posted and a lot has changed in my life. Maybe those changes will be the subject of tomorrow's blog 😉
Today among the usual things I am thankful for ie: a roof over my head, food to eat, good friends, my family, etc...
I am thankful that the results of yesterday's emergency trip to the vet clinic was not as tragic as I feared. This little goober here.....

We hadn't seen her since Monday afternoon so when B came in from school (he gets home at ~12pm on Wed) I sent him out to look for her. He's the cat whisperer so whenever we have to catch one of them he's sent to do the deed. Well he found her in some weeds over on the side of the house so he brought her up on the porch and came in to get her some canned food. When he picked her up to put her on the table to eat (we have to put the cat food up high thanks to a certain dog here who loves kitty food) we noticed she didn't want to put any weight on her right front leg and she also had some pretty matted places on her which is very unusual for her. So I had him put her in the carrier so I could take her to the vet. I didn't even stop to call them to see if they had time I just went cause my gut instinct told me something was very wrong. Thankfully they were able to work her in quickly and there was more wrong than I noticed at first. The vet was fairly certain she had been in a fight with another animal first which explains the sore front leg, torn nails and the matted areas on her and then was hit by a car. Her temp was a little elevated and there was blood in her stool. So she asked me to leave her for a few hours so they could give her a pain injection and take some x-rays to assess the extent of her injuries. It was a very long 3 hours and I was very worried the worst was to come (euthanasia) as cats don't do well when hit by a car. Fast forward 3 hours and we go back to see what they've found out. The vet takes us back to see her x-rays and she has a broken pelvis as well as some compressed vertebrae in her upper back. The vet says she was rolled by the car which is why the damage wasn't more extensive. So she did laser therapy, gave her a couple injections and she got to come home on cage rest. Which means she will be living in an old dog kennel in the basement for the next 3-4 weeks. She seems about as comfy as she can be under the circumstances in there.....

We had to take her friend Leonard down to see her this afternoon - he's been outside bawling and looking for her -that seems to have eased his mind. She's ~1 yr older than he is and they've been together since I brought him home from work around 4 yrs ago when he was a tiny kitten.

So today I'm thankful for veterinary medicine and that Princess gets to stay with us for awhile longer 😌

Summer Fun

The boys and I have been down on the mountain for the past 2 days trying to clear out the area down by the creek. This is 3 acres of overgrown jungle. Beautiful but a daunting task to be sure. Here are some pics I've taken while down there....

The top picture is where we've started clearing out a driveway to get down there from the road. Poor B boy hit a yellow jacket nest with the lawnmower on Tuesday and got stung twice. Then there was the attack of the chiggers. Ah the fun to be had in Summer lol.  The next 2 pics are the area where we are thinking about putting the cabin. Waiting for a friend with building knowledge to come take a look and give me an opinion on that. The last pic is of the creek in the area where we want to build. I look forward to a time when I can just sit down by the creek and soak up the peace while listening to the water rush on by.

The main task at this point is to clear out where we want the cabin, stake that area off, have the gentleman from the health dept come take a look and then he will stake off where the septic will go, then we can have our permit. Once we have that permit we can apply for a building permit. But first..... must keep at the clearing since we have not only the spot for the cabin to get finished but we also have to clear out for the chicken coop/run and the dog run. I don't worry about the 2 old dogs as they will stay where they're supposed to but the Bloodhounds would be off in a second following their noses lol.

Starting Over

Wow has it really been almost a year since I posted? Well a lot has happened in that time. Earlier this year the hubster was diagnosed with Melanoma, we had a little over 3 months before he passed in May. It's kinda like getting kicked in the gut every day. I know I will get through this, I can only hope and pray that I can do it with strength and dignity if not for myself for our boys.

So as the title states.... we really are starting over. I don't think I ever mentioned on here but a couple years ago we bought some very rural property on the side of a mountain. We had a plan to eventually build a small home and move down there to live a self sufficient life. So now that is what the kiddos and I plan to do. We are working on getting the house in the city ready to sell and working with the officials to get the appropriate permits for building down on the mountain. The plan is to build it by hand..... yes that's right this girl and her 2 teenage boys are gonna DIY a house. Well we will have to have help with the electric and plumbing stuff but the building itself will be done by the 3 of us and perhaps some family and friends. I won't lie and say I'm not scared but this isn't the first challenge I've had to face and I'm sure it won't be the last. Besides I'm looking forward to the feeling of accomplishment once it's done. So without further ado here are some pics of our daunting task....

This is the area down by the creek where we need to clear in order to show the inspectors where we want to build. I'm not looking forward to the blisters to come but I am looking forward to being lulled to sleep by the sound of the creek :-)

I'll be sure to post pics as we make progress......

Mission Accomplished

It's been a busy day here. I started off my morning by finishing the little house shawl. Yay for cleaning out the WIP pile. Here it is:

I still need to block it but it's off the needles & ends have been tended to. I have to work tomorrow night so maybe I'll spend my day blocking the shawls (Daybreak still needs to be blocked as well).

Then after I bathed my bully boy and cleaned the bathroom I headed in to the craft room to give it a much needed clean up. Our basement flooded earlier this month and B boy used my craft room for a bedroom for 2 weeks while we got everything cleaned up down there. The boys have their room down there so until it was clean they had to stay up here. As well as kiddo camping out in there things also got stored in there that didn't belong. Here is a before picture (I forgot to takes pics until after I had already gotten started):

 And here it is all clean:

I did have help - A came up and moved anything I needed him to & took care of moving the stuff that didn't belong back downstairs. It feels good to finally have my craft room back how it's supposed to be.

WIP Wednesday

Here's what I've been working on this week. I just posted a pic of Pterotactyl a couple days ago so here are the other things.

 The Little House Shawl & the hat for my moms husband. The hat is almost to the decreases so it won't be much longer before that's done and in the gift drawer.

 Once I'm done with the hat I need to make a blanket square for Potions class. I'm going to make an S square to send in for the Slytherin baby blankets being made for the pregnant members of the Slytherin house in HPKCHC. Then I can hopefully get my Little House shawl done & turned in to Detention before the end of the month. That's a reasonable goal for 14 days right? Maybe.....

Adding to the Stash

So I may have gone yarn shopping on Friday....

 This lovely purple is going to be used to make this sweater.

And these 2 yarns are set aside to wait for the release of a lovely cardigan by 1 of my favorite designers which uses 2 colors. The 2nd color is so much more lovely in person...my camera will not capture it accurately *sigh*

Meanwhile I'm slogging along with my 3 shawls and this hat. Itching to cast on something new but behaving myself. Hey Auburnchick aren't you proud of me?

Oh My Wow

Will you just look at this shawl....

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised at how much I love this color combination.  I've been alternating between this shawl, the Cotton Candy Sunshine & my Little House shawl that I dragged out of the WIP basket. I'm trying to make more of an effort to finish my WIPs these days. I also have a regular beanie hat otn for my moms husband. I plan to make her a Saroyan for Christmas so I know in order to keep the peace I'll need to do something for him. He gets a hat knit with leftover acrylic yarn b/c it'll make her happy. This is my go to pattern for mens beanie hats. I've knit several of these for the hubster & boys.

I wish I could come up with more to post today but it was a really long and very busy weekend at the clinic and my brain is fried :-(