Ivy

Hi!  My name is Ivy.  Well I guess you already knew that.  Would you believe I haven't written a post since 2008!  What's up with that??  We used to live in The House On The Street With The Funny Name.   Now we live in The House On The Pond.  I'm not sure why we changed houses, but it's a really nice place, especially since we got the fence and the mud in the back yard.  Most of the time Miss Katie stays home with me, Ngaire, Maisy and Charlie and works at her machines in The Sandbox, takes me for walks, or makes good smells in the kitchen.  (She made chicken stew again for us yesterday!)  But lately she and The Tramp have been spending an awful lot of time at The Other Funny House.  Sigh.  Today was different though.  They both stayed home!  Yay!

I even came out on the deck and helped Miss Katie put on her outdoor work shoes.  :-p

See how our deck doesn't have any railings?  No one has fallen off yet but Miss Katie says it's something they have been worrying about since they bought The House On The Pond.

All Miss Katie wanted to work on today was a new garden.  Really!  She got out the tools and everything.  Then I heard The Tramp say how much he would like to put up a railing and Miss Katie saying not until the silly benches were removed.  The Tramp looked and they were only nailed on anyway.  He gave each one a really good kick and they came loose enough to pry off!  I'm sure glad I never tried leaning on one.  Wow.

All gone!

Then The Tramp made terrible noises with tools and cut the legs even so the benches can stand on the ground.  I wonder why??

The Tramp said he was wondering a lot of things about our deck.  Like why this post was so crooked.

Because it wasn't attached anymore, that's why.  I got far away while he banged on it.

And made more loud noises with tools.

I don't like the big noises.

Maisy went and sat in the sun.

Far away over there.

Look how her fur shines in the sun.  She's shiny and I'm fluffy.  :-p

Ngaire wanted to help and stayed very close to the sweaty grunting people and noisy tools.

I stayed on the deck....away from the edge!  And anyway, I like to sit near hot pink flowers.  See my picture in the sidebar?

I like cameras too.

Except when I get distracted.  :-p

So now The House On The Pond has a new garden.

It needs more dirt for us to dig in though, and mulch for us to scatter, and the deck still needs railings.  Miss Katie and The Tramp said they were very tired from moving dirt, pulling up roots, making noise with tools and carrying stones, so it didn't happen today.

But it makes the deck a really nice place to sit......even with the mosquitoes Miss Katie said.  Today she had to spray that smelly bug stuff all over her and she was still moaning about mosquito bites.  I think she needs some nice thick fur like us.  :-p

We had a nice dinner but the people were so tired they just had leftover chili.  I got the bits of grated cheese Miss Katie dropped on the floor.  Woot!

All of us canines were soooo tired after working so hard outside today.  The Tramp and Miss Katie watched Tony Bennett's Duets 2 on PBS and the music was so nice and soothing.  Not like the big bad noises that happen outside.

But I did offer to help with the sewing a few times.

Miss Katie said she was quite capable of making her own mess thank you very much.

The best part was laying in just the right place so I could swish my tail back and forth through the bits of paper and help spread them further.  Wheeeee!

So this is what's causing the mess on the floor.  That's four rows.  I can count to four.

Oh oh.  The Tramp is calling us to go out one more time.  Happy dance!  At bedtime we get a treat and our pills.  I'm not sure I like the Omega 3 stuff but all of us love to crunch our Chondroitin and Glucosamine capsules.  The powder gets all over the floor but we make sure to lick up every bit.  Yum!

Good night now!

Where has the week gone?

I can't believe the weekend is here again.  I can't even remember what I did this week!  It seems I did at least some sewing.  Ivy is my witness.  She lay next to my chair while I snowed bits of foundation paper all over her.   I put another row of little houses together.  I am not liking the de-papering part of it at all.  Sigh.  Oh well.

We've had some morning walks.  iPhoto says I took this pic on Tuesday.  It seems it was a beautiful day!

Wednesday we went to the State Fair with Mom and Dad.  Amazingly it wasn't crowded.  Last year I remember I could barely walk there were so many people.   I guess we picked a good time to go.  All the usual food vendors were there.  Fried pickles straight ahead.  Apparently there were fried Girl Scout Cookies this year....and even deep fried butter!  The very thought makes my arteries clench!  :-)

We walked through all the craft exhibits and stopped to check out the animals on our way back to the gate.  This year everyone is very uptight about the risk of E. coli infection.  Several people got ill last year at this fair and this year there is a new outbreak linked to the Cleveland County Fair.  Very scary.  After we left the animal building we looked in vain for one of the "many and well marked" hand washing stations and we couldn't find one.  Hmmmmm.

I love to wander through the garden exhibits.  So much inspiration.

I spent much of Thursday down at our other house with the tree people.  My poor little house is looking a bit sad stripped of it's overgrown shrubbery, but the rest of the yard certainly looks better without the dead and dying Leland Cyprus trees.   Two very large stumps were removed too.  Everything is overgrown so we still have much more work to do ourselves.

And this yard needs plenty of work too.  Sigh.  Even so, I enjoy sitting for a few minutes on the deck listening to the breezes now there are less mosquitoes.  :-)

The Tramp had to get up at 5:30 this morning to "go to work" at his desk at home.  He said it was absolutely pouring rain.  It was still dripping from the trees when Ivy and I set out for our walk.

My laughing dog!  And my first walk in my new shoes.  I went to Fleet Feet to be properly fitted.  So far my walks have been two miles max, then my feet really start to hurt.  :-(  Fingers crossed I've found a solution!

The trees are starting to turn.

Once again, lunch on the porch with the dogs at their posts.

Who?  Me?

 Sweet photos of the New Zealand grands.

 It looks like they are having a serious discussion about that car.  :-)

Today turned out to be baking day.  A tray of muffins and six loaves of bread!  Yum!