Friday, July 10, 2015

Furry Friday and Life!


A quick post in pictures:

Buddy is back to his usually toy destroying self.  We can't keep up with his puppy teeth and most toys don't last more than a few weeks.  On the upside as long as we keep him in toys he does not destroy anything of ours - tough to get through to dogs.  He has never chewed on our shoes or anything else.  His latest trick is quietly walking into the office, lifting a piece of paper from the trash and quietly chewing it to bits until we find him and it.  Really not that destructive in the big picture but we watch our trash cans around him.



He has chewed his green snake to bits and even after duct taping it back together we gutted it this morning and took out the squeekers, hopefully for later use in a homemade toy.  He was eating the bits he was chewing off so it had to go.

His latest favorite spot to be in the house is under the bed.  It is not high enough to stand under there so he scootches around.  This is him on his way in.

Racoon butt - this picture is for you Vix!
I haven't seen the raccoon since his kitchen window visit last week (see last post) but wanted to include the one and only picture I was able to take of him for Vix.  We took Buddy for a walk last night and actually saw another one fishing on the ocean edge but he was too far away and I didn't have my good camera with telephoto lens so couldn't get a picture.


The fireworks we went to earlier this week were good but short - small towns cannot afford long fireworks displays.  As all the fireworks were shot off a barge in the bay there was zero chance of fire - a good thing since we are no longer able to water our lawns due to being under the highest water restrictions and have a couple hundred forest fires burning in British Columbia (most human caused by cigarette butts I might add).


I also wanted to share the only two souvenirs I brought home from Mexico.  I have traveled enough to know that I only buy things I absolutely love and can't buy at home.  First up - a folk art Mexican milagro heart.  I love it and it graces our bedroom.

The second item also is in our bedroom - a large shell night light.  The shop selling these only uses shells from fisherman who have these as a cast-off byproduct of things they eat and sell to restaurant.  They refuse to use anything with starfish as a result as found the fisherman were killing them only to sell to the shop.  I think it is pretty neat.  I also brought home a couple of free souvenirs, shells found on the beach which were added to my shell and seaglass jar from my travels.

We are preparing to start our house renovation and have found the flooring we want.  Hopefully in 8 weeks time all the things we have on the list (many other than the flooring) will be completed before our business gets busy again with the fall.  I can't say I am looking forward to it - I hate the chaos of home renovations and this is the second major renovation we have been through in our almost 10 years of marriage.  I told hubby - this is it - never again.  He likes this kind of thing and I hate it.  The only good part is the money for the renovation has been sitting in savings for the last 3 years earmarked for this reno project.  We bought a home half the size and half the price of our last one - and had agreed at the time to renovate  as we compromised on several things rather than buying a home $100,000 more. We are having the floors professionally done - but are doing a bunch of other things ourselves.  Wish us luck!

20 comments:

  1. I wish I could find a supply of dog toy squeakers. Our pooch finds the "heart" rips it out, kills it and is through with the toy. If i could replace them I could get a lot of life out of the same toy and she would be ecstatic.

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    1. I think we are switching over to plastic chew toys - so tired of trying to sew them back together after a day or two. After this post I took a pair of really old socks and put a squeeker in each toe and tied them together. A week later and it is still in one piece and played with daily. Next I raid hubby's sock drawer lol.

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  2. I look forward to seeing what you two do to the house!! I hate the mess, too! We have new windows all ready to replace the ones in the den. Perhaps in the fall. I can't imagine doing it in this Texas summer heat!
    That little dog of yours is the cutest thing! Lucy is down on the ranch and has been since Louis Dean's surgery. I can't say I really miss her all that much! At least not yet......

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    1. We were so lucky our windows that needed replacing were still under warranty and the company came and switched them out with almost zero hassle. Dogs are a lot of work. This might be our last dog - I can't see keeping up with a high energy dog later in life.

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  3. I had nothing furry to report on Friday. Glad you did! We are fortunate that Zoey never destroyed anything she wasn't allowed to chew on, thank goodness. I've heard horror stories of labs that chew on table legs and doorway moldings. Yikes! Love the raccoon butt capture. lol I'm excited about your renos, but I totally understand you not wanting to deal with the chaos. We tried to do as much as we could here before we moved in to avoid that. I want to change over our carpeted bedrooms to wood laminate, but that will have to wait.

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    1. I think dogs that are left alone a lot go chew crazy - Buddy and Zoey are both lucky to have parents that are home a lot. He picked up one of my shoes a couple of weeks after we got him and was scolded and never again has he touched them other to smell or lay on them.

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  4. Reno's, yuck! I even hated dealing with the usual crack wall repairs when we got our house. Dust everywhere. Getting the floors done wasn't too bad but I guess it depends on what you are having done.

    Our dogs kill the squeakers first thing and won't play with the toy unless it squeaks so I buy replacement squeakers. The girls sit and watch me mend their toys and then rip them apart all over again.

    Replacement squeakers can be found on Amazon.ca and I'm sure in the US also. http://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dog+replacement+squeakers&tag=googcana-20&index=aps&hvadid=55989974609&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=8041556546165182277&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_8ojm4yz19c_b

    It saves a lot of money on new toys.

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    1. Great idea! I harvested 6 squeekers but am sure I will need more soon.

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  5. I love Buddy's tail. We don't know if we were visited at the cabin on the deck by a raccoon or a bear, but after I heard a crash I did see a bear over on the cliff. Not a pleasant thought, especially since we've been sleeping outside in the tent with all the hot weather. This is our first bear sighting since we arrived in 2001. - Margy

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    1. Yikes! We have cougar sightings around town from time to time but I doubt they would venture down our street as we are 1/4 mile from the big old growth trees they like to hang out at.

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  6. what a cute little troublemaker you have. that tin heart is wonderful, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.

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    1. I like eclectic stuff so it was right up my alley :)

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  7. Well I think raccoon's butt is a first for you here. LOL
    I too hate the mess of a remodel but if it is something that needs to be done and you have the money for it, I guess just do the best you can with the chaos. I hate the chaos but try and focus on how lovely it will be afterwards. The one project that we did that really scared me was the roof. If you mess that one up, you can ruin everything in the house. We didn't mess it up but it was a worry. Den was scared to put the pool in. I didn't really worry about that one because it was something that we didn't need.

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    1. Hubby keeps telling me to focus on the after. I keep telling him - never again - if we ever move again all the reno has to be done before we move in or we live with it!

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  8. I live with a toy destroyer. At seven, she is better, but I don't think we'll ever be able to live with a dog whose sole purpose in toy ownership is to destroy!

    As for the fire thing... We had a fire last Friday night and it seemed to burn completely down. Late morning/early afternoon Saturday, I started putting stuff in the fire pit to get set up for our fire that night. It was stuff we'd used -- a paper towel roll, a few odd pieces of wood and some paper. I never set a match to it or did anything to catch it on fire. It took less than five minutes for the pile to ignite! I just started on it's own.

    Luckily, this happened in an enclosed fire pit. But it made us even more aware of how forest fires can be started. I will never start a recreational fire in anything other than an attended fire pit and will be sure to check it even after we think it is out!

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    1. We were blessed with 2.5 days of rain this week. Not enough to remove our water restrictions but enough to lower the fire risk. Fire is one of the scariest things to have to live through - I would hate to even think about having to.

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  9. Raccoons and poodles, what a joy! Thanks for snapping the little cutie!
    Love those lights, a fab reminder of a great holiday. x

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  10. Wishing you LUCK! My renos and redecorating seems to be proceeding at a snail's pace. Take before and after photos! I love the picture of Buddy "scooching" under the bed :) my dog used to do that when firecrackers were going off.

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    1. He scootches under there for quiet I think - not when scared though. We have a/c so it is not because it is cooler. I think he just likes the tunnel effect :)

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