Something old, something new

I’ve driven the Chicago-Cleveland (or Cleveland-Chicago) route many times in the last years but still, once I get in the van and on the road, I settle down and enjoy the ride.  There’s always something new to see and plenty old favorites.  Join me for a very compressed, selective six hours.

Doo (doo) happens!

There are all sorts of jobs and I certainly applaud the initiative behind this personal pooper-scooper business.

The dog days of Christmas

Our first Christmas season with a dog, we were just starting to foster Janie.  One of the first days she was at our house, while trying to get to the window to bark at a dog outside, she vaulted up onto a sideboard filled with Christmas decorations while only our older daughter was at home.  It’s a good thing I wasn’t home or there wouldn’t have been enough Christmas love to overcome that!    She had personality and energy plus, was incredibly athletic,  and we loved her dearly.   She’s in a forever home now with her very own family.

Oogy…the dog only a family could love

I’ve become addicted to books on CD while traveling between Cleveland and Naperville (or any other long trip.)  There’s nothing better than a good book to make the time fly and since I can’t safely read while driving, audio will have to do.  On the latest occasion, I picked up Oogy, the dog only a family could love, by Larry Levin.  It’s the story about a dog that was rescued after being used when a puppy as a bait dog  and, rather than killed by either the dog being trained to fight or the owner of the dog as usually happens, was tossed in a cage and left, barely alive.  A bait dog is exactly what it sounds like–a dog that is put as bait with a dog being trained to fight and the fighting dog is then encouraged/made to kill the bait dog.  When police raided the house some days later, Oogy, although horrifically injured, was somehow still clinging to life.

A Beau-dacious picture

My brother and his family have a dachshund named Beau, who loves to run madly ’round and ’round their living room, eventually stopping and flopping to the floor on his side.  He doesn’t have very far to flop!  But his best and most amusing trick, although I doubt he thinks of it as a trick, is to jump up on their couch, wriggle his way in between the back cushions and fall asleep.  We are definitely amused! 

Friday Fictioneers–Requited Love

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly fun-fest that consists of writing a 100-word
story, poem or introduction to a story
  based on a picture prompt posted by Madison Woods.
This week’s intriguing picture is by Lora Mitchell.
If you’d like to read or join in, click on the little link at the end of this story and get ready for some fun.

A new creation

There’s a family at our farmer’s market who sells pork, beef and chicken, without hormones or antibiotics, sausages and other products with no MSG or nitrates, eggs with dark yellow yolks that stand up when you cook them and, lately, breakfast sandwiches at the market, all of which taste amazing.  But their story is even more interesting.  They have seven children, six of whom are adopted.  They started with  a small farm (a cow, a pig and some chickens) to help reach foster and adoptive children and somehow along the way, ended up with a full-blown family and farm.  This is New Creation Farm, (http://www.newcreationfarms.com/index.html), a wonderful place for children to grow up, be loved, and learn to work.

Down on the farm, the second part

While in Wyoming, my dad and I got to talking about the farm where my dad grew up and my brother and I enjoyed many good times.  I talked about some of my memories in a previous post, http://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2012/04/15/down-on-the-farm-the-first-part/.  Here are some more memories.

It’s Saturday and we’re bookin’!

Book-related beauty, inspiration and humor.  Had to share more of these.  Perfect for the weekend when you’ll hopefully having some reading time.  Once again, thanks, Belcastro Agency!!  Check them out on Facebook and get these daily.

Just a little monkey-ing around (really!)

(Not sure why the pictures didn’t show up when the first time this posted, but let me try this again and sorry for the weirdness.)

I looked into this and found it happened two years ago at a Russian zoo.  Since I found it in a number of places on the internet, I don’t think I’m violating anyone’s copyright to share these pictures, which are too cute not to share.  (Thanks, Ann, for sending them to me yesterday.)  If you’d like to see thirty pictures instead of just these, please click on this link, http://thechive.com/2012/01/10/a-baby-chimpanzee-is-adopted-by-a-mastiff-dog-amazing-30-photos/.