Picture and Video Update

TerraTrike and DoggieRide

So we finally saved enough money to get me a bike for the 3rd time in 4 years mind you. First it was a road bike, then it was a cruiser and now it's the recumbent. Seriously, all I want to do is bike! I have two issues (only two?) that prevent me from using an upright bike. One: I have one half of my hips (yes they flex... how do you think women make babies appear?) that is tilted, which means when I sit, I sit on one "sit" bone more than the other. Two: shoulder injury, any push up position or normal bike position makes for a burning shoulder. I know this is hard to imagine without much descriptions and hand gestures so we'll just say hips = off kilter, shoulders = on fire. What that means for biking is only one butt bone is on the seat, that blogger world is bad for any sort of long riding, even short ridding gets miserable. So with this new found hip knowledge I thought, Eureka!! I'll sell this road bike and get a cruiser with a giant foam butt pad! That's exactly what I did, I bought a grannie, vintage, cruiser, upright, sunday driving kinda bike. I made sure the one requirement of 4" thick foam was in place, the only problem you ask? No shocks. What I mean by no shocks is simply, every teeny tiny bump in the road came straight though the bike frame and into my sit bones. I began to pull my hair out with frustration at this point. Mean while Jacob is out riding, because he didn't have hip issues... jerk. :o) After I sold the second bike, serious research was needed. Maybe, I thought.... I can't ride in a standard position (this girl needed to ride side saddle if you feel me?)

Viola, recumbent! Too bad the price tag isn't Viola, it's Cha-Ching! Ok so we had to save up for one. After much research I wanted not only a recumbent but a trike. YES they make trikes for big kids too! Intro the TerraTrike. We decided to get Jacob's first, since he bikes to work daily. As funny as all of this trial and error was for me. I think Jacob started feeling left out, so his shoulders started to give him pain when riding his triathlon bike. Well why don't we both get butt bikes (my affectionate term for recumbents)!!

I finally got mine in August, Jacob's had his since October of 2009. We opted to get a doggie trailer, so we can go on long bike rides and when our mutt gets tired of running we can tow her. We'd like to do the Trail  of the Coeur d'Alenes bike path, since it rides along water and mountain but the dog can't run that far so we got the trailer. On a side note, that trailer has even proved useful in hauling stuff, I caned about 15 pints of beans for my mom and used it to bring them over to her.

Here's Kai (mutts) first ride in the DoggieRide. Sorry about the wind noise, it can't be helped when biking. She keeps yawning because she's nervous, dog's yawn a lot when they are nervous. Kai got used to it fairly quickly, we're going slow because of the motion factor we don't want her to get sick.

Updates

It's been nice and busy for a while. I love that. Of course, I've had the

crafty pants on so that's probably why.

Busy making checkbook covers, envelope pillow case's, oven mitts and an apron. I sewed drapes for our downstairs windows and made a fabric door for our laundry room which doesn't have a regular door. With all the scraps I've been steadily expanding my furoshiki collection.  


We opted this year, not to get a tree. Instead we've decorated our norfolk pine, placed some holiday lights around and called ourselves decorated. Going low key this year seems to be on our agenda. All of our wrapping paper this year is cloth, I've tried to get funky pretty patterns that can be reused again and again.

These are the 12 days of Christmas. We've had these "bulbs" since I was a little kid. Mom gave them to me last year and I put them on our tree. But since we don't have a tree this year, I found another way to hang them! These are our LED lights so I don't feel bad about plugging them in. Plus it's a really tiny string of lights.

At least one more of the red stars is laying. Plus Curious has started laying again. Her molt took 2 months almost to the day from her last egg in October to the one she laid late last week. We are getting just about 2-3 eggs per day. It's nice since I have had to buy eggs since I sold WB and Bee back in August. 


Kai seems to have some really tough calluses on only a few of her pads. I took her to the vet last week and she said to just monitor it and try to soften the skin. So we've been soaking Kai's feet in the tub.... she gives us dirty looks the whole time. Today I covered them with 'vet wrap' and a vitamin E soaked cotton ball. So she prances when she walks. If they start to crack and bleed it can get serious, so I'm trying to be preventative. At this point it's not bad, but if the growth continues and gets faster she'll have to go in for a biopsy on those pads to see what's up. The puzzling thing is, she has no other symptoms that would indicate any disease. She's just being special. :D

Dog Days

Nap time.

The Furminator

Sometimes when you find a new product and it is really awesome, one just has to write about it. 

The Furminator by all accounts lives up to it's name. I was skeptical of this "miracle" brush to say the least and I was also put off by it's $40 price tag in the store. I will say I got sucked into watching the videos when I was at Aslin Finch the other day. I thought no way! My short haired mutt Kai sheds so damn much we call her the fur factory. I have given up being anything but covered in dog hair, no matter how hard I might try.  But this brush according to many reviews on amazon and many videos seemed to be just the "miracle" it claimed to be. 

I decided to give it ago, having decided maybe we could sell coats or possibly learn to weave dog hair into more fashionable clothing if we could get it off of her in chunks.

I purchased the Furminator from Amazon. At exactly half the cost. I still thought $20 was too much to spend on a brush... but if it made my comforter cease looking like a polar bear pelt it would be worth it!

I am happy to report that it is worth it! Stupid amounts of fir came off of Kai, holy cow! Sadly I don't have any pictures of the stupid giant pile! I do however have a video.... from Jacob's perspective (keep in mind we had been celebrating mother's day with lots of beer, wine, and mom's favorite brandy, we are weird to begin with.... but...)

Here goes, the pile is giant, two good handfuls. I have brushed her again since then and proceeded to get at least one more handful from her. I could probably brush her every day and get the same song and dance. 

Um it's dog time... dogs are pretty sure about it.

"No potatoes! It's squeaky time....  

Dog Treats

I found this recipe while in search of raw dog food ideas and thought it sounded like a good wholesome treat for the little girl. I had to evolve the recipe a little because it seemed way to dry.

Here is the original recipe:

1 1/2 c. ripe mashed banannas

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. oats

1/2 c. chopped peanuts

1/4 c. applesauce

Mix all ingredients, heat oven to 350* make "meatball" sized cookies and lightly flatten with a fork. Bake for 15-17 min.

I didn't have applesauce. But I had 2 (grown in washington) apples, with my food processor I smashed the apples into a slightly chunky applesauce ( I didn't want to get the blender dirty).  I used old fashioned oats and they were a little to dry for the lack of liquid ingredients in this recipe. So I used both apples, it ended up to be about a cup of applesauce. I also didn't have peanuts on hand, but almonds did the trick... after I ran them through the food processor to make them very tiny.

My Recipe:

1 1/2 c. ripe mashed bananas ( 2 bananas)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. old fashioned oats ( I will make this 2 1/2 c. the next time I make them)

1/4 c. finely chopped almonds

1 c. apples (food processed to slightly chunky, 2 apples)

Bake 350* for 15-17 min