Ready for Puppy?

I hope so. I've taken the wool throw rugs away, removed what I could that could tempt chewing, I'm just going to have to watch her around the computer cables.

I have food, dishes, toys, treats, beds, crate, pee pads. And it's all set up in the guest room where I will be sleeping for a few nights. Hopefully Ziggy will want to sleep near her. I'm leaving in about half an hour to go pick her up. It's a 45 minute drive. I'm bringing Ms Judy to hang onto her in a box on the way home.

Hal plans on sleeping at camp. Puppy pooper!

Puppy Visit Number 3

Today Ms Judy and I went out for my 3rd visit with Kaylee. It's been 8 days since we went last time and she is bigger, more playful, actually paid attention to us (it may have helped that mom Marlee was outside the garage) and even made a little bark at the rope attached to the garage door. She is so freaking adorable! I sure hope the Zigman likes her.

Kayle is the one at the top. 

Some of the puppies have already gone to their new homes. I think there were 6 left but one was off with one of the granddaughters.

pausing with the ball

 

Back to napping

We spent nearly 2 hours there today. The owner told us that just today Marlee essentially kicked the pups out. She doesn't want to feed them anymore, and the vet said they could go to their new homes any time. So, I've worked it out, Judy and I will go pick her up Tuesday afternoon. I need to finish puppy-proofing my house now!

The 2018 Maple Syrup Collection

Because it's now been raining for the 4th day in a row Hal decided we would finally can the maple syrup we made back in May that has been sitting in the basement fridge since then. We finally got started around 1 pm and finished about 7 pm or so. As we only made about 7 gallons total last spring in the finish processing there ends up being even less. There are close to 2 gallons left in the fridge containing the dregs of each container with the nitre and sugar crystals. We'll add water to that someday, filter again and then boil down again into syrup.

Each of these jars is a pint with the one quart and one 12 ounce in the back.

~2.75 gallons of maple syrup

It's Kaylee

I like the name, I think of her with that name and the others, while interesting, just weren't cutting it, so my cute little pup is officially Kaylee, named after Kaylee from the TV show Firefly and the movie Serenity.

edited to add:

And I just got a text from the puppies' current owner, they got to visit the vet today and get their first shots. They are also  6 weeks old today. The puppies are all very healthy. The vet wants them to be 7 pounds next Monday at week 7. My cute little Kaylee weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces. I guess the granddaughters are over feeding the kibble. lol

Puppy Visit Number 2

Yesterday I went back to visit Kaylee (whose name could change) and her family. I took Ms. Judy with me and Hal's sister came with us as well. We first went to lunch at our favorite all you can eat Chinese buffet and then off we went to Hillman in the rain.

The puppies were bigger, more active, once we woke them all up, and though Kaylee still seemed more interested in mom's milk, I got a little more attention out of her. She is barely 6 weeks old. I did get kisses from her, (okay, she was just seeing what I tasted like) and she trioed to chew on an earring, but she is so freaking adorable!

So here are more photos.

still sleepy

eating

on the prowl

She loves to pester Marlee for multiple lunches

Getting back to the name thing. I am having trouble remembering to pronounce Kaylee as KAY lee, sometimes it comes out KI lee so the name isn't perfect, I might just need practice though. Plus both versions are apparently popular girls names and more than one person has said it is "too human". to go with all my space oriented names. But really, Ziggy was sort of pushing it anyway. So on the way there and while playing with the puppies, Hal's sister kept suggesting other names. In no particular order:

Phoebe
Aurora
Elara
Leda
Bella
Bellatrix
Cassiopeia
Cassandra
Katniss

I kind of like Bellatrix but think it might be too pretentious. Hal's sister obviously likes a bunch of them or she wouldn't have named them all, but I think she's partial to Alara, Bella, Phoebe and Leda.

I like Phoebe, a moon of Saturn, Leda, a star, and
Alara is merely an acronym for radiation measurement as well as a character on the TV science fiction show The Orville though I think Alara is too hard to call, "Here Alara, come here, Alara!"HA! Should have been Elara, I misheard Hal's sister, that is also a moon. Is Leda too close to Luna? Perhaps not as we didn't confuse Luna and Lyra.

Hal still prefers Kaylee, though he said he could live with Leda and Phoebe is okay, too. I've still got a week or so to decide. The owner needs to know to put it on the AKC registration though.

Maybe I should put it up to a vote.

Comments, anyone?

Garage Is Mostly Done!

Even though it was hotter, and more humid and we were tired and the sun was beating down and the wind was iffy, we got the last 2 full sheets of steel on the garage yesterday! Yes there are 2 half sheets to go as well as the ridge vent but Hal says we will do them later. The ridge will go up when the the entire roof is sheathed (and we figure out how we're going to do it without sliding off the roof), and the end pieces around that same time. One reason I can see holding off on the end pieces is that after they are cut in half, the edges are exposed and subject to rusting. If we're ready to put the fascia on over it that will minimize the exposure to the elements.

Also, I have convinced Hal to spend some money and buy some scaffolding! He's been talking about building things to help him get up in the air but I figure his time is worth the $1000 for something we can then use elsewhere.

So here is the final garage photo for now. I get some time off until he is ready to start the main roof. He's got eave girts and fascia boards to install first. So tomorrow I'm off to visit my puppy!

Too Windy to be On the Roof Today

Gusts of 22 mph and steady winds over 15 mph made it too risky to put steel up today but we did move 6 sheets, 3 at a time, so I could drill the 72 holes required for all the screws. Tomorrow's winds will be much lower so hopefully we'll get another 2 on.

In the meantime it looks as though I neglected again to post the latest photos. So as of a few days ago there are 6 sheets of steel on the front of the house.

A Rotted EGR System, NOT the Head Gasket!

So the dealer called this morning with the good news. I had my car towed there yesterday morning even though I couldn't get an appointment before Wednesday. I was hoping they'd have a cancellation and get to it earlier.

The white smoke is pouring out of rotted pipes under the engine and the head gasket is apparently fine. So that was a bullet dodged. With over 193.000 miles on an engine it's hard to say what can go wrong. But NO2 gases are pretty corrosive so it's not surprising the hose was falling apart, I know the connection at the top seemed to have a small leak and the fabric cover was falling off as well. So they will order the kit today and install it tomorrow and I'll have my Rory back by tomorrow night.

While they're at it I'm having them change the oil as it's been over 400 miles and 7 months as well as check what is causing the slow leak in my left year tire. It's nice not to be sitting waiting for everything to be done.

Looking forward to having my own set of wheels back!

Head Gasket or Something Else?

So the reason I did not take my car to look at the puppies was because shortly after I pulled my 2006 Chevy Equinox out of the garage I notice white smoke or steam coming out of the engine grill. When I lifted the hood it looked like it was coming out of a pipe at the front of the engine on the passenger side. When Hal finally looked at it the next day it obviously was not the pipe (which he thinks might also have a tiny rack in it) but it was pouring out of the base of the engine on the passenger side.

So I searched the internet today. Everything points to the head gasket being blown. Oh joy. It's also been losing coolant for months and the last time I was at the dealer they supposedly put dye in the system to figure out where it is leaking. Yesterday while Hal was looking at it I had to add nearly a half gallon of coolant to the surge tank.

Tomorrow is Monday and I will finally be able to call the dealer and discuss the symptoms. I suspect I will have to have the car towed, driving with a blown head gasket is not generally a good idea.

PUPPY!

So yesterday, Friday the 13th, I went to breakfast at the Lunch Box in Curran, (had the biscuits and gravy which were very good, if a bit over peppered), with my friend Tom, a man who has had many a bird dog over the years which he trained himself for upland bird hunting.  After breakfast we drove out to the town of Hillman to look at PUPPIES!!!

A couple days earlier my friend Judy's SIL heard an ad on WATZ radio for chocolate labrador retriever puppies for sale in Hillman and called me. I had already decided not to look at any more dog adoption pages at petfinder.com till after we finished putting the roof on the new house. So the plan to look for a new pup would be late September or early October. However, I was not going to turn down some cute little pup that might fall into my lap.

According to Hal's preferences the plan also meant NO PUPPIES. He'd rather I get a dog about 5 years old, figuring I would take Ziggy to meet every prospective dog at various shelters. That could take forever, no guarantee they'd get along or that I could find anything other than "lab mixes", most of them suspiciously pit bull types. Now I know there are many wonderful pit bulls and other dogs but I LOVE labradors, and that's what I want. And the minute a real lab shows up at a shelter they are usually snapped up.

I called the radio station, got the phone number, called and left a message. In a couple of hours the owner called me back I got to ask questions about price, how many there were etc and said I'd call back after talking to Hal.

I explained all my fears about not finding a good match to Hal and he relented. In fact he wants to go on record that he didn't say "yes, get a puppy," but "I won't stop you." YIPPEE! Good enough for me! Family harmony and a possible puppy. I texted Tom, called the owner back and 2 days later, on Friday, a rainy day so I wasn't interrupting the roofing, Tom and I headed to Hillman, in his truck because when I pulled my car out of the garage there was pale gray smoke coming out of the engine.

So long story short, I got to play with puppies, 3 girls still unadopted/sold. The 2 young girls who were there with their grandpa handed me the one they called Leia, put another they called Sophie and the third whose name I cannot recall on the floor. Mostly they preferred to wander off or eat, but I thought maybe little Leia hung around me a bit more. Of course, I hardly put her down once I had my hands on her so maybe she had no choice really.

So in 3 weeks, this little gal is coming home with me. I have named her Kaylee. The name may even stick. I think Luna would be happy for me. She always wanted me to be happy.

 Mom's name is Marly.

She is the one with the orange collar

5 Days Later, More Steel, Both Sides!

Yesterday we finished putting the last full sheets of steel on the backside of the garage roof. We learned a lot doing it: how Hal can maneuver there, applying the radiant barrier, using strings to hold the cloth in place while he stapled it on, the best way to lift the steel without a forklift, how to be sure the purlins were the correct distance apart at the center of each section by using spacers, and not to try placing steel on days were the winds are 15 mph and above.

So this is the back side of the roof, with 12 sheets of steel. The overhangs we will do after we complete the front.

And today we started on the front of the garage, 2 sheets of steel, 2 more planned for tomorrow.

Now There are 8

On the 3rd, three days ago, we put up 2 pieces of steel and today we put up 2 more. We were hoping to put up 4 today as the weather had cooled but it was too windy till after 2 pm so at least we got the 2 up. Two more sheets tomorrow and the backside of the garage will be done except for the half sheet on the end. Hal says we'll do those last.

July 3 - six sheets

July 6 - Eight sheets

Tomorrow's plan another 2 sheets minimum.

Two More Pieces of Steel

Yesterday Hal and I got 2 more sheets of steel onto the garage roof. At least now it looks more roof-like. At this rate I am estimating completing around the beginning of October. I hope for sooner, but the logistics of getting even longer, heavier sheets onto the main roof which is taller, eludes us.