ivyskeep

I've dusted off my Bluesky account. I'm trishd over there. I'll probably post mostly about crafts, gardening, food, and maybe some gaming once I get back into it. 

Bridget the dog has to get her cyst surgically removed. We tried our best to keep it clean and she went through two rounds of antibiotics. Her surgery is scheduled for early December. 

It's nice to be done with yard work for the season. I have more time to be crafty. I've made three loom knit hats and I'm currently working on an infinity scarf (crochet).

I admit I'm purposely staying numb about the incoming POTUS. I guess that's me "enjoying my privilege," but I honestly, don't think my mental health can handle doomscrolling like I did from 2016 to 2021 to see what hellish thing he's doing each day.

I really enjoyed Mortal, the movie that I mentioned in the last post. It's not a glossy Marvel super hero film and that worked in its favor. The main character is a descendent of Thor who can't control the power he's inherited. It's an interesting take on the Thor/Norse mythos (trailer below).  

Bridget turns eight years old tomorrow. My sweet senior girl. You can hear her joints creak when she goes up the stairs like the other old people in the house. I'm making her pumpkin peanut butter dog treats. I found the recipe at Gone to the Snow Dogs. Those are two of her favorite flavors.

Work, aka life security, is going to be on my mind for a while, so bear with me during these posts. One contract I took on for weekend work has another opportunity during the week, so things may be smoothing out for me soon.

Bridget keeps noshin' on her leg, so I'm still making her wear a covering. I ordered one that covers just the one leg because the one that covers both hind legs gets cumbersome. 

Mom had to buy a new air conditioner. Thankfully, she went through the company we did. They've provided great service over the years. Her old one was from the '90s and rusting out.

The basil is doing great. I'll be making pesto soon. I've got elderberry blooms for the first time. I planted the bush two autumns ago. Hopefully, I'll get some nice berries to make a tincture and something tasty like jam. I have the York variety, which is self-fertile. I may eek out space though to put another variety in the yard for proliferation.

The rosa rugosa bush in the front yard has taken off. I'll be harvesting rose hips in the fall. I don't know if I'll have enough for jelly, but I can leave some for the birds in winter and still have some for tea. 

Bridget keeps chewing on a scrape on her leg. I don't want it to get infected, so I got her a hot pink onesie to wear since she loses her shit with the cone of shame and practically strangles herself.

Saturday morning around 1 a.m. Bridget woke me from sleep with loud barking. After a couple seconds of grogginess, I realized it was because of loud banging on what I thought was our front door. I immediately woke hubs. We all went downstairs to see what was going on, and the perpetrators were already gone. I heard what I thought was a vehicle quickly rounding the corner. Being ornery and middle-aged, we did the equivalent of shaking our fists while saying, "Those goddamn kids," and then went back to bed. However, this incident was apparently so loud that two neighbors called 911 as I was told by one of them later on Saturday. The theory is that the goddamn kids were banging on our metal garage door. Our neighbor said he heard laughing and a big truck driving away.

We have the joy of living on a corner. Over the years, we've had our mailbox destroyed twice, once by a drunk person and once by vandalism. We also get these occasional after-midnight dares to bang on our door I assume because they can quickly get out of sight by going around the block. Since we didn't have a repeat of the incident last night, I'm just chalking it up to kids on a dare. One hopes it's nothing more.

Did you see the dw_news post about password security issues? I haven't had any problems on Dreamwidth, but I guess I should check my old Livejournal account just in case.

I don't want to jinx my job search by saying too much, but I'll say it may be going well.

It's been mild enough temp wise that chamomile leaves are peeking through near the raised bed area in the backyard. I thought I cleaned it all out and planted it in containers for the spring, but it really wants to take over that area.

I checked Knives Out from the library because I've been hearing about Glass Onion and I wanted to watch the first one in the series even though they're standalone stories. I enjoyed it. Not as much as other mysteries, but it's cheeky enough to be a fun homage to the genre. I liked Daniel Craig better as Bond, but this Benoit Blanc character might grow on me.

I'm still waiting on Wings of Desire from the library as mentioned in this post. Sometimes our interlibrary loan system shows that I checked things out but then a few days later they're not in my queue. That happened with this movie, so I checked it out a second time.

Have a good week.

I brought what we call Bridget's bat cave back upstairs. The vet didn't want to her to go upstairs for two weeks to keep her stitches from coming out. I admit we cheated with this as she was pretty chill anyway. She's been used to having her little fort situated behind my chair in my office for years. All is well in her world.

Bridget had her two cysts removed and recovered well. The vet suggested dog onesies because I told her that the dog practically strangles herself in the E-collar. I woke up one night the last time she had to use to find that she was clearly trying to escape it but didn't quite make it and the collar had become way too tight. The onesie definitely keeps her from licking her stitches, though it's turned some neighbors' heads to see a German Shepherd in a red and white Santa's elf looking onesie, lol. 

I sometimes go for a walk on a trail near my house without Bridget just to have a calm meditative walk without stopping.  This morning, I came across about eight black and gray squirrels, a deer running across my path, and a human dog mom with THREE middle-aged looking German Shepherds (tell-tale silver mustaches). Poor Bridget missed all the fun.

Bridget needs two cysts removed. The estimate I was given is a little steep. I'll have it done no matter what, but I'm checking around for different quotes. She's a middle-aged girl now (7 years old), and we can hear her bones when she goes up the stairs, so we're making some changes in her regimen. Eventually, I assume she'll have to stay downstairs most of the time. She's used to being right behind me relaxing in her soft crate (bat cave) in my home office.

I made some apparently very tasty dog treats from this recipe on the War Eagle Mill site. The base recipe has only five ingredients, whole wheat flour, oats, flaxseed meal, peanut butter, and water. I added about one-quarter of a cup of carob chips to the base recipe as they're a safe alternative to chocolate chips for dogs. Our girl Bridget loves them.



We made our annual trip to Tractor Supply for several bags of pine shavings. I play with our dog in the backyard through the winter, and pine shavings have helped a lot with the mud/ice cycle we get in Michigan. An added bonus to both of us not breaking our necks is our back lawn isn't completely wiped out by spring like it would be before I started placing the shavings down. It's worn but not as bad as it would be without them. I can't remember where I read that little tip. I think it was on a forum for German Shepherd owners, but I think it would apply to owners of big, active dogs in general.