Hello Monday, Hello Bunnie!!

Hi friends. I hope you are having a great start to this new week and fairly new month. A lot has been going on around here. Grab a coffee or a glass of wine and I will introduce you to the newest member of our family.

The biggest piece of news that I have to share with you is about our new baby, Bunnie. No, she’s not a rabbit she is a dog. She appears to be a Golden Retriever or something along those lines. We first noticed her in the yard a couple of weeks ago. We actually saw her coming around at night on the security camera.

During the day we would catch a glimpse of her now and then but she would not come near us. She tried to follow my car a few times when I left for work. It was almost like she was looking to see who was in the car. This makes me think she may have been dumped out by someone. Because we live in such a rural wooded area people do that all the time. It makes me sick to think people do that but they do. We have gotten most of our babies this way.

After a week or so she finally came to the edge of the yard. We put a bowl of food out for her and she ran over and ate it ravenously. The next day we did that a few times and she came closer and closer. Finally after standing, for what felt like an hour, but was more like ten minutes, with my back to her in a half squatted position and my hand extended behind me, I made contact. She crawled on her tummy over to me. I finally started petting her. I could see her hair was matted and she had so many ticks on her. I could see she was a female.

She was afraid of Mark for a little while. She jumps at every little noise. We made her a bed under the deck. I bought her a nice large dog bed and she refused to sleep on it. She felt more comfortable on the stones under the deck.

She is just the sweetest goofball and she looks like she is grinning constantly. Once we were able to brush her and get some of those nasty ticks, about forty so far, off her she felt a lot better. I bought her a flea and tick collar and we haven’t seen a single tick on her since. We did notice that her left eye had a white place on it. We thought it was a cataract.

I called the vet to get an appointment to bring her in for a checkup. They didn’t have an opening for almost two weeks. However, when I mentioned the eye they wanted us to bring her in immediately to get that checked out. They said if it were an ulcer the quicker they could treat it the better they would have of saving it.

***She loves being where we are. She listens to us and peers through the window.*** ***We can’t wait to bring her inside with us.***

Because she had gotten so familiar with us, although she is still shy around us, I thought she would be fine with the vet. The day we took her to the ver, she jumped right into the back of my car. Mark got in the back with her. But once we got to the vet clinic she freaked out. She went berserk and it was all Mark and I could do to hold onto the leash. The vet tech had to bring out an extra leash to put around her. Getting her inside the building was not an option. The vet had us come to the back of the building away from cars and noises and she came out to look at her eye. They also handed me the wand to scan her to see if she had been chipped. She had.

The vet said the place on her eyeball was a scar that had resulted from some type of injury a while back. She would never get her eyesight back but at least she still had one good eye. Through the identification number from the chip we discovered the owners name and phone number and email address. The Vet Clinic tried to locate the owner. But after many attempts to locate her they, nor we, had any luck. Let me just say, this girl has been through a lot.

So we are planning to keep her unless an owner turns up that truly wants her back. We did discover through this information bank that she had been adopted through our local animal shelter two years ago. She was estimated to be about six years old at that time. That would make her eight years old now and I’m just not sure about that. She acts like a big puppy. That means we are unsure of her exact age.

We will slowly start introducing her to the inside cats. So far she has been great with the outside cats. I have done a lot of reading about Golden Retrievers. They want to be near their family. They are great with cats. We are hoping that very soon she will be an inside girl with Gus and Kitty Kitty. That is our goal.

Why did I name her Bunnie? I’m not sure. We didn’t even know if she was a male or female for a long time. When I went outside to call for her I just called out Bunnie, and she came. It stuck and that is her name. We love her so much!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

A Busy Week And An Earthquake

Hello and happy Monday. It is not often that we have earthquakes in our neck of the woods but we had one Saturday morning. Yep you heard that right. I was cleaning house upstairs and hubby was cleaning downstairs. He had his headphones on as he usually does when he vacuums. I was in the bedroom and suddenly everything started shaking. We have a large armoire with mirrors on the front. It started shaking like crazy. The windows were rattling. I yelled downstairs and by this time hubby noticed it too. He yelled for me to come downstairs. It seemed like it lasted forever. My sister who lives thirty minutes from me called and they had also experienced it.

Turns out it was a 4.1 earthquake centered just about 10 miles from us near Greenback Tennessee. It was felt from Atlanta Georgia to parts of North Carolina. Wow!! I am hoping for no aftershocks.

I spent most of last week in Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia with the attractions group that my work is a part of. I will give you a more in depth post on that visit tomorrow. Bristol is about a four hour drive for me. I left early last Monday because my first meeting didn’t start until noon. It was a full couple of days. I got back to my house Wednesday evening and I was so tired I collapsed on the couch and didn’t move.

Because I was gone most of last week for my attractions group meeting I was only at work on Thursday. I came in and caught up on a few things. On Friday I went with my sister for her appointment with her oncologist. We had to wait almost three hours but it was okay because she is in full remission. That news was well worth waiting for.

We did a little shopping after the doctor visit. I bought two planters at T.J. Maxx.

***I added a couple of succulents to this kitty planter.***

***And I put one of my smaller orchids in this sheep? ram?***

I spent most of the weekend at home. I made a yellow Bundt cake. It stuck really bad. Note to self, please use parchment paper, I just put it back together and slapped some chocolate icing on it and it was fine. And of course I knitted and crocheted the day away. AHHH a good weekend.

***This is a picture of the side of the cake that didn’t stick to the pan.***

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother’s Day. My mama has been gone for many years. And we lost my little mother in law last July. It’s always a bit sad when we think of them no longer being with us.

My orchids are still doing very well even my miniature orchid, Ingrid, is blooming. I just love this color.

That was my week last week. I barely had time to do anything at home or on the blog. I did post a Wordless Wednesday. It was made up of sunrises and sunsets over the years. If you missed it you can check it out here.

Have a wonderful week and join me back here tomorrow for a new post on my time in Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee. I will give you a teaser. I got to ride on the Bristol Motor Speedway!!!! What????

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

A Trip To Harmony Lane Farms In Smithville Tennessee

Happy Monday. How was your weekend? Last week was a long week. I started last Monday taking my sister for outpatient surgery in Knoxville. Then I had to stay late at work three different days. A long week. But the weekend was great!!! And I was so ready for it.

On Saturday my sister, niece and I went to nearby Smithville to visit my nephew. He works in Smithville and has lived there for more than a year. He discovered a goat farm near his house. Harmony Lane Farms, it is a working farm and they sell goat milk, ice cream and even fudge all made from Goat’s milk.

I went online to check it out and saw that they even had a farm tour and baby goat cuddling. We were all in.

We met my nephew in Sparta Tennessee which is about thirty minutes from his house. He had a pizza place he wanted us to try. We got into Sparta almost an hour before we were scheduled to meet him so we drove around the town.

My sister and I chose something different than pizza. Although the pizza looked great too.

Just outside of town we saw a little farm store that was very crowded. We still had some time to kill so we pulled in. The Farmers’ Storehouse. It was the neatest shop.

They make a lot of sour dough and even gave me a sour dough starter. It turns out that my sour dough bread is actually more of a yeast bread than an actual sour dough bread. But that’s okay I can do both. I have already fed the new starter a few times but haven’t actually made bread yet.

The farm tour was so much fun. We rode on a wagon and fed chickens, goats, cattle and watched the hogs being fed. I even got to milk a goat. Then we were able to cuddle the baby goats and even feed them with a bottle. They were just adorable.

***The goats know when it is feeding time.***

***The goats are hand milked twice a day.***

***Me and my sister and some baby goats. We also got to bottle feed them.***

We sampled several different types of cheese and the fudge of course. It was all delicious. My nephew always buys ice cream here.

I got home just in time to capture this beautiful moonrise.

Sunday was mostly resting and some laundry and spending time with my hubs.

How was your weekend?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Making Chocolate Pudding Cake

Hello and happy Monday. It really was a true Monday. I left the house this morning and several miles down the road I realized I had forgotten my purse. I did not go back. I had my phone and my lunch. I can use Apple Pay on my phone if I need to. So I did without it today. It did feel a little strange though. Oh well I guess it just proves I don’t really need a purse. I think I will get me one of those cute little wristlets and hook it to my keys.

It was a great weekend. The weather was so nice. I went outside Saturday morning to check out the tulip bulbs, and there are now fourteen coming up. I am hoping for even more because some of them are just barely breaking through. Of course I had a little helper. Allie.

I spent some time out on the deck reading. I am still reading Ina Garten’s Memoir. The sunshine and warm temperatures were just great. I baked bread and took most of it to work with me today.

When I was growing up my mama made a very yummy chocolate dessert that she called Chocolate Pudding Cake. Think lava cake or something like that and you will have an idea of what it is similar to. For many years we have tried to perfect the cake and make it like hers. I think my nephew and I just about have it down. After we came up with our recipe, other than a few tweaks here and there, my niece casually mentioned that she made it all the time. We are thinking we need to have a bake-off and let the family decide which one tastes the most like my mama’s.

Here is the recipe:
First melt one stick of butter in a 9×5 baking pan or casserole dish.
In a separate dish mix these dry ingredients:
1&1/2 cups of self rising flour
1&1/4 cups of granulated sugar
1&3/4 TBS. of cocoa
after you have stirred these together add:
3/4 cup of whole mild
2 tsp. of vanilla extract
pour into your pan evenly (DON”T STIR) after you pour it into the pan.

In a separate bowl mix:
1&1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup of cocoa
Stir all of this together until all of the lumps are out of the cocoa
Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the first mixture (DON’T STIR) after you put it on top of the first mixture.

Boil 2&1/2 cups of water (this is where I am tweaking mine next time and only adding 1&1/2 cups of boiling water.) But I used 2&1/2 cups yesterday and it was still delicious just a little runny while it was still warm. Pour the boiling water over your mixture very slowly. Let it soak in for a few minutes and then put it in your oven at 350 degrees and bake for thirty minutes.