The Rainbow Bridge

 I made this poster for Lost Dogs MN and unfortunately this is the second time that I have had to use it personally

Dedicated to our dear friend Yoni who we loved like one of our own.  She passed as she lived, with great dignity.

The Rainbow Bridge Story
The story tells of a green meadow located this side of Heaven (ie before one enters into it).  Rainbow Bridge is the name of both the meadow and the bridge adjoining bridge connecting it to Heaven.

According to the story, when a pet dies it goes to the  meadow having been restored to perfect health and free of any injuries.  The pet runs and plays all day with the others, there is always fresh food and water and the sun is always shinning.  However, it is said that while the pet is at peace and happy, they miss their owner who had to be left behind on earth.

When their owner dies, they come across the Rainbow Bridge-it is at that moment that their pet stops what they are doing and sniffs at the air looking into the distance where they see their beloved owner.  Excited, they run as fast as they can until they are in their owner's arms licking their face in joy while their owner looks into the eyes of their pet.  They were absent on Earth but never from the heart.  Then side by side they cross the Rainbow Bridge together into Heaven, never to again to be separated.

Please light a candle for Yoni to guide her on her way

Parker Arizona

Parker Arizona was our desert dog.  We always wondered why someone would drop a great doggie like this off in the desert.  He had to have been dumped because he sat in the same spot for at least a week-waiting for his people.  When no one else came, he decided to trust me and we became his people.

This is right after I got him-the first thing he did was give me a hello doggie kiss, he knew we would love him.

This boy knew what a harness and leash meant

 And he fit right in from the get go with Peeko

And even Roscoe

He always waited patiently for his daddy to come home

He was cute as can be

And he was very very ill

When Parker began to be just not his happy self, showed stiffness in his back end, was hot to the touch and started to pee blood we took him to the vet.  They diagnosed Leptospirosis-something dogs can get from drinking tainted water, and gave him fluids, steroids and an antibiotic.  He just didnt get better and stopped eating.  David took him to the vet thinking another shot of IV fluids and he would snap back-instead I got a call from him saying 'Honey, it's not good' and David was crying.  It turns out our desert boy was full of tumors in the stomach, likely cancer and his organs were shutting down, they figured he had another three days to live. The doc is sure that he has been sick for a long time and may very well be the reason he was in the desert.   David did the hardest thing there is to do-he chose to let Parker run free.

And the last thing he did was to give David a goodbye doggie kiss...he knew it was time.

Yesterday it was 100 degrees and for some reason Parker was having a good day.  The boys and I spent an  hour playing in our creek.  I planned to go down again soon with my real camera and get some good shots-who knew that this would be Parker's first and last time at the creek-not I.

Parker was a rock hound and he was in heaven dunking for rocks yesterday.  When we left the creek he carried a rock up the hill.  I found that rock today and it will be put where our boy is buried.

 Looking for the perfect rock

 And a pose for the momma

David wonders how you can get so attached to a pup that you have only had 6 months-when that pup is one like our Parker it's pretty easy.  Run free little boy, we loved you so much.

Lost Dogs of MN uses this on their Facebook site-please light a candle for our desert boy and help him run free

Light a Candle

Mother's Day

As I sit here with my coffee in hand I realize that I am a bit blue.  Is it the rainy grey day I wonder that has me feeling like I could cry?  No-I realize that Mother's Day is looming...

Mom and I always spent the day shopping for flowers and plants.  It was typically a rainy grey day but we would go anyway.  

Mom loved her gardens-watching things grow

And I loved spending that day with her 

The first Mom's day that I spent without her-our neighbor and wonderful friend Jess asked me if she could hit the greenhouses with me.  Jess, you will never know how much that meant to me.

Mother's Day is the Race For The Cure walk-I have always said that I want to participate in this wonderful cause...and some day I will.  What a great way to spend a day that finds me blue, by doing something that is near and dear to my heart.

Race for the Cure

As I ramble, I realize that this post is just that, a ramble.  Thank you for allowing me to do so.

If you have your mother's with you, show them your appreciation on Mom's Day because, after all, no one will love you like your mother does and without her you would not be here.

Love you and miss you every day mom-you were taken too early,

I was not ready for you to go.

Working Our Way North

Our last days in Parker:

I have never been a fan of  Chihuahua's but these little rascals stole my heart.  They are the pups of Neil and Gail and yes they are yappy little creatures but they do have wonderful personalities.

This is Bingo the eldest of the bunch and as you can see she is blind.  Bingo did lots of snuggling on my lap, of course it was said that she liked me only because she couldn't see me...HA

And TidBit-the little bi**c.  Seriously, she is cute as can be and went to everybody except me...ME the biggest dog lover there is.  She weighs maybe 1.5 pounds and where she is snuggled in the picture is her favorite place to snuggle (except under a nice warm blanket of course:)

Petey is the lover of the crew and as is usual, he preferred David over the rest of us.

Buddy is the poppa to TidBit and Petey.  He's also the guy with a shadow on the left and a shadow on the right ;)

We had the dogs and their people over for a good bye lunch prior to Neil and Gail's leaving.  That would be 7 dogs and 5 people in our yard and everyone (even the people) got along very well :)

All winter long David and I had been wanting to take the drive on the Black Meadow Landing road where friends from MN were lucky enough to spot a bunch of  desert bighorn earlier in March.  Go figure we didn't see any bighonr but we did run across a family of coyotes.  By the time I got my camera up this was the only one that hadn't disappeared behind the hill.  They grow em big in Arizona?

The desert was coloring up quite nicely given the rains that they'd had.  It seems tho that the Black Landing drive is predominantly yellow in color

With a splash of purple here and there

This was probably my favorite picture of the day. 

David liked the desert oasis sprouting palm trees

Our first stop after leaving Parker was a real shit hole RV park near Holbrook AZ.  And being the hole that it was this is what we woke up to the next morning.

Once the sun came out we decided to take a drive to the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest.

Good gosh it is so pretty

The colors

And the topography

This looks like it is blending right into the sky

I couldn't get enough of the place

Even saw some Pronghorn in the valley below

This red plant was pretty striking against the blue hues

The area is called the Blue Badlands-aptly named.  Does anyone else see any faces in these rocks?

The petrified forest part certainly certainly was not as beautiful but is very interesting.  According to the information, at one time the area was a huge flood-land.  Large giant amphibians and small dinosaurs lived in the water and tall conifer trees grew on the banks.  The trees fell into the water and were buried by salt, mud and ash; which cut off oxygen to them slowing their decay.  Groundwater that was full of silica seeped into the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits.  Eventually that silica crystallized into quartz and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.  We saw lots of 'trees' laying on the ground that seemed to have been hand sawed because they were perfectly 'sliced'. But that is not the case,  we were told that they just broke into these perfect sections as they lay on the ground. 

Most of the pieces have some great color.  David really really had to resist picking a small piece up!

That snake head poking out of the rock is actually a petrified log.

There are hiking trails that we would had loved to go on however given the 60 to 70 mile an hour wind gusts...we decided against it.

And then we were back on the road again through the beautiful mountains of New Mexico-note the one ahead of the motor home.  Since I was driving I missed a ton of great pictures.  It was a foggy day and the mountain tops were striking but you will have to take my word for it.

We stayed at a not bad park (we have been staying at Passport parks, inexpensive but not top of the line).  David met a fella that lives at the park year round and fishes everyday.  He asked David if he wanted to go fishing the next morning...ya think.  They brought home a couple of meals of walley and it was delish.

After two days there, we were off to or next stop at Kinsely Kansas.  This is an overlook that we stopped at for a doggie break.  Only in Kansas, cow country USA, do they have an overlook of a cattle feeder station for pete sake.  So this is the largest processing center in the world.  Cows are brought in at 6-800 pounds and then fattened up to 1200 pounds in a few months time...and then of course off they go to the grocery stores from there.  I know that there is a process to how we get our meat but I don't want to know ...if that makes sense.  I guess Kansas is proud of this (probably for good reason I don't know) but I think it's a dumb place for an overlook.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Here we sit at a not half bad park in the nothing to do town of Kinsley Kansas.  The park is nice in that it is dog friendly and has a large field that they can run off leash in AND it does not have those sand stickers that the last park had!  Our intent was to leave here this morning for Norfolk Nebraska but the weather has held us up.  We are warmer here than we would be in Norfolk so here we are.  The current plan is to stay here today and tomorrow and Wednesday take off for Norfolk.  We will stay there for a day or two and are hoping no longer than that.

However this has to be gone before we get home 

And as I am writing this the tragedy in Boston occurs.  My thoughts are with everyone affected by this horrific act.

Random Pictures From Along The Way

After three days of the real flu (of which I have not had in years) it is time to clean the house of viruses and get caught up on da blog.

Our park is getting emptier by the day as the snowbirds head home.  We are getting ready to head out as well and plan on hitting the road this coming week.  It's a wait and see-watch the weather kind of game.  We plan on heading to Mohab, through Colorado and then across and home. David is outside readying the motorhome (cleaning the exterior, one must not be seen on the road with a dirty home dontchya know) and I need to get my strength back to get the dust bunnies cleaned from the inside of the house.  We are excited to see the MN kids.  My friend Mary and I are anxious to get gardening-I guess there will be a pumpkin patch this year :)  I wonder if Mary is ready to schlep water from the creek to the patch, wherever that patch may be.

It's been another great winter of visiting friends and pretty much just relaxing.  We didn't get a lot of 'sight seeing' done and sometimes we both feel as if we should, but then we realize nah it's OK we can do what we want to do even if that means just sitting on our butts having coffee with friends.

I did finally get this quilt finished-been working on it for a year.  It's a wedding gift for two people that will soon celebrate their one year anniversary I believe.

Rail Fence pattern- was fun to do and really quite easy.

The back shows the 'quilting'.  I shadow stitched this one.

I am in a Secret Sister swap on my quilting board and made this garden flag for the month of March.  Our task was to make something that had to do with wind and we had to use three fat quarters to do it-wallah the garden flag blows in the wind and has three fat quarters in it.  I will spray it with UV and water repellent and because I like it so much I may never buy another store garden flag.

The fabric is 4th of July in nautre given the liberty bell, wording and colors of course

Sharing a few found photos from the past

Oh my-those really were the good old days.  We were all thin, liked to drink a little-bullshit a lot and sported some funky hair do's.  We have Jeannie Beth. Lisa, Jody, Brenda and not so surprisingly me proudly showing off the bottle of beer

 Mary found this one in her basement treasure chest.  She doesn't have an actual treasure chest in her basement-her entire basement is a treasure chest :)   Len was maybe 7 or 8 here and we lived on 5th street in St Peter. The hair is rather mullet style, ever so unintended!

My cousin's daughter found this old treasure in a box somewhere and it is priceless to us Grunst Cousins.  This was taken I suspect somewhere in the 1920 or 1930's.  My  momma was born in 1929 and she is not in one of the tubs.  I think these are from left to right- Uncle LeRoy, Aunt Opal, not sure who the little guy is and then maybe Uncle Dood and Uncle Ray.  If anyone knows for sure please leave a comment.  I so love this shot!

Speaking of shots....this one is hanging on the wall of Lutes Casino (which is not a casino at all but a bar and burger joint in Yuma).

 Not at all an 'old' photo but a sweet as can be one for sure.  I took this of Shelby Marie when I was home in February

 Some random shots of the Arizona sky

On a perfectly cloudy day

 Over the mountains of Lake Havasu

 David made the trip to Orange CA to pick up Lenny's annual load.  I kinda love the sweatshirt, it may not make it to your house Len.

 So, with all of the doogie food and treat recalls (and there are a boat load of them-here is a link Dog food recalls ) and because all three dogs have allergies, we decided to try a natural raw product- Sojos .  Sojos is a great product and within a few days of using it Peeko no longer licked his feet.  Roscoe still had a little trouble as did Parker, but we were pleased and planned on continuing with it.  After running too low on food and forgetting to order in time-I started to do some research on making my own.  So much info out there so I went with the basics of protein, carbs/starch, fruits and veggies.  Apparently the biggest problem with making your own doggie food is the lack of minerals and the biggest they say is calcium.  For now I use tums for the calcium and I squirt a fish oil capsule in their bowls once a day.  TMI I am sure but the poopies have gotten darned small which means they are using most of their food (no fillers), the allergie symptoms for all dogs are %95 gone and Peeko is no longer coughing and gaging (we thought maybe Asthma).  It's a bit of a pain making it all up but given the benefits it's worth it.  And just think- David and I could sit down and eat right with the boys-we'd need to spice it up a bit.

Chicken and rice with veggies (carrots and spinach)

Beef stew on the stove top for us and in the crock for the boys

Next on the agenda will be home made dog treats.

Speaking of dogs-check out these drawings of our boys

Roscoe-behind the pillows on the bed snoozin

Parker

Peeko

 The little willful and deliberate boy Roscoe

 And all three boys

 This is where I got the drawings done he really is a great artist-take a stroll through his sight. If you click on 'contact me and other stuff 'and then on the right hand side down to donate money for a drawing of your dog-there you have it.