HighFiber: March 2023

Monday, March 27, 2023

Welcoming Sandy!

Believe it or not, we actually did arrive in Pahrump to pick up Sandy. We got our car back on Tuesday and moved out on Wednesday. We spent one night in Hawthorne, Nevada, at a place called "Whiskey Flats." It was great, except that we were never able to connect to the "free WiFi." Thursday, we drove on to Pahrump and stayed at the Lakeside Casino and RV Park. We had a great space close to the "dog Park."

It had a great view out the window.

We had to disinfect the trailer to rout all the Parvo (and other) germs dangerous to puppies, so we took a day to do that.

We had some time to walk around the lovely lake, which boasts a variety of water birds and water animals, with a paved walk all around it.

It was much warmer than we have lived through this month. The walk all the way around the lake is a half mile. We went around, then turned around and walked back, making it a mile. Birds and other animals, like turtles, have been sunning themselves.

Sandy, our new puppy, had his next round of shots on Friday, a couple of days early (with the vet's approval). Saturday was the big day: We went to meet Sandy. I snapped this photo, which reminds me on the photo of Mariah I took when she first arrived to live with me: "Are you my new mum? Somehow I expected someone a bit...younger."

So here's Ash's-Mystical Coconino Sandstone Trekker, aka "Sandy."

Here's Dusty meeting Sandy for the first time.

He would love any human family members, but he really took to his daddy.

When we got back to the (now relatively clean) trailer, the four of us took a walk around the lake. Sandy watched Dusty and copied him as much as he could, including when we told Dusty "Make potty!"

We had a really good play session that first night. Dusty doesn't take any guff from Sandy, which Sandy needs. Dusty is very competitive, and every toy is his, even if it came with Sandy, who arrived with a nice collection. Sandy is very feisty when he plays, and it's hard for Dusty to intimidate him. He works to keep him in line, though.

As I write this, we have lived through two nights with Sandy. When you take him out and tell him to "make potty," he usually does. Of course, the key to success is to take the puppy out every time he wakes up, every time he has finished eating or playing and every time it has been a while. He's had two accidents, fewer than one a day, and they were my fault. I got busy doing other things. When he potties (outside), I tell him "good potty." He looks at me and seems to enjoy the praise. Puppies his age pee 8-10 times a day, so I think we're doing well.

Whenever we need to put him into his crate (at night or when we travel), we make sure he has pottied. He whimpers for a bit (usually measured in seconds). Then he gets quiet and stays quiet for some time. When we travel, and he wakes up, we pull off as we can find a place to pull off. Then we get him to potty. Until he has full immunity from his puppy shots (one more set due next month), we clean his feet with disinfectant wipes and put him into either his crate of the clean trailer with a drop cloth over the carpet. Charlie referred to Sandy today as our "bundle of joy."

I've made some progress on the Talvinen cardigan, in spite of the dog days of winter.

On Sunday we left Pahrump, stopping in Hawthorne again at Whisky Flats RV Park, which still didn't have any of their advertised "free WiFi." This is why my blog post is late.

Our next night will be spent in (guess where)?

Oh, and guess what? Now I have a cold. (Probably not COVID19, but I'll test when I get home.)

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil and Mariah, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom, my sewing machine and in my hoop: I have no idea. I've been away from my home all month!

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "Homesick," the boys realize they miss home and all their earlier activities.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to No More Lies by Rachel Abbott.

What's in my wine glass: Yellow Tail Shiraz. We ran out of wine because we hadn't planned to be gone so long. We got this at the supermarket. We have had it before, and it's cheap but nice.

What's my tip of the week: Don't leave home without some COVID19 test kits.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Monday, March 20, 2023

Life in Winnemucca

As I write this (and undoubtedly, as you read it) we are still marooned in Winnemucca. However,

some progress is being made on the repair of our truck. Dusty has made some new friends and has learned to play with other dogs again. He's happy to relax and rest when I have a lie down after lunch. This is his favorite perch. The sun comes in the window in the middle of the day, and he can keep an eye on the entrance to the campground, in case someone interesting decides to come in.

Spending time in the RV park has given us an opportunity to talk about and decide on a name for our new puppy. You may remember "X," "Y" and "Z."

We know now that ours is "Y," and we have new photos of him at 9 weeks.

We had a struggle coming up with a name. We had lots of options. The struggle was to narrow them down. We first thought we had decided on Rusty, but decided that sounded too much like Dusty; great for writing a poem about them, but not great for when you want to call a specific dog. Finally we narrowed it down to Woody and Sandy. I went on Facebook and asked people to give their opinion. Some did, but most suggested new names, which would have been useful if I had had 50 puppies to name. I decided they should get their own puppies.

We finally thought about our Arizona vacation, during which we had planned to go hiking in the hills and see some interesting rock formations, as we have in the past. All we're getting from our vacation now, though, is the puppy (although it has been an adventure, and adventures you survive without damage are fun). So we decided the puppy should have a name that reflected our "Arizona vacation." We came up with "Coconino Sandstone Trekker." We picked it to go with Sandy. When we file him with AKC, we will add "Ash's Mystical" (for the breeder's name) to the front.

By Wednesday, we were about out of fresh vegetables for salad. We could see we were getting low on some other things, so we decided to walk to the nearest grocery store and replenish the pantry. It was about 1.75 miles each way, and the weather was nice, although a bit windy. Dusty and I waited outside the store while Charlie did the shopping. Then we walked back again. Here's the first leg of our walk. We came back the same way, and it was about 3.5 miles round trip, a nice hike, but without the enchanting scenery, as it was mostly along the main road. (This map from the Walk For A Dog app was just one way.)

We have tried to walk every day. Often we just walk around the RV campground, but besides the trip to the store, or to the Maverick station (2.25 mi. round trip) we have found a pleasant walk outside the campground, where there is a road that skirts the campground, then turns and goes through a trailer park to end up on the other side.

For part of the walk, we have a nice view of the mountains.

I've been getting some knitting done. The Talvinen cardigan is coming along. It was supposed to have bobbles in the blue plus-sign motifs that look like a flower at the bottom, but I didn't like the bobbles, so I took them out. After a little experimentation, I decided to make the final stitch in the motif a purl, like this:

Row 1. K 1 stitch blue

Row 2. K 3 stitches blue

Row 3. P 1 stitch blue

I like how it looks. (This is knit top-down, so the last row knit is on the bottom.)

Now I've finished the body except for the ribbing. Unfortunately, I left the big circular needle in the ribbing size at home. All I have in that size with me is a set of 6" dpns, maybe not quite long enough to go around the body. There is still a lot I can do with what I have, though, so I put the stitches on waste yarn for now and will move on to the sleeves.

The Wisconsin grandkids went to a dance competition over the weekend. Zachary and Daphne both performed in a dance routine that won a trophy. They each got to pose with it.

They are responsible for bringing the trophy back to the dance studio, and each of them received a medal to keep.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Emil writes another letter to his friend Holly in "On the Road Part Two."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just finished Dancing on the Wind by M. C. Beaton and just started a new Rachel Abbott novel, The Shape of Lies.

What's in my wine glass: Madroña El Tinto, Lot 40. This wine is always a favorite. This is our last red wine for now. We have a white in the fridge, and then we will be out of wine, unless we get on the move by then.

What's my tip of the week: When you go camping, always take an extra supply of shelf-stable, easy-to-fix food along. You never know!

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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Monday, March 13, 2023

The Long Wait

Well, I'm finally getting some knitting done!

Soon it will be time to start the body colorwork section. We brought some movies with us and have been watching one in the evening each night. We can play DVDs on my laptop. Good knitting time.

We're still in the campground where the tow truck driver left us last week.

The mechanic discovered that one of the pipes that goes from the catalytic converter to the manifold had broken off and the other was clogged. Because our Chevrolet Silverado is 23 years old, it was difficult to get parts. It took several days to locate them, and then they had to be shipped here. They arrived Friday and may get installed today. If we're lucky and that's all that's needed, we could be on our way by Tuesday. We're not going all the way to Arizona. We will just go as far as Pahrump, spend 2-3 nights there and start back.

Dusty has made some new friends, and we take a walk every day around the place. We can get enough "mileage" using the Walk for a Dog app to qualify for points (1/4 mile or more), and they will donate to Best Friends whenever they get enough points from walkers who are using the app and picked Best Friends for their dog-related charity.

There are two doggy play yards, and Dusty has made some friends.

We found out that most of the people who are here actually live here full-time. Most of the trailers have skirts around the bottom and big propane tanks outside.

We watch the kids walk up to the road to catch the school bus in the morning and come back in the afternoon. We see them playing in the playground or riding a scooter or bicycle around the campground when it isn't raining. The people who run the place say that most of the people here are living for months or permanently. Many of the residents work at mines or oil fields in the area or as far away as Reno, where there is a shortage of housing. Saturday, we saw a truck with a drilling company logo on its doors bring a large trailer in and leave it, presumably for employees. Each weekday a van covered in red sand and dust comes in empty and leaves with about 6-7 men in it. We're getting to see a different side of life.

The propane tank we were using finally emptied, so we switched to the other one and had the empty filled. We can do that right here.

We've had the water freeze in the pipes and/or hoses several times, meaning no water comes from the hoses. The worst culprit is water hose that connects us to the campsite water outside. If we know it's going to freeze, we leave one of the faucets dripping, and that's usually enough to keep it from freezing completely. We have an extra one of those hoses, so we switch them out, allowing the one that's frozen to thaw in our bathtub.

We keep a couple of the cabinets where our water lines are open to let in the heated air, and we took the front off the sofa to let the warm air fill in that space, too. We have water and antifreeze stored under there, the the water pipes run under the sofa, so letting that area warm up keeps them from freezing, too. Dusty is keeping Charlie cozy, so he can have a well-deserved rest.

It turned out that the grocery stores don't deliver after all. The people who run the campground offered to take us to the store, but we actually have enough food. We would be running out of drinking water, but Charlie had the good sense to get a water filter before we left. We just started using it.

We are rethinking the puppy's name. Rusty sounds too much like Dusty. Now we are trying on Woody.

Friday's story wrote itself, the only good thing to come out of our adventures. Then I wrote the sequel, which will come out next Friday. It's all set, except for a photo or two and final editing.

Johan has been doing well at the chess tournaments, so he qualified for regional chess tournament on Saturday. He won three of the five matches there, which is very good.

Elsewhere, Zachary was making grilled cheese sandwiches.

Zachary's birthday is next month. This "A Girl for All Time" boy doll, Max, is on its way to him (well, to his mother). I think he actually looks a little like Zachary. He will need some clothes, so I will start sewing after we get home from our trip.

Fortunately, the girls from this company have the same torso, so Daphne's doll (Nisha), who is coming to me first, will be the model for clothes for both of them. She should be delivered Tuesday. Fortunately, our next-door neighbor is taking care of our mail, which is apparently not being held, even though we have a confirmation number from USPS.

Prepare yourself for photos!

Note: I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's in The Doll's Storybook: On the Road Part One. A very, very interesting adventure, relayed in the form of a letter to Holly.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to Dancing on the Wind by M. C. Beaton.

What's in my wine glass: Pinelli Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2021 from Italy. I would definitely like to have this one again.

What's my tip of the week: If you go on a trip, be sure to pack some Covid test kits!

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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Monday, March 6, 2023

The Best Laid Schemes

We’ve been having an adventure. You may remember we were planning to go on vacation to Arizona with the trailer. Well, we put our things away in the trailer, but when Charlie checked the lights, they weren’t working. Not an auspicious beginning!

As you probably know, when you pull a trailer, the lights on your tow vehicle can’t be seen by other drivers, because the trailer is in the way. That's why they put lights on trailers. If they aren’t working, though, you can get a ticket. He had to fix them. By the time we left, it was already afternoon, so when we stopped for gas in Burns, OR, it was already time to start looking for a place to spend the night.

The place where we had planned to stop had something called "full hookups." That meant you can connect to power, water and sewer. When we drove in, though, none of the empty spots were cleared of snow, and we were concerned about trying to pull through snow that deep. I found another place online, and Siri took us there. There were several cleared spaces and an attendant, who suggested we take the spot next to the dog park. We backed in and hooked up. The power worked right away, but no water came out of the trailer faucets. Charlie said that there must be some ice in the pipes. They decided just to bring in some water from the campground faucet to use for washing and only hook up to the power. We would just be there overnight. I used my phone to register online, but their system put us in a different spot. The attendant said he would notify the owners of the change.

The next day, we unplugged the power, and we rode off. All went well until early afternoon. Suddenly, we heard a loud noise. It didn’t stop as we rode on. It was making our ears hurt. We had to continue driving, because there was no place to pull off. Finally, we came to a pull-out and called AAA.

We were in the middle of nowhere, roughly halfway between Burns and Winnemucca. The nearest town was 15 miles ahead, but no one within miles and miles had the capability to take both our truck AND our trailer. After several phone calls back and forth with AAA and different repair places, they finally found us someone back in Burns who could, and was willing to, pick us up and take us to Winnemucca where there was a repair place that could look at our truck and an RV campground where we could stay. The tow-truck driver suggested we call right away to make a reservation for the trailer, because the office was due to close soon, and then call the recommended auto shop, to let them know we were bringing in a disabled vehicle.

It was well after dark when he got there, because it was a long drive from Burns. We got into the cab, while he loaded the truck onto the bed of his truck and attached our trailer to the back of his vehicle. (I learned that the truck would be “hauled” and the trailer “towed.” I didn’t know the difference in these terms before.) Here's the view out the back window of his cab. The red lights were flashing:

He would drop the trailer off at the RV campground in space 64, which we had been assigned when we made the reservation, and we could expect a map with the codes in a drawer in front of the office. The campground office was closed by the time we were picked up. When we got there, however, someone else was in that spot and there was no paperwork in the drawer. Our helper put the trailer in the next spot, which was empty, and we would do without the codes the first night. (We found out the next day, that the people in our assigned spot had signed up online right before the office closed. They had been assigned space 62. Apparently they assumed the paperwork was for them and someone in the office forgot to make up another map with codes and space indicated for them.) We still had to eat, so it was very late when we got to sleep.

After leaving our trailer at the campground, we took the truck to the repair shop and left it. That was Thursday. Friday morning we called the repair shop. They would not be able to look at it until this week, though, so we don’t know yet what the damage will be or how long we will have to stay here, but the Arizona plans are out.

When we went outside the next day, this is what the place looked like.

The facilities are very nice. They have a billiard table and a library in the building with the office. There's a laundromat, but I don't think we'll need it any time soon.

They have a heated swimming pool that opens May 15th, but I'm sure we won't be here still, and we didn't bring our swimsuits.

It’s very cold and windy in Winnemucca. It has been a struggle to keep the trailer warm, but fortunately, we brought a little electric space heater, which runs pretty much all the time. We have a furnace, but we use it sparingly, because we don’t want to run out of propane in the middle of the night. We're making use of the warm fake fur blankies we got for the puppy.

We got the water running, but it freezes up occasionally. We keep the cabinet doors open, and Charlie switches out the hose from the water connection to the trailer periodically, so any water inside can thaw. We've been here less than four days and already we've had strong gusts of wind, as well as rain, snow, sleet and this stuff, which looks like someone killed a Beanie Baby.

We are stuck here with no way to drive to the store. The campground has a little grocery section in the office, but it’s pretty much just canned and packaged stuff. The nearest grocery story is a mile away, not a bad walk...in warmer weather. There is a store in town that delivers, though, if we decide there is something we absolutely have to have. We should have enough food to get us through at least another week.

I had planned for this week’s story to be about Billy and Emil’s adventures, traveling with “The Writer” and her husband and camping in Arizona with the trailer. All that went out the window, of course, but the story, as told by Emil in a letter to his friend Holly, is going to be way more interesting.

When things go awry in life I have been known for years to comment, “This will look good in my autobiography.” No no one wants to read a story about how someone planned a trip, everything went as planned and they did fun things like hike, swim and watch movies. They like to read about all the things that went wrong. A happy ending is always nice, though. We’ll see!

I did manage to get some knitting done during the short time we were actually driving and then holed up in the trailer. I’m through the yoke of the Talvinen sweater now, done with the divide for the sleeves and am ready to work my way down the body. Here's the front:

The back:

I tried it on, and I think it will fit nicely as a cardigan. (The vertical stripes down the front are the steek, so about an inch of that will be gone in overlapping button and buttonhole bands.)

We also have had excellent internet, both here and the place in Burns, allowing us to watch the news and movies, and I’m ready to download another novel or two to my phone, having finished the one I was listening to. We also were able to Zoom on Sunday with two of our kids and our daughter-in-law.

One other happy event. The last time I checked the mail before we left, my bag for the Rose City Yarn Crawl had arrived, so I transferred my current projects to the new bag.

Our neighbor is picking up our mail, as the PO never seemed to register my hold mail request. The book purchased during the yarn crawl and the yarn to make one of the sweaters in it both arrived the day we left, and our neighbor has them.

"The best laid schemes of mice and men gang oft agley" ––Burns

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating, but I may get to it yet).

What's on my loom, sewing machine: How would I know?

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Pippa and Pauly wonder about the strange pink creature sitting on the bed in “Pink Floyd.”

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just finished The Governess of Penwythe Hall by Sarah E. Ladd. Looking to download something else just for me. While driving, we listened to The Very First Damned Thing and My Name Is Markham, both by Jodi Taylor. We finished the first one. The second one has 38 minutes left. We may have to back it up a bit after we get on the road again.

What's in my wine glass: Villa Di Mare Sangiovese Rubicone IGT 2020. Excellent!

What's my tip of the week: Don't travel south in the winter.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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