Life is exciting, when you're a puppy or when you live with a puppy. There are lots of puzzles to work out. We wondered, for instance, why Sandy was letting a bunch of dog toys sleep on the dog bed and then sleeping on the floor instead of on the bed.
All of those toys had been out in the yard. He takes things out there, then often brings them back. Sometimes something from the yard comes in with him, like that stick on the floor, or a pine or fir cone. (Those items get dismantled, which makes a mess, but he doesn't swallow them.)
I found this arrangement a few nights ago. Art? Message? The interesting thing is, these are meant for dogs to chew, and we've had dogs who liked them. However, Sandy won't chew them. I've decided that he found them in the toy bin and thought they didn't belong. When I ignored them lying randomly on the floor, he made this arrangement, so I would notice.
We've had bad air a good part of the week, which makes me grateful for our air conditioning. Our last summer before we had it put in was the first year since we moved here that the smoke was bad in August. Now it's every year. We have occasional breaks of a few hours or a day when the wind carries the smoke from our annual wildfires away from Bend. When that happens, we get outside with the dogs, unless it's too hot. We visited the dog park twice this week and managed several walks on the trail. Sometimes there were other dogs at the dog park. If not, our pups still enjoy the smells of other dogs, and they always enjoy the walk from our house to the park and back.
The RPod is going to see some more use soon. I hopewe can get a break in the smoke. We've been getting Our Pad ready to go. We signed up all the warranties that required a registration, and we've been looking at the instruction manuals and YouTube videos to learn how our various pieces of equipment work. For instance, we learned that we can leave the solar connected to the battery when we aren't using the trailer, and the solar will keep the battery charged. When the battery is full, the solar will stop charging until the battery runs down a bit.
Based on our first trip in Our Pad, we decided we needed a few things we didn't already have, so we did some shopping.
The items are (clockwise from 3:00) wheel covers, level indicators, a baking sheet, pizza pan and cork puller, over-the-door hooks, an unbreakable mirror (in which you can see our dining-room ceiling) and a toilet paper holder.
The wheel covers came in a set of four, but our trailer only has two wheels in use, so we have spares.
The one on the bottom is for the spare, which we bought separately. It's the same as the one we had on our old fifth wheel.
The level indicators will help us level the trailer in a campsite. One is right to left (or port to starboard) and the other one is front to back (bow to stern). We had these on our old fifth wheel, too. They were very useful, but they went with the old rig when it left us.
Now for the pans. We had to wait until we actually had our new trailer to find out how big the oven was and what would fit. The oven is a High Pointe convection/microwave designed for small trailers. The small cookie sheet I used in the old fifth wheel doesn't fit. Our pizza pans don't fit, either, although in that case, the pans are too big for the size pizza I usually make anyway. This one should be perfect. We will only be able to bake the pizza on convection mode because we want it to bake, not just heat up, and the metal pizza pan should work fine.
The cork puller is similar to one we usually take with us but sometimes forget to bring, and then we have to use one that doesn't work as well, so since we were shopping, we added it.
We needed the over-the-door hooks because the only hooks for anything are on the outside of the bathroom door. Towels take up a lot of space, and we need them on the inside anyway.
We also needed to replace the mirror you can see hanging on one of the existing hooks. I bought it at Freddy's in Florence, so we would have it to use while we were camping. It has to be stowed away carefully, because it could break, and it could damage the door anyway, hanging on a chain. It was a temporary fix, but now we will have an unbreakable mirror designed for camping, that comes with its own stick-on hook. We hadn't thought about a mirror until we were actually living in the new trailer. Our old rig had mirrors in three of the upper cabinet doors in the main room, a big one on the wall, one in the door of the bathroom cabinet and another one on the back of the TV shelf in the bedroom. We don't need that many. I guess they thought it made the main room look bigger and brought in more light.
Now for the toilet paper holder. I don't think it will work well as a dispenser until some of the toilet paper has been used and the roll is smaller, because it's tight, and only one sheet pulls off, leaving the end of the paper completely inside the holder. We think it will work, though. What we needed was something that could stay in the bathroom all the time except when someone is taking a shower. This will hang on one of those over-the-door hooks until the shower is needed, and if the person taking the shower forgets to move it, the case will protect it. That's the plan.
In case you're wondering why the toilet paper needs to be moved when someone takes a shower...this is what's called a "wet bath."
We're hoping to go camping next week for a few days. It will give us a chance to figure out what else we need.
My brother-in-law, Jim, installed his piece of the Berlin Wall in his front garden. We have pieces, too, but very small ones. He and his wife were living in Berlin when the Wall came down on November 9, 1989. They were there and managed to come away this this nice souvenir. He has placed it in the front yard of his home in Florence.
I managed to get a few rounds of the Kultainen käki knitted this week. The cuckoo's legs are starting to show up, although you can't really tell unless you know what you're looking at. The pattern repeats are between the stitch markers. The two cuckoos are on each side of the center, facing each other. The tails and feet started a round before the legs. (That section of vertical stripes is where the steek will go.)
Here's what the finished sweater will look like, except that I'm making a cardigan, and I've moved the motifs to each side, so the design doesn't get broken up. (Photo from the book, Knitted Kalevala, where you can find the pattern.)
There will be an all-new story out on Friday. I'm hoping to keep to a once-a-month schedule for new stories, and reposting the old stories, one at a time, in between. It gives me a chance to edit them with the perspective of time, although I find I'm only making slight changes.
The proof copy of the latest book should come this week, probably tomorrow. When it does, I'll reveal the cover and what it's about. I'm hoping we don't need to make any changes, but there is still time to get them done, if needed, and still have the book out in time for holiday shopping.
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 Kultainen käki cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).
What's on my loom: I didn't make any progress on the placemats.
What's on my sewing machine: Still quilts. Veronika has been helping. Here she's pinning two rows of blocks together.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: What Are Dolls For, Anyway? The five girls discuss what their purpose in life is. They talk about kindness, looking after others and what children learn from having and playing with dolls.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende. Still enjoying it.
What's in my wine glass: Giardino Pinot Grigio delle Venezie 2022. OK, but not my favorite. Maybe it was the food pairing that didn't work. We had it with Thai stir-fry vegetables and tuna.
What's my tip of the week: Olive oil is good for a lot of things. One of the things I use it for is making salad dressing or sautéing vegetables, but when I use my pressure cooker I have another use for it as well. I dab a little olive oil on my finger and apply a thin layer of oil on the gasket of the pressure cooker. This keeps the water from leaking out during cooking, and maybe has extended the life of the gasket. (Other kinds of cooking oil will also work.) I don't know if this will work on an instant pot, as I don't have one.
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.
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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