About Dogs and Other Interesting Things

Every week I ask myself what I did all week. That's why I started writing this blog. I usually can remember what I did as the week draws to a close, but after some time passes, it's harder to remember if I did anything more constructive than sitting on the couch and eat bonbons. Sometimes someone asks me a question like, "Which flavors of Kool-Aid did you use to dye that yarn?" I can look for my blog post about that activity.

Well, I didn't get much knitting done this week. 

A few rows only. A photo like last week's wouldn't look much different, so I decided to straighten it out so the design shows better. 

What did I do all week? Well, in addition to the usual laundry, cooking, baking bread, walking the dogs, checking out social media, choir practice, etc., I've started on the next book.

This year's book, Mandy's Little Science Lessons, is still only available for pre-order from booksellers except for BookBaby Bookshop, which has copies available for sale. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ThriftBooks and others have it for pre-order only. It's good to see it listed.

Book promoters have been contacting me with glowing AI-written praise for the book, offering to help me increase sales...for a price. Some of them claim to have actually looked at the book in-person, which is odd, because the only copies out there now came from me, and I know where every copy went, although some of the copies I sold at the Condega Celebration may have been passed on to recipients elsewhere, having been bought as gifts for children living in other parts of the country. 

The "Vermont Book Club," for instance, wants to interview me via Zoom. Readers in their last meeting absolutely gushed over the stories and the illustrations, according to the person who emailed me. I was skeptical that they could even have had copies, so instead of responding to the email, I contacted them through their website, and they said, yes, the email had come from them. Now I think the website is for a nonexistent organization.

One email offered to made a trailer for my book that will help potential buyers visualize the characters and make them come to life. (Um...the book is full of photos of the characters in action. I didn't already make the characters come to life?) If a real person seriously contacts me for an interview or to include the book in an existing book fair or reading program for kids, I probably won't believe them.

I have been responding so far to these "people," if they actually are people, by telling them that I have no money in the budget for promotion. If I do have any expendable funds, I would pay BookBaby to promote the book, a service they offer. They have been very good to work with, and I know they are a real company.

So, to the dogs: Dusty had a vet visit on Monday. He started limping last Sunday, so we thought it should be looked at. He had been busy chasing the ball earlier, and as an older dog––he's 10––there's always the possibility of an injury. The vet diagnosed it as a luxating patella. He didn't think that an X-ray was needed, so we got away with just paying for an anti-inflammatory medication. Dusty was better by the next day, but he's still on the medication. We will have to watch it as he gets older.

We got a few walks in during this past week. By "we" I mean mostly the dogs and me. Charlie has been working in the yard, which is enough exercise, but he did go on one walk with us.

Dusty and Sandy's favorite part of the walk has been the wild area, where we can let them off-leash. 

On Friday I peeked over the new fence around the development under construction where we walk. The houses that look finished (at least from the outside) now have house numbers. I wonder if anyone is already living there. I thought I saw some plants sitting on the inside windowsill of the front window in the little house on the right, and the apartment building that looks finished had regular passenger cars parked in the parking spaces next to it on a Saturday.

Here's Walk for a Dog's depiction of our usual walk. It's close to 1 3/4 miles. 

While we're on the topic of dogs, I thought everyone would like to see Dusty's "tattoo." It isn't really a tattoo. Dusty is a silver, and if he scrapes himself so the skin breaks, the hair grows in in black where the scrape was. I think his "tattoo" looks like a bow. Or maybe a butterfly. I don't know how he did this. He and Sandy play roughly, but Dusty also goes after the ball in some confined areas, such as under the deck.

We had the annual "Blessing of the Animals" on Sunday. Besides the usual choir practice before church, coffee hour after church and then bell-ringing practice after that, then our weekly Zoom call, we followed up by getting the dogs into the car to go back to the church for the Blessing of the animals.

In the past, we have done this inside the church during a regular church service, but this year we held it outdoors in the afternoon. (That big building on the right used to be a school, but now it's a museum. Their big lawn is right across the street from Trinity Episcopal Church, so quite convenient.) Dusty and Sandy got their blessings and behaved themselves, as did the other dogs and the two guinea pigs who came for a blessing.

Elizabeth, our priest, led the singing. Her daughter, who read the lesson, also helped by holding the program with the lyrics.

That was the last scheduled event in a packed day at the end of a packed week. It was made even more packed by "social storms" on Thursday and Friday, sponsored by DemCast, two hours each day with a hashtag related to a specific topic to attract attention to important issues. Most of the time, we're busy verifying photos and rumors, spreading information and calling out attempts at disinformation or the more accidental misinformation. The people I work with are active on BlueSky and Twitter/X, but other people do the same kind of thing on other social media. It's a hard job now, with AI deepfakes floating around. People tend to believe what they see. Four hours out of a very busy week meant no knitting.

To end with some cuteness, here's Soren riding an accessible trike he was trying out.

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, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Mandy's Little Science Lessons: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". 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, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, 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: Making slow progress on the Speculoos Sweater. 

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy, almost done, but I didn't get much time to knit or listen to the audiobook this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Getting ready to make some doll clothes. Still.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Marmalade and Freckles have a conversation about children, cats and dogs in Cats and Dogs, this week's story in The Doll's Storybook.
.

What's my tip of the week: After I add "schmier" to my bagel, I always have trouble getting the two halves back together the way they were before I cut it. Now I put it back together before the schmier and cut it again crosswise. After spreading the cream cheese on the two parts of the bottom of the bagel, the cuts are a guide to getting the whole thing back together.

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

Book #7 is available in BookBaby's Bookshop right now. Amazon, B&N and other booksellers has it available for presale. The release date is October 27th.

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, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

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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A Few Days at Nehalem Bay

Most of this post is about our camping trip to Nehalem Bay Campground, but first you have to admire my almost-finished Women's Cardigan by Lea Petäjä. Here it is, blocking. I bought buttons for it on Saturday, so I thought I should be wearing it soon. Just in time for the heatwave.

It was my knitting project for our trip to Beaverton, where we spent six days with the kids (see last week's post), and then camping. On Monday we packed up and, just after lunchtime, we pulled out of the space where we had parked the R•Pod while visiting. (Many thanks to the neighbors who willingly put up with our vehicles parked on the street.)

It took several hours to get to Nehalem Bay, due to the very windy, bumpy roads we had to chose to travel. Jim had taken two days to drive up from Florence. He was already there when we arrived. We had adjoining campsites, which we had coordinated when we made the reservations.

The setting was lovely. The ocean was just a short walk away, much of it over soft sand, which added to the challenge.

When we opened the door of the Pod after our trip, this is what greeted us. Fortunately, nothing was damaged or broken. I'm hoping to get a paper towel holder installed this summer. They make them so they don't unroll going over bumpy roads, so I'm hoping we can just leave the roll in place when we travel. 

When the wind wasn't blowing, we were able to use our folding camp chairs. Sandy decided to clock some lap time.

Before it got dark that first night, Charlie, the pups and I trudged over the dunes at the south end of the campground to watch the sunset, since it was fairly clear. We encountered a lot of people, almost all of them with fancy cameras, hoping to get a good photo. I got several with my phone. I like this one best.

Each night, the three of us ate supper together. I made salad each night, and Jim provided his homemade no-knead bread and miniature Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream bars for dessert. With all that we had breaded cod and hash browns the first night (quick and easy after driving all afternoon), Macaroni and Cabbage the second night and pan-fried salmon the next night, with my Mushroom Cheddar Bake the last night of our stay. Jim cooked the salmon, and we ate at his place that night. I used the oven on the convection setting for the meals I cooked. I had prepared the two casseroles at home and then frozen them in disposable aluminum cake pans. I took the pan with that night's main course out of the freezer about lunchtime and left it out to thaw. I really enjoy the convection oven, now that I know how to use it, although it isn't available to us when we aren't hooked up to shore power. Fortunately, we had power this time.

The dogs were not allowed on Jim's bed when we ate at his place, which could have been confusing, because his trailer is laid out like ours, and they hang out on the bed. They got the message right away, though, and so took up residence under the table. What good boys!

Tuesday my boys/men and I hit the beach for a nice walk. We walked almost 1.5 miles before turning around and walking back. The pups had a great time, running on the beach. There were a lot of people with dogs, and the dogs were allowed off-leash once we got to the beach, as long as they were under voice command. I think they must have divined the rules, because they came every time we called. The two figures up ahead of me are Charlie and Jim. I had stopped to talk with someone, and they moved on. The distance between us gave the pups some incentive to run back and forth, because they like to keep their "pack" together. If you zoom in on the photo, you will see one of the eight paws touching sand. All the others are in the air.

There were several people riding horses, too. One section of the campground is set up for people to bring their horses with them camping. From there they have access to the beach.

I used the Walk for a Dog app to keep track of our mileage. Most of the time it worked properly, but a couple of times it thought we started at Manzanita House, north of the State Park. That gave me an extra mile to start and had me walking at an incredible speed. This happened before, when we camped at Timothy Lake. Something is throwing off the GPS, I think. (The reason our route seems to be out in the water is probably because the app uses high tide as the location of the water. We were not getting our feet wet.)

I had taken a set of my books along, in case there were children camping. There were a lot! Tuesday evening I put the books in a bag, and Charlie, the dogs and I set out walking. One family on the other side of Jim had a little girl. She was out playing, as her parents puttered around the campsite. I walked up, introduced myself and offered the parents a choice of one of my books, if it was OK with them. She immediately picked up Mariah and said that was the one she wanted. The mother said, "I knew she would pick that one." She didn't explain how she knew. We chatted for a bit and then moved on. We came across another child a few campsites away and offered the parents his choice of books. He picked Emil, my second book. So far, they were going in the order of publication. These were both younger children, and the first two books have large type and were published before I started adding the "Reader's Challenge" at the end of stories. As we came around the corner of the loop, walking toward our campsite, we came across a large extended family: four children, two parents and two grandparents. The children were all cousins. I approached one of the adults and made my offer. He turned out to be the dad of three of the children. The fourth child was a cousin. These kids were older than the first two. I told them they could each have one. The dad asked me to sign the books, which I did, and then he asked to get a photo. The boy in the photo has a book. He chose Classic Tales Retold, the book with the red cover. It isn't in the photo, because he put it down on the table. (I've blurred out the children's faces, because I don't have permission to share them.) We saw them every day we were camping, and each time we did, the dad told us how much the kids liked the books.

Wednesday was interesting. We packed a lunch and climbed into Jim's tow vehicle, which is fairly small. I was squeezed into the back seat (if you could call it that) with the dogs. He wanted to get gas and had found a hike we could do on the way to town. The trailhead to Short Sand Beach had a large parking lot and a big restroom. I pried myself out of the "back seat" of Jim's car, helped the dogs out, and we set off. 

We had a lovely hike through the trees along a river, ending up at a smaller beach than the one at Nehalem Bay. Again, the dogs were allowed off-leash once we reached the beach. 

What joy they showed at being able to run around, chase each other and investigate things!

They started chasing a little crab, but promptly left it alone when I told them to "leave it." (Will wonders never cease!) We also found a starfish that was hanging out on a rock, waiting for the tide to come back in.

On one side of the beach was a lovely little waterfall.

We decided to have our lunch on the other end of the beach, because there were some large driftwood logs to sit on. There was also another stream of fresh water for the dogs to drink and play in.

Sandy brought us a stick and asked us to throw it. Both dogs ended up splashing in the stream. 

My granola bar fell off the log and ended up underneath it. I had to climb under the log to get it, which wasn't easy, because there were other sticks and logs blocking the way. Good thing it was still in the wrapper!

It was a nice hike. The trail wasn't too steep. It was much easier than slogging though deep sand!

Once I was inserted into Jim's "back seat," we were on our way again. We drove up to a little town north of Cannon Beach, where Jim filled up his tank. Then we turned around and drove back to Cannon Beach to have a look. The place seemed filled with tourists. We stopped at a parking lot to have a look, but the beach was very crowded, and all the dogs were on leashes, so we decided to move on. We stopped at a viewpoint at Oswald West State Park on the way back to the campground. It was Lovely. 

Thursday morning, Jim drove to the boat launch with his kayak. He spent the morning drifting along with the current and then paddling back to where he had left his vehicle. He saw some interesting water fowl while he was out. They were standing in the shallow water. I think they're Great Egrets.

After he came back, we went back to the beach, knowing it was going to be our last chance. Someone had left a frisbee on the beach, so we had some fun with it.

Sandy proved to be much better than Dusty at getting the frisbee off the ground and into his mouth, but Dusty actually caught the frisbee once. The problem with Dusty is, he doesn't want to give it back. Sandy consistently brought the frisbee back to whoever threw it.

After lunch and a lie down we decided to take a walk on the bike path that went around the landing strip. There's a section of the campground designated for people with planes. As we went by the end of the landing strip, a plane was taking off. We waited and watched it until it was gone.

The bike path was pleasant. Occasionally people on bikes would pass us, but they were careful and were not speeding.

The Walk for a Dog app was handy once the bike path ended and we wondered how to get back to the campsite. We had to walk a short distance on the road. The app made it easy to see which way we had to go to get back to our campsites.

Charlie got some reading done. Here he is, reading from his Nook, while we wait for Jim to arrive for our final supper together before leaving to go home.

The dogs were hungry every night. No one had to call them twice for dinner.

Sandy decided to get some last views out the windows as we were packing up the next day. (Note the nonfunctional Velcro strips on the back of the cushion. One is right by his right front paw. I'll explain why that's important in a bit.)

All the things on shelves had to come down. The table had to be strapped in. The frog thermometer had to come off the window and the mirror on the wall put away. All the things around the sink fit in the dishpan to separate the coffee mugs, so they don't bump against each other as we ride over bumpy roads.

The bed area gets filled up with all the things from the shelves, along with the dog toys and pillows that are normally there. I planned to wash the sheets after this trip, so didn't bother to try to make the bed.

When we came into the campground, we received a map of the place. The yellow highlighter shows the route to our campsite.

The other side had more information, including the rules.

Our dogs are precious to us, so they get strapped in for long trips like this one. These guys are very tired but happy.

During the trip home, I finished the cuffs on my cardigan. There was nothing more I could do to it on the road, so I pulled out my Summer Sorrel Top and worked on it for a while.

When we got home, my basil plants looked very sad. I had never gone so long without watering them. After a good soaking Friday afternoon, they perked up and looked OK by Saturday morning.

Saturday was taken up with five loads of laundry and blocking the new cardigan.  I also made a quick trip to the store. Besides buttons for the new cardigan, I bought some stick-on Velcro for the seat cushion Sandy is sitting on in the departure photo above. You can see the previous attempt, where I tried to use glue to attach the Velcro. Our seat cushion came with the Velcro already attached to the cushion but not affixed to the wall. The same cushion in Jim's trailer didn't have any Velcro, so he added some after seeing ours. He used the self-sticking kind, and it worked, so it should work for us.

Sunday afternoon I cleaned the glue off the wall where the Velcro has to go. I detached off the old pieces I was replacing from the sections fastened to the cushion and replaced them with the new pieces. I removed the plastic protecting the glue and put the cushion back in place, pressing hard. Then I gently separated the Velcro sections, removing the cushion, and pressed hard on the newly glued strips once I had the cushion free. We needed to wait 24 hours for the glue to set. It looks as if it might work. I'll go into the trailer this afternoon and attach the cushion. The glue should have set by then.

Back to the Women's Cardigan by Lea Petäjä. It was dry by Sunday afternoon, so I removed the blocking wires and pins, and tied the buttons on. (See my Tip of the Week, below.)

And it fits!

We had a nice Zoom call with our daughter, Karen. The kids are enjoying dance this summer, and David is stable. They have caregivers who can come in and take care of him to relieve Karen so she can get some other things done. David is teaching Zachary how to play the guitar. He can't demonstrate, but he can explain, and he's patient. Good news all around!

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, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". 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, Mariah, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, 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: Finished the Women's Cardigan by Lea Petäjä. It's blocking. The Summer Sorrel top is still now my primary project.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy on the Audible app. 

What's on my sewing machine: Put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Ups and Downs, the kidz go out to play with the frisbee and end up learning about pine cones and gravity.

What's my tip of the week: Tying buttons onto sweaters seems to work better for me than sewing them on. These buttons had four holes. I cut two pieces of yarn for each button. Using a fine crochet hook, I pulled each end of the two pieces through the holes in the buttons so the yarn crossed in the middle of the button. Using a bigger crochet hook, I pulled each end of one piece of yarn through the sweater at the appropriate place, tied with what weavers call a "surgeon's knot," and then repeated with the other piece of yarn. Then I held each of the two ends of yarn in each hand, tied a square knot and then another half square knot. I don't think they will come off.

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

The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

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

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Book #7 is in the works.

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, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

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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