The week began with good weather for walks. Although hot later in the day, it was pleasant until after 9:00 or so. On Monday, we met one of our neighbors, also out for a walk. We have a lot of deer in our area. We give them their space, but they aren't as dangerous as the moose we always had in Utah.
Because Charlie doesn't like to get up early, the pups and I went alone. There were a few other people out for walks, though.
We're fortunate to have such a nice trail for our walks. There is sometimes a barking dog behind this fence. That reminded me that I had thought it would be nice to be right on the trail and not have to walk a few houses down on the street to get to it, but our dogs would be barking all the time. Poodles are very territorial. They don't bark back when we're on a walk; they only bark when they're at home. We're better where we are.
Because our camping trip turned out to be longer than we expected, we had to postpone our grooming appointment. The next one we could get was not until later this week. Sandy's hair grows very fast, so he's become a real fur ball.
Dusty doesn't look too bad. All he needs is a good brushing. We can even still see his eyes.
About midway through the week the smoke started to interfere with our walks. I always check the air quality index before we leave the house, and it was getting into the red zone. We don't go out if it's even orange. I don't want the dogs breathing in the smoke while we're exercising. Charlie had planned to get up early to hike with me up to the top of Pilot Butte, but we've had to put it off.
Today it's in the purple range: 205. "Very unhealthy." Well, I couldn't walk for a couple of days, anyway. We got our flu/Covid boosters on Friday, and that kicked in my arthritis pain, which disturbed my sleep. I used two heating pads to relieve the discomfort but ended up taking some acetaminophen.
I did get a little knitting in. The second sleeve of the Oregon Autumn Cardigan is coming along.
Charlie had to mow the lawn after our long absence. We came home to find a sunflower had popped up in the front yard. He mowed around it. We'll see what it does.
I'm planning to defrost the freezer when it cools off a bit, so I've been trying to use some of the food stored there. I determined to use up the last of the frozen tomatoes. I made some tomato jam, this time with honey, because we have a big container of it.
This is my recipe. I have a canner, but I decided we had room in the fridge for it, and we use a lot of jam.
I also made a batch of pasta sauce. We go through a lot of sauce with pasta and pizza, so I knew we would use it up quickly. That took about three pounds of tomatoes. I've already used some of it. This was full.
I think that's the last of my frozen tomatoes. I used up some mushrooms, too.
I made another batch of granola. We seem to be eating a lot of it lately. Yum!
On Sunday I took part in the "Authors' Table" at the Condega Celebration at Trinity Episcopal Church. I sold a few of my books, with the proceeds going to the Condega Project.
The Condega Project is an international outreach of Trinity to the people of Condega, Nicaragua. Each year a group from the church visits Condega, taking school supplies and funds to support schools, including a residential school for deaf children, along with school uniforms, medicine and other things. We support other projects, such as a new water tower for the special needs school.
Speaking of school, the grands are back in school, so our grandcat, Katie, found herself alone all day for the first time. She took the opportunity to explore the house without supervision.
Daphne took part in her first band competition. She plays the flute. She looks so grown up.
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Sam and Holly Go Camping Emil reads a letter from his friend Holly, who has been camping with Sam and Sam's family. They come across some interesting animals, see some tourist attractions and find out camping when you use a wheelchair can be a challenge, but rewarding.
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