Monday, February 21, 2011

"C" Puppies Visit



There 12 pure bred golden labs who are 8 weeks old. Lia, pictured here holding my personal favorite, is the puppy raiser. She was my personal favorite because she was the quietest of them all. The dam is Darlan. She and Lia live in Reno. Each time Lia turns in a litter to Canine Companions for Independence in Santa Rosa, CA, she stops by for an overnight visit. This is Darlan's first really large litter. They are so adorable.

They slept in the hallway in a fenced in area with lots of plastic and other layers to protect the floor. The big dog in one of the photos is Harleen. Once upon a time she was an 8-week-old puppy just like these guys. She wasn't quite sure what to make of them. But whenever she moved around the outside of the pen the puppies followed her. The color of their dog collars signifies birth order. CCI is doing a study to see if that has any bearing on future performance. Harleen was fifth born; her color was hot pink.

By now they are at the CCI vet being weighed, vaccinated and tattooed with a number (in their ear). Tomorrow they travel to their puppy raisers who are as far away as New Jersey and as close as Northern California. In a couple of weeks they will start training with hopes of someday becoming a service dog for a disabled person (but not blind, that organization raises their own dogs).


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Thursday, February 17, 2011

A Long Last, Bacon Will Be Back In Our Diet

We belong to a wonderful meat club which allows us to buy beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs and even water buffalo from local ranches. What's been missing for nearly a year is bacon. We love bacon. I've bought some at Whole Foods for a while but just didn't feel right about it not be sourced locally.

I finally put the word out on Twitter. Within a matter of hours I was connected with The Foragers who supply bacon as well as a 1/4, 1/2 or whole hog and lots of other meats. I just ordered 3 packages from Tyler who is the Chief Forager. Great title. I can't pick it up until March 12 in Sacramento. That gives me time to decide how I'm going to use it.

Twitter has helped so much in our quest to eat sustainable, organic, local and ethical (SOLE) foods. The web site for our meat club is http://ceplacer.ucdavis.edu/meat_buyers_club/

The web site for The Foragers is http://www.theforagers.com

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Friday, February 11, 2011

Collaboration With Kerry

Kerry doodles, draws and sketches all the time. He has notebooks filled with them. I casually mentioned a year or so ago that it would be nice to turn one of his drawings into an art quilt. Well this week we've made great strides on this project.

We picked out two of his drawings and enlarged them. The one on the left is the first one I'm going to try. It's 24 inches by 36 inches. The other one is 36 inches square. I'm going to use a lot of the techniques I learned from the various Rose Hughes classes I've taken.

Next we will choose a color palette and fabrics. I'm thinking some silk and some cotton. Stay tuned for more.

Go to http://www.rosehughes.com to learn more about her techniques.
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