All Sorts of Excitement

This summer really has been passing in a whirl of activity. The riding has been wonderful as has the weather. We've had all warm and no real hot stuff yet. I'm sure it's coming but for now, every morning needs a light sweater and the afternoon breezes have been refreshing.

So, let's get to the excitement. First off, on one of the Dennett and Peter crawls we were confronted with our resident skunk. I don't know if it's Bond who use to get into my barn, but likely, a relative. Out early Thursday and up the driveway towards us on his homeward journey I spied him before Peter and certainly before Dennett. Those leashes got snapped on collars faster than a crumb gets licked up off the kitchen floor. The skunk finally saw us and made for the culvert under our driveway. Whew! I dragged the boys back to the house because by then, all noses where in the air and on the scent.

Saturday night Gene woke me up with a bundle in his arms. A fawn, maybe a week old

but very small. It had curled up in the middle of Highway 66. He did a check of all it's legs and everything appeared fine and unbroken, but between it's instinct to play dead

and I think general weakness we couldn't assess it's true condition. A couple locally has taken in two over the years, one thrived, one died. We decided to put it back in the general vicinity of where it was found (NOT on the highway) Gene flagged it and the couple (who were in Jacksonville) were going to stop and check on it when they drove through on their way home. If it's Mom found it, great. If it was still there they were going to bring it home as they have all the equipment for raising it already on hand. Sunday morning found her with them, drinking lambs milk but still weak. The doe might have abandoned this one, could be a twin that wasn't thriving, could have been grazed by a car, no way of knowing but we will be hoping this little one makes it. I'll keep you all posted.

There has been some sewing going on.

Two shirts, one pair of pants all finished. I think I was misleading in my last post. The teal crossover T shirt is a winner, the wadder never made it in photos onto the web. NO WAY was that going to grace even this modest little blog, it was that bad. I did make another crossover T since I liked the pattern so much. Here it is in a rayon and lycra knit.

Not my favorite fabric but I loved the color and it was good to expand my skills sewing this. I was emboldened enough to pick up a beautiful spring green sweater type knit in rayon for making a light weight cardigan

and some double knit cotton for another T shirt.

I mean who can resist those skulls!

I finally got around to embroidering some fabric for use. Here is the little design done on the back yoke of a new blouse pattern I am testing out.

The fabric is linen but not of a great quality. It was dirt cheap at Joann's and I figured why not, good way to test both pattern and embroidery machine and might even get a wearable garment out of the deal.

Robin finally is doing better with the digestive upsets.

The addition of a probiotic to his diet has made an amazing difference. I was skeptical I will admit it, but not any more. Probiotics have been in my equine vitamins for years

and I keep a couple of tubes of them on hand for them so I am scratching my head as to why I wouldn't have thought of them for the house critters.

The turnaround was almost miracle like. For anyone who is interested, the product is a FortiFlora made by Purina and there are formulas for both dogs and cats.

Otherwise, he is growing by leaps and bounds and showing off what a sweet mellow puppy he is. Robin is low key, he plays hard but likes cuddling best.

Stella was a busy puppy, Robin is but not in the same way. He is bolder but less curious about getting into mischief. He is also turning into a good little afternoon napper. We've been practicing together. ;)

Parting shot: Extra curricular snoozing with Peter (who never would have tolerated Stella doing this).