Soap and Water Miracles

Oh, I discovered blog formatting...  It's much more pleasant to view...

The other night I baked cookies on my new propane gas stove.  It's a very fancy stove.  I mixed the batter and went to preheat the oven and realised I didn't know how.  Oops.  So, I guessed a bit and found the manual....  It was all fine.  Things seem to take a bit longer to cook.  There is a convection setting and it's great.  In addition, it has been so cold and the back of the house where the kitchen and dining area are located are cold; baking warms us up.  I've gotten over my fear of the gas stove - I think.  It's really my mother's fear of a gas stove....

So, dog's itchiness is due to dry skin but also fleas.  Previous residents included a dog and a cat.  My experience is that whenever there has been a cat there are fleas.  So, I researched and went shopping.  Dog is now taking antihistamines to relieve his itchiness and allow us some sleep.  I continue to add things to his food to moisten his skin.  He had a lovely bath / shower.  He jumped out THREE times and each time - with a little prompt -  jumped right back into the tub.  Even with the cold he had to run around in circles in the driveway after his tub.  His hair was soft and lovely afterwards.  And I vacuumed and sprayed each room until I ran out of spray.  D.R. noted that ALL bugs were dying everywhere and proceeded to follow me around and vacuum up corpses.

The flea intervention interrupted my cleaning.  The miracles I have seen as a result of the application of soap and water have been, well, MIRACULOUS.  My expletives change to expressions of "Oh My God" and gratitude for such wonders.  I have washed doors, walls, floors, window frames; and glass, wood, drywall and ceramic.  On the surface things look good and then you really look and kind of cringe at the grunge below.  Oh, the miracles I have seen!

The sun shone beautifully today, the calm before the snowy storm set to begin overnight.  And it was cold, very cold, but got warmer as the day progressed.  The garage door took about twenty tries to get it to close today.  That's on the list of things to be serviced.  Note in the photo below that one end of the building is garage while the other is a barn with box stalls and a chicken pen.

At any rate, dog bugged me to get outside in the sun and so I did.  I grabbed my snowshoes and we headed back to the cabin. 

Looking southward

 


Up behind the barn and the short copse of trees we looked right / south and saw in the distance a chunk of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere.

Pond - one of many

 

 

The way to the cabin...

 

A little closer to us - that's me and the dog who is us - is a large pond.  There are many ponds and wet lands we have yet to discover.








Tallyho, then, off to the cabin.  This way...

"The Cabin"

So, here is "The Cabin".  There's a two-seater nearby too!  And a little deck and two picnic tables plus a big fire pit.

 Beyond the cabin is a trail I hadn't been down and along there we met a couple who were snow shoeing towards us.  Turns out they are from the next side road and didn't know where they were.  They thought they'd go on forever and not see a soul.  My retort was that sometimes forever isn't very far.  We chatted.  They played with the dog and then walked back up behind the barn with me.  From there they retraced their steps.

As you can see, I took some more photos today.  Mom and the Mermaid asked for more.  Here's one more.

"Home"