A week on the ranch (January 5 - January 11)

Wow, January is already almost half over! Where do the days go? This week started out about as winter-like as one could get in California. The weather was bleak and grey, and every day was cold, cold, cold!! But on Thursday, just to give us a taste of spring, the sun came out and the weather immediately flipped 180 degrees. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I was in shorts and a t-shirt! Weird, weird weather, but I'm not complaining. (Well, we need rain, so actually I *am* complaining, but I wasn't this weekend. )

Rough week on the ranch. Gunther, my resident rooster, showed up at the house bloody and looking like he'd been dipped in mud. At first, I thought he'd gotten into a fight with a skunk, but the next morning, Rudolph and Kracker, two of Gunther's sons, also showed up bloody and beaten. Turns out that there was an uprising, and Gunther has been dethroned as the alpha rooster. I feel sorry for him, because he now runs from the other roosters, so I'm trying to find homes for some of them, because Gunther was here first, so he deserves to be large and in charge, even if he is an old guy, compared to his one-year-old sons.

The foster pups, Dora and Lizzie, are growing up so fast! When I'm home, I let them out to play, and they are just loving being outside and exploring. It breaks my heart that they'll have to go back to a kennel in a day or two. Under the old system, they would live with me, and I would bring them to the Saturday adoption events, until they were adopted. That way, they continued to have socialization and human contact until such time as they were taken by their forever owners. But the county now says that they want all the dogs at the county 24/7, so people can drop in and see them. Makes sense, but it results in puppies and other dogs who don't do well in an institutional setting having to sit in little metal cubes all day, day after day, until someone notices them. My only hope is that, because Dora and Lizzie are puppies, and are female (which seems to be more popular), they will be adopted soon. Right now, I am trying to show them they are loved, and I spend a few minutes with them every night, when it is time to go to sleep, and visit with them as they settle down in their puppy bed. They have a crate, but I leave the door open. It is cute to sneak down there and see them passed out on their comforter, knowing that the crate is security and safety.

I spent the week trying to catch up to some of my challenges. Seems like every challenge has a sub-challenge! I wanted to make a necklace, and now I can't find my needle-nose pliers. I wanted to finish my tissue box cover, and I ran out of pink yarn. I painted my bathroom, and came up about a cup short of paint to finish the trim. It can be frustrating, but I am trying to plug along, and I am slowly making progress.

Must be January!! I have received at least a dozen gardening catalogues!! I don't even recognize half of them! All my old favourites are there: Cook's, Territorial, Bountiful Gardens, Seeds of Change, Raintree....ah, the dreams of green growing things will be haunting me for months to come....

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to a productive week and to getting ahead on a few more of these challenges!