My savings account says ouch

Enna felt like she was missing out on all the fun so it was time for her vet trip. I was hoping the vet would say that her symptoms were because of pregnancy but alas it was a parasite infection that could turn into a uterus infection. She's now on antibiotics for two weeks.
Now that every pet has gone to the vet this month and has diminished our savings account I'm done. The next pet to get sick is going to be taken out back and shot. 

pets are money pits

For the past week Makoa had been favoring his left foot, I was hoping that it was just a cut and it would heal, but after a few days it seemed to be getting worse.
My friend who use to be a vet tech took a look at it and said that she thought it was a wart and Makoa would have to be put under to get it removed. Of course I groaned loudly, Makoa's our neutered male and not suppose to cost us tons of money.

Friday I took him to the vet to get a price quote and after some looking the vet said that they were actually tumors, but they could be removed easily, not for a ton of money and he could do it that night. I really love our new vet for those reasons. I wanted to be able to get them removed ASAP so that Makoa will be healed for our Moab trip.

Makoa is doing really well and adjusting to being a tripod (because of his bandaged foot, not because we cut off his foot). My life saver of a brother in law picked him up after surgery since John and I were at our concealed weapons permit class and Ben watched him until late into the evening. Unfortunately our vacation fund is really depleted because of Makoa's surgery so I'd appreciate it if we could have a few months of uneventfulness, but I'm glad we had the money when we needed it.

Pictures of the garden bed

My blogger account was throwing a temper tantrum for the last 24 hours, it would either not let me on at all or let me post pictures when I could get on. So here I am, finally! There are no flowers in the garden yet because we need to buy nice top soil first. Also the three random stones in the pictures are top cap stones that we were trying out to see if we liked them.

 

The garden is 5 feet wide at the widest point and 3 feet wide at the narrowest. 

Sunday evening I went in to make dinner for an hour and when I came back out to help John commented that it was harder to do by himself. So I said that it was just proof that I actually was helping, being the smart ass that John is he replied that that meant that he worked 100% instead of just 70%. ha, ha John.

Aren't weekends supposed to be for relaxing?

The weekend was another busy one for us.
The bricks we bought for the flower bed went on sale 5 days after we bought them, so we went back to Lowe’s to get a refund and buy the rest we’d need since the sale was ending today.
In the end we used 195 bricks and got 40 of them basically for free. We couldn’t pass up the deal so we pulled out of our vacation fund to get them.
If I have to dig again I might have to bash my brains in with a shovel, I’m over digging.

We’ll be buying grass seed to fill in where the cement pad was and the bare spots in the yard (where the wheel barrow ran over the same spot of grass 2,567 times), but after that I’m not sure when we’ll buy more stuff for the backyard. The vacation fund needs to heal for next year’s trips.
The butterfly garden and flowers for the bed we put in will be on hold for a while.

I also finished re-caulking the tub. Something I started on May 8th. So for the past two weeks we’ve had to shower downstairs (which isn’t too bad, the shower head is fantastic).
No matter how water proof and mold resistant the caulk says it is, it lies. So on Mother’s Day after walking into the bathroom, two hours before I was supposed to be somewhere, I decided I couldn’t look at the black yuckiness any longer and went to town.

I didn’t get very far since I needed to shower for the dinner I was supposed to be at and told myself that I’d finish it the next day.
That didn’t happen, for two weeks it didn’t happen. It was out of sight, out of mind syndrome. So Saturday morning while John was working and I actually remembered that it needed to be done I finished it.

It wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be and I don’t plan on doing it ever again. I know you’re thinking, “Gosh, my caulk is all black and gross and no matter how many gallons of bleach I use it won’t turn white, Nikki could come re-caulk!” Sadly, your head is lying to you. I will not come re-caulk, but I can tell you a few tips to help:

1. The tool set sold at home improvement stores that claims to help re-caulk isn’t that great. The “remover” is useless, so if they sell the “installer” separate just buy that.
2. Use a regular utility knife to rip out the old caulk. Run the knife over the ends where the caulk touches the tub and tile and then stick the knife in the tile seam, push down and pull towards you. I could get enough out the grab with my fingers and then pull out long strips.
3. Make sure you scarp off all excess caulk. Removing the old was the hardest part. Once I removed all the caulk I sprayed the opening with bleach. Probably not recommended, but I wanted to kill all the built up mold.
4. Buy caulk that won’t need the caulk gun to install, easier and cheaper if you don’t plan of caulking 27 windows, 12 rooms of moldings and 4 bathtubs.
5. Use the tool to get the perfect seam, it works really well and you don’t get caulk all over your fingers (and in your acrylic nails). John laughed at my tool and called it a waste of money, but was impressed by the seam it made.

Now go in peace and remove all your black, moldy caulk.
I’ll post pictures of the flower garden tonight.

More backyard

Three days of hard work sure paid off.
John had Friday off so he hauled the rest of the cement off, figured out our sprinkling system so we could add to it and changed out some sprinkler heads.

Saturday we borrowed my parents tiller and used it on the side of our driveway. We only have a one car driveway but enough room to make it a two car. The dirt was about 6 inches taller than the driveway so we tilled it up and used that dirt to level out where the cement was. My dad came over to help us dig and once we leveled out what was needed he helped us lay out pavers for our raised garden bed.

Sunday John and I dug and dug and dug some more. We finished the garden sprinklers then filled the raised beds that my dad worked on with the "driveway" dirt. We then finished laying out the rest of the pavers we had (we probably need 90 more pavers since all we had money for was the 75 we laid).

It was a long three days, but no hiccups!! We got a lot done and we feel good about it.

 

Kind of hard to see since the pavers blend into the cinder block wall but that's what 75 pavers look like laid three tall.  

Our two new trees with one more getting planted in the fall. Crappy picture, but truthfully I'm too tired to care. The flags mark where all the sprinkler heads are.

Doesn't look like we did that much but it sure feels like it. Even with two visiting dogs under toe!

House guests

My nail tech asked if I'd watch her pups while she went to Vegas for a few days with her family. Of course I said yes and Makoa is enjoying the company.

 

Teddy

Sophie (all wet from playing in the sprinklers)

It has been so weird having two Sophie's at our house and hearing John call another animal Sophie. ...Speaking of which I wonder where my cat is....

The dogs have been pretty good, just a little crying in the morning in their crate since they're use to sleeping on a bed at night and that ain't happening at my house :)

 

They'll be leaving Sunday evening and Enna will be coming home Monday afternoon. I'm very excited to see my little girl.

If anyone needs a dog watched for a few days let me know. Any type, any size and they'll be just as spoiled as my dogs. :)

Birthday (or any holiday/special event/any old day) wishes

I know I’ve talked about her before but Scruffy Dog Photography far surpasses any dog/cat photography I have ever seen.

With my birthday coming up I was thinking of gifts that I would like to receive and thought how getting a photo shoot for all my pets from this Canadian would be the top best present ever. It would make me cry with happiness.
Believe me; I’ve tried to come to terms with how she lives in Canada (far far far away from home Canada) so I searched the World Wide Web for pet photographers closer to home, but alas none could hold a candle to Scruffy Dog.

I’ve told John this dream and I really hope he remembers it. Her prices are really quite reasonable; it would just be the cost of travel (either her to us or us to her) that would be the painful part. But one day I will get all my fur babies their moment in the lime light and I will bawl my eyes out when I can.
This is the first time in my life where I said to myself, "Gee, I wish I lived in Canada."
P.S. I’m not expecting this present any time soon. I’m not that delusional. Besides I want our new pup (who we’ve actually picked a name out for already, but call The Big Guy, Gargantuan or Gigantor in conversations with each other) to be a part of the magic.

I'm short so I want tall

My flowers have disappointed me.

The flower on the right is suppose to be a bigger bloom and taller than the one on the left.
This is probably how a parent who wants a tall basketball player but gets a short ballerina feels.

Sigh.

Now I have to go clean my kitchen. I'm watching a friend's dogs until Sunday and even though she probably wont set foot in my kitchen just knowing its messy will give me anxiety while she's in my house. 

Coming home

Enna should be coming home this weekend, but all things breeder related that's not set in stone. I'm 98% sure that she's not pregnant.
The breeder said that she'd just send the male out extra early next time and I told her that I didn't think there would be a next time. She was fine with that and didn't express any interest in paying all the fees so it looks like Enna will be spayed once we're certain she isn't pregnant.

Enna was never meant to be a breeding dog, we were just getting a pet, but once Kora passed the breeder asked to keep Enna intact. It's still hard to think of not having fluffy puppies around, taking tons of pictures for future owners and experiencing their growing stages. It's all for the better though to not have Enna have puppies. Her chances of cancer greatly drop once she's spayed and we won't have to deal with the trials of labor, birth and possible deaths.

In more positive news, the Boerboel breeder (who is fantastic by the way! She answers all my questions, emails promptly and keeps me well informed. So nice to deal with a breeder who actually is professional) let me know that one of her females is expecting a litter late June.

Allie (sweetest face in the whole world. 117 pounds, 26 inches tall)

Baldur (160 pounds, 29 inches tall)

If they produce a male fawn (Baldur is brindle) she says he's ours. We may even take anything at this point since I'm tired of waiting :)

We also have our name down for her next breeding that will be born in July if Allie and Baldur don't produce anything we want.

Too bad if we got a pup from the June litter he wouldn't be able to come home with us until August which feels like FOREVER away.

Another project takes shape

Saturday morning John and his father rented a jack hammer to pulverize the cement pad in the back left corner of our yard.

Old photo, hence the maple tree and rose bush.

It was quick work for them and the only project that went off without a hitch.

I did nothing but watch them and think about things I could be doing that would be beneficial, instead I just soaked up the sun.
Makoa just went from shady spot to shady spot with his raw hide.

Half way through the cement pad John's brother showed up to help bringing a friend for Makoa. Makoa was thrilled to have another dog around and wouldn't leave Tantar's side. He also tried to get her to play, but with her being 9 years older than him it just wasn't going to happen.

Now the pad is all busted up, but we still have the big pile of rocks. John will probably take them to the dump next Friday.
You're probably thinking that that cement pad would have been perfect for a shed, but we'd rather put the shed on the side of the house instead of taking up valuable yard space. 

Next is working on the sprinkling system, something that I can and actually will help with.

Another Enna update

I just received an email saying that Enna hasn’t tied once while breeding and she’s been there 3 ½ weeks. I’m now certain that she won’t come home pregnant. She’ll stay in Texas a few more days just to see if anything happens.

I’m at a loss at what to do now. I have 3 choices: get her spayed, try natural breeding again or try artificial insemination. We’ve already spent close to $1,000.00 so far with everything and I don’t know how much more money I want to throw at this situation.

What would you do in our shoes?

P.S. Now that I know she's not getting pregnant and having her in Texas is useless makes my heart ache for her. I really wasn't missing her too bad until after that nasty email.

It's never too late to rake leaves, going green

The maple tree stump got ground down last week for $75. Such a good deal when one guy wanted to charge me $200. The only poopy part of that price is that the mulch from the tree stump wasn’t taken away.

John was going to build a storage box for it so we can save it for the big flower gardens we’re putting in, but I convinced him to turn it into a compost bin.

So yesterday while John was building the box (and didn’t need my help holding things) I raked up the leaves (my least favorite gardening chore, that’s why we didn’t do it last fall) and shoveled mulch into the wheel barrow.
Pictures to come later once we finish up the work.

This is a really rough idea of the new garden for the back yard. All the blue circles are potential flowers, but they may or may not being staying where I have them placed. Also that isn't even close to the amount of flowers that will be going in there, my list has 53 species!
The top right hand corner will be my butterfly garden that John is allowing me :) 16 feet by 16 feet circleish type space with a small white picket fence around it.

There will be a nice circle patio with a water feature in the middle, then a rocking bench to the side.
Also a pretty arbor to get into the space with a flowering vine growing on it.

I'm really excited about my gardens! :)