Sewing Project

Grandma Anna's friend, Zena, asked Grace if she could make a bag for her rumikub game.  Grace went out and picked out this fabric and made a double sided bag with snaps.  And then decided the tiles needed a separate bag and made that too.  Zena is going to be so happy!

Tile bag

Hops' Delivery

Mama and her babies

Hops' second litter of babies were born on Monday, January 23, 2017 at her breeders home in Turlock.  Before she was due we had an xray that showed us 3 babies. 





She was antsy all nite and I was communicating with the breeder as we tried to determine when we would head over to witness the birth.  At about 5 am, the breeder said she was certain she would deliver that day but it was impossible to know when.  We decided to get up, shower and hit the road.  It takes almost 2 hours to drive there and when we were 5 minutes away, we were told she was starting to push!

Unfortunately, she pushed for an hour and with a lot of help delivered a little yellow male baby, who was stillborn.  We are assuming he just took too long to be born and was without oxygen.  Based on that and the fact that she didn't seem to be having regular, productive contractions, we made the decision to take her to the vet.  After conversing with the vet for a few minutes, he decided it was best to do an emergency csection.  She was prepped and within 10 minutes these two little love nuggets were born healthy!

About 15 minutes old!

While waiting for their mama, they crawled all over each other

We took the babies home and fed them puppy formula while we waited for Hops to be done with surgery.  She stayed at the vet for about and hour and a half while she came out of the anesthesia and they made sure she was ok.  They wanted to make sure she was ok because she had vomited during the surgery.

Puppy butts

We went and got a very drugged Hops and brought her home to her babies.  She walked in, smelled them and laid down.  We put the babies on her and they immediately nursed.   Grace and I stayed there a lot longer than we had planned because I could not leave Hops until I was sure she was resting comfortably.  It was a bit traumatic watching her recover as she was shivering and breathing really heavy.  We gave her more pain meds and she seemed to feel better.

Male puppy ramming speed female puppy!

Hops has continued to recover and is taking really good care of her babies.  All these pics are of the puppies when they were less than 4 hours old!

Puppy stubby leg

Puppy tail - boy pup

Back t back nursing - if you look close, you can see male pup's tongue sticking out!

Be sure to turn up the volume on the video to listen to the noises the baby girl makes while nursing!

Healing

Jim's face is healing well....although I hope it gets better than this - he looks a bit like Frankenstein!

Kasey's 50th Birthday

Me, our college friend Chris and Kase

My college room mate had a big 50th birthday bash at a winery in Sonoma.  It was super fun for Jim and I to get dressed up, go out for a nice dinner and see some old friends!

Kase and her kids

Me, Kasey's daughter (21) and Kase

Dinner table

50 and Fabulous!

Hungry Hungry Hippo!

Check out this action shot of Hops eating a cookie!  I think she was extra crazy because she is starving being pregnant!

Fantasy Football Superbowl 2016

Mr Screwtop was the FF Superbowl winner for 2016 season.

Here are the final results for the season:

• First - Mr Screwtop 
• Second - Me!  (Woot!)
• Third - Kyle
• Fourth - Mikey

In case you are keeping track, here are the winners each year of the TNDC FF League:

• 2016 - Mr Screwtop
• 2015 - Drew
• 2014 - Mrs Screwtop
• 2013 - Tina
• 2012 - Mr C

Congrats to Mr Screwtop!

Maternity Photo Shoot

Here are the best shots from Hops' maternity photo shoot!  She is so photogenic and such a beauty.  The pics are from about one week before her due date.

Badger Pass

Smith Peak

Smith Peak

MLK Badger Pass Trip

We decided on day 2 of MLK weekend to take a trip into Badger Pass to do some skiing.  They had just opened for the season the day before.  On the way in at about 8:30 am, we were treated to the amazing view above.  That was worth the drive!

Selfie - at the top!

Once we got to Badger, we got the dogs settled in and I took a snow shoe hike to the top of the mountain, where the helicopter lands.

Looking down at the lodge

The view from the top gave you a great look at all the peaks and the other trails.

We had a good day - it was warm and sunny.  We packed up at about 3 to head home.  Coming down the mountain, we got stopped by a Ranger who had the road closed in both directions.  We had to wait about 25 minutes to get through.  However, the spot we were stuck gave us the view of Half Dome above!  Not a bad spot to be stuck for a little while!  Grace go out and took pics and we had some cheese and crackers!  Turns out a car had gone off the road into a creek.  Luckily it didn't look like there were any injuries.  But their mini van was a mess!

When we got down to the valley floor we were treated to seeing fog in the meadows!  And right next to it was El Cap lit up by the last sunshine of the day!

El Cap

MLK Boondoggle

Downed tree on Ferretti

The area around the cabin has received some severe weather the last 10 days or so.  So when we came up for the MLK weekend, one of our goals was to go out on a boondoggle and "see what we could see"!   It didn't take long.  As we headed out Ferretti Road, we came upon a tree that had just come down.  We had to turn around and go the other way.

Overflow

Turning around allowed us to check out the overflow from the lake. This is the river made from the water coming over the spillway.

Next up was a hike up to Smith Peak so we could get a lay of the land and see the snow peaked hills.

Grace brought her camera and took some great shots - including some maternity shots. Stay tuned for those.

Rainbow Pool

Next up was Rainbow Pool.  The water fall above is normally a 25 foot drop.  Here it is about 8 feet!  That shows how much water is shooting down the river!  The whole area is pretty trashed - mudslides and lots of debris.

Lots of water pouring across the walkway

Mudslide

Top of the fall

Next stop on the boondoggle was lunch/snack at Rush Creek Lodge.  We had some snackies and watched some skiing and football. We thought this was the last stop...but a true boondoggle has the unexpected and that is what happened this day!
 

When we left Rush Creek, we decided to take Hardin Flat Road -- just to check it out.  That was lucky for the folks we came upon stuck in a ditch!  One more adventure left in the day!  The husband had started walking out for help, so first up was going to get him.  So we drove and got him and took him back to the stuck car.  Then we used a shovel and the mats for the car for traction.  Jim and the wife were able to push the car out as the husband floored it.  My job was to video tape!  Grace helped until it was time to push and then stepped back...we didn't need another concussion from a rescue!

After they were safely out, we drove home thru Hardin Flat road and saw a lot of downed trees and all the devastation from the Rim Fire.

All in all, a rewarding boondoggle!

Porridge

This is a wonderful recipe for whole grain porridge:

1/2 cup steel cut oatmeal
1/2 cup wheat berries
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup farro
4 cups water
4 cups milk

Mix it all in a crockpot and turn on low over nite (about 8 hours).  In the morning, put in a bowl and add toppings of your choice:  blueberries, raspberries, apples, bananas, almonds, walnuts, brown sugar, etc.

You can use any type of whole grain you like.  I went to the bulk bins and the grocery store and just picked out interesting stuff!

SO YUMMY!

Hole in your head

This guy had his first Mohs surgery for skin cancer.  They go in and dig out the skin until they find a layer that doesn't have any skin cancer cells on it.  Luckily it only took one digging session to get it all out.  So now he is home resting with an ice pack on his face.  Next up...a black eye from the trauma!  #useyoursunscreendummy!

New Year Eve - 2016

On the day of New Year Eve, we went out to Cherry and played in the snow all day!  We found a spot above Cherry (communication hill) and had a beautiful view of the lake...until the fog rolled in and left us with about 100 feet visibility!

We built a huge bonfire which kept us warm in the fog.  We had a yummy picnic lunch, sledded and shot clay pigeons.

You can see that the fog had rolled in!

Shooting

Ahi was terrified of the gunfire so she allowed Amanda to zip her into her jacket

 On the way out, we turned a corner and came upon this sunset!  It looked like the world was on fire!

Once we got home, we had a huge spaghetti dinner!

Good clean, redneck fun!