See what I mean?

Robin at Home

I bet I've taken more pictures in the 5 days since Robin came home to live than I had in the previous several years. I am still a lousy photographer but at least now I can crop, straighten, lighten, darken, sharpen, etc. Only occasionally do I keep one as is. Maybe eventually I will get better. After all, I have the ideal photo subject.

Get away from me!

Kuku kitty is fairly irritated about Robin. She spends all her time on chairs and dressers, beds, anywhere the puppy can't sneak up on her. It was really funny when the puppy fell asleep on the floor, and the cat sneaked up to sniff her. Robin woke up and Kuku jumped straight up 6 feet in the air. I laughed and laughed. SHe has been so embarrassed since then that she just sits around and growls.
Robin would love to chase Kuku, but Kuku won't run.

I'm old; Robin is young.

Isn't she adorable? I will post others showing her at attention, but Dh couldn't seem to take a picture with BOTH of us looking halfway decent. A red merle miniature aussie who may yet be a toy instead, Robin is 10 weeks old tomorrow and quite tiny. She really is an aussie though. She would adore to herd the chickens and the cat, but that's another story.

My OWN puppy

I got this photo of my new puppy from the Boldheart website. Kathy has been calling her Cherish, but I lean toward Zorra. My DH says neither fits (what does he know?) but that she will name herself within a day or so. He might be correct about that part, or at least which of the names will suit her more.
I am driving to Winkelman on Friday to pick her up. SHe was born 12/11/2006 so is past any spooky period and ready to come home. Kathy thinks she will mature as a small mini, rather than a toy, but DH was the one insisting on a toy anyway, and he is OK with her. THe litter I was waiting for didn't have a red female in it, so I was very glad that Kathy decided to sell this little girl rather than keep her as planned.

Knit from your Stash 2007

http://wendyknits.net/images/stash2007.gif

 

 

 

Knit From Your Stash 2007

http://wendyknits.net/stash2007.htm

 

 

 

Puppy update

The litter my puppy will be in is due in another week, and I am so impatient I am like a little kid that needs to visit the bathroom. I don't think I wrote that I drove down to Winkelman to meet the breeder and her dogs a couple of weeks ago. I really enjoyed all of it, the drive (except for crossing Phoenix), the area, the dogs, and Kathy. We really hit it off, and I gave her a little lap quilt before I left. She gave me a painting. Mutual admiration society.
And the dogs were truly wonderful. Real old style Aussies in smaller packages, smart and gorgeous. The minis are just about the size of good Aussies in the 60s and 70s, before the show breeders got hold of them and started breeding them bigger and bigger. Now the AKC Aussie is a big dog, and the minis are in the hands of those who appreciate them.
And the Toys!!! I am going to have so much fun. They are small enough to lap sit and big enough to work ducks, and sheep.
Kathy works cattle with the minis but not the toys. One good kick would break most of their bones.
I can't say enough good about them. I took photos, but my camera timer was set and I didn't know it. so all the photos were taken well after I pressed the button. Duhhh.

Cell phone update

Well, I have started to use it sporadically and did even succeed in calling myself from home. The big problem was that I don't get a good signal in my studio at home and I am so green I didn't know what the symbols meant. When I turned on the phone at work so I could get my co-worker to help me with it (and she is 76!), it went right to telling me how to set up my Voice Mail.
I have even managed to program a few numbers. But I tried driving, only in my driveway, and couldn't divide my attention enough to feel like I could drive safely. AND it was only my driveway. I suspect most everybody else is the same way, only they somehow have the ability to ignore that fact. Its kinda like driving at night. I am sure nobody else can see very well either, only they manage to ignore it and just trust to their God, I guess. I only have myself to trust, and she has proven untrustworthy at times, so I slow down some and really pay attention. I can't IMAGINE trying to talk on the phone, in the dark, and drive.

First cell phone

Well, I finally bought a cell phone.  I did it because I was pissed.  I went to look at a building for sale last week, and was supposed to then call DH before he left his work so he could go see it too.  I had several other places to go, so I thought I could easily find a phone.  Yeah, sure.  I never noticed before that there aren't phone booths everywhere any more.  In fact, I couldn't find one period.  And stores and such won't let you use their phones either.  Got to keep an open line for business, you know.  So I finally went to the big store that shall remain nameless and bought a prepaid phone.  I couldn't activate it right then, so I browbeat the little girl who sold it to me into letting me use her phone to call DH.

Since I am about as far from a techie as you can get, it took me a couple of hours to get it activated with the website.  I still couldnt figure out how to make a call, but took it along to Quilting in the Desert. 

I was going to be later getting home than I had planned, so I had somebody show me how to make a call (Duh, punch in the number and press send) and I was able to call DH and tell him not to wait up.  Thought I was so smart.  I have made a couple of calls since then.  But now I need to know how to receive a call and have had no luck using the instruction book or the website either.  They seem to  assume a certain level of familiarity with this stuff and skip the very basic.  I finally had to email the company and am now waiting to hear from them.  I have called the cell from my home phone and get a message that my call is being forwarded to a mailbox.  I don't WANT it to be forwarded; I WANT it to ring, or vibrate, or whatever, and it won't.  And I have no idea how to access that mailbox either.  Anyway, I hope somebody nice will answer my email and give me some answers.

 

 

AJ Wischmeyer, Quiltmaker

ajwisch@joimail.com

http://luvkuku.blogspot.com/

 

 

Browbeat, continued

Reading over the previous post made me think maybe I was too emphatic, and maybe its not really that bad. I was going to post the next day and say so, but I had to go to work.  When I walked out the door, DH was holding the broom and saying that it was getting way too rustic in here for him.  I thought that he was going to sweep, as he was going to be home all day while I worked.  Yeah, sure.

So the next day, Sunday, I said I was going to vacuum while he was outside doing some stuff, and he had a FIT.  The tirade about how he tries to spend Sundays with me ( generally asleep on the couch) and that I could easily do all the housework and laundry on the 3 or 4 days that he goes to work if only I didn't spend all my time stupidly in the studio (frequently trying to machine quilt for customers or work on the computer for my museum job).  Yada, yada, yada.  The fact that I make most of my small income working IN MY STUDIO and that I never ask him for money because of it, and that HE PREVENTS ME from working in there when he is home mean nothing to him.  The only thing important to him is that I be available, in the same room or outside with him, and paying attention to him instead of even doing something else side by side. 

Uh oh, I'm getting carried away again.

I have to go to the doctor tomorrow and tell him I haven't taken any meds yet. 

 

AJ in AZ

 

 

 

Being browbeat

  I'm getting more and more bothered lately by the browbeating ways of my DH.  Or, am I overly sensitive and just a total wuss and tone of voice doesn't mean anything, as he states?  I don't know.  If the latter, then I just don't know the difference.  We HAVE been married for 27 years, so why is it bothering me more than usual now?  But the litany of injustices I feel continues to grow and I'm getting pretty depressed about it. 

  For instance, my chicken hobby was a LOT more fun before he got interested in it and decided that, as usual, everything should be done HIS way.  Now 3 out of my 4 chicken coops contain his breed of chickens, and he is agitating to get rid of more of MY chickens because, he says, I have too many in the coop (nesting house) that remains. He won't buy any chicken feed, but has decided to keep some roosters wayyyyy past optimum butchering time because he wants to have backups.  He complains bitterly if any of his chickens ever run low on the expensive natural feed I buy, but will only do any feeding himself out of his hand.  There's a lot more, but you get the idea.

  And there is the matter of my high cholesterol.  When I came home from the doctor with a month's supply of samples to take and lower it quickly (The doctor was so concerned when he got my lab results that he called me to come in right away and get the samples), he had a terrible fit that I was going to be adding yet another drug to the ones that control my fibromyalgia and anxiety.  I tried to stand up to him, but in the end, I agreed to wait for a month before taking the drug, and in the meantime, give up ice cream and regular cheeses, animal fats, etc.  He wants me to get another lab test then.  I DREAD telling the doctor I haven't started the meds yet when he was so concerned about me.  But its easier to upset the doctor than it is to stand up to DH.

  Sometimes I cry for no particular reason.

  Sounds like depression, doesn't it?

  I can just see me telling him I'm depressed.  He sometimes tries to pretend that he is understanding about such things, but under any kind of stress it comes out that he thinks depression is the own fault of the depressed person, and anybody with any intelligence at all will just decide not to be depressed and they won't be any more.  Therefore, if I'm depressed I must not be a. intelligent, b.have no will power, c. take your pick of any other character fault you can think of.

  I should be going to knit with my friends this afternoon, but he is so mean and nasty about me going to town EVERY DAY (not true) that I said I'd stay home today.  I do have to work again tomorrow, so I really didin't have a leg to stand on this time.  But this happens nearly every week.  Sometimes I can stand up to him, but mostly I can't.

  There are so many things I'm not supposed to do when he is home, like quilting, laundry, housework, anything on the computer, that I tend to spend marathons in the studio alternately quilting and working on the computer when he is gone.  But it really makes him mad to come home and find me in the studio, and heaven forbid he should try to call me and have me be on the internet.  He won't leave a message and is real mean about it when he comes home.  And I never know WHEN he is going to come home.  His work house vary a lot, and he frequently goes to Pat's afterward anyway, but I am supposed to be sitting quietly in a chair in a clean house with all laundry already done and put away anytime he arrives.  Needless to say, this is my most frequent failure in his eyes.  I don't keep up with housework very well because I head straight for the studio when he leaves and don't come out until a few minutes before I THINK he might come home.  And of course I often guess wrong and then have to sit there seething because I want to go on sewing or else I'm in trouble because he caught me in the studio.

  I guess you should take all of this with a grain of salt.  I can cope with all of it pretty well most of the time; I am just extra depressed about it right now.

 

 

 

 

 

Puppy update

We sent a deposit to Boldheart Miniature Aussies for a pup from the Rose and Shiloh litter due February 7. DH fell in love with the pictures of Rose; he says she looks like the old Flintridge dogs that went in the the Australian Shepherd. I think he's right; those dogs were small too, and the AKC Aussies being bred today are huge and don't look too much like even the dogs we had in the 1980's. Rose is a small mini, and so is Shiloh, and Shiloh throws toys. Mine will be a toy per DH, and he is getting the pup for me, so a toy she will be.
We didn't get Mia, cute as she is, for the very reason I was afraid of. She was just too spooky and we also thought she was mainly socialized to the pack and would never bond as well to us as a pup that was removed from the pack at the proper time. TinyTrax pups were very nice, and I think the breeder does a good job with the little ones' critical periods and all, but she doesn't seem to do any training at all after that. SHe even had to lure the pack outside with treats rather than just telling them to go out. IMO, her dogs have potential that will never be realized. ANd there was no way to tell whether herding instinct was still present in her dogs since they have never been taught to do anything.
Boldheart Aussies are working herding dogs. You can train a herding dog to do anything you want to do with him, because he wants a job and wants to take direction from you. I can't wait.
I wish it wasn't so far away. The date I mean; I chose the breeder partially on the fact that she is in AZ and her dogs are raised in more or less the same climate I live in. I will go visit once before the pups come. DH says he doesn't want to go with; I just don't understand that.

My history with Aussies

--- In TASCA@yahoogroups.com, RuffHouseAussies@... wrote:

> I would like to learn more about your experience with the size
change in the standard Aussie after AKC got involved. Many, many years
ago my first Aussie was about the size of a large mini. Patches was a
great girl and I too later fell in love with the Toy Aussies.
>

We bought a retired ASCA Ch. bitch (Sassy) with the intent of putting
working titles on her, as her full brother was really sweeping all the
herding trials around, even beating some Border Collies. She was 17 "
but was 3 years old. We did well with her; the first litter was to
our herding titled male and the puppies had beautiful movement and did
very well in puppy classes. There were 2 eventual conformation
champions from the litter, both bitches and both larger than Sassy.
One was sold as a pet (bite was a little off) and we kept a small male
for working stock. Even though he continued to have great
conformation and movement, he was only 17" at 2 years old and we gave
up showing him in conformation after leaving the puppy classes. He
had never even placed again, but he was a fantastic working dog. We
sold him after getting his started titles.
The second litter for Sassy was to a larger Nat Ch. male, and the pups
were correspondingly larger. THere were 3 eventual ch.s, I think, 2
males (very large) and 1 large bitch. THe heads were beginning to
resemble the Bernese Mtn Dog a friend owned. The only reason we bred
Sassy to this male was that DH took him in for herding training and
titling, and the price was the stud fee.
Third litter was accidental. My large male pup from the previous
litter and stepson's jr handling bitch. SHe was a litter sister to
Sassy but much bigger. SInce Cosby was only a year old, we did not
register the litter and sold as pets to be neutered. We have always
felt that only OFA and CERF animals shall be bred, and we had to walk
the walk as well as talk the talk.
Overall, we much preferred the smaller dogs, but as time went on, the
judges that ASCAZ hired for the shows were Working Group AKC judges,
and they almost invariably went for the bigger, blocky head dogs, so
that is what people bred for. THe smaller ones still did much better
as working trial dogs, and the breed began to split. Understand, I'm
talking about here in AZ, and within our direct knowledge while being
active in the state club. And it was even before AKC recognition.
Eventually we decided there was no point in sticking with a breed that
was going to be split, like so many of the Sporting Group, between
conformation dogs and working dogs. So we sold Sassy back to her
first owner, and sold the others as working stockdogs since all our
dogs received herding training. And that was that until now.

AJ in AZ

 

 

 

 

 

Another photo

Isn't she beautiful? 

16 mos old Toy Aussie

This is Mia. We are going to see her too when we go to see TinyTrax' new litter. The owner says she hangs back and is on the bottom of the pecking order, so I don't know if she will be coming home with us or not. For obedience and herding you need a more assertive dog, and if she isn't that, I depend on DH to prevent me from saying YES to her. I have already fallen in love, but I only get ONE dog, so it has to be the right one. This picture is of her at 5 mos, and she is 16 mos now. 

Toy Australian Shepherds

Wow, DH is finally going to let me have a dog!!!!  I was making serious Mastiff noises and was going to research the breed and get one whether he liked it or not.  There was an AKC show just  5 miles away (as the crow flies) and I talked him into going with me.  He wanted to see the herding trials; I wanted to see the Mastiffs. We went, I saw the Mastiffs, he saw a TOY AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD being led around by a barrel racer who was attending an event on the same property.  He was absolutely beautiful, and has traditional Aussie temperament (standoffish but not frightened with strangers) and old style conformation and head in a toy sized body.  A red merle male, 7 mos old.  And his owner owns both parents and is going to breed them again next spring. 

DH said, if you want a dog, get one like that and I can teach it to put the chickens away.  He didn't have to say it twice.

So I have been researching since then, and we are going to go see a litter and a grown bitch that needs to be spayed next SUnday.  I will try to update

 

AJ in AZ

Swift and Ball WInder

THe antique wooden swift I bought off eBay came yesterday and I have just taken a few minutes away from cooking Thanksgiving dinner to try it out with the alpaca I bought for CIC sweaters.  With a few fits and starts (learning curve), I mastered both it and the ball winder and have wound 3 skeins into balls in the last few minutes  Woo-hoo!  I love it.  I wish I could have paid cash, but I'm glad I bought them.  More time for knitting, and the swift is very decorative too.  Maybe someday a wooden ball winder too.  I dislike plastic of all kinds more and more, and think the world would be a whole lot better off if most of it, especially packaging was simply eliminated.

 

Open wireless

ANd I can plug in my computer in the Vibe, too! Maybe sometimes these modern conveniences are a good thing.

Gentle Giants Rescue

I have been trying to look at this website, to see many different giant breeds and just SEE them, but the site is so huge, even the home page, that I can't even download the whole first page with my dial-up. It even kicks me off the web and I have to start all over again. So I guess I'm never going to be able to look at this site unless I take my laptop to Barnes & Noble or the Millstone Cafe and plan to stay there a while. Or heaven forbid, wait until next summer at Quilt Camp. Wait, if NAU has wireless all over the campus, I wonder if the MCCCD does. I will take my laptop to the CSA pickup tomorrow and see if it can pick up an open wireless system.