We have...

a basement! Our floor was poured, and the walls and "roof" are being finished. Plans are to button it up for the winter and start work on the main floor in the spring. For all of you who like the details, the concrete floor is set up for radiant floor heat (zip tied a lot of the tubing myself). Dimensions are 30X40 feet, with the long side facing south. One short side is designed so that we can install two patio doors on the end, as well as one around the corner. There will also be a window or two, plumbing is in for a bathroom, and we plan to be able to live in it if need be. Eventually we will have a den/library type room, a place for the dogs to be going in and out of their pen when we're not home, a bathroom with a walk in shower/dog wash and a laundry room down there.

Our friends Kevin (with Calico, his dog), and Phil are helping Charles with the labor part of the framing while his friend Nick has taken the job of technical advisor. It's nice to have such handy friends!

More house pictures soon...

Desi's best buddy

Well, it's time for another introduction... Meet Milo, Desi's kitten. Yes, our big dog has his own kitten. Started out as a joke really. Charles and I joked about Desi needing his own kitten after he took to putting our friends cat in his mouth. The cat really didn't seem to mind, and it was kind of funny. So, when I brought home a kitten from someone at work, it became the dogs. Milo has pretty much grown up in Desi's mouth, getting wet and sticky and loving every minute of it. Milo frequently sleeps on our bed with his head hanging over the bed while Desi sleeps on the floor beneath.

A Sad Farewell

It is with great sadness that I announce the passing of Catapult. For those of you who came to see me in my shop, he was the true owner of the place. After being thrown from a moving vehicle and rescued from a local shelter by myself and my friend Betty in 1997, Catapult made himself at home at The Little Jungle until it's closing in 2005. After that, he resided with Charles, Michael, and I in our home and with his cat, Peekaboo. Catapult adopted Peekie and her sister Hoppy from a feral colony in Lovell. And although Hoppy went on to join Betty's family, Peekie remained his constant companion. 'Pult was as patient and pleasant as could be for a cat. He put up with animals and people parading in and out of the store, rescued cats, little kids, and so much more. He could be demanding of his dinner, and towards the end of his life, spent time sharing supper with our old dog, Tinkerbell. Cancer was his last battle, causing him to become thin and frail. But he still found our lap, loved Peekie, and demanded dinner until the very end. He will be greatly missed, but in our hearts, we know he has joined his many animal friends long since gone.

Peace be with you in your eternal catnip patch, old friend...

Latest Addiction

CORESPUN YARN!!!

(sorry- had to yell)

So this had become my latest passion. A corespun yarn uses a core thread, yarn, string, or wire. You spin your fiber around this core, which makes the fibers twist perpendicular to the core material. This is a great way to

show off the materials in a batt of fiber that has a lot of different fibers, texture and such in it. So far all my corespun yarns have been made with string, but I'm itching to try spinning on wire soon. This particular yarn was spun using batts from a mini batt swap with Natasha from Gritty Knits.

And of course, all the yarn has so far ended up at my moms as it probably should be knit into something and I'm not getting a lot of that done!

I should also say that VelmaLikeVelvet from Ravelry gets the credit for all this corespinning excitement because she posted a cool instructional video on how to do this on YouTube. Thanks Velma!

Another introduction

I had a request for more introductions of our critters. So here's Lucy's turn! Lucy, aka Melucine Eden Severu is our female Czech Vlcak. She's Desi's big half sister (same mom), and is a little more than half his size. Even though she acts so serious and leary in public, this picture shows her lighter side. She posed for us on Peekaboo's cat tree (she's the cat in the picture), and is quite content to show of her skills by hopping up on rocks, furniture, and most anything else we ask her to. A favorite for us is to tell her to get up on the couch. She hops up and stands on the back of the couch and leans down to make sure you get slobbered upon.

The cat tree was built by my friend Bryan of R6Meows.com. It's made of real wood (trees and plywood) and has all kinds of great scratching surfaces on it. The cats adore it, and after have it for more than 5 years, there's hardly any wear. I'm adding Bryans website to the list of links- it's great, Maine made stuff if any of you are cat lovers!

Our Soon To Be Cellar

Well, our house on Frost Hill is officially underway... finally! We'll be able to get the foundation poured and capped this year, which is pretty good considering how the weather has been. The walls are actually poured and we're (meaning Charles) getting all the supplies together for the floor. It's going to be a floor with the potential for radient heat, so there insulation, tubing etc. to be procured.

Todays big undertaking was hauling all the insulation back from the concrete supply place in Auburn with a mini van, a pickup, one little brother, and a boat trailer with a deck on it. The pallet of insulation was about 8 feet high... we were looking at the trailer and the pallet and wondering how on earth we were going to pull this off. Well, after some creative stacking, we got half of the pallet on the trailer, and split the other half between the van and the truck. After tying down the back door to the van to keep the pile of insulation from flying out the back, we took the seat we had removed and slid it on top of the foam, stood the spare tire in between the foam and a side van door, and loaded all the blankets, tire irons, and other stuff that was left into the passengers side floor area. And we were off to BJ's to run a quick errand.

Picking up a few things at BJ's would not normally have been an issue, but when we returned to the van and went to place our purchases in the back, we discovered that we could not simply place the items on top of the insulation because they would roll out the partially open back door of the van and into the road... so the items were creatively stacked next to the spare tire in the little space we had left. And to think we were going to just bring one vehicle!

Hopefully we will be bringing you updated pictures of the cellar with a floor soon.

Population Explosion

Let me tell you a little story... Before my divorce, Michael has this wonderful guinea pig named Peanut Butter & Jelly. She was the most adorable cream colored abby- the ones with all the cowlicks. When she passed away, Michael missed her terribly, and now that we live in a bigger house, I thought it was time he have a pet of his own again. One of my co-workers gave me Isabella. She purchased two"female" guinea pigs from a pet shop and ended up with 8. Excited to surprise Michael, I brought her home, set up Peanuts old cage for her, and kept her a secret until Michael came over again. He was thrilled, and has been taking excellent care of her. However, a few weeks after her arrival home, I noticed that Izzy had that distinct pregnant pig belly that they get right before they have a litter... the belly that looks like the pig ate a football and it's lodged sideways in their belly. Oh boy...

Izzy did not disappoint- on July 3rd she popped out 5 very adorable babies. We unfortunately lost one (Michael named her L'il because she was so tiny), but the other 4 are thriving nicely. There is one girl, Amber, that will be able to keep Izzy company. The other three, Burton, Dakine, and Camaro, are boys and going to have a big pen of their own this week.

Sigh... me and my bright ideas...