Ducks ALIVE in 2025!

Thanks!
DD's suggested that I give the 1/2 pint of garlic chips to Middle DD bc we are driving to Her house for lunch today--meat loaf and other good things--so it's packed.
I also retrieved some pods of purple columbine and packed them in a labelled paper lunch bag for her wildflower garden.
We are getting two GSD puppies, female, 8 weeks old, good age to mold them. Pictures later...
Our.cats.Will.freak!!
They are going to say, "What happened to our kitten heaven?!?!?"
Puppies will be overwhelmed and probably sleep most of the time in the car.
Our one way trip to get them is 2 1/2 hrs, another 30 minutes to DD's house, then about 2 1/2 hrs home.
Eldest DD is driving. She has the Toyota 4Runner that she bought with inheritance $ a few years ago--excellent road trip car.
Meanwhile, I had to run the dehydrator just a few hours longer for the jalepano. Here is it packaged:

Puppies, UPDATE.
Home and settling in. Eldest DD offered to drive us 2 1/2 hrs NW to outside of a little town I didn't know existed, but it's Bigger than where I live to retrieve puppies.
There IS NO "Puppy Door Dash."
"Sasha" is My puppy, "Tegan" is DH's puppy.
DH and Eldest DD fought for 2 weeks over the name. DH wanted "Trudl," and Eldest DD wouldn't hear of it.
They settled on "Tegan" bc that is the name of one of Dr. Who's companions. Pictures first, then I will post our experience.

DD's spent Saturday and Sunday puppy proofing the house. Our house is old and we can shut doors since we don't have an open concept layout, and that is best way to keep them away from slippers which they are both Very interested in chewing on.
Middle DD is wanting to get a puppy before her 14yo dog passes away, so she invited us to dinner on Monday and we had a lovely family visit!
Happy to sat that "Tenma" liked the puppies!
Outside burrs will be a problem until I can deal with them, but I have decided that this weekend I plan to cut off ALL of my rhubarb leaves--toxic, and they die down every winter anyway.
"Sasha" is 10 lbs, "Tegan", the runt of the litter, is 9 lbs. "Eva" was 14 lbs at 10 wks. old, for comparison. Breeder said that they both will probably change colors several times before they are adults.
They want to lay down with us when we are sitting in any chair, and the breeders spent some time with them, happy to say. That impressed my Vet, who saw them yesterday, but she is steering me off of Diamond dog food. I bought what the breeder was feeding them.
If you have any suggestions, I will be happy to hear it. Locally, I don't think I can find Caninae, which is what my Vet suggested. IF I go with that, I will have to order it from CHEWY.

I Know "Tegan" is a popular girl's name now, but it Is a sweet name--other DD and I didn't really care to get into their argument.

I had purchased collars and leashes, but those collars are currently too big, so we stopped on the drive home to get 2 smaller collars. I imagine by October they will both have grown out of the small ones. We also bought harnesses and DD's wanted to start taking them on long walks when those fit.

The cats are warry of them. "Smudgkins" (aka "Bedcat,") stood up to them right away, and evan smacked "Tegan" first day. "Tegan" started barking at "Mynx" and wouldn't let up this morning. Although I am disciplining them with a spray bottle, plain water, I finally took my sneaker off and smacked her on the butt.

The cats lived here First. I don't just jump in to interfere, but aggressiveness at the cats, who right Now outweigh them, is not to be tolerated.

We have had some accidents--I threw out puppy poo on the lawn close to the back door, where my dogs have always relieved themselves, and they Are catching on. I was up at 2AM to take them out last night and they both pee'd and poo'd and got lots of praise.

They are both getting Very good at "sit" when I put the leashes on and off. Breeders suggested to not leave them in the crate with a collar on. It mirrors my horse turnout without halters, so I am game.

Although My internet play is mostly HERE, I have been doing some reading on GSD spots and groups. I am happy to learn. I didn't know that when puppies get nippy it means that they are getting tired.
I am happy to hear about YOUR puppy knowledge, too.

The other news is that we are getting:
1) a new Fridge
2) a new Washer
3) a new Dishwasher
1) Glad it was a Holiday weekend and that we got 30% off!!
Last Thursday morning I woke up to water underneath the ice dispenser. I checked and the extra ice cube trays were mushy. By Saturday I confirmed it--gotta replace the refrigerator.
After we emptied almost everything out of both sides, it decided to work. Today, I am waiting for the new one to be delivered--SOMEtime between 8AM and 8PM--not.here.yet. DD's took some food home, to return later today to the new one. They left my leftover pizza for lunch. I already have moved ALL of the ice trays to the 7 cu ft porch freezer. I just heard the old dump ice--go figure.
THIS is why I am a big fan of canning and dehydrating--no electricity for preservation.
2) I am replacing a 3 yr.old. washing machine. This hunk of junk with Chinese parts is so energy efficient that, the repairman 3 years ago told me that if I try to wash on HOT, it will break and be unrepairable.
There are no words...
I have ordered the simplest washer I could find, without the stupid sensors That one has. Last Saturday I had to start the thing 7x to get it to cycle through. And, Yes, I bought and installed new hoses bc I thought the issue was limestone sediment. This new washer comes with hoses, so I will have 3 total sets in a few weeks.
Never thought about it before, but it's like when somebody gets sick on the bedsheets, and you have to wash/dry and remake the bed bc you only have one set--YES! I know somebody with only one set of bedsheets!! I have 14 sets of sheets for my bed. If somebody gets sick, we just take them off, throw them in the washer to wash later, and put on a new set--no staying up 3 hours to clean them!
I should add that I kept asking for bedsheets for Christmas for our King sized bed, and I kept buying pretty sheets. While cleaning out the back bedroom closet I found 4 partial sheet sets from our King Sized bed that we scrapped for a Queen when we moved here in 2000. Sometime soon I will have 17 sets. Divide 17 into 52 and most of them only get used 3x/year.
Really, 3 sets of sheets should be the limit. WHAT a thing to brag on!!
I also bought a 3 set of locking wrenches, which we Needed bc our one large pair was rusty, so that wasn't a loss. It will arrive last week of September, and DD's have offered to do wash, dry and folding service for us in the meantime. DH and I usually don't wash more than 4 loads/week anyway.
3) DH has been after me to replace the portable dishwasher that stopped working like 5 years ago. THAT will arrive with the washer. DD's spent 2 hours on the LOWE's website. LOWE's wanted to deliver all 3 of them on Sept. 27th, but we really need a working refrigerator more than the other two, so we paid for 2 orders to get the fridge here This week.

I was storing all of my 2025 garlic harvest in paper lunch bags on top of the fridge. Unfortunately, I had 4 German Red Garlic bulbs dry out on me.
This weekend I plan to clear out and replant ALL of my garlic for 2026. I may not process or consume any Red Garlic. I will post pictures. They were all bigger than the Great Lakes Porcelain Garlic. I think it has to do with tilthe on the north side of my big garden.
TOO.BAD. I don't have any: manure, compost, or dried out grass clippings to amend it there!!
Isn't it Great that we don't have to feed ourselves solely from our gardens!!

Sasha (red collar,) and Tegan (mint green collar. Tegan is almost house trained. Sasha started to drop her poo's everywhere. I took her outside this morning right before an accident, and sat in an outside chair with her for 45 minutes.
Nothing. So, Tegan got to play in the house, and Sasha wined for over an hour in their crate.
Then, I took them Both out, Both pottied, then they could play inside. At that point, they were both tired. I watched the end of CSPAN2's Book TV: V is for Venom: Agatha Christie's Chemicals of Death
Fascinating speech from the author!
Put the doggies to sleep, however.

Saw a bunch of bees on my sunflowers in the wildflower patch next the house today.

ducks4you said:

Saw a bunch of bees on my sunflowers in the wildflower patch next the house today.View attachment 77618

Click to expand...

I love sunflowers!

On Sunday I finished dehydrating sweet potatoes for the doggies. I didn't look for a recipe, just oven cooked 3 sweet potatoes, peeled off the skins, cut into smaller pieces and dehydrated them for about 8 hours. I have them in the jar in the kitchen AND they are puppy approved!