It's a Battle to the End for the Last Drumstick

Yes, it's true! Here is Cooper and Wesson battling it out for dibs on that last drumstick.

They love to play and it is hard to believe but when they play like this they are silent with the occasional yelp from Wesson when he has overstepped his bounds. They are so funny to watch!
I hope everyone is having a wonder Thanksgiving weekend.

Snow, Roofing, Dogs, and More

Well, it turns out we didn't puppysit this weekend after all. DD19 is planning her trip tentatively for next weekend. But she did bring her blue heeler pup out on Wednesday for a play date with Cooper. Unfortunately for Wesson, he began to yelp while in the front yard under Cooper's supervision and was visibly hurt and limping. After a couple of hours of TLC and no improvement, he had a visit to the vet for a diagnosis of a slight fracture in the hip. Friday when Wesson visited, he was still limping, but was entrusted to our care so DD19 and her BF22 could go ice skating. Here is Wes, you can see he is favoring his hind leg. Ice skating was cancelled due to a blizzard they ran into on the way before they even got to the pass. Our very first puppy sitting with our grandpup was unexpectedly cancelled! Bahahaaaa!!

Here you can see DD18's kitten, Brantley, and Cooper like to pal around.

He knows he's cute!

Here we are making apple cider with some friends. I was able to put up 14 quarts with a gallon and a half to drink and share with others. Plus, I have two boxes of apples in the garage. Didn't I lament last fall on processing all those apples. Well, here I go again! This weekend, I dried two batches and canned up 3 quarts. I know, only 3 quarts, but it was today after I had already made salsa and was kinda beat. Plus, my back was complaining.

We have had the worst luck with our leaky skylights in the kitchen and bathroom. 2 weeks ago we had a doozy of a rainstorm so DH ordered tin and went to work Saturday pulling off the old tin and getting the new stuff on. Did I mention that when he started it was lightly snowing and water was coming off the roof? Yeah. Well, lucky for us it stopped so he could get his work done.

 

You'd never believe it, but moments after they finished, it started snowing! If that wasn't a sign. 

We woke up to 5-6 inches of new snow this morning. It's not supposed to last though. Yesterday DH as busy changing tires on our daughter's cars. Just in time! I am without winter tires but hope I will be okay. I have a Subaru with new tires and a new set of tires and rims would run about $1,000 and we are not wanting to spend any money now if we don't have to. DH has my old Subaru and he has will be putting winter tires on it soon. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the roads won't be too bad this winter.

Here's my Veteran's Day work. I had a whole box of green tomatoes in the greenhouse and I am tired of waiting for them to ripen. What to do? Well, make Green Tomato Salsa, of course! Except, I have never made green tomato salsa before and didn't have a good recipe. I like salsa verde which is made with tomatillos, so I figured, how much different can a green tomato be? I found a Green Tomato Salsa Recipe that looked good. So, here it is. It made 8 pints with enough leftover to enjoy today. The only changes I made were that I used 2 large red peppers , 2 large onions, and substituted lemon juice for the vinegar. I have found that home canned salsa with vinegar has an unpleasant taste that our family does not like, and lemon juice is an acceptable acid substitute for vinegar. The salsa is very good with just enough heat and a slight tartness. Be sure to use the sugar to counter the tartness. The picture looks pasty and doesn't show the beautiful, bright shades of green. It is much prettier in real life.

I got ambitious.  First, I  had peeled apples for dehydrating which just takes minutes. Then I made the green tomato salsa. I had purposely left the bowl of water with the anti-browning treatment in it to use in case I was energetic and wanted to can some apples later. Yeoww!! I didn't realize how tired I was or how my back was aching, so after enough apples for 3 quarts I called it quits, and stopped there. Here are the apples

Back tracking to Halloween ( I have not been good about keeping up with my blog, as you know if you are a regular follower), our pumpkins did not last a week and a half this year because October was so warm.

Yes, that is a fence charger you see on the porch. Cooper loves to dig but DH took it down, and that wee bit of corner you can see in the lower right of the picture is routinely dug up, much to our dismay. When the charger is up and running, no digging, when the charger is unplugged and down, digging! We are open to suggestions that don't entail brute punishment. I would use his shock collar, but of course I would have to catch him in the act to use it and he's too smart for that!

Puppy Sitting

DD19 called this evening. She is going out of town and wants to know if we can watch her 3 1/2 month old puppy over the weekend. A Blue Heeler. Named Wesson (Smith's cousin). With lots of energy. That never stops moving. That mauls our Cooper to death and when he's down and wore out, jumps and climbs all over him. Cooper is soooo patient with him. He let's him bite and pull at his fur and jump all over him. He runs around him and jumps some more. I get tired just watching for 2 minutes. Cooper is so wore out after an hour visit, he sleeps for hours afterward.

I said yes. Pictures and updates will follow this weekend.