Goodbye Little Black Brindle

Our sweet, sweet Little Black Brindle lost his battle with tracheal collapse and congestive heart failure early this morning.  We are heartbroken but so very grateful we got to care for him these four years.  We will miss him the rest of our lives.  The Cottage will never be the same without him.

                                        Good boy! Brave boy! Sweet boy!
                                                          Thank you.

Please Pray for Little Black Brindle

Our sweet Little Black Brindle has been gravely ill.  He has been diagnosed with Tracheal Collapse.  This unfortunately is a common condition in small dogs.  In his situation his trachea collapses when he breathes out and he has a difficult time getting the old air out of his lungs so he can refill them with new air.

Because his tracheal collapse is lengthy he is not a candidate for surgical correction. The only thing that his doctors can do is to give him a cough suppressant and steroids to reduce inflamation.  If you are a Christian, please lift this sweet little boy up to God in prayer to restore proper breathing in his body.

"Jesus looked at them and said "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 19:26

Audrey

Happy New Year 2014

Well, we made it through the holidays here at Prairie Cairn Cottage! Christmas was good to us this year. Little Black Brindle got some new balls and a squeaky, stretchy fox which he loves! Tabby got a pole with a long string to tempt him to chase but his favorite where 3 fabric mice. Both pets chose the toy I thought would be their least favorite. Guess I don't know them all that well after all!

New Year's day had me working on the things I'd like to spend more time on in 2014 or new crafts I'd like to accomplish. To that end I enjoyed a day of knitting, sewing and I tried my hand once more at spinning on a drop spindle. A few goals were set for 2014. For Prairie Cairn Cottage we'd like to finally get fencing put up,a shed or two put up, and the new chicken coop built. Personal goals for me include learning to spin, learning to knit hats and socks and walking more. Of course adding a few more critters to the Cottage is always a possibility!

Count Down Begins

Like all of you out there, Prairie Cairn Cottage has begun the countdown with only one week left. I just got my packages to out of town relatives in the mail yesterday and cards sent off Monday. Whew! I am cutting it short as usual. Anyone out there besides me vow to make next year stress free? I've already figured out what I want to create and give as gifts and the timeline necessary to accomplish that goal. Let's just say that as soon as this Christmas ends, I'll be starting on next year's gifting. Mr. Tabby and Little Black Brindle are looking forward to Christmas this year as well. A visit to our local pet store for treats should have their presents all wrapped up. The stockings that I made them last year have been hung and are adding that special touch to the decorating at Prairie Cairn Cottage. Thanks for stopping by the Cottage for a Christmas visit. We hope you find the joy of the Savior's birth to be at the heart of your holidays. Audrey

Weekend Crafting at Prairie Cairn Cottage

What's on my needles?

knitted dishcloth

What is under my needle?

Lil' Rascals quilt kit

What is on my hook?

crocheted skillet cozy

What is on my reading shelf?

A Cairn treat for you



Skunked

Blech!  My Mom say I gots skunked this mornin, wha-ever dat means.  I just knows all a sudden I smells really bad and it was makin me crazies!  One minute everting is normals and da next I's feels like I gots this stuff all over my furs and I's couldn't wipe it off!  I's tried everting a Cairn could think.  I tries ta wipe it off on da grass, I tries ta wipe it off ona straw bale but nottin worked.  All 'cuza dat new kitties I's sees this mornin.  I don't gets it, I like kitties, whys this one gotta spray that stuff all overs me? 

My Mom den gives a boy a bath with dis fizzy stuff.  I's didn't cares, I's wanted dat stuffs offa mys furs.  My Mom says ta tells yous it was:
   1 quarts hy-dro-gen per-ox-ide
   1/4 cups bakin sodas
   1 teaspoons Dawn
She gets a boy wet in da tub an den rubs dis stuff all overs ma bodies.  Den I's just gots to sit der for awhiles.  Den she gets ma shampoos and goes overs ma bodies agains.  Den I's gets sprayed down reals good and den I's gets a toweling. 

I's feels much better but now I's gonna go take a naps.

Where do your dreams take you?

 I dreamt that I was in a tornado and got swept away to a distant land.  My Mom and Dad where there with me, thank goodness, and we saw lots of strange sights:


There were large bodies of water.



I walked miles of shorelines.

Saw strange sights like an abandoned goose egg.

More sights like ornate churches.




Mom kept disappearing into things called quilt shops.  Lucky for me she kept reappearing.

  

blech!  I gotta quite eating the cat's food.

Summer is in full swing

Have you found yourself busy as the bees that visits your flowers?  We certainly have.  Lots of new happenings here at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  Lets see if I can catch you up.

A bit of a garden got planted.  Peas planted back in April gave us some delicious snap to our salads.  Lettuces and radish planted didn't sprout even one leaf but we are having some moderate success with tomatoes.  All of the plants here are very short and we've decided it's due to the ever present winds.  Plans are in the works for some hoop houses and we also may put a wood 6 foot fence up to block the wind.  We got some pumpkins planted late so now it is a race against the frost.

The chicken coop My Ever So Handy Husband was building has been moved and will become a garden shed.  Some progress is being made but he has been working on so many other projects this one keeps getting put back on the back burner.  A much larger shed was purchased off of Craig's list and we have plans to make that into the coop.  It will hold many more birds than the original.  One major problem with this project is when the shed was delivered, it got dropped about 3 feet and damage was done.  Side walls needed to be taken down and the framing needed to be repaired.  It too has taken a back burner as of late.

Speaking of chickens we are sadly down to 2 .  Poor Miss Pearl was found dead one afternoon.  Again, no known cause.  The remaining two are happy as can be and I suspect there may have been some fowl play in Pearls demise.

The big project that has taken our time and attention has been planting 250+ seedling trees in shelter belts around the Cottage.  Between site preparation, planting, drip irrigation and such, we have been busy as Johnny Appleseed.   In probably more years than we have left, the Cottage should be protected by Ponderosa Pines and Junipers in the winter and Ash trees will provide shade in the summer.

Friends of ours have bought a vacant parcel in our neighborhood and are in the process of building.  Since they had no place to live we offered to let them set their bus turned RV up at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  It's really nice on the inside, she even has an old claw footed tub in there.  They have been great helping out around the cottage.  She owns a tractor and was kind enough to prepare the shelter belt site for us.  Yes, that is her on the tractor.  She is a dear person and a fellow sister in Christ.  We've really enjoyed having them this summer.  They have a Rat Terrier who has become Little Black Brindle's best friend.  They also have 3 cats, one who is very old and has taken a liking to Tabby and being in the house rather than the RV.

 



Another project that has consumed much of our time has been painting our old house in Colorado.  We are down in Colorado often enough that we never sold the house or rented it out and we needed to paint the exterior.  There was some damage to the siding on the kitchen bump out so we tore off the old siding and replaced it.  Next up is to get the roof replaced.  Colorado is known for hail and the former Cottage suffered some damage last year.

Goodness!  That is more than enough business for this gal.  I plan on taking things a bit more relaxed for what is left of the summer.  I hope you find your days with plenty of time built in to enjoy the summer sunshine and gentle cooling breezes.

Thanks for taking a break with us at Prairie Cairn Cottage today.  Come back again and we'll drink some Lavender Lemonade and watch the breezes blow the grasses out on the prairie. 

Audrey

A Resident of Prairie Cairn Cottage is Famous

Happy June to you all.  Little Black Brindle has some very exciting news to share with everyone!  He is on youtube in a video made by his rescue group, Colonel Potter Cairn Rescue.  Watch it and see him 14 seconds into the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ZyVj2ehu4&feature=youtu.be

Make sure to look for this picture

His foster Mom took this picture the day she put him on the plane so he could come live at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  He knew he was on his way to his forever home and couldn't wait!  It was a sad day for his foster Mom but a very happy day for me!  A day that changed my life for the better. 

Colonel Potter is also doing a fund raiser auction.  I just got this email today:

Col. Potter is proud to present the first annual Father's Day Festival.

We are happy to be able to show all our little boy dogs who spent so much time in unsavory conditions, that we love them. So we are taking this opportunity to honor our own volunteer father's and raise some much needed money for Cairn Rescue at the same time.

The Auction will end Sunday June 9, 2013 starting at 5PM EST. You can see all the wonderful items at:

http://stores.ebay.com/Col-Potters-Eclectic-Corner/Fathers-Day-/_i.html?_fsub=4613921011&_sid=240343341&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

Please feel free to cross post far and wide. Please send this to anyone who has a dog or who ever had a father!!

Colonel Potter is the best!  Thanks coming to see the happenings at Prairie Cairn Cottage today!

Audrey

a Little Taste of Summer

I am sitting here at the Cottage waiting for a Peach Pie to bake.  The smell is divine!  The peaches came from a farm stand last fall and if I remember, they were some Palisade Peaches, a much prized Colorado delicacy.  We are having a potluck at church tonight  and this is the dish I'll bring so I'll have to wait to get a taste.  Pure torture!

To help pass the seemingly endless winter on the Prairie I have pulled out my trusty Elna sewing machine and have been working of various projects.  I had friends over a few weeks ago and we made pillow cases.  If you haven't made any you should, they were super easy and fun.  I made these for my Ever So Handy Husband and he was thrilled!  I'm making another set soon just for me. 

The sunsets and sunrises still thrill me no end out here on the Prairie.  This sunset was taken just the other day and the following morning the sunrise was just as spectacular!

 

On Monday, we celebrated Little Black Brindles' one year anniversary of coming to live at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  He may be the "rescue" dog but he truly came to rescue me.  I look back at how despondent I was over losing our little Wheaten Cairn and I realize how much my new little Cairn has helped me these past 365 days.  Good Boy!  Smart Boy!  Brave Boy!

Tabby has taken to sleeping in the sun coming in the patio doors in the Morning Room.  I swear he is 6 feet long when he stretches out.  You KNOW a cat is relaxed when he exposes his belly while sleeping.  He makes me laugh when he sleeps this way!

And lest you think the chicks have flown the coop, here is a recent shot of them practicing being free range birds.  My Ever So Handy Husband has not been able to finish the coop he started late last fall, which is just as well since we decided it was way too small anyway.  So the poor dear birds are still in their temporary, just for the summer coop!  I've been a bit worried about them and have done a lot of internet searching about winter care.  One person wrote in and asked if she needed to put in some supplemental heat in her coop and two people from Alaska both wrote her back and said they don't have any type of heat in their coop and they get very, very cold there.  That made me feel a bit better but when I went out to open their coop for the day and the thermometer said it was minus 15 degrees I was a bit apprehensive until they strolled out as if it were a nice day in July!  It was just as the Alaska chicken keepers said, they don't need extra heat as long as they get acclimated to the cold, remember they are wearing down coats!

 

Such are the mid winter days at Prairie Cairn Cottage.  A little sewing, a little baking, a lot of warming ourselves in the sun coming in the cottage windows.  Thank you for visiting with us today and come back soon!

 

Audrey

 

 

  

Now that I have a better understanding of how this new computer works and finding the program I needed for my camera, I can finally share a few pictures from our Christmas.

 

 

What do you do when it's Christmas time and you have two new critters in the household?  Make stockings for them of course!  I took a tracing on freezer paper from another stocking that we had and got the basic shape I was looking for.  For Little Black Brindle's stocking I found the cutest terrier fabric and lined it with a basic red.  Having never sewn a stocking before, let alone a lined anything, I was very pleased with the way both stockings came out.  Tabby's stocking was a cute collage of different breeds of cat.  Both stockings served their purpose very well and if I get ambitious I may embroider their names on the cuff (probably not!).  If you're wondering, the chicks didn't get stockings.  Before you get upset, they did get Christmas presents of dried meal worms and a suet block, just no stockings. 

 

As you can see from the top picture of Little Black Brindle we had let him get a tad unkempt.  He was shouting, "Don't take my picture!  My hair looks awful!" So New Year's weekend we gave him a grooming session, mainly around his face, tail and skirt.  After his date at the spa and he was dried off; we were relaxing in front of the TV when he drags my camera off the sofa and hands it to My Ever So Handy Husband.  MESHH picked the camera up and Little Black Brindle stood in front of him and posed for this picture (I kid you not!).  He said to tell you he feels much better about his looks now that he's back to looking like a proper Cairn.  He also wanted everyone to see his favorite Christmas present.

 

Tabby wanted to let everyone know he spends his days in a nice warm bed positioned just right to catch the warm rays from the winter sun.  Santa Cat brought him some Christmas toys but his favorite present was an even nicer bed than the one in this picture.  No longer having to hunt for his dinner he is becoming one very spoiled cat but he has taken on the jobs of keeping mice out of Prairie Cairn Cottage (and is doing an outstanding job of that) and keeping Little Black Brindle in line.

 

Life at Prairie Cairn Cottage has taken on a soft, relaxing pace.  We are spending our days inside out of the bitter Wyoming winds and taking in the beautiful landscape that God has placed all around us.   We hope you are also finding peace, warmth and beauty in your surroundings.

 

Audrey

 

 

Giving Thanks

Little Black Brindle and I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.  Even during these troubled time there is much to be thankful for.  Some of the blessings my Ever So Handy Husband and I are thankful for are:

On November 19th, Little Black Brindle celebrated his one year anniversary of freedom from his life in a puppy mill.  We are very thankful that God sent us this little bundle of love and are looking forward to his first Thanksgiving with a family that loves him dearly. 

We've also been blessed with 4 hard working and entertaining chicks.  They have been a huge source of pleasure since their arrival.  Watching them grow and learning about chick behavior, eating their delicious fresh eggs and marveling at their adaptability to cold weather have been highlights of their life here at Prairie Cairn Cottage.

We are thankful to have found Tabby this summer and to have this added life at the Cottage.  Tabby and Little Black Brindle are best buddies now.  They play together and take turns chasing each other all around the Cottage.

And of course we are thankful for Prairie Cairn Cottage itself.  We still marvel that we are here in this wonderful place.  The views and sunrises and sunsets are unimaginably beautiful.  The cottage has kept us safe and sheltered and the living on the prairie has made us learn and grow. 

So from all of us here at Prairie Cairn Cottage, we wish you and yours a most blessed Thanksgiving.

Audrey