Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[viejo loco]

Sam,
I'm sorry to hear about your dog. I recently went through the same thing with my favorite cat. She was never in pain, just sort of quit. I finally had to have her put to sleep. I hope you will remember Daisy with love when she is finally gone. That's the best tribute you can give. I know none of this helps, but it is all part of God's plan... Will

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Sam so sorry to hear that Daisy is not doing well. Never easy to watch our animal companions we have for so many years fade away. Being thankful for the opportunity to have them in our lives for a short time is the best that we can do. I hope that if it is Daisy's time it is peaceful and painless. Thoughts and prayers with you and your family.

 

[Opa]

About 17 years ago my youngest son Scott had come home for the summer. He brought his dog Simba with him. Most evenings he would be out with his friends and Simba would sit next to me. I got so used to the dog being there that when they left I really felt the absence. I hadn't owned a dog in close to fifteen years and decided that it was time to remedy that.

I mentioned to Hope that I was thinking about getting a dog and she proceeds to inform me that if I do she is gone. I checked several breeders and made arrangements to go check out the puppies that one breeder, about 2 hours away had. Early one Saturday morning I asked Hope what she had planned for the day. After listening to her agenda, I turned and said to her sons, "since your Mother is going to be busy all day, do you want to go with me to pick out a puppy"?

Suiddenly Hope's schedule was cleared and she was going with us. As we're driving she remarks "I don't know why we are wasting time going to look since we are not getting a dog". My only comment, "yeah right". A few minutes later she informs us that if we are able to find a white Jack Russell puppy with one brown ear and brown completely encircling the eye on the opposite side of its head we could get one.

The breeder had close to 20 puppies from 3 different litters ranging in age from 6 to 12 weeks. Each was cuter than the next but one puppy attached herself to me and followed me everywhere. Imagine Hope's surprise when she picks the puppy up and looks at a short haired Jack with one brown ear and brown encircling the opposing eye.

I wanted to name the dog Kitty but Hope felt Daisy was a much better name. However, can you imagine the look people would have when after hearing you call "Here Kitty, Kitty" and a dog shows up? Daisy weighed about one pound and all winter accompanied me everywhere riding in my coat pocket. Ultimately at an adult weight of 17 pounds she became much too large for a pocket dog but still accompanied me everywhere I went.

She had spent most of today lie on the floor near where ever I happened to be, yet when I left a little while ago much to my surprise she had came down the stairs and was waiting next to the truck. After returning home she share a stuff pepper with me, her first food in over two days. Now she is lying on the floor sleeping again. It's hard watching her fade, yet she has been a wonderful companion and I'll wait beside her.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Sam, wondering about Daisy today..any better??

 

[Opa]

Daisy still is lethargic but Hope did get her to eat a little tuna fish a little while ago. Poor dog has turned down ice cream three nights in a row. Normally she would be sitting at my feet as I scooped it. She could be sound asleep and if I opened the freezer to get ice she would continue to sleep. However, I wouldn't even have the ice cream carton open and she would be sitting at my feet.

 

[chickflick]

So sorry to hear about your dear friend, Daisy, Sam. It's so hard to let go.

 

[Opa]

It's that time of night just before the sun completely surrenders to the night and the western sky is a pallet of of orange, red, and pink. A constellation of fireflies twinkles n the grass and a chorus of frogs and crickets sing to me as I to check the birds. While the sunrise heralds my favorite time of day, there is something comforting about the night. A quiet sense of reflection slowly envelopes you as you think about the ending day. Today was a quiet easy day and yet one of fullfillment.

One of my brothers came and took Granny out for lunch. He wanted me to accompany them but I felt that Granny might better enjoy being the sole center of his attention. I stayed and worked on repairing a piano stool that I had gotten for Morgan. The stool was given to me by a very dear friend and is absolutely beautiful. A revolving stool with four legs that are eagles talons grasping glass balls. When I first got it the screw was frozen to the mandrel and it would spin in the center post. As such it was wobbly and the height was unadjustable. I took it apart, freed the screw, epoxied the mandrel into the center post, and cleaned and polished everything.

I carefully packaged it and sent it to Morgan. It arrived with box crushed but it appeared that the stool was unharmed. Morgan was thrilled. My daughter in law showed her how to adjust the height, and Morgan sat at the piano and began to play. After a few minutes she just had to try spinning on her new seat. After several revolutions in both directions she was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor. Due to the careless handling in shipping the cast iron flange that held the screw to the top had been broken.

Joe unsuccessfully took the screw and flange to several welders hoping to get it repaired. The only recourse was to replace the screw. After much searching they located a replacement screw and mandrel but of course the new screw was large than the only one and wouldn't thread into the old mandrel. It would have to come out. After numerous attempts and several phone calls it told her this will have to wait for Opa.

I first thought that I would have to use a one inch drill bit and attempt to drill out the mandrel, but decided the best method would be to grind the flared top from the mandrel and then drill many small holes through the epoxy. After much grinding I realized the mandrel had moved. The heat from grinding had loosened the epoxy and with minimal prying the mandrel pop right out. Less that twenty minutes later the new screw and mandrel was centered and leveled in a new bed of epoxy. A task that I had been dreading to undertake turned out to be a piece of cake.

I called Morgan a little while ago to tell her that it was fixed. It has been quite some time since I have had the opportunity to talk with her. Our conversation made me aware of just how much I am missing by their living so far from me . My little girl has disappeared and tonight I was talking with a young woman.

 

[chickencrazymamahen]

Evening folks, Opa loved the story of the piano stool; when I was a little girl I had one for my old upright piano...absolutely loved it! I am sure that Morgan will delight with it for a long time especially with all the care and love that you put into it for her it will always have a special place in her heart.

Quiet day here today, hot again, but a little better than yesterday. Had to put up tomatoes yesterday and squeeze out some sauce for spaghetti sauce since the tomatoes have decided to finally start growing and ripening; however, now they are bursting with alarming speed! We cut up and froze about 4 bags of peach slices and kept a few to eat; then fed several bushels to the chickens and left many more on the ground for the critters. The brown rot was so bad this year I had to hide the chainsaw to keep hubby from whacking them all down. Hopefully next year will be better. We have sworn off spraying our fruit trees anymore and it has been hard to watch so much fruit go bad.

We have finally figured out that we need to cut way back on our garden, orchard, chickens and things we do around here, we just can't seem to keep up and feel worn out a lot. So we have vowed to do more fishing and visiting with family and spending some important time watching the grass grow from the front deck. Almost a relief to finally make that decision. I'm hoping to get some more time for sewing in that mix also; would like to make hubby some new shirts for his birthday, but haven't been able to squeeze in the time to get going on that.

Hoping all is well with all of you and that you have had a wonderfully blessed, peaceful Sunday!

See you for coffee soon!

 

[incubatingisfun]

i bet your chickens were happy.thats good that you will be fishing more thats all i do.i hope your fruit trees get better next year.i just got done tying flies for fishing and i got a mohawk last night.all my quail died.one chicken was missing when i got home luckly he was just hiding behind a piece of wood by the coop

 

[Opa]

We finally got a break in the weather. It was raining this morning and a small cold front supposedly accompanied it and by noon the sun was out. All I know for sure is that the rest of the day was much cooler than its been and the humidity has dropped as well. The high today was only 81 and with the reduced humidity it was quite pleasant.

Daisy actually has been much better today. She finally ate. She refused dog food but she didn't seem to have any trouble sharing my lasagna. She still slept most of the day, but it was in a more normal position rather than lie on her side. The most heartening thing was when I ask if she wanted to go for a ride. She immediately jumped up, ran to the door and started barking for me to let her out. She then ran down the stairs to the truck where she turned in circles barking until I opened the door and she jump in. After four days of lethargy I was amazed. With her advanced age I know the time remaining is short but maybe it won't be for some time yet.