Dec 18 - our big girl

Cassie was over 20 pounds at the last weigh-in at the vet before we left for the cottage and probably heavier now.  She's having a blast here in the Great White North and, with the 1" of snow that we received yesterday, it is white.  That won't last long, however, as our one day of cold will graduate to warm and rain shortly.

This morning she had her first day of a larger breakfast.  She was getting one heaping cup for breakfast and a level half-cup for dinner; now it's a level full and half cup for breakfast and a level half for dinner, i.e. two cups per day.  Eating her breakfast this morning she actually paused and looked at me.  She doesn't chew her food so all those dry chunks are now in her belly !

We (Cassie and I) had a busy day yesterday.  First we removed the tree from Jason's roof.  I figured that the best way of doing that wasn't doing any cutting, it was actually using a piece of wood and lifting right where it was sitting on the corner at the gutters.  It then slid off and down the stair railings without doing any damage.  That only took a minute; easy job !  I wish all jobs were that easy.

Our tree, as it turns out, was removed by Ernie Bain, kind soul.  Well, it wasn't exactly removed, just the center portion across the driveway cut.  I can deal with the rest in the Spring.  It's a pine, so it's not good for firewood unless Gavin wants it for his outdoor fire.   

Cassie and I went for a walk to the end of the road and saw that a tree had fallen and cut, perhaps that was Ernie too; don't know.  That was just across from what was Matthews.

Cassie had a great time with that bit of snow coming down.  She was jumping to catch the flakes, racing around, making full use of that long deck that we have out front as I threw the ball and she fetched.  Balls, sticks; she'll fetch anything thrown.

I installed the "Leak Defender" in the utility room.  It goes in between the wall switch for the water pump and the pressure switch.  A magnetically operated relay keeps the power on as long as the sensor pucks are dry.  One of those pucks is now right below it in the utility room; I have to run the wire to my workroom to drop the other puck on the floor below where the water line comes in.  That wiring is like a telephone wire, an easy run, but I still have to remove suspended ceiling tiles to make the run.

Sandy made bread, something that she only does here at the cottage because we don't have a ready supply of good bread.  I make bread everywhere -- even though I haven't been having sandwiches, I do have a slice of toast with my seedy bread as part of my breakfast; the other part is two poached eggs.

We heard from Sara that they'll be arriving here either the 26th or 27th.  Jeffrey is off work until the New Year at this point but I'm sure that he'll have a few phone calls in the meantime, been there, done that !

I went into Loring yesterday and picked up the mail, which was quite a big bundle.  Sandy heads to Sudbury today to do some more grocery shopping; notable picking up some fish. I won't be doing any ice fishing this year!  Without the ice, the pike won't be cruising by out front in the shallows. Although it's tempting to put the Whaler in the water, I won't.  Had it been in the boathouse, I would have, but this Fall I opted to store it in the barn and the Bayliner in the boathouse. 

Don't you just love auto-correct ?  Actually typing on Firefox I don't get auto-correct but miss-spellings are flagged.  When I right-click on the word there are usually suggestions.  For Bayliner the suggestion was Pantyliner.  Had I been typing this on my iPhone, auto-correct would have kicked in and I have to be diligent to ensure that the right words end up in the text !

That's it for now ... onward !