Tough times and cute Santa/dog pictures

On By stefrobrtsIn photography1 Comment

I had another job interview last week, only the fourth one I’ve managed to score this year, and the answer was a no. So close. We continue to plug along. At least the toy business is starting to pick up for Christmas, so that makes things better for a bit. Still, we’ve had real estate agents out to appraise the house and talk about selling the little farm, and we’ve put in for a modification – if we can hold out long enough to get it.

To cheer myself up I did a photo session at Everyday Dog for Christmas. What could be more fun than photographing dogs on Santa’s lap? Most of these folks were our friends from training class anyway, and it’s always fun to photograph friend’s dogs, since we know them so well.

This is the ‘Everyday Dog’ family – Blaze, Figgy, Kiwi, and Chunky

And my favorite of all the pictures was Santa trying to hang onto the wiggliest puppy I’ve ever seen!

What a great day! All proceeds went to benefit PUFA, People United For Animals, which offers low-cost spay & neuters.

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Under my desk…

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, navi2 Comments

Navi & Barclay are snuggled up together, keeping my feet warm.

Last week we sent Jack off to his new/old home. I contacted his previous owners, the ones who’d given him to us two years ago. They had said they wanted to know if we ever needed to rehome him, so I dug around and found their email and contacted them. They were delighted, because they had just moved into a home with a fenced backyard, and their daughter had been wanting a dog, and missing Jack ever since they gave him away! So I was happy to hand him back over to them. They seem like super nice people, and Jack was in their family first to begin with. That seems like a happy ending. Life is much more peaceful around here with only two dogs to care for, and I can give these two more attention. I think everyone is happy.

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Canned Chicken Soup

On By stefrobrtsIn food2 Comments

Yesterday we went grocery shopping and got a good deal on a half dozen bone-in chicken breasts. I brought them home and de-boned them, and froze most of them, and then I roasted the bones with some onions. When those were good and browned, I put them in a stock pot with carrots, garlic and some dried herbs. I let them simmer until after dinner, about 6 hours later. Then I cooled it off and popped it in the fridge over night.

This morning I skimmed off the fat and heated the stock back up, and added diced carrots, onions, garlic, corn, and more herbs, until it tasted good. I also added two chicken breasts, cut up into small cubes. Once that was all cooked through I hot-packed it into quart jars and pressure canned it using instructions from the University of Georgia So Easy To Preserve book. UG is the nations testing kitchen for safe home-preservation recipes, so I know that’s a good book to work from.

This was my first attempt at pressure canning soup. I decided to try it because a few weeks I made some soup that came out fantastic, and I froze it and enjoyed it for several lunches, so I thought canning some homemade soup would be just as nice. I canned 7 quarts, and one didn’t turn out, the lid didn’t seal for some reason. The rest all turned out ok, so I have 6 quarts for the cupboard, and one in the fridge. I can’t wait to try them out and see how they taste after being canned for a while.

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The Silk Tree

On By stefrobrtsIn dave4 Comments
The front of our house is dominated by a Silk Tree (Mimosa) planted in the front courtyard

When we planted it many years ago, it was a sad little twiggy thing that needed to be protected in the winter.

Over the years it grew big and strong, and entertained us with it’s beautiful pink and white flowers, and it’s funny little leaves that close up at night. We’re pretty fond of the tree.

Over the years it has also insisted on leaning TOWARDS the house, which is odd, because that means it’s leaning AWAY from the sun, and I would expect it to do just the opposite. But it has been growing up over our sunporch walkway, shading it and causing moss to grow there, dropping leaves on the roof, and leaning on the gutters. We hate to intervene, but it was time.

So Dave bravely climbed up on the roof
He cut back the branches with a sawzall, until nothing was hanging over the roof, and then he cleaned up all the moss, scrubbing and brushing until the roof as as clean as he could get it by hand.
Then he cleverly used a ladder to scale the steep garage roof so he could reach over the top and fix a vent that had blown off earlier this summer. 
When he was done, the front deck was covered in a HUGE pile of silk tree branches,
And our pretty silk tree really looks none the worse for it’s ‘trim’. 
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Learning to use Photoshop – and Fetching Photos

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Original

After a couple hours in Photoshop, the fences are gone, the electric wires overhead are gone, and the horses are a darker sillhouette against the sunset. Not bad for a first try! I can see why this Photoshop thing is so addictive!

Also, notice the watermark, made by my brilliant friends at HappyPupDesign. This is going to be the name of my photo studio. ‘Fetching Photos by Stephanie’. I’m working on setting up the website now.

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