Knittin' with the Ts: good weekend

The weather's been beautiful this weekend, and I spent some good time with the Ts. They got out for 2 hours in the puppy pen yesterday, and Timber came with me to the farmer's market, where he got petted by two little kids and where we found a guy who sells (among other meat products) chicken necks and backs. I'm too much of a wimp to give them raw chicken wings and thighs, but chicken necks and backs have those little tiny bones. Or--wait--backs have had the ribs cut, haven't they? I wonder if he has turkey necks? He says he also sells "dog meat" which sounds like it might be mostly organs. I wonder if he'd include the green tripe? Or if his cattle are cornfed--maybe I don't want tripe from cornfed cows? The things I don't know... I think he enjoyed himself.

At any rate,it was also cool enough yesterday that they could come with while I ran errands, and they always enjoy that. I always come out to find Timber sitting in the driver's seat, and some guy will always make a crack about him driving, so I've had to come up with a come-back: "Yeah, he wants to drive, but I keep telling him he has to wait until he's 16."

Today I got to use the pin-brush on Timber for about ten minutes before I got out of bed, and got a double-handful of undercoat, and got Taenzer completely combed out, tail and britches and all, and they got to go out and run 3 times. Or, rather, Taenzer ran--Timber mostly laid in the grass and chewed on his jolly ball, but he did jump up and run along the fence whenever someone walked or biked past. No barking, just sort of escorting them along the property line.

And I was so proud of them--someone had their bitty Yorkie out in the grass beside the laundromat, and of course both Ts started barking. But I called them one at a time, and they each crossed the pen to come to me. I told each one how good they were and hugged them, then let them go, and they each ran back to watch the Yorkie, but no more barking. I was pleased that they stopped barking, but more pleased that they broke off and came when I called them.

I piddled around and didn't get their dog food ordered in time, and we ran out tonight. But I've got oatmeal, eggs, and cottage cheese in the house, and I can pick up a couple of pounds of burger and maybe a couple of cans of green beans, and they'll be fine until the food arrives. Supposed to come Wednesday.

I've spent most of the day working on a little hat to go with the little booties. I always grossly underestimate how long it's going to take me to make something. I thought I could whip this off in a day, but noooooooo--maybe I'll finish it tomorrow night.

You may remember the pictures I posted of the sweet autumn clematis scrambling up the blue spruce--June, maybe. It's been enthusiastic this year, and now it's blooming just as enthusiastically. I wish I could smell it; I hope some of the people who walk by can.

You have to look close in this picture--it's the dark side of the tree, so the bloom isn't as heavy. Most of what looks like little gleams of sunlight here are really tiny clematis blooms. And of course you can see the blue spruce boughs poking out through the swathes of green clematis vine.