We did it!!!! My wonderful four-legged partners and I completed the UnderArmour You vs 2020 Challenge 6 months early. 1020km in 182 days. Since I need goals to keep me focused I am going to try and complete 2020km by December 31st , that would average out to 5.5km/day š¤š¤š¤
Filed under Fitness, You VS 2020
We spent this morning at See Spot Run having some fun sniffing. The dogs both did great passing 7 of 7 runs. Spirit earned her Level 1 Scent Ranger title (CW-ScR1) and her scent Detective Ace title (CW-SDA) and Brodie also earned his Level 1 Scent Ranger title.
Big thanks to Anneli, the Judges and volunteers.
My boy sound asleep with a rubber chicken still in his mouth š¤£š¤Ŗā¤ļøš¶
Iām so excited. It looks like I gave my first strawberry growing in my tower and a bunch of flowers. Fingers crossed š¤
Filed under Tower Garden
We did our first ever blind track today and Ā I am still flying high hours later. It was 283M and had 2 articles. It felt so weird not knowing where the track went and trying to trust and read Spiritās body language. There was a cross wind that confused her in a couple of places but she was able to work out the puzzle. So darn proud of her ā¤ļøš¶ā¤ļø.
I finally got the last of my big planters planted. Now Mother Nature has decided that we are going to have 3 days of rain and high winds. This may be the first and last time that they look pretty so I decided to take a few quick pictures.
I can’t believe I hit the 800 km mark and I moved up into the top 4%. Ā Baring any injuries (knock on wood), I looks like I should have no problem reaching the 1020KM mark by the end of the year.
Filed under Fitness, You VS 2020
We have a beautiful 16 week old Shepherd cross puppy in our neighbourhood. Brodie and Nala play together so nicely I could just watch them all day.
Filed under Brodie
We went to our first nose work trial since March. Ā It was a C-WAGS trial hosted by See Spot Run Doggy Daycare. Ā It was so nice to be around our “dog people” again. Ā It was a small trial and everyone was very careful to practice social distancing. Ā The host had everything setup so that you didn’t have to touch any surface or door and you could get in, search and leave the building without coming into close contact with anyone. Ā Really well organized. Ā We haven’t done any CWAGS practices and only one SDDA in two months so I was very surprised to see how well they just jumped back into the Sport. The dogs Ā qualified in 6 out of 6 searches. Ā Spirit did a Level 1 Ranger, two Level 2 and one Level 3 search. Ā Brodie did a Level 1 Ranger and a Level 3 search. Ā Big thanks to our Judges, volunteers and fellow search teams for a great day.
Look at all the dogs focused on Don’s cheezie with puddles of drool falling from their jowls.
I love throwing goodies for Spirit to catch. Ā She is such a piggy that she overreacts and misses all the time. Ā Brodie on the other hand rarely misses no matter how bad the throw is. Ā This is a great slow motion video of one of Spirit’s epic fails.
Basil the size of my hand. Iām just amazed at what wonderful crops my tower garden has produced in such a short time. It made for some delicious bruschetta for dinner tonight
Filed under Tower Garden
Well this week we took the 272 half square triangles we made last week and added a bunch of 2-1/2 inch squares to build 34 8-1/2 pinwheel blocks to add to our quilt. It now measures 80.5 x 72.5
Filed under QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
This week Bonnie Hunter took pity on us, sort of. When I started reading the instructions, I gasped out load when I read that we had to make 272 half square triangles. The good news is that we arenāt making any blocks with these HSTs until next week.
Filed under QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
I was so shocked today to discover my first tumbler tomato. It has only been 7.5 weeks from seeding. So far I am really pleased with my tower. I guess the real proof will come when I can taste it.
If nothing else, it is amazing for producing all kinds of greens and herbs. We have an abundance of delicious goodies to choose from each day.
I just noticed that Iāve also got a couple of tiny yellow beans. I guess my attempts at acting like a pollinating š have been successful.
Filed under Tower Garden
This weekās instructions were so much quicker to complete. The quilt is now changing from square to more rectangular. I should have worked more slowly because now I have to help sand and paint the deck until the next clue is released on Monday. ššš«
Filed under Finish-A-Long, QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
This very, very bad dog went for a dip in the stinky, dirty pond/run off this morning. He is lucky he came home still alive. After his 3rd bath in less than a week, I couldnāt find his drying suit so he had to wear Spiritās. Do you think he looks appropriately embarrassed?
Filed under Brodie
Bonnie Hunter took pity on this week and gave us a bigger block but we had to make 32 of them. Each block was made up of 8 half square triangles (HST) and one plain square. That meant we had to make 256 HST….yikes! Being the lazy quilter that I am, I chose a technique that allowed me to make 8 at a time.
I had lots of trimming to do to square each one to 2-1/2 inches. It took me 5 days to complete this weekās blocks and attach them.
Filed under QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
I thought last weekās instructions were time consuming (not a bad thing during C-19) but this weekās pieces were even smaller and more tricky to manage. It took me until Saturday morning to complete it. I changed some of the colour placement to bring out more of the soft pink.
Filed under QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
He is lucky that he is loved. I now have a stinky, wet dog and no where I can take him for a bath. He on the other hand is pretty pleased with himself.
Filed under Brodie
3 years ago today I flew to Victoria to pick up a very sweet 8 week old ball of fluff.
Filed under Brodie
Comments Off on Week 1 in the Tower
Filed under Tower Garden
Wow there sure was a lot of cutting and piecing this week. I canāt believe how many hours I worked on the 3 new rows but it certainly kept my mind occupied and my hands busy. Iām so grateful to Bonnie Hunter for all her time and effort creating this Quilt-along to help keep us connected and creative during these crazy times.
Filed under QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
This weekend I added all my home grown seedlings into my Tower Garden. Ā I can’t wait to see how well things grow, Ā I also seeded in dirt some of the same varieties so that I can compare the taste of my Tower grown food with plants grown outside in the garden.
I also experimented with seeding Boston butter lettuce directly into the tower rather than starting them first and adding them to the tower once they have well established roots. Ā I want to compare the germination success to see which method I will use going forward.
Filed under Tower Garden
Iāve completed the first clue from the Unity quilt-a-long. It is the centre medallion for the finished quilt. I canāt believe how many people had the first clue completed within hours of it being released Monday morning. I made mine last a couple of daysā¦.now I just have to wait until Monday for the next clue to be released.
Filed under QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
Bonnie Hunter of Quiltsville.com is generously offering a free mystery sew-in-place quilt-a-long to help unite quilters all around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic and our social isolation. The quilt is called unity and it is made up of 3 colour ways. The author chose red, dark blue and aqua. I am doing mine with pink, black and grey. Every Monday starting March 30th she will release a new clue. You’ve got one week to get the piecing done before the next clue is released. I’ve managed to talk a couple of friends into doing this with me. It helps me feel less isolated as we talk and share pictures of our progress via Messenger. Yesterday I pulled all my fabrics and started cutting pieces and today I started sewing blocks together to make the centre medallion.
Filed under Medallion Quilt, mystery quilt, QAL, Quilt-A-Long, Unity QAL
So proud of my boy. Ā He earned his C-WAGS Scent Detective Ace title. Ā He had to earn 14 Scent Detective titles to get his ACE.
Filed under Brodie, CW-SD, CW-SDA, CWAGS, CWAGS Title, Nosework, Scent Detection
My new toy arrived last Friday. It is an aeroponic tower garden that can be used both indoors or outside. My gym has had a couple of them hanging around for a while and I instantly fell in love. I seeded a bunch of greens, chives, tomatoes and peppers Saturday morning. The first sprouts appeared in less than 48 hours. I canāt wait until they are big enough to be moved to the tower.
Filed under Tower Garden
On Monday I was over the moon excited when I was informed that one of my art quilts had been juried into the National Quilt Show. Ā Just days later and our world has completely changed in a way that no one could have ever dreamed. Like so many events, there may not be a National show this year. We had almost every weekend booked between now and the end of June with dogs stuff. Ā Sadly, almost everything has been outright cancelled and a few have been tentatively rescheduled. Almost every hour I get a new email from some organization talking about the virus and what they are doing. Ā I’m just feeling sad and overwhelmed.
I woke up this morning feeling more like myself and ready to take on this new reality. Ā Even though it was miserably cold I forced myself to go for a work out.
This is what 8km at -24C looks like. Take that Mother Nature and Coronavirus you arenāt going to win šš
