Retired Mountain Lady

 I started a post last weekend and never finished it.  We dodged a bullet that weekend on the snow and the cold, but we're not so lucky this weekend.  I guess if you're an enthusiastic skier or snowboarder, you are a happy person today.  All this snow certainly is great for Schweitzer Mountain.  We have a good eight inches of  light, fuffy snow.  The low this morning was 14.  

We woke up to sunshine and blue skies.  During the night it was so bright outside that I thought I'd left a light on somewhere.  I'm now waiting for the warmest temperature of the day to go out there to run the snowblower. 

Willie Report:

Since last weekend Willie spent a lot of time running around in the snow. He did start barking and trying to herd the snowblower (and me) a couple of times.  I am working on stopping that behavior but don't know how succesful I'll be.  I've discussed the problem with our trainer on Wed.  A herding ball may be a Christmas gift for Willie.  Or, maybe it's for me.  

One of my puppy training assignments last week was for Willie to have at least two encounters with other people so that we can work on his over-exuberence whenever he sees someone new.  So far I am receiving a failing grade.   

The plan is that with his leash on, I toss several yummy treats on the at his feet so that he doesn't jump up onto the person I am greeting.  In our first go-around he didn't have his leash on and I only had a few treats in my pocket.  So I threw the treats at his feet (that worked) but only for a second.  Once the treats were eaten it was "jump up" time.  

The next encounter was when the UPS driver came to the house.  It was on Saturday while I was running the snowblower.  UPS doesn't normally deliver anything here on Saturdays and I didn't even know he was here until I finished and went inside the house.  Jon said Willie jumped up on the driver, he gave him a treat, and Willie ran back inside the house, layed down and ate his treat.  We were 0 and 2 last week.  

The nice thing about our UPS and Fed Ex people is that they both give dog treats.  Maggie loved getting them which gives me hope that Willie is going to get settled down and greet them politely.  Also without chasing the vehicles down the driveway.  Willie is excited about any kind of motion so I think we're going to have to introduce things very slowly with this pup. 

Willie does have some successes.  He knows to sit when he comes into the house.  He also knows "lie down" and will "stay" while I backup almost six feet.  

I almost forgot about the puzzle I made for him using the cardboard tube from Christmas wrap.  

I used to give the tubes to each of my grandchildren to play with when they were still babies.  They could easily grab onto the tube.  

Grandson Collin, who is now 23

Grandson Ben is now 12 years old.  

Willie's was cut in half and filled with some kibble.  He loved packing it around and I refilled it a couple of times before it was totally destroyed.  I have more cardboard tubes though.  Anything to keep that busy little puppy mind engaged.

Last week both Jon and I needed to get our flu shots which meant we needed to leave him for several hours.  I didn't want to put him in his crate for that long so we puppy-proofed the bathroom.  He was fine and hadn't destroyed anything when we got back home.  That said, we can't clear out the bathroom every time we need to leave him.   More crate training is on the agenda. 

Wow!  This is a long Willie report!  

Moving on to other things.

My calendars that I create using Shutterfly have arrived and I've mailed them off to the family along with the gifts from our name-drawing.  I think I've been making the calendars for more more than fifteen years.  They're nice for me because all of the family birthdays are listed.  Anything to assist my memory is appreciated.  

I've also made a couple of Christmas wreathes and a swag.  I have one more to create today.  Willie and I were out yesterday gathering a few more fresh boughs.   

This one is for my horse-loving friend, Julie.  She hangs it in her barn every year.  I didn't notice that I forgot to turn on the lights on the wreathe before I took this photo.  A new feature this year is that the lights on the wreathes have timers so the batteries last longer.  

This one is for my front porch. 

Yesterday while I was waiting in line at the pharmacy I ran into an old friend and co-worker, Kris Scollon.  I'm not sure how long it's been since we had seen each other, but at least two years.  Maybe three.  I learned that all of her family is well and I got caught up on the news about her kids, Wendy, Matt and Scott.  Jack Dyck was in the line too and it was so nice to see familiar faces.  

My Christmas to-do list always includes baking cookies.  I am trying out my new 1-1 gluten-free flour blend for my favorite recipes.  Two out of three recipes turned out really good and I can report that there is only one Snowball Cookie left.  

Since there's only one cookie left... it's coffee time.

Here's a little Christmas music for my horse-loving friends.  It's a fun one to sing too.