& now, a groundhog story, on Groundhog Day even:

this story inspired by bowlofcheese on twitter, who was calling for groundhog recipes for groundhog day.
Let me tell you, friends, how NOT to eat a groundhog:

Many years ago, my Mom had a fantastic dog. His name was Luther, he was a husky shepherd mix with one blue eye and an amazing, social, amiable just all around fantastic dog.
There are many stories about Luther & the lives that he touched. Luther had many great qualities, but at least one not so great one.
Luther was the DeathofGroundhogs. Not in a Terry Pratchett, wearing a cowl, carrying a scythe, talking LIKE THIS sense of the term (though that might be his current job in the afterlife. And he'd be great at it). No, i mean, if Luther ever, ever got the chance, he would kill groundhogs. With malice aforethought. This was a surprising trait, because he was an otherwise peaceful, sweet, loving being. But not when it came to groundhogs.
So, it's like this: My Mom & her partner, Lee, are fitness buffs. They hike and jog & go to the gym. Their idea of a vacation is a three week slog on the AT. (that gene definitely skipped a generation in me- i'm much more of the "whenever i get the urge to exercise, i lie down till it passes" type).
Luther was a great trail and running dog. Except for that groundhog issue.
So, one fine, sunny spring day, Lee went out for a cross country run with Luther. Later that day, they came over to our house to drop Luther off for the weekend (i think they were going out of town for a mini, not dog friendly vacation). As they're leaving, Lee calls over her shoulder "Umm, you might want to watch Luther tonight. He killed and ATE a groundhog this morning."
We're like, "yah, ok, whatever. He's eaten groundhogs before, hasn't he? Go have fun kids, the dog will be fine."
(pause to add in parenthesis that this was back in the day when i was with my first husband, Keith. A fine man, but a Canadian, and Keith was prudish in that deeply white way that many Canadians have perfected. Fart jokes= NOT his idea of funny)
A few hours later, we're sitting about happily, maybe watching a movie or reading books. Luther & our two dogs laying about the living room with us. All is quiet. Perhaps too quiet. Then it starts.
Farts.
Not just any farts.
My eyes are watering at the memory of these farts and it's been 15 years at least.
I've been around freshly skunked dogs that have not smelled this foul.
Lethal, room clearing, eye watering farts.
Farts so bad that the other two dogs sat up, looked at each other in disgust and left the room.
As Keith and i are looking at each other in horror, we finally realize that the source of these foul odors is Luther, the sweet dog who is peacefully sleeping it off on the floor at our feet.
And it suddenly dawns on us:
these terrible emanations are GROUNDHOG FARTS!
And as we're shoving a confused, sleepy & cranky Luther out the door into the back yard, opening windows & looking for stinky candles (this is pre Febreze) Keith looks at me and says "I promise you that I will never, ever, ever eat a groundhog.

The end of my little cautionary tale.
If there is a moral to this story kids, it is this: Stay away from groundhog meat. Or if you must, COOK the damn thing before ingesting it. Cause if you can't resist groundhog sushi, I can promise you this: not even your dog will love you afterwards.

just a quick shout out before bed. I finally got all three dogs clean. And the bathroom also got cleaned. I took some pictures & put them online... here
I'm trying out Flickr, after getting mocked for using Kodakgallery by folks whose opinions, for unfathomable reasons, matter to me.
Flickr is eh, OK, but i'm NOT psyched by their price structure: they want $25 a year for something that i was getting for free from Kodak.
So, can any of you mockers out there come up with a cheaper (i'd prefer free) alternative for a barely able to make her PC run iTunes & Firefox Luddite?!? I'd sure appreciate any advice yah got!

In the meantime, it's bedtime for me & the rest of the pack! Goodnight all.

bath day @ Hearth Hill

Yesterday, two members of the pack came home from their stay at Canine Camp very, very offensively smelly. (& Bran will back me up on this; if _I_ complain about the way a dog smells it's very stinky indeed)
Thus, since it has the added benefit of keeping me out of the studio for at least half of the day, today has been declared bath day.
Apologies to Bran in advance for the havoc this will visit upon "her" bathroom. I'll try to restore it to it's current pristine state afterwards.
And i'll try to take & post some before & after pictures... in the meantime, here's a very appropriate Cheezeburger cat for your edification & amusement:


moar funny pictures

my current addiction: i can haz cheezeburger this one seems very appropriate for the current state of my blog- kitteh deactivated


moar funny pictures

ok, so the last post was more or less a recap of the post before it.
And that was, what, 4 months ago now?!
Sigh.
Pathetic, i know.
And, due to my laptop's untimely demise in Florida last month, there are no pictures for this post...

So this is just a quick review of the past few months here in Pigville:
I'm still alive, more or less healthy.
Still married, still living in WVa. We still have Bran/Jillian living here too. We're still not done building out the apartment above the studio for her. We're still broke. We're still making pots & leather & are still really disorganized about paperwork.
D & i are still fat. We still have 2 dogs. One cat seems to have gone missing though. That's sad.
We're telling ourselves that she just moved over to the new neighbors, but we haven't verified that, cause we're afraid it won't be true.
I have a few new tattoos, but no pics, cause of laptop death.
We bought a 16' travel trailer in October & took it down to Florida in November, where we attempted to sell pots & leather. Didn't do very well sales wise, but had a great vacation & got to know some good folks better- that was great!
The trailer is tiny as these things go (a 92 Sunline i think) and very sweet. It was owned by a boat builder before we got it & he put in all sorts of cool storage bins & other boat like modifications. It's our WVa version of a little houseboat/sailing sloop. We've named her the Eddie T. after Blackbeard aka Edward Teach.
The other big news is that i've got dreadlocks! Yep, Darrell cut his off & i missed them so much that i had to get them for myself. Sorry, again with the no pictures. Will try to remedy that soon. The dreads look pretty good, if i do say so myself. They fit well into my master plan of not aging gracefully. And i'm sure i'll rock at the Fairie Festivals this spring. I've already exponentially increased the strange looks i get in the local Walmart & i count that as a "GoodThing"
On the Darrell front, he's happily preoccupied with building up his leather business (which saved our butt saleswise in FL this past trip) and brain tanning & hanging out with his Native American pals. He shaved off his dreadlocks when he did his affirmation ceremony/ sweat lodge this past September. He's now a card carrying Indian, a member of the Munsee Delaware Indian Nation based in central Ohio. I went with him to the ceremony & was very glad to have gone. The whole hanging with the Indians has made him pretty happy & much more spiritual & grounded than i've seen him in a long time. This, also, is a "GoodThing" in my book.

Not much else to report, at least for now. I'm gonna sign off for the time being with the usual promise of more frequent (& picture filled) posts to follow.
Remember though, if you want to contact us in any sort of a timely fashion, phone is the only way to go: 304-377-1952
Missing all my online pals!
I gotta go make pots so Mamma can get a new laptop! (and thus, stop having to invade Jillie's private sanctuary to get online)
Love & cyber hugs & kisses & seasonal wishes of good cheer.
Blessings too.
Va/amber