What is the saying “March in as a Lion and it ends as a Lamb”?
I have no energy to Google the question and do I really want to know? So far 12 days into this March makes it a Lion.
We lost Amber today, she was recovering from a surgery and it did not go well. She worked so hard doing everything she was asked to, trying so hard to get better.
Now you understand, I am talking about a Beagle. From my limited experience our Beagle does only what she wants to and shakes her head in surprise; if it is the same thing you want.
As of January she was 10 years old and pretty healthy. She loved living here on her 10 acres; as she could run and chase rabbits and squirrels to her hearts content. What she would really do is set her house mate Chocolate (a Labrador) up to do the chasing for her. Faking that she saw something off in the distance, she would start to bark and run, enticing Chocolate to take off on the search. Then she would quietly sit down on the hill to wait and watch to see if Chocolate roused anything out of the long grasses down below; If Chocolate did find anything then off she would go leading the pack. 
I noticed some growths on her, one on her neck, another on her forefoot and one her haunch early in February. They were soft and movable, I was not worried thinking that we need to get them looked at soon. It was at that time or very soon after, my husband and I came down with the flu. It was horrid experience; we were sick for 10 days or better, during this time my husband noticed that Amber’s growth on her haunch ballooned in size and gotten hard. It was a weekend so I called the vet on Monday morning to make an appointment. The only appointment we could get was two days later. During the visit the vet tried to take some fluid out of the growth on the haunch and couldn’t get anything. She suggested that we remove all the growths, we said ok, Amber went into surgery that afternoon. We picked her up the next day, Amber was very happy to get back home and things went almost back too normal. We took her back in a few days later as her surgical cut was separating as the swelling decreased. They put her out and redid the stitches. The next day we noticed that she was not as bouncy as she normally is, no tail wagging either. It was a weekend. We took her in on Monday for a blood test and was told that her kidneys stopped working, and to help her out we needed to give her 500 cc’s of water every day along with an antibiotic and some prednisone. We did this for more than a week, retested the blood, found her kidneys were starting to work again. We were so excited. We kept up the water until she was pronounced better, then another problem started, her leg wound only half of it is healing. The other half is still a large opening. We took her in to be checked it was decided to re-bandage it then we went home. Amber was out doing some walking then all the things dogs do.
We notice that there was some blood on her bedding the next day, we keep it clean over the weekend and return on Monday to hear that blood is coming out of the skin around the wound, and that the skin around the area is swollen and has become hard. We are told that there was nothing to be done that would be helpful. In tears we made our goodbyes; Amber breathed her last breath. She was then wrapped up in a blanket and we brought her home.
We dug a deep grave in an area where is us sunny most days. It is a special place that Amber and Chocolate like to sit to watch the neighborhood.
In the kitchen I watched the weather start to change from sun to clouds bringing rain, and the only thing I could think of is that Amber might get cold out there, wishing the sun would come out and warm up the ground for her to rest in. 
This is February, a Month That I Will Remember for a While
This is February, a Month That I Will Remember for a While
There was some good things that happened. We are now in recovering our health, our Beagle became ill at the same time. She had some surgery and is well into recovery, as she is now her stubborn self and finely my computer is back up and running. It has been three weeks of trauma. We will be going back to the Vet’s to see if Amber is doing as well as we think she is. The recovery was long and tedious. Thank goodness for Carbonite and their service tech’s without their help I would still be down.
The best for last,
early in January I was learning and reading about nematodes and how they can help in the greenhouse and garden. What I found out after I bought some is that it was to cold for them in the garden, although they did a great job in the greenhouse. I am not having any problems now with gnats eating my seedlings. Because I was too soon in my main garden I am going to need to repeat the process when it warms up. I am hoping to control the harmful insects that harm my peaches, nectarines, roses and vegetable in the Memory Garden.
My tomato seedlings are doing very well. A bit long as I was to sick to take care of them sooner. I am going to transplant them into 4” pots and bury them a bit.
The sweet peas are coming up, along with the sugar peas.
The rest of the Cafeteria Garden and compost are looking good.
We have been short on rain, so I am need to plan how I am going to water sparingly.
Hope you are doing well in your garden.
It has taken me a bit to get started
A few weeks ago I mentioned that my seedbed heat mat in the greenhouse went out, and that I had some cuttings still in the bed waiting for them to take root. Most of them did and I potted them up. What was left I was hoping to work around.
I was able to remove a lot of them it and made it possible to remove some of the medium I am using for seedlings and cuttings. The medium I am using is lava sand and vermiculite. I dug out three 5 gal. buckets of the material, which left me with a four foot plus empty space. My thought was that if I left the old mat in place and laid the shorter heat mat on top I then did not need to disturb the other cuttings in the bed. It worked. The mat was plugged in and the thermostat was set and the medium started to get warm. I am a happy camper.
On the 26th of January I planted four types of tomato seeds. One is for friends; they saved their favorite tomato that they grew last summer and are hoping that they can have it again. (me too, hope I do a good job raising the seedlings) The others are mine from fruit that I had grown the previous summer.
I know it is hard for us to keep tract of each other’s weather, but California’s weather has been on the strange side. Really cold, dry then warming up a bit then making a change for cold and dry again not enough rain, a lot of fog.
After seeding and watering I left the greenhouse and tried to concentrate on other things. The other day I went in to the house and uncovered the seed bed (I put a tent over the seed bed) and was shocked how beautiful the seedlings were doing. It was a lovely surprise. 
My first thought was “Wow what else can I plant.” Then I told myself not to get so excited and take care of what I have, after all it is only the beginning of February. Although, I am going to plant some snow peas J as they can go into the garden early. I will make a plan and plant seeds as soon as I can.
After checking the outdoor garden called the Cafeteria Garden, I am pleased with who the onion, lettuce leeks, and radishes are doing. Now to get on to other chores.
Hope you are having a wonderful time planning your new gardens, whether 
it is flowers or vegetables. When it is spring, we in the colder climates need to be well rested for the clean up after winter. Those of you in the warmer climates please tell me what your garden life is?
My wishes are that you have had a good holiday and that you and your families are well.
Mine was a very good holiday, although during the holiday I found that my garden greenhouse had problems. It will just take work, darn, I was hoping that it would be ok and maybe the plug was just an un-plugged plug. My seed bed heat mat is not heating. Luckily, I have most of my seedlings out of it, although there are some cuttings still there. They have not been the bed long enough to develop a strong root system yet, if I remove them I am afraid that I will lose most of them.
I must have been grumpy
In re-reading my last entry, it shows that I was grumpy. Thank goodness I could go back and see the lovely color of my Japanese maple, wasn’t it a pretty color? The leaves have fallen now and almost everything is bare. I have just come in from blowing up the leaves in the driveway. Tomorrow I will go out into the Memory Garden and rake the piles of leaves and bag them for composting, and then bag up the pile of leaves in the drive. I am really counting on the composted leaves to keep the weeds down in the garden beds. (more…)
