4th Of July In Boyne City & Updates on Rennovation of Bathrooms

                                                  July 3, 2015

We had put our bathroom stuff in our new medicine cabinets, but unfortunately when the new window was being put in (the first one was too small), an accident happened. I went to open the medicine cabinet, and a shelve with all the stuff came crashing out.

The shelve broke in millions of pieces. Joe said the glass was safety glass and that is why it broke in so many pieces. We didn't even think to take out our stuff. Oh well stuff happens!

Mallery has been eating really good. I believe it is because she basically eats what we eat. Here she had green beans, chicken and cottage cheese. She LOVES cottage cheese. She eats a little of a banana in the AM, then a meal like the one above 2 to 3 times a day and a little apple for a snack at around 4PM. She woofs it down, but doesn't seem to gain any weight. Other nights she has fish, beef, or turkey with carrots, broccoli, peas and sometimes potatoes or rice.

My sister wanted a picture of our place from the lake so I texted her this picture.

Mallery really enjoys her 2 to 5 times a day, walk down her alley. It is her favorite thing to do each day. It is something that doesn't change unlike the inside of our house.

On the 4th of July, we saw a parade of boats heading toward Boyne City for the fireworks.

We had a neighbor who gave us a preview out our window before the city started their fireworks. We enjoyed them, but Mallery hated them.

We sat down at our lake shore and watched the fireworks down in Boyne City. I took a picture, but it looked much farther away than it actually was. (Though they were still far away). Next year we will take the boat and go closer to Boyne City. Since we are new with the boat and the lake, we decided it would be best not to go out on the water after dark. Plus it would have been too much for Mallery.

I kept going up to the house to check on her.

I gave her some benadryl because she was shaking, and I needed her to calm down. It seemed to work.

On another day on a walk up the alley, I took this picture of our neighbor's toys in the water. They have a huge family reunion every 4th of July. I am hoping some day, I can have all my grand kids, sisters and their grand kids, and mom all together on the 4th and make it a annual event.

One evening, while I was out in the kitchen, Joe said, "Mallery is shaking her kennel". He put his hand on the top of it, to brace it so all the stuff would not fall off. I ran to the kennel to calm her down, only to find her hind leg between the crate wires, as she was on her back trying to get out. I held her down and yelled to Joe to help me. I kept telling him her leg was stuck. Everything was happening so fast, and Joe didn't seem mixed up what was happening, while saying, "what do you want me to do". I continued to ask him to help me get her leg out. We normally have a blanket on top of the kennel to help make it dark for her. Joe finally lifted up the blanket and saw the problem. He started twisting and turning her leg to set her free. It was nerve racking because it was hard for Joe to tell which way to turn her leg to get her out. We don't know if she just got her leg caught while  sleeping and than started shaking the kennel trying to get free, or she had a seizure which caused her leg to get caught between the wires, with the rolling back and forth of a seizure. I tend to think the 2nd seniero is what happened. This is why I have a problem leaving her home alone. If we had not been there, she would have broke her leg for sure. We put this cardboard in her kennel so this would not happen again. Unfortunately she stayed away from her kennel for about a week. Either she didn't like the smell of the cardboard, or she had the memory of getting her leg caught, giving her fear of the crate.

 Our contractor has been having trouble with getting a tub spout that works with the shower head and hand held head. He finally got one that worked, and installed it. When I saw it, I didn't like it, but didn't say anything to him. Later I told Joe it was too contemporary looking, plus I also thought it looked like you know what! I asked Joe what he thought it looked like, and he said a penis. Bingo, I don't have my mind in the gutter, and you can't say I have penis's on the brain!  

What do you think?

Now don't get me wrong, I do like that male body part, but just not sticking out of the wall looking at me every morning. The next time Bill, our contractor came, I told him I needed something else because it was too contemporary (which it was). I was too embarrasses to tell him it also looked like a penis. We are waiting now for a new tub spout.

We have a really great Farmers Market in Boyne City that is held every Saturday and Wednesday morning. We try to go at least once a week.

The week after the 4th, was the Boyne Thunder annual event. 
 
There were 175 big boat that entered in the race. Here the boats are entering the canal from Lake Charlevoix to Lake Michigan. When they enter Lake Michigan, they head south to
 
  to Elk Rapids in Big Traverse Bay, then back north to Harbor Springs in Little Traverse Bay, then back to Boyne City.We saw them leave at 10:00 AM and coming back around 3:00 PM. They do run on the other side of Lake Charlevoix, so we hear them better than seeing them.
 
 

 
 

 
 We We have been frantically trying to get the house in order because Tiffany, Blake and our grandson Lennox is arriving this Saturday from Gulf Shores, AL. We got new TV's yesterday, and cable was  hooked up today. We have been with out TV's for 6 weeks now. At first it was hard, but we got use to it after about 3 weeks. Mallery has been on her new supplement for seizures for a week. So far, it has been about a week since she has had one. I also read on the internet that dogs who eat a lot of fish have high mercury levels, causing seizures. We had been giving her a lot of fish recently, because Joe gets the smoked trout and white fish that is available up here in Northern Michigan. She loves the fish, but since I read this, I have cut way back on how much she gets now.

Bees, New Car & Boat Ride

                                         June 15, 2015

I decided to call back another bee keeper and tell him that the bee retrieval attempt failed and why. (He had asked me to let him know since we went with the first bee keeper that called). He said he had another way that might work. Joe had already called a exterminator, so when they both arrived that day, we told the exterminator we were going to give the bees one more chance. John and a friend set up an old bee hive that had honey in it. They put a trapped door in it so when the bees went in to steal the honey, they could not get out. His hopes were that he could entice all the bees to leave there hive for easy honey and leave their queen. He said bees are lazy and will steal honey from other hives. His thought were that if all the bees left the queen, she would finally leave also. The trap was set, so we waited to see what would happen.

Joe and I have wanted a bigger car, and a SUV for a long time. With guest coming soon, there was no way we would be able to pick them up at the airport, luggage and all. We knew we wanted a 2010 Buick Enclave. Joe had done his research and that was the best year with the newest options and the least depreciation. He looked on the internet to see what the general price was for that year. The price ranged was from $21,000 to $23,000. We wanted the diamond white color, and found just what we were looking for in Indiana. Joe called but it sold in 2 days. It had low miles and was in the price range stated above. Then we found this gold mist just a hour from our home. It had average miles for it's age, but the asking price was $18,000 and we got it for $17,000 "as is". So far every thing is working great with it. We will see. 

We wanted this SUV because it has 3 rows of seats and the last two rows fold down for hauling. First thing we did was go to Petoskey, and buy our selves a new patio table and chair set for the deck. All four chairs fit in the back. This we could not have done with the Honda. We had to go back the next day for the table and two memory foam twin mattress for the bunk beds we had.

Mallery didn't like our new car for the first day, but she adjusted pretty fast after the first day.

June had a few cool days where I would put a blanket on Mallery after she would crawl into her kennel. She has no fat or muscle and is very boney, so she gets cold very easy. Many times she would come out of her kennel, blanket and all.

She would walk all over the place with her blankie until it fell off, or until her mom would help and get her princess robe off.

It was so nice to have a dinning table on our deck. We have ate outside almost every evening since. Joe would eat out even on cool days, but my food was getting too cold too, so we have ate inside a few days when the temperature drops.

Joe keeps saying, " We have a million dollar view". That I have to agree with.

After a couple of weeks, we finally took the boat out. It was a hot day, and when we decide to go the water was like glass, but by the time we got ourselves out into the boat the water had a bit more waves. Joe was happy boater!

Mallery not such happy boater. She is not a boat dog.

Mallery was very nervous, but she doesn't like it when we leave her, so we have no choice.

Me and my little best girl friend!

Most of the time I had to hold her real tight and tell her, she was OK and I would protect her.

It's not easy doing a selfie with one hand and a dog in the other, in a boat that is moving!

Joe is learning how to land the boat onto the new boat lift. It is not as easy as it looks with waves.We have been out 4 or 5 times now and he is getting more of the hang of it.

Joe is so glad I talked him into buying a lift cover. We just pull into the lift, and raise the boat with a button which activates the hydraulics, and lifts the boat. Once the boat is up, we get out of the boat and go up the hill to our home. Joe doesn't have to cover the boat like he would have other wise. Simple stuff!

We still have our lounging chairs in our dining room. Our dining room furniture has not arrived and our living room needs to be painted, before the furniture can be put in it..The plastic wall finally came down, but we still had plastic on the carpet, and boxes of stuff that needed to go in closets, that also needed to be painted.

In our mater bedroom, there are his and her closets. Both closet had paneling walls which made the closets very dark. I insisted we paint them before we moved our cloths in them. Joe did one closet  and I did the other. Then we moved our bed into the bedroom. This was a hard move for Mallery. All this moving of furniture is very hard on a almost blind dog.

After 3 coats of paint to cover the paneling, we finally got them done and moved our cloth into them. Yes we still have bed rails so Mallery won't fall out of bed.

Every day I spend many hours walking Mallery outside. On this beautiful day she walked all around our yard and then just sat down to enjoy the day. I sat down too, so she could enjoy herself.

Soon she laid her head down and took a nap. We enjoyed the day under the tree for awhile. I will be so glad when the fence is put in, which is now 3 weeks away. In the last 2 weeks Mallery started to do something very strange. On our walks she would raise her left front leg as far as she could raise it and then stretch her head way back. At first I thought she was having a stroke. She did this every time I took her for a walk. Of course this started on the weekend, so come Monday I took her to the vet. They wanted me to video it. Because she was not shaking all over, they though maybe she was having mini seizures, but not really sure. A few days later, Joe and I went to Traverse City for some shopping and to pick up an end table we bought last fall. We stop at a roadside park to let Mallery relieve herself and to have lunch. During lunch, Mallery starting having one of her episodes. I picked her up to calm her and I tried to get Joe to video her.

Everybody on the lake had their flags out for the up coming forth. Joe got out what we had. Do you see it!

A strange looking boat going past us, way out in the middle of the lake.

View of sailboats just east of our docks.

Mallery has had 1 major seizure now, with her violently rolling on the floor and her legs shaking. Now, I know they are seizures. The Dr. thought maybe her blood sugars were getting too low, so I have increased her eating and or snacks to 4 times a day. She is eating really good and seems to have lots of energy, but seems to be confused a lot or lost in the house. She wants to be with us all the time and is holding her bladder real good. We do keep her in a diaper for the few accidents that we have missed, because we don't understand what she wants. (When a dog can't find her way to the door, we get mixed signals). I have found some supplements online that has great reviews for seizures, so I am hoping they will arrive soon so we can start her on them. The vet can give her medicine, but the medicine can be very harmful to the liver and kidneys, which she already has issues with. Mallery has been fighting us a lot lately when we give her the fluid treatments. Because she is eating real good and has a lot of energy, I have cut way back on the treatments. I hope this is a good decision on  my part. She seems to know what is about to happen and does not want any part of it. I took her to the vet when she had the strange episodes and had them give her the fluid. The vet had a hard time holding our 5lb baby down to give it to her. She is even eating a supplement that she loved before, and had refused to eat when she got really sick with her kidney failure. Like I have said before, every day is different. Some days I think it might be her last, then she has a change for the good, and we carry on.  I believe God is answering my prayers to heal her enough so she can have time in her yard and neighborhood.