Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ice Day

We're having an ice storm. It started around 3 Pm yesterday and continued all night. Missouri has really rotten weather in January. We moved here ten years ago during an ice storm and were stuck in the house for about two weeks. We live on a steep hill and the street was too icy to drive up.

Two years ago we had a doozy of an ice storm that broke virtually every tree over twenty feet high. We were without electricity for twelve days. The pups were little and couldn't go outside, so we had them corralled in the kitchen. What a time that was.

Last year a tornado went by. We didn't get hit by the tornado itself, but had over $10,000 worth of hail damage to the roof, deck and fence. Monty and I spent that one huddling in the closet, both scared silly.

This storm doesn't seem to be too bad, yet. Rob and I can't stand up outside, but the dogs hurry out and right back in as soon as possible. I thought we might have a problem last night. I let them all out after feeding them. Nine of them came back, but Tsar had gone down the hill to relieve himself and couldn't get back up the hill. He kept sliding back down. He's so smart, though. He went over to the side and stayed close to the fence. There wasn't as much ice there and he was able to make it up. He didn't want to go out again until bedtime.



These are some old pics of Tsar, but I'm posting them for a reason.


The one below is one of my favorites. As you can see, Tsar is big and black and hairy. His dad was a Lab/Chow mix and his mom was a Husky. He seems to have inherited a lot of the Husky traits. He's stubborn, but gentle. I have a real problem with his eating habits. He chooses to only eat about three times a week. He'll go two or three days refusing food. There is no way to entice him to eat if it's one of his 'no food' days. It used to drive me crazy. When he was younger I used to drag him to the Vet, convinced there was something wrong. Now I feed him a high calorie food developed for working dogs so I know he's getting enough calories when he does eat. He's maintained his weight for several years, and his annual bloodwork comes back great, so I quit worrying about him.



I've been working on a cross stitch piece for the past week and I finished it on Sunday. Here it is. I'm pleased with it. I think it really resembles him. What do you think?

6 comments:

Dianne said...

That cross stitch you did is lovely! Really lovely!

Cat said...

The x-stitch is wonderful! It DOES look like him, what a pretty boy he is!

Nicki said...

He's such a cutie, and that's some lovely cross stitch too!

LizzieJane said...

Your cross stitch is wonderful, my goodness that must have been a lot of work. Tsar is one beautiful doggy, I love his wonderful furry coat.
x

Unknown said...

Do you have a program to convert a photo into a cross-stitch graph? That is a remarkable likeness. Nice job :) Hope you are doing okay - sitting by a warm fire, cuddled up with dogs, cocoa and knitting or a good book. g

SissySees said...

I am in awe. The CPA's on my computer and the Knight just pulled back in, but that's incredible. You are one talented, gifted lady!