A Sad Week

UPDATE 12/11:  HE IS HOME!  Eight days later, and worse for the wear, but I'm hoping I can build him back up.  Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes!  I hope to soon be back to regular posting.

Hello, friends.  The woodstove is being utilized well these days.  As well as keeping our home warm, a pot of barley was brought to a boil on the gas stove, then finished cooking on the woodstove, and a pot of oils was melted there for soapmaking.  Meat and broth from bones collected in a freezer bag were canned for the pups.  The bones were then added to the woodstove, which will help enrich our soil.  Once we learned about terra preta, we began throwing the bones into the woodstove, to collect with our ash.  We'll never make soil as rich as terra preta, but anything we can do to help ours along, we count as a good thing.  With a low of 17 in the forecast, lettuce, broccoli, chard and kale were harvested last Monday.  The calendulas are still sending out blooms.  Lettuce, beets and carrots were covered with hay before the low of 17.  The lettuce made it through with flying colors.  Our game hen is valiantly sitting on her nest.  The little game hen eggs are so sweet.  

I made a pot of vegetable soup.  Besides a few store bought items in the soup, I was able to use home canned tomatoes and tomato juice, summer squash, garlic and green beans, dehydrated onions and soup mix consisting of mushrooms, peas, carrot tops, and purslane.   I started a loaf of bread for J in the machine, then baked it in the oven.  I received a Food Lion reward of $6 towards my purchase, and the blueberries used in my smoothies were $1 off.  Books were picked up at the library, and DVD's with newer shows of a series I used to enjoy.  I dropped a bag off at a food drive our phone/internet provider is having, which entered me into a drawing for gift cards.  Ink cartridges were dropped off at Staples for recycling, which will earn $6 in rewards.  J & I enjoyed a movie on our Roku TV, for the first time this year.  I took advantage of a Cyber Monday sale, to buy bras I've been wanting to try, at 25% off.  After unknowingly eating a plate of wheat pasta recently, then beginning to have worsening itching with the eczema on my hands, I began another 9 day raw food cleanse.  It wasn't planned, so there was produce that wouldn't get eaten during that time.  I froze cranberries, broccoli and peppers, and dehydrated mushrooms and celery.

Forgive me for getting this post up later than usual.  My heart and mind have been focused on McNibs, who went missing on our walk Sunday evening.  We have walked and driven, called and whistled, put it on social media, put up flyers, and let people know.  He and Guinness often take off after a scent, while on our walks, and still often beat me back to the house, or are close behind.  Early on, I started feeding them right after our walks, so they'd know food was waiting when they got home, a prime motivator for them, especially McNibs.  Our 25 acres is deep, and backs up onto 140 acres of rolling hay fields and woods, and this is surrounded by more farms and woods.  A plus is that there are no roads for quite a ways, but the downside is no one is likely to see him.  J thinks he got lost, following the scent.  I've thought of many scenarios, including our active coyote population, but J assures me there would be buzzards by now.  My one consolation is he was living his best life when I saw him last, nose to the ground, following that scent.  I haven't given up hope, but my heart is breaking, with worry for him.  If you're so inclined, please send prayers and good thoughts our way.  If he returns home, I'll add an update here.