Ripley is settling in, and everyone is adjusting pretty well.  She still whines at the cats, but is not aggressive - she just whines and follows them.  She and Koori and doing great, the only holdout is Luna, and even they are improving.....

Her favorite spot is wherever I am going to step next - like right in the middle of my very small kitchen.

Cindy spent the nights at the house while I was gone to take care of Alli, and sent me this - she had put Alli in the shower, and walked through and noticed Ripley on Ralph's desk.  I'm (slowly) learning to pick up after myself - she is a chewer, and loves "my" stuff.  

I'm still processing photos from my vacation, so....please hold!  The vacation itself was great.  I got in around 9:00 p.m. Wednesday night, and spent most of Thursday getting the house put back in order - I logged over 20,000 steps by 2:00 p.m.!   When I get through the pictures, I'll post them.

In the meantime, I found out I was more stressed than I thought - my stress comes out in distracted moments, I've found.  I loose track of what I'm doing, etc.  Perfect example - before I left on vacation, I wanted to finish up this block.  I was very proud I did - until I put it up on the wall to admire.  Never mind - it would wait until I get back from vacation to get torn apart and put back together correctly.....

 

I’m on the last part of vacation, at the hotel in Nashville for an early flight out tomorrow. It’s been a great vacation!  The flights out were long but uneventful, the drive to Ronna’s place in Leitchfield smooth (it is a beautiful drive, but since I landed at 9:30 pm, I didn’t see much that trip). I explored the property with Ronna and ran some errands with her, and then drove to Dahlonega for a quick visit with Margene. Since she’s in the middle of a move, I helped pack and move boxes for her. 

This is the view from Ronna’s front porch

And her creek at the back of the property

And the back field coming back from the creek

 

Ripley is fitting in nicely, and she will be officially ours today!  Joanna is bringing the paperwork by today. I won’t be there, I’m sitting in the Redding airport waiting for my flight to Nashville via Seattle and Chicago. It’s going to be long day…..

Ripley is not food motivated. Alli is having breakfast and the other dogs know she drops food so are hovering around the table. 

Ripley is napping on the other side, oblivious. 

Well, we had our meeting with the new bank representatives yesterday.....interesting.  The common words were "we want to keep you all, we love how you do things, we want to learn what makes you special", while at the same time telling us that our roles/jobs as we know them are gone.  We will probably have jobs with the new bank, but they are VERY departmentalized.  If you like preparing loan documentation, that's what you get to do, but you also will have to choose what type you want to do - real estate, consumer, commercial, SBA etc.  Where as now, we do them all, and that is just a fraction of what we do, which gives you a chance to learn.....and I'm not seeing a need for a supervisor.....oh well, we will just have to wait and see.  We are supposed to get some sort of offer letter from them by August 13th.

After our meeting, we went out to lunch.  This was the first time since March 20, 2020 that we had all been together, and Chan has already given her notice, so it's the last time too.

I took Alli with me to the grocery store Saturday morning and Ralph was sleeping in.  I came home to "someone missed me".  This was a cute reusable bag that was holding some of the scrubbies I made for book club.  I don't think it's reusable anymore.

 

And the adjustment continues....Koori is pretty accepting now.  She just doesn't like getting trapped somewhere with Ripley in the way.

Luna is still being dork about it - make her go away, mom!

Though they coexist sometimes just fine.

Whew!  It's already getting better - Koori and Ripley were co-existing in my office yesterday!  Koori sleeps at my feet when I work, and Ripley slept wherever she wanted to - but often near me, without an issue with Koo.  Ripley did abandon me for Alex when he got up and went to work - he's working in the living room, and his floor is carpeted - vs. my office is in the kitchen and has linoleum.  (I have a couple of dog beds out there and she actually used them occasionally....but also slept on the floor, a rug, whatever.)

She's here!  So far, so good - the other dogs aren't too happy yet, but I expect an adjustment period.  

 

I'm so excited! We have a meet-and-greet today with this girl:

She's three years old, and is a "return" from a rescue - the couple that got her just weren't ready yet (they had just lost their last dog when they got her) and decided not to keep her.  One of the local veterinarians is fostering her, and will be bringing her by today!  I may even get a new vet out of it.  We've been seeing Susan T for years, but she retired last year and moved back to Susanville (just in time for the fire to tear through their ranch!).  Between that and COVID, we are vet-less.  (The hours that the vet's office is open now doesn't work for me - they don't make appointments, so it's first come/first serve, and they are no longer open early/late or most weekends.  They used to be perfect for me - open until 7:00 p.m., 7 days a week....).  The vet tried to send her home with a co-worker, but she isn't ready for a 2nd dog yet, and thought of me......hopefully the meet-and-greet works out!!

Have you ever looked at a part of your yard and thought "That's weird, why is that all brown and dying?" I was blaming our excessive heat, but then I noticed (while cooling off in the pool) that Koori was sleeping in/on the day lilies.  

 

One of the fascinating things with quilting is the ability to change the look by rearranging blocks.  These two blocks use that same 9-piece squares, but are arrange differently, and it changes the whole look. These are the blocks for the 2nd month of the quilt.

The block on the left is the one called for in the quilt, but rearranging the pieces sure changes the look!

 

And this is why I'm staying inside.....between the smoke from the Salt Fire and the heat - it's awful out there!

 

I grilled dinner this weekend - pork tenderloin and grilled veggies.  Since the veggies needed to be stirred frequently, I hung out on the patio while they cooked, even though it was 105+ degrees.  I had company though - the birds are loving my bubble fountain.

 

A couple more volunteer sunflowers - those birds need to get busy and eat the seeds they knock out of the feeder!  (I'm not sure if letting the sunflowers stay make me look really bad/lazy for keeping them, or happy to share the fun....I'm going with fun!)

 

I have the first month done on my newest block-a-month quilt - and have started the second month (and the third month's fabric will be here any day....)  

Jeff and Kirby took off in their RV on Friday, and Ronna and Joe left Saturday, all bound for Kentucky.  Ronna will be there for most of the month of July (she's back to work August 2nd).  Jeff doesn't have any formal plans - he's wanting to look around the area to see if he wants to move there.  I'm flying back the 22nd for a week to visit.  Ronna and Joe bought 40 acres about 3 years ago in Leichtfield, and will be moving there when Ronna either sells her practice or December 2022 - whichever comes first, and she's had it for sale for several years, so it looks like she's just going to have to close it.  

I was crocheting some more scrubbies (for book club this month) and noticed Picot was playing with one of the scraps....it's good that she is playing, but bad that she has such a small piece - too easy for her to eat it (and possible major vet bills)!

So I gave her a piece still attached to the skein.....

Finally!  Pictures of my recently finished quilts!  This one has been done for a couple of weeks - just waiting for me to take a picture of it.  The quilt itself has been done even longer, it was just waiting for me to sew on the binding.  I got it back from the quilters a while back - then it just sat around, waiting for me.....

This one is the quilt from my local quilt club for 2020 - Cherry Lemonade....

And this was a kit I bought because I liked it - no other reason!  I actually have enough fabric to make another one so once this one finds a home, I'm ready! (I have got to find homes for some of my quilts - I don't have room to store any more!  I re-homed a couple recently - one wedding present for Morgan and one to Cindy M.)

A little spot of brightness!  

 I have a volunteer sunflower in the side yard/chicken pen area (with no chickens yet).