The week that was ... I think

The heat wave is over.  The temperatures will continue to be higher than we are used to but the humidity will be much lower than it has been.  Thank goodness!

Kenya is becoming more and more freaked out by the blasting which was supposed to be finished this past Monday but which, in fact, has continued all week.  Yesterday I couldn't find her when I was setting off to get the mail and I thought she must have gone outside when I hung out laundry.  But no.  She was nowhere to be found.  I called and called.  I went back indoors and called some more.  I went all around the house looking for her.  No Kenya.  I headed off in my car and asked a neighbour if he'd seen her. No, but he would bring her home if he saw her on his way to the village.  I returned and did one more check everywhere ... down at the lake and indoors.

That's when I discovered her curled up under the shelf that holds the water heater and the boiler.  Curled into an impossibly small ball among the tubes that feed the in-floor radiant heating.  A black ball of a dog in a dark spot where she shouldn't have fit.

I am not sure just how the blasting is affecting her physically, but psychologically it is certainly having a deleterious effect.  She is frightened the whole time the workers are across the lake.  She recognizes the horn honking signal that a foundation-shaking blast is imminent.  She doesn't want to be outside or in the lake when the workers are there, and she sticks very close to me whenever she can.

.I wondered if she had been deafened when she didn't respond to my calls.

We went off to Erin's Meat Party after I found her.  The humidity had tripped the power bar  in the barn 

where her freezers are plugged in.  The meat at the bottom was still solidly frozen but the upper layers had started to thaw, so she decided to have a meat party.  Lots of people bearing beer, wine, soft drinks, salads and desserts ... and dogs ... arrived and spilled out onto the deck.  Ed did the barbecuing, and we all feasted.

Kenya was delighted to be surrounded by dog people, and happy to have so many canine buddies. She was particularly popular with the big boys, Jesse, Connor and Cole.  She knew C and C from three years ago when we looked after them.  Their owner, Andrea, brought photos of her new baby ... a nine week old foal.  I think we will go over and visit him soon. 

I am not sure whether it is the blasting or all the swimming without ear plugs, but I have gone deaf in my left ear.  A party is an odd occasion when you cannot hear on one side. Last night I felt a bit as if I were watching a silent movie with a lot of static on the sound track.

This morning  I  treated it with hydrogen peroxide and then with almond oil mixed with tea tree oil .  I hope whatever it is clears up soon.  I don't want to have to see my doctor who is 1 1/2 hours away, and it isn't a medical emergency which could be treated here in the village.

My Swiss student, Sibylle, has headed off to British Columbia for the next stage of her vacation.  I have enjoyed her company, and will miss her.   I have one free week and then I will be spending time with Yoshiko, the 84 year old Japanese artist, the following week or so.  Yoshiko was here last year and amazed all of us with her energy and youthfulness.  She still downhill skiis for goodness sake!

She is in better shape than I am these days ... deaf in one ear ... exhausted by the heat wave ... and swollen up with a reaction to a hornet sting.  A neighbour's son visiting here on the lake this week  has promised to help me blast the two nests I have here: a wasps' nest under the first step from the parking area, and a hornets' nest in the cute little box housing my hydro meter.  Because I reacted so strongly to the hornet's sting I received the other day, I am afraid to try to get rid of them by myself.

Oh ... and before I forget ... for those people who were following the doggy taste test ... I bought a bag of Pedigree Dentabones at Costco the other day. They are made by Mars, the makers of the Natural Defense bones that Kenya loved.  They smell the same but are smaller and are to be fed daily rather than a couple of times a week.  And Kenya loves them too. They cost $18.99 plus tax .

The list of ingredients:

rice
sodium caseinate
rice flour
vegetable oil
tapioca starch
natural poultry flavour
propylene glycol
wheat bran
calcium carbonate

dicalcium phosphate
potassium chloride
sodium tripolyphosphate
microcrystaline cellolose
iodized salt
potassium sorbate
'choline chloride
eucalyptus
zinc oxide
vitamins A, D3 and E
zinc sulphate
iron sulphate
magnesium oxide
d-calcium pantothenate
niacin
copper sulphate
riboflavin
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B1
Folic Acid
Vitamin B12

I will have to find the post I did on Natural Defense but I think this list is longer than the ND one was.  I will check and edit this post.

UPDATE:

Natural Defense definitely had a shorter, and, I suspect,  healthier ingredient list:

Ingredient List:
corn starch
potato starch
glycerin
water
natural flavour
dehydrated myrtle leaf
sodium tripoliphosphate
salt
potassium sorbate
a number of vitamins
rice hulls
chlorophyll
 
What do you think?


Have a great weekend.