Winter blues

Winter temps have finally arrived. Even though it's just in the lower 20s, it's quite noticeably how much longer it takes to get the house warmed up to my comfort. Guess that is one of the downsides to having the house heated by wood burners, instead of electric heating. Fingers are stiff and sore and I don't get things done as fast as I want to. When we're outside for the morning toilette, it's FREEZING! I miss spring and summer and warm sunny weather.

Also, I'm more or less out of yarn. I need more, but with the No Spend Challenge, I don't want to go to the local craft shop - the yarn is almost double the price from other places - and the 'new' car has some break issues. Apparently, they hang up, which makes long drives impossible. Hubby says it's an easy job to fix them and that he'll take care of it....just not WHEN.

He's quite handy when he wants to be. He's almost finished with making the extra oil tank and the new central for the Lamborghini tractor. It will bring more power to the front loader, which will make the wood cutting work a lot easier and smoother.

The coming weekend, hubby's youngest brother will be getting their new Golden Retriever puppy girl. She'll be called Vera. I'll post pictures when I get them. Runar will come with them when they pick her up. I'm quite certain Vera will be spoiled rotten. I can't think of anyone who I think will be better suited to becoming puppy owners.

I have had to admit to myself and hubby that the chances of Georg ever becoming a healthy dog is very slim. If it was only the elbow osteoarthritis, I think he would be able to have a fairly painless, happy life, but it's more than that. There is something very wrong with his hip region/back legs. He is stiff and he won't use his left back leg more than as a support, it seems. He has major issues with walking up and down steep hills and stairs. He forgets these things when playing, but it is tragically obvious he is in a lot of pain afterwards. We don't know  the results from the X-Rays, yet, but we don't really need those to see this is not good. It breaks our heart, because we've come to love the drooling monster, but chances are he'll be around for a relatively short time =(

As promised a video. It's just a silly video clip I took this weekend up at the farm. You can see how well his eczema and skin issues have disappeared.  Right before the video, Georg had pestered Laika to play. She will play for a little while, but then she tires and she can't stand him for a while. You'll notice how he has learned how to charm her by being dignified and gentle. After the video I had to play with him. He showed me how to kill a plastic can. Utterly dead. The voices in the background belong to Runar and Simen as they're working on the tractor. (this will probably be the only video I upload, I hate my voice)