My Dearest Athena

Yesterday was one of the hardest days I've gone through. Our 12 year old dog Athena had to be put down. We'd known since Thanksgiving that this day was coming, and two weeks ago we made the appointment. It is so hard watching something you love so much slowly deteriorate. She lost half of her weight, developed cataracts, bumped into everything, couldn't walk up the stairs, and was rarely able to make it outside to use the bathroom. She spent her days eating and sleeping.

We spent yesterday digging her grave while the girls stayed at my parents. I sat on the front porch in the rocking chair and just held her and cried. Our other dog Apollo is a little lost now. Luke's mother stopped by with a small memorial stone. That woman is always so thoughtful.

The girls cried initially when we buried her. I think it was more they had never seen daddy cry before, and it actually scared them a little. It's hard for them to understand that Athena was our first baby. She was here before any of the girls were.

Today it was 60 degrees out. Freak weather for January in Ohio. We moved a bench to the front yard where she is buried and I spent a lot of time out there crying. I realized I never made anything for lunch, and when I made dinner, I cried the entire time I ate it. She wasn't here for the leftovers. I took out a cornbread muffin for her, and when Luke came to check on me Apollo took it. Even in death they are fighting over food.

I have plans to turn the area around her into a garden for butterflies and fairies. I also love the idea of putting up a little free library, although on our rural road I'm not sure how much action it would see.

It will be a long, slow healing process, but I'm hoping someplace where I can spend sunny days close to her will help.

It's Been Awhile

It's been about a year since I've blogged, and about 8 months since I last updated the Facebook page. It's time to get back in the swing of things.

We have a lot of projects for this year! Some of them are...

-Cutting down trees for firewood
-Enlarging the chicken coop
-Making a new duck coop
-Making a new rabbit enclosure
-Finish painting some rooms
-Actually having kitchen cabinet doors
-Going through the rest of our boxes from storage
-Creating Athena's garden

Needless to say this year will be busy!

Roadtrip to West Virginia

We took a quick vacation down to West Virginia. Everything with the house was going slower than planned, and Nana and Papaw's house got like 17 inches of snow, while we got zero up here in Ohio, so we packed up, drove 4 hours, and hung out in almost no internet or cell phone hills for a week. Seriously, we have to climb a mountain or walk over a mile up the road to get a cell phone signal, and just a few years ago, it was a 40 minute drive before our cell phones picked up a tower!

Nana and Papaw's. Apparently my camera decided not to save the whole picture...

The horses up the road. There were never horses when I was little, but the girls love to walk up and feed them carrots.

The sun never really reached the house. It didn't get high enough in the sky to clear the hill until it was setting at the beginning of the road.

Building a fort!

Mr. Snowman

Our dumb dumbs... Apollo and Athena

Sled riding.

The snowpants were just as fast as the sleds

The snow lasted awhile since the sun barely hit this side of the valley.

Sunset