Paul couldn’t get today off work, so we had to leave afterwards. I don’t like driving after dark. We thought there was a large animal on the road, but it turned out to be an enormous tumbleweed!  We saw a few others blowing across the highway.  Wind gusts were 40 kph. Fuel mileage was poor. 

 I had a little bit of running around to do this morning, and it was a bad day to be out. Tomorrow school starts, so parents were frantically getting supplies. I also was frantically looking for dog food. Daisy has major allergies, so she can only have a specific limited ingredient diet. I have a large bag of food for her. The problem was that the bag is open. The US requires that the bag be sealed with country of origin clearly printed on it as well as the receipt from the store in which it was purchased. The store where I went only had large bags. However, a worker  called another store for me which had a smaller bag. Phew!

Now why is that story relevant? Well, I packed the food, but forgot to pack food for tonight and tomorrow morning. I can’t open the new bag until we cross the border. Poor girls! When we arrived in Swift Current, Walmart was still open, so I got them Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice. They think it is steak. 

  
Today I hitched up the trailer by myself, and I had Paul inspect it. All is well, and it is still attached to the truck! Now if I could only learn to back it up. 

We have friends meeting us at Walmart tonight. We had hoped to make it as far as Gull Lake so that we could cross the border with a few others who are camping there, just in case there are issues with the dogs. Unfortunately, the Airstreamers camping with us tonight won’t be crossing right away. They are visiting relatives tomorrow morning and arriving later. Oh well. The dogs have their International Health Certificates and immunization records and sealed dog food. I hope I didn’t miss anything. I sure miss the pre-9-11 days. 

Montana, here we come!

Every time we go to a WBCCI rally, people have such cute bags to carry their plates & flatware to the dining hall.  I usually use a cloth grocery bag for mine, but I wanted something more organized, and well, cuter!  This is what I made today for our rally in Montana next weekend.

It’s a reversible bag!  One pocket has a divider for 2 sets of flatware.  The other pocket can fit hand wipes and napkins.  The fabric pattern is by Paige Bridges.  I have purchased some of her art in the past.  I love her style!

I added darts to increase the capacity.  The bag can hold our square or round plates.  I got the bag pattern & tutorial from verypurpleperson.com

 The corduroy side has the divided pocket:  

 I will store the handles of the flatware up.  This will most likely be the inside of the bag.  

I tried my best to match the fabric pattern on the body to the pattern on the pocket:

Not perfect, but good enough.    
And, yes, I made it big enough to fit wine and wine glasses. 🙂 

Now, I hope our truck will be back from the shop, or we might have to take the boler.  Gasp!  

The girls have vet appointments on Friday to get their International Travel certificates.  Montana here we come!

Last week, I went camping with my friend, Mary, and our 4 dogs.  We found a campground that was equidistant to both of us:  Sandy Beach Regional Park.  Mary’s dogs, Chester and Janie had just returned from “puppy camp” to see how Janie reacts to a kennel situation since Mary and her family are going to Australia for 3 weeks.  Janie is a 9-year-old rescued Goldenoodle.  She’s very timid.  She spent her reproductive years as a puppy mill breeder.  Chester developed kennel cough while at “puppy camp.”  Mary phoned her vet to see if he’d pose a threat to Daisy.  The vet was concerned about our little old lady, but so far it doesn’t seem like she contracted it.  All 4 dogs had their kennel cough vaccines.

The weather was incredibly hot, but the lake was refreshing for all of us.  However, Daisy stayed behind in Mary’s air-conditioned trailer.

 Does Mary’s Airstream make my boler look bigger?  
Janie by the boler

Poppy & Daisy    

Chester kept trying to leave our fenced “circle of love,” so he had to be leashed. 

Where am I going to sleep?  The boler is very cozy with 2 dogs.  Fortunately, the nights were cool and the day’s heat had dispersed by bedtime.   
On our last night, we had 2 violent storm systems move through.  Many poplars lost branches in the campground.  This was the red sky in between storms.

Mary gave Poppy Zylkene to reduce her anxiety.  It worked.  She slept through the second storm.  However, we had moved into the boler for the second storm, and then Daisy could hear the thunder and see the lightning, so she was stressed.  I’ll be getting prescriptions for both of them.