Do you know the muffin woman?

So many muffins! And no where to put them!







My fridge is so packed right now!








And this is all my dishes from my bake day. Note the new silicone muffin trays which I so love...

Raw Stew

Yesterday was my bake day - no baby, no dogs, just me and my Kitchen Aid mixer!

This is a custom stew I made for Madeline, the blind JRT. She's a fussy girl and we did a chicken and tripe mix which she loves.


Here is the finished product. I can make any stew you want, and I can vary the veggies/meat and ratios - just email me for a quote! And don't forget that I deliver!

My Bad Dogs Part II

Tonight at 11:00 our nice neighbour who feeds Shawdy bread knocked on our door to tell us that Shawdy had escaped again and she was in the middle of the road, probably barking at cars. It was very nice of him to come and tell us, he was worried about her getting hurt.

We searched the "compound" to see where she had been "testing the fence for weaknesses" (like the raptors in Jurassic Park) and sure enough there was a few bent areas and one big hole where she had pushed up the chain link from the fence post and escaped. Her collar was lying there at the scene. I don't know why she would try to escape tonight - her Auntie Laura took her for a huge walk in the forest today.


I suspect that she got a whiff of a campfire at the park - brought back memories to our old house on the lake when our neighbour Larry would have fires weekly and burn his garbage, including Shawdy's favorite - chicken bones. She would always come back from her adventures smelling like campfire, so we knew where she had been. Tonight she had a big soot mark on her head, and the other dogs were very interested in smelling her feet. She is so naughty, I don't know what to do with her. Is an electric fence the next step? She is so sneaky, always has been.

PAWdicures

Starting next Saturday I will be offering $5 PAWdicures (nail trims) for GOOD dogs at the Peterborough Market. I would prefer if you could bring your dog between 12 and 1, when there is less traffic. If your dog needs special "assistance" - ie. restraint, muzzle - or if they are particularly vocal when having their nails done - then you can use my at-home nail trimming service for $25 (those crazy gas prices!). Or if you just can't make it to the market. Just email me and we can arrange a time and date.

Flea Free Cookies

Well I finally made some "flea free" cookies for the doggies (kitties are out of luck as garlic is toxic to felines). They have brewer's yeast and garlic as the active ingredients. A cookie a day will help to ward off fleas, but there is alot more you will need to do to keep those pesky parasites away.

Here's some tips on natural flea control that I have used and have only once had a flea problem - during a particularly bad year - but managed to control the fleas and was FLEA FREE again within 2 weeks.

1. Wash your pet's bedding often - at least once a week - this will drown and kill any flea larvae, eggs and adult fleas
2. Sprinkle diatomaceous earth in corners and under pets beds, crates etc. On hardwood floors I sprinkle the DE on the floor and use a broom to make sure it gets in the cracks. Whenever I vacuum the area I re-apply.
3. Add apple cider vinegar to your dog's diet - you can put it in their water - make sure it's the natural stuff that says it contains "mother"
4. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum - and put some DE in the vacuum bag to kill any larvae that may hatch.
5. Check for fleas regularly - especially behind ears, under collar, near tail. If you see black specks that look like dirt, put some on a wet paper towel - if it turns red, you have fleas - this is flea poo and what do fleas eat? BLOOD!
6. Use an all natural topical repellent such as Flea Drops from Nature's Power - I wouldn't go near those chemical ones - made that mistake once and the Shawds broke out in pimples all over.

If you have any flea questions, just ask!

My BAD dogs

Shawdy has her issues. She always has. We got her when she was 2. We knew she was an escape artist, a piggy (we call her Shawdy-pottamus), a licker (Shawdy Licks-a-lot), and has a bad habit of killing and eating small animals. So lately she has been digging holes under the fence, and stretching the chain link fence big enough to escape. She waits until I am busy with the baby or baking, and then poof! She's gone. Gone for hours. I don't even bother looking for her anymore. So I always wondered what she was up to. I figured she was just hunting and gathering. A few days ago we took the baby up the street to look at a yard sale and thought we'd bring Shawds since she never gets "alone time" with us. We were stopped by a neighbour who proceeded to tell us how he knows Shawdy - that she visits him often and he feeds her bread. Great. Then another neighbour said that he'd seen her too. So naughty. Then on the weekend we went to the cottage with just Shawds and Thomas. Shawdy was sooo good. Thomas went missing and turned up an hour or two later in someone's van. He had started following a couple of joggers and went on a 4km run with them. They took him home and drove him back to where they first saw him, with the door open, hoping he would jump out when he saw his house. So naughty. It's time for boot camp for these dogs. And I call myself a dog trainer!

Hired Help?

Note the drool.

Shawds is always trying to help me make dog food. She loves green beans! Her duty is usually clean up. She also tries to help me load the dishwasher.