Home Wreckers

On the way home from grocery shopping the other day, I asked my husband to stop at a garage sale. He wasn't too keen on the idea since we are moving soon and need to have less stuff, not more. He reluctantly stopped and we looked around.

I hit the jackpot. This garage sale was in a very exclusive neighborhood of newer homes, and nothing had a price on it. Amidst the piles of stuff for sale, I found a wonderful old wooden bowl. This thing is large and heavy. I picked it up and carried it around until I could finally ask the owner how much she wanted for it. I expected her to say a high price. When she said $5.oo, I immediately said I wanted it.

I already had a spot in mind for my new bowl. I was going to put it on my coffee table in the living room. Now I had to figure out how to fill it, and cheaply too. The next week I found a bag of dried apples at a garage sale for 25 cents. (I was smart enough to go without my husband this time.) At the thrift store I found a new bag of little wax balls scented and shaped like blueberries and a large pillar candle. My bowl wasn't finished yet though. It still needed something else.

I soon found my answer. Colleen at http://andbabymakesfive-colleen.blogspot.com/ posted a simple recipe for salt dough bowl fillers that sounded perfect. I figured I know how to bake, surely I could make these. I did, and it was lots of fun. The first day I baked them. The second day I painted them, and the third day I dipped them in wax. By the time I was done, I had lots of work invested in them. I didn't mind though, I enjoyed it, and they were cute. They are not as cute as Colleen's, but it was my first time. I proudly put my hearts and stars in my big wooden bowl and was pleased with how it all looked together.

That night is when the trouble began. I caught my collie with her long, skinny nose buried in that bowl. I warned her to get away from there.

The next morning when I got up, I found a stray wax blueberry laying on the floor with a giant tooth mark in it. I immediately knew who the culprit was. I picked it up off the floor, scolded the dog, and walked to the kitchen to throw it away. When I returned, I found the collie laying on the floor holding a salt dough figure between her paws eating it like it was a dog biscuit. I took the figure away from her, scolded her severely, and made her come to the kitchen with me to throw it away. When I turned around, she was licking her lips. "Yuck," I thought, "that dog actually likes the taste of salt and wax."

It was definitely time for everyone to go outside for the day. Now my other dog, the fat old lab started to misbehave. It looked like rain, so I needed the dogs to go to the barn. He hates the barn. He prefers the kennel where he can see everyone and everything that is happening on the farm during the day. But he can't be in the kennel on rainy days, because he is stupid. The collie knows to get inside one of the two perfectly good dog houses in there, but the Lab won't. He stands out in the rain, getting soaked to the bone. Then he rolls around in the mud until he is as dirty as possible. I am tired of cleaning him, so off to the barn he needed to go.

He wouldn't though. He balked. He ran to the kennel and stood in the doorway, as if to tell me his preference. When I told him no, he hung his head down and wouldn't look at me. Then he stiffened his legs, and I had to drag him to the barn.

By now, I was frustrated and wondering why I had to have the world's strangest dogs. One of them doesn't have sense to come in out of the rain, and the other one eats my home decor. I returned to the house and tried to figure out what to do with them. Then I remembered something I had seen on the internet. Char over at http://charsethman.blogspot.com/ had posted a recipe for dog biscuits.

I printed off the recipe, and baked some doggie biscuits that afternoon. This is a very good recipe. The biscuits are all natural. There is no artificial colors or preservatives so they are healthier for the dogs than the biscuits from the store.

First thing the next morning I led everyone to the barn. I gave both dogs a biscuit as soon as they went inside. First they sniffed them. Then they devoured them.

The next morning, the collie came into the living room and started smelling my pockets. She was looking for more biscuits. When I opened the door to go outside, the lab ran to the barn. He was so happy when I gave him his morning biscuit.

Two problems were now solved. My decorating dilemma had been fixed with Colleen's bowl fillers, and my doggie issue had been fixed with Char's dog biscuit recipe. Occasionally though, I still think I detect a hint of blueberry and wax on the collie's breath. Oh well, if life were perfect, it wouldn't be any fun.

Blessings to you.