Hidden Pictures

What do you see?

Friday Flowers: Yellow Iris

I talked my husband into buying these at a local garden club sale and I"ve never regretted it. While they don't last very long the color is amazing and they are huge.

Wordless Wednesday: Return of the Bunny

The Bunnies are back and not afraid to show it.

Bone Broth

Mom researched several Bone Broth recipes for us and finally decided to mix and match. All seemed to agree you needed to use joint bones for maximum mineral benefit. Many used turkey and chicken, but even though they suggested you could blend the bones to protect from the chocking hazard of small bones being stuck, Mom decided to go with beef bones. She put them in her crockpot and put water in until the bones were under an inch of water. Then she added 3 Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. Several recipes suggested lemon juice, but Mom hand squeezes hers for her water and she wasn't sharing. The acid helps break down the bones and puts the minerals into the water. Most of the crockpot recipes indicated you should put the bones on high for an hour and then turn on to low. The times after that varied anywhere from 24-48 hours. Mom decided on the 24 hours and man did that kitchen smell good while it was cooking.

After it cooled off Dog Dad let us taste test the product and it was amazing!!!

Our massage therapist suggested freezing the broth in ice cube trays and giving us an ice cube a day. It is the best treat ever. Katy never really liked ice cubes before, but now she lines up for her beefcycle every day. We started on this snack because it is supposed to be good for joint health. On further reading Mom also discovered it can be good for dogs with tummy issues, too. With all the tummy problems IBS has brought on she's always looking for something to help me with that.

As always you should check with your vet before trying anything new. We are not vets, nor do we play ones on TV. However, we had not thought to try bone broth before and Mom and Dad found it was easy to make and since we freeze it, easy to store and serve. We just thought we'd share our experiences in case someone else could benefit from it.

Friday Flowers: Bleeding Hearts

Bleeding Hearts were Mom's Dad's favorites so of course when she saw this one single broken down plant at a Garden Club sale, she had to bring it home, never thinking it would survive.

Now it is a bush and what she didn't know is you can't kill this thing. Really, you can't, even the City tried. They did some work on utilities and while they were repaving the street they thought it would be a good idea to pave over the corner of Mom's perennial garden. You know what grew through the asphalt the next year, the Bleeding Heart. It was the only plant that survived and continues to thrive. The rest lie dormant under the asphalt.

Friday Flowers: Iris

Mom went out on Sunday to check on the progress of the big purple Iris and they were still closed tight. On Monday, she happened to look out the window and surprise they had popped, so she went out to capture a picture of them before she missed them. The weather has been crazy lately. The wind or rain could easily destroy them if she waits.

She says these are very special because Dog Dad's favorite Uncle gave him them from his very own garden when they visited him.

It grows so well, Mom has been able to give other people Iris plants from it, too.

Wordless Wednesday: The Power's On

Bailey's had this strange attraction to the power strip lately. He really does seem to think he can draw power from it.

However, he has found another source of power that is helping him get stronger. He and Katy have started massage therapy and it is working wonders. We found a massage therapist at Paws in the Park and decided to check her out. We'd talked about doing it for years, but sadly something always came up. This time with Bailey's health issues we decided it was a priority. Then we discovered she lives in town, which made it seem even easier to commit the time to do.


Bailey has become very bow legged and walking almost on the sides of his paws. He's also lost significant muscle strength in his back legs that occurred sometime around our failed rescue attempt. He's had chiro for years, but nothing had stopped the progression. After his second massage session, his bowing has decreased significantly. His front legs have straightened dramatically. I hope to get some pics to show his vet the progression. He was too tired last night to submit for pics and I wanted to post something this morning.

We are also learning stretching exercises. As someone who needs PT exercises myself it never occurred to me to think that my dogs might benefit from stretching exercises as well. In the first session DH and I learned how to stretch both Bailey and Katy to help keep their legs more limber. Katy, especially has seen a difference with the stretching.

Our second session was with an intern who suggested we try making some beef broth from bone to help with Bailey's joint issues. I've made beef and chicken broth as starters for us over the years, I've never thought of the benefits for the dogs. I won't add all the veggies I do for ours, but I will look to getting a soup bone this weekend and making up some broth. She suggested freezing them into ice cubes to store the broth. Bailey loves ice cubes, so this could be a nice treat for him as well, especially with the hot summer months coming up.

here