weekend in review

All winter long - actually - ever since we have had our house "weather tight"... this one big heater in the basement has been our source of heat. The wood finance heats the hot water, sends it into the house and then this heater makes "hot air" from the hot water. Our basement has remained around 78 and the warmth from below has come up thru the basement door and the floors. Except for bitterly cold days this heater has done all the work and the house has been more than warm. On the very cold days, the "little stove" assisted, but over all that has not happened that often. Our builder told us that this would be an easy house to heat, because we have the "latest" in insulation factors.. and he was right.

However, the real game plan for heating the house has been radiant heating. We have all the tubing in place in the floor of the basement. We still need to do the tubing that will heat the floors on the main floor of the house, and that will be in plans to do over the summer. This past week, we finally got the last of the hook up supplies, and have switched from the one big heater to using the radiant heating in the cellar floor. Personally I think all the exchange values on this wall look like something out of a space ship, but Ed seems to know how each one works!!! All I can tell you is the cellar floor is nice and warm and the basement is staying as toasty as it has been all winter. I can't wait to get the rest of the work done knowing that the main floor floors will feel as warm as the cellar ones do.

Ed was away this weekend, and though I missed not having him around, there was plenty going on to keep me busy. Saturday night, Abbie, Sadie and I went to Kelli's and Rick's. Next week, I will be seeing Chester again, and meeting his new owner.. so , as a gift for them, I wanted to scrap book the blog that I kept while Chester was with us.

I don't know much about scrap booking, but Kelli does, and she offered to help me put Chester's book together. Kelli sure has an eye on how to do this, and basically, I did the cutting and told Kelli how I wanted it to look, and she took it from there. I'm glad we started when we did, because one evening wasn't enough time to finish it. So, we'll get together again this week and have it done for me to take. I can't wait to give them this gift... I can't wait to see Chester again!!!!

While Kelli, Sadie and I were working on the book... Abbie entertained herself with the Boxers. She loves dogs, and I think the Boxers were quite intrigued by her. Abbie kept taking their dog kibble and transferring it one bowl to another. Mya kept checking to see if it might be more "interesting" after Abbie handled it.

All of the boxers -- Mindy, Gus and Mya were so good with Abbie. They don't have many little kids around, and it's wonderful to see how gentle they are with her.

Abbie just loves all the animals in her life. And she's big into "helping out" just now. She loves to help feed the dogs, and knows just how to do it. Though sometimes during the day... the dogs end up with a little extra kibble now that Ab can get the cover off the dog food container.....

I'd like to tell you that Ginger and Abbie wore each other out in this photo.. but actually they were just laying on the floor. It's been nice having the "service puppies" in our home, because Abbie has learned that dogs do come in all different sizes.....

It was really cold this past weekend..... I had hoped we might have the last of this really cold weather behind us.. but not yet. So, we kept the little stove chugging all weekend... again, Abbie wanted to "help". She does understand hot, and the stove sits high on the hearth.. but, this was a little too much "helping" for me... after the picture was taken, I made her back off.....

Hunter and Trev.. all cuddled together on the couch.....

and I am looking forward to my morning coffee on the front porch........