"WHERE THE ANIMALS ARE SERVED FIRST...AND AREN'T ON THE MENU!"

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Catching up on Life, Reorganizing and Plans for a Big Project at the Lazy Vegan!

 Beautiful sage green moth hangs out on the kitchen wall.
A death has a way of making time seem timeless.  It has been two weeks since Julie passed on to her new adventure, yet in some ways in seems like only hours ago, and in other ways like it has been months or longer - I think it is that crazy vanishing act that happens when somebody dies that skews any "normal" sense of time for a while.  I think of her every evening when "her sunset" appears.  She took such appreciation of the changing sky each day and loved to comment on the colors as they arrived:  "here comes the orange!, here comes the pink!".  I'm happy to realize that, weather permitting, she never missed a sunset - and especially at the end with her improved view from her mobile hospital bed - she was practically in the sunset!

This past week was all about catching up on life here at the Lazy Vegan, since everything was pretty much put on hold during our hospice journey.  This meant making various vet appointments (the donkeys were due for their vaccines way back in May!), giving the dogs much needed baths (much to their dismay), getting stocked up on animal feed and supplies, paying bills and generally reorganizing the entire house (which meant that many bags of things were donated to the Sutter Hospice thrift store!). We also scheduled a big project with our contractor and his crew, to begin the first week of October...we're having a big, rustic pergola built and a large concrete pond/fountain sitting area (to match our terracotta terraces) - this is very exciting!  So stay tuned for future blog photos as the project begins!
The weekly pose is back!

 If you look closely at Luigi's mouth, you'll see him the middle of a little hee-haw!
 Poor donkeys...suddenly the lady with the camera is BACK!
 Playing around before dinner time.
 Oh, what fun - pieces of wood!


 This metal mock-up gives you an idea of the size of the future concrete pond/sitting area...
 And the pergola will go where the table and chairs are - we're talking BIG, with rough redwood lumber!

 Another view.
 You gotta love a man who polishes his own vegan shoes!

 In honor of Julie, the foreman ordered the collected poems of W.B. Yeats!
 Going through old photos - above stands our trio many years ago...
 And Solo and Claire!
 Karina testing the water.

OMG!!  Retro DWEEBS!
 Bunny's vet appt. will be in a few weeks with the rabbit specialist...time for her annual exam!
 Exploring!
 Blurred binky!
 Bravo is back to his old habits now that he has access to the downstairs bathroom - taking a nap in the towel basket!

Dinner time!
Oh, the horror of it all - bath time!



Here come the tomatoes!
Julie would have loved this sunset...
Charging around!

Relaxing.
Two weeks in a row - the girls came over and this time Claire cooked!
The pups watched her every move.

She made AMAZING homemade vegan pesto!


Bounty from the garden.
This was SO good!





At one point, Toby decided to take a nap!

Sparky Tomashefsky - cuteness alert!!!!

Critter Cam Videos!  I've decided to put all the videos of the week at the end of the blog post from now on...it is just easier to do them all at once...lots of foxes and more this week!












Saturday, August 24, 2013

Saying Goodbye to Julie & Appreciating Life at the Lazy Vegan



It is hard to fathom how much can change in one week.  As we continue to say goodbye to Julie in so many ways, we also are very aware this week of how much is wonderful in the world and precious in life.  We plan on having a family memorial in honor of Julie at our house in a few weeks.  Then, we will celebrate her life and who she was and continues to be.

This was not an easy week at the Lazy Vegan, but as the days passed we felt lighter and really good about the care we gave Julie in her last days on the earth, and very happy that she was able to leave this world for another in the privacy and beauty of our home and property, with her family nearby.
Will be going through Julie's many photos in the days to come.






We took this as a "sign":  about a week before Julie passed, the foreman tried out the swing (after the tree was trimmed) and I showed Julie the photo on my iPhone.  She squinted and stared at it and said something like:  "I cannot believe that is my 64 year old son on that swing!"  We all laughed about it.  And then, a few days after she passed, the New Yorker arrived with this particular cover (below)...


Magical sunset in honor of Julie!

The foreman found a tarantula in the basement...which, without boring the blog reader with the details, we also took as a "sign".



Adorable frog.

More magic in the sky.


Karina and Claire came over days after Julie's passing and Karina made a super yummy dinner - garlic stuffed mushroom burgers.

And sage potatoes.





It felt good to sit around and talk about Julie.

Later, the girls went through some of her items and talked about their grandma.









 The grapes that the foreman planted a long time ago are now amazing!

 It took about a week to clean out Julie's room of all the hospice items and other things...and after a ceremony, we reclaimed it as our bedroom.

 Wasabi loves hanging out in the "new" bedroom but the bed is too high for her to hop up on...we may have to buy a ramp!





 THANK YOU to Grandma Snap for calling and reminding me that it was Bravo's birthday!!

He celebrated his 11th birthday with a dog cookie!

Snap and I walked to an estate sale at our vintage listing in Sebastopol...fun!


The foreman and I bought the bull print and Snap found a great animal book for me!
We also bought this really cool lamp that goes perfectly in our living room.


Critter cam videos from the past two weeks or so:  coyote, fox, turkey, deer, skunk and more!




















AND, Paco and Luigi on the critter cam that I had strapped to their fencing - I started leaving the gate to their corral open at night so they can venture out into the "new" pasture area that's close to the house.


And playing during the day...