Wynter Thyme and a treat for your puppy.

I love winter time. I love most everything about it, even the cold. I love the feeling of warming up after being sooooo teeth chattering cold. It's a delicious feeling. First you feel the flush of warmth hit your cold skin, then the slow tingle of thawing out, and finally the cozy warm, drossy feeling of heat enveloping you like a fuzzy heated blanket. Most of you know what I'm talking about, but for those who live in Florida or another warm, sunny state, you will have to take my word for it.

It was cold yesterday and today. It looks like the rest of the week is going to be in the 20's and low teens as well. No matter how cold it is, I hate wearing a coat when I take my Border collie, SadieMae, out in the mornings for her morning potty time. The last few days I have cajoled her to "hurry up" to no avail. She wants to take her time to sniff around and find out who's been in the neighborhood. When she has had long enough, and taken her "ever lovin' time" as we would say in the South, I begin the countdown. I start at 30 and count backwards. If I reach 0 and she hasn't done her business, I take her back into the house and she ends up having to go out her doggy door into a very small section of the yard. It's hard to grow grass in that area (soil is bad and it's too shady), she doesn't like doing her business there; she much prefers the leafy part of the wooded area of our lot. Amazingly, she will usually go by the time I get to 10, 95 percent of the time. Maybe she knows how to count. Sadie is no dumb dog; it seems that she has figured out why I'm trying to hurry her along in the mornings. For the past couple of mornings she has gone straight to my coat hanging in the mudroom and nosed it or jumped up and put her paws on it. "Put your coat on" she seems to say, "you will want to stay out longer with me if you do”. She did this last winter too....how does she know?





Here is a recipe to keep your puppy happy:

Doggie Bones

2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
6 Tbs margarine
1 Tbs salt
1/2 c nonfat dry milk powder
1 egg
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 c water
1 garlic clove(pressed)
1 beef cube

Mix ingredients together into a dough ball. Roll out to 1/4 thickness. Cut with dog bone cookie cutter (can use other cookie cutter shapes as well, such as a heart or stars). Place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown.