Introducing Clive and Clara

Greetings family and friends!  We have been plugging away at home school lessons, chopping down trees, stacking wood, and upgrading our grey water basin.  We have been enjoying crisp sunny days amid rainy storms.  The forest looks so lush and green.  We can see a light frosting of snow on the mountain peaks that are partially covered with mists.  It is quite scenic.

Our first autumn at Haefen is going well, and among several projects we have added a couple of new animals to our family.  We of course still have Willa, our Irish Terrier who seems to like her new forest home.  She has plenty of room to run and roam.  Unfortunately our two acres aren't enough and she has been exploring our neighbor's property as well.  We have placed fence-fixing to the top of our to-do list.

Willa posing for Esther and Lillia on the wood pile

Ella and Clara

Before we left Nampa, Eleanor made it clear to us that she really wanted her own hamster.  Esther and Lillia have both had hamsters who have lived out their short but tender lives.  Caring for them were both great learning experiences for the girls.  We promised Ella that when we found a new home she could have her own hamster. 

So several weeks ago, after Eleanor had read a couple of hamster books, we drove to a pet store in Spokane to find a hamster.  They only had one "Robo" hamster left.  Roborovski hamsters are from Russia and they are the tiniest hamsters, about the size of a golf ball, and the last one was a female so we snatched her up, bought some hamster gear, and took her home.

Eleanor decided to name her Clara after a character in the book Dutch Color by Douglas Jones.  Eleanor thinks that her hamster is kind of reckless just like the character in the book.  Clara is pretty crazy, always very busy, and hard to hold.  We had a fun time trying to take this picture.  Eleanor was so worried that she would drop Clara.  So far, Eleanor is a careful caretaker and she really cherishes her first pet.

Clara was a planned pet but the newest member of our family was unexpected, at least to some of us.  Last Friday, Corey came home and asked me to come outside because he wanted to show me something.  I thought that maybe he had found some amazing thrift store treasure that he is known for finding.  He had all the children and I come out to the Suburban and right before he opened the passenger door I asked, "Did you get a dog?".  I thought that maybe he found a stray dog on his route somewhere - you never know what Corey might bring home.

meet Clive

I was on the right path, but strangely this dog was a small puppy with a blue collar with an attached metal tag that read "Clive" and Corey's and my cell phone numbers were engraved on it.  Hmmm... this seemed premeditated.  This dog was probably not found on the street.

Sure enough, Corey "found" Clive online and flew him here from Missouri, which is the same state that Willa came from.  Clive is also an Irish Terrier.  Corey picked Clive up from the airport after work and brought him home as a big surprise!

As is the custom we named him after one of our favorite authors.  Willa is named after Willa Cather and Clive is named after Clive Staples Lewis.  When we found out that C.S. Lewis grew up with an Irish Terrier it just seemed natural that we should name ours after him.

Of coarse, all the kids adore Clive and Corey is so happy to have the long-awaited partner for Willa.  We hope to breed Clive with Willa when he is old enough.  Right now Willa is not "too into him".  She usually stays upstairs to avoid the puppy terror, but he has figured out how to climb the stairs, so Willa has retreated to Corey's and my bedroom.  Willa has seceded the rest of the house to Clive, but she refuses to give up her master bedroom retreat.  Clive receives a strong growl when he comes too close to Willa's hideout.

Hopefully Willa will come around to the program and embrace her husband-to-be.  It has been six days since Clive arrived and Willa has shown some progress.  She will come downstairs when Clive is asleep!