Weekly chat 8-18-14

Oh wow, I bet that tomato was delicious!  I told DH that I want to have lunch tomorrow at that farm's food cart we went to a couple weeks ago.  Their website says they have several varieties of tomatoes at their retail stand now, including heirlooms.  Yum!

Jackie, I'm glad the report from the vet was a good one.  Hopefully Belle's tummy troubles will clear up soon.

DH had a mess to clean up when he came home for lunch yesterday, so we didn't give Ruby much dinner last night, and she was fine all night.  She ate well this morning and her poop was pretty normal, so whatever was bothering her is out of her system I guess.

Lots of laundry and chores today . . . But I'll get outside for a while at some point to enjoy the great weather.  Hope everyone enjoys the weekend!

That tomato does look delicious. Enjoying the pup pictures Doug.

Oh dear Tracy what a horrible mess to have in the wee hours of the morning. It did sound like Ruby really tried to get out though. Hoping that she's just about over it now. Jackie, hope Belle's tummy troubles are a thing of the past. Glenda that news about Hubby's bosses wife is just fantastic and hope she is continuing to improve. Had a nice family reunion in Toronto last weekend. First time we'd all been together like that since 2000. All but my hubby and a niece and nephew were able to make it. There were 26 of us at my brother and sister-in-laws house. It's so hard to get everyone together when we all live so far away from one another. There is family in Louisiana, family in Saskatchewan, family in North Carolina, family in Ottawa, us in NY State and of course family in Toronto. Hard to believe that Summer, for this year, is almost a thing of the past.

Sounds like a nice family reunion! My family only reunites at funerals Heh. Can't remember the last time we actually had a reunion.

Glad to hear the bosses wife is doing better. It sounded like a close call.

Abbie and I took our official team certification test last night. How it works on our team is you do individual tests to get deployable status then within 60 days you take the actual certification test which is all the skills put together. If you fail the certification test you are no longer deployable until you retake and pass the cert test. So the cert test is 160 acres and has to be done in 2 hrs. There is lives subjects, human remains and articles. Last night's test was Flipping hard as heck. It was 76 degrees with 70 percent humidity and zero wind. The wooded areas were so thick that it nearly took 15 to walk 100 yards. You couldn't see the ground and it was covered in downed trees, logs, stumps and holes. I must have fallen at least 4 x. On top of all that it was dark (not a normal cert test) and abbie lost her light halfway through. She rocked the human remains part (we have been working very hard on that this year) which made up some time. On the live find part we struggled because of the terrain. So due to the conditions they gave me an extra 20 mins. My scenario was a lost berry picker so once we found our clue (a mesh bag for holding berries) we knew to circle around that area to make the find. I truly thought we were going to fail. In the last 5 mins my field support point out an area we hadn't searched and as soon as we walked in that direction abbie caught scent and took off. She was so hot and exhausted she could hardly give me her bark indication but she did! So we pulled it off in the end. Wahoo! I'm so relieved. Now we are certified for 2 years then we have to retest. That was soon stressful! Abbie did an amazing job despite how hot and tired she was :)  we didn't get home until 2 am though so today has been a very lazy day (after breakfast out with some friends).

Congrats to you and Abbie!  Fantastic job.

Congrats Julie and Abbie!

There are continued promising signs...including a hand squeeze.  This poor woman and her family have been through hell with her health issues so I'm so happy to hear that she's showing some signs of improvement.  Mom was close to 70 when she had a quadruple bypass, and while it was a rough recovery, she didn't have the complications that this poor gal has had.  And she's much younger than Mom was, but then, there were other health issues complicating things.  All the good thots and prayers from idoggers have had a positive impact, I'm sure.

Today  is the big car giveaway for the stations...nice vehicle it's a Toyota Highlander, so will go with DH and help when and where I can.  Hopefully we'll be done by mid afternoon.  Supposed to be partly sunny and 75 today.....last time we did this it was blistering hot so at least the weather will be nicer.

Hope everyone enjoys their day!

Congratulations Julie and Abbie!  What an exhausting exam.  You both deserve much applause!

Glad to hear there are continued signs of improvement -- she may have a very long, slow recovery, but hopefully she'll regain a good quality of life.  

Have fun at the auto giveaway!  Wish we had temps at 75, but they said close to 90, and it'll stick around a few days.  We're going to the farm food cart for lunch, but we'll go early so it's not too hot.  

Hard to believe it's the last week of August!

Congrats Julie and Abbie for a job well done. Sounded very tiring, physically and mentally, and totally understand why the day after was a lazy day.

Julie I am so proud of you  & Abbie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had to work all weekend. I went out with DH last night and took B to the lake this morning so both boys got some one on one LOL

I took a longish walk both days too so got to see the sun!

Jackie I hope Belle is feeling better

Bugsy's pointer buddy decided to stick his face into a yellow jacket hive today - he is lucky his mom is a vet!

Tracy I hope Ruby is doing OK, poor baby.

Since I too often complain about having to work so much I would also like to add that it allows me to be more generous with the charities I want to support. Last week I did a bunch of just little things but it made me happy. One thing I did was when I saw a rural rescue set up outside a petsmart with two emaciated looking hounds up for adoption. So I went in and bought each pup a bully stick and I had asked the guy there what they needed most and he said leashes so I bought 6 leashes for them. It wasn't much but I was so happy to see those hounds realize the bully stick was for them :)