September Chat

Glenda, its cause the rumor is,  that lady is nice and she will feed you. :)   You know our Garth is a Pyr. A full blood mom, part pyr dad.  He has a dry mouth just like Hot Shot.  He has been a pain in the behind but is starting to have more control.  We are seriously going to have to take him to class.  He is just now 23 weeks old, I am hoping the word no begins to have some meaning soon.

Oh yeah Glenda there IS a sign above your house -- it's just scent based is all LOL.  

I'm still here -- just continue to be SO beyond slammed at work and with the sciatica I can't 'sit' at home (all I can do to "sit" long enough to work to be honest).

Glenda -- years ago my landlord had a pyr.  One day I drove to his house to pay my rent ... he'd told me to just slip the check in the mail slot on the front porch.  He said the dog was 'nice' and wouldn't hassle me (dog was on the enclosed porch).  So  yep ... saw dog, said "hiya" put check in mail slot.  Dog ambled over and ... ATE it.  OH .... WHAT DO i DO NOW??

Called Landlord and he apologized.  asked me to come in the evening to hand it to him. So I did ... he invited me into the house ... the dog walked up to me and with THREE paws on the ground he lifted the 4th one and put it on ***MY shouldler**!!!  

"dog bigger than I am" -- yeah -- it can happen with them.  But if you're part of their pack, you iz 'inviolate".  Danged big dogs tho LOL

Big dogs are neat. Guy showed up at the dog park with a matched pair of big dogs. I asked if they were litter mates, but one is a lab-mastiff cross, the other is a Rotty cross. Both are big brown friendly things. The one walks around grumbling all the time. They and the owner would benefit from a good training class. A brace of 120 lb dogs that don't understand a leash yet. Apparently, one had been abused and neglected. You could see signs of skin disease around the muzzle on the mastiff, , but good food, shelter, and a vet have made the dogs world a lot better.

Interesting about the way dogs get along at the park. Barking, growling, snapping, posturing. No bloodshed yet. Sky has snapped beside a few dogs heads when they got too pushy, but they don't fight..

Apparently one sign of climate change in MN is the start of a monsoon season. Highway work state wide has slowed down. The detour from Nicollet to Mankato is about 5 miles farther, and will last about 2 or 3 weeks longer than originally planned. This is just the preliminary work. The whole project to bring us 4 lanes will take two years. They have to build about 40 pond basins to handle ground water. The detour has taken all the traffic away from our back yard. The quiet is amazing.

LL Bean has a good web site. I purchased a collapsable dog kennel from them, and now get e-mail and paper advertising constantly. I don't need a $400 raincoat, but it looks neat. Thats the kind of thing I would tear the first time I wore it.

And the noon rains are moving in.  Got Jr out early to run.  Meadow Larks are apparently moving through.  Jr jumped several. and there was a bunch along the access road..

Two more pieces of wood, and I have another pair of chairs done.  Air nailer, glue, and Kreg screws make the job faster, along with the oscillating saw for trimming wood plugs.

The weekend is supposed to be nice, so hopefully my sons October Fest Party and Anniversary will be dry.(except for the adult beverage).

Stayed up and watched a new TV show, "The B#####d Executioner".  Definitely not for children, possibly not for adults.  Medieval setting.  Blood, witchcraft, death, nudity.

Been super busy trying to get things done and out of the way before next Tuesday. It sounds like post op is going to be rather unpleasant so want to be sure all my produce is picked and processed, as much as possible, and some meals in the freezer, just in case. What I'm going to eat, is a good question since it's supposed to be cool and soft. Yum. Not.

Doug, your chair sound great.  I know your son will be thrilled.  I have been curious about the Kreg method apparently it works.  

Glenda I must have missed something are you having surgery?  You may have mentioned it but these days.....I have many "duh" moments :)

It is Bikes, Blues and BBQ in N.W. Arkansas, kick-off was yesterday and the bikes are coming in.  We will stay close to home and leave the roads to the bikes.  It is great for this area and they expect around 400,000 visitors to the area.  All the rooms are full clear out to 1 hour away and all the campgrounds and RV parks are full for the weekend.

FYI  anyone in the  Lancaster PA area, sweet BMD 2 yr old female on Pet Finder.

Don't the chairs sound nice? I keep slipping my address in, but so far, Doug seems to be ignoring the hints.

Yes, I am having two procedures done on Tuesday. I have a deviated septum that will be repaired, and some bone will be shaved to widen the nasal passages. Hopefully, for the first time in my life I'll be able to breathe through my nose! Getting a bite nervous tho....I made the mistake of reading the pre-op descriptions again, and it sounds like hades x ten! I keep telling myself that I'm a tough old broad, but I haven't quite convinced myself~

Ginger, I don't envy you that influx of people!

Glenda-the nasal repair sounds like a really bad weekend.  Will it make sleeping easier?  The nicest thing I've found with some of these doctor actions is you get to sleep through them.  Then, with the right meds, the next few days are a pleasant dream.

The chairs turned out better than I thought.  Apparently, after the first dozen, I've figured it out.  I don't really enjoy the finishing work, so son can paint or stain them any way he wants.  I need a larger work area.  I am constantly setting up or moving equipment and stepping on cords or scrap wood.

Wife wants to visit her brother on the right coast.  20 hours driving time, and she wants to go the first week of pheasant season.  I've been running Jr a lot to get him in shape for opener, and now it looks like he spends a week at friends with a fenced yard.  Is it possible to trade in a wife?  I may just take up drinking.

The problem with sleeping through it, is that eventually I have to wake up. Will have the good drugs, but just as I start feeling human, I go in for the post op and they remove the packing and stints, which "may" cause additional swelling! Guess I'll be looking like I've been in a good drunken brawl for a couple of weeks.....sure wish I could at least do the drunk part!!

Glenda --  for what it's worth -- here's my take on 'age'.   I'll never be sorry we took Tink.  She was a total wild child of  not quite 6 months but there's such a sweet spirit there she never drove us horribly crazy .  But that basic sweetness coupled with the fact that she was SO frigging sick when we got here (and i know YOU remember this) just made age almost a non-issue. (i.e., you saved my life so I'll do ANYTHING to plesse you)

However -- Luna was  9+ months old and your basic typical Poster Child  of "the dog stamped 'incorrigible' because no one taught it a thing during its formative months and most of all the dog was never taught that pleasing a human was important".         She's   a smart girl and trainers just gush about how much they love her, but she has always been and likely will stay the   one dog who has been THE most difficult to train (even now when she's like 14).

So yeah, Luna is that dog who came from a shelter with "baggage" and training has always been the big deal.

So I've said that to say this -- I'm so glad we got Tink when she was super young but she IS an anomaly and I likely will never voluntarily take a baby puppy again.  And honestly it would never be my choice to take a "teenager" dog like Luna    who was in that full rebellious phase when we got her.

BUT I have totally fallen in love with taking on an older dog.  There are SO many dogs out there  who are totally mature, and who have just gotten  a raw deal..  "I'm 6 but my human's new girlfriend wants a baby and no dog" or "my humans lost their home and had to give me up". -- mature dogs are SO often unbelievably l**grateful** for a home.  You may only have them a few years but we've had so many unbelievably wonderful "mature" dogs -- like Billy, Kee Shu, Ms. Socks, Curley (the one who had lived with the circus??) and Charlie .  

There is just something so incredbily MAGIC about taking an older dog   who may often be totally shut down convinced it's his lot in life to have to take that long walk down to that room no one ever comes out of -- and bringing them home, and suddenly seeing them blossom.  

Like that Pyr -- if  DS will commit to the physical aspects of owning a HUGE dog (so Mom and Dad don't have to man-handle a 200 pound dog into the car to go to the vet, etc.) that's fine.  But David and I have learned to love the mature ones SO much and it is SO unbelievably exciting to see them  blossom.

It's never ever easy losing a dog, but as I age, I guess I'm so much more aware that a senior dog can honestly bring more to ME emotionally and I've now had the opportunity to experience 5 dogs where I otherwise may have only experienced 1 who lived 15 years.  Did that make sense?

Glenda will be thinking of you next week. That surgery does not sound nice at all. I've thought about it but guess things just aren't bad enough yet for me to want to go through it. I also have deviated septum and after finding that out a few years ago, I now knew why it seemed as though my one nasal passage would block up so easily. Always had problems with it when I was a kid and would have colds and never understood why. It used to drive me crazy and was the reason for some horrible head aches when I had colds and with allergies. I've been using a steroid nasal spray for years now and also use a lot of saline nasal sprays. Have been living on allergy pills quite a bit as well. Wishing you the very best best for your surgery and quick healing vibes sent your way as well.

Had a big deal happen at an agility trial last weekend. Corey got his ADCH, Agility Dog Champion. It involves getting qualifying scores and Titles up through the different levels. Once you've received your MAD, Master Agility Dog, you then go on to work towards your ADCH. It's taken us 6 years to get there so it was pretty exciting.

Beautiful day today so might get outside and get some of my overgrown gardens cleaned up for the winter.

Congrats to you and to Corey I know you must feel so proud of the acheivement

October fest at my sons.  A live polka band from New Ulm, dancing, beer, brats. lots of ethnic clothing (wife does not want a German serving wench  costume).  There were several styles present.  You can get facsimiles of authentic styles.  T-shirts or aprons, printed to look like lederhosen.  Strangely, lots of real German lederhosen in my sons neighborhood.  The secret to a successful loud party is to invite all the neighbors.

I can't believe all the construction going on, but MN had a cash surplus this year and we are catching up from several years of delayed maintenance.  Major slow down on the highway at Jordan.  The highway intersection involves a bridge and a river and A major festival had let out along with rush hour traffic, so we turned off the highway and ran right into a bridge redo.  Drove down a few streets I had never seen before.  With all the rain, a lot of these projects are running behind, and in another month or two, the ground freezes and gets hard to work with.

Neighbor gave us a couple of grocery bags of cucumbers.  Pickles, relish.  With a little luck, wife will make her 14 day pickles.  Like eating candy.

Way to go, Corey and Maureen! Wahoooooo!

Doug, it seems to me that as much work as you've been doing around the house since your alleged retirement that you've earned at least opening weekend with Sky. Maybe you should beg? Or just tell your DW that we all think you should get that first weekend......

Kate, I'll let you guys know just how brutal the pain is. In the end, it will be worth it. However, the middle of it all on the way to the end, quite frankly, scares me. I just keep telling myself how delightful it'll be to actually be able to USE my nose for what it was meant for.

I need to do some work out in the garden this weekend. Most everything is still going strong and the peppers just love the cooler weather. Of course, I do better when it isn't so beastly hot also.

Glenda, I'm sending tons of good thoughts your way (and fingers crossed for as pain-free--or at least pain-managed as possible). My peppers are very happy, too! The beans are about done. I was up in the Adirondacks for a workshop this week and they had their first frost while I was there. Winter's coming.

Doug, on my way home, I stopped to visit my aunt in Vermont. (She lives on the family farm.) I tried refrigerator pickles that she had made--yummmm! Now, I need to find some pickling cucumbers to make a batch. The apple tree at the farm (and all the apple trees I saw in the Adirondacks and Vermont)  was loaded with apples, so I picked a bunch. They might be Northern Spies--an old variety that is good for pies, etc.

Corey and Maureen--what an amazing accomplishment--well done and congratulations!!