sheepdog

Ok, so lets say your dog is bigger and stronger than you. And while you are out walking he decides to chase a cat. How do you stop him? Do you allow him to chase the cat, possibly kill it, or even worse, chase the cat and run out in front of a car and get himself killed? Sometimes it is in the dogs best interest to force them to do something they don't want to do.

Sure, I've used paper maps for years......see, I've been around longer than Google. I have also printed out the MapQuest type computer maps and used them with fairly good luck. They are a bit hard to follow though until you get used to them. I don't like how they just show miles between road changes and never mention any towns or anything so you have a clue as to where you are, but it can be done. And if I don't use Google, do you think they will take the satellite pictures of my home and property off line? I doubt it. I don't like that and I don't like them snooping on my computer when I am working on other things. It's one think if I'm doing a Google search and they record some information about me, but if I'm not it's none of their damn business what I choose to highlight in a document I am working on.

Ok, I have a new pet peeve. We are becoming so hooked on modern technology that there are some people out there that can't even give you directions to where they live! Can you imagine not knowing where you live well enough to tell someone how to get there? How crazy is that? You ask for directions and they send you an address? What dang good is an address if you don't have gps? If you are one of those people who do not want any and everyone to know exactly where you are all the time and refuse to use gps your pretty much screwed as more and more people become slaves to technology. What are people going to do if the power goes out and they don't have their little gizmo's to direct them home? What a sad and pathetic state to be in. And on this basically same subject. I have come to the conclusion that the biggest threat to freedom loving Americans is not communists or terrorists, but GOOGLE! That's right, Google. We have absolutely no privacy at all anymore. They track your every move. With their satellite's in orbit taking pictures of every inch of property we own, to their spying on what you are doing on your computer so they can sell you stuff. I didn't realize how bad it was until yesterday. Planning a trip for this weekend and wanted to see if there were any Motel 6's along the route, in case we get tired and can't make the trip all in one day. Do you know, within an hour after making the search, every time I log into my facebook page there are now ads for Motel 6. I have NEVER seen an ad there for it before. They have to be tracking everything we search for. This really pissed me off. Every time I highlight anything like just to copy and paste it, it shows up in the Google search, and I am really offended by that. They could be getting email addresses and all kinds of information that is none of their damn business.

Yes, figuring out mycents is rather complicated, I have to agree with that. And now even checking to see what you had in your account is more difficult than it used to be. Before all you had to do was click on the red number in one of your own posts where it said mycents and it would show your balance. But with the fact that they don't update on any kind of regular schedule like they used to, that isn't even much help anymore. I just tried to go check mine and couldn't even get the page to load. Got a big blank white page with only one little tiny cursor type line flashing in the middle of it. Thought that was pretty weird. Also, in the last 2 days when I have tried to respond to a topic, I can't get the reply box to open to type in. I click in it and nothing happens. But it only does it on some topics, I made several replies tonight before it blocked me out of one.

Welcome Aquamereen! Glad to see a new face here at Xisto. Hope you will hang around, and don't give up just cause things have been a little slow lately. Biochemistry, now there's an interesting field. Certainly lots of ground covered there. What fields will you be working in when you graduate, have you decided yet? You certainly have a wide range to choose from, everything from agriculture to medicine.

Yes, that's actually part of the problem. I can only access it with Front page. And I now can no longer log in with FP to back it up. Anyway, I can't figure out how to do it any other way.

LOL, I don't think I could get away with a pay reduction, they already think I'm too cheap, which I suppose I am. Business has been pretty good the past year but I still remember all too well how for so long it was a struggle every week to make payroll and keep the dogs fed. Today was a real scorcher! And boy do I wish it would rain! I mean a real rain, not just a tiny shower that barely settles the dust. I am so sick of watering. It takes hours and hours if I have to water everything. Have to plan it out carefully, like tonight I had to go out a bit early while it was still pretty hot to water the cherry bushes along the driveway and the entrance way flowers, and get that all done and hubby volunteered to water the garden and the bulldozer planting, so while he was doing that I finished up a few more odd jobs around the kennel then I had to go start the soaker hose in the flower bed. The pool is getting a bit low and needs water too, but it will have to wait at least until tomorrow night. I can't run a lot of water during the day when we are trying to do the kennel cleaning and watering so everything has to be timed out just right. Sometimes it's a challenge for me to even get a shower!

There are some major savings between new and pre owned. For example, the depreciation hits your new car the second you drive it off the lot, it is now a used car, therefore not as valuable. But where the savings really come in is also a lot dependent on how mechanically inclined the owner is. If you have to pay an expensive mechanic to do simple things to a used car, your savings might not be so great. If you can install a new starter, fuel pump or other common problems, you are far better off with a used car in the savings department. In many cases, the car part you have to buy will be a lot less than one months payment on a new car. And if you are talented enough to rebuild transmissions and overhaul engines, the savings are tremendous. You can also save a ton of money if you don't live in town and can have a parts car or 2 sitting around your place. We bought one Ford Aspire for $500, it was running when we bought it but was pretty rough, we've already used probably $2,000 worth of parts off of it if we would of had to buy them new. We bought a whole door one time for $25 when the glass company wanted $45 to replace the window glass. So a lot of it depends on your own abilities and the situation you live in.

Auto arrange isn't checked, so that's not it. It's just easier for me to have them on the desktop, providing I can find them rather than having to go threw another menu, I flip between them frequently every day, adding notes about customers and pups and stuff so I can keep track of sales. One in particular, a notepad file I call E cheats, I used practicly every time I answer an email, it's prewritten sentences/paragraphs that are answers to the same questions I always get asked over and over, like how much is shipping or do you take pay pal, that sort of thing.

Cesar is a popular dog trainer, and I'm sure he has done a lot of good for a lot of dogs. I've never actually even seen his show personally. I have heard a lot of serious criticism about him from the folks that call themselves force free trainers. Those folks have some good ideas too, but personally I think they are a bit over the top. They don't think you should even raise your voice to your dog! Simple things like the old stand by method of teaching sit are also a no no. That is, putting your hand on your dogs hind quarters and pushing him down to a sitting position while saying sit. They consider that using force. And God forbid don't ever mention a choke or prong collar to one of them, they will crucify you on the spot. They kind of amaze me with the huge unfailing amount of compassion they show for dogs but when it comes to humans they have none what so ever. The best thing for training dogs is patience, common sense and a good balance of different schools of thought. When people ask me to recommend a book on dog training, I always tell them to read several books, not just one. What works perfectly for one dog will have no effect on another. You have to be open to new ideas and methods and be willing to try any number of different things.

I don't think it's updating. I was looking for one file earlier this afternoon and I moved it back to where I wanted it and then opened it, and 5 minutes later it was back down where the computer wanted it again. This is really pissing me off.

Thanks, that makes me feel a lot better at least about the email. My site is still up and visible, links work and all that good stuff. I just can't update it any more. I've had lots of long chats with Tech and while they are very helpful, I'm so far behind the curve on this internet stuff, I am a hopeless case. Seems no matter what I attempt, I'm pretty much screwed. I even went so far as to check out other hosting services, (sorry guys, but I was desperate) but none of them accept Front Page either so I'm pretty much back to square one. Basically this is what I am up against. Learning a new site building program. There are many reasons I do NOT want to do this. One, it took me ages and ages to sort of figure out FP. I cussed and reared and made home life for hubby a living hell while trying to figure it out. I just don't know if I can stand any more of that. And it takes forever for me to figure things out, and to put it simply, I don't have enough hours in the day as it is to take care of the things I have to take care of. Now, it has been suggested that I use Word Press. But from what I can figure out about it, it's designed so you use templates. I don't want templates. I don't want to put pictures and information where a program tells me to put it, I want my web site the way it is now. Call me crazy, but I like my site the way it is. I want unique, not templates. As a matter of fact, most of the site building programs I have looked at all use templates. I did get some helpful or at least interesting ideas from a tech at Go Daddy, he said their might be a way to just log into the site and add code. Of course, that is going to require me to learn html code, which in itself is a pretty daunting task. And right now I am worried about loosing every bit of what I have up on my site. Since I can't log into Front Page, I can't even make a back up copy of my site. I probably still have all the graphics I made for it, but they are scattered around on dozens of different cd's in no set order, and I have a ton of time invested in making all of them. Sure as heck don't want to have to remake all of them. I probably spent 2-3 weeks making the background alone. Pretty much any way I do this it's going to be a disaster.

No, guess I missed the disappearing text. I'm a bit slow sometimes. I miss the good old days when you could laugh and not have to feel guilty about it. If something was funny, we laughed. It was a lot healthier that way. Now everyone is afraid to open their mouth for fear of offending some thin skinned liberal whiner. Except me, I love to bash liberals. Don't care if I offend them. They can just kiss my royal red white and blue American hillbilly *bottom* if they don't like it. Ok, make hillbilly jokes. Go for it! If they are funny I will laugh!

Thanks. I was looking at it today, it already needs touched up, something scattered a lot of the white stone out of place and onto the mulch area. And of course that bloody damn grass is creeping rapidly back in the irises. Hope we get some rain soon. I spent over 2 hours last night watering until it just got so dark I couldn't see at all, then got up at 7:30 am and started again until 11 when I had to quit to go with hubby to a doctors appointment and still didn't get it all done.

I would put them to good use if they weren't so bloody lazy! I've had several different helpers this summer, most of them barely a third of my age, and they act like they are going to die if they work more than 4-5 hours. What the heck is wrong with young sprouts today? A couple of them were big strapping healthy boys that should be in the prime of their lives and you never heard the likes of the whining and complaining and all the aches and pains they have! Well, don't let the hot weather keep you away too much. Come back and visit more!

I finally after about a year of messing around with it managed to put the finishing touches on one side of my drive way entrance. This one has been a real challenge. The big problem has been keeping the grass out of the Irises. There is a narrow strip of grass just behind the dog stature and the irises about 2 foot wide between them and the flower bed. it's sloped pretty bad too, which makes it difficult to either mow or cover with something to kill out the grass. I'm not really sure what type of grass it is, hired girl says crab grass, Hubby says fescue, but it is the toughest stuff I have ever seen. I pull and pull and pull some more and it just keeps coming back. Even wide strips of mulch won't slow it down. It sends these long runners for many feet under ground both shallow and several inches deep that puts it right back to growing again. I've pulled out long strips of root/runners 2 or 3 feet long. As a matter of fact, I saw something this year that I would of never believed if someone had told me if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. I was, as I often am, pulling that god awful grass out of my irises. Was trying to be thorough and get it all. Yea, right, like that is possible. Anyway, I saw this one sprout right next to an iris leave. I moved the iris leave back so I could get to the base of the grass sprout to pull it and I didn't see the base. So I looked on the other side of the iris thinking it was on that side. Still didn't see where it was coming out of the ground. After looking at it for another minute I suddenly realize that the grass stem had actually grown right threw the middle of the iris leave and was coming directly out of the leaf itself about 6 inches off the ground! Now that is some tough, invasive grass when it hides inside another plant! I am trying to foil the grass and although it's not completely under control I have a pretty good handle on it. I covered a large area of the project with pieces I cut out of my old swimming pool liner, it's tough and should last for quite a few years. I hope anyway. I have it under the pink and white stones in front of the box with the mum growing in it, and all the way from the edge of the driveway back to the irises. I mixed up some homemade weed killer, with vinegar salt and Dawn dish washing detergent and sprayed a stripe in the grass walkway behind the display, between it and the flower bed. Also sprayed along the edge of the driveway. That blasted grass has sure been a challenge. I have it slowed down a little but not completely under control yet. It sure has been a chore though.

Demon Boy! Your back! Cool! Good to see you. I've been back popping in for the last week or so myself. It has been one heck of a summer. I keep getting older and slower and it's harder to get things done. But some good news, I'm not as puny as I thought I was. Had the hired girl help me put my huge male Old English Sheepdog on the table to groom him, I didn't think I could lift him by myself. About half way threw the groom I was trying to turn him around on the table and he leaped off into my arms, and not only did I have to hold him up, I had to catch him too and put him back on the table. So I'm definitely stronger than I thought I was!

I only have one computer. Well, at least only one I use to get in here. And yes, it works every where except here.

No, don't have any live birds yet, but it's pretty late in the season now for them to be trying to hatch out another clutch of eggs. I don't have any real bamboo, but do grow a lot of cane, which is similar, just a lot smaller around. Does get real tall though, 15-20 ft. I have several big patches of it. I have found all kinds of cool uses for the canes, this year tomato stakes, and was going to put up a rail of them along my flower bed to help keep them upright, but I'm running out of time for that now so probably won't get that done. I also lash them together to make shades for some of the dog pens, and the harbor I did try to build that a storm took down and we just haven't gotten around to putting back up yet. It's really fun stuff to play around with.

Copy/paste works everywhere but here.

Not sure if feminism is a dirty word or not. It used to be important, but like so many other groups that started out with noble intentions, the lunatic fringe has taken over the feminist movement and turned it into something way beyond it's original intent, which to my way of thinking was to fight for equal rights for women. For example, whinny woman demanding the government pay for their birth control, but you don't hear a peep out of them about the nearly 300 girls kidnapped and being threatened with being sold into slavery by Muslim extremists. Which to me shows them to be a bunch of real chicken poo's. If feminists wanted to be taken seriously they should load up their lipstick, high heels and AK 47's and head off to the jungle to rescue those girls. Otherwise they are just another bunch of whinny liberal wimps.

I'm always adding things to my landscape around here, but this one turned out rather pretty. And it only took me about 2 months! Much better than the driveway entrance I've been working one since last year, which I also managed to finally finish this summer. The new one is a trellis I built for a Wisteria plant I put out last year at the base of a big oak tree. Finally found a pretty way to display some of the hundreds of pounds of rocks I am always dragging home much to my husbands dismay from vacation every year. One of the reasons this one took as long is because I wanted concrete bases for the legs of the cedar trellis to stand on to keep them off the wet ground so they wouldn't rot as quickly. I wanted to decorate the forms with colored stone. I had made a stepping stone in the past from an old dogs water dish, but I wanted 2 stones a little smaller than the stepping stone I had made, so tried to use a different size water dish. I greased it up good, but after the concrete set up I found it impossible to get it out of the form. I ended up breaking it all to pieces. So I had to rethink the whole process. I'm one of those people who have to wool things around in my brain for several days until a workable solutions suddenly pops into my head just like turning on a light switch. I ended up taking a 2 gallon bucket to the table saw. A scary job, since I already have one finger a bit shorter than it should be from that very same table saw. I cut out the bottom and then cut a 2 inch high circle of plastic out of the rest of the bucket. Then put the ring on the ground where I wanted the base and mixed and poured the concrete right into it on the ground. I had already layed out my stones on a large piece of paper in the design I wanted, so after I poured the concrete it was just a matter of quickly placing the stones on it. After it set up several days I did end up having to cut threw it, but was able to duct tape it back together to do the second base. Notching and getting the cedar post all carefully marked wasn't too bad of a job. But I had one more disaster before the finished project emerged. I had purched several cute plastic birds several years before, and had been carefully storing them in one of my desk drawers in the kennel all this time. When I was trying to set them on the trellis to decide where and how to space them apart, I dropped one onto the concrete base and busted it all to pieces. Really ticked me off. 3 birds would of looked much cooler than just 2. And getting the birds to stay where I wanted them was another challenge that I had to work out. Ended up splitting a short section of cedar and putting it on the outside of the main log, which I had cut a notch in for the bird to set flat on. Trying to screw the split cedar pieces on was a pain, they kept splitting. I ended up using lots of carpenters glue and hoping for the best. Glued the birds down too. Anyway, it's finally done and I think it looks pretty dog gone good if I do say to myself!

I haven't done any updates. Not deliberately at any rate, I suppose the computer updates itself in some instances, but even when I'm pretty sure there have been no changes those desktop icons still jump all over the place. Really annoying.

I do like that movie! They need to get that boy and the one who played in Kindergarten Cop together in a movie, that would be pretty funny! (or maybe that was the same kid, just more grown up in Home alone?) Anyway, I really do miss the gang that used to hang out here. And I too sometimes feel alone here with traffic as slow as it has been in recent months. I keep hoping things will pick up. Of course, even I am guilty of not spending so much time here anymore, I have way more on my plate most days than I can handle to start with. Summer is nearly over and we haven't had any free time, no trips to the creek for picnics or fishing or any fun at all.

It isn't just links that I can't post. I tried today to paste a copy of a weird email I got to see if it was something legit or a scam and couldn't post it either. I also tried pasting it in notepad first, that didn't help either.