sheepdog

Hello Shahana and welcome to Xisto. We have folks here from all over the world so I'm sure you can get lots of interesting debates going on all sorts of serious subjects. It's good to share ideas and opinions because sometimes people hear things that are wroung, or possibly don't see all the sides to many different issues and don't understand the full consequences of certain actions so when people discuse issues in a rational manner, you can discover many things that you didn't know and when you have a better or more complete idea of a subject, your likely to have a different idea than you had to start with.

Wow, ok, I have to ask, do you ever get away from your computer? I would get seriously sick of sitting in front of a computer if I did all the computer stuff you did. Don't you ever yearn for the feeling of fresh air blowing across your face, hearing the birds singing in the trees, and just enjoy being out and about with friends, or even driving around in a car?

Welcome Johnny to Xisto. With your interest in security and forensics for computers I suppose, don't guess your intending to get into the same forensics as Abbey on NCIS you should fit in quite well here. And you can use the free web hosting to promote your small computer business, who knows, maybe with a good web site and plenty of promotion and work it may become a big business! Good luck and have fun here!

I did this post before, but thought it was time to remind everyone. The 4th of July can be a very dangerous holiday for pet owners. Many dogs are terrified of sudden, loud noises. and will have panic attacks. It is unwise to leave your pet unatended during this time of year. Your dog may be perfectly happy to stay in his fenced in yard the rest of the they, but if he is seriously frightened by fireworks, he can and will escape, and the results can be disasterous. Your dog could be hit and killed by a car after his escape, or he could vanish without a trace and you would never know what happened to him in the event someone found your dog and didn't wish to give him back. Please make sure all your pooches are safe and secure and here's hoping everyone has a great 4th of July holiday.

Well, as the temps are hitting in the 100's for the next several days, to the point to where I hate to even boil a pot of tea, I think you've gotten some really good ideas here! I especially like the ham and the tuna one. My mom used to make something simular to your tuna one with cellery and green peppers chopped up in it. (probably onions too) I use to love it when I was a kid.

An elderly friend of mine swears there is some chemical in the ink they use to sign marraige licences that causes people to become mean and nasty and hateful when they get a whiff of it at the wedding.

Yea, I probably should of said ATV. Just got in the habit of calling it a 4 wheeler. I still haven't gotten to drive the new one. Worse yet, the hired man got to drive it the other day. Oh well. And one other minor conflict, hubby decided we will keep the ball hitch on on and the drop pin hitch on the other, so we aren't always loosing and having to change out the hitch ball, so since I usually use the garden carts the most, I have the drop pin hitch, and he has the ball hitch, which means if he needs one of the other trailers he still gets "my" 4 wheeler. The cover might be nice, especially since the seat has gone bad and lost nearly all of it's vinal covering on mine, so I have to keep it parked inside in case of rain, or otherwise the seat is like a great big wet sponge to sit on, but it would also take out a lot of the fun of riding it. If I'm all enclosed up, I just as well drive the car around.

While I agree with you about the importance of water, especially when you take into considerating our bodies are made up of like 70% water, I believe your state above is just a bit of a stretch. More than a bit actually. Cake made from flour grown in wheat fields in the mid west has absolutly nothing to do with polution to the oceans. I think that's one of the things that annoy me the most about enviornmentalists. Trying to lay a guilt trip on the rest of the population to shame us into "compliance" with radical notions that may or may not have some basis in fact. If you would stick to real science and true facts, you'd be a lot better off. Face it, how many people are going to contribute to a campaigne that that says, "eat cake kill a dolphin?" Sure, lots of dumb people out there, but I would hope not that dumb. The 2 just have no connections in reality to make a believable campaigne that you can get people to get behind and support. I think we would have a much better outcome if we leave out the sensationalism and put our energies into good common sense solutions to enviornmental issues. Ones that we can all live with, and continue to live on and share this planet.

I frequently hear about how how we are too busy in todays society to have time for our friends, familys and children. I think that is a pretty pathetic excuse. In the world today we have hundreds of time saving inovations that should actually give us much more free time for family and other things. I wonder if any of you even realize what a struggle it was just to stay alive back in the days before computers, cars, super highwawys, microwaves, telephones, natural gas and propane tanks and electricity. Just for fun, let's compare a few activities from then and now. Going to the store Now. Jump in car. Drive to store. 5 minutes. Drive home 5 minutes Then. Catch horse. 20 minutes. Groom and saddle horse. 10 minutes. Ride to town. 30 minutes. (depending on distance to town, and condition of horse) Ride home. 30 minutes. Cool down, Unsaddle, brush, feed, and water horse and take it back to pasture. 45 minutes. And heres another one, even more complicated. Fixing a chicken dinner Today. Go to store and buy chicken and bring it home. 20 minutes. Season, put in pan put in microwave and cook. 30 minutes. Then. Feed chickens 365 days per year. 3650 minutes. Get scalding pot filled with water and heated. 10 minutes. Catch chicken. 2 minutes Behead chicken and wait for flopping to stop. 5 minutes. Scald chicken and pick feathers. 20 minutes. Gut chicken and cut up. 10 minutes. Cook chicken, (remember you can't just turn the knob on the stove, you have to gather wood and build a fire first too) 60 minutes. So really, I can't understand why we think we are so much bussier today than we used to be.

Don't we live in a wonderful society? You can work and slave and build up a company only to have some idiot come along and sue you for something that might happen? Doesn't that fall into the catagory to thought crimes? Who get's the 5 million by the way? That is of course, in the event that linked in looses the case. But even if they don't loose what is it going to cost them in lawyers fee's to protect their company? Seems to me that no matter who you are or what you do, somebody is going to come along and figure out a way to screw you out of what you have worked for to earn.

Democracy is freedom for us to choose dictators. Yes, I got a good chuckle out of that one. Does seem to be the way it works doesn't it? Problems arrise because even though the citizens and the government are supposed to work hand in hand, it never seems to work that way. How many politicians keep the promises they made once they get elected?

Not sure if this is the right catagory, but it seems to be the closest fit for my topic. We are now officially a two 4 wheeler family. Hubby just did some trading with one of his buddies and got himself one. Or should I say, another one? It's really funny because when he first got the urge to buy one several years ago, I thought he was just a bit crazy. We bought our first 4 wheeler, an Artic Cat, new, and at that time we paid more for it than we normally pay for the cars we drive. I thought it was a really huge expence for what we would get out of it. But then we got it, and I started using it. Oh dear, I had to eat my words. I can't believe how handy that darn thing was! The longer we had it the more I came to depend on it. I use it all the time. I can bungee down a dog crate on the back and bring dogs in to groom from the far end of the kennel and not have to carry the big fat ones and wear myself out. I can use it in the goat pasture to run the electric fence to look for places where it has shorted out and it has a hitch that can be used with a trailer ball hitch or a drop pin hitch, so we can use all of our little garden trailers and the one little 4X8 flat trailer and pull behind it. Just yesterday I moved a whole trailer load of rabbit poo up to the far end of our driveway to fertilize my flower beds and other plantings I have way up there, and believe me it is a lot farther from the barn to the end of our drive way than I would ever want to push a wheelbarrow! Considering it was supposed to be the hubby's, my constant use of it has lead to some conflicts of usage time to say the least. Hence, the second 4 wheeler. It's a 4 wheel drive, unlike our original which is a 2 wheel drive, and is really pretty helpless in the snow. This new one will be great this winter when we have to get wood cut and brought to the house. And of course, now that hubby has his own, I don't have to feel guilty about hogging the original one. I have noticed a reluctance on his part to explain to me how the new one shifts and works in general. It's quite a bit different than the original one. I get the distinct feeling that he doesn't want me to know how to run it. Can't imagine why.........

We live in times of political correctness.Too much double talk really. I have to agree with networker on that comment for sure!But science is generally a study of something so in some respects politics would be a science, the only problem I see is that in science if you mix 2 chemicals together, every time you do it if you keep the proportions the same, you are going to get the same results. There are enough variables in human nature this will not be true when you study what politicians do and the peoples reaction to their actions. For example, if you are a democrate, it was ok for bill Clinton to have oral sex with a female other than his wife right in the oval office, however, if you are a republican, if you even make lewd comments to a woman, you'll be drummed out of the running for the presidentual race. Along this same thought line, there are a few other simular catagories that bug me. One is the recent trend to call poker a sport. I think poker is a lot farther from being a sport than political science is from being a science. Sitting on your butt playing cards? How is that sport? And then there are German Shepherd dogs. This breed is catagorized as a herding breed. I for the life of me can't figure out what idiot put them in the herding group. No way a German Shepherd will herd, they will kill livestock but they sure won't herd them. You guys just knew I'd find a way to get something doggie in my post didn't you?

Well, I certainly wish him the best of luck. There certainly is no shortage of sawdust around, that would be a great way to get some of it used up. Though it has recently been used a lot to make those pellets you can burn for heat in a wood stove. I remember when you could go get truck loads of it for free at any saw mill, now you can't do that anymore. We used to use it a lot for mulch and animal bedding in barns. But car fuel is good too.

Truth Seeker, answer to what? How not to shoot a video? I watched it and it is so dark all you get a glimps of is a dirty dish or 2 and a stove. ynyqft your link isn't working. Honestly, lots of companies today shorten their name to just initials, I don't think for a minute it has anything to do with not getting sued. Guys, it's CHICKEN! Really. I know chicken when I eat it.

Has anybody noticed a problem with Yahoo's email? It seems to be loading really really slow, at least the first page, where you have to go to log into your actual inbox. Sometimes when you click on inbox and wait and wait, when it finally changes you are still on the first page. The messages load ok as you go threw them but getting to that first page is being a real drag. And also, I keep getting this little window that says someone wants to ad me to their Yahoo messenger, which I don't even have, it's rather annoying, and although I found the setting that allows me to only accept offers from those in my address book, (of which I only have a very few people) I'm still getting them. Is there any way to stop it completely?

Honestly, to me this sound more like a case where a spoiled smart mouth teenager had a tantrum because she couldn't get her way and go to a party than any kind of real abuse. I've known several "preachers daughters" and they can be some of the meanest, most hateful people you'd ever want to meet. I think the rebelious nature of teenagers is especially bad in children from families like this in part due to the strict upbringing, they have more to rebel against than the average kid. When they go bad, they go REAL bad! Unfortunatly, in so many cases, the authorities automaticly take the word of the child as gospil, and always forget to take into account that teenagers can lie and be doing it for spite or to get vengance against their parents when the folks won't let them have their way. Parent's always are guilty until proven innocent.

Welcome Surya, if you like computer stuff, you have definatly come to the right place. I'm sure there is some or several someone's here that can explain almost anything computer related for you. Not me of course. But if you ever had a dog related question, now that's my department!

Ah, this is a classic story. Boy loves Girl, girl likes boy. She really enjoys your company. Likes to spend time with you. Those are all good things. Her fear is that if the two of you became something more than friends, sooner or later she would loose the pleasure of your company. It's a sad but true fact that most boyfriend/girlfriend relationships don't last. You'll have a dissagreement or a major fight and then she will no longer have you as either a friend or lover. And she is afraid of loosing that. My best advise is to hang in there, give her some time, spend as much time together as you can, and don't hound her about dating, just casually mention it occasionally, maybe in an offhanded sort of way, like, Hey, that new movie is coming out this weekend, I'd love to go see it, would you like to come with me?

I am almost starting to feel sorry for teenagers in this rampantly insane politically correct society. Several news stories in just the past week or so are prime examples of how some nut case liberals are taking things to the extreme. I have to wonder what these idiots did when they were teenagers. Did they just stay so stoned on pot they didn’t have the mind or energy to get into any mischief? Here’s a link to one of the stories. http://www.khou.com/features/wishes-take-flight I mean seriously, crickets and frogs? Honestly, this isn’t even that great of a prank. It would have been much better to turn 3 hogs loose in the school, with the numbers 1-2-4 painted on their sides. Crickets and frogs live the world over, especially where there is any extra dampness, they are harmless critters, (actually make good fish bait so they are useful) I just can’t bring myself to see the harm in this silly little prank, but they are really nailing these 2 students. Aside from the fact that they are honor students, they have worked and studied for 12 years and now cannot attend their own graduation? That’s just ridiculous, and while that is bad enough, they may now have CRIMINAL RECORDS that will be with them and haunt them for the rest of their lives. Then last night I heard on the news that several students in Ohio have been denied their diplomas for at least some time, until they perform the community service they were given because their PARENTS cheered too loud and long at their graduation ceremony. The parents mind you, not the kids. How crazy is that? First off, the kids have no control over the actions of their parents, and second, those parents had every right to be proud of their children and have every right to cheer for them. High school graduation is a major accomplishment, and something all parents are excited for their children to accomplish. But the saddest of all is the poor girl who got thrown in JAIL for missing too much school. She also was an honor student, made good grades even with her absences. However, the reason for her absence is the real kicker in this story. The girl is only 17 years old, but their parents abandoned her and her 2 siblings, and the older girl was going to school and working 2 jobs to support her siblings. The judge who heard her case said there was no tolerance for her absences from school and put her in jail for 24 hours. Fortunately, since the story ran on Fox News, the cry of outrage has made the judge reconsider his decision, and they even went as far as to expunge the poor girls records, however, no amount of apologies and back tracking can make up for what I am sure was a horrifying experience of spending 24 hours in a jail cell with other real criminals for an innocent 17 year old honor student. I find it totally shameful that someone with the determination and fortitude to do the right thing and take care of her family should be punished so. How can any of these punishments even possibly fit the “crime” committed? A criminal record for you life that will prevent you from getting a good job and making advancements for the rest of your life? Nightmares of being trapped in a jail cell while worrying if your siblings were ok? What on earth are the people in charge thinking of? When on one hand you have school officials who pass students who don’t do their school work and therefore don’t pass, and those students get a free pass to the next grade because hold them back might damage their self esteem, how can they justify what they did to these kids? This world is just becoming crazy beyond belief.

Well, this is a very sad situation. And while I don't mean to be harsh or cruel, I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. But let me start off by saying, yes, you can live without her. She does not supply the oxygen you breath to stay alive, nor the food you eat or the water you drink. Those are the only things you need to stay alive. You just don't want to live without her. You are not nothing without her. You are you. With your own life and your own mind and body. I'm sure you have people that do care about you, family, friends, others you work or go to school with. I don't understand your thinking here either. What makes you think you can't live without this girl? She can't be too bright if she is in a relationship with a bad person, she says she doesn't want to live with this bad person, so why does she? You have obviously told her how you feel about her, and so she knows that there is another option available to her if the current boyfriend is so bad. Why would you be putting yourself into a situation so stressfull if she may not be worth the effort?

Sadly, my crow experience seems to have come to a screaching halt. He (or she, who know's with crows, exept maybe another crow) has not been back to the window for over a week now. A friend of mine told me they like corn, and to put some corn on the window sill, but I still really don't know what crows like to eat, I have seen them carry off dead mice and stuff, so I always assumed they were meat eaters. My luck with birds isn't going so well this week, no more crow visits, and I also set up a humming bird feeder under my new arbor, it's been up 4 or 5 days now and not a single visitor has found it.

Hey jlhaslip how are ya? Haven't seen you post in awhile. Miss visiting with you. I had actually planed on taking pictures and adding them when I made this post, but got side tracked and just never got to it. Too bad I didn't take them a week or so ago when the clematis was blooming. They are really beautiful plants when in bloom. I think now before I take the pictures I'll go ahead and finish the bench and get it set up the way I want it. I have a little child size park bench with zoo animals in cast iron for the back, I've had it several years and it needs redone. Yesterday I stained and watersealed the wood parts of it after a good scrubbing and bleaching of the wood, now I just have to take a wire brush to the metal parts and clean them all up and repaint them.

Yes, Michael Jackson, now there's a prime example of what I was talking about earlier, about people being silly, stupid, or just plain nuts. That man had it all, talent, fame, fourtune, the whole ball of wax. Yet him mind was warped and twisted to the point he drasticly changed his appearance, with surgery and even the bleaching of his skin to be white. Why would he want to do that to himself? What rational thought line could bring himself to such drastic changes in his looks and who he was. Especially as you say, he didn't look bad to start with.

Well, it’s been over a year now but I have finally got the arbor finished that I started making last spring for my 2 clematis vines to grow on. Originally I had one of those little cheapie ones that I had bought at Big Lots, but it had finally broken down and was looking like junk, so I decided to build my own. I built half of one side last year, but then ran out of cedar. So I started making the top roof part too last year, and managed to get it all done. I made the top out of the cane polls I have been growing for the past few years, that my vet gave me a start of. I lashed them together with lightweight string to make a semi solid cover for it. It’s not a tight fitting top, but I think it’s better this way as it will let the wind blow threw and won’t tear the top up nearly as easy as if I’d put a solid top on it. Plus of course, I think the top made of natural cane looks a lot better too. And it is tight enough to make pretty good shade, in the event somebody wanted to sit there. It was a rather tedious job, knot tying is not one of my greatest strengths, but it didn’t turn out so bad once it was done. I kept it hung up in a building we aren’t using for much of anything except storage, (it was supposed to be my new kennel building, we just never got around to finishing it) That way I could work on it a few minutes at a time when I had some time to kill, like if I had given a dog a bath and was waiting for it to get dry, that sort of thing. I nagged and nagged at the old man to go cut me some more cedar, but that was a hopeless cause, he was whining about getting out there in the woods and getting ticks on him so he just wouldn’t do it. I finally got him to cut the rest of it early this spring before all the pesky critters came out for the new season. You would think that considering the main tool I used to make the arbor was a chain saw, that I could of cut my own cedar but my chain saw is electric, and there is just something about me and my complete lack of any ability to start any type of small gas engines that require a pull rope to start. Weed eaters are especially problematic, by the time I yank the rope enough times to start the stupid thing, I’m usually too tired to run it. Anyway, he finally did get me my cedar and I got busy putting it all together. Tools were very basic, my electric chain saw, a tape measure, and then the screwdriver to put the screws in to hold it all together. I made all the notches for the poles to fit together with the chain saw, then screwed them in to hold it permanently. It is a bit of a trick when you are using non dimensional lumber to get everything to come out even, a lot of it was just guessed at on my part. I did use a fence post leveler when we set the 2 sides up, but even with the post level it was still kind of tricky to get it all square and balanced out. Now that it’s up I decided it needs 2 more braces across the front and back, was hoping to keep it nice and open, but it needs to be more stable too. Now the trick seems to be getting my clematis to stay up on it, since it has been laying out on the ground for the past 2 seasons. One side is staying up pretty good but the other keeps falling back down. I’ve babied those 2 plants for so long it really bugs me to have to wallow them around, I’m afraid I’ll damage them, but they have to start growing up the arbor. Eventually it will anchor itself to the arbor, normally it grabs on to anything it gets near. Around the base of the arbor on the ground I have 3 separate sections of stone, the center section is almost all polished stone, and “pretty” rocks, pieces of rose quarts, agates, and other shiny stone, even a few colored glass marbles. The 2 sections on the outside is filled with red lava stone. I usually keep two flower boxes on top of the lava rock, but didn’t get around to planting them this year. Wanted to concentrate on figuring out a way to propagate the clematis vines. Just a few days ago I tried to layer 2 different branches, and I noticed today one of those has already died. Clematis is one tough plant to try to grow. I guess that’s why they are so expensive to purchase. But I’ll keep trying, and sooner or later I’ll hopefully get a few new plants started.