sheepdog

I just discovered my site is down. It was working fine last night. I called a friend and had him check to see if he could load it, just in case it was something wroung with my goofy computer. But he couldn't get it to load either. I have already submitted a support ticket, but this really worries me. I am afraid it will be down awhile. Hope it's nothing serious, this is NOT a good time of year for me to be without a web site. (not that any time is mind you.) Is there anything else I can try????Oh, and how do you get comments to post in the recent comments on the right side of the main Xisto page? I just get an "action failed" message every time I try to post something there.

Has anyone tried one of those ionic air filters that you just slide out the center and wipe the crud off of the collection plates? They are rather expensive, and I hate to waste money. But the old man has COPD and I'm asmatic, so we could really use a little help in the air quality department. We had that leaky roof a few years ago, so there could be a mold problem in the house, not to mention all the animal dander I am sure I carry in with me on my clothes from working outside in the barn and kennel. It's worrying me more this time of year, since it's getting cold and the house will be closed up now. I thought if they helped I could put a small one in the bedroom so we could get clean air at night when we slept.

Hey, look at the bright side, better on your butt than on your face, at least you keep your pants on in public! If you do your own laundry, check your washing machine to see if it has a second rince cycle, that will do a better job of getting the soap residue out of your clothing. There are so many different acne products on the market, if they ones you are using aren't working, try some others. That may be a daunting task with all the different products out there, and knowing that there is really no such thing as a quick cure, you may not think something is working for you but you just haven't used it long enough to do the trick. And snce it seems that you have already made the connection between junk food and acne, I suppose it stands to reason to mention, don't eat junk food. That I know is a tough one. Junk food just tastes so good! But at least try to eat it with moderation.

LOL, every time I hear of something like this, I can't help but remember the Arnold Schwarseneger movie, "Kindergarden Cop." The little boy who likes to spout off about how "boys have a penis and girls have a vagina." Don't feel bad, it happens to the best of us! I always double check mine. It's amazing how fast little newborn pups can travel, as I'm sexing them I put the girls to one side and the boys to the other but it seems they can all get back to the same spot pretty dog gone quick before I can get threw them all. And I don't want to make mistakes since I have to include the number of each sex on a litter application when I send off to register the pups and certainly don't want to make any mistakes on that. I do have a question for you. On your avatar picture, I've looked and looked at it and I can't figure out what it's a picture of, almost looks like you are kissing (or about to swallow) a mouse?

Isn't King of the Hill one of those cartoon type shows, like the Simpsons? If it is, I just passed it by, haven't really watched cartoons since I grew up. I can't really remember it, I don't watch all that much Tv, and usually the Sci Fi Channel is all I watch. But this really isn't conspiracy theory. This is a stone cold fact that the Department of Labor is trying to get laws changed that will prevent children from working on their families farm. And hey, your not being paranoid if somebody really is watching you!

Thanks for joining in the topic. Gosh, just think of the fun you could have if you didn't have to live in a flat! If you even had a house and yard no telling how many pets you'd have! You'd just go plum crazy if you were out on a farm!I am glad you are at least able to have one dog. Schnauzers are great dogs, even the mixes are nice, they usually get the Schnauzer's smarts. I used to think chinchillas were kind of cute, and fish can be fasinating to watch in their tanks but I'm not much of a fan of those types of pets, what can I say, I'm a dog person. I want a pet that can react to me. One I can interact with.

The poor little pug was in her own fenced in yard. She never even went outside except to potty. The criminals had to have just tossed the poison bait in the yard for her to find. I am not sure what kind of poison it was, but it was some really BAD stuff. They actually lost 2 of their dogs, one was dead in less than 30 minutes. It went into seizures and in 30 minutes it was dead and gone. I have no idea what kind of poison works that fast, but it did. The police are looking into it, but you know how that goes, when it comes to dogs, I'm not sure if it would be a high pryority with the local law inforcement. However they may be a bit more serious about it since they are considering the fact that it could be a trial run for terrorist testing a new kind of poison to later use on humans. My family didn't have their dog autopsied, but several of the other 16 that were killed have been sent in. One thing I can pretty well asure you, if the purps are caught, they won't be long on this earth. I know one old man that will kill them grave yard dead if given half a chance.

Great post, it's interesting to learn about customs in places other than the USA. But for me, I am not really a fall person. Mostly because I know winter follows fall, and I do truely hate winter. After reading threw your post, I think I now know why they have all those holidays you mentioned to brighten your spirits up this time of year. Because without them we would all (or at least many of us) be massively depressed over the lousy winter weather.

The department of Labor wasn't satisfied with harrassing farmers about their foreign employees, making sure they had nice clean comfy beds. Oh, no, that was just the begining. Now they are after them over child labor. The Department of Labor is trying to make it illegal for children to do practicly anything on the farm. Branding, breeding, dehorning, vaccinating, castrating and treating sick or injured animals all would be forbidden. This could very well spell the end of many 4 H projects, as the children are expected to handle the livestock they are raising for 4 H and FFA and take care of any needed animal husbandry of their show animal. Acording to the new proposed laws, they would have to have 90 hours of regular schooling (governement school) before they could opperate any machinery. Now when was the last time you saw classes for driving a tractor in a public school? Especially grade school, since most farm kids start driving tractors long before they get into high school. It's not just tractors either, they have gone so far as to include herding animals in confined spaces, such as feed lots or corrals; on horseback; or using motorized vehicles, such as trucks or all-terrain vehicles.While the Department of Labor has not made major restrictions on the children of the immediate farm family, in and effort to keep out of trouble with parental rights, it will completely restrict nieces, nephews, cousins, or grandchildren. This totally disreguards the make up of the family farm, where very often the entire extended family lives and works on the farm. This is a direct attack on the family farm. You can bet the giant aggri bussiness corporations will not have any problems with this new proposed restrictions, not being family owned. The saddest part of this whole nasty business to me is the fact that it is the farm kids in this country that are about the only ones left that have half a chance of growing up with some sense of responsibility and a good moral work ethics. You grow up knowing that you have things that have to be done in a timely mannor, that you have to do them wether you want to or not when it is time to be done. They are certainly not going to teach this in public government run schools. I think the only thing schools are teaching our kids these days is how to become and then stay dependant on the government for anything and everything. Don't think for yourself. Don't be independant, follow the crowed and do what the government tells you to do. Very very sad.

Just got the most awful news from my sister in law. There is a dog serial killer going around in the little California town they live in, there have been 16 dogs killed by poison in the past 3 days! My sister in law's little pug died at 2:30 am today. They are devistated. They really loved that dog, spoiled her rotten, poor brother in law had to have a seditive already, they are just heart broken. It is so hard for me to fathom the depth of depravity that would make someone do something as awful as this. To randomly kill innocent animals that are beloved family pets is a real low for humanity. These were not nusance dogs running loose terrorizing the neighborhood, the little pug was in a fenced yard, was not a problem dog at all, she was over weight and like most pugs, could barely get enough wind to woof a little, hardly a barking nusance. This is so very sad.

Well, I don't know about fun and fascinating, but that particular habit sounds pretty strange to me. But of course, numbers are not my thing. It's funny how some people's minds work, that I find fascinating. Now yesterday, when we were at the swap meet, thre were lots of people there that had their dogs with them. My mind automaticly tries to identify the breed of the dog, or in the cases of mixed ancestery, I try to see what breeds are in the background of the dogs I see. After my brain completes it's breed analisis, it then moves on to the health condition of the dog automaticly. Yesterday there was a pretty scruffy looking dog there, but after studying it briefly, my brain came to the conclusion that it was a very old dog. So, I'm thinking maybe you are a math genius just waiting to bloom! If you enjoy doing this, that's great, providing you don't let it become an obsession. Learn to shut it off. You wouldn't want it to become one of those obsessive compulsive behaviours that they make you take drugs to stop doing. Remember, if you lock up your brain with one thing, nothing else can get it.

I just got off the phone with a telemarketer, (from the UK no less, sure hate to have his phone bill) trying to sell me a service that would GUARANTEE supposedly that I would be ranked on the first page of Google for 5 different key phrases. He gave me the spiel about how many hits per day those phrases recieved, and that I only had to pay $45 per phrase, I would have my own technician who would moniter everything and I could change the phrases whenever I wanted to and no long term contract or anything like that. Sure, it all sounded great, but my question is, if they can do it, get me on page one of Google, why can't I get myself there? Just exactly what is it these companies do to get me to that number one page? My skeptical mind says it's just a con job and they really can't do it. But hey, somebody has to be on that first page, it sure would be nice if it was me!

Oh man, all this talk about cake and here it is that time of year when my body is telling me to eat everything in site to fatten me up for the upcoming winter, just what I needed guys! Bugging me so much I made peanut butter cookies the other day when it was raining and I couldn't do anything outside anyway. And now I realize the persimmons are about ready for harvest. I have this tremendous hankering for persimmon fruit cake! I use a zucchini bread recipe and substitute persimmon for the zuc, and ad lots of candied fruit and nuts to make it like a fruit cake. Oh yum, I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.And please do let us know how those swans turn out.And Mrdee, any chance of you translating that recipe into ounces and pounds and cups for me?

First and formost, you have to realize that your mother has your best interst at heart. If she was a worthless mother who didn't care about you, she would let you do as you please and as far as the teasing goes, that's part of showing you that she cares too. Asking questions shows she wants to know what is going on in your life, and not to just be nosy, she is I'm sure, concerned about the friends you have, are they a good influence on you, or are they going to get you into trouble? She is concerned about your life and your future. She's probably proud of you too. So don't be too upset with her, ok?

Ok, now this is funny, and quite a coincedence. Maybe Lady Gaga's word is getting out there more than you know!For the past few weeks all the TV and radio stations have been warning us about the upcoming National Emergency Broadcast system they were planing on testing. The system has been used a lot locally, ususally to inform residents of severe weather, but never on a national level, this was the first time in many many years it was tried. Any, as could be expected, the test was a huge flop. Some stations got the signal a minute early, some got it 3 minutes late, some got the video feed but not the audio, and one network, I believe they said Dish Network, actually got a Lady Gaga song played to them!

Ah....I do believe you have just exactly hit the nail on the head with a hammer! Great post by the way. Does my heart good to know that people can see threw all the hype and bulloney and see the real problem. And see that PETA is not the answer. They have such a huge budget and a slick advertising campaigne with their carefully polished half truths and some outright lies that they spend millions on, it worrys me that so many people don't realize the truth. They say if you tell a lie often enough, people start believing it's the truth, and that seems to be what PETA is doing.

Oh, I love that one! Have to remember that! It reminds me of one of my other favorites, Do you know what an Elephant is? It's a mouse built to government specifications! You can't imagine the number of times I have questioned the sanity of humans. What good are nice roads if you starve to death and can't travel them? Why are farmers always on the bottom of the pecking order, when in fact, if it was not for farmers, the world's population would starve to death? Farmers have always suffered because of the greed and stupidity of others. Crops have a limited shelf life, they have to be processed when the time is right and that time is often a very short window of opportunity. Bad enough they have to deal with natural disasters like droughts, late freezes, and the like, but then can't get their crops in when they do have a good year. Really make you wonder doesn't it?

Just wanted to take a minute to express my thanks to all the Veterans who have fought for our freedom and liberty for so many years threw so many wars. Those brave men and woman in all the branches of our military. Thank you for your service.

That is a very neat story! So many stories like that, I read quite a few after 9-11 how people were saved from that terrible disaster because their alarm clock didn't go off, or they missed the bus or a dozen other things that caused them to be late or miss work that fateful day. Are the twins your older siblings? Anyway, I'm certainly glad that a Guardian angels, or fate, or Lady Luck, or "Someone up there" was looking out for you.

Ok, I check out your link, but unless I signed up I couldn't access anything other than the main page, and I really don't need to sign up for anything else, I'm bombarded with enough junk already. But you say her aim is clearly stated, I'm just not understanding that, to me it is just as clear as, well, mud. Empowering Youth. What exactly does this mean? Empowering them to do what? Personally, I think youth today already has too much power. A parent can do very little if anything in terms of correcting their children for bad behaviour. Your child can get in your face and call you ever name in the book but if you slap the little smart mouth snot your going to jail. Kid has a tempertantrum in the store, starts screaming and throwing things and if you swat them on the butt your going to jail. Send 'em to bed without their supper, oh yea, your jail bait. And it's not like you can punish them by sending them to their rooms, where they can then play computer games or video chat with their friends. On this I could not agree with you more. The thing is, we are not alone. I think that many of use are sick and tired of all the garbage. Just the other day they brought back up the court case from several years ago when Jackson bared her boob during the superbowl, talk about old bad news. And daily we are updated to the current case of the other Jackson's doctor. Garbage, garbage and more garbage. Yet we keep hearing that it gets the ratings so they keep doing it. Just what kind of an excuse is that Why does it get ratings? Or does it really get ratings? Don't you think that there are enough of us who are sick of all this junk? Personally if I never heard the name Lindsay Lohan or Charlie Sheen on the news again, it would suit me just fine. Talk about negitive reinforcement! Become famous for doing something bad/stupid/crazy. They should have those boys from the Springfield University faternity that go out once a month and build access ramps for handicapped low income senior citizens on TV, not those stupid celebraties. So what can we do about it? Turn off the TV? Complain to the networks? I wonder if enough people complained about the dowmspirling self destructive pattern maybe they would do something? Humanity really needs an attitude adjustment. Maybe Gaga is on to something!

They could and they should, but trust me, they won't. The recently passed new dog breeder regulations in Missouri allowed for the hiring of several new inpectors, for which they purchased brand new Dodge Ram trucks, probably $40,000 rigs. To do so, they increased the ceiling on the licence I must pay for from $500 top, to $2,5000!!!Passing the costs on to business may seem reasonable, unless of course, it happens to be your business! I really don't know how the shepherds find the farmers, I doubt it is anything so complicated as labor unions. I suspect that it is threw word of mouth, or the seasonal labors find a job and then come back each year as they are needed to the same farm. I do agree that is seems foolish to hire immigrants when the unemployment rate in this country is so high, but what do you do when unemployed American workers only want high paying jobs in nice air conditioned offices sitting on their backsides typing away at a computer or answering the telephone? Your not going to get them to live out in the middle of no where and have to be outside all day in the heat or cold. As far as the cash for clunkers, that program required that all the cars turned in were sent to the crusher and turned into scrap metal. None of those cars were allowed to be resold. This of course, has caused more problems for those of us who depend on purchasing used car parts at salvage yards instead of high priced new parts. Some used parts are now in serious short supply.

I have always avoided using towels, or blankets in the whelping box for that very reason. I'm always afraid that a puppy will get rolled up or tangled up in the blanket and end up starving cause it doesn't get to eat when it should. It only takes the smallest amount of dehydration, which they can get in a very short period of time to end up with fading puppy syndrom. And once they start that you can pretty much kiss them goodbye. Pups need to eat very often when they are tiny newborns. It's also easier for mom to clean up after them if they are on a firm surface. And as pups start to walk around, those little toenails get hung up in the blankets and can cause leg injuries. You don't want pups on a real smooth slick surface, or you can end up with "swimmers." What works best for us here is replaceable hard board floors we can take out not only to wash, but they are easy to replace should the dogs end up digging them up. They give the pups really good traction when they start walking.

Humm, she could be talking to them I suppose, maybe nobody told her pups can't hear till they are a couple weeks old. Only senses pups are born with are smell and touch. Eyes will open at about 10 days. Don't panic if they are milky looking when they first open. Yes, the mom's will root around in any bedding all the time. She could be looking for puppy poo's to clean up or just trying to get more comfortable, you know, like when your pillow is lumpy under your head.

I think it is best for everyone concerned if mom can get away from them when she wants to. It is rare that they want to be away from them much the first few days, or even a week, but before long they are wanting a break. Especially when the puppies teeth start coming in and their toenails grow out and harden. It would concern me a bit that she growled at them. I have had a few dogs over the years, nearly all the Mastiff breeds that would growl or even bite their pups if the pups would happen to crawl by the food dish. I have had most of the Mastiff breeds at one time or another, including the Dogue De Bordeaux, Neapolitian, Bull and English. Never raised any English Mastiff pups, lost my females to rectal prolapse before they ever had pups, so I don't know how they would be with pups. However, all 3 of the other Mastiffs would bite their puppies if they got near the feed. They really suck as mothers. If she continues to growl at them, you may have to keep the feed pan out of the pen, if that's where your keeping it now. It's better for the moms to be able to eat when they want to, but if they chomp the pups you have to feed them only when they are away from the pups. As mean as my little Terriers are to each other as adults, they are amazingly good with their pups. It is rare that they will bite their pups, but sometimes at about 7 weeks or so they will snap at them once in awhile.