sheepdog

Oh, I like saving money! I will definitely give that a try! Thanks so much. Don't know what I would do without you guys. Had a new problem today, needed to print out a copy of my 2012 taxes, and now I can't even print out anything unless I buy some stupid program on the new desktop computer, says my free trial has expired. It is called Nitro pro 7. Seems I can't win for loosing. I think I looked at that Office 365 at Wally World today, I didn't really understand what it was and I noticed that it included cloud space, which I have no use or desire for. I'll keep my files on cd's or on the computer thank you. That way I know where they are and who is looking at them. Yes, I know, I am not a trusting person. I won't be shopping at Target any time in the near future either. Of course, that can be avoided by just paying cash I suppose. Which is usually the way I do things. Oh, by the way, where do you get that free beer you were talking about!?

More and more snow. At least it wasn't as deep this time. And thank God I live in an area of the country that is equipped to deal with it. It was hard to watch the news about Atlanta Georgia and watch all those people stuck because of 2 inches of snow. Yea, ok, there was some ice under it be geeze, 2 inches? the whole freeway system gridlocked. Some of those folks had to sit in their cars for 20 hours or more. Even some school busses full of kids got stuck out. I would NOT of wanted to be on one of those busses! I want my mommy, I gotta go pee, gads, what a disaster that would of been! One good guy in the group, a brain surgeon was stuck when the hospital called him because a patient was in desperate need, had a bleeder on the brain, and that surgeon actually walked 6 miles back to the hospital to do the surgery on the guy, saving his life. Now there is a dedicated doctor! We really haven't let the snow keep us home much. Our hired man has a big slick tired van, so if it's real bad we have to get out to go get him. His van is helpless in this stuff. So no rest for the wicked around here. I finally found some regular heat lamp bulbs, and also some regular 90 watt bulbs too. I was glad to see them, I was afraid that we would no longer be able to get those, they would rather have us us the ones filled with deadly poisonous mercury that don't use as much electricity. The dogs aren't minding the snow near as much as I am. We keep their dog houses all bedded down and keep it changed as needed, which is a rather daunting job, since the dogs would rather drag their bedding out and play with it than sleep on it. Of course when they get it out it gets snow on it or wet and has to be changed out, and they seem to pull it out faster than we can put it back it. It can become quite the challenge. I can't wait for spring this year. Even if it does mean all that extra work I usually dread.

The only thing I have the whole series of is the original Star Trek. I have a few seasons of Smallville, that's about it. I would love to have the entire set of Star trek Voyager, and also the entire Farescape series. I thought about buying the Farscape series this year for myself for Christmas, they had a special collectors edition out for the 15th year anniversary that had a lot of bonus footage in it, but I just never got around to doing it.

Well that just sucks. Was hoping to get an interesting conversation going on a new topic that I know nothing about and might like to learn. Gosh I sure wish we could get some newbies here that would stay and contribute. I'm really running out of ideas on things to post about.

We just got back a few days ago from our winter vacation. Sure was good to get out of the cold! Spent the time in sunny California. Was wonderful to sit out side in shorts and tank top there since when we left Missouri it was something like 2 degrees here. We made several trips down into Mexico, Algadones, where I get my dental work done and get new glasses. So much cheaper there. Bought the usual few trinkets, and even though I swore I was not buying any more clothes I saw this beautiful dress........oh well. Had to have it. On the way home Hubby mentioned he thought that was the first new dress we had bought since we have been together. (23 years now) I got to thinking about it and decided that it was the first new dress I'd purchased since I was 12 or 14 years old! When I was a kid my mom was a seamstress and made all my clothes but I did see this one store bought dress one time that I really wanted, so she actually let me buy it. So this new dress makes only the second new dress I've had in my life. Algadones is a really nice tourist town and a fun place to hang out. One Café has a live musician and he is REALLY good. Plays guitar and sings a lot of the older rock and roll songs, and some country stuff. He can sound almost as good as the original singers in some cases. It's funny to watch the other tourists sipping margaritas and then try to dance. Remember, most of them are old fat ladies like me. And the food is even good! The only really bad day was the day we made a run up to a little town north east of LA to pick up a puppy I'd purchased from a breeder up there. It should of been about a 6 hour trip, ended up taking 12 or more, we took a wrong turn at ever single chance. Had trouble even finding her town, and then when we did and found her street, went the wrong way the first time of course, and ended up in what looked like either an old airport or airplane junk yard, not too sure which. So when we went the other way we ended up out in the middle of the freaking desert on a dirt track that didn't even look like it was fit for a 4 wheeler, let alone a car. But we finally found her got my puppy, who I have since named Milo, and eventually even managed to find our way back to my sister in laws house. Believe it or not we even had some trouble doing that. So vacation was great, but boy was coming home a pain! Got in about 2:30 in the morning, and our furnace wouldn't kick on. Freezing cold, too tired and dark out to fumble around that late with the wood stove, so Hubby went out early about daylight and started a fire in the wood stove. Except we don't have much wood, very few pieces that will fit in the stove without splitting and the first bloody thing he did was pull the rope out of the wood splitter. So for the next 2 days we had to split it with a splitting maul. Not a pleasant chore at my age and condition. We finally got the gas furnace fixed just tonight and the house is finally starting to warm up. It's been a miserable few days. Especially after coming back from that nice 70-80 degree weather in California. At least the kennel and all the critters faired well while I was gone. We did have some pipes freeze up and bust but the hired man was able to get them fixed and everything thawed out, and it was only froze inside in the bathroom and kitchen, but we have lots of outside frost proof hydrants so it wasn't all that bad, could still water all the dogs.

It would be really hard for me to choose between the Harry Potter movies and the Lord of the Rings series. The computer graphics in the scenery in the Lord of the Rings is just fabulous, and the animal graphics on the Harry Potter movies is just the best I have ever seen anywhere. That scene looks so real where the Phoenix drops a tear into Harry's basilisk wound I'd swear it was a real bird. Every feather is perfect right down to the glisten in it's eye. Medium was another of my favorite shows. Partially due to the fact that aside from her physic abilities they were a completely normal American family. Kind of nice to see people in shows that are normal looking and not over done surgically altered, silicon stuffed super model types. I kind of wish that show was still on. I haven't even seen it in reruns. Ghost Whisperer is another favorite of mine, I still catch reruns of it sometimes in the afternoons. I only saw a couple episodes of Game of Thrones, and for some reason could never pick up on the story line so I lost interest in it. Maybe if I had seen it from the beginning or something.

Well glad you like it. Do tell us more about yourself. You'll find a lot of friendly and helpful people here. And there are no topics off limits, we discus nearly everything under the sun around here.

Every time I try to reply to this post the message refuses to post.

Well this is quite interesting. Reminds me of the talk about acupuncture. What exactly is Ayurveda treatment? What does it involve? Medicine, herbs, or needles like acupuncture? You mention many types of treatments, tell us about some of them. When you say it is handed down from one generation to the next it puts one in mind of home remedies often used by the poor of probably all countries and societies. How does the regular medical community feel towards this type of treatment, is it acceptable or considered quackery by professional medical people? I love learning about new things, and this is something I've never heard even a peep about. Do tell us more.

Yea, too much snow is no good whatsoever. I 'm on several Face Book pages, one of them is a give away page, I thought about putting up a post for free snow, come and get all you want, but figured they'd get mad at me. Maybe even throw rocks at me if they had a chance. It has been a challenging day, but turned out better than I had hoped originally it would. We had to go get the hired help, they have a van with slick tires, but at least we got them here and everybody got feed and watered and taken care of. Bet the goats were happy to see that bale of hay! We actually have a little pasture left, but it's all covered in snow now. Without some hay, goats and cattle will expend more energy pawing threw the snow to get to the grass than they get energy from the grass they are able to paw up. Our poor little mini schnauzer spent the whole afternoon completely under my couch blanket. She normally leaves her head out but not today, she curled up completely out of site. I was a bit surprised thought when she actually wanted to go back outside with me this evening when I went down to make the final check for the night. Of course in this blue cold 2 dogs just had to have pups. One last night and one this afternoon. I've got them buttoned up pretty good, I'm sure they will be fine. Had to go threw my old heating pads to find some working ones, there is not a heat lamp bulb anywhere in this town to be purchased today.

Oh man it is rough out there! Just came back in from trying to clear some snow and make tracks to walk in to get to the dogs. The snow is really getting deep already, and it's supposed to snow all day today. Have a drift right in front of the kennel already over a foot deep. What shocked me was how badly the snow is blowing. The backside of the kennel building is covered with a roof, but open on both ends, it's 60 feet long and every inch of the concrete back there has snow cover on it. That is some pretty serious snow blowing. And a lot of shoveling for me later today. Even my 4 wheeler which was parked inside our garage had snow on the seat. I had a hard time getting around on the 4 wheeler, thank god it has new tires or I'd of never even made it back to the house, I barely did as it was. People who like this kind of weather definitely don't have animals that have to be taken care of. I sure wish we would of got one of the hay bales unloaded yesterday and not have to fight the snow to do it today. At least the bales are on a trailer behind a 4 wheel drive pickup. But as cold as it is out there you'll be frozen just in the time it takes to clear the windshield off to see to drop off the hay. I know because I had to clear off the car windows before hubby ventured off to town awhile ago. Of course last night before it started freezing we had a little drizzle of rain, so there is a nice thin coat of ice on under the snow too. I feel bad for our house dogs, I had to clipper them down the other day to get ready for vacation. The little mini doesn't want much of anything to do with the great outdoors, she runs out, does her business and is back scratching at the door in under 2 minutes. Of course, my crazy dog doesn't care what the weather is doing, she is going to be near me come hell or high water. She insists on chasing the 4 wheeler, which today worried me more than it normally does, since I couldn't exactly steer or stop real well. But she was just bouncing all over the place anyway. I had to lock her in the bathroom when we came back in the house, she was one real snow bunny. Of course, I didn't get her in there until after she jumped up on the old mans chair......I'm sure he will have unkind words to say about that when he gets home, which I hope is soon, worry about him being out and about in this kind of weather. Looks like I will be in and out of here a lot today. Can only take so much of that cold at a time. Going to have to dig out more cold weather clothes too before I venture back out for the next round.

I just went threw part of the sub topics on this subject, and noticed several of the sub forums don't have the start new topic button. I had a Google question I wanted to ask. So this may not be in exactly the right place but hopefully some knowlegdable person will find it and answer for me. (and maybe fixe the other sub topics too) I noticed on my new desktop, with windows 7 professional, when I highlight something it automatically appears in the Google search window. I know Google is a terrible hog of information gathering and I was just curious if they even can know what text that you highlight when it ends up in their window. Just how far can their nasty spying habits go? I find it a bit creepy they might be recording every name, web site, recipe, medicine I want to check out, or even just paste into a personal file for myself.

Yes, then you have a very good idea of what I'm talking about with all the slopes and making proper drainage. It's really even more critical in a kennel, since the dogs will actually be living on the finished surface, and you have inspectors who seriously frown on any spots of standing water or even ugly stains on concrete.

Well, I've always felt that religion is what your beliefs are. And if you believe there is no God, wouldn't that qualify as a belief? Which would make it a religion. Gets kind of tricky doesn't it? Yes, I agree Omen was a pretty darn good movie. I have to agree too, I'm not too big of a fan of actual Horror movies, but am a big science fiction freak. Got to see some of my old favorites over the holidays on our new big screen TV, really loved that! Star Wars of course. And the Lord of the Rings series. The graphics on Lord of the Rings is fantastic on any size screen, but the big new one really brings it out, it's just fantastic.

Most of the appliances I've had other than computers say the same thing about fully charging the battery before you use it, so that certainly makes sense. Of course I just had to try out the new lap top as soon as I got it, but it was plugged in for that first use. However, I did forget about that plug in being controlled with the light switch, so I doubt the battery had enough time to get a full charge the first time. I've actually only used it on battery once when I was working with tech support on some things. It didn't last very long that way. Not sure how long actually, but probably not more than 2 hours. Hope I haven't permanently messed it up.

Hi Althea! Welcome to Knowldegesutra! Happy New Year to you too! Tell us more about yourself. Do you work, or in school yet? Where are you from? We have people here from all over the globe, one of the things I like a lot about this site is visiting with folks from all sorts of other walks of life.

When someone replied to this post today did it get drug up from below or what? This topic was started almost 9 years ago. This is like the second post down on the forum. Under one pinned topic. Sheesh. I would think the way everyone runs around with one of those blasted cell phones stuck to the side of their heads this forum would be a lot more active than it is. I still can't figure out how so many people could have so much to talk about. Seems they can't even sit down to dinner in a restaurant without having to interrupt their meal to call and talk with someone. Even if it looks like from the crowd at the table all their friends and family are already with them.

Well I finally just bit the bullet and bought some seed. I just Googled Psycho White Cosmos and at the first web site I found they had not only the white, but 4 other really neat varieties that I didn't have either. I found Candy striped Cosmos, Gloria Cosmos, Double click Cosmos, which is a full petal flower almost looks like a mum, and sea shells cosmos, which the petals curl up and form what looks like little tubes instead of flat petals. And the shipping was just $2.50, so that wasn't quite as bad as I had expected. Oh yea, didn't I mention I didn't have the garden planting spring urges yet when I got my first seed catalog of the season? Oh well. Guess that one snuck up on my. Hopefully they will grow well and I can get some pictures next summer of the different new varieties.

Yes, I noticed that too. Had me rather curious. But hey, desperate times call for desperate measures, even if that includes responding to wonky posts. So few new ones, at least this was one I could say something about. I have considerable experience with dealing not with the actual pouring of concrete, but working with the results of it. And if not done correctly it certainly can be a nightmare.

Yes, I agree completely atheism is really just another religion. I think including biker gangs as religious groups might be a bit of a stretch, but then again, I'm sure they have their own code of conduct so perhaps they could be included too.

Oh yes, God forbid Microsoft runs out of licensing revenue! Aren't they just moments away form total bankruptcy? I am of course being a wise bottom. This time I just typed the word bottom, I didn't even try to type my usual substitute for that word, cause lately I can't even get a rse past our censors. So picky! Wonder don't they know that word is actually an animal?

Have you ever noticed when visiting older friends or relatives when the old folks get to talking they start retelling the same old stories that they have told you for years. You practically know ever word before they say it. Don't know if it's senility or just the fact that getting old is a pain in the *bottom* and the folks are just trying to relive better times in their lives by reliving the old memories. But anyway, to my point. In June I will have been a member here for 7 years. And I am no spring chicken. And since the forums have been so slow lately, and my life so generally boring, I have had a heck of a time thinking about new things to post about. There aren't a lot of new people coming in so there aren't enough new messages from other people to answer, leaving me to delve into my memory to come up with some funny or otherwise interesting things to write about. Which leads to my problem. Having been here so long I don't remember everything I have written about. It's too time consuming to dig threw the posts of the last 7 years to see if I have touched on the subject before. But I don't want to get in trouble for reposting the same things again, and of course, I don't want to look like one of those old fuddy duddies that keep repeating past glories. It's becoming quite a dilemma for me. So, anyway. If I repeat myself, bear with me. So here's a rather funny dog customer story. Some years ago I had a customer purchase a puppy from me. As is fairly normal, she picked out the puppy some weeks before it was actually old enough to send to her. Most people in this situation do contact me occasionally asking after the puppy and requesting updated pictures as the puppy grows, but this particular woman started to become a real PIA. She was in New York, so the time difference also became a rather annoying problem. One time she called me at 2 am and wanted to know what size rhinestone studded collar to buy for the puppy. I got a similar call when she found a black leather motorcycle type jacket she wanted to buy for the puppy. All in all she was driving me pretty crazy. I knew she would be very good to the puppy and spare no expense for it, but all those 2 am calls wear rather thin on my temperament. She finally got her puppy, and all was well in the world again. However, about a year later she called again. Wanted another puppy. Seems when she got the first one her boyfriend had bought it for her, while she was still living at home with her parents. Seems her mother told her that it was ok if she married this guy, but if she did marry him and move out she could not take the dog! I thought it was pretty funny that she would give up her daughter but not the dog! Anyway, before she could get married she had to buy her mother a new puppy. Another favorite story is the fellow who was going to buy a puppy from us on one of our trips to Quartzsite, Az. He came by our set up once by himself, saw a Mini Schnauzer puppy he really liked, but I guess he wanted to see how his family would react to the puppy first before he bought it. So he came back awhile later with a hole herd of children, must of been at least half a dozen of them. Each and every child picked a different puppy. One kid would be holding a puppy and say, Daddy, I want this one. To which he would reply, you can have any puppy you want as long as you pick that one. (meaning the one he had picked earlier.) Now keep in mind, this guy was a big burly dude, not the kind you would expect to be all emotional about a puppy. As each and every child picked out a puppy and asked him if they could have that one he would calmly reply you can have any puppy you want as long as you pick that one. He had to say it with every single child. I was absolutely cracking up every time he said it, trying my best to keep a straight face, it just wasn't happening. But in the end, Daddy did finally get his puppy!

Holly smokes! As of the first of January FORTY THOUSAND new laws go into effect. That's right folks, 40,000!!!! These are both state and federal. Though actually only about 60 of the forty thousand were passed threw congress and signed by Obama. They include everything from making it a crime to flick the ashes off your cigarette in public, to making it illegal for anyone under 18 years of age to use a tanning bed, even if they have parental consent. What the hell has happened to the land of the brave and free? There is even one that now bans ultrasound photographic studies in Oregon. They seem to think that this procedure needs to only be preformed by licensed medical personal. I wonder if the dumb nuts realize that if you have the money anyone can go and buy an ultrasound machine. They are very common in agriculture practice, dog breeders and many sheep and goat ranchers already have these machines and use them with no harm whatsoever to the fetuses. We are also on a very slippery slope with the case of the little girl that went in for a tonsillectomy and ended up being brain dead. The hospital wanted to pull the plug on her the parents don't, and then the parents found a long term care nursing facility that was willing to accept her, but the hospital refused to allow them to move her, saying that since the coroner had declared her legally dead they could not preform medical procedures on a corpse without permission from the coroner.(procedures need to be done to her to make the transport, she is on a respirator.) The hospital has fought the family at every turn in the road. Makes you wonder who owns us? Do we, or our family members, or does the government own us and has the say as to what happens to us?

Well, you are too far away to help me any, but here's some thoughts for you. Have you done any dog kennel work? Might be something to look into. Be forewarned however. Pouring and molding concrete for a kennel is a very tricky and demanding job. It takes a true professional. It is imperative that kennel concrete is done very carefully. You can't leave even the smallest low places in your work, because the water will puddle in those areas and cause serious problems for the dogs that will be living there later, not to mention cleaning headaches for the owners forever if you make a mistake. Those low places hold moisture and can make ugly green or black spots in the concrete which are difficult to clean, since any cleaners left on them like bleach could be damaging or dangerous to the dogs feet that run on the concrete later. It gets rather tricky because most kennel slabs are poured at an angle so they can be hosed off into a ditch, either on one end, or a trough down the middle, and great care needs to be given to the amount of slope given to the concrete slab so you get good drainage and can keep it clean. And not only do you have to slope the main slab, there is the mater of the angling the refuse ditch so the waste can be hosed to one end or the other or the middle depending on the kennel owners set up and preferences. It will most likely need to be angled another direction. Another point to mention is the depth of the refuse ditch. Many of the kennels I have seen have a ditch that is far to shallow. Most kennel owners use some sort of high pressure washer that really sends dog turds flying. In a too shallow ditch, they end up being blown back up onto the runs you are trying to wash them out of. If ditch happens to be on the end of the slab, many kennel owners don't realize that hosing down that area will put a lot of water on the ground completely missing the concrete slab and making a muddy mess at the end of the kennel. Keep the ditch deeper helps this problem somewhat, but there may still be excessive amounts of water that need to be addressed with some sort of fill or drainage method. Also keep in mind the actual texture of the concrete. Excessively rough surfaces may be difficult on the dogs pads, and hard to clean. However, very slick concrete surfaces are also very slippery for the kennel owner to walk on so texture is also an important consideration.

Welcome both of you to Xisto! Please tell us a little more about yourselves, your likes dislike, hobbies, interests, all that fun stuff. Join right in and get some conversations going! Hope you like dogs!