sheepdog

Welcome to Xisto!You are certainly brave (or crazy) to drop out of college so close to the end to start your own business. I wish you the best of luck, hope it works out for you!

I certainly have at least one tip for you. From years of having some of the worst housekeepers in the world, if there is one thing you can do to make your boss happy, it's to remember where all the dishes go!!!! I get so bloody annoyed when I have to hunt for a favorite dish or spatula, or knife, or can opener that the housekeeper has put in some weird place that I can't find. Makes me crazy. So, it would be great if you put some extra effort into memorizing where things go. I'm sure that would be a big plus for your bosses.

Oh No, not at all independant like a cat! Not even close. A goat that is hand raised can be a very affectionate animal. They will follow you around like a dog, nuzzel and lick you and be very clingy. If they don't see you they will bleat for your attention. I still remember my very first registered show goat. Her name was Farm Lilly. I bought her at the local goat show during our county fair. It was years ago, when I was living on that rental place I was just posting on the life's experience forum, about where I had the old man neighbor. Her original owner kind of got to me on her purchase, they priced her at one price until she went threw her class at the show and then raised it $25 after she ended up wining the class, it ticked me off but I really liked the goat and so I bought her anyway. The old house I was living in wasn't much of a house, and it was painted a dark color, so there were times in the summer months that it was just so hot I couldn't stand to stay in it, so there were nights when I would just grab a blanket and pillow and throw it down on the ground outside and sleep outside. There was no real fencing on the place, just a perimiter fence, so the yard was also the goat pasture. One night, after having only had Lilly for a few weeks, I had to go sleep in the yard, and she came and layed down beside me, and all night long she watched over me to make sure I was safe. If anything came near she would bleat and warn it away, or wake me to the possibility of danger nearby. I thought it was really pretty cool how quickly she became attatched to me.

I wonder why this particular forum is so slow? It's been nearly a month since there was even a reply to an old post. Surely all the posters here are not so young as to have not had any good real life experiences yet to write about? I would think if you were old enough to walk and talk and type, you'd have something to contribute here. Even if it was how you tippped over when you were 3 years old learning to ride a trycicle! One of the lessons I've managed to pick up along the road of life is to have an appreciation of old people. I should clarify, REALLY old people, those that are even older than me! I actually enjoy the company of these folks. It amazes me all the things I can learn just talking to old folks that have really really been there, done that. I think what got me started on this was an old man I had for a neighbor many years ago. He was the father of my landlord, but I never saw the land lord, I just took the money every month to the old man, and his son would run by whenever and pick it up from him. Over the months I got well aquainted with the old man. He was really a nice fellow, and definatly an old timer, in his 90's, and old fashion to boot. He grew his own tobacco, smoked it in a pipe, and took a shot of wiskey every night before bed. Actually that home grown tobacco could be considered an interesting life experience all on it's own. If you've never tried it you would be shocked at how strong natural tobbacco is. I kid you not, that stuff will cross your eyes! The ciggerette companies really do a number on taming the original tobacco plant.Anyway, he had farmed and lived his entire life in this community, so there were so many things I learned from him. Especially after we got aquainted and he invited me to plant garden with him one year, since there really wasn't a place fenced off on the property I was actually living on. I was happy to take him up on the offer. He had a great garden spot, worked on for years, and anyone in this country knows that it takes awhile to get a good garden spot, Missouri is famous for having more rocks than dirt. It takes years of picking out rocks, adding soil amendments and killing off weeds to really have a good garden. We planted several things I was not familiar with, like tobacco, but even crops that I had grown before I found better varieties to actually plant, like the sweetest, best flavored sweet corn for example. I learned lots of time tested, simple tricks. Like starting your own sweet potato slips. You put the potatoes in a small raised bed, and cover them with tin at night to help keep them warm real early in the season so they will go ahead and start growing so you can have them ready in time for actual planting time when the weather is finally warm enough. I enjoyed his stories too, of how life used to be. Riding a horse to town, the difference in the way school was, dealing with and relating to other people, and hundreds of other things that are not not even remembered or considered these days. Several years after I moved away, I stopped in one day just to visit. It was in the spring, summer time and I asked him how his garden was doing. Instead of whining and complaining about life, he just said that he was getting rather too stiff to hoe the weeds, and had to crawl threw the rows on his hands and knees to pull weeds! He really was an amazing old man! I would encourage any of you to take advantage of any elderly people who may be in your family, or even just strangers in your neighborhood. You will be amazed at what you might learn. And spending time with the elderly is a two way street. Not only will you be learning, they will have company and someone to share all the great things, and maybe even the not so great things they have had to learn one way or another. I kind of look on the elderly as a vast, unused natural resource. My old man neighbor had lots of family. They looked in on him daily, and one daughter would help him do his house cleaning once a week. But they never spent TIME with him. They never took him anywhere or really included him in any of their family activities. It was actually rather sad. I took him fishing a few times and he really got a big kick out of it. So, if you have the oppertunity, it is definatly worth while to enjoy the company of some old folks.

Xisto is a discusion board. That is what it is hear for. If you don't like a thread, all you have to do is ignore it. Being rude is really pointless, counterproductive, and in fact, destroys the very purpose and goals of this board. If a subject is a concern for any of our members, than by all means, they should have the right to discuse it and not be told it is trivial and not something to be concerned with. Since I've never been to Niagara Falls, I don't know what it looks like, but I can tell you that in todays economy, so many small business have folded up that many towns around the country probably look just like it, with boarded up shops and roads in horrible condition. The local governments get their money from the sales taxes on the business in the community, and if there are no business, there is no revenue for the town to do road maintence. The usual solution for this problem is that the government needs more money so they raise taxes and fees on the business that are left, which causes them to go broke and leave too. A rather vicious circle.

I would say, with our current persident, it's probably illegal. Since he has no respect for our constitution or personal freedoms. And given the fact that the secret service men were sent out to hassal a 13 year old kid that mentioned on a blog that since they had killed Ben Ladin we should probably expect retaliation, I suspect saying you were going to kill the Prez would probably land you in jail reguardless of your intention.

I can certainly see where you were misdiagnosed, it actually does sound just like Lymes disease. Did they treat you for that by any chance? The cure is pretty simple, 30 days of tetracycline, a cheap antibiotic. I think you need to learn to relax. Didn't all these symptoms come on at once, because from your post it sounds like that is what happened. I'm thinking that the attack your daughter had triggered you to fall into some bad habits, and you've just fallening into a rut that just keeps getting deeper and deeper. Your natural rhythems are all screwed up. First you were afraid to fall asleep, that started almost an avalance of bad habits and health destroying habits.

Sorry to hear your government is taking such drastic measues at to making reproductive laws. Just handing out contraceptives isn't that bad though if that is all they are doing. Contraceptives are VERY inexpensivem they can't even compare with putting a child threw the educational system, no matter how good or bad that system happend to be. I often wonder why the government screws up everything it trys to do. So much waste, fraud, and other failures, it seems to be that the government fails everything it attempts.

Today I had what I consider to be a minor mirical. Doesn't happen very often, so it made me pretty happy and for a change I feel like I actually acomplished something today. For the past week or so I have been calling the goats up to the barn in the morning and giving them a little grain. The object of this exercise is to get them to coming into the barn so I can lock them in and worm them. It hasn't really been going well. Always several that won't come in, especially the young kids still nursing who aren't hooked on grain yet. And then there has been a small group that found an escape hole in the fence last week, so I was hoping the morning grain would convince them to hang around. We can't even fix the fence until they are all in. Well, this morning everybody was back inside the fence, and when I called them up we managed to get all but about 5 inside the barn. I figured we'd better at least do the ones we had caught, so the hired man and I went threw them all and wormed them. It went pretty well, I managed to stay on my feet and he only hit the ground once or twice. He catches and holds, and I measure the wormer and put it in their mouths. Then he marks the one's we've done with a bingo marker so we can tell who's done and not. The goats that had not come in the barn all were hanging around out in the barn lot, so when we got done I left the herd in the barn, and we slipped out and opened a gate into another part of the barn, where I have a komondor and her newborn pups locked in. It took some doing but we finally got all the stragglers caught and wormed too! That in it'self is pretty close to a mirical. But the most amazing thing of all was managing to worm all my komondors too! 3 where in the main part of the barn with the goats, and one was in the other section of the barn with her newborns, so those weren't really a problem. However, I still had one female dog loose, and she is very feral. Under normal circumstances, I can't get within a hundred yards of her. I figured with all the comotion going on there wasn't a chance of getting her. She had been sitting way out in the pasture watching the show the whole time we were working. So I sent the hired man off to fix the holes in the fence, since we finally had all the goats back in, and I started in on the regular barn chores, filling the water tank for the goats and chickens, and all that stuff I do every day. I was nearly done when I turned around and looked, and there sat the wild dog, right behind me by the barn gate, not 10 feet away. I thought to myself, surely she won't let me catch her, but I still had the wormer in my pocket, so I gave it a shot, and that is my mirical for today, she let me walk right up to her, pry open her mouth and give her the wormer! I bet it's been 6 months since I've touched that dog! I couldn't believe she let me do that, let alone her coming to me like she did! I was just shocked! and very happy!

Oh wow, where can I start????Goats are great! They provide food and fiber for much of the worlds population. Goats can live where cows would starve to death. Not only live, but thrive and provide a great protien source, in their meat and milk. Many people would not be alive today if it was not for the superiour quality of goat milk. Many infants will not survive on cow's milk or soy substitutes. Goat milk is highly digestable and well tolerated by many people who have milk allergies. Small homesteads can keep a goat where they could never have room for a cow. Even those with very limited land space can make room for a goat. They can be kept on stake out just like a dog, move them to a fresh spot each day and no yard to mow! Goats are far and away more easy to deal with than cows. They do not require heavy duty equipment to handle. No head catches and squeeze shoots needed. You can grab a goat and dose it with wormer by hand, try that with a cow and you can pretty much figure you'll end up in the emergency room with broken bones. Ever been cow kicked?Goats are very affectionate and intelligent animals. They can become very attatched to their owners and show affection just like a dog. They are easy to train, they can learn to come when called, jump up on a milk stand, walk on a lead, and pretty much anything else you care to take the time to teach them. Well, ok, you can't teach them to bark at strangers. But hey, if your going to have goats, you need a Komondor dog, and that will take care of the barking at strangers. Actually, that will take care of strangers too!

Sorry about that. That's just carnivoris me talking. I've been taking baby chicks out every few hours all day. I like to wait until they get dry to move them to another little chicken box. As of tonight, I'm up to 51 baby chicks. May have a few more by morning. But still, that's over a 50% hatch rate, so I'm not complaining. It's a lot better than I thought it was going to be. You are supposed to set only really clean eggs. You can't wash hatching eggs, they have a coating on them that protects the baby chicks that if you wash it off the eggs will get contaminated and the chicks will die in the shells. Anyway, I tried to keep my nest boxes well bedded in clean hay while I was saving hatching eggs, but the chickens just refused to cooperate. Several days I changed the bedding twice a day, and my eggs still got pretty icky. But it looks like it worked out pretty well even so. Oh, and some good news, I finally got my grubby hands on a pair of Coo Coo Morran chickens,(I am probably not spelling that right) a hen and a rooster. They are a rare french breed, that look a lot like the old domineckers, black and white speckled. They lay a super dark almost chocolate brown egg. Really pretty eggs. Hopefully I can hatch out a few of them this summer.

I think if it was me, I'd do the Marines first. For several reasons. First, with you still being in high school, you may not really have decided what you want to do with the rest of your life. A few more years and you might decided, so going to college first you might not take the courses you would need to help you in the future. And second, I think time spent in the service help to pay for your college education when you get out of the service, so why be out your own money by going to college first? If you budget your money carefully, put some back from every pay check while you are serving in the military, you will also have more money when you get out for college on top of what you will get from your service. It would be really great to have an education when you are done that you don't have to spend years and years paying off student loans.

We had to reserect the poor old Ford Aspire from it's well earned retirement today. Slapped another battery in it and fired it right up. And that's after it had been sitting for nearly 2 years. Dang old thing has nearly 300,000 miles on it. The transmission in our newer one went out. No transmissions to be found anywhere in the vacinity, so I jumped on craigslist and found a whole car, and probably cheaper than we could of gotten a transmission for anyway. So, basicly we solved 2 problems with one car. A transmission for the new car, and an engine for the old one. My better half is going after the new one tommorow. At least he got a friend to take him and isn't going to have to drive the poor old car. The clutch is really slipping in it. Keeping my fingers crossed that the trip goes ok!

I will dissagree with you on one point. I think since many private schools are relgion based, this is probably one thing the private schools really have going for them. I also think that in private schools, the parents may have more input into the childs education, since they are directly paying for it and certainly have the right to complain if they do not like the studies or any aspect of the teachings, or a paticular teacher. In public school, if you don't like it, tough. Government regulates what public schools can and cannot do, limiting parents rights considerably. There is a lot to be said for home schooling. Parents have a direct and active part in their childs education. They control exactly what the child learns. They can taylor the education programs to fit their childs needs and levels much better and pay extra attention to anything the child needs more help with. My only real problem with home schooling is the lack of socialization home school kids seem to suffer from. There are some other considerations, like, is the parent capable of teaching? Not all parents are.

Well, I'm back again, after a brief absense of a few weeks. Nothing in particular keeping me away, just life in general. The flowers are growing, now I'm busy trying to get them all weeded. I also set the incubater full of eggs a few weeks ago. I had been meaning to look at my calendar to see when I was supposed to stop turning them, but hadn't gotten to it, it didn't seem like it had been all that long, but yesterday morning when I started to turn them I saw that one egg had pipped. Your supposed to stop turning them on the 18th day to let the chicks inside orient themselves to make their great escape from the shell. So I quickly put the one's back I had turned and closed it back up. This morning I have 12 chicks out now, and quite a few more pipped. Still, not many from 90 eggs. I have pretty much given up the hopes of having a vegetable garden. Guess we'll just have to eat chicken. :rolleyes:I still don't have my pool fixed. Dang, it's getting on my nerves too. Found a small hole in it, and waiting to get some help to patch it. Hopefully I won't have to wait till labor day! But the hole is near the bottom and I can't be on the inside and the outside at the same time to press down the patch.

I certainly hope everyone else is inspired by your post and will jump and and start some interesting topics! I've been away for a little while again, and I was amazed at how few new posts are here in my absense. And for spam, wow, I remember 3 years ago there was very little spam here. Now there's ton's of it. It's downright annoying. I hope if we all stick it out and keep on posting, eventually things will get better again.

I fail to see the inhmane part of this. What's the difference between killing a pig for a lung or liver, than killing it for pork chops? What would be better still is if we could harvest the needed body parts for human transplant, and then eat the rest of the pig. But if the pigs dna had been changed to human's, then I suppose eating it would make people cannibals.

Hey, LOVE that cake! That's quite a job of cake decorating! Talk about close date, my third year here is Jun 14! It's been fun, and I certainly hope it continues for at least another 7 years!

We did a deal like that some years ago, got a couple nights stay at a hotel in Florida, then a trip to the Bahamas, and a couple nights there. It was great! I'd never been on a ship before, so that was a real trip. Never been in a spot before where I couldn't see anything around me but water. I'm used to seeing hills and trees, not water. I really enjoyed it. The sales pitch went on a bit longer than they claimed it would, but still all in all, it was well worth listening to their sales pitch for all the goodies we got out of the deal. I don't remember what the cost was, nearly nothing, great way to get a cheap short vacation.

ROTFLMAO! Oh, ain't that the truth! My critters do a pretty good job of keeping the fat run off me. Not 100% of course, I still have more than enough to spare, but I do worry about what would happen if I ever broke a leg and and had to sit on my butt for 6-8 weeks. I'd probably end up weighing 300 lbs! Cause it's not likely my eating habits would change just because my motion had slowed. I do like to eat!

Well, I've tried to slow down a little the past two days, but honestly, it hasn't helped. Sitting at this dumb computer all day putting ads on line and anwsering emails hurts my back just about as bad as if I had done some real work. Guess I just can't win. It's been cold and rainy today, I sure wish the weather would settle down so I can fill up the old pool and it be warm enough to enjoy it. This has been one weird spring. Never saw so much rain!

Oh, I'd love to get the chance to pick his brain sometimes on all that grooming knowledge! Just about everything I learned I've had to figure out myself, by experimenting and just doing it. I seriously started from scratch on the dog grooming stuff. Believe it or not, I learned to shear dogs by watching a sheep shearer do it! Now that's just about as far as you can get away from show grooming! Of course, I've come a long way since then, thank goodness. Show grooming truely is an art form. So many different styles and trick and things you need to know. I doubt I'll ever be really good at it, but at least I can get the dogs to look more or less like they are supposed to. Maybe you should read my post to your dogs? They are supposed to be good little guys and not go tearing up stuff.

Great, list, thanks for sharing! i knew about cabbage, celery and onions, but it's nice to see a lot longer list for some variety. But on the zucchinni, I don't suppose it would be a negitive if it is deep fried would it?

Ah....Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, great little dogs. Nice easy going personalities, get along well with everything and everyone, don't tear things up, and not too hard to groom. Wish I could get excited about them. I'm just a terrier person. For some reason the whimpy type dogs just don't get it for me. (although I do have some Japanese Chins) My vet raised the CKCS for many years, he had some really nice ones, good patella's, hearts, and no hernias! They are a popular breed, and make a nice pet for the average owner that may be too challenged by some of the more intense breeds.I like the looks of the Havanese, but am not real familiar with them. Anyway, I am trying to learn to like breeds that don't have all that dog gone hair to deal with. Not having much luck in that department though. Every spring I cuss myself for liking all these hairy breeds. I have imported 4 dogs too, mine all came threw Europuppy, and I have to say, I got some really great dogs from them. Standard Schnauzers, and Welsh Terriers, all champion sired and dams. Great dogs, and actually I was able to get them threw him at a better price than getting them from a breeder here in the states, if I could even find a breeder that would sell me one. I may not do much showing myself, but I like to see some red in those pedigrees to preserve the breed type and quality.

OH, keeping one in show coat can be nearly a full time job in some breeds! Poodles, Sheepdogs, and many other breeds have very difficult to maintain show coats. I would hate to even try to keep one in show coat. I've tried to work over a lot of mine to keep them in coat long enough to take nice pictures of my adults and let me tell you, that is really a job! Especially about the time the hair is almost long enough to look good, and then it's a race to get that last little bit grown out while you can still keep up with the brushing. How long is the quaranteen period where you are? Austrailia? What kind of dog are you getting?