sheepdog

Gee, I never thought about epson salt soak for the whole body, but since my whole body is aching, that isn't a bad idea! I've used the salts on parts of me in the past, ankles, wrist etc, but never all of me. Only problem is I'm not one much for soaking in hot water. Unless it is winter time, I don't like hot water. Only soaking I do is in my little pool, in nice cold water. Speaking of pools, I wish now I had cleaned mine out a few weeks ago and put the plug back in it, it would be nearly half full by now! More rain last night, geeze, we are drowning around here!

Hey Web designer, I didn't realize you were in the states now, last I knew you were in Turkey or some such place. Granted, I have been pretty preoccupied with the goats and spring planting stuff, haven't been able to keep up with everything going on here. Glad to have you here, who knows, maybe some day you'll be passing threw Missouri and can get some work in on that fear of dogs you have, lol. I'm glad you are enjoying the smile thing. Also glad you got here before people stopped doing it here too. I really think it's dying out in this country too. I remember when I was a kid growing up close to 1/2 of the people you met when you were just driving down the road would wave at you too. (and no, I don't mean the single finger salute either) I still try to keep a smile on my face. I remember hearing a saying about how you should smile, because it makes people wonder what you are up to. I'm glad you brought this subject up, and I'm glad to know the habit is not going the way of the dinosaurs just yet. It's a nice habit to have. And yes, I talk to complete strangers when waiting in check out lines too. Great way to pass the time, and you never know when just a few kind words or courtesy can really lift up another persons spirit. So.....keep smiling!

I find it interesting, or amusing that there is no middle ground in our opinions on various topics. We are either in total agreement on a subject, or polar opposite. Funny how that works out. I personally think this is the perfect case to test the Illinois law on. You have the perfect victim, an elderly, defenseless, small, respectable female citizen, with a job, and in a church, where one would think one could expect to be reasonalby safe. Attacked by a brutal career criminal with a long history of violence. No provocation, no history between the 2 victims and the attacker. I don't see anything questionable about the case. As far as the conceled carry permit, having more than one can easily be explained by the woman having more than one state of residence. It is actually quite common for people in her age group and living in the cold climate of Chicago to have a "winter home" in a state like Florida. She may have adult children living in another state she visits frequently, or perhaps she ownes the home they are living in, it may of been the family home when the children were growing up. Did you catch the point I mentioned in my first post how the woman had been threw 5 gun safty and training courses? It's not like she picked up one at Walmart and stuck it in her purse in case of a random mugging. She was prepared, and with profesional training. There is no way this could be considered premeditated murder had she shot the criminal. To be premeditated, one has to make plans in advance to deliberatly and intentionally kill someone. If you get attatcked and are protecting your own life, no way it's manslaughter, it's self defence, plain and simple. Granted, when ever the occasion arrises and one finds themselves with the need to use a firearm in self defence, there is always that possibility that the attacker can take the gun away from you. But in this case, the woman had no chance at all of avoiding a life threatening beating, at least with a gun she could of had a chance to get him before he got her. And had the gun been fired, perhaps the preacher who was in the church and the other victim could of realized what was happening and at least stopped the second woman from being beaten. The NRA is not trying to get an exception for this woman or senior citizens in general, it is fighting for all the residents of the state of Illinois to have the right to protect themselves. And I believe you are dead wrong when you don't think the elderly are rarely the victims of brutal crimes. I believe the odds are quite good, and that elderly are actually targeted more often as they are seen as more helpless and an easier target. We have had several cases of elderly people beaten to death in their homes here in our own area, so a rarity it sadly, is not. I just can't see how any judge would think that she in any way shape fashion or form was to blame for the attack on herself, that she put herself in harms way, she was working in the CHURCH for goodness sake! The fact that she does not have a criminal record attests to the fact that she is a law abiding citizen that should have the right to be safe where ever she is. You do make a perfectly good point that there are things we can do to protect ourselves threw they use of a little common sence. You were smart enough to have that 357 in case you needed it, and also enough sence to do your work in the early morning hours as you said, when the bad folks were generally sleeping. We can stay out of the bad parts of town, we can use a buddy system and lots of other things, like being aware of our surroundings, etc. But there are going to be those times when we are in a situation that is in no way under our control. We need to be able to go to church, the bank, the grocery store and other public places without fear. And in safty.

My mood selection is certainly on target today! I am so tired I can't see straight. BUT!! My flower bed is finally planted! Took me two days, but I got it done. And of course, I never even get a break, the day I started trying to plant it my order finally came in from Burgess with all the trees I ordered, so now I have to keep plugging and get all them planted. I ordered the stuff over a month ago, wish they hadn't waited so long to send it. And here I thought I could get back to posting here since kidding season is over. The palm of my poor left hand is just about raw from butt scooting across the edge of the bed, got too tired to get up and down to move from plant to plant so just started scooting along. That's how it goes when you get old and "chubby." And before you go to thinking I'm a whimp or weakling, I should tell you my flower bed is 196 feet long, so that's a lot of scooting. And since last year my seed crop was really dismal, I only got 6 jars of seed back after planting 17 jars. So this year I put my canna's back in the flower bed on the back side of it, up along the fence and mulched around them, which greatly narrowed the row up that I actually had to seed. I put the cosmos and zinnias along the middle and then went the full length of the bed on the outside edge with marrigolds. I also cut out a section in the center of the bed by putting in a large Angel Trumpet plant I keep inside during the winter months. I hope the sudden shock of getting stuck outside doesn't kill it, it was looking pretty peaked today after it was put out yesterday. Talked one of the hired men into staying a little longer yesterday and planting 3 trees, but he chickened out today, said his back was hurting, for which I did not have a lot of symathy over since I was barely even able to move myself, but anyway, hopefully the other man can get a bunch more of them in tommorow. Think we have about 14 more to plant. So, hopefully I'll get back here to post in a few more days, but things are way too hectic right now.

Yes, that is actually what I do the the vast majority of my dogs. I just shave them down, right to the hide and am done with it. There are a lot of advantage to this method. One, as you say it is cooler for the dog. It prevents a host of skin problems, like hot spots from ever getting started. Air circulation and some sunshine is vital for healthy skin. I don't think very many people realize how good of a disinfectant sunshine actually is. Another benefit is if you do happen to get an external parasite problem, fleas, ticks, lice, etc, it is far more effective to treat the dog if you don't have all that hair for the pesky little varmits to hide in. Then there is of course, the fact that mine are breeding dogs. All that hair can harbor lots of disease causing organisims, not only bacteia, but funguses and yeasts that can have a detrimental effect on the incomplete immune system of young pups. Adult dogs have long developed immune systems that these bacteria are not likely to be a problem for the adults, but pups that have not yet been exposed to them are often quite suseptable. Did you know that one gram of feces can contain one million disease causing bacteria? A gram is such a tiny ammount, it could easily stick that much in the excess hair around the rectum. One real big advantage to the lack of hair is the fact that I can assess the body condition of the dog at a glance. If a dog needs to gain weight, or loose weight, I can spot problems instantly. Long hair can really cover up any problems and make it more difficult to catch them before any real damage is done. I have heard it said that you shouldn't shave a dog down as the hair acts as insulation against the heat, but I'm betting anybody that ever said that never tried to wear a fur coat in July!

Now there's a topic I could really use your expertise in. I know it is a deep and complex subject, and there are a lot of tricks a person should have up their sleeve when doing marketing. I'm afraid I don't know nearly enough about it. Since the majority of my business results in my ability to answer emails I end up agonizing over every word I write sometimes. Did I say it right? Do I give the impression I know what I am talking about? Do I sound professinal enough, or too professional to the point I seem uncaring? I should probably tell you, I raise dogs. People are very emotional about dogs, and it can be a very fine line with answering questions and not coming across as being too flakey or being cold and impersonal. It's really hard to find a good balance. If you have any sugestions, I'd certainly be happy to hear them!

Welcome Laura! Glad to have you here. Hope you enjoy this site as much as I have. Great way to get web hosting to my way of thinking, by just being opinionated and not being afraid to voice your opinion. So....what do you do in good Old Houston?

Welcome MrFlash! Glad to have you here. Tell us a little about yourself, where you are from, your likes, dislikes, etc. I'm sure you will find a lot of good people on this board to get aquainted with and enjoy some pleasant exchanges with.

Very good post. You make some great points. I also perked up my little ears at the mention of straw bale houses. Haven't heard mention of them in quite a few years. They were all the rage awhile back. Been long enough now that I can't remember some of the problems related to them. I wonder if the preperation of the bales, for example, making them flame retardent, and structurally sound enough to be weight bearing and non rotting, would push the cost and practicality of this medium to the point where traditional housing materials would be a better investment? But for the 3 of you other questions. Well, yes, if it came to a sudden halt the world would be plunged into a considerable disaster. We are not yet prepared to make a major switch to alternate energy. We have no backups, or very limited back up to provide for our current rate of consumption of the things fossil fuels currently provide for us. Nearly 100% of us depend on gas to get to work, or fuels to run electric plants that run our computers and all the things we depend on to make our livings. How could I drive to buy dog food without gas, or sell my pups online with no power for my computer. Be pretty tricky! Sure if you live in town you can ride a bike to work, but lets see you haul 1/2 a ton of dog food 70 miles on a bike! That is going to depend on the alternatives we discover to replace our current engery needs. If new discoveries are made for a different type of power our current devices are as you say, going to become boat anchours. But if we can find safe and effective ways to produce the same electric we now use, they will be fine. I don't see the vast majority of people being ready to give up much of any of the luxories they now enjoy. People are accustom to these computers, cell phones, tv's and all the conviences of modern life. They will not want to give them up without a fight.

OH, I do so feel your pain!I place ads for pups for sale on a lot of different sites. There are times when I have spent much time doing an add, waiting for pictures to upload and all, and then the captcha is so screwy I can't even start to figure it out. I remember one day I tried 5-6 or more time and never did figure the dang thing out. It is very frustrating, and I certainly wish they would find some other way to keep spammers or others out of sites without making legitimate customers go threw hell to post.

I am not by any means an expert on this subject, but from what I have observed with many of my gay friends, there is virtually no differences in the man/woman vrs the man/man relationship. All of the relationship components are there, the emotional responces, the feelings and the way the 2 people interact with each other seem to be identical to me. It did seem to me to be rather strange when I first realized that this is the case, my mind kept telling me since the situation was "different" the relationship should of been too, but it really is not at all different. As for the romance, if you miss it, why don't you get it back? Think back to when you first got together, remember the little things your partner did that got your heart all to fluttering, and what you did to make each other happy and make the effort to do those things again. The kind words and thoughtful gestures cannot possibly be all used up yet in the few years you guys have been together. Find even little things to show your affection and careing for your partner. Romance does not have to die. It just needs to be stoked like any other fire.

An interesting, and to me a very important case has been filed in Illinois. It is being financed and supported by the National Rifle Association. As you may know, Illinois is the only state that you are not allowed to have a gun outside of your own home. The case involves a woman, Mary Shepard, who was attacked and viciously beaten along with another friend and coworker of hers, an 83 year old woman, while they were in the Baptist Church where both woman work. Mary herself was nearly 70 years old at the time of the incident. Both women were serious injured and required hospitalization and surgeries because of their injuries. Mary suffered 4 separate skull fractures, and numerous other injuries. The attacker was a large (6ft. 3 in, 245lbs) man, with a long and violent criminal history. Mary herself has no criminal record, and is also already licensed to have a concealed handgun in not just one but 2 other states. She has been threw 5 different gun training courses and is more than qualified to carry a gun for her personal protection. However, having a gun in Illinois is a felony. If there was ever a case that perfectly shows the need for a citizen of this country to have the right to protect themselves, this is it. Mary was a good law abiding citizen, but a small of stature and basically defenseless woman, 5ft 3 in, 135lbs. She stood not a snowballs chance in hell against her huge attacker. The only thing that could of saved her was the equalizing of a personal firearm. This poor woman is still suffering from the injuries she received over a year ago when the attack took place. Most likely she will suffer from them for the rest of her life. She should not have to go threw this. She should have had the opportunity to shoot the attacker grave yard dead. No one sick enough to beat up defenseless old women should be allowed to live. I can?t see anyone having compassion for the criminal involved in this travesty, if you might feel for him, visit this site and watch the video, which shows Mary speaking of her ordeal. http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ is one case I intend to keep an eye on. To me it is the perfect example of why we as citizens of this country should be allowed to carry guns for our personal safety. I am anxious to see how our politicians handle this one. Changes need to be made to Illinois laws when something this horrific can happen to it?s law abiding citizens.

Ok, intersting articule, but what got me was the comments. Geeze, what a mess of wide and varried opinions. Way off the wall stuff, to those about to line up for treatment. It seems nobody has a clue what they are talking about, I do believe there are people that could get in a long drawn out argument over wether or not ice is cold.

I don't think I did a real good job of describing the matt splitter, so I too a quick picture of the 2 different forms I have. I prefer the red handled one, but as you can probably see, I've used the blue one enough to break out 2 teeth and pull off the outer handle. Good quality grooming tools are hard to come by unless you are willing to spend big bucks. I've seen scissors in grooming catalogs for over $100!!! Cold day in hell before I ever spend $100 on a pair. But I have thought long and hard about coughing up $30 or $40 for what they call a Mars Coat King. I think they would be real handy, but since they come in several sizes, it would cost a small fortune to get them all.

Osama Ben Ladin. Dead finally after all these years. While I have not been following the story too much, my attitude is after all he's dead, good riddance. I hear they just dumped his carcuss out in the ocean. Made him into fish food. Don't you think this was very uncreative? Couldn't they have come up with something a little more creative? I bet there are lots of people here that could come up with something far better to do with his remains. Here's my idea. Toss the body into a chipper/shredder. When it was nicle diced and chopped, blend it into a load of concrete, and then pour it into a form, and make a public urinal at ground zero. Now, who else has an idea?

Sorry I missed you. But I'm sure you still have fur flying, it takes awhile to get it all loose during the spring shedding season.I think your tools are probably sufficient for the job, though a good metal comb might be nice for finishing off after you get the bulk of the hair removed. If he doesn't have too many clumps or tags already forming in his fur. Then a matt splitter would probably work better. It is a very handy tool, it has tines that look like a searated knife blade that cut threw the clumping hair and let's you get them out and still leave the long coat. For your dog, forget the pin (slicker) brush. You would spend as much time getting all that hair out of the brush as you would spend getting it out of the dog. One swipe over the dog and you'd have to pick the pin brush. They are ok for fluffing up little poodles when you are drying them, but not much else. And hit the ends of your fingers with one and you will figure out real quick that they are not very comfortable against your skin. There is a metal tooth brush that looks like a regular human hair brush that might be helpful, try to find one that has rounded tips, they are fairly comfortable against the skin. Those grooming gloves look like a smart idea, but they are difficult to keep on your hands, when you hit a thick spot your hand just seems to pop right out of them. I do cheat a bit on my grooming, I like to shave a spot completely down to the hide just at the base of the tail, straight down over the butt and down the back of the leg, sometimes taking a little off on the underside of the leg too. This gives me a starting point on the back side, where the hair is gone and I can slowly start brushing into the heavy hair, I usually just brush out 1/2 an inch at a time and move over slowly as the hair thins in the area I'm working in. Brush in the direction the hair is laying. You can, once you get the bulk of the hair out, brush against the grain, to sort of fluff it up so you make sure you are getting all the way to the skin. Getting to the skin is important, I've seen dogs with coats you could easily run a comb threw the top layer and they look just perfectly slick, but they still have a matted undercoat. Since you don't have clippers, try finding the spot on the back of the leg where the shorter leg hair starts and the longer hair of the upper leg and body just ends. Pull down just a bit at a time, slowly working your way up the leg. You can also start possibly, in the flank area, and work back slowly over the hips. Every breed of dog I know of has that extra heavy hair over the hips and down the back legs. Their front end looks perfectly smooth and groomed and their butts look terrible. Clumps everwhere. Work into these, as I said, slowly, just part way threw the thick stuff. Once the hair is well seperated, you can take full width brush strokes, but it's easier when you are starting out to take it in small strokes. Swimming definatly makes the matts harder to get out. For some reason, water makes the matts harder and more dense. You should always brush out your pet before bathing. I know all too well what a daunting task this can be this time of year. That dang hair just seems to keep coming and coming out. Since you have a border collie, and they are not well known for sitting still for any great lenght of time, it's probably best to groom in short sessions. Maybe 10 minutes or so at a time. Give him a treat if he behaves well after you finish. If he knows's a treat is coming, he will probably be more cooperative during the grooming sessions. Just keep the faith, it will all eventually come out!And thanks Anwii, for letting me know there was a question right up my alley! I tried to answer your message and for some reason I couldn't get in to answer it.

Boy, I just can't get a luck break to save my life. After weeks of waiting for a break in the rain so the ground was dry enough to till, hubby finally got it done yesterday, and then the monsoon rain hit. We had quite a bad storm last night. I have not been out yet to assess the damages, and I am not looking forward to that, I expect things are a mess. We had to put new tines on the tiller this year, and boy did that make a difference! Before it got pounded by the rain, the flower bed really looked good, the dirt was pulverised to a very nice fine consistancy. Looks good too, has a nice dark color to it. Guess hauling all that rabbit and goat poop up to it all these years is finally starting to pay off. For years it was mostly clay and rock. Gradually I have picked out some of the rock, I normally go threw it right after a fresh tilling and take out a few wheelbarrow loads of rocks every year. It still has a lot, this is of course, Missouri. Rocks are our best crop here. They grow really well. There is just one big problem with the new tilling job. It threw a deep ridge of dirt right up on the fence on the back side of the flower bed. This spring I had just had my hired man go down the entire fence row and raise the wire so it would be 3 to 4 inches off the ground so that we could weed eat under it, since the bed is wide enough it's hard to work from the frount and get all the weeds that grow just under the fence. He had done a wonderful job, but it took him quite awhile, and we had to set quite a few more fence posts to keep the fence tight and high off the ground. Now the fence is burried under several inches of dirt again. I am so pissed! It's going to be a major pain in the back side to hand rake all that dirt back up the hill and out from under the fence. The grass is complicating the process, directly under the fence of course, it didn't get tilled, so that has to be all hand pulled as you rake the dirt, otherwise the dirt is very difficult to get raked away from the grass. It's going to take days to get it fixed back right. I had even contemplated taking our leaf blower to the dirt to see if I could just blow it out of the grass, but with the heavy rain we had, I doubt even our heavy duty blower will be able to blow mud. And just when I thought I might finally start catching up on my hosting credits.........

If I were you, I'd find some other way to make money! It took me nearly 3 years to get my first check from Google! It takes a TON of traffic to your site, thousands of daily visitors, because most visitors are interested in the content of your site and don't bother clicking on the ads unless they by some fluke happen to see something that catches their interest. Every thing galexcd said too is true. Hitting that right combination of interesting information that is interesting to a large group of people is extrememly difficult to do.

Congradulations to the guy for having the guts to do something outragous, and even dangerous to himself to bring attention to social problems. He should get a medal and not a fine or jail time, but I'm sure the government will find some silly or obscure law to charge him with. Obstructing traffic, demonstrating without a permit or some such garbage. Even if the police got him down quickly, I would think that he definatly had the time to get his point across. And I think Anwii is right too, if any judge gave him a harsh sentence, that judge will not be looked upon favoribly by any children's advacasy groups ever again. Lets hope this rather brave and daring stunt actually does help kids. Please do keep us posted as to what happens. I would be curious as to the outcome. Hope they don't punish him too severly.

LOL, well wouldn't you know, there would be some little spot on the globe to come along and wreck a perfect notion that nobody would say Burbon and Pepsi please! It is a rather interesting little story though, thanks for sharing.

Well, it's nearly over now. Been a long month. I still have one more hold out to go, but she is an older, more experienced doe and should be ok. At least I'm not having to run the pastures out every 2-3 hours like I was. I can believe I made it threw the entire season and didn't have to pull a single kid! That's pretty unusual, nearly every year I get at least one set that I have to help with. A kid will have a head cocked up and over the pubic bone inside, or one leg pulled back, or even worse, 2 kids will try to come at the same time, that one can get really hairy when you are trying to sort out which leg belongs to which kid so you can pull the right one first. This year nearly all the momma's kept up with their kids. I only had to jug up 2 sets of kids. I have a small pen in part of the lean to in the barn where the goats are, I just keep a low panel in front of the gate into it, so the adult does can jump over it to get into their kids, but the kids are too little to jump out. Usually, by the time they are big enough to jump over it, they are big enough to keep up with their moms. Works out pretty good that way. Saves me a lot of time and worry about keeping up with all the little ones. I also take my camara out with me when there are newborns so I can get pictures of the kids with their mom, so I know later on which one's belong to which doe. Makes it a little easier to keep track if anyone comes up missing. I have ended up with a really nice looking bunch of kids this year. They are good sized, and everybody is growing really well. I used a purebred Boer buck, I have some purebred boer does, but the majority are 50 percent boer and 50 percent Alpine Dairy goat. I have just a few purebred dairy does left now, after several years of crossing back boer. I really think the 50% kids do the best. When you cross the Boer with the dairy, the resulting kids get the good big boned and meaty body, and they have dairy goat mothers that give lots of milk and they grow out by far better than even the purebred boers who's moms know milk nearly as well as the dairy goats. Anyway, kidding is just about over, so hopefully I can get back to posting, at least a little more than I have been this past month. Still have lots of landscaping to do, my flower bed to plant, if the ground ever drys out enough that we can till it. I did manage to get the vast majority of the dogs groomed, but still have some of them to do, but I'm gaining.

I am very sorry to hear about your break in contactskn. It is unlikely that the police will catch the purpitrators, but I hope for your sake they do. It's a shame the police had to be such jerks about it too, like you haven't suffered enough? Wonder why that had to be that way, it is their job after all to catch criminals. I do understand the physcoligy side of it too. In many ways the after effects are worse than the belongings you lost. The very feeling of not feeling safe in the one place you should be the safest of all, your own home. Oddly, I was just having this conversation today with the elderly lady that occasionally helps me out with a little housework. She had a little strawberry patch just a little out of site from her house, and when she stopped by to pick the berries today, someone had stolen them. She was really upset. Not so much by the value of a few strawberries, but the fact that someone obviously had been watching her and knew she was away so they could get them. And even though she is not your typical little old lady, she certainly did feel victimized. Now she is a tiny woman, under 100lbs soaking wet with rocks in her pockets, in her 80's, and certainly may apear to be an easy target, but trust me, she is not. She is well armed and not in the least afraid to shoot first and ask questions later. If the patch had not been out of gun range from her house, those thieves would be fertilizing the strawberries, not eating them. Never the less, it is still a tramatizing thing to go threw. Another tip for when you are away from home nobody mentioned so far is to have someone pick up your mail for you if it is delivered to your home. A stuffed full mailbox is a sure sign that nobody has been home for awhile. Try to have someone you trust pick it up for you, or have the post office hold your mail at the post office until you get home. Try not to tell too many people you are leaving either.

Believe it or not, I've never tried any of the energy drinks they have today. You never know what they are going to taste like, and since they are rather expensive, I'd hate to buy one and then discover it tasted like crap. I just stick with good old ice tea. Drink gallons of the stuff. I do remember one supposed energy drink from some year ago, called Jolt cola. They advertised it as twice the caffene and all the sugar of regular cola. I did drink it, since it was a cola type drink. It was pretty good, but I haven't seen a can of it around for years.

Great idea! I love it! Now I just hope somebody hurries up and invents it! Just think how much easier it would make my life. No more worring about remembering to fill up the ice cube trays every night, fighting with them and wrenching out the cubes, which always seems to hurt my wrist to do, and then there's the slopping water everywhere trying to get the filled ones up and back to the freezer. If I could just zap up a bunch of ice cubes in a minute or so it would really be great.

Wow, great introduction! You really did a good job of telling us about yourself. Glad to have you here at Xisto! I'm sure with your interest in web site design and hosting you are going to fit right in. As for schooling, where there is a will there is a way. Maybe you can work your way threw school, if it takes a little longer that's not a bad thing since you have your whole life ahead of you anyway, get the best education you can and it will pay you back in the long run.