sheepdog

Well, at least those things are doing good! Before too much longer our friends will not be picking up the phone when we call (if they have caller ID) and will lock the doors if they see us comming and pretend not to be home. I can hardly walk threw the kitchen right now, we have a huge pile in bags sitting on the floor. And the most upsetting thing so far, I can't find an old recipe I used to have to make spiced apple rings out of them. Things are not coming out right, we need to defrost our deep freeze, and need more time to use up some of the stuff, but have no where to put it, things are just a mess. We got our first ripe tomatoe yesterday, just a little one, and the rest are all still very green, but it won't be long utill we are run over with them too. That is a delema I usually enjoy, tomato sause, juice, ketchup, all that good stuff is a big favorite here. Unfortunatly, the deer topped off our green beans. I don't know if they will come out of it or not, hopefully they will. I am surprized they so far have not eaten our corn. That would definatly cause me to go deer hunting! I love my sweet corn! We REALLY need to get over there and till and weed, but the rain just keeps coming and it just stays too wet. The forcast for this week is all dry though, so maybe we can manage to get some work done on it. On another happy note, we actually have some fruit this year! Last year the entire crop was wiped out by that late freeze. It actually killed several of my trees, and badly damaged others. But this year looks like we are going to have lots of apples, and today I got a few ripe plums, they were SO GOOD!!! UMMM, YUMMY! They of course, did not make it to the house, shake the tree and eat on the spot. Unfortunatly there aren't too many. So....I hope everyone elses garden is doing well.

I sure hope you have had your rabies vaccination before you go letting a skunk lick peanut butter off your fingers! They are very prominent carries of rabies. One of the worst. As far as training your dog to not bother wildlife......wait, that's what dogs are for! Hunting dogs, varmit dogs, guardian dogs, that is their purpose in life. They have been helpful to man, not a burden, since the first cave men domesticated the dogs that hung around their campsites when they realized that their keen sense of smell and other abilities could aid them in their hunts and actually make life easier. The American Indians even used them as beasts of burden when moving from camp site to camp site, before horses were brought to this country.

Well, I think it's a great idea! I bought one myself a few months ago, a scooter anyway. 85 miles to the gallon, how could you possibly go wrong with that? My only problem with it is that I am old and slow and don't heal as fast as I used to. I bought it just before kidding season started, and I came to the sad realization that I could not afford to get myself hurt at that time of years, so I have put off riding it. I know that no better than my coordination is, I'm bound to have some spills before I get the hang of it. It jumped out from under once allready, but fortunatly, it just left me standing there upright looking rather foolish. However, now that kidding is almost over with, and this is July, and there is a creek about a mile or so down the road from us, I expect that some very hot afternoon I will get brave and hop on and take a trip to the creek. My only concern right now is if it will pull me back up the hill home, it a long steep hill, and only a 49 cc scooter. Soon we shall see!

You sound just like me, only nervous doesn't cover it, I was about in a panic! I did exactly the same thing with the lost password thing, tried that 3 times even. I was sure it had to be something I was doing wrong. And I didn't have any email addresses for anyone here, thought maybe I had one and dug threw several 100 sent messages hoping to find it but no such luck. I was just about to see if I could start a new account just to get in to find out what is going on, but fortunatly I'm back here now and my site is back up.

I am very sorry to hear about your difficulities. There is one thing I try to remember during difficult times like this. It is quite simple really, but worth remembering. What does not kill us makes us stronger. We all have trials in our lives and how we handle them is what builds our charector and makes us better human beings. Some of the things you went threw with your mother can now be applyed to the strength and experience you will need to help your friend get threw her ordeal. It does sound like things will be really tough for you. If you need councelling, get it. Or post here, there is a great group of people here that can help you with moral support. And sometimes, it just helps to be able to spit it al out and get it off our chests. That can be a big relief alone. You hang in there, we are all pulling for you!

Oh, don't give up on the lack of green thumb just cause you've killed a few house plants! I've killed a many of them myself! Seems the only one I can keep for very long is Aloe Vera, which oddly enough, most people have trouble with. I have an orange tree I have fought with for several years now, I kept it looking good for awhile, but this past winter all the top leaves withered up and fell off, the whole 3/4 of the top of it is dead now, but I do have a few small lower branches with leaves. I hope it will eventually regrow. (but I'm not holding my breath) Gardening is an art, and a science. Maybe you could help one of your friends with their garden and get some practical experience. Gardens always need weeding! Just don't do like my better half did the other day, and weed out the wroung plants. I had slipped in a few sugar snap peas on both ends of one of our flower boxes in front of the house, where we have a cattle pannel arched up over the bed to tie tomatoes plants to and for cucumbers to grow over. I plant a few peas as they are quick to produce and die out when it gets hot, and are then out of the way for the other crops. Anyway, my dearly beloved pulled up every single one of them! I was not very happy with him. They are one of my favorites, and they are one of those things that you simply cannot buy. Much like trying to eat tomatoes in January, they arent' fit to eat unless you raise them yourself and eat them fresh. I usually don't even get in the house with them. From vine to my mouth. Another odd thing this year, I didn't see anybody anywhere selling sweet potatoe slips! I had planed on putting some of those out too. And we got around too late to get any onion bulbs. All we found where some really ratty looking green topped slips, funny thing was, I was pretty disgusted and just sort of poked them in the ground thinking they would never make as bad as they looked. (they came out of the 25 cent bin at Wally World) but nearly every one of them ended up taking off! You just never know.

Yum! Sounds wonderful!Of course, your talking to someone that has been living off of cold polish sausages straight out of the frig for the last month, haven't had time to eat. I like guacamole made with cream cheese and avacodos, and then a sprinkling of the chopped onions and tomatoes. I really keep an eye on the vegtable rack for avacodos to be on sale. Most time they are too expensive to buy, but if they are ever on sale I pig out, believe me.Years ago I used to make goat cheese to sell at the local growers market. I was always making up recipies to use it in and making free samples for people to try, it really helped market the cheese. One of my recipies was Goatie Guacamole. It was a big hit.

Well, I don't know how they treat their employee's, but they are a big sponser of one of my favorite TV show's. "Extreme Home Makeover." They have made some very major contributions to familys that have had kids with health problems, including sending one dad to medical school and picking up the tab for his education so he could learn and reasearch his childs rare disease. They paid off several hospital bills and furnished a lot of medical supplies for other families. So you would think with a big heart like that they would be decent to their employees! Good luck with your new job and keep us posted as to how it goes.

I am glad to hear you are ok at any rate! This has been one terrible year for tornados and heavy rains. We had our first tornado here in January of all things! Very unusual for that time of year! We lost our big highway sign, and the neighbor across the road had big cedar trees snapped off 6-8 feet up the trunks like they were just twigs. But the last tornado from a couple weeks ago really tore up the town. Many building suffered major damage. The town was really a mess. But amazingly enough no one was injured. It hit early in the morning, just before daylight. We sat and watched out our front window and could see explosions around town, bright flashes of blue and green and red lights would just explode on the horizon. It was almost like watching a fireworks display. I think it was the electric transformers as the power lines were snapped and poles came down.

I can't believe that there haven't been a ton of posts on this topic since I've been gone! Even with our busy kidding season, we did slip away and get a garden started at least. I used to live next door to where I am now, and had started a really nice garden over there, so we just garden there instead of starting a new one here at the house. I have about an acre of garden fenced off. Originally years ago I planned on having a market garden, which I did for several years and really enjoyed it, but you have to have a real job to as tomatoes don't grow in the winter here in the Ozarks. We set out a few dozen tomatoe plants, and some peppers, but not nearly as many as I would of liked to. I have to say, this year there was the most pathetic selection of garden plants I have ever seen. And so EXPENSIVE! Sheesh, I have got to fix a place in the house next year and grow my own. I did try that last year, but had really lousy luck with it. Going to have to get my act together and do it right next year. I planted a bunch of old sunflower seeds I had, just hoping to get a few plants so I would have fresher seed for next year. A few days after planting I started seeing a lot of seed on top of the ground. On closer inspection, it was not the seed, just the hulls of the seeds I had planted! Dang birds scratched them up. I was not a happy camper! I did get a few plants though, so maybe I will have better luck next year. One thing is definatly worrying me about our garden this year, when we went over the other day to plant a bit more, we found nice big deer tracks right threw the middle of the garden. I will be very pissed if they get the benefit from all my hard work! Unless of course I get some venison to go with my tomatoes, lol! We got some other stuff out a few days ago, but getting things planted this year has been tough. Just about the time the ground would dry out enough to plant it would rain again. I had hoped to get a lot more planted, but it just wasn't in the cards I guess. We did get a lot more out this year than last year. Now if we can just keep up with it. It's allready in dire need of another tilling and hoeing, but my better half has been ailing, and then a few days ago he was getting a goat out of the fence, and as he turned around after getting her loose, he fell down, landed on a big sharp edged rock. He probably now has some cracked ribs and is pretty miserable. Bouncing on a tiller is not something pleasant to do with cracked ribs. Of course, nothing is much fun when you are in that shape. So, how is everybody else's garden growing?????

It has sure been one long hard month on this poor old fat lady. Kidding started a month ago yesterday, and while we still have a few that might kid, most of it is over now, thank god! I don't know how much more I could stand! And my hosting credits slipped rapidly away, far too many hours in the goat pasture to sit at the computer. For the past 15 or so years, I have kept my goat herd down to a manageable size, usually around 15 head. They were all Alpine Dairy goats. Just enough to raise a few beef calves, and have plenty of milk for puppies, etc. But then my better half decided that we needed to start raising Boer goats. It certainly seemed like a logical thing to do at the time, the meat goat kids bring a decent price and the market is good. So a few years ago we started using Boer bucks on my dairy does. Those 50% cross goats to my way of thinking, make the best producers, they have the body weight and frame of the Boer, and milk like the dairy, which really makes a huge difference in the growth of their kids. Purebred Boers are really bad milkers. So at the beginning of this year we had nearly 50 head of goats to kid out. I knew it was going to be tough, so I did my dead level best to stay on top of them and all in all, it went pretty well. I had to make "cheat sheets." Pictures of the goats with their kids and their name or tag number so I could tell which kids belonged to which momma goat when they got seperated. Now, for your non goat people, while goats are very intelligent animals in many respects, when it comes to having babies, many of them are dumber than a box of rocks. They will have their babies and then just go off to graze, and forget where they left the kids. If you don't keep track of them, many of the kids will not survive, newborns seperated from their moms weaken quickly without milk. And the kids are not always that easy to see, our pastures were pretty grown up at the start of the season, you could be 5 ft. away from a kid laying in the grass and not see it. Some of our goats did really well, and one in particular, Aflak, ( I named her that because she looks exactly like the goat in the Aflak insurance commercial) amazingly never did loose her kids, even though she left them all over the pasture, she always went back to them. I was pretty surprised, because she would leave them quite a distance from the rest of the herd. But several of the others were not so smart. I had to jug up several does and leave them with their kids for 4-5 days until the kids got a bit more strength and the does bonded to them a little better. Many of the does we kidded out this year were first timers, and those are usually the worst. Most of the births went smoothly. But I had lulled myself into a false sense of security as they had all been kidding without complications, so I had not as yet cut off my fingernails. (usually the first thing I do at the start of the season, for when I have to pull kids.) I always hate to give them up, they are so handy for killing ticks. We were 12 days into the thick of things when late one evening I found a doe all stretched out and not moving. No straining or grunting, she was just laying there. I got a little closer and could see a little nose sticking out, so I waited awhile to see how things were going. Pretty soon I could see 2 little feet, so I figured we were ok, but for some reason, things just didn't look quite right. I kept telling myself that those feet were turned the right way, but they just didn't look right. I had to actually get ahold of them to realize that those 2 feet did not belong to the head that was out by now. She was trying to have 2 kids at the same time! (this is absolutly NOT possible) So a quick trip back to the kennel building for a lop job manicure and some dry towels. What a mess that doe was in! The head of one kid was out, and the back feet of another! I felt and felt and could not find the legs that were supposed to go with the head. I could just feel the tip of one hoof, it was on the side next to the kid comming butt first, so there was no way to grab it. The shoulders of head first were locked up with the hips of feet first. And head first had both front feet back. (unless both front feet come out at the same time, the shoulder are thrown wide and usually can't come threw the birth canal) I finally managed to get ahold of the outside leg of head first and bring it forward. Pulling him with a bit of twist, and pushing back feet first, I managed to unlock the hip and shoulder bind, and Head come flopping into this world. I had seen him breathing, but was worried about Feet, as his head was still way up inside her, but he came out pretty quick with some pulling and I upended him and got his lungs drained out and got him breathing good. Both survived the delivery. I have to say it was one of the worst tangles I have ever had to deliver. Mom is a bit worse for the wear, she just about decided that she wanted nothing to do with those 2 brats and I had to leave her locked up with them for quite awhile. And this week I decided they were not getting enough to eat, so I have been bottle feeding them once a day to make sure they do ok. Mom is taking them now, but she is not milking good enough. The only other minor mishap, was a doe that kidded right next to the pond. Too close to the pond. One of her newborns rolled off down the bank and ended up IN the pond. Things like this are why I have not been here at trap lately. You have to watch the goats almost constantly. I have been checking them 5-6 times per day. Had I not been, we would of lost that little guy, but I as there in time to save him, all he got was some yucky green mud on him, and he was the first kid of the season to earn his nickname, I named him Frog. What else would you find in the mud on the edge of the pond!So, as of today, 33 does have kidded, over 50 kids. I am dissapointed at the number of does that had singles. (goats normally have twins) Though it is fairly normal for first timers to have single kids, many of our first timers were older, as they didn't get bred last year, and I really thought that more of them would have twins. I think it was because we bought buck goats during breeding season, at the sale barn, and they were probably allready bred out. Not going to do that next year! We allready have 2 new bucks, one is a beautiful, well bred black headed buck I bought from my vetrinarian. We are going to pasture the 2 of them by themselves for some time before breeding season and fatten them up good, they should be rip roaring ready to go when breeding season starts next fall. So....hopefully life will get back to some semblance of normal again. Of course I have a lot of catching up to do with everything that got put on hold for kidding season, like planting garden and doggie hair cuts and all that jazz. We won't even talk about what my house looks like! Who knows, maybe I'll even get to go to the creek and see if I can remember how to swim!

Yea, that wiping out. That's what has kept me off the bike for the past few weeks. I rode it around the yard a little, but then kidding season started and I came to the sad realization that I could not afford any injuries until I at least get threw with kidding. Occasionally I let common sense take hold and keep me on the straight and narrow. Not too often, but occasionally. I think we are about 3/4 of the way threw kidding now, and I hope to soon be back at Xisto posting away, hopefully before my hosting credits run out. We have over 40 kids on the ground now. It's been crazy here.

And there in lies the problem. Who defines abuse? Is making a horse run abuse? Is chopping off a chickens head so you can have him for dinner abuse? Is keeping your dog chained in the back yard or in a crate abuse? It all depends on who is defineing cruelity. Granted, we know the general public may not be the brightest, but I believe that they can at least comprehend that if you are going to have fried chicken for dinner, the bird is going to have to be killed and dressed. What is PETA's purpose in comparing the holocost to the slaughter of chickens? And really, why should the general public even care about chicken slaughter and how it is acomplished? Is there a nice way to die? Do you suppose the lion concerns himself with the pain the zebra feels as he tears out his throat? And do you really think that McDonalds chickens die a less painfull death than Kentucky Fried chickens? Wonder why PETA thinks so? Talk about big business and Exploiters, just what exactly do you think PETA is? They too have caused pain and suffering to animals to prove their own agenda, what makes them any better than agri-businesses? I do believe that most people are inherently predisposed toward humane treatment of animals. But here again, we must define abuse. The pet owner who leaves his dog tied up in the back yard or in a crate during the day when they are gone to work, and then comes home and plays with his dog and interacts with it and feeds it and takes it to the vet will not be convinced that he is abusing his dog because he confines it for it's own safty when he cannot be present to watch over it. However, PETA will asure us that this is horrible abuse to confine this animal and not allow it to run free and live out it's life as nature intended it to. You know, like wolves who freeze and starve in the harsh winters are so much happier than our couch potato puppies sleeping by the fire place with their bellies full of kibble. PETA, much like the mainstream media, is inclined to make issues out of non issues to further their own agenda. And pad their own pockets. Every time they can whip the general population into a frenzy over some supposed abuse, the revenue rolls in. Talk about a cash cow, lol! Half truths and wild exagerations presented to your average Joe who is not going to go out of his way to research the truth behind the story, just simply get out the old check book and send in that donation.

Well, maybe I missed it, though I do watch pretty close. I can't think of a single thing that PETA has done that is good for animals. I do know of human lives that have been destroyed because of PETA, and I know of quite a few incedents were PETA has deliberatly caused animals to suffer just so they could make a point, or get a story, or make their own propaganda films. Their own shelter destroy over 90% of the amimals they take in. They don't even try to find homes, they just kill them. Drop off the bodies in a dumpster on the way back to their headquarters, after promising the people they got them from they would find them a good home. We talk about the woman who cyber bullied the teenage girl who ended up commiting sucide,and how she should be punished for her "crime," but are you aware that PETA does very much the same thing? Anyone involved with animals can be a target for PETA and their harrassment campaign. I personally know one woman who I am quite sure her untimely death was due to the severe harrasment she recieved from PETA. Of course, you can't prove that sort of thing, but I am as sure as I am sitting here typing this that it is what caused her ultimate death.

All you need is a kennel full of dogs and a herd of goats to take care of, especially during kidding season, and I guarantee you will sleep like a rock if you ever get the chance to! I drink caffeine from the time I get up until I go to bed, ice tea, drink gallons of the stuff. Doesn't seem to keep me awake at night. I do so look forward to that first glass in the morning, it does seem to help the eylids stay propped open and the brain beging to function. No doubt a common misconception among non dairy farmers. If anybody gets abused, it's the poor saps that have to get up at 3 am and put up with those contrary, cantankerous Holstiens, that kick, stomp and otherwise will make your life a living hell. They delight in smacking you in the face with their crapped up tails, or attempting to break your arm when you hook up or unhook the milking machine. When here all you are trying to do is make them more comfortable by relieving the pressure in their tight udders and giving them yummy grain to scarf down that they really love, just like a kid with candy. They get to spend the rest of their day hanging around in the pasture, munching grass or going for a soak in the pond (better the wet tail to slap you with) and otherwise just laying around enjoying life. I wish I had it so good! Cows have it made!

And it just keeps getting better!We have been driving it all over the place, put lots and lots of miles on it this week allready, and we wanted to go pick up some garden seed last night and hubby was getting worried that maybe the gas gauge didn't work since it showed that it still had a quarter tank after all our running around. So we stopped for a fill up and it held less than 7 gallons! We figured it up and best we could add up our trips it looks like the little dude gets about 47 miles per gallon!!! We figured out if we had to drive our son's pick up instead of the little car, the difference in gas would pay for the car in less than 2 months! At some point we may try to do some body work on it, but that is one of "those" projects, we have hundreds of those, "one of these day's we will fix-build-repair-make-redo this." We have a "new" kennel building that we have been trying to build for almost 15 years now! Since we are just as likely to drive it in the woods and fields, as to drive it to town, perfection in looks of it are just not real high on the pryority list. We really aren't into the keeping up with the Jone's mind set that you have to have a shiny new car to show how well off you are. Getting from point A to point B as effectivly as possible is a lot more important. We will definatly keep the Aspire, maybe even splurge for a new set of tires for it when we get ahead. We both do a lot of running and really need 2 cars.

Ok, if there is anyone who has not yet figured this thing out, let me explain it to you. It has nothing to do with terrorism. It is all about control. The government wants to control EVERYTHING. Period. They use the fear of attack and hysteria of the general popluation to steal away any and all of the freedom we have. The Patriot Act, to regulations for fishing boats. They will stop at nothing.

Just exactly what is it that ANYBODY can do with a 16 yr old?????By that age they have decided that they allready know everything in the world there is to know, that they are the smartest person in the world, and they can do anything they dang well please. Attempting to start parenting at that age is pointless and futile. Any judge with half a brain should know that. Unless of course he had never had children.

PETA hates ANY interaction between people and animals. They will condem anything related to such activities. They do not think that we need animals in any way shape fashion or form. This is not only limited to the use of animals for food, fiber or entertainment, but compainion animals as well. PETA does not want you to even own a pet! They are extremests in the worst possible concept of extreme and sometimes violent action. They value the life of an animal more so than the life of a human. They have gone so far as to claim Christianity as the biggest threat to animal rights. (God granted man dominion over the animals) As far as horse racing, it is what the animals are bred for. Accidents happen. They also happen to human atheletes. Training for vigourous atheletic competition is a strain on the body, be it horse or man. I suppose we could all say being athletic is bad for our health and stop all exercise and become a world of fat greasy lumps that sit at computers all day and complain about the world and all those people in it that disagree with us.

Well, for once we had a stroke of good luck, that sure doesn't seem to happen very often.For quite some time now we have been sweating on what we would do when the old Ford Aspire bit the dust. We knew that the day would be comming soon, as it has just about 260,000 miles on it! Thats a lot of miles for a little car. And they have been hard miles, we actually use our cars, we haul feed, water to the goats at the other farm, and pull a small trailer with the car. We have had on numerous occasions 1/2 a ton or more of feed in the car and/or on the trailer behind it. Finances being what they are here, we figured we would be in big trouble when it died. I had tried once to get a loan and had failed. (not bad credit, just no credit, we usually pay cash) We checked with some of those buy here pay here places, and lordy what a rip off those dumps are! They charge you 3 times what the car is actually worth to start with. The other day my better half was at the lumber yard talking with a buddy of his that worked there, they got onto the subject of sending junk cars to the crusher (a hot topic here in recent months with the high price of scrap metal) His buddy mentioned having some kind of a little car that his kids had just been playing around with driving it out in the fields. After questioning him more about it, turns out it's a Ford Festiva, which is the model that came out before the Aspire. One of those little cracker box cars, that gets that wonderful 40 mpg! Hubby asked him to price it, he did and he bought it on the spot and didn't even try to jew him on the price! That was site unseen! As it turns out, the car is in REALLY good shape. Though it is older than our Aspire, it has only half as many miles on it, a mere 130,000! It was missing one back window, which a quick trip to the salvage yard fixed, and has some body damage on the passenger side. However, it runs great and had nearly three quarters of a tank of gas in it, and 4 nearly brand new tires! We are very very happy about it. And the price? A mere $250!!!!!! The tires and gas were worth nearly that much! Heck, lots of people make a single months car payment that is higher than that! So, it looks like we will still have wheels now!

Oh, I have a great chicken story! One I would not of ever believed if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Most people don't give chickens credit for having any intelligence, and I suppose in many ways they arent' the brightest animals there are. (hence the nickname "bird brain") I knew they had some intelligence, and could be taught tricks. I had a little bantie hen once that I trained to fly up and land on my arm when I snaped my fingers. She would fly to me even if she was all the way across the yard. My old fat hens who were not flyers, I taught to "sit up" they would jump up and take a bite of corn out of my hands. But this incident went far beyond simple repetitive training tricks. It really looked like it showed that chickens have contemplative abilities, something not really thought to exist in those tiny bird brains. I had the chickens running loose in the barn yard, they had pretty much free run of the farm. We also had a wire fox terrier that was chained up in the back yard when we didn't have her in the house. The chickens were acustom to her presence there and generally gave her a wide berth, which in itself was intelligent of them, however, one day they got a little sloppy in their paying attention to their exact location and the proximity of the dog. She pounced and one hen lost a big mouthful of tail feathers. She was not hurt, just detailed. :-) Anyway, I had to punish the dog as I did not want her to become a chicken killer. I busted her butt, and she went to the back of her dog house and cowered there. I started to walk away, and in just about a minute I looked back, and there were ALL of my chickens, at the front of the dog's house, eating her dog food. The dog was still cowering in the back of the house, not daring to attack a chicken, and madder than she could be having to sit there and watch all the chickens eat her food. She did not dare attack them. As soon as the chickens polished off her food, they left and NEVER went near her again! Now how on earth did those chickens know that this was the one time in their lives they would have the opportunity to raid the dog food dish and not have to worry about repercusions from the dog? They certainly seemed to know that she would not attack them at that time. I sure thought that was very strange.

Oh yea, the scissor thing is DEFINATLY out of the question here. When you consider that just ONE section of the kennel is a set of 8 pens that are 35 ft wide, and 100 ft long! I'm not real good at math, but that roughly ads up to about a quarter of a mile of fencing, and that is just one section of the kennel! Of course, having the right equipment helps, but they you run into the problem of keeping said equipment in running order, and that alone can be a full time job. We have a back hoe, bulldozer, skid steer loader, and a very old Massey Fergason tractor. As I type, the only thing running is the Massey! This does not include mowers, both push type and riding we have a number of both of those too, one rider has a tiller attatchment on it, and one has a mower, at the moment, at least both of those are running.When the hubby tilled up my flower bed again this spring, a whole new crop of rocks popped up, I should of expected it, as I do believe Missouri grows rocks, and it is one of it's best crops. I picked up nearly a wagon load at his instance, they are real lawn mower killers since they all get along the edge near where he has to mow when I rake it level to plant. (which I finally did manage to get done this year) At least we don't have to worry about a place to dump them. Most years they go in a low spot in the fence where a dip in the ground gives the goats a space almost big enough to crawl out under it. This year they went into the huge ruts he made while dragging out some old cars to haul off to the crusher. Anything else we can burn here. Boy, I sure hope my tarps work better than yours did! Last year I layed up some scraps of white tarp between 2 concrete doggie statues, and the driveway. I coved them with white stone. It looks really nice, but I am starting to question the mulching cababilites of the tarps myself. I did put down 2 layers, so maybe that will help. We have some kind of grass here, don't know the variety, but it is extremely invasive. It sends out runners, not only above ground, but below, and it has an extremely tough root, it doesnt' pull well at all unless the ground is completely dug up loose. It has made some inroads into my tarps for sure. The tarps really did seem like a good idea at the time, since they seem to be really tough and don't rot, but now I'm not so sure. And you'll love this, about the only thing that seems to be able to compete with this grass is morning glory, lol! Maybe you need more buddies for play dates with your dog? Like some Wire Fox Terriers, that should take care of your cat problem! (unless of course you like cats) I have actually tried to keep cats here, but they just don't seem to thrive well. You'd probably think it's because of all the dogs, but oddly enough, it isn't. They only get the random unintellgent young cat that is foolish enough to try to tightrope walk on the edges of their runs. I had one actually killed when the steer we were raising kicked over the milking stand on one. The last cat took to sleeping on the stove pipe comming into the house, as the season ran, a small hole rusted out in the pipe, and I think he just carbon monoxide poisoned himself. Hummm..... I think I like the blue painted fence idea. Wonder what kind of paint they used? I have bought lots of fence paint, but it's always a nice bright silver color. I aqiried some really old cemetary fence wire years ago, it's probably 50 years old or older, and is a very pretty pattern, I keep it painted up, seems to just need a coat every couple of years and still looks nice. Blue would sure be cool on that though. I sure hope your friends don't disown you! Hang in there, you'll get it done. Of course, next year you will have it all to do over again..................lololol

When I was young and foolish (as I am now old and foolish) I always wanted a motorcyle. Just thought they were SO cool! Never got to drive one, but rode with friends alot, and reallly loved it. Well, I grew up and got over it, or so I thought. But the past couple years, I've been thinking a lot about it again. I use the excuse that the great gas milage would be nice, etc, etc, trying to rationalize my silly urges. My better half has been adament in discouraging me from this foolish behaviour, since he knows all too well about the "Evil Kenevil" streak I have in my nature allready. He was quite certain I would kill my foolish self. So I am not sure exactly why he finally relented, but several weeks ago we found a Yamaha scooter at the swap meet for a decent price and so he bought it for me. Yippee! My first motorcycle! Ok, so it's not really a motorcycle. But close enough. Has a lot of good points, as it is under 49cc's it can be ridden on the highway, but you don't need to have a motorcycle licence or any of that jazz. And it gets 85 MPG!!!! Since it will only do about 30 mph hopefully I won't hurt myself too bad! I finally got to ride it for the first time yesterday. We couldn't haul it home in our little car the day we bought it, had to wait a week, then when we got it home we sent it to a friend to do some minor work on it, so it was almost a month, but now it's all ready to go. Riding however, is proving to be a new challenge. Who was that silly person that says "it's just like riding a bike, once you learn you never foret." Whoever he was, he must not of lived long enough to get old and fat and uncordinated! I rode bikes a lot as a kid, but boy, my balance and cordination for that ability has most certainly gone bye bye! I can almost balance when going in a straight line, but as yet have not figured out the turning corners thing. It is going to take a lot of practice to get the hang of this, I am certain. So, wish me luck and pray I don't do any major damage to my poor old body!

Hello Erik, and welcome to Xisto! I've been here awhile, and other than the recent disaster with the sites going down, I have been really happy here. Now that that's fixed, and my site is back, I am in a much better mood. Since you are a computer geek, hopefully you won't have any problems figuring things out, but let me tell you, if you do, the other members here are VERY helpfull, and can just fix you right up. You can post questions, or if you are in a real rush, the shoutbox is a great way to get fast answers. I'm just nearly computer illerate, but they have talked me threw all kinds of problems. Sometimes keeping up credits is a bit tough for me not being very knowledable about computers, but hopefully you wont' have that problem. Sometimes I wish we had more dog breeders here, so I could post about something I do know about.

I am glad you did mention Charlotte's Web, since I have never heard of Sword of Truth or Gillygoofang. Maybe it's the generation gap thing? At any rate, my fictional influences would have to be Kia Chang Cane. (I'm not sure how you even spell it, but that's hopefully close) from Kung Foo the Legend Continues. I love how he can remain COMPLETELY calm under the most dire circumstance, never gets flustered, never wastes any motion, and yet can put somebody in the dirt in the blink of an eye almost without moving himself. He makes it look effortless and never breaks a sweat. He seems to always be able to "read" people and know's just how to deal with them. He has a tremendous amount of patience, understanding, and this wonderful calm sense of serenity that I wish I could muster up sometimes. But he can still kick butt when it needs to be done.