nov 29

I cannot tell a lie.  I was doing the henny penny board for the December 1st drawing ever since Janine told me it was December 1st several other people told me it should have been the last day of the month however this month it's going to be December 1st and we will have a jolly bunch in here hopefully at 3:00 to put the numbers on the squares are all made papers done so umm I'm all set to go but that's why the daily doggy is late I am thrilled with the numbers that are coming in on this handy penny board deal and the hay deal... now if we could just get the hay truck in from Canada we'd be doing really well..

 

Found a great pellet stove well they're really interesting guy retired fireman and his buddy's a retired fireman refurbish these things in Methuen and offer them for sale on Facebook well we we're getting one and we are booked to have it installed on the 21st of December... talk about a being in demand and that's real oh Janine has left.

apparently with four or five horses on board one of the big very small and she has jiminy with her and a big jug of Germany food.... and the car truck and trailer are loaded to the hilt.. What is today Wednesday the tricky part of her trip will be if she just happens to come back through Pennsylvania on a day that they have a oh an auction because at that point she should have an empty trailer and that's always trouble ..   so forgive the late daily doggy

 nov 28

just sit there and heal thyself.... has been said to me several times...  well.... sitting there gives me time to think and that's trouble ---last night's thinking has to do with The various bits and pieces of hardware that I absorbed into normal household living when Tom gave up his medical practice... he basically had three examining rooms all pretty equally equipped   minor surgery pap smears shots so when he closed his practice I gathered up all that stuff and the stainless steel collection alone filled a fair size cardboard box which came home with me..   and then I picked out things that would work very nicely in my toolbox or holding my silverware on the kitchen counter..  there was still a considerable amount left in that box. One other effect of his retiring was that I no longer had to order supplies for his office... but I figured there was no way I was going to give up that privilege so for years after he retired I maintained several accounts at medical supply places... and I know it's possible to order syringes here and there for agricultural purposes without any problem I had absolutely no trouble sending all these things to doctor Thomas White.

The result of those things along with a massive influx of animals and veterinary expenses I eventually had a pretty complete medical supply closet.

from cartons of two by two gauze squares---to  syringes 3cc,10cc,20cc and even 60cc—to  IV setups with nearly expired  drips...to the ubiquitous vet wrap...along with microscopes---- his... mine... and 3 child types...

 

each of these has a verification of  time..... like ... my microscope—which  was attached to my computer which sat in the living room.. when a volunteer came running up from the laundry building screaming “I GOT SOME” as she waved a small sandwich bag over her head... and we all gathered in the living room to verify the fact that we had found a male dog with live sperm..  of course as life went on we realized that sperm was pretty easy to come by live and otherwise... but we were interested in artificial insemination and first had to determine the viability of the sperm which we did with my microscope.

 

Likewise having 60CC syringes was very strange because there are very few uses in the medical world for something that large however I use them and basting turkeys at Thanksgiving or whatever there are lot of uses...  and I know I had them because when Janine bought the five white goats and sent me the e-mail that we were going to practice milking them, I went immediately to my medical supply closet and grabbed a couple 60CC syringes.  which I put together with a food vacuum Packer.... to put together a goat milking machine...  obviously that was before we found out that that thing hanging between the goats back legs was not an udder. And in fact these were boy goats not prone to giving milk..   but it does prove that at the point that Janine bought those goats I still had a supply OF60CC syringes and a lot of other things in my medical supply area

 

Best I remember the medical  collection was on 2 stainless steel Uline storage racks in the corner of the cellar...  and there was a significant first aid Collection of initial supplies in the corner of the kitchen carefully labeled dog bite...  we never knew whether that was the dog biting or getting bitten however there was an initial packet oh stuff...  but the main supply of the medical was in many cartoons in the corner of the cellar.

 

My point of all this is that this is just one more thing that's been stripped out of here..  There really was quite a collection of stuff..   and I think the only thing left.  is his old exam table which is in building 25. And a few bits in my toolbox...  oh and some on the kitchen counter but the bulk of it is gone.

 

Gone  where?

 

Well staying on the topic of stainless steel.   back in 2014 15,16  when I was managing service dog project we had in one of those years 50 puppies.

which meant that on the property were probably 60 to 70 dogs...  now add to that the fact that there's one kind of dog food dish that you really can't or shouldn't put on the ground to feed a dog and that's the normal shaped one narrower at the bottom because if you step on that in your excitement of expecting to get fed dog food it can flip up and literally break a dog's leg...  so I had a collection of wider at the bottom dog dishes particularly for puppies and puppies watering dishes and things like that...  there were two shelves  approximately 3 foot by three foot. in the back feeding room which held this  huge collection of stainless steel feeding bowls.   and here we are. 2023. and at the moment I have four bowls..... with many dozens a bowls just plain gone.  And to make matters worse..... I got fanatical about stainless steel watering pails... and try to make sure that every dog on the property had a stainless steel water pail.  That's when we had 50 to 60 dogs on the property many of these watering pales we're technically approved for for food preparation because it didn't have the overlapping lip.. which made them very expensive.   now we barely have enough watering pails to go around.

 

so in healing myself..   I've been sitting around playing the numbers game...  and believe me that's only the start...  of missing equipment..   of things that I happily would have loaned to anyone to use..   but what's happening is stuff.  is just gone.... And nobody seems to know where.

 

Because of my open door policy with no locks on equipment department..  I expect to lose a certain number of electric drills every year I mean that's just a fact of life and that's expected but to be minus and entire medical  supply collection..  with some of it fairly valuable just needs a little more attention -----somebody.... please???

 nov 27

Today I must prepare. for the upcoming shatupon  episode on December 1^st...  apparently Janine says we will have the chicken perform at 5:00 mail call on December 1st which means that the jolly bunch of number scribers should be here around 3:00 to get all organized I will probably be able to have that whole process be online so you can depreciate what we go through.. it looks terribly difficult except the whole thing is right now geared to having  squares 1 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches...   it's because of my vast knowledge of half vast information the lumber world now produces a cheaper version of a 2 by 4 which is in actual fact A 2 by three for people wanting to do sleazy building...  but it makes the two by three readily available. which is exactly what I need to draw all the lines— a 2 x 3 measuring 1.5 x 2.5 as has been discussssed before.

 

Incidental intelligence is so critical- you never know when or how it might make a  lifetime difference – like sp;icing a rope???\

 

I am told that the kennels on the other side of the alleyway have not been torn down and those raised sleeping lofts are still available which are many degrees warmer than the floor and immediately available ..  now thanks to bud He tried to keep the warm air circulating better by putting in three fans to blow the air around where there are no sleeping lofts which will help a small bit but as I said before you can't move heat down with any degree of efficiency.. heat rises..  and you may as well take advantage of the natural tendency when you can do that----- I cannot understand Sharon who sent me an e-mail about thinking through a process...  Sharon let's try it again..  how do you explain what is happening??

 

I do get a lot of work done before 4am--- but then it is napp time—and I must get this in the mail before I am too sleepy to push the correct buttons...

Today is a judy day. so the dogs will be up  loooking  out the window for her car.

And heather... if you are reading this... we should talk.....

nWhoops... I did the news article on Saturday and got sidetracked and forgot the daily doggie---- how could I forget.... it's easy

I was sidetracked by the topic of heat ----some of you may find it interesting what I have gone through over the last 20 years on the topic of trying to keep all the animals under my control as comfortable as I could make them... my perfect example is somewhere. in an old computer there is a photograph of my  Dignified husband. standing in his shorts shaving with 100 baby chickens running around his feet... because our bathroom was the only place I could crank up the heat enough for the required baby chickens...  

Historically there has never been a question in anybody's mind around here---- if it is possible to improve an animal situation I will do it.. at great cost or great inconvenience..   there was a time. About 2015 when I was managing service dog project and we had fifty puppies in one year...   this was probably the year that I ended up with four letters in the house which remained absolutely spotless. and odorless all it took was more people but we managed.

Having the four litters on the House undid the concept of gracious living-- cocktail hours and things like that... we managed the puppies... and we had a good time doing it plus the fact I got a night sleep usually because if there was a disaster I could get up and deal with it and go back to bed without having to go to the barn or somewhere else..

Heat and keeping the puppies warm was one of my major concerns---so even when I did move them down to the kennel 9 and 10 I went through great gyrations to make sure they were comfortable.... namely...

 

During the time when brownie was still around----brownie was a great tall Merle lovely dog---I used him for a model and trying to build what I consider an ideal kennel with an upstairs sleeping loft... it was during the Betty Quadros episode----she was  the first one to sleep on the floor with me tp  baby sit puppies and was around for several years very active volunteer.. we used brownie to determine the height of these sleeping lofts and the size and shape of the doors necessary for the dogs to get out again... and we built the whole thing out of cardboard to get the design right and we have pictures of that somewhere....  these sleeping lofts not only took advantage of the fact that three or four feet off the floor was considerably warmer then the floor itself I believe my numbers were approximately 20° ----heat rises ---- and it is significantly difficult to push heat downwards..  I did have in the back of all these sleeping lofts a six inch pipe to blow the heat all the way down to kennels 9 and 10... and as it passed through the other kettles I drilled  a hole or several holes to tap some of the heat blowing through that pipe so that all the way along the way the dog could lay up against the pipe and have some warm air blowing on them... it worked

in addition to that I wanted to be able the sit at the house and see if the heat was working at all ---so I found a funny little gizmo I believe made by Honeywell.  into which you could plug a light. and cause the thing to turn a light on if the temperature got below a certain degree my choice was 55° so in many places--- the feed room --9 and 10--the deagle house-- the nut house-- laundry building all had a light bulb basically plugged into these units set  to go on if the temperature fell. to 55 degrees.. just to be sure that there was like electricity to begin with I had to put a second light bulb in all these windows to be sure that the electricity was on  at all ---it worked very well..  however in the course of remodeling the kennels and the last six months or whatever they seem to have torn out all of those warning signs....  which mind you were not just for the heat of the puppies or dogs but also the water pipes that go right through the same area//. My sleepy lofts were also arranged so that each dog also had a window to lookout..   But the frozen water dishes remain the number one indicator of the temperature of that floor as winter progresses.. 

because I know full well that the dogs water dishes on the floor we'll have a coating of ice on them most of the winter yet the sleeping lofts will remain above 55°...  that was until they got torn down

 

so I'm terribly concerned about the health and welfare of puppies who are basically caged at 5:00 in the afternoon and forced to live in kennels where I am sure the water will freeze,,, I have seen it.     these puppies are forced to stay on that flooring--- or one very inadequate coranda bed 6 inches off the floor until 7:00 the next morning that's 14 hours,,, 

 

 Since I am no longer allowed to go in the barn to check on anything. I don't know but I'm hoping that the six kennles on the other side of the barn still have their  lofts ----if that is the case these dogs should immediately be changed to the other side and get off this   cement floor.

 

I cannot think of a worse situation for any of my dogs then they are  forced to live 14 hours a day in the dark no window no heat...  someone needs to look into this in great depth...   and it cannot be me but do not be blinded by someone who says oh it's OK.   it is not OK

 nov 24

Elizabeth is one heck of a cook although she says she gave it up years ago she did very well um cooking a whole meal for us over here was wonderful super food and if you strange things that hadn't had before compliments of Scotland. Janine and Olaf joined us.. and Olaf had to admit it was the first time he had eaten Thanksgiving dinner in a dog bed that's just the way it worked out and his dog Carl  oh

was thrilled to have the company/ 

I did get up at midnight and finish off my plate

 

Next to my chair now sits a and extensive list of 10 stand up sit downs or right foot left foot or things like that which the physical therapist said she would come back and check on me.. unfortunately there's no way you can cheat on that stuff because if you don't start in and doing it to himself it's going to be very painful when she decides you ought to do 20 with her standing here she'll know that you haven't been doing the 10 so that is on my schedule mind you haven't done it yet but I'll work it I'm thinking about it

 

I did type in the rest of our visits from January through July so now I'm total January to November and... Our individual count of people seeing by Judy and I is 3461 that's a lot of people smiling What I should do with the numbers yet,,

 

Have a happy Friday shopping

 NOV 23

Food day- I have done pretty well on the food department topic for my whole life----- my mother was a hell of a cook and my father was in the business of providing farm equipment and repair so therefore during the war when I was in the five year old range he was exempt from serving or being drafted because he was part of the food chain.  to this day i totally understand  the importance of farming... which  that criticalness....currently  needs to be  reinforced....

 

I can remember father would often arrive home with a bushel basket of something,  or most often a 50 LB bag of things like onions because we lived in the onion growing district.. AKA black dirt country ---in the Goshen NY area..  so when a bushel basket of peas would arrive even at the age of 5 I would be required to sit on the front porch and Shuck peas.... being careful to get the peas in the pot and the and the shockings on the on the floor..  Then mother would do something like boil them for a very short time--- minute or two ---strain them and then put them in little white bags which had a metal clamp at the top for closing..  we then had to go off to a commercial freezing company in Newburgh NY. where we would put on jackets which everyone would wear ----being five years old mine went about to the floor with loooong arms...  .. I could remember going down between the the bins or frozen food to ours ----I can't remember the number of ours but it was about knee high and tipped out on a pivot so mother would put these little white bags in there all carefully labeled peas with the date..   she would then shuffle around with the bags already there.. and maybe bring home one that said corn  or my favorite Lima beans... which we would eat the next two days.

There were baskets of strawberries that were turned into jam and stored in our preserve closet in the cellar...  occasionally we would get some black raspberries for the black Raspberry jam that I still like...  which would all be carefully labeled into Jelly jars we call them which were basically short drinking glasses about two inches diameter and covered with wax.

There were additional assets to being in the farmers loop...   like there were chickens that came home that were never pets.....  and occasionally a prime rib roast of beef which was basically unheard of.    my mother shopped not only at the A&P but at a funny market off in the countryside maybe 10 miles from home where I distinctly remember she would occasionally get a lump of actual butter...   not the white stuff with the yellow packet but real actual butter...

 

It was the constant bags of 50 LB of onions that became her challenge to somehow use... and she did making relishes which had some vegetable involved like corn with tomatoes. but lots of  onions...... So as the dinner plates were served up there would be a healthy spoonful of relish which I'm sure she had calculated the nutritional value... 

 

So when it came time to break up my families home in Cornwall NY, my oldest daughter,, was quick to claim my mother's recipe box,, which hopefully she still has because every fall when it comes to harvest time I begin to think of those wonderful relishes and at some point I would like to try making some of them there is one particular that I liked.    very unusual spices..... 

The only word of wisdom I can think of passing on is  I at the tender age of five or six watched her make strawberry jam... she told me that a lot of people have trouble making jam because the surface area of their pot is not big enough and she had a jam making pot that was about two feet across but there was only about two inches of strawberries in the bottom and she explained that the surface area was critical to making jam.... and I think my daughter Gwen found that true

 

if I ever get any recipes from Gwen the Internet being the Internet I will pass them on but every Thanksgiving I begin to think of that one relish that I do like...

have a happy-

and  i am most greatful for all the messages i have recieved about "keep on keeping on".   with all your help- I AM ON IT !!

 novv 22

Poor larkey ----- what's a fellow to do to get a night's sleep.  for those of you who have not been here our sleeping arrangement is thus.. I have a recliner chair which reclines enough for me to sleep in it as long as it behaves properly and it usually does ---along the front wall there is a large twin mattress.... A4 by 4 very padded footstool... and in the corner the queen size mattress which was once my bed in the house

Usually laccky gets the twin--- sizzle gets the stool which is very preferred ---and Jimmy gets the queen size mattress and all is very peaceful... except last night we had Wanda---- now when Janine left wanda she organized a somewhat small to medium wire cage on the queen size mattress so that she could give wanda  her supper in that cage without the Danes stealing her dinner... she also put a nice fluffy in there and we left the door open at an angle so Wanda could come and go on her own and get a drink... all was well and good so far and I fell asleep only to wake up with larkey staring at me with this pathetic look.. I asked him if he had to go to the bathroom as I moved toward the door and he turned his head away and looked at his bed...  and there in the middle of his twin size mattress centered very carefully on a lovely fluffy was Wanda.. 

 now any dog with any sense is not going to jump toward a dominant dog---  that starts the fight usually and that's what larkey was faced with---- Wanda was dominant she had claimed the whole mattress and he could sleep on the floor if he wanted to...

 

so I explained to Wanda that no she had to sleep on one end of the mattress and then larkey just jumped up and curled up and went to sleep and I thought we were all set until I hear Wanda snarling and snapping at larkey who just scrambled to get off the bed.... oh this was not going to be---- so I spoke harshly to Wanda who then of her own accord jump down off the bed and up onto the queen size mattress and just walked into her wire crate and lay down on the fluffy there----- she knew damn well she wasn't supposed to do that.---- at any rate at that point larkely jumped back on the bed and so far as of 4:00 in the morning all has been quiet with Wanda asleep in the crate with the door open.... Wanda weighs 17 pounds larkey ways 178 --- what can I say

 

my next problem of the night I don't know how many of you watch the camera that is affixed to the deagle house but I have been watching that now for about an hour and I cannot figure out what all the action is ----I first thought it looked like rain but it's not and then I thought those moths those white moths and then I thought bees and then I thought Wasps I have no idea what all that action is and furthermore I can't tell it looks like the light strikes from top to bottom but that may not be true either it's extremely weird I have no idea what it is so for those of you who like it challenge turn that on in the middle of the night and see if you can figure it out--- there are times when there are a lot of small circles in the field of vision but I cannot I cannot understand what's going on that camera..... I'm sure in the daylight we can't see it but it's very strange