mail call and tipi's-- last night at mail call with cindy , a discussion developed about puppies and how they will need an outdoor running place.. with shade
and toys... in the "collecting place in my head, i had stored a hard pipe.. or plastic tube for "under training"
ustabeeeeee. we had the "V" pen next to the "T" tent ( once known as the "ice tea tent" )--- but that area has become the "yolk house" for the chickens.. we had in front of the "T" tent the "grandchilds " playpen. 10 x 20 where janine would put her child.. colby... so he would not get knocked over by the dogs... colby is now 6'2" football player at univ of nh... where getting knocked over is considered less dangerous than being knocked over by a dog... however.. the grandchild's playpen could be enlarged to maybe 20 x 20.. but it leaves the question of. shade....
chasing shady places around here is a touchy matter. so putting up a"market umbrella" which i have done still leaves teh problem of trying to leep a puppy shaded when the shade moves as teh sun goes east to west.... usually. so how to define a shaded area for the pups to understand??? - ?? a tipi" !!! where the sides are climbunderable, yet the area would be defineable.
i have had many tipi's in my career around here... there is a tipi bible. by gladys laubin. ( or something like that.) a proper tipi os a magnificent study in function and organization -- built to stand the blizzards and sandstorms of the state of .... wherever they have blizzards and sandstorms.
2021 3 30
You enter and circle to the right around the firepit in the middle... on th right a- is the kitchen paraphernalia AND THE FIRWOOD IS KEPT TO THE LEFT....There are two pieces of Indian etiquette I've always enjoyed ----one is ---always assume that your guest is tired cold and hungry ----the other one is basically the TP is a woman's thing which she could put up ---what is a permanent residence --- in about an hour supposedly by herself
then..... if she wants to divorce her husband all she has to do is throw him out the door--- case closed ... so back to putting up a TP for the dogs.... there is one way an only one way to get the first three poles up correctly if you do it right the tripod becomes tremendously stable if you do it wrong you could never make adjustments to make it correct .. with that in mind I once asked my twin nephews who are very bright to put up my. 27 foot TP ....these are the twin nephews who were famous for running around mailcall with various feminine parts to a mannequin as they tried to put doloris together .. they finally got the huge tipi up---- I think it was three days and they now have a lot more appreciation for Indian women .
I haven't put mine up alone. ...in an hour.... certainly not in a contiguous hour but carefully done it doesn't take much longer .. my TP polls are 27 feet long it was a big teepee
you take your heaviest pole put it in the middle of the canvas semicircle and roll it all together and tie it on and that becomes your lift pole which explains why it only takes an hour to finish ... you then take three polls for your initial tripod ---lay the rest of the poles maybe 10 or 12 of them against the tripod .. then take your lift pole and put it in the very center of the back untie it and wrap the canvas and you're pretty much have a permanent house to live in --the front gets laced together with number 2 pencils whatever .. you have two more poles to hold the chimney flaps open.. and you're ready to let people in or out of your teepee .. officially there is also a curtain or drape which hangs on the inside of all your poles about 6 foot high. and that causes the draft to circulate air /smoke or anything else -------the whole thing is very efficient and can be warm and cozy .
So back to our dog pen --- the one problem with having a TP for the dogs is they are inclined to chew on it and eat it but we'll have to deal with that ---I proposed to have a much shorter TV this time and have it be 7 to 8 feet tall .. now it would be possible to buy the TP canvas or painted with galloping horses and rising Suns and moons and that's how it gets into thousands of dollars or buy a tarp for about $32 ..resurrect my collection of golf balls and hey string to use to hold it down ...and sitting there with Cindy and the hundred people are so that we're watching Mail call it was decided that the $32 tarp with golf balls holding it down was far more appropriate for crazy acres than. the official absolutely beautiful TP canvas which the dogs would eat anyway
...it was also requested that Cindy and I be the ones to put that TP together .. because we are somewhat famous for getting all screwed up assembling various things people send us aT email .. so we have golf balls.. we have hey string I have ordered a canvas that is 8 by 20 for $32 .. and I don't know exactly what I want to use to the polls ..the polls are critical and they certainly could be bought online I'm sure Amazon has them but there that is something like PVC pipe but that might actually have a bend that would not be good so I WILLresearch the poll problem----- what an Indian would do is go out into the Woods and that awful lot of small absolutely perfectly straight beginner trees which is what the Indians would do but I'm beyond stripping the bark off trees hopefully----- the polls make the TP more interesting an 8 foot tall TP would need 10 at least 10 foot poles ..the cheap the cheapest way out would be a package of strapping I would really make it a jerryrig TP but that would be very quick and very easily done--- I hVE plenty of rope ..
I also darn well better get the topsoil spread in the seed down so that we have a nice grassy place for RTP because right at the moment it's full of stone dust from being ploughed up .
I have a special request of everyone if they could please give me 10 days of not suggesting any doors be open OR shUt----- lights on or off --cameras turned and twisted or anything like that as I have some details to take care of and I'm not going to have time to explain why we don't have time to change a lightbulb in kennel 10 or something like that I do appreciate the help in running the joint but right at the moment .. I need a little time
today is bentley's day to go I don't know whether they're planning on doing surgery today or not but his masculine appendages I've just played gotten out of control I have known for two years that there's some kind of problem they don't seem to bother him at all except they are so large now that his appearance in public is sometimes questionable and he certainly he's 10 or 11 years old .. surgery is not to be taken lightly but he seems to be in excellent health and that's what's happening today ..
he is npo from midnight. And not happy about that.
I hope I get some help with this. Cov. You sit outside the vet office and wait. Lotsa tiem to get organized..
Boy do I love these reporters notebooks with squares instead of lines—sort of external memory devices... as oi sit/nap in my car..
And yes.. the unidentified phone number rand again last night at 2:00...2:03... 2:06. Etc. caller block did not work... so I am 4 nights now with little sleep. between prego donkeys and that phone which is registered to a storage unit in Haverhill....
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COPY PASTING...
I don't remember how I started my days before DD's. I wait for it to hit my inbox before I lift a finger. There's usually a chuckle and something to provoke thought that makes a good starting place in the morning so I thank you for that.
My MS treatment is an immune system depressant so social distancing has been quite a serious thing for Ned & I. We go to the beach and hiking trails at the parks and head off to the underused areas to avoid people. I actually worried a bit about how Ned would react when we began being around other people again. We have gone to a few stores in early morning hours to avoid crowds and even went to an outdoor restaurant for the first time in well over a year. I don't know why I worried, Ned hasn't forgotten a thing. He behaves perfectly in public.
Ned is quite the celebrity at the State Parks where we do volunteer clean up on Wednesdays. At one of the parks we work way off the beaten path near the water where Hurricane Sally deposited a lot of debris from destroyed homes To reach those areas we are assigned the parks 4 wheelers which only have a small bench seat.
It's quite a feat for both that long, tall boy and me to squeeze in. We get so many waves and laughs as we pass park visitors with Ned trying to sit like a human with those jowls flapping in the breeze. We go in the middle of nowhere. Ned explores nearby while I pick up debris. He's always keeping a watchful eye and comes running if I call his name or if he sees me down in the sand. Sometimes I need to get down to dig something out of the sand and sometimes the sand just gets the better of my poor balance and down I go. I could have never helped with this type of activity before Ned. Sand was my kryptonite. Without him to hold on to I'd fall within a few steps on the loose beach sand. Now we go several times a week. I know you hear this all the time but it's 100% true, he changed the whole course of my life. I often think of what a fluke that you thought of training service dogs when you found yourself with Dane puppies. I'm just one of the many who are so thankful you had the insight and perseverance to make it happen. Thanks to SDP and the incredible CP's who make it happen.
Ellen and Super Service Dog Ned
