sept 30 2022

paperwork--- i am sorry....i know it is a new world.... but also in reality, no one has ever--- in 80 years --asked me to prove, with a piece of paper, that my dogs were trained...... without all the uproar, please just look at the dogs. " a piece of paper will hold still for you to write anything on it you want to....." 

 

this  concept holds true with someone starting a training facility-- they really ought to have at least one dog of their own... so how does that dog( or dogs.)..behave. if you look back on our "TREE". with the exception of hillary,tina, and carlson. any dog that has  been with me has been darn near perfect.  the hillary , tina, carlson  dogs are actually  the people's names  who owned the females  i " used" for the litter.

an untrained dog will drive a  real trainer nuts... and they will fix it. 

i see where ipswich, in it's great wisdom, turned down someone's app to start a training facility... when in fact the decision was made by 4 people who - as far as i know- never owned a dog and knew nothing of training-- One of the main concerns was " the odor" 1000 feet away.... talk about not knowing anything about dogs......

when i become town manager, along with being called animal control i would insist on holding--- at the central dog park.... canine good citizen classes for. the kids in town... sort of a canine 4H program... it would do great things for the towns' kids and dogs. 

****

gwen looks like IAN is headed your way even if you are  inland on a hill.

my father was always concerned with the septic systems in Florida--  he would not go there just in case  ----- this storm does cause a few questions to be asked.   along with " you want to build here??? and look up at the boats going by on the mississippi river?  

 i did hear one woman who was entering her house with a reporter say " oh, i am so glad i vacuumed yesterday".   now there is a woman with the right perspective....

with all those  flattened. mobilehomes, i wonder if redone shipping containers would have been better?????

now. for more coffee so i can play with my mental blocks.

 SEPT 29

I REMEMBER..... deciding a long time ago that the reason my back did not bother me too much was my very tight blue jeans were actually being a back brace.  and then i gained weight into elastic "pants"  easier to get on..... and then dogfest came and i gained 4 more pounds.... boy are the jeans  tight now.. so the experiment  should  either prove or disprove,, 

and if anyone needs to experiment with walking 30 feet. without cane or crutch --- holding on to someone with tight jeans, i guess i am available.

of course we could both fall down....  but experiments can do things like that.

bloodlines----

I have spent a few hours pawing over bloodlines and possible bloodlines---  before I. go too much further—I must admit.... I do like harlequins.... that is what I tried to breed long ago before I ever startred with service dogs.

 

Going to the  great dane club of america’s color chart... I find that totally accurate when compared to the litters  of 326  danes I have already had...so therefore

 

. AND HOPEFULLY ATTACHED 

 

There ... that ought to give you some homework to do.  Clearly breeding black to black  they  predict.. and we got 100% black

BREEDING BLACK TO HARL   THEY PREDICTED 49%BLACK. 33% HARL AND 17% MERLE. ... WE GOT  50.. 26.. 24. PRETTY CLOSE.  NO WHITES...

 

IT IS HARL TO HARL  WHERE OUT OF 44 OF THAT CROSS  THEY PREDICTED 25% WHITE AND WE GOT 16%. BUT WITH 40% HARLS...

 

 THEY PREDICT AND WE NEVER HAVE HAD A WHITE IF ONE  PARENT WAS BLACK.  NOT THAT WHITES ARE BAD—THEY JUST TAKE SPECIAL PLACING...?? ARIOT???BAILEY???  HAD WONDERFUL LIVES

 BUT BELIEVE ME... THERE WILL BE SOME WHO WANT TO KNOCK WHAT WE DO --- WHO WILL TELL THE WORLD WE DO NOT KNOW WANT WE ARE DOING.

 

WELL I THINK WE KNOW AS MUCH AS IS POSSIBLE... DEALINGWITH ANIMALS IS A CRAP SHOOT IN. THE FIRST PLACE

 

HAVING DONE OUT THE   8 GENERATION PEDIGREE OF CAPRI AND BETSY... THESE ARE THE FEMALES THAT GO BACK TO THE LUNA THUMPER BLOODLINES THAT HAVE BEEN SO SUCCESSFULLY TESTED.             

 BOTH BLACK,,, I THINK – AT THE MOMENT..... I CAN CHANGE MY MIND BY THE MINUTE...... I THINK TIGGER IS THE BEST CHOICE FOR BOTH...   WITH TIGGERS FATHER.. WATSON AS BACK UP

 

THIS WOULD MEAN THAT  CAPRI’S PUPS   LIKE THE CHRISTMAS LITTER NOW... ALL NICE DOGS...  HAVE NO DUPLICATION  UNTIL 5^TH GENERATION OUT AND BETSY’S PUPS FATHER AND GREAT GRANDFATHER WOULD BE TIGGER...

WHERE HAVE I DONE THIS BEFORE ON PURPOSE OR ACCIDENT...????

 

WORST- THUMPER BRED HIS DAUGHTER BY JUMPING 6 FOOT FENCES TO PRODUCE BUMPY WHO WAS A SUPER FATHER TO AT LEAST 5 LITTERS....

BENTLEY HAD THUMPER AS  GRANDFATHER AND GREAT GRANDFATHER

NOEL HAD THUMPER AS FATHER AND GRANDFATHER—AND SHE WAS SIZZLES MOM.

 

THERE IS DARN LITTLE DUPLICATIONS  IN THE 8 GENERATIONS—ALL THUMPER STARTING 5 AND 6 GENERATIONS BACK.  WITH  8 TOTALLY UNRELATED IMPORTS

ALSO IGNORING THE FACT THAT WALTER AND SCARLOTT WERE BROTHER SISTER.

 

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF NEW GENES.... SO EVEN THUMPERS HIGH JUMP WS NOT A PROBLEM.

 

NOW IF YOU WANT TO FUSS ..  BMW KENNEL—MANY AKC AWARDS/WESTMINSTER ETC...  BRED MY “TIFFANY”  TO HER GENETIC BROTHER. – SAME FATHER. MOTHERS WERE SISTERS TO PRODUCE MABELINE

 WHO BEGAT PIPI WHO STARTED ALL THIS.

I HAVE THEIR HANDWRITTEN 10 GENERATION PEDIGREE WITH LOTSA QUESTIONS.  LAURA (BMW). LECTURED ME ON  INTRODUCING PROBLEMS INTO  ”YOUR”  LINE.

 

NOW 1996 OF YOU ARE BORED AND 4 ARE GOING NUTS STUDYING THE DETAILS

sept 28 2022

i have no resort... i will go to the bank today and just sit there ( with 3 danes) until they get me hooked up online.  i have been given exactly what to do 3 times now... which has caused the bank to send me ... repeatedly...  9 digit codes which are good for 15 minutes--- the minute i use one it tells me i am wrong and sends something i can not open/read  because i need to buy some program i apparently do not have.....and then sends another code.  all this after taking a week to change my listed phone number from a flip phone to the current one..... doesn't flip. 

seeing as  i often do not write down w/d i have made, it will not be long before i begin bouncing checks because i cannot do the online thing and keep track...  these hay w/d have been significant... so i don't dare pay any bills til i can look at it.

i have made so many errors in my life, you might call me an error expert... i know how a lot of errors get made.

Yesterday which would have been Tuesday... I had a perfect example of how to make disastrous errors.  twice this month I have forgotten to take my pills after dinner.. these pills are dylantin which have controlled my seizures for 30 or 40 years.. not something i wanna forget..

1.  simple matter to say to anyone like Lynn. “remind me to take the pills”. Even though Lyn is tremendously accurate and hardly ever forgets anything the reliability factor has to be somewhere in the 50%.

2.  now if I ask Lynn and Donna to remind me that would reduce the reliability about 35% because Lynn would figure that probably Donna would tell her , And Donna would figure that lynn  must have told her.

Now telling the camera people at mail call to remind me.. would increase my probability to about 84% but they would tell me at mail call.. which means I would have to get up and go take the pill before I forgot so the 84 percent accuracy would be shattered to about 42% because of the time lapse......... my memory being what it is.

As I talked to Lynn about it.. she simply said put out a chart and have someone initial that you've taken your pills. That gets the probability down to about 11% accurate... because I know full well if there's a chart which is supposed to have the little boxes all filled in..  that filling in the boxes takes priority over what the boxes are supposed to be filled to represent.. in other words someone will come along and see an empty square in the boxes.. and there will be that conscious thought.”  if this chart has any empty spaces someone is going to make a fuss...  I could prevent that fuss from happening by simply putting initials in that little square and then life will go on without the fuss” ----- I know this From years of experience. 

 

These    “somebody else musta”  coupled with  “I don’t want my immediate life complicted by a silly empty square.. when I can just fill it”  concepts are  something  of which we at service dog project must be more cognizant.  and in the case of my dilantin I need to reduce the error probability as near 0 as possible.  Initializing a chart is out...  asking me is out... seeing as  unless I am staring at the clock to tell me what day it is, I will probably just answer automatically.. “thanks. Got it” as my immediate concentration is limited anyway... the ability to multitask is reduced with aging  to the level of “ what did I come in here to do anyway”  we all know that   too....

 

My solution has been to put my pill holder on the window ledge for a visual check...... next to the coffee  pot and not put it with the punch in clock--- because altho 100% of the people check in at the punch clock......

And this is a biggie..,.,.  when someone punches in,  for those few seconds it demands your attention... lining up the card etc....  but when you are making a cuppa coffee,  there are a few seconds where there  it perks and there is nothing to do and your eyes could wander to the pill box ... hopefully engaging your mind to noticing which slots were full and which were empty...  so if I hang a day clock next to the coffee  maker you could ... with the least effort sound the alarm,,,, if yesterdays pills are still  There.

Plus there is it could be where I notice the pills are there.. and immediately the faucet's  right there to drink water and take the  pills if last night's pills are still there,   I would never, never decide to take them later.. i know. 

with the number of people making  coffee on a daily basis,  I think that is about as close to 99% as I could get.

 

So...... It behooves any manager of any operation to figure out what's the easiest way to get any job done while at the same time applying the concept of how critical is it to know that the job was actually accomplished.  This is where bud comes in..   because he seems to be responsible for making sure all our equipment is  In place and. functioning correctly..  because it is discouraging have to mop the floor,

if the mop cannot be located. 

 sept 27 2022

 apparently facebook is at it again..rumors of my demise are premature.... .lynn is doing a mind boggling job-- but other than a boggled mind, i am ok...well... i am not sure about my yearly  birthday stilt walk with my children.....-- i may have to skip it this year due to a tricky sort of right knee...  it might not hold me getting off the stilts... it is not happy going down stairs.... same action... 

 there are alot of jobs i could use some help with--  like a study of dog parks... the good and the bad,,, also which towns have them-- and what facilities...small dog pens?  fence height??   like benches for sitting.   .... to agility  jumps etc.......  ipswich does not h ave. any-- they try and tallk about  the forest-- which. we do have... but fact remains there is no substitute for a fenced in  place for dogs... and as i have noted... dogs are a big part of a family. and  dog owners pay taxes too...some parks i have looked at around here give a chart of the busiest times...  like 7 am and 6 pm...

there is a lovely field adjacient to ipswich town hall.. would be perfect--- i have never seen anyone set foot on it except to cut the grass.... yet  i guarentee if i mention a dog park there  there will be a  frantic discussion of poo picking.... and sniffing.... which i think the dog world has a pretty good handle on.

having a leash law- condemning all dogs to be deprived of a chance to stretch out  should be condemned by people concerned with animal welfare..  in the little checking i have done-- most every town between ipswich and boston have proper   fenced dog parks....and people are very proud of them.   and in. one case it provides entertainment for a group at a  senior day care.

that is a great project.... have at it guys

re help with saving elect....,

I need all the help we can get....... and i appreciate it...i got this one.....

 someone in our kitchen. left the refrigerator door open for 6 minutes while she worked on the counter...  
yup... thanks for watching....

and i need more pictures....

 sept 26 2022

As the topsfield fair begins to put itself together I am fascinated with the number of triangles used to hold a roller coaster together but just because I am me,   I wonder what the percentage is of bolts that can be not properly tightened before there is something catastrophic collapse.. I have never gotten on one of those portable roller coasters..  I think maybe I've only ridden one roller coaster in my life.. I can see no point in paying good money to be terrified.. I'm terrified enough just getting out of bed every morning..

 

Bud--- the person not the horse---was front and center yesterday.. because what started to be an idea of using all that white fencing from Meredith farm to a donate till the dog park project... I went over to kind of look at that fencing again---- it is plastic ---it is on 8 foot centers--- it is  Three rail  ---4 foot high .. In the process I ran into a birdcage project...... which got donated to Elizabeth.. she's the one with several complete kitchens in her garage in pieces that she found somewhere—and got put in her garage ----- at any rate the problem was to donate this birdcage to her house from Meredith farm.  it is a museum piece probably 5 foot diameter more than 8 feet tall unless you take the top off which we did so that it would fit in my horse trailer--so driving this thing to her house and sitting there just making conversation I asked if she just happened to have an overstuffed chair for bud..

. Elizabeth is not what you'd call an official used anything dealer.. but at one point she did have the equivalent of five complete kitchens in her garage which she found somewhere and grabbed.. one of which is now in our house donated to service dog project.. so I happened to ask her... as they remove this mammoth birdcage from the. horse trailer. if she happened to have a chair for bud and she said yes she had two matching chairs which she didn't need.. so I sent Janine off to go sit in the chairs and see if they were comfortable she didn't even bother to tell me the results of her sitting in them but around the corner she came with Elizabeth's  husband carrying a wonderful stuffed chair... it is nearly identical to what I had intended to buy so that bud would have a place to sit next to the fireplace ----which he always builds in the winter..----- so you can talk all you want to about the relationship between currencies of countries.. but yesterday my currency went from fencing the birdcage to chair and I'm happy to report the chair is lovely. and very shortly after we got it in front of the fireplace Bud sat  in it with his feet high in the air discussing the fact that he always tries to get his feet higher than his heart at least once a day. we are all set there...

 

Now the bad part....

Bud reads things—odd bits of information not readily accessible to the general public... I don't know where he read this but he reported to me that the National Grid had plans on increasing the cost of electricity by 64%..  and furthermore in New Hampshire it was going to be twice that...  I don't know how that slipped by me or the general public but that would be a tremendous effect  on service dog projects basic activity like cleanliness and electric dryers..   64% increase in our electric bill which is already several $1000 a month, would have a catastrophic effect.. so in and effort to make the change less catastrophic, I started thinking let's go a day 24 hour day not using electricity anymore than necessary.. which is going to involve  redefining "what the hell is necessary? "and I started a list.

Critical.... refrigeration—I would leave that running... however... we have a total of 6 frigerators On the property. so cutting down to 1 would be a big step forward. If we allowed one light bulb per building that would be fine because when we lose electricity entirely we're always thrilled to have one light bulb and we manage at that time with one light bulb.. ---about.  cooking? Not that I am doing much, but warmed baked beans is better than cold baked beans... and I have- many time cooked on. That old iron stove...... which also kept us warm on occasion...( at least in. th e kitchen)...would you get down to critical things like the coffee kirig  or whatever it is.. -----.

 our heat and air conditioning is also electric... but we could change the range from pleasant to livable.... I hate to say it but we probably should leave one computer running.. and allow for recharging only overnight... That leaves a lot of things we do not need starting with electric dryers... we have been tremendously lax and gathering up everything and washing it when really all we need is to shake it and hang it outside in the fresh air.. granted there are times.. but what happens if we cut those times down to running the washer three times a week.. 

I shudder to think about hot water and wonder how clean everyone would be if they had to take cold showers..  .  In the old days people heated a pot of water on the wood stove and had a sponge bath in the yard....but we certainly could get by with a very quick warm shower every other day which is what ipswitch is suggesting when they were concerned with just  water consumption....

 

So along with all the earth shattering news of oncoming changes climate or otherwise... you can put that 64% problem very high on your list... we are all terribly guilty of abusing the energy system.. so before limited consumption becomes mandatory... it is not a ridiculous idea try practicing ahead of time because there are ways we could all make it not happen .

an interesting sideline might be what effect with 64% have on the production of electric cars---or would that make everybody run back to the gas pump... at $5 a gallon.

 

good morning.

sept 25 2022

to push or to pull... that is the question

I try most of the time to make sure that this daily doggy has some intellectual message and certainly yesterday's medical emergency might at some point be of use to somebody.  I don't know how many of the 2000 people who read this thing are familiar with canine reproduction, but I do know whoever designed that process was very inventive.  Yesterday's problem was that a neutered male was put in the

 I CU**** building between two females in heat.. I didn't think that would be a problem seeing as he had been neutered months ago----however...

The blood must have rushed out of his brain into his reproductive equipment shall we call it part one and Part 2... and the orifice in the covering device became constrictive so that both parts one and two we're hanging in the breezes.

Sarah Had done due diligence in consulting the Internet and had already tried ... vitamin E oil...  a slurry of sugar,  frozen peas. and compression with  wet washcloths... to no avail at which point I came along.   We have had this problem before and I have never had the compression with wet washcloths fail... so donning the plastic gloves I got out and got under..   I was sure if I could get Part 2 beyond the construction then part one would slide back in the covering without a problem---- The whole operation was a miniature version of doctor Pol.  trying tto  stuff the uterus back in a cow ----As I gently squeezed and pushed...  I could with difficulty also get my finger past this construction as I stuffed, but when I withdrew my finger all the stuffing came back out  On the outside of this construction.  At this point I noticed there were small chunks of something on my gloves.. and decided it was time for a professional.

 

Heather took him up to Newburyport vet--- our usual spay neuter vet,,, for an appointment an hour later--- they apparently did not see it as much an emergency as the internet indicated.....

I told Heather.. to take good notes so we could see how to do this next time we had this problem And when she got back she said that they had used a pull  technique when push had failed.. by pulling they had gotten Part 2 flattened enough to slip through a constriction and then part one was no problem at any rate he's back again on an antibiotic and seems perfectly happy about life.

 

so your second lesson of the day... is COVID..

the easiest professional would be to call Brian who granted is an equine Dr who seems to know a lot about dogs also. I've known him a very long time and I do have his cell phone so I called it..

only to find he's flat out sick with COVID...  which I nearly had forgotten about.. we talked for a few minutes and he described he really felt lousy and how he considered this part of his education because he had all the vaccines....and he said he was seriously sick..  ok...he is not one to decide he is seriously sick....    mark that one down somewhere......re think masks when closer than one cow apart.

And yes.. someone did throw away the frozen peas.

 

 sept 24 2022

creativity is critical in all endeavours including dog training.... ( a required "listen to"  ken robertson of the TED lectures) 

So how do you train a dog when you can't walk more than about 30 feet before you have to sit down and rest?   you find a place for many  down sitting Places. All about 30 feet apart..  in my case that's ira Toyota in Danvers...  by now they know me well ----also we have 5 Toyota vehicles ---they like that..  so if I take one in  have the oil changed I go to waiting room # 1 with the pup and a down stay.. then I get up and go to waiting room 2.. another down stay-----  from there I go to the sales room which is full of chairs and cars and people.. down staying as I go----- from there I go to the service office for a quick goodbye and get back in my car which by then should a have new  oil.   So far that's worked very well----- pup #one was exceptionally good matching my stride---such as it is---Just needing more practice left turns..  my left turning place would be Costco..  with a shopping cart...  the second pup it was a bit stronger and my biggest problem with him was he does not seem to have an adequate “back”--  That's a very handy command..  I get out of the car hang on to the door so I don't fall over and opened the door for him -----put the collar on and ask him to step down -----which he does,... I now have one confused dog, two open  car doors, and at least three people saying “may I pat him..”    in this case I did say no because what I needed to do was to have the dog back up out of the way of the two car doors at which point he would be right beside me and I could have walked off in a straight line.. that didn't happen..

a confused dog is a bad thing.  This dog’s. solution was the circle around me which I've seen people do in the yard at service dog project..  dogs think running around you in circles is the solution to a lot of problems and sometimes it may be ....but .....they shouldn't do it until they're asked to. this pup just had the attitude of if I have nothing else to do I'll run in circles.. once I got that straightened out which took a few minutes to the amusement of these people.. I did get off to  the 1st waiting room.. and by the time I got to the third waiting room.. we were doing an awful lot better....   he still works a little bit too far ahead of me..   I need to have the handle of his harness directly under my arm.... and he must never ever pull on the leash..  no dog should..  in my case literally it's upsetting. in both cases we took a video and one got sent to lynn.  the other Got sent to the great mystery of lost in the Internet somewhere...  it was supposed to land on my e-mail I haven't seen it yet..  but it did show me handling the second dog with a leash between my fingertips.. in other words,   I was not getting dragged around by this pup...  which was his reputation.

 

On to the next.

 

I did get 70 bales of hay yesterday----- after discovering... That a shortage of personnel means there is no longer handicap service at many  gas pumps.... So in quest of a gas station I could get into with this trailer I had behind me I went past the hay dealer and circled back toward home finally finding a little old neighborhood gas pump deal..  where the gas was $1.00 more per gallon then it was at all the places that couldn't pump the gas for me because they only had one attendant who was in the attached variety store working the cash register.

Our local CVS no longer has window service for drive through because it too is minus personnel...

 I did deliver the hay to meridith farm where Elizabeth and Tim stacked it in the barn. Tim being the fellow that owns not only that place. but the place where Janine works..  or at least works from or whatever the term is now for working at home....or truck...

 

I am told our hay loft. is full...   that would be good seeing my checking account is about empty but buying hay like this,  gets better hey.. and the difference in price is 950.  versus 1350 per Bale

I am also told Janine is using 8 bales a day..   she better modify that before winter sets in..  and I don't know what she has for fund raising that's her problem.

it's saturday. i think.....--- i need to turn in the article for next wednesday

 sept 23 2022

it is no secret i prefer dogs....If you give your dog a cookie or a pat they never forget to say thank you with a wag of a tail...  They obviously don't have access to the Internet where they could criticize the fact that you didn't give them two cookies or 6 pats.

 

Actually dogs say a lot of things totally unrelated to cookies or Pats.... tugging on a leash so they can sniff a very exciting odor out of normal leash range is one way of telling you they really would like to be free... those extended leashes 16 or 20 feet long are  a great thing for the dog which must always be on a leash...  whoopsssssss.

Oh dear this was the article I was going to write for the news paper.... which I have to turn in by noon tomorrow.. I may as well keep going-- my point of this article was to try and educate----the public if you will -----about how critical it is to leave a service dog alone and don't interrupt their concentration,,, I have seen this happen

Lately..  where a service dog working very hard to keep a child on her feet was interrupted by someone with a very enthusiastic puppy who just want a sniff noses... this interrupted the service dog who inadvertantly knocked the child over...  which could have been a huge disaster if it had been one of our clients who has a brittle bone problem...  luckily this kid just got up again and was fine ---except---that shouldn't happen...

so although the harnesses all say don't pat the dog they really should say a lot of things I can't put in print.

 

That news article got all tangled with a letter to the editor about the running water way out on jeffrey's neck---which turns out to be 16 miles from service dog project and I went there yesterday.. and yes it does have a faucet that's running..  I'm sure they have a good reason like maybe taking pressure off some tank or another.. but what I would like to suggest to the newspaper is instead of letting the water irrigate a long line of hugely energetic weeds they divert it into a small farmers garden with maybe a flower or two....

 Somebody doesn't know that when you have too many lemons you make lemonade.

or when you have too many Great Dane puppies you start training service dogs...

jeffries neck is an interesting place-- and i did the whole circle... there are several " tiny houses" hanging on to that cliff which i am sure once housed entire families- keeping them warm and dry-- which is all that is necessary----- and then i drove home past the latest developement on linebrook road.... very nice houses--- all looking alike--- 4 bedrooms 16 bathrooms 2 car garage... the usual...  and wondered what the @#$%^&----- they could invite 3 ukrainian families to join them  and not even notice.... 

however... it is hay day... probably i was hoping judy would join me--- but she had family committment...

secondly it is IRA Toyotas day... where i have found it is possible to train a dog most conveniently between  their 3 waiting rooms and clutter of the on coming cars to be repaired---  they have not thrown me out yet-- and probably will not.... we have 5 toyotas that the rats have not eaten .... yet....

 sept 22 2022

i am sorry to say the world has a terrible opinion of dogs.... it manifests itself in so many ways... like why do towns have a leash law and no dog park?  i will bet good money, the first topic the  anti dog people will mention is. poo ....  wellllllllllllll we just had over 100 people here and had, with visitors, over 50 great danes on property, and not one "soft step". as i call  that odd sensation of stepping in a pile of poo.

i like to think it is because we have the most efficient  poo picking method...  our process... both scooping device.. and plastic bag can be  inconspicuously  slid in your pocket with your cell phone.. #1 available ... #2 efficient  around here we try and insist all staff and volunteers carry one in their pocket--- and we do not encourage the "i will get that later" syndrome.

after the poo problem... i would guess that the general public is basically afraid of the chaos an untrained dog can create.. here we  go......

i took larkey to. the hospital with me... in a vest and collar.... he was perfectly behaved... 90%,,,, elevators, doors, down stays.... i have to admit he was a bit slow on the "back into that corner"... and could use some practice on that....  but all over he was excellent.

however........ the general public did not get a 90% -- i would have to say ... more like 35% -- most meant well. but.... stop grabbing at my dog  please !  i went to get on. the elevator-- i was in a wheelchair-- so it gets complicated-- i told him to. go ahead get in so i could. stop the door from closing ..... i did not want to go in first and have the door shut leaving a paniced  larkey on the wrong floor...  so door opened and i let go of his leash and said go ahead....as he started thru the door, someone  grabbed his short leash.. so he was half in the elevator and door will shortly close so i said "stop it" meaning the door... but larkey heard "stop" and he did.. causing about 20 seconds of   "no not you.. go ahead... lookk out... let him go... and more look outs" 

he follows  really well in a chair... a little too well... because  with those short leashes, his toes are close.. so i let go of his leash and he figures it out -----  now.....if you have  a nurse who is not  an experienced wheelchair pusher.... that can get exciting too.  i think i would be better to bring my walker thing in a do it yourself operation.... i can steer and sit at random.  

one person  who had grabbed when he was following me down the hall  could not believe he was "under command" so we talked a bit -----she had never seen a  dog controlled by talking to them....and i explained , if i could not control him by talking to him, at 160 pounds, holding any leash was not going to be any good either..  wwwwhhhhhhaaaattttttt ?  never seen a dog under voice control???? probably not...  so starting yesterday..... i have been watching.... and aside from wanda...   i have not seen any.  

 SEPT 21 2022

Today I am going to try and make it SURGE day because I realize sitting here at this computer it is plugged into a surge cord which is plugged into a surge cord which is plugged into a surged tower which is plugged into a wall///and before I go through what's I actually plugged into all those plugs I realized they fall into three categories ----constant use. recharging use, and once every six months use.. and I have never bothered to add up the power Involved but nothing seems to blow .....    if I don't get control of the situation this last surge cord right here by my shoulder is nearly full the only way out of that is to add another one probably slightly higher on the wall.

 

then I hear Puerto Rico doesn't have any power-------so how do they recharge their  hearing aids and pasta makers? I am not sure which has the bigger problem.,,,,them or me.

 

Todays other...

I have a friend who just bought a horse who is absolutely perfect in 99% of the time.. but as I've often said most animals have some sort of memory which makes them behave in a very strange way and in this case this horse cannot stand to have anybody behind them------ he doesn't kick at them but he gets extremely nervous and crashes forward at an alarming raTE

 

everybody thought that very strange and I thought about it for about 2 seconds... I will bet a large sum of money that somebody who calls himself a trainer had trouble loading that horse on a trailer and said to the assembled people “I am a trainer......i can solve that right away “  and jabbed him with an electric prod.... and the horse  hasn't forgotten that... He will not forget it either....    It certainly looks to me like trainer error.   And I'm sure the people selling the horse knew about that when they sold it. so here we have an extremely accomplished horse with one oddball characteristic just don't walk or stand behind him,,,, and you can live with that.

 

 I don't know how many of you have had the pleasure of being stuck with an electric prod... I and my family have all had the pleasure of being zapped by an electricity for one reason or another......... and you don't look to repeat it..  I remember one day in Lynnfield I went out to the barn and saw that someone had unplugged the electric fence charger..  so I simply plugged it in... not realizing that my husband had been walking the fence – which he did not often do.....and , He  had his whole hand around that electric fence while standing in the damp grass and got a very good belt of electricity at which point he stopped walking the fence came back to the barn to have severe words with the damn fool who had plugged it in----I didn't know..  but he never forgot that.... it referred to it often..

 

Nother example non electrical but similar....panic....

Janine.  riding her pony tinker won  some pony of the day horse show we were at----  accepted the trophy and handed it to me at the gate and proceeded to take her jacket off because she was done for the day----- getting both arms tangled up in her jacket the pony didn't understand what was happening and proceeded to run away and buck tossing Janine into the mud ------ I could remember taking my finger to scoop the mud out of the top of her mouth so she could breathe.. Janine  never forgot that jacket business and just yesterday 40 years later...... had second thoughts about handing a jacket to someone about to to ride with the myopia hunt.. and she herself will not put a jacket on or off while she is on a horse-----some things you just don't forget...

 

And there are a lot of trainers... both dog and horse that do not reqalize that.... yet call themselves trainers..

All it takes to be called a trainer is some paper and ink.

 

A piece of paper will hold still and you can write anything on it you want to.

 

Obviously.

DOGFEST RECOVERY

you have heard me say how careful i was to buy property with access to  a lake for drinking water for "stock"  welllll........ now i have to rethink...

If you go out the back gate of  “A” Field there is a gate which once pointed to an overgrown  trail which in about 50 yards joined the lovely.  Bay State trail which is the trail that goes from Cape Cod to Cape Ann and it's a lovely trail.. very quickly out behind our house that trail is about 18 inches wide just enough for horse to walk along and on either side it drops off for 75 feet or so... as you ride along the Ridge of a glacier formation.... ?eskar?   I got on it once on gwen’s horse and there was no way I could turn around—and ended up severely lost--- looking at the trees which supposedly have moss on the north side.... I was lost big time.... before cell phones... and I eventually had to call for a trailer to come get me as I had crossed some bridge over route 95..

back to my eskar---behind our property.  that means that an awful lot of the ground around us by this lake is downhill from these esters whatever they are.... and  the outlet to get all this 30" of rain  into the ocean is a rinky dink little river called the Ipswich river...  \

 

all this is leading-----to -----if the weather drops 30 inches of rain on  this section of Massachusetts all those eskers have  gotta drain downhill headed for something like hood pond and the Ipswich river  then the ocean.  and if it's 30 inches in 24 hours we too at crazy acres.  will be underwater' cause that    is 30 inches piled  up on every square foot available --------ats alota water,  

 

today's weather man did seem to think this number 4 hurricane was bending out to sea--- but he switched the video so quickly I couldn't identify the little bump in the United states coastline  which is Massachusetts....  as he mentioned something about veering West..    I don't know how much veering  he had in mind  but that could be and ominous combination of words....

*******

dogfest residual

several people asked about the "upstairs rooms" in the house ...-- and were they again be "open" for the shatupon supporters to  come visit ....i said  yes....they could be  available...  for a max of 3 nights ( guests and fish after 3 days??? remember that one?)..remember... we are not a spa.. the word "guest"  is not really applicable- because  life on  crazy acres begins shortly after 7am. and unless you have arrived on the "red eye" from california. you are expected to get up and participate in whatever is happening. --- if you are a shatupon supporter and want an overnight as you pass thru logan airport enroute to or from europe-- that is possible too...   you  arrainge it with lynn ( or kim).  then at the airport....get on the peabody shuttle and call us on your phone so we can go meet  you. makes the timing work..... which means you don't need a car.

as for covid.... of late the general instructions... i assume all will have been vaccinated...no hugging...and be sensable about distance. one cow legnth is advisable...

between the beds, couches, window ledges, and floor, we have never turned  any shattupons  away. 

. wow//. copy pasted .. i am brave...