MAR 24 22

BENTLEY IS NOT THE MOST MOBILE IN THE WORLD.... HOWEVER... IT IS A LITTLE SELECTIVE

 HE DID A BIT OF VOCALIZING-- NOT REALLY BARKING  BUT "TALKING". AND I THOUGHT HE WANTED TO GO OUT...

WITH DIFFICULTY I GOT HIM ON HIS FEET AND  HE TURNED AROUND AND LAY DDOWN AGAIN..

 I NOTICED BUT KEPT COMPUTERING.. 2 MIN LATER HE GOT UP AND CHANGED BEDS WITHOUT DIFFICULTY..

I ALSO NOTICED HE POPS UP AT 4:00 FOR SUPPERTIME... AND CAN MANAGE OUTDOORS AT THAT POINT. 

HE HAS THE BIGGEST BLADDER KNOWN TO DOGDOM.....  .. SO HE CAME BACK IN ... WITH LESS TROUBLE THAN USUAL

GOT IN BED AND BEGAN THE GRUMBLING  - I THOUGHT MAYBE WATER WOULD DETER HIM AND OFFERED.  HIM A SMALL DISH.. 

HE DRANK AND DRANK,,  ACTUALLY 2 SMALL BOTTLES WORTH .

SO... HE HAS HIS VERY SEVERE PROBLEMS-- HIS WEIGHT BEING  THE WORST OF IT.. BUT HE CAN STILL WALK

GETTING UP OFF THE SOFT MATTRESS CAN BE AN ISSUE.. HE SHOULD BE ENCOURAGED TO WALK A BIT A FEW TTIMES A DAY.

SO SHOULD I.

-----

I GOT MYSELF INTO A FURNITURE STORE YESTERDAY.. AND JUST INSIDE THE DOOR WAS A RECLINER CHAIR... SO I SAT DOWN IMMEDIATELY... 

HMMMMMM.  I NEARLY BOUGHT THE THING...

 BUT 2 PROBLEMS. WHERE TO PUT IT AND  IF I BOUGHT IT, I MIGHT NEVER WALK AROUND AGAIN...

SO I LEFT WITHOUT IT.... BUT IN MY MIND..........

THE SALESMAN SAID THE COMPANY HAD BEEN IN  BUSINESS FOR 100 YEARS..."GOLDEN" 

WHILE I SAW IN THE BROCHURE STARTED 1985- NOT QUITE 100 YEARS AGO SO THAT "TRUTH IN ADVERTISING" DID TURN ME OFF A BIT,,,,

--

I DID TALK TO GWEN... WHO IS NOT THE MOST EQUINE  ENTHUSIAST IN THE WORLD-- 

SHE ADMITTED THE 2 BLACK MINI HORSES WERE "VERY CUTE".  AND THE SIZE OF OUR DONKEY HITCH...

WELL OUR DONKEY HITCH  LEADERS WERE 32 INCHES..

32 RING A BELL?? AS IN BENTLEY IS 32 INCHES WITH LEG HALF THE HIEIGHT???

I MAY NEVER COME UP WITH ANOTHER 8 HITCH OF DOGS- DONKEYS OR HORSES. 

  BUT A 6 DOG 2 HORSE IS ALREADY IN THE MAKING.  THAT DARN 32 WILL GET ME IN TROUBLE....

 I WONDER WHO HAS THTAT BEAUTIFUL "FRIEDMAN HARNESS".... I AM SURE IT IS ALL MOLDY..

 BUT LEATHER HARNESS SURVIVES... -- A GOOD SOAKING IN MURPHYS AND I. AM SURE IT WOULD BE BEAUTIFUL AGAIN...

I ALSO WONDER IF FRIEDMAN HARNESS GOOGLES-- THEY WERE THE ULTIMALTE...

SAM FRIEDMAN HIMSELF MADE 4 OF MY HITCH AND HIS SON MADE THE OTHER 4

I COULD TELL BY THE FEEL- WHICH WAS WHICH... A VERY TALENTED HARNESS MAKER...

BETTER THAN ANY COACH LEATHER I EVER"FELT"  

N/A

OH BOY THEY MUST BE EXPECTING A CROWD.....

mar 23  22

 someone ... somewhere ,,, is trying to tell us do not underestimate the value of a dog---

i certainly want to add my name to the list of old lady with a bunch of dogs.. 

he who laughs last laughs best????

i can not believe teh numbers of responses to my rat catching coffee club idea... 

mommy nature is getting back at all the folk who do not pay enough attention to their dogs and what they are capable of doing.

mommy nature is super good at laughing last from global warming to the sexx life of a rat...or i suppose people too.. didn't the bible say that???

i am not what you would call a bible scholar but i think someone said there would be  some problem with lust.

back to rats..... i have contacted 2 people-- the woman with the bunch. of rat catchers... and janine who is wandering around the carolinas

which is where she found "wanda" in a walmart parking lot.-- so i told her to watch out for a small herd of rat terriers....

that picture of the woman with the 115 dead rats bears a great deal of thought. ..i will bet now that the vermin experts. can not line up 

a display of their "achievements" any wheres near the 115 dead rats in less than 2 hours...i have seen these type dogs work- and when you get a good dog,

you have "a find". and it loves the job....

somewhere i did see someone training a rat terrier with a rat in a metal pipe kind of thing with holes in it - training the dog to get all excited about the rat.

and that reminded me..........

 they shot a movie - when i was involved it was called "session 9". and it was filmed in and around danvers state hospital. 

 i remember crawling around the cellar of the place -- which did not have 6' head clearance . in order to release a bunch of 

( homing) pigeons out a small window... with cobwebs.... took forever to get it right with the person upstairs... /

well..... after that was a shot we took near union hospital--- of a man coming home from work... dropped off... with sandwich lunch box 

and they wanted his dog... a jack russell.. to be on a rope tied in the yard and barking excitedly about his return..

the jack russell belonged to someone in hamilton - a horsey friend--- and was really barking at the rat i had borrowed from essex aggie's

rat lab which was comfortably in his lunch box.

and you thought movies were glamourous.???? there were worse-- tho i won't remember them just now....

when you think we are not ubiquitous --- we have a cp from nj... who has offered the 5 sheets of metal for the floor of the rat proof food storage.. what a huge help that will be..... you know.... if we all do whatever we can. we will get great things done....heaven knows the need is great--- there is no paucity of people who need a trained dog....

dc 

 

by now you all must realize there is a large group of  camera people with a great sense of humor

 who have emailed me with "it does not look like a really big deal to them..." .

humor will survive...

 i have no time for the small bunch just looking for trouble. 

=-----

the ubiquitous rat.

going back to the rattery.....a cp sent me the story of a woman who has the answer,,,,,

Today was our first rat hunt of 2022!

Great way to start it off with a catch of 115 plus pinkies.

4 Dogs and an 1& 3/4 hours later.

This group seems very successful at cutting down rat populations... just a thought- they are in New Hampshire...

https://www.facebook.com/blitzadoodledoo/?ti=as

she already has a handful of rat terriers...and a photo of the 115 dead rats.

i knew someone --- a farm type person----with a rat terrier once... every time i saw it , i had a dead rat in it's mouth.

now that is a process in which i can have faith.... i will contact her...

altho i don't think we have enough rats left to make the news like her 115 wilt 4 dogs.

we are catching about one a week... with professional human. help....

have we found just one more way a dog is invaluable? i always thought the seeing eye dog was the ultimate...

times change... now i am thinking ... a rat terrier??????

i could add 4 rat terriers to this mob and never notice... and i would willingly do so.. i have been watching the rat rescue.

i figure if i can find a pregnant rat terrier,, then give the pups to friends, we could meet weekly at alternating homes for "coffee" and bring our dogs.

we would have the only houses without vermin..

they put cats to shame

her photo of the dead rats is spectqacular.

if i can manage to copy it...

i did it !!!!!!!...

she is also promoting birth control for rats... not of significant stregnth to affect wildlife or dogs. that would be a world shaker....

i remember an article on australia where rats swarmed like a tidal wave--- you could not walk becasue of rats... what did they finally do?

-----

in the meantime.. the sky is not falling... that i know of... in spite of the notices people send to me...

we have some fantastic pups in these 2 litters... i have wanted for years to get some of the claudia bohemia bloodlines in our lines... we sure have it nwo... with these 2 litters

finally we could "researve" a pup from that kennel... in czech-- a male merle was all they had left.. so we bought it... and it had to be shipped from czech to lisbond to boston... 24 hours because of the rabies regulations in germany. if i could have got him to frankfurt he might have had only a 8 hour planeride to boston...--- but no dice....... and we parked him with a nearby family,, i watched him grow with near despair.. back legs grew for 6 months-- head too big--- i wondered what on earth i thought.... his mother had won every prize there is to win in europe- so i kind of forgot about him for another year... when all of a sudden he was a different dog.. so we bred him to two females. producing 2 really nice litters which we now have.....

along the same lines..... i was not thrilled with larkey/s front end--- crooked-- so we eventually neutered him so he woud be nmore "useful" in public. so now he is a neutered male and his front end has straightened out....darn... well he certainly is fantasic in public now..

dc

I was all fired up  discuss a solution  for the state of mass w/r/t rats...... and my computer has gone very strange..

.i had  story lines...

Boston is listed by orkin as the 13^th most rat infested city...

New york is no longer first... but second... and I have a friend who lives in nyc on the 52th floor—and she has a rat problem in her appt..  she says she thinks they take the elevators

Why not use old refrigerators as rat proof containers for all food items in the kitchen...

 And maybe rethink just what do rats consider food—like Toyota sequoias with only 50,000 miles on it—and ridx

 

I am going to leave you with those thoughts. Because I can’t type all this and have this computer wipe it al l out      so just think about those by yourself....

by the time i get this computer awake and functioning,,,, i forget........ i was trrying to pass along a bit of info on fixing apples.   and i can not get rid of it.

p.S. For anyone needing Apple technical support, I have an excellent resource I’d like to recommend. For 12 years now, these weekly emails and other tech support have been made possible by the computer expertise of our special friend, Hugo Heriz-Smith.ross the Atlantic, it’s like he’s sitting right next to me. If you have an Apple product (Mac, iPhone, iPad, etc.), and want to make it work better for you, get in touch with him. He is renowned/revered for his patience and, well, Zen-like demeanor while helping people overcome their technical challenges and fears. His website is HugoCanHelp, and he really can. peter  and why  it is in a little box is beyond me. plus no mic for dictation.... i have to call that guy

 mar 20 2022

best news of the day... he threw up a slipper !! maybe if we leave the yuppy puppy (gumball machine) available mayby he will mouth that????  or maybe jiminey will just get fatter-- he is good at it-----  lachey uses his nose to j ust wiggle the lever... jiminey whacks the lever with his chin...  there are all sorts of ways.... what is interesting is that once they learn to deliver any treats at all. they keep going with that maneuver. even tho  to change might get them more treats per delivery .  something about if it works don' t change??? there are very few who are  either paw and the chin--   ambidextrous?

the rest of what's interestin g is tht the old gumball with a bone for a lever... works beautifully... then they reduced teh size and improved it to the point -- for. lack of a better drop angle, it does not work at all...  i bet i have4 of these "new ones". and i have tried for years to find another.  old  glass bowl metal base one..  even wrote to the company... their "treat delivery system "  inside is flawless...  but the n ew ones don't drop with enough KLANG,,,  like the quarters in las vegas that keep you pullilng that lever....

next problem... the place is a muddy wreck.. i can only think of all the people who come here in th e nice summer and fall months and say   how beautiful and relaxing the farm is... well where are they now-- the place is a muddy mess with broken bits of winter piled hither and yon... if each of you who reads this fool thing would come here and select a 10'x10' area and straighten it out.. maybe just maybe by july 4th we would be presentable.  some 10x10 squares would be worse than others to straighten out....

the worst being the chicken coop.  all these animal. things are delightful. except they need daily maintanence.. and teh chicken crowd is limited to weekends so constantly the coop is out of control...  sunday sandy( now saturday saqndy) came up with a good one... when you put the chickens in at night.. take down the feeders and put them in the metal trash cans so the midnight rat population can go elsewhere...

aside from thaat ... if you constantly scrap the floor, pretty soon   you have a depression in the ground that collects all sorts of wildlife.    same is true of a horse stall  --    you can dig i t out just so many times before you need a truckload of nice dirt to bring the level up again...  alternatel;y... there are those who want to move the chicken operation to the old coop and use teh  new bldg for tools..... i don't really care.. i can do neither... it is a project for those who like playing with the chickens. --- and i know many of the camera people love to watch that camera,,, i am curious... are you watching the chickens... or the activity in the driveway?    if so we may move the chickens out. to an off camera concrete slab.  i have bought what is highly rated as a wildlife deterrment.. an electric net. with plus and minus strands so zapping is predictable.  trouble there is. we are not quite unfrozen yet... and i need to be able to step/press the posts in.

?today??

dc

 All of a sudden with Laura's determination these puppies are being urged into adult. shape.... and that shape happens to be at the moment four and four . for dinner....  .goldie...  in her infinite wisdom has given us 4 merls  and four blacks Which last night we discovered... having fed one black puppy twice and had to get one Merle back in for dinner because we skipped it the first time around.. having these camera people watching very carefully---I had three phone calls and two emails telling me about the fact that we'd forgotten to feed one of the merles.----

 

 when feeding here in the mail call area we really could only feed four at a time because their little bodies are not little anymore --- Ed you can't pack.  8 8 of them in line with the feeder we now have which is a small bowl feeder.. the next size is the yellow feeder in puppy hill which I think is 8 I don't know how I got a bowl in a 10 foot piece of plywood maybe I pieced up another 10 feet no another two feet to make the feeder 10 feet long I bet that's it at any rate it is a little tall for them right now and I thought of cutting it down so we could start feeding all  8 at once well I realized it's only gonna take 20 minutes before they big enough to eat off that 8 feeder the size it is---    I used to feed all 8 at once so we're going to do that again.. especially if Laura has anything to do with it she's only here for a few days midterm or something,,,.... I wish she'd flunk out of college nursing college.. but seeing as she's probably straight A's. I doubt that's gonna happen. it is more likely that someday she will be in charge of mass  General Hospital.. but maybe on her day off she can come and play with the dogs.

 

puzzle of the day... if the storage continaere is 8 x 20 --- oh how builders like 4’ measurements..... fact is. Inside it Is 7’10.5”” so I bet it is 8 foot on the outside... now I never would  get exactly teh measurement.... but if I cut the sheets 7’10” and if that is a problem. Fill the last bit with a piece of 2” angle iron.   And just have to drill a hole or two.... no way could we manage to have those few holes drilled.... and have them match... 

and I  need a truck or.... the proverbial horse trailer....  

 

I spent time yesterday teaching eliz and karen to back it up and turn around...—rule... backing up .. hand at the bottom and that is the way the trailer will go has to be followed by... and when it starts to turn... hand goes quickly the other way to “chase it”. – there is one other caveat three feet going forward we'll save you 20 feet going backwards and you have to think that without very carefully the only other absolute thing that I know about is don't ever hope that you are going to be successful making a U turn because if you can't make it you are in a terrible mess because the trailer will be so jackknifed that you really can't undo yourself going backwards so don't make a U turn in the trailer without getting order from the vice president.

 

Point being here but now that I've taught Elizabeth and Karen how to drive a trailer backwards. if Janine doesn't come back soon I may need to get them to go pick it up sheet metal. in Woburn

I think they saw that coming

 mar 18

toyota in their great wisdom have sent 2 letters offereing us such greeat dealos on  ner toyotas... which are still in the rat range..

such is mass mailings.

Behind me they are feeding the dogs so if you hear comments they'll land here too.. gotta be careful about that.

the boss rat guy.  no we'll be here at 8:00 o'clock to do a walk around...... you.  WillWill. wave wave wave Bianca wait....    see what's happening there are two places where we have the two and a half inch chewed hole which I've left open because we've caught many rats using that as a passageway one is in the cellar door.  clear the other is in the floor of the storage container.. I'm anxious to talk to this boss rat guy.  in and see what gems of wisdom I can pick up there I sort of resent the fact that this whole tribe things that Judy and I did nothing when will you actually did manage to catch many  dozen rats.  we were at it for a while and somehow managed to throw away many  dozen rat traps Which I have record of buying from Amazon---   so I assume they all had a rat in them.   which is one reason now why the rat officials are not having any great success they’re about a month late..  but we are catching one or two aweek.  hello chimmony you want a cookie I don't know what happened to larkey... he usually shows up and demands a cookie also well he's outside somewhere.

 

my trip to butcher boy yesterday.. to purchase the lamb.  Hocks.    was half unsuccessful...  they have lamb Hawks every Thursday of the year except when Saint Patrick's Day falls on a Thursday in which case they have New England boiled dinners so I bought New England boiled dinner for a lot of people including Donna husband.  and then and they thought they were wonderful.. the other things I bought at the same time seemed to be equally as successful in my case shrimp scampi. .... with shredded parmesan...

 

Rushing through the daily doggy my other appointment of the day which could be exciting to watch on a puppy hill camera... Karen and Elizabeth both wanna move two donkeys no 2 goats over to Meredith farm because the hoof trimmer guy will be there this afternoon problem is neither Karen nor Elizabeth know how to drive a trailer..  which really isn't too hard you drive it forward and the thing comes right along behind you with no trouble at all it's going backwards that's the problem with a lot of people and that gets reduced to put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel and go very slowly backwards and watch which way the trailer moves as you move your hand not much more than 1/2 inch at a time..  I think that's the way the trailer will go but I've forgotten that part myself.. the trick is to move slowly and get control of the trailer so if I get a chance I'm going to have them practice try to back up straight in the process of getting these two goats so that could happen on the puppy hill camera if there aren't too many cars in the way..   ...   watching people try and  back a trailer it's one of the joys of life.

 

Somebody ?barbara? googled meridith farm in topsfield and got a lovely picture of” the hunt”.  There with hounds all dressed up.... loverly  placewhich the gallope thru on occasion...

js