dec 11

Judy is back thankfully and we don't have anything booked today as far as daycare centres but she's booked a whole lot of them starting tomorrow ---sh she tells me most of them are "booking " for every 2 weeks....that could be do-able....we are a work in progress....and we do like essex county !! about 30 min travel to these places in either direction.

somehow um I do know we have some sort of court case tomorrow but somehow we'll get it all done and we do have to go get hay today ----it's supposed to stop raining at noontime so that we might be able to whip up there before she goes home sort of I don't know today we’re going to hang a little loose

 

also because Elizabeth is ill---she started yesterday with a sore throat and nick said last night it was her nose & chest or throat her ears eyes everything everything upper so she's probably out of Commission.

 

I had decided there were all sorts of things I would have done by January 1st and now I find that's only a couple weeks away the big thing we're missing is a flyer another thing is a business card.. Whenever I even have the dogs in the car I get an awful lot of interest and all sorts of people are fascinated with the fact that I'm very quickly tell them that we do daycare centers with these dogs and I'm looking for people to help go with me and then they say oh good give me a business card and I don't have one so I don't look good at that point a lot has to do with the facts we had a slight go around with the mix up of crazy acres add Goldys farm plus the 501-C 3.... Plus what number went with what bank account so it's been a tough month but I think we're there... 

 

The guilt put on me by this very pleasant physical therapist is dreadful she said she would be back next week to see what progress I had made and of course I haven't made an awful lot.  ---I've been very comfortable reading a book---

As for elder care, I was fascinated to have someone in the Ipswich senior whatever stop by and give me my yearly small loaf of banana bread they apparently give one every Christmas to the  old people this is about the 4th one I've had so it must be round 80 that you start getting banana bread which is very interesting it's very nice it's homemade and my excitement of the day will be...... to follow through on betsy's introduction to the open door food preparation place... and maybe I can give them. the wonderful healthy drink that somebody gave me a case of... not really realizing that this particular healthy drink is to put weight on.... to the tune of 360 calories....  where the normal protein sort of drink is about 160.... so we have that correction to deal with

 

Now every month I do get some sort of newspaper from the elder care department well I don't really remember and I ought to pay more attention to it which is probably why I'm sort of out of step ... maybe if I read that thing I could get two loaves of banana bread a year somehow.... It very carefully lists things like yoga classes... 

 

I feel like I'm back...... on the road !

 dec 10

I certainly had a lot of responses to my article about Viagra---rest assured that if one of my dogs develops the regurgitating possibly associated with megaesophagus you will find me at the local CVS requesting. some Viagra to the great amusement of anyone within earshot.

and then i got this one...... i may be the one needing the pill myself !!

You will be surprised to learn Viagra is also used in WOMEN ONLY for respiratory issues!!!!

benita---

topic for the day?     Exaggerating   -- for humor.... Those parking places are so small I'd have trouble parking  a Vespa scooter there..... for  marketing.. as in... We inspect every tomato to make sure it's the perfect color for our ketchup.... for political purposes.. There is a new tweet every 20 minutes...

Or just some sort of statistical advantage..

 

so to be sure that we're not guilty of that sort of thing... I did make the statement that we have seen. close to 4000 people  this year....in these assisted living places or day care centers---and I will stand by that as absolutely true but I do have to clarify... we may record that we have seen 39 people at the XXXXX daycare center when in actual fact... ( this is a real case that's why I couldn't put the name....) .  when we pulled up in front of the place with our dogs nine of the staff members came out to pat the dogs in the parking lot---when they suddenly realized they have left no one back inside the facility--- 

SO.......the 30 patients of this rehab center. we're carefully sitting in the room waiting for us wwhile  we are entertaining nine of the staff in the yard

 

now I count that.. as 39 people--- where there are some purists that say we are visiting people in the rehab center and therefore we should say 30... which percentage wise would reduce our numbers by 25%.  

I of course prefer 39--with the logic that entertaining the staff of some of these places is just as important as entertaining the people who are there for the day ... either way 4000 or 3000. is a very significant number of people to have entertained with three or four dogs and once in a while a chicken...and  may be a plastic pig--  at any rate we are working... 

 

In preparation for being distracted by judy's arrival. Monday----.. which will change our modus operandi... I have taken my bank statements and pulled out all the recognizable expenses that are shall we say notable.. not only notable but logically expenses that could be attributable to our Daycare center project.

This is not a huge expense by comparing it to history... but logically. between the Verizon of several 100...for camera. connections .. -- add that to a couple tanks of gas,  at $60---- plus  a bag or two of purina dog food.... and I have to approach the goldie board of directors And see if they feel that those expenses could be covered by the fund you people create with your $10.  – I will keep this project well documented so you will all know... those are currently things I have covered, that I would like to get off my “books” –

 my biggest expence I can’t unload—FOOD.... mine ----take out !!!!

Betsy has contacted all her local friends from the open door---- which provides meals for people who don't seem to be able to get a decent meal together all at the same time--  and or maybe tired of living on a diet of Chinese food and pizza.

 

Judy will be back on Monday.  I think I have milked this “ post surgery” layup long enough.   there really is not that much wrong with me now which is not severely affected by. ” lazy..”a and. weather IE cold weather---.. I say there's nothing wrong with me now.. however the potential of things to be wrong with me in the future is astronomical.. I got into a bad situation the other night with Costco 's orange chicken. and a small quantity of Angel hair pasta.. it just wouldn't go down... and if it had gotten any worse I would have had to push a button again.... however I walked around, stretched to the ceiling into the floor into the ceiling into the floor... and eventually I could get a little bit of water down. and then a little more grape juice.. and I was all set to have another mouthful of orange chicken and pasta and just be a little more careful about the size and consistency.. Oh the joys of being.... elderly.

 dec 9 

It is imperative that I start this article with a statement than I have zero people medical training or veterinary training.  Basically what I have done is combined some experience I have had with megaesophagus in puppies...  with a quick look at the Internet..  where I stumbled onto some peculiar things I thought might be interesting..

For the uninitiated..  the esophagus.. is the pipe which is supposed to deposit the contents of the chewed up stuff in the mouth into the stomach...

 

Megaesophagus  in normal people terminology--  is that when a puppy swallows its food the food doesn't get  all the way down the esophagus Into the stomach.. for a lot of complicated medical reasons I'm sure----- However in my head it's purely a physical problem  of getting the chewed up contents to flow downhill into the stomach... this  can be helped by physically changing the angle of the esophagus in the first place.

 

This condition is considered genetic and happens in a lot of breed of dogs..   when I was younger if there was a puppy with milk coming out of its nose you just knew it wasn't going to do well and it would eventually wither and die.... however nowadays...  it has a name and several ways of trying to deal with the problem of getting food all the way down the pipe..  roto-rooter has not yet been designed for dogs .    It has been found that by changing the angle that the pup  eats its dinner does help get the food into the stomach... so the puppy can thrive and survive... At which time many pups will outgrow the problem.

 

In an effort to increase the angle,  some people try simply raising the dish by putting it on a small table..  unfortunately I'm told this does not change the angle  of  the pipe where the problem occurs----- namely beyond the neck. so the next best best effort has been to feed the dog on the stairs the third or fourth step up so that the entire dog's body is tipped upwards and this does work for some... then someone invented the Bailey chair...  which is a very effective somewhat comical situation of sitting the dog on its rear end and locking the body in the chair with the front paws up by the dish -----the Bailey chair has been responsible for saving many dogs and it comes in various sizes.  People  have made their own----I bought the 3 sizes  .  We have had  great success... I am happy to say that the two or three dogs out of the 450 puppies I have delivered. all outgrew the megaesophagus and lived happily ever after.    I also have to say that because this considered a genetic problem. any dog with that problem should be spayed or neutered... 

 

That is the end of my personal experience with dealing with megaesophagus in dogs..  but as I looked up how to spell the word I ran into the fact that they are now experimenting with the use of Viagra..  which seems to be an immediate cure for the regurgitation of food so common  in cases of Megaesophagus.  

 

Ok......... Now at the tender age of 86. There  is some sort of megaesophagus terminology for people as they age.... and I know that “older people”  have to consider  the “slippery factor”     when choosing their meals, because of simple chunk of New York sirloin could be deadly...  Combine all these facts and the situation just might develop where you might see me in CVS buying Viagra. . That story would be as good as the day I was in a CVS trying to buy a pregnancy test--- of course for the my Great Dane.

 dec 8 

Dec 8

We are so lucky to have cameras on the stalls in the barn to help us keep track of what is happening but it's also a mixed bag because some of the people who are watching the cameras don't realize what is fairly normal and if these perfectly fat healthy animals have an empty hay bag let's not worry about it because they're certainly not picking up every bit of hay that has fallen on the ground which they are very capable of doing ----- there is far too much hay already thrown away in the manure pile which they have not picked over and they are very capable of doing that ----that's normal horsemanship to pick over what's on the ground..  we'll worried about the worms with the pill we give them

 

 what you can worry about if you'd like is the water buckets this is winter come on now water freezes but also the buckets have to be kept clean and full at least twice a day ---absolutely spotless--- absolutely full.. after they have had full acess to being able to drink......I know that these big draft horses like the budweisers and the amish work horses,,,,,,variety are allowed all the water they could drink two or maybe three if they're lucky on a hot day----- two times a day-- they don't have constant water available so as long as water is available twice   to these animals they should manage nicely.

if all of you people watch these wild cameras about elephants and zebras and things like that those animals are not standing knee deep in water 24 hours a day they go away and they graze and they go back to the water source maybe once a day I don't know of that part but I do know those big draft horses even on a hot day are not given water 100% of the time.    but they do need to have it at least twice a day.

 so please re think before posting how upset you are if the hay bags are empty-  I prefer to think if the hay bags are never empty we are feeding too much......

 

my 3.25 reading glasses have arrived---so I can see better toooooooo......

 

we are scheduled to get 2 tons of. Hay today---   from dodge grain......one at meridith and the other here--- they said they would toss it in the hay loft.....

 

.other than that life goes on ... and on ... and on/.

 

p.s I can tell you what marketing means.... I bought some cocpnut shrimp at Costco--- and Elizabeth ‘s family may enjoy  the rest of it for supper....   the picture looked soooooo good... not true.. and not easy...

and not the usual costco quality.....

 dec 7

late but the cart is complete... to be demo'd at mail  call...

I was very sorry to hear of asher's passing... he and Erica had such a good time together I think he was born in 2015 maybe.. and spent a lot of time in places I never thought a dog would go--- like Manhattan...  like on stage at summer stock and some Broadway show or another actually on stage ----- they had a good time together .---I will try and stay in touch with her.

 

we did make the newspaper by the skin of our teeth I think I turned it in on Sunday but there's a very cute picture of pasta with no leash or collar on sitting very politely in front of me waiting for a spoonful of something learning to wait. well sizzle and malarkey look on very carefully not interfering it's a very good picture.. he became a pretty decent dog very quickly only in a matter of a couple weeks he became canine good citizen and beyond that he's gone on to it a real job in the world...  and a bright red jacket I wish I had a picture of it but it's on my phone and I can't do that

 

the entire Goldie farm at the moment is minus both printers for lack of ink so that'll be the mission this morning as soon as Elizabeth brings over their cartridge that's my job today to go find ink I wish I could find her a very bright garage light to hangover my head on the chair I may hit Home Depot for that one however I should be home before noon..   

 

. Other than that on we go....

our chicken carrying device for assisted living

 dec 6 

ok... chores done-- all prizes ready for the p.o -- hopefully this morning...  i may go out even if it is snowing !!

to contnue, i will need to fiind an allen wrench-- to put together the cart i ordered for visiting with a c chicken or turtle....

 i  never meant this  to be an IQ test. but the #$%^&** thing has over 100 pieces----...... i know i own 2 of those folding allan wenches  but heaven know where they are...  so i do teh unforgiveable--- go buy another.... - could be worse--- i could order from amazon.... but they are not totally on schedule.... i have2 overnight things now 2 days overdue????? 

running.....

 dec 5 

The queen size mattress will hold two Great Dane dogs very easily as long as they stretch out to begin with and clear off anything else that's on the bed and shove that all onto the floor...  then the twin size mattress. can comfortably hold one Jack Russell terrier ---one right in the middle...   such is our current sleeping arrangements...  thank heavens Judy is not here to have to deal. but everything that I had stored on the queen size mattress at my elbow at the semi desk is now behind the chair in a muddle of remotes and mail....

 

My new schedule hopefully will be to get out in the car doing other things between 9:00 and 11:00 sometimes that will be going to assisted living places or lining them up or interviewing people or whatever------ moving forward at any rate we have several people joining our visiting crew. Well they aren't joining they are rejoining they're old people that have been around for a long time they know the ropes the dogs know them and I think they would be a tremendous asset 2 letting people know that goldies farm is basically a community asset if people want to come and enjoy the place fine or if we can bring animals to them that's fine and although it sounds odd it has to be run a little bit loosely to be able to accomplish and let people know what we can do...  and you when you come right down to it I don't think there's anyone in Massachusetts more qualified then Janine or I. to bring animals into odd situations... remember I once got a 500 pound  pig on the roof of the hotel down by South station... I've had donkeys at the top of the pru ... and hundreds of black snakes I can't remember where... well we might not use the black snake routine....  but the donkey is yes... as I have found the donkeys are extremely tolerant of crowds and they have a perfect persona for this job of community outreach.   do I have to add here that we might have to sort out the donkeys a little bit to find one that is agreeable to crowds.  but the natural tendency is there and easier to work with.

 

all of that boils down to we need to put together a flyer so if anybody wants to send us suggestions by all means do that... I kind of like our "client's tale" as a foundation for the flyer....and redo the bottom right corner with goldys farm info...