Broke!

Our vacuum cleaner broke... left giant streaks of dirt and dust instead of sucking it up. In a 800-900 sq ft house with 5 cats, 3 dogs and 2 hoo-mans, a vacuum is a necessity!

Our refrigerator warmed up to 70 degrees this weekend.... sigh. The fridge repair guy came out and said the fan was broken.

And last but not least, our electric fence is out. It's run by a solar panel but it is dead, dead, dead and dead. Nothing coming out of the housing box for us to follow a fault finder and fix anything. We had our electrician neighbor come and take a look. He confirmed... it's dead. We had to order a new housing box.

Hopefully the saying about things coming in 3's is true and that's gonna be all for broken things at our house. Yeesh!

Toe is a TD dog now!

Here is Toe's tracking test!

The straight line is the path the track layer left, the dotted line is Toe's path. Track was aged about an hour.... we went a total of 450 yards... to me, it is a huge open field and other than the 2 flags, I have NO earthly idea where the track goes. The judges follow behind me about 100 feet or so with a map and the track layer.

If I go off course they blow a whistle. I'm allowed to finish my track with the track layer to assist me in staying on the track while the judges leave to judge the next dog.

In a TD test, there are 2 flags. One marks the start of the test and it has a scarf on it with the track layer's scent. Toe sniffs it, I pick it up, wave it over my head and put it in my pocket.

The 2nd flag indicates which way the track goes.

Toe was really strong... pulling and confident and then we came to this ditch...

I didn't think TD's had "obstacles" like ditches or hedges or whatever in them... Toe went across the ditch and I thought, really? (and this is where the hoo-man interferes... after all, I can't smell or see any scent right? This is where I coulda blown it by "thinking"... in tracking you are supposed to just follow your dog)

I stood my ground. He went back and forth at the top of the ditch and then was pulling me across... clearly saying, "It's this way, Mom, c'mon already!"

Alrighty then... gotta follow my dog and still I was waiting to hear the judges' whistle to tell me I was off course.... no whistle! I kept going....

After a while Toe's little stump-butt started wagging and he turns to look at me.... there is the glove!

I praised him huge, picked up the glove and waved it over my head. We passed and Toe is a TD dog.

One of the judges was this man from New England... NY I think?... he has Golden Retrievers and I guess when Toe was on the track he was heard to say, "Wow - lookit that little dog go!" That is funny to me... guess there aren't really many smallish dogs out there.... ? The dogs in this test were Golden Retrievers, German Shepherds, a Belgian Sheepdog, and an Elkhound...

You can see Toe circled a little on a couple corners and the lines that go sort of back and forth was the ditch when I was holding ground and he was, I think, double checking before he committed again to the track.

Out of 8 dogs, 6 passed that day. It was a good trackin' day!

FRIDAY, FRIDAY, FRIDAY!

Just say that in a big mega super sales pitch way.... feels good huh?

We made it!

I'm taking Toe tracking tomorrow. (2 hrs away... gotta be there at 7:30am... getting up at 4:30 am... ow. ow. ow.) Keep your fingers crossed! If he passes, we'll get our Tracking Dog (TD) title. Then we can focus on obedience and see if we can't get a CD on the little fella this winter... and maybe take an agility class next?

Tho' I seriously wonder about my coordination for agility.

Can the dog still pass if the owner trips and is lying face down eating dirt?

Prolly not.

Give all your furry, feathered, hairy critters a smooch and ENJOY your weekend!

Milk Test...

I told you guys we added our does to the milk test? yeah. Fun. F-U-N, fun. not at all.

The directions are/were super confusing. Every time my poor friend who I suckered into being my milk tester came over to draw milk, we'd sit with all the instructions strewn about the kitchen table and it felt like we were studying for finals or something.

Now that we seem to have it down... I get the milk reports each month after submitting samples of milk from Spot and Speck.

I have no idea what they mean.

I see the fat % and the protein %... other than that? Nothing makes sense. Just adding to the frustration and bad feelings overall about this stupid, *^%@* milk test bid'ness.

But my poor suckered in milk tester is a woman of reason and she tells me that now we have it figured out, we should keep sending in samples each month. The interesting thing is that Spot and her daughter Speck have pretty negligible differences in fat or protein from the milk they give - we are talking maybe a tenth of a percent ...

I have to get the gumption up to call the woman who runs the milk test to get a more thorough explanation of the reports, however, since it is a confusing, frustrating thing for me... I drag my feet about it.

We are gearing up for breeding season and so do I keep milk test going into next year or quit when I dry the does up?

Think my vote is to give it up. Will probably breed one doe next year while I wait for the babies who were born late this spring to mature for breeding next fall. Hardly seems worth it for ONE goat to stay on milk test and I did it for a year.

Meh.

I think my milk test itch has been scratched.

Migration?

I have seen around 793 dead racoons on the roads when I'm driving to and from work. What in the....?

The world did NOT come to an end....

when I turned 40. Shew! I woke up and the sun was still in the sky, birds were chirping, the cats were taking turns walking across my full bladder as I lay there checking all body parts were still functional. Fingers - check. Toes - check. Can I move my neck? Yup.

Alrighty then...


Sorry for the lack of posting... work has been insane. I get home and the last think I wanna do is look at a computer screen.

We had a great party for my first 40th and Furry Husband's last 40th later this month.

We put the keg next to the goat pen because goats really needed to be part of the experience. Need a beer? Scratch a goat.

Funny how at a 40ish party, there are lots of children... baby strollers... wee folk....

Even the band brought a baby... my Mom adopted it. I'm not sure the band left with the baby, I think my Mom took it. Baby snatcher.

(see the stroller to the left there? And oh, look, there is a play pen over to the right. It was part of the band set-up...)

At the last minute we confirmed on the band. I'm so glad we did. They played bluegrass-ish or maybe Grateful Dead-ish sort of music. There was a banjo. And really? That's all that mattered. Banjo. All hail the banjo.

Pix o' my little red-headed mule.

Sera Sue at the Estes Park show.... (and how can I be FORTY this week?)