I went through today and labelled almost all of my posts with tags (I skipped quite a few of the original ‘picture-a-day’ posts). So now if you want to go back and look at cute pictures of specifically cats, or Alki, or chickens, there you go!
Do you have any grey poupon?
There’s something about a persian lounging around the house that classes up the joint, don’t you think?
One day later…
After only one day of work I went out and found the girls had done a pretty decent job of clearing the ground the coop was sititng on! They pretty much had it tromped down to mud. They even found time to leave me a couple eggs. Good girls!
Seeing how well they had done I grabbed the ropes on the end of the box and dragged it to the next spot all by my little self. Keep working girls!
A tired dog is a good dog!
Today we took barclay to the public dogpark in the afternoon. There was no one on the small dog side, but there were a couple nice older dogs on the big dog side, and their owner said they would be fine, and they greeted through the fence and seemed fine, so we took him over to the big dog side. They ran around and did great together, so that was good. Then another family showed up with kids and a young dog that was into fetching, and Barclay got to play with the kids and run around with that dog, and that was wearing him out pretty good. Then another family showed up with a young GSD that he has played with before, but last time she was on the big dog side and he was on the small dog side, and they just ran up and down the fenceline. She’s young, and a bit of a handful! They played chase and Barclay was loving that, running big circles, changing directions, zipping in and out, but of course she got a little too close and grabbed his tail and there was a big ‘yalp!’ out of Barclay. He was fine, but he ran back to us and hung out with the people. After that when he wanted to go play with her I’d call him back, and he’s getting really good at coming, even if there’s other dogs around, so that’s good. That GSD was just a bit too much dog for him! She has a bit of puppy rudeness still, and the other dogs didn’t mind putting her in her place when she got out of hand, but I didn’t want Barclay getting in the middle of that.
In the end he had a great time, all the dogs were nice, the people were nice, the kids had fun playing with him, and a fun time was had by all. And then when we came home he crashed and slept the rest of the evening 🙂
Chicken tractor Part 2
Here is my finished Chicken Tractor!
Here it is with the access door removed.
This is a view of the nest box. There is a roost underneith the nest box platform, and a couple roosts under the A frame supports further forward.
The chicken tractor went right out into the garden, and we set it where I want the first garden bed area to be. Tonight after the chickens go to roost I’ll go kidnapp a couple to put in the tractor. Once they’ve worked over the ground there, I will move the tractor to the next location and let them work on it. Although it seems unlikely right now, I want to turn this corner of the yard into a beautiful garden, with berry bushes and fruit trees. I know it will take a lot of work, but it’s never too late to get started!Chicken tractor!
I have been wanting to build a chicken tractor, which is a small portable coop. Two reasons – first, I have these ‘wild’ chickens who refuse to stay in the pen with the rest of the chickens and wander the neighborhood. Second – I want them to be forced to work on a particular area at a time, as in I want them to help turn over my garden. We’ll see how that works!
I spent quite a bit of time on the net researching chicken tractors, and chose to go with this basic A-frame design:
I was lucky to find most of the wood I needed in the storeroom at the store, stuff we had bought for building our displays and then not needed. Dave helped me build the frame, cover it with chicken wire (given to me by a friend), put on the cedar siding (leftover from a play a couple years ago), and by the time it got dark I only needed to finish the end door and it will be ready for chickens.
Before I gave up for the night I was sitting IN the tractor, stapling chicken wire down, when it started to rain. Mouse was supervising, so she climbed in there with me, and we sat under the shelter nice and dry, while the rain fell and the sun set behind spectacular purple clouds. It was very peaceful. She purred and I ruffled her fur and we enjoyed the end of a busy afternoon.
Snopes and the Email dilemma
Ok, here’s my question: If someone forwards you an email, and the information in it is blatantly false, do you tell them, or just let it go?
I have several people who have me on their forwarding list. We laugh about it because I do computer consulting and have warned people about opening forwarded emails – it’s a great way to get a virus or worm, especially since there could be damaging code hidden in JPG files or movies. I’m pretty paranoid about those things, and because of that I’ve only had one virus slip by me in many years. Most forwarded emails go right in the virtual round file.
I’ll read them if they are just text. My point is that sometimes there’s something wrong in there, I always want to tell them about it. It’s easy enough to look these things up on Snopes and confirm or bust most of them. Sometimes I see where another recipient busts it and does a reply-to-all. I have to say that’s a great way to at least stop people from forwarding it further, but it must be a little humiliating for the person who started it.
I’m a sceptic, I take everything with a grain of salt. It’s kind of sad really. Dave says I’d be no fun at a party, because someone tells a story and I’d be fact-checking it! A few years ago there was an email about Mel Gibson being passed around, and the story it told was just too incredible to be true. Click here to see the Snopes entry. I told the coworker who had passed it around at work that it wasn’t true, and she got indignant. I had spoiled her fun. But it’s not true, I protested. Yeah, she said, but it was a good story!
Stuff like that explains why I was cruising down the highway and heard the DJ on a radio station in Colorado Springs talking about the kidney thief story as if it were a fact – I just about drove off the road when I heard that!
So what do you do when you get an email that you know is false? Do you correct the sender? Do you do a ‘reply to all’ and let everyone know? Or do you round file it and go on with your day?
Eskimos are not always easy
Alki and BarclayI was drawn to Eskimos because they are smart and beautiful, and very loving, but they are not ‘people pleasers’. They kind of do their own thing. Very independent. I have been working and working with Barclay’s training. I know it would go faster if he was a ‘pleaser’ but that’s just not how they are.
When I was a kid we had some great dogs that I loved dearly, and we never trained any of them. How did they turn out to be such great dogs? I have higher expectations for my dogs now. When I was a kid we never took dogs for walks, they never left the big backyard except to go to the vet or maybe on a family trip to the beach. You didn’t worry about socializing them with other dogs, or training them to walk nice on a leash, or crate training, or to come back when called. So dogs today get a richer, more stimulating lifestyle, but to do that they need to learn more skills than ever before.
Barclay disappointed me the other night when he refused to come off the couch in the living room and come to bed with the rest of the family, and when Dave went to get him Barclay started to bite down, a warning to leave him alone. His temperment is overall pretty docile and submissive. I think we just caught him at a time when he was sleepy and thought he’d see what he could get away with. Of course that’s completely unacceptable. We’ve been working on bite inhibition since he came home at 8 weeks, and he’s been very good and not shown any aggression since he outgrew the tantrum phase when he was tiny. We made him get up and come to bed anyway.
The next morning we began instituting the Nothing In Life Is Free program. I was hoping he could do without it, it’s a bit more of a hassle for us. Instead of walking by and seeing your dog laying there and giving them a pet, you’re supposed to call them to you and give them pets. Everything is on your terms, and the dog has to perform to get what he wants. Two days later and I’m already seeing progress. He’s more attentive and is doing better at coming when I call, and generally doing what is asked. Hopefully we can relax this as he improves.
Last night we were working through a new exercise in the Control Unleashed book – Go To Place. In this case it’s a bathmat, and I just let him figure out what I wanted, clicking when he got close. It was very cute to watch him figure out that he was getting clicked for stepping on the mat, then for laying on it. He was doing good at half laying on it, and I waited to click hoping if I held out he would shuffle and get the rest of his butt on it, and instead he rolled over on it! Just trying new things to see what works 🙂 Finally he did get completely on it, and got lots of rewards. Soon he didn’t want to get off the mat! It was a good exercise for him, and fun for both of us.
This morning…
This morning we woke up to a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky day…
And snow on the ground! Again? Really? I’ve never seen so much of the white stuff in a single winter!
Barclay thinks it’s great! We run around, finding the white lumps in the yard that cover his toys. He ran to the far end of the pasture and back to watch someone walking down the street (we don’t get a lot of pedestrians).
One of his very favorite toys is a soccer ball with straps around it so he can pick it up. I kick it for him and while he’s fetching it I get one of the other balls and kick that around, so he brings back the first ball and waits for me to kick the second one. This is a great way to wear him out! Plus he loves to grab the ball by the straps and swing that baby around!
If I do my job right, after our morning playtime we get to enjoy this for the next hour or so!
Barclay at the dog park!
Saturday is dog park day! Because our local public dog park is usually full of HUGE dogs, and Barclay is medium sized at best, on Saturdays I like to take him to a private dog park at Woof World in Vancouver. This is a doggie daycare, and on Saturdays they open the facility as a dog park for $3 an hour. The owners are there watching what goes on so they can help spot any problems before they occur, and send anyone packing if they cause trouble. Barclay has the BEST time there, he loves playing with other dogs. It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen him. I love watching him communicate with other dogs, because they all speak the same dog language, and it’s just great to see him be himself and let it all hang out.
Lots of rolling around on the floor!
Lots of humping – both ends!
Lots of playing ‘chase me’ !It’s clean and warm and safe, and we’ve had nothing but good experiences there! At the public dog park, we’ve either had no small dogs to play with, or the dogs on the big dog side are a bit too much for him. But he loves playing with smaller dogs, and is gentle even with tiny dogs, so the indoor park has been great for him! Not that they are all small dogs, there have been some big dogs there too, anything friendly is welcome. There is a boxer who he has played with the last couple times and they get on great!
Thanks to Kim at Woof World for the great pics!
Steff Does Stuff! 