Two other teachers and their husbands along with myself were invited over to a families home for dinner. He is from PNG and she is from the Philippines. (If you have ever read “And the Word came with Power,” her mother was the first believer in the village) I teach their son. So we were eating and then sharing on the back verandah. Their son got to playing with a squirt gun and then went over and began using it to get my car all wet. Then he proceeded to wash the dirt off of my car. Very sweet, but he was only using his hands. My windows are so smeared with hand prints you can hardly see through them.
After not working for two days, my computer booted up fine last night.
I really don’t know what to make of the crazy (less that I had hoped for) research end of this trip, but I’m glad I came.
I’ll be glad to be home tonight, but I’ve been so thoroughly here, I can’t remember anything about normal living. (Which is why I left myself directions on my desk before I left!)
Jacaranda trees are startling gorgeous this year! A joy to behold.
😦 We had to leave the beach early because Elvera wasn’t enjoying herself like in previou s years)
🙂 I am not driving home from Surfside Beach today. Instead we had breakfast with Chuck, Mary, Jenn and their families. There were four generations in Chick-fil-a this mooring.
🙂. Being back on fb. My husband’s friends will wonder why he is so ‘quiet’ again. 😀
🙂 Visiting daughter and family. We enjoyed a wonderful grad ceremony and party. Just being together is fun. It is especially precious when you realize how short the time is for being able to travel and visit.
Fifteen year old rode his bike to town in the morning for weight lifting before school, then rode home to ask if he could go to graduation. He then rode to town for the ceremony and then the five miles back home. He says he really enjoyed the graduation, realizing that could be him in three years. I did not remind him that he is planning to move out in two years and will have to figure out rent somewhere, food, and the time for school.
🙂 Getting a much-needed new back fence built at a good price
😦 Issues caused by having no back fence for a while
😦 Sent a couple texts to Carol’s brother in NJ over the past several days, the first saying she was in the hospital (and providing the phone and room # so he could reach her); the second saying she was back home (again providing that phone #) — but he hasn’t called her. I realize he’s had his frustrations with her, but she’s still his sister and there’s no reason he can’t give her a phone call just to say hi, how are you. He’s afraid she’ll ask for money since her birthday is right around the corner (and she probably will), but all he has to do is say “no,” and change the subject (I did tell her he didn’t like it when she did that so “don’t go there with him”). But I also realize there’s a whole history between them that I know nothing about, so it’s hard to say how all that has led to where they are today with each other.
And Michelle + daughter are coming by for a visit this morning to see my horrific mess. It’s regressed to a period not seen since the big bathroom upheaval.
😦 Having to take care of puppy – trying to take her outside often enough, cleaning up her accidents, having to stay upstairs so we can be with puppy – while babysitting Little Guy.
🙂 But. . . cute, sweet Janie! ❤
🙂 She was excited to see me when I went upstairs this morning to talk to Nightingale, romping over to me. I'm already in love with this puppy. And Chickadee is thoroughly enamored of her, too.
🙂 Two new cats to replace Kchu, who went missing about 2 months ago. One is a grey tabby and the other is a very handsome tuxedo cat. Front paws and chest are white as are the bottom ¾ of his back legs. Add some white whiskers to his black face and he’s very dignified. The grey tabby has pale blue/green eyes!
🙂 Finally finished planting the garden, although we do need to pick up another pack of bean seeds (didn’t buy enough) and some dwarf marigold seeds so I can mix those with the dill seed (keeps aphids away from the dill)
🙂 Wonderful to see Donna again and view the projects.
😦 oh, my, she has a lot on her plate!
🙂 Tess and Cowboy were charming.
😦 No sign of Annie O.
😦 I had to leave. More than anything on this trip, I wish I had visited Donna earlier and stayed longer to help her. Her task is mammoth– though she’s made admirable progress in several important corners.
😦 Did not get to the roof, but from highest spot in backyard, ocean view was blocked by a roof.
😦 🙂 Visit made me feel young and old again–Navy wife instincts were screaming to jump in and order.
You wear white pants at your own risk around here 🙂 And remember, the washer is dead.
🙂 Annie briefly explored the yard & partial new fence this morning, so much to see … Almost all of one side is done, seems like it’s going fast now.
🙂 Will be so good to have the new fence across the back, the ‘view’ since the old fence came down is awful — a dense, dark bramble of twisted vines and branches, as high as the electric lines overhead, pushing forward toward my yard from the property line — with a falling-down white picket fence that must be from the 1940s or ’50s (all belonging to the neighbors).
🙂 New washer/dryer coming Wednesday, I need to get one of these guys to get those laundry alcove doors taken off today since it looks like they possibly could finish the fence. And they’ll probably be more amenable to doing it earlier in the day before they’re too exhausted by the fence work.
🙂 So I launched into the final closet I had left to excavate — and I uncovered some more (surprise) big boxes of family history and mementos, including more ancient books, my grandfather’s old wooden view finder (which I loved as a kid — the kind where there are double-image cards that become 1 almost 3-D image through the lenses); my ancestor’s Civil War rifle; lots of boxes of old photos … That’s why I was so surprised to find so much of all that kind of thing in the garage, I always thought I’d held all of that out of storage after my mom died and had put it in that back bedroom closet. There was a lot of it in both places as it turned out.
🙂 It’s a big closet and I’ve gotten halfway through it. Also have some more give-away and throw-away bags ready to go; the family items I believe should go in the garage in weather tight containers with the rest of those things already, no sense in their taking up closet space in the house at this point.
🙂 Fence crew has made it to the back now and looks like most, but not all, of the framework is up back there — but when I asked he said he didn’t think they’d be able to finish today. At least it’s all quiet on the neighbors’ side, they’ve probably come to terms with it and will be able to work on their side better after my fence is up.
But I’m convinced the bulk of it is done. I think. Oy.
🙂 Fence looks wonderful, they still have the back corner section to finish and will probably come back another day, maybe not tomorrow though … so we’ll have to wait a little longer. But they did a great job, it looks so much better — how good to see a tall, strong, solid fence out there now to replace the old one that was bending and leaning and gaping.
🙂 Workers finished up yesterday, they left after it was dark. Now to plan a new backyard to go with it (in time).
😦 I forgot to have one of the guys take the laundry doors off before they left. From what I’m seeing on Youtube, you just sort of pop them out of the top track. Sounds easy, right? Right.
🙂 More house stuff ahead for me today, I want to get into the top cabinets above the spare bedroom closet to get those cleared out — then try to shift some of this into the garage after repacking in weather-tight containers.
Then I’ll be ready to start “re-populating” and organizing the closets.
🙂 I promised Carol I’d come up today with her birthday gift and I’m thinking I’ll try to take care of that first thing this morning and not stay long. She wanted me also to bring her a Mexican style cake she’s been craving (yes, a whole cake), but I’ll buy her just a piece of cake at Sprouts. Currently she’s without a TV (she doesn’t have one of her own but sometimes a roommate will bring one in), a phone or a Bible (they put the Bible along with all her other books and things in storage for now while she gets through the rest of her isolation period for her skin infection which she said seems to be getting better with the treatments). So I’ll bring her a study Bible I haven’t been using + maybe a cast-off book or two I threw into the give-away bags yesterday. I think she still has a tablet reader with some of her books on it that she’s able to use.
She can be so aggravating at times, but this really is a tough stretch for her right now. Her health is really starting to fail more seriously and I think she’ll probably wind up in a convalescent home in the near future. And I guess her brother still hasn’t called her. She keeps asking me if I’ve texted him — I have, a few times recently, and once I just came out and asked if he could give her a call. Oh well. Families.
Sometimes family gets burnt out. And sometimes brothers are not as communicative or aware as we would like. But that is ok. Give her a bit of time and move forward. She is lonely and she wants stuff, but those are on her. She apparently does not have the social skills to keep people around her. You are kind and serving God by giving her some time, but you also have other responsibilities before God.
I am out on landscaping DJ. I know nothing about California plantings.
I organized my closet yesterday. Now I need to let BG go through and get rid of things. She does have her talents.
🙂 Back neighbor’s cat was peering out around a newly opened top corner at the end of the fence today. And I see that Annie slipped out by going under one of the panels this morning, so I will still have the issue of trying to make sure dogs can’t get out from under the fence. I don’t think they can currently, but maybe with enough digging later … Probably the best solution is either rebar posts (again, and I still have the old ones) or pavers (also have those, but that looks tacky) — better would be to get a metal-mesh wire “apron” installed on the bottom of the fence and buried underground sloping out to my side.
🙂 Another bag of give-away clothes ready to go and some old financial paperwork ready for the shredder.
😦 Unfortunately there are a lot of boxes, looks like more of the stuff probably moved straight from my mom’s storage unit when I moved in here, but maybe also some christmas stuff that can be given away, in those upper cabinets above the closet in the spare room. I may or may not get to that real soon, I don’t know.
Line the bottom of the fence with those pavers–it will look uniform and if they’re all in a row, the dogs may or may not be able to push them aside with their noses. If they do . . . put up two rows. You’ve got a lot of them.
I’ll handle the landscaping end. I’ve already got ideas.
🙂 I took photos of jacarandas in Hollywood today. I may send them along — and a photo(s) of some of the antiques such as the Civil War gun.
🙂 Had a good visit with Carol, she was surprised by her gift — long story, but among the things I’d had in my garage of hers was a set of 4 glasses and (supposedly) the matching pitcher. Found the glasses and took them to her but the pitcher was never found and I felt bad that was the one thing she was hoping to get back. So I went online and managed to find the same pitcher (“vintage 1980s,” used but in good shape) from a seller on Etsy and ordered it. When Carol opened the box she said “My pitcher!” I bought her some fresh flowers to put in it. And the man from her church wants to take her to get the new phone tomorrow, hoping she’ll get clearance from the medical department there.
🙂 Opened one of the boxes in the top cabinets — found old photos (really old, I was 1-2 years old) of me and my parents, grandparents, etc.; one of my mom’s old report cards from Iowa; and a 1928 handmade ornament my mom made for her mother. Also some black and white photos I’d taken when I was taking photography in college & some ceramics that I remember growing up with — Mary had a Little Lamb, etc. Kind of strange revisiting all these things I’d forgotten about.
🙂 I will use pavers at the bottom of the fence, I actually still have the cheaper ones I’d bought at home depot originally for that purpose and the workers left them stacked near the fence. Dogs are still in, so so far, so good.
DJ, I don’t remember if I ever suggested this, but I read it somewhere when Misten was a puppy and she was finding a couple spots in my yard to be nice digging holes she kept returning to. (I know that some owners give their dog a designated digging space, but my yard wasn’t really big enough for that and collies aren’t dogs with a strong need for digging. She ended up digging just a couple of times a year the rest of her life, mostly when she smelled a rodent.)
Anyway, the tip was that if your dog is digging at a specific spot and you want to dissuade that, bury some of their poop in that spot, since dogs are too clean to be willing to dig in their own excrement. (I know, I know–they’ll eat it but not dig in it?) At any rate, Misten had dug in the same spot several times and had it filled in several times. The next time she dug, before filling the hole back in, I dropped a few pieces in and covered them with dirt, and sure enough that was the end of that hole. I think I used it in two different holes and effectively cured her from digging except as a very occasional thing, and in the future I didn’t have to take such methods because she never got obsessive about any one spot once she grew past puppyhood. Might be worth trying if they do find a vulnerable spot.
Wandering Views 
Two other teachers and their husbands along with myself were invited over to a families home for dinner. He is from PNG and she is from the Philippines. (If you have ever read “And the Word came with Power,” her mother was the first believer in the village) I teach their son. So we were eating and then sharing on the back verandah. Their son got to playing with a squirt gun and then went over and began using it to get my car all wet. Then he proceeded to wash the dirt off of my car. Very sweet, but he was only using his hands. My windows are so smeared with hand prints you can hardly see through them.
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After not working for two days, my computer booted up fine last night.
I really don’t know what to make of the crazy (less that I had hoped for) research end of this trip, but I’m glad I came.
I’ll be glad to be home tonight, but I’ve been so thoroughly here, I can’t remember anything about normal living. (Which is why I left myself directions on my desk before I left!)
Jacaranda trees are startling gorgeous this year! A joy to behold.
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😦 We had to leave the beach early because Elvera wasn’t enjoying herself like in previou s years)
🙂 I am not driving home from Surfside Beach today. Instead we had breakfast with Chuck, Mary, Jenn and their families. There were four generations in Chick-fil-a this mooring.
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🙂. Being back on fb. My husband’s friends will wonder why he is so ‘quiet’ again. 😀
🙂 Visiting daughter and family. We enjoyed a wonderful grad ceremony and party. Just being together is fun. It is especially precious when you realize how short the time is for being able to travel and visit.
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Fifteen year old rode his bike to town in the morning for weight lifting before school, then rode home to ask if he could go to graduation. He then rode to town for the ceremony and then the five miles back home. He says he really enjoyed the graduation, realizing that could be him in three years. I did not remind him that he is planning to move out in two years and will have to figure out rent somewhere, food, and the time for school.
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🙂 A three-day weekend
🙂 Getting a much-needed new back fence built at a good price
😦 Issues caused by having no back fence for a while
😦 Sent a couple texts to Carol’s brother in NJ over the past several days, the first saying she was in the hospital (and providing the phone and room # so he could reach her); the second saying she was back home (again providing that phone #) — but he hasn’t called her. I realize he’s had his frustrations with her, but she’s still his sister and there’s no reason he can’t give her a phone call just to say hi, how are you. He’s afraid she’ll ask for money since her birthday is right around the corner (and she probably will), but all he has to do is say “no,” and change the subject (I did tell her he didn’t like it when she did that so “don’t go there with him”). But I also realize there’s a whole history between them that I know nothing about, so it’s hard to say how all that has led to where they are today with each other.
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🙂 Oh yeah, Chas is back.
And Michelle + daughter are coming by for a visit this morning to see my horrific mess. It’s regressed to a period not seen since the big bathroom upheaval.
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🙂 Cute, sweet new puppy Janie!
😦 Having to take care of puppy – trying to take her outside often enough, cleaning up her accidents, having to stay upstairs so we can be with puppy – while babysitting Little Guy.
🙂 But. . . cute, sweet Janie! ❤
🙂 She was excited to see me when I went upstairs this morning to talk to Nightingale, romping over to me. I'm already in love with this puppy. And Chickadee is thoroughly enamored of her, too.
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DJ, I notice that you politically left it blank as to whether seeing Michelle is rant or rave. (Have you two met in person? I don’t remember.)
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Yes, a few times now (met in person). 🙂
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🙂 Two new cats to replace Kchu, who went missing about 2 months ago. One is a grey tabby and the other is a very handsome tuxedo cat. Front paws and chest are white as are the bottom ¾ of his back legs. Add some white whiskers to his black face and he’s very dignified. The grey tabby has pale blue/green eyes!
🙂 Finally finished planting the garden, although we do need to pick up another pack of bean seeds (didn’t buy enough) and some dwarf marigold seeds so I can mix those with the dill seed (keeps aphids away from the dill)
🙂 New puppy, Kizzie!
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🙂 Wonderful to see Donna again and view the projects.
😦 oh, my, she has a lot on her plate!
🙂 Tess and Cowboy were charming.
😦 No sign of Annie O.
😦 I had to leave. More than anything on this trip, I wish I had visited Donna earlier and stayed longer to help her. Her task is mammoth– though she’s made admirable progress in several important corners.
😦 Did not get to the roof, but from highest spot in backyard, ocean view was blocked by a roof.
😦 🙂 Visit made me feel young and old again–Navy wife instincts were screaming to jump in and order.
😦 While pants said I couldn’t indulge!
🙂 Home!
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You wear white pants at your own risk around here 🙂 And remember, the washer is dead.
🙂 Annie briefly explored the yard & partial new fence this morning, so much to see … Almost all of one side is done, seems like it’s going fast now.
🙂 Will be so good to have the new fence across the back, the ‘view’ since the old fence came down is awful — a dense, dark bramble of twisted vines and branches, as high as the electric lines overhead, pushing forward toward my yard from the property line — with a falling-down white picket fence that must be from the 1940s or ’50s (all belonging to the neighbors).
🙂 New washer/dryer coming Wednesday, I need to get one of these guys to get those laundry alcove doors taken off today since it looks like they possibly could finish the fence. And they’ll probably be more amenable to doing it earlier in the day before they’re too exhausted by the fence work.
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🙂 New kitties, Kare!
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😦 Missed church, consults needed with fence guys
🙂 So I launched into the final closet I had left to excavate — and I uncovered some more (surprise) big boxes of family history and mementos, including more ancient books, my grandfather’s old wooden view finder (which I loved as a kid — the kind where there are double-image cards that become 1 almost 3-D image through the lenses); my ancestor’s Civil War rifle; lots of boxes of old photos … That’s why I was so surprised to find so much of all that kind of thing in the garage, I always thought I’d held all of that out of storage after my mom died and had put it in that back bedroom closet. There was a lot of it in both places as it turned out.
🙂 It’s a big closet and I’ve gotten halfway through it. Also have some more give-away and throw-away bags ready to go; the family items I believe should go in the garage in weather tight containers with the rest of those things already, no sense in their taking up closet space in the house at this point.
🙂 Fence crew has made it to the back now and looks like most, but not all, of the framework is up back there — but when I asked he said he didn’t think they’d be able to finish today. At least it’s all quiet on the neighbors’ side, they’ve probably come to terms with it and will be able to work on their side better after my fence is up.
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🙂 3/4 the way through the closet.
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🙂 Made it.
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Well, so there are some cabinets overhead still …
But I’m convinced the bulk of it is done. I think. Oy.
🙂 Fence looks wonderful, they still have the back corner section to finish and will probably come back another day, maybe not tomorrow though … so we’ll have to wait a little longer. But they did a great job, it looks so much better — how good to see a tall, strong, solid fence out there now to replace the old one that was bending and leaning and gaping.
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No more DJ out in the pouring rain and freezing cold in the dead of night trying to improvise a solution to the great escape!
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Pavers! and rebar! I used ’em all.
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🙂 Looks like the final boards are going up, and we will have a backyard again. Woo-hoo! They may have to return to clean up some, but … wow.
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Nice to have something nice to look at when the house is still under construction….
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🙂 Workers finished up yesterday, they left after it was dark. Now to plan a new backyard to go with it (in time).
😦 I forgot to have one of the guys take the laundry doors off before they left. From what I’m seeing on Youtube, you just sort of pop them out of the top track. Sounds easy, right? Right.
🙂 More house stuff ahead for me today, I want to get into the top cabinets above the spare bedroom closet to get those cleared out — then try to shift some of this into the garage after repacking in weather-tight containers.
Then I’ll be ready to start “re-populating” and organizing the closets.
🙂 I promised Carol I’d come up today with her birthday gift and I’m thinking I’ll try to take care of that first thing this morning and not stay long. She wanted me also to bring her a Mexican style cake she’s been craving (yes, a whole cake), but I’ll buy her just a piece of cake at Sprouts. Currently she’s without a TV (she doesn’t have one of her own but sometimes a roommate will bring one in), a phone or a Bible (they put the Bible along with all her other books and things in storage for now while she gets through the rest of her isolation period for her skin infection which she said seems to be getting better with the treatments). So I’ll bring her a study Bible I haven’t been using + maybe a cast-off book or two I threw into the give-away bags yesterday. I think she still has a tablet reader with some of her books on it that she’s able to use.
She can be so aggravating at times, but this really is a tough stretch for her right now. Her health is really starting to fail more seriously and I think she’ll probably wind up in a convalescent home in the near future. And I guess her brother still hasn’t called her. She keeps asking me if I’ve texted him — I have, a few times recently, and once I just came out and asked if he could give her a call. Oh well. Families.
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You can get those doors out. Easy peasy.
Sometimes family gets burnt out. And sometimes brothers are not as communicative or aware as we would like. But that is ok. Give her a bit of time and move forward. She is lonely and she wants stuff, but those are on her. She apparently does not have the social skills to keep people around her. You are kind and serving God by giving her some time, but you also have other responsibilities before God.
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I am out on landscaping DJ. I know nothing about California plantings.
I organized my closet yesterday. Now I need to let BG go through and get rid of things. She does have her talents.
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Thanks mumsee.
🙂 Back neighbor’s cat was peering out around a newly opened top corner at the end of the fence today. And I see that Annie slipped out by going under one of the panels this morning, so I will still have the issue of trying to make sure dogs can’t get out from under the fence. I don’t think they can currently, but maybe with enough digging later … Probably the best solution is either rebar posts (again, and I still have the old ones) or pavers (also have those, but that looks tacky) — better would be to get a metal-mesh wire “apron” installed on the bottom of the fence and buried underground sloping out to my side.
🙂 Another bag of give-away clothes ready to go and some old financial paperwork ready for the shredder.
😦 Unfortunately there are a lot of boxes, looks like more of the stuff probably moved straight from my mom’s storage unit when I moved in here, but maybe also some christmas stuff that can be given away, in those upper cabinets above the closet in the spare room. I may or may not get to that real soon, I don’t know.
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Line the bottom of the fence with those pavers–it will look uniform and if they’re all in a row, the dogs may or may not be able to push them aside with their noses. If they do . . . put up two rows. You’ve got a lot of them.
I’ll handle the landscaping end. I’ve already got ideas.
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🙂 Michelle’s mention of jacarandas reminded me how much I like them…
😦 and how much I miss them.
🙂 Michelle and DJ got to see each other.
🙂 I’ve never met any fellow wanderers here.
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🙂 I took photos of jacarandas in Hollywood today. I may send them along — and a photo(s) of some of the antiques such as the Civil War gun.
🙂 Had a good visit with Carol, she was surprised by her gift — long story, but among the things I’d had in my garage of hers was a set of 4 glasses and (supposedly) the matching pitcher. Found the glasses and took them to her but the pitcher was never found and I felt bad that was the one thing she was hoping to get back. So I went online and managed to find the same pitcher (“vintage 1980s,” used but in good shape) from a seller on Etsy and ordered it. When Carol opened the box she said “My pitcher!” I bought her some fresh flowers to put in it. And the man from her church wants to take her to get the new phone tomorrow, hoping she’ll get clearance from the medical department there.
🙂 Opened one of the boxes in the top cabinets — found old photos (really old, I was 1-2 years old) of me and my parents, grandparents, etc.; one of my mom’s old report cards from Iowa; and a 1928 handmade ornament my mom made for her mother. Also some black and white photos I’d taken when I was taking photography in college & some ceramics that I remember growing up with — Mary had a Little Lamb, etc. Kind of strange revisiting all these things I’d forgotten about.
🙂 I will use pavers at the bottom of the fence, I actually still have the cheaper ones I’d bought at home depot originally for that purpose and the workers left them stacked near the fence. Dogs are still in, so so far, so good.
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And now you will find the pitcher.
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DJ, I don’t remember if I ever suggested this, but I read it somewhere when Misten was a puppy and she was finding a couple spots in my yard to be nice digging holes she kept returning to. (I know that some owners give their dog a designated digging space, but my yard wasn’t really big enough for that and collies aren’t dogs with a strong need for digging. She ended up digging just a couple of times a year the rest of her life, mostly when she smelled a rodent.)
Anyway, the tip was that if your dog is digging at a specific spot and you want to dissuade that, bury some of their poop in that spot, since dogs are too clean to be willing to dig in their own excrement. (I know, I know–they’ll eat it but not dig in it?) At any rate, Misten had dug in the same spot several times and had it filled in several times. The next time she dug, before filling the hole back in, I dropped a few pieces in and covered them with dirt, and sure enough that was the end of that hole. I think I used it in two different holes and effectively cured her from digging except as a very occasional thing, and in the future I didn’t have to take such methods because she never got obsessive about any one spot once she grew past puppyhood. Might be worth trying if they do find a vulnerable spot.
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