Desensitizing the vet building and Trick AKC skills

I have a new entry on my phone each Monday - desensitize pup to vet parking lot and building. 

One of the pups starts visibly shaking the minute we pull into the vet’s parking lot. 

By going each week, with NO appointment/procedures/shots, I am hoping to stop this negative reaction. 

We sit in the waiting room and chat with other pet owners, awaiting their appointment. We walk up and down the hall. We stop and chat at the desk. 

This was suggested by the vet staff. 

It wasn’t until I actually put it on the calendar that it started happening regularly. 

I try for Monday. If Monday is busy, we go Tuesday. 

Is it helping? Yes. Each week the shaking subsides a little quicker and she is less frantic. 

The other pup is just along for the ride, does not care.

We took the Tricks class at our local dog club last session and all really loved it. 

The dogs both passed the first three levels (Novice, Intermediate, Advanced) of the AKC tricks category during the six weeks of class. 

https://www.akc.org/sports/trick-dog/

There are two additional/advanced levels of the AKC Tricks program - Performer and Elite Performer. 

This session we are working independently. We use an empty ring at the dog club and bring our own props. 

We are working, on our own, on the Performer level.

This is the tricks list we are working on so far -

Jump up and down with excitement - who’s excited?

Pull or drag bag of toys 5 body lengths

Run 3x around handler 

Sit pretty and cross paws 

Heels backwards

Heels sideways 

Retrieves ball from 10’ runs back and places ball in cone

Rides on cart

Five black stands - walk and turn 

Jump thru tissue hoop

Carry stuffed animal on back for 15’

Freezer prep for crock pot

Middle mentioned this concept to me and then something similar popped up in my Facebook Feed.

Here is a Facebook photo of one gallon zip lock freezer bags that go in the freezer and then are put in the crock pot -

Here is the link - 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/gggyj7eMisLEsWan/?mibextid=K35XfP

I think the instructions are to put them in the refrigerator to thaw the night before, but I would still freeze them in a crock pot like shape (not flat).

I can see that this would work well for bulk buying/prepping.

The Wide Circumference of Love by Marita Golden

Note - The difference between this book and Viola Davis’ book from yesterday’s post were pronounced. These were two separate/unique books.  The educational level of the two families and financial circumstances of the two families were different between Davis’ real life family and Golden’s fictional family in these two stories of black families in America.

The Wide Circumference of Love by Marita Golden was a book club assignment. It was a new to me book group at a branch of our county library system in a town near me. 

I like to start a fresh book each Monday. I like to go to at least one book discussion group each week. There are lots of book groups thru my library. I look at the calendar, I look at the groups, I look at the books assigned. I pick a group each week.

This was an excellent novel. Really well written. Tough topic - Alzheimer’s. 

The fact that this novel was centered on a black family actually had little impact on the book. This universal society/family topic was covered in such a way that it could have been many families.

This was my first book by Marita Golden. Yes, I would read more of her books. 

Non Fiction - 

Finding Me by Viola Davis

Note - two books, by black female authors, just happened to be assigned for two different book groups. I read them one right after the other. They could not have been more different. One posts today, the other posts tomorrow.

Note - I remembered Viola Davis from The Help and How to Get Away with Murder.  A review of her film and TV lists (some were mentioned in the book) shows a large body of work. I realized I had seen her in many other things, before I knew who she was.

Finding Me by Viola Davis is on Oprah’s book club list. 

https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/g23067476/oprah-book-club-list/

The review (link below) described book as traumatic, that is a good description. I think this book, like most Oprah books, would be triggering for many people.

Normally I avoid Oprah’s books, they are too upsetting for me. 

This one was a book club assignment for one of my groups. I was forewarned, because it was on Oprah’s list. I knew going in that it was going to be sad and absolutely not a book for me. I still read it.

Most people in my book group said it was a tough read. Not everyone finished. Many had to pace themselves. Even the librarian said she could only stand a little at a time.

The book was very well written. I am not sure if Ms Davis is an exceptional (first book!) writer, had a fabulous editor, or what. But it is a well constructed book. (She is a well educated person, it is entirely possible she is a very good writer.)

I listened to the audio version, read by Davis.  I like authors reading their own non-fiction work. She did an outstanding job. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/04/26/viola-davis-memoir-finding-me-revelations/7446179001/

https://readingladies.com/2023/01/09/finding-me-book-review-nonfiction-memoir/

Storing all the hoses for winter

Note - extra posts ran this week, look backwards if you usually only check on Friday.

We have four 100 foot hoses at our house. 

We have three spigots at our house. Each spigot has a Y splitter (photo below) connected to it. One side of each Y splitter has a 100’ hose attached with a sprinkler. I can get anywhere in the yard with one of those sprinkler hoses. The other side of each Y at the spigot is empty to have easy assess to water right at the spigot.

The back spigot has a 25’ hose hooked to the spigot. This 25’ hose, runs to the corner of the house and then has another splitter connected to it.  Two 100’ hoses are attached. One has the sprinkler. The other has a light weight 100’ hose (photo below) and wand attached. I use this light weight hose/wand to water all my pots and flower boxes and hanging baskets. I can get to all of them, front and back yard, with this one very light weight hose. It reaches all the way to the end of the driveway and around to the front window box. 

The metal splits and extenders (above) that attach to the outside spigots, and all the hoses, need disconnected and cleaned with WD40 before they are stored each winter.

Middle has hose cases -

We simply wind our hoses inside old garbage cans that we already had. 

When the downspout was fixed, we replanted the edge of the bed

The down spout problem meant we had ice on the sidewalk and ice on the front edge of our flower bed. The ice killed perennials. I tried planting annuals several summers, the bunnies ate them within a couple hours.  Adding the drainage tile meant we could replant the flower bed with perennials.

I purchased 6 dark red coral bells (Lowe’s) for this bed. I wanted the strong contrast. 

I also utilized hosta from our backyard.  

My husband put down two bags of mulch, leftover from another project.

The cage protects clematis from the bunnies. Two years in a row (2022 and 2023) they waited for it to bloom and then chomped every stem off at the ground.

The tall plants right in front of the Boxwood hedge are Solomon’s Seal.

This bed is now heavily planted. 

The goal - no room for weeds.

The drainage tile project

Note - this was a big goal for 2024, I had been trying to fix this for a couple years, very important to solve the ice problem. 

When the house was originally built, we had under ground tiles, hooked to all our downspouts, that ran out to the front of our house, back probably 20’ from the curb.

Eventually all of these failed, probably due to tree roots, and we went back to regular downspouts that run out to the yard. 

We only had one place that this above ground water was a problem. The downspout, on the way to our front door, caused a small patch of terrible ice on our front sidewalk. 

We needed a drainage tile under the sidewalk so the water from that specific downspout goes through the tile, under the sidewalk, out into the yard.

As I said, small area, Big Job, that require expertise in drainage tiles. And it required hand digging, not enough room to get a machine in the area. 

For the last two summers, 2022 and 2023, I have talked to 5-6 contractors about this tile. No one wanted to take the time to do it. 

 

One day one of the contractors, working on the white house across the street, stopped to visit with the dogs just as we were headed out for a walk. I mentioned the tile. Within the month he sent two of his guys over to take care of it for me. 

Crew from across the street started at 8:15am on Thursday August 15, 2024. They finished at 11:15am that same day.

The tile hooks directly on to the downspout behind the bushes by the house.

It runs under the sidewalk.

It terminates into underground gravel in the big front bed. 

The tile has slits in it, so no standing water will accumulate. 

The cap at the end has holes, so the water will disperse into the gravel. 

The rock (below) in the big front bed signifies where the tile ends. 

They replaced the grass. It looks like it will survive. 

The white lines are me, marking the work area to have the utilities marked. The yellow flags and paint mark the gas line. The tile goes over the gas line. The gas line is deep. The tile is shallow.

This (red dotted line) is approximately where the tile runs -

We can get to both ends of the tile in the future, if necessary. We can detach it from the downspout. We can dig up the buried end. It is accessible if needed. 

TV - Claim to Fame

Spring 2024, I watched Traitors. Really enjoyed several variations/seasons - US, British, NZ, Australia.

I found another game series that I really enjoyed - three seasons. 

The review (below) mentions that it does not translate for a younger viewer. This is true, middle at age 30 did not know most of the famous relatives. She watched the latest season (3) with me over Labor Day weekend. 

I must be in the perfect age demographic, because I knew almost all the famous relatives. 

We thought the games clever, the clues creative, the filming location beautiful.