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2022 Hasn't Gotten Any Better
Nov. 29th, 2022 09:35 amHey guys I'm still here. I think about LJ and posting everyday. I wish I could keep up with it like I used to. I used to post pretty much on a daily basis. Even youtube is hard for me to keep up with. This is one of those good news bad news posts though. I think I said in my previous entry that things were slowly starting to look better and I hoped I was out of the storm. Things got better in September. Nope, I guess I was passing through the eye. I also said in July this year needed something amazing in the last half to get a passing grade of so so. That didn't happen either. The hardest things have been the stupid dog first and then the slow going on the chicken coop. Close runners up are the cross bill chicken that is going to be a baby bird for 10 years if I can keep up with the feedings. I don't know if I can keep her alive for her full life span. All that food, time and materials are so hard on me. I have to tube feed her. And then is the accidental rooster. All of this is tons of extra work and stress I did not need.
Ok here's some good news. I've been dreading Olive turning 9 months. That's when dogs are supposed to be at their worst. It's the time people get rid of dogs. But Olive has always been a month a head of schedule it seems. Perhaps I've gone through the worst already. It sure has sucked. The aggression to other dogs and animals is the worst thing you can have and not fair to a first time dog owner. I think the only thing worse is aggression towards people. Thank goodness she loves people. But I'm still always nervous of taking her out because she could go after someone's dog while walking. But anyway she's a people dog for sure. I'm so glad.
So we took her to Thanksgiving at Chris's parents. We were a bit worried about her jumping on them out of happy stupid puppy energy though. I do not want her knocking down seniors. But thankfully I think she knows this now. I told them that if she did try to jump on them to just give her a good solid knee to the chest. This doesn't hurt her but she'll get the message. Luckily that was never the case. I put a cute turkey bandana on her so she was all nicely "dressed" for the holiday. Mom fed her tons of food even though we brought a meal for Olive. Dad played ball with her in the backyard and then after dinner we all had a nice chat in the living room. Olive became the 50lbs lap dog trying to get into the arm chairs with everyone where she did not fit. It was funny. She loved the couch because it was under a window and she could "guard" the house that way. We don't let her on our couches often so she was so happy there. She's also great in the car. We just put her in the back of the jeep and clip her to the roll bar.
In fact here's the photo I took of her on the way there. Also she's finally house broken now other than one weird thing. She will pee or poop on concrete. So she will pee on a patio or a garage. It recently happened to me but I was there to get on her case. I think this is because she was badly raised by the breeders in a shed and she grew up on concrete. She had the bad elbows when we got her and missing hair. It's all grown back now thank goodness. She also doesn't understand that you don't rip up beds and sometimes prefers to sleep on a hard ground. That can't be good. I wish I could give her a nice cooshy bed and pillows. She also rips her blankets which bugs me so much as I want to buy her nice things. It's been hard teaching her to be a house dog. Anyway she was almost a perfect dog at mom and dad's. At our house she puts her mouth on everything and we have to stop and chase her from grabbing paper and tissues. So glad she didn't do that there. Because of that I've been giving her more out of pen time which is what I want. I want a normal dog that will be with me in the house but I don't have to worry about constantly when they are out of sight. IF they are gone there's a 90% chance they're doing something wrong. And we're far from trusting her alone loose in our house. Of course our house is full of temptations that can't be gotten rid of. Mostly birds dropping food on the floor constantly, feathers, and just stuff everywhere that's ours.
I also hate how much I talk about her now. I tell Chris she's actually the lowest ranking pet as far as I'm concerned. Even the frogs out rank her. She can move up the ranks by obeying and behaving for me. But this is a testament of how much time she steals from me and my other pets. I miss Minion the budgie so much. And Emma 3.0.
Ok so the other bad thing that happened two days ago. First let me post another photo.
Our chicken coop is really coming along. In this photo we have the first wall of the run up. Notice the pink thing. That's Olive's tongue. I had not idea she was liking the new wall til I looked at this pic. HA ha. Notice she only has one ear. That's another stress factor for me and her. I have been posting the ear and it just won't stand. It stands for a little (four days was the most) then falls over. I HATE that. Dobermans should have floppy ears. They look terrible. They look like hounds. I know it's hard to get her ears to stand since they aren't cropped but I think it's possible. The right one is perfect so the left one needs to follow suit. I think it can because it has been standing. I've been feeding her shark cartilage and bully sticks to try to get the ear to harden up. As well as to continue to post which is a literal wrestling match every three days. I always win. "Pinned ja again!"
Ok so in the photo notice the long 20 foot purple leash she wears. We put that on her because her recall or her COME command sucks. She comes when she feels like it. That does not fly with me. If she doesn't come I go get her every time no matter how long it takes until she realizes resistance if futile. Look up Beckmans Dog Training video called The Go Get Method. So the leash is there for that and also for playing fetch because she's great at chasing and catching but won't return the ball. So we step on the leash and reel her in like a fish. Well two days ago we were outside and she ran past me. I was wearing long boots. I usually do for protection in the yard from the leash. My dog can run 30 mph. But some how this time the leash got wrapped around the back part of my knee and she gave me a terrible rope burn. It's been super painful. Just cleaning it with water caused a lot of very loud screaming on my part. Stupid dog! I lost a big patch of skin and have a big gash along the back of the left knee. I definitely need prayers for recovery. Despite all these things after Thanksgiving Olive does seem like a better dog. A slight improvement. Mostly not so energetic in the house.
Now something other than dogs though a lot of this is indirectly dog influenced. Ok so earlier in the year when I got sick for like two months because we did not know I had kidney stones, a lot of my plants and pets suffered. Chris was great taking care of everything for me. Unfortunately I lost my whole collection of isopods and springtails. I think I had like six species. I've been in the process of trying to recoup my losses. I placed three orders with different sellers on Ebay. I think Ebay is the way to go for the more common types. This way you aren't paying tons of money on shipping like you would from websites. I wish I could order from the sites as they have some unique stuff but for only a few or if I want a cheap 12 dollar species it's not worth it that they want to ship it for 40 dollars. That does not benefit me at all. And they won't do normal priority mail shipping. They do 2 day or over night. I think that should be a choice not forced. If I chose to risk priority mail that's my choice and my fault if the bugs die or get lost. Well that's kinda what happened with my first two orders though. I ordered from a seller in Virginia and a seller in California. The tracking on neither order ever changed. It just said label created. The expected date came and went and no bugs. I at first though the item hadn't been scanned by the mail service. Sometimes track doesn't update til you get it and then all the cities it goes through show up at once. Annoying but that wasn't the case this time. So I wrote them.
Virginia guy was great. He said he didn't know there was a problem and went to his post office and asked what was wrong. That's customer service. Turns out the under paid postage for adding a heat pack. No bugs died. He rehydrated them and I got them. All were great. California guy was a bit more flippant. "Oh they probably got lost. I'll just send another batch." Well ok, but sucks he didn't even look into it as they are rare living things. I also wasn't too happy when I got those because even though I knew I was getting juveniles these were super teeny tiny. I might never see them til they get big months later. And then I will worry if they are even alive or escaped or what? I did get two extras but they could have been a bit bigger. I have NEVER bought juveniles this small. They were the Japanese line of magic potion isopods btw. Today I am waiting on an ispod I have been wanting forever. Porcellio spatulatus. They are a drab ugly grey color but it's not the colors that make these so cool. I think these guys look just like trilobites. It's crazy how they look. They are out for delivery today. These are the most difficult species I will have in my collection. Not sure if they are super hard but compared to other I've had I know these are harder as they are from dry environments I think from Spain. So wish me luck I can keep them alive and get them to breed.
Lastly my chickens have started to lay eggs. Another stress factor for me as I wanted them in the new coop before egg laying started. We still have a long way to go before the coop is ready.
Lastly enjoy this photo of our pretty lights on the fence. And I finally got a set of spiral trees. I have been wanting these for years. I LOVE them. On and the white dot and the green dot on the fence are my LED glass snowman and glass tree.
.
Ok here's some good news. I've been dreading Olive turning 9 months. That's when dogs are supposed to be at their worst. It's the time people get rid of dogs. But Olive has always been a month a head of schedule it seems. Perhaps I've gone through the worst already. It sure has sucked. The aggression to other dogs and animals is the worst thing you can have and not fair to a first time dog owner. I think the only thing worse is aggression towards people. Thank goodness she loves people. But I'm still always nervous of taking her out because she could go after someone's dog while walking. But anyway she's a people dog for sure. I'm so glad.
So we took her to Thanksgiving at Chris's parents. We were a bit worried about her jumping on them out of happy stupid puppy energy though. I do not want her knocking down seniors. But thankfully I think she knows this now. I told them that if she did try to jump on them to just give her a good solid knee to the chest. This doesn't hurt her but she'll get the message. Luckily that was never the case. I put a cute turkey bandana on her so she was all nicely "dressed" for the holiday. Mom fed her tons of food even though we brought a meal for Olive. Dad played ball with her in the backyard and then after dinner we all had a nice chat in the living room. Olive became the 50lbs lap dog trying to get into the arm chairs with everyone where she did not fit. It was funny. She loved the couch because it was under a window and she could "guard" the house that way. We don't let her on our couches often so she was so happy there. She's also great in the car. We just put her in the back of the jeep and clip her to the roll bar.
In fact here's the photo I took of her on the way there. Also she's finally house broken now other than one weird thing. She will pee or poop on concrete. So she will pee on a patio or a garage. It recently happened to me but I was there to get on her case. I think this is because she was badly raised by the breeders in a shed and she grew up on concrete. She had the bad elbows when we got her and missing hair. It's all grown back now thank goodness. She also doesn't understand that you don't rip up beds and sometimes prefers to sleep on a hard ground. That can't be good. I wish I could give her a nice cooshy bed and pillows. She also rips her blankets which bugs me so much as I want to buy her nice things. It's been hard teaching her to be a house dog. Anyway she was almost a perfect dog at mom and dad's. At our house she puts her mouth on everything and we have to stop and chase her from grabbing paper and tissues. So glad she didn't do that there. Because of that I've been giving her more out of pen time which is what I want. I want a normal dog that will be with me in the house but I don't have to worry about constantly when they are out of sight. IF they are gone there's a 90% chance they're doing something wrong. And we're far from trusting her alone loose in our house. Of course our house is full of temptations that can't be gotten rid of. Mostly birds dropping food on the floor constantly, feathers, and just stuff everywhere that's ours.
I also hate how much I talk about her now. I tell Chris she's actually the lowest ranking pet as far as I'm concerned. Even the frogs out rank her. She can move up the ranks by obeying and behaving for me. But this is a testament of how much time she steals from me and my other pets. I miss Minion the budgie so much. And Emma 3.0.
Ok so the other bad thing that happened two days ago. First let me post another photo.
Our chicken coop is really coming along. In this photo we have the first wall of the run up. Notice the pink thing. That's Olive's tongue. I had not idea she was liking the new wall til I looked at this pic. HA ha. Notice she only has one ear. That's another stress factor for me and her. I have been posting the ear and it just won't stand. It stands for a little (four days was the most) then falls over. I HATE that. Dobermans should have floppy ears. They look terrible. They look like hounds. I know it's hard to get her ears to stand since they aren't cropped but I think it's possible. The right one is perfect so the left one needs to follow suit. I think it can because it has been standing. I've been feeding her shark cartilage and bully sticks to try to get the ear to harden up. As well as to continue to post which is a literal wrestling match every three days. I always win. "Pinned ja again!"
Ok so in the photo notice the long 20 foot purple leash she wears. We put that on her because her recall or her COME command sucks. She comes when she feels like it. That does not fly with me. If she doesn't come I go get her every time no matter how long it takes until she realizes resistance if futile. Look up Beckmans Dog Training video called The Go Get Method. So the leash is there for that and also for playing fetch because she's great at chasing and catching but won't return the ball. So we step on the leash and reel her in like a fish. Well two days ago we were outside and she ran past me. I was wearing long boots. I usually do for protection in the yard from the leash. My dog can run 30 mph. But some how this time the leash got wrapped around the back part of my knee and she gave me a terrible rope burn. It's been super painful. Just cleaning it with water caused a lot of very loud screaming on my part. Stupid dog! I lost a big patch of skin and have a big gash along the back of the left knee. I definitely need prayers for recovery. Despite all these things after Thanksgiving Olive does seem like a better dog. A slight improvement. Mostly not so energetic in the house.
Now something other than dogs though a lot of this is indirectly dog influenced. Ok so earlier in the year when I got sick for like two months because we did not know I had kidney stones, a lot of my plants and pets suffered. Chris was great taking care of everything for me. Unfortunately I lost my whole collection of isopods and springtails. I think I had like six species. I've been in the process of trying to recoup my losses. I placed three orders with different sellers on Ebay. I think Ebay is the way to go for the more common types. This way you aren't paying tons of money on shipping like you would from websites. I wish I could order from the sites as they have some unique stuff but for only a few or if I want a cheap 12 dollar species it's not worth it that they want to ship it for 40 dollars. That does not benefit me at all. And they won't do normal priority mail shipping. They do 2 day or over night. I think that should be a choice not forced. If I chose to risk priority mail that's my choice and my fault if the bugs die or get lost. Well that's kinda what happened with my first two orders though. I ordered from a seller in Virginia and a seller in California. The tracking on neither order ever changed. It just said label created. The expected date came and went and no bugs. I at first though the item hadn't been scanned by the mail service. Sometimes track doesn't update til you get it and then all the cities it goes through show up at once. Annoying but that wasn't the case this time. So I wrote them.
Virginia guy was great. He said he didn't know there was a problem and went to his post office and asked what was wrong. That's customer service. Turns out the under paid postage for adding a heat pack. No bugs died. He rehydrated them and I got them. All were great. California guy was a bit more flippant. "Oh they probably got lost. I'll just send another batch." Well ok, but sucks he didn't even look into it as they are rare living things. I also wasn't too happy when I got those because even though I knew I was getting juveniles these were super teeny tiny. I might never see them til they get big months later. And then I will worry if they are even alive or escaped or what? I did get two extras but they could have been a bit bigger. I have NEVER bought juveniles this small. They were the Japanese line of magic potion isopods btw. Today I am waiting on an ispod I have been wanting forever. Porcellio spatulatus. They are a drab ugly grey color but it's not the colors that make these so cool. I think these guys look just like trilobites. It's crazy how they look. They are out for delivery today. These are the most difficult species I will have in my collection. Not sure if they are super hard but compared to other I've had I know these are harder as they are from dry environments I think from Spain. So wish me luck I can keep them alive and get them to breed.
Lastly my chickens have started to lay eggs. Another stress factor for me as I wanted them in the new coop before egg laying started. We still have a long way to go before the coop is ready.
Lastly enjoy this photo of our pretty lights on the fence. And I finally got a set of spiral trees. I have been wanting these for years. I LOVE them. On and the white dot and the green dot on the fence are my LED glass snowman and glass tree.
.
