Hi Jan, hope you made a complaint to the sheriffs office. They should have come out to make a report of damage. What a nasty thing to have happen. Do you have fencing around the areas where chicken tractors are parked? Perhaps you could just put up some T posts with several strings of electric to prevent dogs getting close again. Paint ball guns are also a good weapon to mark the dogs if you can't do the 3S's. Paint balls will sting pretty good too, could be evidence if you can locate dog homes for reparation.

We had a lovely day, great presents, son was able to come home for a visit. He brought along one of his house buddies who had no place to go. Made for a lively day. Weather was terrible, raining in the AM, snow after noon. Made roads slushy and slippery, slowed driving down a lot. We passed 3 accidents on country roads as we went for the whole family dinner at 5pm. Slides into a ditch, spun into a tree. No people hurt, just shaken up, wrecked vehicles.

Son, husband, buddy, all worked Saturday to get a new roof on the workshop. Did pretty well, laid the perlons, foam insulation. Sunday after church, they worked late AM till afternoon in the nasty weather, they laid the sheet metal. Handling the big pieces is hard, but fastening it down went pretty fast. They got one side all down, looks very nice in dark green. Hope to get the rest done this week ourselves. Son went back home today so it will have to be husband and me. I had tried to talk husband into sheet metal roofing before and he wouldn't. When shop needed new roof I tried again, time saver, metal will shed snow quickly, last a long time. He went for it this time. May even get metal on house when roof needs doing! I have always liked how metal roofs looked, probably because I saw so many on great barns! Never seem to need repair work. The dark green on white shop building is real sharp. With his woodstove going so well, the insulation and metal roof should help with keeping in the heat while he works out there on the really cold days.

With the break in temps we have melted a lot of snow. Grass is showing!! I have to mulch some bushes now that I can see the ground again. Amazing how 35F can feel like 60F after all those below 20F days! Barnyards are clearing of snow, horses are racing around with firm grip on dirt. Only a couple had winter shoes and snowball pads on before husband got hurt. They had good traction but the rest were much more tenative on snow and ice.
Husband is feeling much better, arm is coming along very well. Ribs are still a bit of trouble in damp air, hard to breathe deep. He is back to work full time.

We all got good gifts, everyone was pretty happy. I think this is the best organized I have ever been. Ready to go to bed by midnight! Everything was done. I was sure I forgot something, to be done so early. They did morning chores, let me sleep in until 9A. Great present right there!

Another miserable winter/spring day. The calendar says winter but the weather says spring. Cold (low 40s), windy, and very wet. Been raining for two days now and we are beginning to get some erosion.

Had to take the fat, fat dachshund to the vet this morning. Has been bothered by one ear, constantly shaking it. Diagnosis - nothing but a batch of gunk, cleaned, some ointment (Otomax) 2x day. Also a lecture on overfeeding which I expected but noone can get Alma to quit overfeeding her pets. Maybe this time as the warning was that she was going to kill him if she doesn't stop it.

Jan: When it comes to dogs running loose and harassing/killing livestock you don't fool around. The cure is on the spot execution, no paint marking or trying to track owners. Hard advice but that is life.

Harry K

Harry, perhaps you can get some low, no-fat snacks for the dog and Alma. Our small dog now CANNOT have any fat in her diet, causes severe reaction, stockpiles in her small body. Vet said she is going to die if we don't change what she is fed, doesn't matter how small the fat quantity is. Husband and DD have a hard time refusing her begging. I have said they can give her dry cereal, ONE PIECE at a time, for her snacks. Cheerios, Rice Crispies, seem to work for her. She just wants SOMETHING. We also drew a line in her bowl, fill with dry food to the line ONLY, once a day. No canned food. She has lost almost 5 pounds slowly over the summer, looks very trim at 20 pounds. Not quite as much exercise in cold weather, but we are trying. Vet was quite complimentary about weight loss, feed change.

Just an idea that might help. Alma can stll reward the dog, just calories are down to nothing, fed one tiny cereal piece at a time. Some people just can't seem to resist the begging of the dog, even at risk of his health.

Perhaps a diet dog food would help, with limit on feed quantity. Dry seems to work best if dog has good teeth. You feed dry even if they don't like it. I have never seen a dog starve themselves to death. They will eat eventually, even if they don't like it much. Good luck with changing their behaviour! Glad the little dog only had dirt in his ear, not an awful infection.

Hi Southern Garden Gal!

Journal for late December: DH built an indoor lighted plant stand from 2 $20 plastic shelves which he cut and re-designed to fit under my stairway (no longer wasted space). I am so excited to get some seeds started. I usually start tomatoes very early to set out in W.O.W.s, and I start onion seeds.

The weather here has been rainy - melted all the snow except the igloo my children built - revealed my greens still surviving underneath row covers! Snowed about 2" overnight, but I should be able to harvest a salad for supper.

Lisa

PS. My chickens have remained safe from the neighbor's visiting dogs, yet my very own dog has killed a number of our chickens. She is not vicious, she just wants to play. She certainly makes DH's BP rise. Recently, she learned to jump the 4 foot fence (she's part Beagle) and get into their run! She's been sentenced to prison.

Harry, another good way to reduce calories for dogs is to add frozen green beans and decrease the amount of dog food. Pieces of carrots make great treats for dogs on diets.

Remind Alma that that extra weight is hard on the little one's heart and joints---and knee replacements aren't really an option for dogs--. :)

Just to make this fit into the journal---weather above freezing for several days now has most of the snow gone here. Creeping Charlie and some grass are looking very green in protected areas. Looks like this part of rural Illinois is going to finish out the year still on the drought list.

Been busy with the barn. We found a source for rough cut lumber. we could finally afford to put in stalls for the horses. Got finished Christmas Eve. The cold weather turned wet, there was a tornado through on Monday.

Christmas Day was great, I went out to the barn, and our three horses were looking over the stall gates, snug and dry. It's been great to go out and see they are in for the night. Of course the stalls need to be cleaned, but even that isn't so bad. We got sawdust from the same folks (the amish) it's more like pellets of wood, but absorbs like sawdust. And is heavy on the cedar so the barn smell perfumed.

Other than that I've been working alot of hours. BAck to the planning stages for the next stage, filling the barn. (It was build below grade, long story, won't tell it again.)

Best wished to you all for the new year!

Kitty

Can I safely change the date on the "subject of Posting"? Here on the BC coast, we are facing another day of dreadfull wind and rain. We are having 17 foot tides and with the wind the splash is away up on the lawn. We did have one good snow storm earlier in the winter but it has melted from the lower mountains behind us. We noticed when heading for town yesterday, there was a fresh dusting of snow up the lake. Friends with 4x4's went looking for snow for the kids to play in on Boxing Day but nothing so they fished instead. It's still dark here until nearly 08:00 a.m.. I have to head out early to fill all the barrels of water that I have by the chicken house. I got fed up having to unlock the garage, squeeze past the boat and junk to flip the switch to turn the pump on to get water BUT it's over 5 years since the neighbour wanted to prime his pump and we started supplying water to him. He is bringing home water in a big tank every evening after work and syphining it into his hugh holding tank. They have had two babies since to make three children, he's adding two more floors to his house. The joyces were cut off at the line after we hired the surveyor, even though there was a iron peg there. He was going to put a roof over his boat ramp that he put on our property, one day when we were on holidays. This roof was to be a patio attached to his house and he would have been 14 feet over the line. We have two wells. The outside house taps are turned off in the house. I knew by the way the switch, on the tap at the garage was left open that he'd been over taking water when we were out is why I turn the pump off. Also, I have a dreadful mess to hose off at the house. We tied our "digger dog" up when we went to town yesterday and she got "extra mad' and dug more holes aiming towards the porch - The ducks like to splash in the holes when it rains. First spring project is to cement the area. Time to face the day and lit the basement stove.